Category: Children’s health

Concussions in Children

football game
photo by PhilipsPhoto

Getting back to school can mean getting back on the playing field for many kids.  A new study published in the journal Pediatrics highlights the need to take conservative approaches to head injuries and concussions.  The younger the child, the longer the recovery period should be.  New guidelines include such advice as:

  • children recovering from concussions should take a break from cognitive activities as well a physical ones – this may include a change in schoolwork;
  • younger athletes should not return to the playing field on the same day as an injury even if symptoms clear; and
  • multiple concussions may mean that a child needs to stop participating in contact sports.

Parents and coaches need to be aware of the signs and symptoms of concussion, many of which overlap and are related to physical, cognitive, emotional, and sleep issues. Headache is the most frequently reported symptom

Even though participation in team sports has declined by 13% over a ten year period, kids’ visits to the emergency room for head injuries has increased markedly.  It is unclear whether this is due to more rigorous play or increased awareness of the seriousness of concussions in children.  Concussions can be linked to long term problems related to developmental and cognitive function.

Source: Medscape

Teen Smoking Rates Stay Steady; US Government to Renew Anti-Smoking Efforts

After having declined for much of the last decade, the teen smoking rate has reached a plateau in the last couple of years.  A new U.S. government study shows that the declines in teen smoking between 2006 and 2009 were not statistically significant – from 19.8%t to 17.2%  among high school students and from 6.3 percent to 5.2 percent among middle school students.  In 2000 number as many as 28% of high school students were classified as smokers.

There are now calls for increased smoking and tobacco use prevention efforts aimed at young people.

Source: www.naturalhealthlibrary.org

Cigarette smoking can contribute to many eye diseases including macular degeneration.  Vision health is about whole body health.  Learn more about our Vision Wellness Protocol.

Children’s Eye Health: Contact Lenses, Not Glasses May Be Better Option for Kids

kids
Microsoft image

Kids who wear contact lenses rather than glasses enjoy better vision-related quality of life.  A new study published in Optometry and Vision Science reports that in the children who participated in the three year study fared better regarding their feelings about appearance and participation in athletics if they wore contacts.  In particular, children over age 10 experience the greatest improvement in quality of life.

According to Jeffrey J. Walline, O.D, Ph.D., Ohio State University College of Optometry and leader of the Adolescent and Child Health Initiative to Encourage Vision Empowerment (ACHIEVE) Study, “The growing body of research in children’s vision correction continues to demonstrate that contact lenses provide significant benefits to children beyond simply correcting their vision. This study showed considerable improvement for contact lens wearing children 10 years or older in areas of appearance, participation in activities, and satisfaction with vision correction, and it remained or improved over three years.”

Though it is often assumed that glasses are easier to handle than delicate contact lenses, children were happier to work with the contacts than pairs of glasses.  The availability of daily disposable lenses seems to have made the process less troublesome for kids.  It removes the worry over the loss and breakage of eyeglasses.

Researchers “advise parents and eye care practitioners to look beyond the visual benefits” when deciding how to best correct vision problems in children.

This study received partial funding from Johnson and Johnson.

Source: MedicalNewsToday.com

A Myth: Teething Causes Fevers in Babies

It seems like everyone from grandmothers to many family doctors has supported the belief that teething babies tend to run fevers as new teeth come in.  A new study out of Australia, however, claims to debunk this medical myth. Researchers at the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne say that parents should never assume that their baby’s fever is related to teething.

Study authors also report that many of the other conditions commonly associated with teething, including sleep disturbances, congestion, changes to bowel movements, and infections were falsely attributed to cutting teeth.  A study based in Cleveland, Ohio did find that teething can be linked to increased biting, drooling, gum-rubbing, irritability, wakefulness, ear-rubbing, facial rash and a decreased appetite for solid foods.

Wake says most infants and young children start teething between four and 24 months old. This time frame roughly coincides with the period, between six and 24 months, when young children experience most of their infections. And infections (especially viral ones) are the most common cause of fevers in young children.

Why this misconception?  According to study leader Melissa Wake, babies start to get more infections from around six months of age, which is when teething generally begins and is when there is a decline in antibodies that they receive from their mother.  She says that given that most children get scores of infections and 20 teeth during the first three years of life, it’s hardly surprising that these two events often coincide.  Wake also points out that elementary school aged children also get many new teeth – but they don’t seem to complain of the side-effects that parents report in infants.

