Pediatricians call for strict gun laws to protect kids
October 18th, 2012
By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Thu Oct 18, 2012 3:44pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Pediatricians Thursday called for the strictest possible regulation of gun sales, as well as more education for parents on the dangers of having a gun at home, to prevent deaths of kids and teens. In a policy statement published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers representing the American Academy of Pediatrics said the number of gun-related deaths in youth has dropped nationally since the mid-1990s, but is still many times higher than rates in other wealthy countries. The report was released to coincide with the AAP National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. Its most important purpose, according to co-lead author Dr. Robert Sege from Boston Medical Center, is to reiterate that kids and teens are at risk if they have access to guns. “Most children who get injured or killed from firearms get their firearms from home,” he told Reuters Health. That is because young kids are by nature curious, he said, and teenagers are by nature impulsive – including when it comes to guns. “There’s new, better data that although the safest home for children is a home without guns, that parents can protect their child simply by keeping a gun unloaded and locked, with the ammunition locked separately,” Sege said. He and the rest of the AAP’s Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention Executive Committee found that as of 2009, between 11 and 12 of every 100,000 older teens were being killed every year by gunshots. About two-thirds of those were homicides, with suicides and accidental deaths accounting for the rest. Guns were responsible for almost 85 percent of all teen homicides that year, the researchers added. They were also the most common method of teen suicide. SUICIDE LINK The high death rate in suicide attempts using guns – compared to pills or sharp objects – makes at-home access to firearms especially dangerous for impulsive teens, according to the pediatrician group. “For 98 percent of families every year, whether you have a gun or not is irrelevant. Most of the time nothing happens, the way that most of the time when you ride around without a seat belt, nothing bad happens,” said David Hemenway, head of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center in Boston. He was not involved in drafting the policy statement. The AAP committee also called for restoration of a controversial U.S. ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. President Barack Obama suggested at a presidential debate earlier this week that he would renew a ban on assault weapons – a position not backed by his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Assault weapons include military-style guns designed to fire rapidly and from close range, such as semiautomatic AK-47s. The AAP cited the cost of gun-related assaults and homicides at over $17 billion a year, due to lost productivity and medical bills. But Hemenway said the true financial burden is much higher. “When guns are used for homicide it can destroy not only someone’s life and their ability to work and so forth … but it can destroy communities,” he said. For example, businesses do not want to move into communities that have had a few shootings, and families that can afford to will move out. He said the consensus among injury researchers has been that the best thing to do for a child’s safety is to keep guns out of the house. But each family has to make that decision on its own. “If you decide to have a gun, and it’s an individual choice, what you really want to do is store it safely,” Hemenway said. (Editing by Michele Gershberg and Jackie Frank) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Pediatricians warn of kids’ access to guns at home
October 18th, 2012
By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:52pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – U.S. pediatricians Thursday called for the strictest possible gun sales, safety and storage laws to prevent deaths in kids and teens, as well as better education for parents on the dangers of having a gun at home. In a policy statement published in Pediatrics, researchers representing the American Academy of Pediatrics said the number of gun-related deaths in youth has dropped nationally since the mid-1990s, but is still many times higher than rates in other wealthy countries. The report was released to coincide with the AAP National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. Its most important purpose, according to co-lead author Dr. Robert Sege from Boston Medical Center, is to reiterate that kids and teens are at risk if they have access to guns. “Most children who get injured or killed from firearms get their firearms from home,” he told Reuters Health. That’s because young kids are by nature curious, he said, and teenagers are by nature impulsive – including when it comes to guns. “There’s new, better data that although the safest home for children is a home without guns, that parents can protect their child simply by keeping a gun unloaded and locked, with the ammunition locked separately,” Sege said. He and the rest of the AAP’s Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention Executive Committee found that as of 2009, between 11 and 12 of every 100,000 older teens were being killed every year by gunshots. About two-thirds of those were homicides, with suicides and accidental deaths accounting for the others. Guns were responsible for almost 85 percent of all teen homicides that year, the researchers added. They were also the most common method of teen suicide. The high death rate in suicide attempts using guns – compared to pills or sharp objects – makes at-home access to firearms especially dangerous for impulsive teens, according to the pediatrician group. “For 98 percent of families every year, whether you have a gun or not is irrelevant. Most of the time nothing happens, the way that most of the time when you ride around without a seat belt, nothing bad happens,” said David Hemenway, head of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center in Boston. But, “The evidence is pretty persuasive, that… there’s a lot of bad, bad things that can happen and there’s not a lot of evidence that a lot of good things can happen because of having a gun,” Hemenway, who wasn’t involved in the policy statement, told Reuters Health. In another recommendation, the AAP committee called for restoration of a U.S. ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004, a controversial political issue. President Barack Obama suggested at a presidential debate earlier this week that he would renew a ban on assault weapons – a position not backed by his contender, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Assault weapons include military-style guns designed to fire rapidly and from close range, such as semiautomatic AK-47s. “We’ve seen the tremendous carnage that having these military weapons can (produce) out there,” Sege said. The AAP cited the cost of gun-related assaults and homicides at over $17 billion a year, due to lost productivity and medical bills. But Hemenway said the true financial burden is much higher. “When guns are used for homicide it can destroy not only someone’s life and their ability to work and so forth… but it can destroy communities,” he said. For example, businesses don’t want to move into communities that have had a few shootings, and families that can afford to will move out. He said the consensus among injury researchers has been that the best thing to do for a child’s safety is to keep guns out of the house. But each family has to make that decision on its own. “If you decide to have a gun, and it’s an individual choice, what you really want to do is store it safely,” Hemenway said. SOURCE: bit.ly/jsoh2P Pediatrics, online October 18, 2012. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Citing privacy concerns, U.S. panel urges end to secret DNA testing
October 11th, 2012
By Sharon Begley NEW YORK | Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:13am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – They’re called discreet DNA samples, and the Elk Grove, California, genetic-testing company easyDNA says it can handle many kinds, from toothpicks to tampons. Blood stains from bandages and tampons? Ship them in a paper envelope for paternity, ancestry or health testing. EasyDNA also welcomes cigarette butts (two to four), dental floss (“do not touch the floss with your fingers”), razor clippings, gum, toothpicks, licked stamps and used tissues if the more standard cheek swab or tube of saliva isn’t obtainable. If the availability of such services seems like an invitation to mischief or worse – imagine a discarded tissue from a prospective employee being tested to determine whether she’s at risk for an expensive disease, for instance – the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues agrees. On Thursday it released a report on privacy concerns triggered by the advent of whole genome sequencing, determining someone’s complete DNA make-up. Although sequencing “holds enormous promise for human health and medicine,” commission chairwoman Amy Gutmann told reporters on Wednesday, there is a “potential for misuse of this very personal data.” “In many states someone can pick up your discarded coffee cup and send it for (DNA) testing,” said Gutmann, who is the president of the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s not a fantasy to think about how, without baseline privacy protection, people could use this in a way that would be really detrimental,” such as by denying someone with a gene that raises their risk of Alzheimer’s disease long-term care insurance, or to jack up life insurance premiums for someone with an elevated genetic risk of a deadly cancer that strikes people in middle age. “Those who are willing to share some of the most intimate information about themselves for the sake of medical progress should be assured appropriate confidentiality, for example, about any discovered genetic variations that link to increased likelihood of certain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia,” Gutmann said. The commission took on the issue because whole genome sequencing is poised to become part of mainstream medical care, especially by personalizing medical treatments based on a patient’s DNA. $1,000 GENOME That has been driven in large part by dramatic cost reductions, from $2.5 billion per genome in the Human Genome Project of the 1990s and early 2000s to $1,000 soon. Several companies, including Illumina Inc. and Life Technology’s Ion Torrent division, sell machines that can sequence a genome for a few hundred dollars, but that does not include the analysis to figure out what the string of 3 billion DNA “letters” means. A three-year-old federal law prohibits discrimination in employment or health insurance based on someone’s genetic information but does not address other potential misuses of the data. Without such privacy protection, said Gutmann, people may be reluctant to participate in genetic studies that do whole genome sequencing, for fear their genetic data will not be secure and could be used against them. Recommendations from such panels are not binding but have been used as the basis for policy and legislation. One scenario the panel offers is a “contentious spouse” secretly having a DNA sample sequenced and using it in a custody battle “as evidence of