Member of the Month- December

Member of the Month: Andrea

Age: 30

Spouse: Eric

Kids: Madeleine, 13 months
Pet: a cat and a bird (a good combination!)

Woman Plus: a MOM, who loves to organize and make creative projects. I design the curriculum for our church Sunday School program.

Your favorite song to sing loud in the car?
Anything on XM radio. Especially "What I Am", by Edie Brickell. With Madeleine I sing the "ABC song" or "If you're happy and you know it…clap your hands".

Guilty indulgence?
Ben & Jerry's ice cream

Your favorite children’s book?
It's a tie between Good Night Moon and Pat the Bunny.

A way you stay focused?
Lists. Lots of lists and post-it notes reminding me what to do! I couldn't live without them.

Favorite Gift from one of your kids or a memorable gift from a friend?
Madeleine's first crayon drawing

A discovery you’ve made recently?
It's OK if the house isn't perfectly clean. Who cares! Now is the time to spend with our daughter, who will only be young for a short time!

Three things you love:
1. Being with Madeleine, seeing her grow each day.
2. Evening time with my husband, after Madeleine is asleep.
3. Reading a great book (I just finished Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets and Growing Up in the 1970s, by Margaret Sartor and just started Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's, by John Elder Robison.)

Are you traveling this holiday season?

Check out this news clip about hotel rooms! YUCK!!!!


http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4925520&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Question Of The Week! 12-18-07

How do you keep your kids healthy this cold and flu season?

RSV

(submitted by Kim)

CUMMING, Georgia (CNN) --

Kamryn Campbell is only 16 months old, but she's been through more medical trauma than most people will suffer in a lifetime. Because Kamryn Campbell, with mom Stephanie, had RSV, she's at increased risk for asthma. To start with, Kamryn was born seven weeks premature. She spent nearly a month in a neonatal intensive care unit to help her lungs develop. Two weeks after being released, she was rushed back to the hospital in an ambulance, struggling to breathe.
"She turned gray and she wasn't breathing at all," recalls her mother, Stephanie Campbell of Cumming, Georgia. After undergoing testing, Kamryn was found to have respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. "For you and me it's a really bad head cold," says pediatric pulmonologist Burt Lesnick. "But for those children at risk it can be life threatening." This is the time of year when doctors' offices around the country see more tiny patients with the symptoms of RSV.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports almost all children are infected with RSV at least once before they turn two years of age. Most of the time, the virus causes cold-like symptoms and no specific treatment is needed. For others, the infection is more dangerous. Lesnick estimates one in 300 normal term babies will be hospitalized each year because of RSV. Premature infants fall into the high-risk category because of their underdeveloped lungs and difficulty in fighting infection. About one of every 30 preemies with RSV requires hospitalization.
The illness may start just like a cold with symptoms including a runny nose, cough and fever. Trouble sleeping and apnea may also be signs of RSV. Lesnick says that in many cases, RSV causes bronchiolitis, an inflammation of tiny airways called bronchioles, and viral pneumonia. A chest X-ray may be required to make a formal diagnosis. Watch more on the potential dangers of RSV. »
Fact Box
To prevent the spread of RSV, doctors say you should:
Wash your hands frequently
Limit your baby's exposure to people with colds or fevers
Clean toys and countertops often
Don't share drinking cups
Don't allow infants to be around secondhand smoke

Kamryn's case of RSV was so severe she was sedated and put on a ventilator during her hospital stay. Lesnick says RSV has no cure, and treatment is limited. "Antibiotics do not do any good," he said. "Steroids don't work ... almost nothing works." All doctors can do is make sure patients are well hydrated and receive oxygen if they need it. Then they wait. "We couldn't hold her, we couldn't feed her and do all those things moms of newborns do," said Campbell. Sixteen days after being admitted to the hospital, Kamryn was allowed to go home. Her parents immediately took some common-sense precautions to make sure she didn't get sick again.

