Beth Wallace, Registered dietitian, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
It’s no surprise that eating too much sodium, or salt, can increase your blood pressure as an adult. However, it may come as a surprise that the amount of sodium that children eat can affect their blood pressure even at a young age.
Earlier this year and for the first time ever, the World Health Organization made recommendations to limit the amount of sodium children consume. Depending on their age, size, and energy needs, recommendations for children ages 2-15 were a maximum of 2000 mg per day.
Why is this such a concern for young children? Believe it or not, more and more children are being diagnosed with typical “adult health conditions” at a younger age. Because the cumulative effect of high blood pressure over the years raises the risk of stroke and heart disease, decreasing the sodium intake in children at a young age may help to delay the onset of diet-related health conditions.
Anna Nguyen, Healthy Kids blog Editor
About 560 Deezo brand zip-up hoodies were recalled by Zulily because drawstrings through the hood could pose a strangulation hazard to young children. No injuries have been reported.
The sweatshirts and jackets have designs that include a heart with arrow, swirl, alien, flower, guitar, motor scooter and circuit board designs and come in the following color combinations: pink with white or black trim; white with pink or green trim; blue with a light blue and white trim and black with blue or green trim.
Find out more information about the recall at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Website.
Anna Nguyen, Healthy Kids blog Editor
Powel Company is recalling 6,300 of its Anywhere Longer bean bag chairs because they do not have a permanent zipper closure. This allows young children to unzip, ingest or inhale the small beads inside of the bean bag chair, posing a suffocation and strangulation hazard. No injuries have been reported.
Find out more information about the recall at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Website.
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Gary A. Emmett, M.D., Pediatrics Professor- Thomas Jefferson Univ. & Director, Hospital Pediatrics- TJU Hospital
We often hear marijuana isn’t that dangerous of a drug. In reality, regular use of marijuana may permanently damage a teen’s developing brain – and could lead to a reduction in IQ, other drug use, and mental health issues.
I heard a frightening and eye opening lecture by Dr. Sharon Levy of Children’s Hospital Boston about the effect of marijuana on the developing brain earlier this month at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Washington, DC.
Smoking marijuana has all the known side-effects of smoking tobacco except nicotine addiction. So a heavy and early smoker of marijuana is increasing the probability of chronic lung disease and cancer as he or she builds up “pack-years.” But the active ingredients in marijuana are dozens of different cannabinoids of which the best known is THC (tetra-hydro-cannabinol). The effect of these active drugs is at the endocanninoid site (also called the anandamide receptor) in the brain.
Rima Himelstein, M.D., Crozer-Keystone Health System
Most of my teenage patients have one hand attached to their cell phones during their medical visits. Sometimes they’re answering their parents’ texts about what time they will be done, and sometimes they’re texting their partners to tell them they have chlamydia.
Given that texting has entered exam rooms in my office, I was not surprised to read the results from the 2011 Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew surveyed 799 U.S. teens 12 to 17 years of age and their parents; they carried out focus groups with 57 teens. Here is what they found:
- 75 percent text and 63 percent say they text every day.
- Texting is trending up: the median number of texts rose from 50 per day in 2009 to 60 per day in 2011.
- Older girls text the most, with a median of 100 texts a day—more than 3,000 texts a month!—compared with 50 texts per day for boys their age.
And then there are hyper-texters. One in 5 teens are “hyper-texters,” texting more than 120 times a day. Hyper-texters are more likely to have sex, engage in binge drinking, use illegal drugs or be in a physical fight than teens who text less.
Anna Nguyen, Healthy Kids blog Editor
We often think about talking to teens about underage drinking, but a newly launched public service announcement campaign tells parents that it's best to tell their kids about the dangers of underage drinking as early as age 9.
The “Talk. They Hear You” campaign from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers parents advice on how to talk to their kids about underage drinking and prepare for tough questions like “Did you drink as a kid?”
Why talk to your kids about underage drinking? The health and safety risks include injury or death from accidents; unintended, unwanted, or unprotected sexual activity; mental health problems such as depression; and it could lead to drug use. More than a quarter of American youth drink alcohol, found the latest SAMHSA report.
Anita Kulick
Today's guest blogger is Anita Kulick, President & CEO of Educating Communities for Parenting in Philadelphia. ECP offers a variety of programs and services for teen and adult parents, adjudicated delinquent youth, young adults aging out of the foster care system, preschoolers, and children at grave risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violence.
One of the toughest decisions parents have to make is choosing a child care provider. After all, you’re trusting your child’s wellbeing to someone else. Of course it’s overwhelming, and you’re certainly not alone. In America, nearly 11 million children under the age of five spend 35 or more hours each week in child care, according to a 2012 report from Child Care Aware of America.
Your mind is flooded with questions and concerns: What type is best? Can I afford quality care? Most importantly, will my child be nurtured safe, and happy? The good news is that there’s lot of help. So don’t panic. Take a deep breath (or ten), get organized, and move into action.
Frances Zappalla, DO
Today's guest blogger is Frances Zappalla, DO, a pediatric cardiologist at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.
Stress is common in our daily life. We now know about the link between stress and disease because of the mind-body connection. This time of year may be particularly stressful for students with finals just around the corner. There are many ways to help ease day-to-day stress.
One way is simply to breathe. Breathing is the part of our autonomic (or automatic) nervous system that we have control over. When we make ourselves breathe slower, deeper, and more regularly, we stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms our bodies and minds. The more you practice your breathing, the stronger that part of your nervous system gets - so when you’re in a stressful situation you can use slow, deep breathing to calm yourself down.
Stephen Aronoff, M.D., M.B.A., Temple University Hospital
Last month, we talked about how to properly remove ticks and when to seek medical attention. Here's a more indepth look at tick borne dieases specific to our area.
As warmer weather approaches, ticks begin to appear in wooded areas. These insects adhere to both people and pets. A small percentage of ticks carry bacteria, viruses and protozoa that produce disease in humans. There are a myriad of diseases, but they are typically limited geographically based on the ticks endemic to any given region. Several tick borne diseases occur in the greater Philadelphia area.
Lyme Disease
Trude Haecker, MD
Today's guest blogger is Trude Haecker, MD, a pediatrician and the medical director of the Reach Out and Read program at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also the medical director of Quality Improvement and Departmental Patient Safety Officer at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Care Network.
Jennifer was sitting on her young mother’s lap as I entered the exam room with a new infant board book in my hand. She was here for her 9-month check-up. She was not particularly interested in me, but as I opened the book with its bright pictures of animals and began reading a page or two, her eyes lit up and she began patting the book. A gentle smile appeared on her face as she babbled a bit as we interacted around this very simple book. I shared with her mom how smart her baby was and the excitement that I saw in her face . “She can see the pictures and understand my words,” I told her. It was a brief bonding moment for the three of us—sharing the experience of watching her amazing infant brain at work.
The human brain is a remarkable organ. Research on early brain development is changing our perspective of infants’ capabilities and the rapid progression of development, particularly in the area of speech and language acquisition both receptively (understanding) and expressively (speaking).