unfitness to parent,” perhaps because the DNA showed a genetic risk for mental illness or alcoholism. There are no federal laws against that. Or, the panel said, DNA information might be posted in a social networking site “by a malicious stranger or acquaintance,” possibly hurting someone’s “chance of finding a spouse, achieving standing in a community, or pursuing a desired career path.” The bioethics panel recommends a dozen forms of privacy protection, including that “surreptitious commercial testing” be banned: No gene sequencing or other genetic testing should be permitted without consent from the person the DNA came from, it said. About 25 states currently allow such DNA testing. Critics of the lack of genetic privacy thought greater urgency was needed. “The report lays out a lot of important best practices and does endorse further state and federal regulations, but it doesn’t offer a timeline,” said Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a private group that monitors genetic issues. “What will inevitably happen is whole genome sequencing will enter greater use and we won’t have proper regulations to insure privacy.” A bill introduced in California, home to many DNA testing companies, by state Senator Alex Padilla would ban surreptitious testing, requiring written authorization from the person the genetic sample was taken from. It is not clear how many labs are willing to analyze DNA without that authorization. In practice, well-known genetic testing companies such as privately held 23andMe test only saliva samples that are too large to acquire surreptitiously, such as from a drinking glass or licked stamp. “A person would really know that they are spitting into a tube,” said 23andMe spokeswoman Jane Rubinstein. The full report from the presidential commission is at www.bioethics.gov. (Reporting by Sharon Begley; editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Moderate drinking linked to abnormal heart rhythm
October 3rd, 2012
A customer pays for a Fosters beer at the Occidental Hotel in central Sydney June 21, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Tim Wimborne By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Wed Oct 3, 2012 1:44pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People with heart disease who drink, even moderately, may have a slightly increased risk of a common heart rhythm problem, a new study suggests. The study is not the first to link moderate drinking to the heart arrhythmia, known as atrial fibrillation (AF). But it’s still not clear that the habit, itself, is the problem. Doctors have long known that a drinking binge can trigger an episode of AF, in which the heart’s upper chambers begin to quiver chaotically instead of contracting normally. Things get murky, though, when it comes to moderate drinking. In general, it’s thought that having one or two drinks per day is protective against coronary heart disease – where cholesterol-containing “plaque” builds up in the arteries. But modest drinking hasn’t been linked to a decreased risk of AF – and the new findings suggest that when people already have heart issues, moderate drinking is actually tied to more AF cases. The study, reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, included more than 30,000 older adults who either had clogged arteries, a history of stroke or diabetes complications such as kidney disease. Most had coronary heart disease. Over about five years, people who drank occasionally or not at all developed AF at a rate of about 1.5 percent each year. For moderate drinkers, the rate was 1.7 percent, and for heavy drinkers, it was 2.1 percent. The researchers looked at other factors, too – like age, weight and smoking habits. But moderate drinking was still linked to a 14-percent increase in the risk of AF. “Recommendations about the protective effects of moderate alcohol intake in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease may need to be tempered with these findings,” write the researchers, led by Dr. Yan Liang, of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Still, a researcher not involved in the work doubted the link between moderate drinking and AF. One problem is separating out the effects of binge drinking, according to Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal, of Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Liang and colleagues did do a separate analysis where they excluded people who reported a history of binge drinking – having more than five drinks at a time. And the results were similar. But, Mukamal said in an email, the study did not repeatedly measure binge drinking habits over the five-year follow-up. So it’s impossible to know if moderate drinkers’ AF episodes were related to binges. “The majority of binge-drinking episodes nationwide occur among otherwise moderate drinkers,” Mukamal noted. What’s more, he said, the current study included patients who were involved in two clinical trials testing blood pressure drugs. That’s a narrow group of people. “In large studies of general populations – much more representative than these clinical trial participants – AF only appears higher among heavy drinkers,” Mukamal said. Atrial fibrillation arises from a problem in the heart muscle’s electrical activity. It’s not immediately life-threatening, and in some cases, an AF episode is short-lived and goes away on its own. But in some people, AF becomes recurrent or permanent, raising their risk of heart failure and blood clots that can travel to the brain and cause a stroke. The known risk factors for AF include older age, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and hyperthyroidism. According to Mukamal, it’s not surprising that moderate drinking seems to offer no protection against AF. The ways in which alcohol might