There is no vaccine for RSV, but some high-risk infants may be eligible to receive a shot of artificial antibodies to help protect them against serious complications. For the past decade, a drug called Synagis has been given to children under the age of 2 during RSV season, typically November through April. The injections need to be repeated once a month.

Little Kamryn is learning to walk now, but her parents don't plan on going out as much with her this winter. Once a child has the virus, the CDC reports, RSV causes repeated infections throughout life. Lesnick also adds that while "Most children survive the infection and do well afterwards, unfortunately, many of them go on to develop asthma."

Do you want healthy, beautiful skin? Read on!

http://products.mercola.com/natural-body-butter/

GERMS by Dr. Mercola

12 Top Places You Risk Getting Infected

In some cases, you may encounter these places numerous times a day. In others, your exposure will be more sporadic. But either way, the following locations are some of the most germ-infested in the entire United States.

1. Your kitchen sink: With more dirt than a typical bathroom, and over 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain, your kitchen sink basin and faucet are teeming with germs.

2. Airplane bathrooms: Never mind the fecal bacteria that’s commonly found on door handles and faucets, the worst part is the tornado of germy particles that’s spewed into the air when you flush the toilet.

3. Wet laundry (even after it’s been washed): A dirty pair of underwear contains about a gram of ***, and this gets spread around the entire load of laundry very quickly. It’s not until you dry the clothes that the germs are destroyed.

4. Drinking fountains: All public drinking fountains are loaded with germs, but those in schools -- which contained anywhere from 62,000 to 2.7 million bacteria per square inch of the spigot -- were the worst.

5. Shopping cart handles: While you’re innocently shopping for groceries, your hands are grasping a handle covered in saliva, bacteria and fecal matter from dozens of people.

6. ATM buttons: Think about how often these buttons are touched everyday. Now think about how often they’re cleaned. This explains why one study found an average of over 1,200 bacteria on the average ATM key.

7. Your handbag: Women, your purse is likely overrun with thousands, and even millions, of bugs like salmonella, E. coli, staph bacteria and more. Makes you think twice about putting your handbag on the floor, and then plopping it down onto your kitchen counter, doesn’t it?

8. Playgrounds: Your typical children’s playground is covered in bodily fluids like blood, mucus, saliva and urine.

9. Mats and machines at health clubs: Yoga mat? Elliptical machine? Think bacteria factory. Such mats and cardio machines have been found to contain antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria and more.

10. Your bathtub: Bathtubs contain more than 100,000 bacteria per square inch, some of which you have just washed off your own body.

11. Your office phone: Phones get coated with germs from your mouth and hands, to the tune of over 25,000 germs per square inch.

12. Hotel-room remote control: This little remote has been used by hundreds of other people, and likely wasn’t thoroughly disinfected in between.
Sources:
Health.com

Dr. Mercola's Comments:
This list is enough to turn anyone into a modern-day Howard Hughes, just from the “yuck factor” alone. If you want to add even more fodder to your ensuing germaphobia, check out what these hidden cameras found out about glassware in your hotel room. Folks, infectious agents like bacteria and viruses are pervasive. They are in your own home, in your own kitchen sink and on your own kitchen counters where you prepare food for your family. You simply can’t escape them. If you are looking for one simple way to wipe out germs and reduce your chances of becoming sickened by them, it would be to wash your hands regularly using plain soap and water. It has been shown time and time again that washing your hands with soap and water can kill viruses that cause:
The common cold
Hepatitis A
Acute gastroenteritis
Other illnesses

In fact, studies have found that soap and water work better than the waterless, alcohol-based hand wipes and rubs. Please do not make the mistake of using these antibacterial liquids and soaps. These products kill both good and bad bacteria, which is why they are prone to contributing to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Additionally you will want to avoid becoming obsessive about washing your hands; if you wash them too frequently you can actually extract many of the protective oils in your skin, which will cause your skin to crack and bleed. Further, the active ingredient in most antibacterial products is triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth. But not only does triclosan kill bacteria, it also has been shown to kill human cells.

