Interesting health headlines this week:
Ibuprofen Better Than Acetaminophen with Codeine for Kids’ Musculoskeletal Pain (Pediatrics)
Ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) does seem to come out on top with pain control. I suspect it has to do with the antiinflamatory nature of the medication. The key to success with any pain intervention is to use it appropriately and judiciously for the first day or two after the injury. The key is to cut the pain cycle off at the pass.
Kids Gain More Weight On Summer Break
Yikes! Not at all what we would have expected. This tells me that we really are not paying attention to kids activity levels. If we were, kids would be outside playing over the summer – and we’d be there with ‘em. I can’t help wondering exactly when the wakeup call to today’s parents will be heard – clearly it is falling on deaf ears. If your child is overweight, your wakeup call was yesterday. If your child is a normal weight, your wake up call is today.
Overuse Injuries In Kids On The Rise
The article hits the nail on the head: kids are doing too much, too young!
Today’s overachieving kids are starting sports earlier and training longer and harder, often before they enter Kindergarten, and many of them are suffering overuse injuries as a result, according to Dr. Lyle Micheli. Dr. Micheli is further quoted to say:
“Overuse injuries result from overtraining,” Micheli said. “Certainly, as the volume of training increases, the risk of injury increases.” Twenty years ago, he noted in an interview with Reuters Health, “we didn’t see overuse injuries in kids, but today we do.” Part of the problem, poor coaching training:
Micheli thinks it’s time for “mandatory safety education and maybe even certification” for coaches of school-age children. “We have a whole cadre of well-meaning volunteer coaches out there and they have variable levels of knowledge including the sports they are dealing with,” he said.
“If we were to do one thing to have an impact and improve the safety of kids’ sports,” Micheli said, “it would be coaching education and certification. Some sports are moving toward this, like soccer, where in some places you can coach for one year and after that you have to take the coaching course.”
I agree, 100%! The only thing our young kids have to overachieve at is being a kid, at least in MHO.
FDA To Review Kids Cold Products
According to the article:
A group of pediatricians and public health officials asked the agency Thursday to bar drug manufacturers from marketing such remedies as Toddler’s Dimetapp, Infant Triaminic and Little Colds to children under 6.
This won’t be popular with parents but, as the article points out:
A recent study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that more than 1,500 children under 2 had experienced serious health problems — and three died — after taking common cold medicines in 2004 and 2005. The American College of Chest Physicians last year recommended avoiding using cough and cold medicines in children, especially young ones.
In above-normal doses, cold medicines can lead to heart arrhythmias, and some have been linked to hypertension and stroke when taken in high doses, The Times reported. In rare cases, children have had medical problems after taking recommended doses, the article said.
Virginia to Require Vaccine To Girls
The story, or saga, continues. There’s no doubt in my mind that HPV vaccine is an excellent addition to the vaccine family. But, to make it mandatory so early after the launch? That is where the controversy stems.
Experts Weight Giving Up On Eradicating Polio
The hope was to have polio eradicated by now but that pesky virus keeps on infecting. The WHO is ambivalent about what to do but notes in the article:
“We are living in a different world where I’m not sure what eradication means anymore,” said Ehrenfeld, who was not invited to Wednesday’s meeting.
No doubt intense vaccination efforts are needed to keep polio numbers low. And, the fact that polio has yet to be eradicated as small pox was is a sure sign that vaccination is still needed. Time will tell.
Measles OutBreak in N.Korea
More proof for why vaccination is needed. We may have low numbers of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks in the USA, but not world wide. Given our global economy with travel part of today’s commerce, none of us can be sure we won’t come into contact with someone from an area where measles if prevalent, or any other vaccine-preventable illness. Where is measles at today? According to the article:
Some 345,000 people, most of them children, died from measles in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available.
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