cut the risk of coronary heart disease – through better “good” cholesterol levels and less blood clotting – don’t affect the risk of developing AF. About 2.7 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). But coronary heart disease, the nation’s number-one killer, is a much more common cause of death. In general, experts say that if you’re already a moderate drinker (up to one drink a day for women, and two for men), it’s probably okay to keep it up. But for people with certain chronic health problems, the new results may question that guidance, the researchers said. “Our findings suggest that older individuals with cardiovascular disease or diabetes should probably limit their alcoholic beverages to no more than 1 drink per week,” Liang told Reuters Health in an email. “And binge drinking should be avoided, even if you drink infrequently.” SOURCE: bit.ly/RAFemw CMAJ, online October 1, 2012. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Heartland Dental seeks buyer, may fetch $1.4 billion: sources
September 5th, 2012
By Soyoung Kim NEW YORK | Wed Sep 5, 2012 6:52pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – Heartland Dental Care Inc, one of the largest dental practice management companies in the United States, is exploring a sale that could fetch as much as $1.4 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The company, in which Chicago-based private equity firm CHS Capital Partners has a stake, has hired investment banks Jefferies and Moelis to find a buyer and has drawn interest mostly from other buyout firms, the people said. The sources asked not to be identified because the process is not public. Heartland Dental has about $120 million in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and could be sold for 10 to 12 times EBITDA, they added. The auction is early in the second round and final bids are expected about a month from now, according to the people. Jefferies has offered to provide financing for potential buyers, they added. Representatives for Heartland Dental, CHS Capital, Jefferies and Moelis did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Effingham, Illinois-based Heartland Dental manages more than 350 affiliated dental practices in 19 U.S. states, providing dentists with administrative services such as personnel staffing, purchasing, and financial, marketing and technology support, according to its website. The company is owned and operated by founder and Chief Executive Rick Workman, a dentist. CHS Capital made a minority equity investment in 2008 for an undisclosed sum. (Reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Dental health linked to dementia risk: study
August 21st, 2012
Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:12am EDT (Reuters) – People who keep their teeth and gums healthy with regular brushing may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life, according to a U.S. study. Researchers at the University of California who followed nearly 5,500 elderly people over an 18-year-period found that those who reported brushing their teeth less than once a day were up to 65 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who brushed daily. “Not only does the state of your mind predict what kind of oral health habits you practice, it may be that your oral health habits influence whether or not you get dementia,” said Annlia Paganini-Hill, who led the study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Inflammation stoked by gum disease-related bacteria is implicated in a host of conditions including heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Some studies have also found that people with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, have more gum disease-related bacteria in their brains than a person without Alzheimer’s, Paganini-Hill said. It’s thought that gum disease bacteria might get into the brain, causing inflammation and brain damage, she said. Paganini-Hill and her team followed 5,468 residents of a Californian retirement community from 1992 to 2010. Most people in the study were white, well-educated and relatively affluent. When the study began, participants ranged in age from 52 to 105, with an average age of 81. All were free of dementia at the outset, when they answered questions about their dental health habits, the condition of their teeth and whether they wore dentures. When the researchers followed up 18 years later, they used interviews, medical records and in some cases death certificates to determine that 1,145 of the original group had been diagnosed with dementia. Of 78 women who said they brushed their teeth less than once a day in 1992, 21 had dementia by 2010, or about one case per 3.7 women. In comparison, among those who brushed at least once a day, closer to one in every 4.5 women developed dementia which translates to a 65-percent greater chance of dementia among those who brushed less than daily. Among the men, the effect was less pronounced with about one in six irregular brushers developing the disease, making them 22 percent more likely to have dementia than those who brushed daily. Statistically, however, the effect was so small it could have been due to chance, the researchers said. Paganini-Hill could only speculate on the reasons for the different outcomes among men and women. Perhaps women wear their dentures more often than men and visit the dentist more frequently. The study has limitation. Paganini-Hill and her team looked at behavior and tooth numbers as a kind of proxy for oral health and gum disease and didn’t carry out any dental exams. While neglecting teeth might be a sign of early vulnerability to dementia, some other factor be having an impact too. Head injury and malnutrition are also important causes of tooth loss in adults, and either of those might increase the dementia risk, said Amber Watts, who studies dementia at the University of Kansas and wasn’t part of the study. “I would be reluctant to draw the conclusion that brushing your teeth would definitely prevent you from getting Alzheimer’s disease,” she said. bit.ly/N5CCOu (Reporting from New York by Natasja Sheriff at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Bob Tourtellotte) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Dental health linked to dementia risk