Researchers are concerned that some more serious health issues may be ignored, including urinary tract infections or pneumonia, because parents are blaming teething for all of their babies’ fevers.  They also worry that pain relievers and oral soothing gels are offered to often, and, as Wake says, “No one wants babies to be taking unnecessary medication.”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2010/08/18/2985998.htm

Infants Respond to Eye Contact

In a study of the brains of infants in response to various stimuli, it was found that babies experience increased brain activity when making eye contact with an adult. The results, published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, help scientist understand more development of social perception and suggest that a part of the brain is specifically programmed to process eye gaze even at a very early age.

Researchers measured “increased early evoked gamma activity at occipital channels indicating enhanced neural processing during the earliest steps of face encoding” when babies looked at pictures of women whose gazes were directed at them.  Pictures of women with their faces tilted downward or who were looking away from the viewer did not elicit the same response, “confirming that the gamma band oscillations observed in response to gaze direction are specific to upright faces.”

So, look deep into those baby blues and help the development of next baby you meet!

Source: Medscape Today

Air Bags Can Cause Eye Injuries in Children

At this point, it is well known that air bags make it dangerous for children to sit in to front seat of an automobile.  Infants in rear facing car seats are at risk because their heads are too close to the air bag and older children facing forward are more susceptible to head and neck injuries when sitting up front.

As if these risks weren’t enough to keep kids in the backseat, a study in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, concludes that children can suffer from serious eye injuries from the impact of air bags, the most serious of which included cataracts and glaucoma.  Among other injuries: blood in the front chamber of the eye; alkali burn; temporary loss of consciousness and visual acuity; eyelid laceration; black eye; swelling and hemorrhage of blood vessels under the outer surface of the eyeball; corneal lesions and abrasions; and inflammation of the iris.
Source: Medscape

FDA Warns Against Accidental Infant Vitamin Overdose

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a warning to parents and caregivers about the dangers of accidental overdose when giving infants liquid vitamin D supplement products.

Some products are sold with droppers that could allow harmful amounts of the vitamin to be given to an infant. These droppers can hold a greater amount of liquid vitamin D than an infant should receive.  Infants should not receive more than 400 international units (IUs) of vitamin D a day.

“It is important that infants not get more than the recommended daily amount of vitamin D,” says Linda M. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., interim chief medical officer in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Parents and caregivers should only use the dropper that comes with the vitamin D supplement purchased.”

Vitamin D helps in the formation of strong bones and is essential to keep children from developing rickets.  Opinions vary as to whether breastfed babies require additional vitamin D supplementation (it is a part of most infant formulas).  Regular exposure to sunlight can provide children with a good source of vitamin D and is, in fact, the way that human were designed to receive the vitamin.  Darker skinned children and babies whose mothers suffer from a vitamin D deficiency (rare in the developed world) might have deficiencies that require supplementation.

Source: FDA and Kellymom.com

Eye Problems in Babies and Children: What To Look For

Eye and Vision Milestones in Infants
Babies older than 3 months should be able to follow or “track” an object as it moves across their field of vision.  If your baby is unable to hold steady eye contact by this time or seems unable to see, let your pediatrician know. Eye-crossing is common in babies before 4 months of age, especially when they are eating.  Eyes that cross all the time or one eye that turns out is often indicative of a problem and should be brought to your doctor’s attention.

Vision Problems in Toddlers
Eye misalignment is called strabismus and is a reason to call the pediatrician right away.  Other vision problems include lazy eye or amblyopia, which has no warning signs and may not effect your child’s vision.

The following problems should prompt a conversation with a pediatrician or an eye professional for children of any age:

White, grayish-white, or yellow-colored material in the pupil
  • Eyes that flutter quickly from side-to-side or up-and-down
  • Bulging eye(s)
  • Persistent eye pain, itching, or discomfort
  • Redness in either eye that doesn’t go away in a few days
  • Pus or crust in either eye
  • Eyes that are always watery
  • Drooping eyelid(s)
  • Excessive rubbing or squinting of the eyes
  • Eyes that are always sensitive to light
  • Any change in the eyes from how they usually look

Source: HealthyChildren.org

 

About Pediatric Cataracts

The most common causes of pediatric cataracts include: intrauterine infections, metabolic disorders, and genetically transmitted syndromes. Infectious diseases such as rubella, measles, chicken pox, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, poliomyelitis, influenza, Epstein-Barr virus, syphilis, and toxoplasmosis can also be culprits.  Pediatric cataracts affects children worldwide, but it is 10 times more common in developing countries than in developed nations.

The American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus indicates that small cataracts that do not affect vision do not need to be removed, though those that cause vision loss should be removed as early in life as possible.  Early treatment is vital because the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli will not develop properly if a cataract causes the images to blur.

 

Sources:

http://www.pediatriccataract.org

http://www.aapos.org