August 20th, 2012
By Natasja Sheriff NEW YORK | Mon Aug 20, 2012 4:08pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who keep their teeth and gums healthy with regular brushing may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life, according to a new study. Researchers who followed close to 5,500 elderly people over an 18-year period, found those who reported brushing their teeth less than once a day were up to 65 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who brushed daily. “Not only does the state of your mind predict what kind of oral health habits you practice, it may be that your oral health habits influence whether or not you get dementia,” said Annlia Paganini-Hill, who led the study at the University of California. Inflammation stoked by gum disease-related bacteria is implicated in a host of conditions including heart disease, stroke and diabetes. And some studies have found that people with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, have more gum disease-related bacteria in their brains than a person without Alzheimer’s, said Paganini-Hill. It’s thought that gum disease bacteria might get into the brain causing inflammation and brain damage, she told Reuters Health. So she and her team wanted to look at whether good dental health practices over the long term would predict better cognitive function in later life. The researchers followed 5,468 residents of a Californian retirement community from 1992 to 2010. Most people in the study were white, well-educated, and relatively affluent. When the study began, participants ranged in age from 52 to 105, with an average age of 81. All were free of dementia at the outset, when they answered questions about their dental health habits, the condition of their teeth and whether they wore dentures. When the researchers followed-up 18 years later, they used interviews, medical records and in some cases death certificates to determine that 1,145 of the original group had been diagnosed with dementia. Of 78 women who said they brushed their teeth less than once a day in 1992, 21 had dementia by 2010, or about one case per 3.7 women. In comparison, among those who brushed their teeth at least once a day, closer to one in every 4.5 women developed dementia. That translates to a 65-percent greater likelihood of dementia among those who brushed less than daily. Among the men, the effect was less pronounced, with about one in six irregular brushers developing the disease – making them 22 percent more likely to have dementia than those who did brush daily. Statistically, however, the effect was so small it could have been due to chance, the researchers said. There was a significant difference seen between men who had all, or at least most, of their teeth, or who wore dentures, and those who didn’t – the latter group were almost twice as likely to develop dementia. That effect was not seen in women, though. Paginini-Hill could only speculate on the reasons for the different outcomes among men and women. Perhaps women wear their dentures more often than men, and they visit the dentist more frequently, she suggested. The new findings, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, cannot prove that poor dental health can cause dementia. Neglecting one’s teeth might be an early sign of vulnerability to dementia, for instance, or some other factor could be influencing both conditions. Still, this report “is really the first to look at the effect of actions like brushing and flossing your teeth,” said Dr. Amber Watts, who studies the causes of dementia at the University of Kansas and was not involved in the research. The new study does have some limitations. Paganini-Hill and her team looked at behavior and tooth count as a kind of proxy for oral health and gum disease. They didn’t carry out any dental exams so they couldn’t determine if people had gum disease or not. And tooth loss isn’t always related to gum disease, Watts noted. Head injury and malnutrition are also important causes of tooth loss in adults, and any of those might increase risk for dementia, she said. “I would be reluctant to draw the conclusion that brushing your teeth would definitely prevent you from getting Alzheimer’s disease,” Watts said. Yet despite the limitations, Watts said the study is an important step toward understanding how behavior might be linked to dementia. “It’s nice if this relationship holds true as there’s something people can do (to reduce their chances of developing dementia),” said Paganini-Hill. “First, practice good oral health habits to prevent tooth loss and oral diseases. And second, if you do lose your teeth, wear dentures.” SOURCE: bit.ly/N5CCOu Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, online August 2, 2012. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Web information on safe infant sleep often wrong
August 15th, 2012
By Amy Norton NEW YORK | Wed Aug 15, 2012 2:38pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Parents who search the Internet for advice on how to put their infants to sleep may often find misinformation, a new study suggests. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other experts have long had recommendations on how to cut the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. They say parents should always put infants on their backs to sleep – in a crib with a firm mattress, with no soft objects around them. In the U.S., the “Back to Sleep” public education campaign has been credited with cutting SIDS – also known as “crib death” – by more than 50 percent since 1994. But SIDS still kills about 2,500 babies each year in the U.S., mostly infants who are between two and four months old. For the new study, researchers wanted to see how often online information on infant sleep jibed with the AAP recommendations. So they did a Google search using 13 different terms, like “infant sleep position” and “infant sleep surface.” Of the 931 relevant websites that popped up, only 61 percent gave accurate information. “We were not that surprised, since everyone knows a lot of information on the Web is wrong,” said senior researcher Dr. Rachel Y. Moon, of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “But we wanted to quantify what we suspected to be true,” she told Reuters Health. Accuracy did vary widely based on the type of website, Moon’s team reports in The Journal of Pediatrics. Government websites did the best job, the researchers say. Of 83 government sites, 72 gave accurate information. Some sites, Moon noted, were not updated often and had outdated information. Blogs, personal websites and sites that review retail products were among the least reliable sources. Of all relevant blogs, for example, just 31 percent gave accurate information. “I’d tell parents to be careful about the sources of the information you’re looking at,” Moon advised. Government sites like Medline Plus () and Healthfinder () are good sources, according to Moon’s team. And they say pediatricians can help by directing parents to specific sites like those. “I think this is a really important study,” said Dr. Henry F. Krous, a SIDS researcher and professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. “More and more people, and especially young parents, will be using the Internet to find this type of information,” noted Krous, who was not involved in the study. He agreed with the recommendation that pediatricians give parents advice on specific websites. CONFIRM INFORMATION Krous also suggested that when parents do find information on safe infant sleeping online, they “go the next step and confirm it with your health provider regarding your baby.” Moon advised steering clear of commercial websites, such as those from retailers selling infant products. She and her colleagues found 185 relevant websites from companies or interest groups; 54 of them – or 29 percent – gave flawed information. According to the AAP, infants’ cribs should be free of soft objects like blankets, pillows and stuffed animals. And parents should not use “bumper pads” on the sides of the crib. Those products, which tie to the crib slats, are marketed for preventing head injuries and keeping babies’ limbs from getting trapped. But the AAP says bumper pads may raise the risk of suffocation or strangulation. Krous said parents should be wary of any site that promotes devices that are supposed to keep babies on their backs during sleep. “We have never recommended any device for promoting back-sleeping,” Krous told Reuters Health. BED-SHARING NOT RECOMMENDED The study used a single definition of “accuracy” – whether information conformed to AAP recommendations. “There’s always room for debate on specific recommendations,” Moon said. For example, the AAP says parents should not have their infants sleep in bed with them. A recent study of more than 3,100 U.S. infants who died of SIDS found that 70 percent were sleeping on a bed or other surface “not intended for infants” – most often with an adult or another child. But many breastfeeding advocates believe “bed-sharing” makes breastfeeding easier and helps moms keep it up long-term. “Not all bed-sharing is the same,” Krous noted. That is, having your healthy-sized 11-month-old on the opposite side of your king-sized bed is different from lying next to your three-month-old. And cases of SIDS or other accidental deaths have often involved factors other than bed-sharing – like an intoxicated parent. However, Krous said, many studies have pointed to bed-sharing as a “big risk factor” for SIDS. There is “no question,” he added, that putting your infant to bed as the AAP recommends is the safest course. For breastfeeding moms, Krous noted, there are devices that look like bassinets and attach to the bed – allowing parents to be close without the risk of rolling over onto the baby. SOURCE: bit.ly/PZgIqr Journal of Pediatrics, online August 6, 2012. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Honey may ease nighttime coughing in kids
August 6th, 2012
By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Mon Aug 6, 2012 12:07am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A spoonful of honey before bed may help little kids with a cough – and their parents – sleep through the night, a new study suggests. Parents also reported that after giving honey to kids, their coughing was less frequent and less severe. Coughs are one of the most common reasons kids go to the doctor, said Dr. Ian Paul, a pediatrician from Pennsylvania State University in Hershey. But, he said, “The therapies for cough and cold symptoms… have problems in that they’re not very effective, or not effective at all, and they have the potential for side effects.” Many over-the-counter cough and cold products have a “do not use” warning for kids under four. One of the concerns with the medications is parents accidentally giving kids too much, or kids getting into the drugs themselves. “As opposed to many of the other things we give – medications and medicines that do have side effects – honey over age one is almost completely safe,” Paul, who wasn’t involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. Researchers from Israel randomly assigned 300 kids, aged one to five, to one of four different nighttime cough treatments. Half an hour before bedtime, parents gave their children 10 grams of one of three types of honey – including eucalyptus and citrus-based honey – or syrup made from dates that was also sweet but honey-free. In written and telephone surveys, parents reported their kids’ cough symptoms and how well both they and their kids slept the night youngsters took a spoonful of honey or date extract as well as how well they had slept the night before. Parents rated each of the symptoms on a 7-point scale. On average, parents initially gave their kids’ cough frequency and severity and sleep problems a rating of between 3 and 4. That improved in all groups the night after the sweet treatment was given – but to a larger extent in kids who took honey. Cough symptoms and sleep scores fell by 2 points, on average, in kids who ate honey, compared to a 1-point drop after a spoonful of date extract. Parents also slept better the night after their kids’ honey treatment, Dr. Herman Avner Cohen of Tel Aviv University and his colleagues reported Monday in Pediatrics. Their study was co-funded by the Honey Board of Israel. According to Paul, there are a couple of different explanations for why honey might help ease kids’ cough. “Honey is very rich in antioxidants, so that may have some role in fighting whatever infection is causing the cold symptoms,” he suggested. Cohen and his colleagues noted that different types of honey may contain different antioxidants – including vitamin C and flavonoids – and that darker honey tends to have more. In addition, “There’s something about having a thick, viscous, sweet liquid that provides some sort of relief,” Paul said. Sweet liquid also causes salivation, he explained, which can thin mucus and lubricate the upper airway. Paul said parents shouldn’t give honey to babies, but that otherwise it’s “worth a try” for little kids’ coughs. SOURCE: bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online August 6, 2012. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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Tooth fillings made with BPA tied to behavior issues
July 16th, 2012
By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:18am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Kids who get dental fillings made using BPA are more likely to have behavior and emotional problems a few years later, according to a new study. But the effect was small, and the lead researcher was quick to point out that her team didn’t measure BPA levels in particular – and had no way of knowing if any other chemicals were leaching out of the fillings. “It’s a controversial topic in dental research, how much really does leach (from fillings)… and whether or not that would have an effect,” said Nancy Maserejian, from New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts. “It’s generally assumed that the amounts leached are tiny.” She said dental fillings made using BPA are becoming more popular because they are teeth-colored, as opposed to older, silver-colored amalgam fillings. BPA, short for bisphenol A, is a chemical used to make plastics that’s also found in some food packaging and canned goods. Last year, a study tied prenatal exposure to BPA to hyperactivity and anxiety, especially in girls (see Reuters Health story of October 24, 2011). But its effects are still far from clear. For the new study, Maserejian and her colleagues looked back at data on 534 kids, age six to 10, who had cavities and were randomly chosen to get amalgam fillings or one of two different types of so-called composite fillings. BPA was used in the manufacturing process of one of those newer fillings. After five years, parents and kids answered a series of questions about anxiety and depression, attitude at school and overall behavior. The researchers found kids who had multiple fillings made using BPA – and who’d had those fillings for a long time – consistently scored two to six points worse on 100-point behavior measures than those who had none of the fillings or who’d only had one for a short time. Behavior problems seemed especially common in kids who had those fillings on chewing surfaces, the researchers reported in Pediatrics – which supports the idea that some fillings may begin to break down over time with chewing and leach certain chemicals. Maserejian said it’s possible the fillings contain residual BPA that was used in making them, even though the chemical isn’t supposed to be a main ingredient in the fillings themselves. But whether that’s the case – and whether small amounts of those chemicals could have an effect on brain development – is all hypothetical. “We didn’t measure BPA, and we don’t know whether BPA was in (the fillings),” Maserejian told Reuters Health. “There are other chemicals used in these composites, and BPA isn’t directly used in them. We don’t really know what the health effects of these other chemicals are.” More research will be needed to get those answers, she said. In the meantime, parents shouldn’t be too worried: The average difference in behavior issues between kids with various types of fillings was so small that “they would not be noticeable for most children.” “Types of fillings are really something that a dentist has to determine based on the cavity that needs to get filled and the child,” Maserejian said. “At this point, the best thing a parent can do is avoid that discussion entirely by just preventing cavities as best they can with brushing and flossing.” SOURCE: bit.ly/jsoh2P Pediatrics, online July 16, 2012. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints
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