Avoid Excessive Hand Washing! It is important to realize that your skin is your primary defense against bacteria -- NOT the soap. It is rare when a germ on your skin will cause a problem -- it is typically only an issue when you transfer that to your nose, mouth or an open wound like cracked skin. So please avoid anything but absolutely crucial hand washing as that will actually increase your risk of getting sick by providing an entryway for potentially dangerous pathogens.

You Probably Have Disease-Causing Bacteria on You Right Now! About 30 percent of people, for instance, carry methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the bacteria that’s been linked to MRSA outbreaks in schools across the United States, on their skin. And a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a swab of your forearm may reveal 182 species of bacteria (8 percent of which were unknown). Many of these bacteria are good and essential for your very survival. Some, however, are bad and capable of making you sick.But not if you take the steps necessary to build up your immune system. A strong immune system is the best defense against any pathogenic bacteria you come across, and will serve you well if you nourish it with the proper tools.You can support your immune system by:
Getting a good night’s sleep
Minimizing stress in your life
Exercising regularly and effectively
Getting enough sun exposure or, alternatively, enough of the right vitamin D (if you live in a cold environment where you can't stay out in the sun)
Avoiding sugar and grains, and instead eating plenty of raw foods
Taking a high-quality probiotic (good bacteria) If you ask me, following the suggestions above is a far more pleasant option than walking around wearing rubber gloves and carrying a disinfectant spray, and I guarantee it is the far more effective way to stay healthy as well.
Related Articles:
What is the Dirtiest Surface in Your House? Germs Easily Transferred From Everyday Objects To Hands The Six Common Household Items With the Most Germs

Love & Logic

TAKING THINGS AWAY!!

Be Careful About Taking Away What Your Kids Need the Most When we've got a seriously underachieving youngster, it's awfully tempting to resort to taking away all sorts of things in a desperate attempt to motivate them to do their schoolwork. Sadly, this often backfires, leading the child to become even more resistant about learning.

Most of us wouldn't feel that motivated if our spouse said, "Ok, that's it! No more golf [or whatever else we might love to do] until I start getting some better reports from your boss!"While it's entirely reasonable to set some limits on TV, video games, and other entertainment activities when kids are doing poorly in school, taking them out of their favorite sport, Boy Scouts, music lessons, etc. is a bad idea. The research is clear on this:

"Children who are involved in a healthy extracurricular activity are far less likely to get involved in drugs, sex, gangs, and other high-risk activities.Kids who are struggling in school need at least one natural high…so that they aren't so tempted by various artificial ones."

For additional tips for helping underachieving kids, view our DVD titled, Hope for Underachieving Kids.

Thanks for reading,
Dr. Charles Fay

Question of the Week! 12-10-07

How do you make the holidays special for your little ones?

Look How Cute This Is???

www.ornamentswithlove.com

NMF member Christine submitted this great website! She said there are LOTS of cute ornaments to choose from on this site. Happy Shopping! :)

Fun and Sassy Website- Rent Luxury Handbags!

Is there a fabulous bag or piece of jewelry you would love to have, but can't afford? You can RENT it if you join this club :) Check out this very fun website for more information on renting luxury handbags and jewelry:
www.bagborroworsteal.com
This would also make a great last-minute gift idea. Your gift certificate can be emailed directly to the recipient!

Great (last-minute) Gift Idea!

www.bakemeawish.com
This website contains tons of fun cakes that you can send to anyone for any occasion. They can be delivered next-day for a very reasonable price. The best part is 5% of your order is donated in your name to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which is the charity our Mom Club decided to support throughout the year :)

Should twins be separated in the classroom?

What are your thoughts on this controversial subject?

Teachers?? Parents?? What are the pros and cons of twins being in a classroom together?

http://twinslaw.com/Welcome%20to%20Twins%20Law%20.%20Com.html

Can You Imagine???

Read this article!!!

A 17 pound baby girl was born in Russia on Sept. 17th.
There is even a picture!

The short article also talks about a baby born at 22 pounds!! OUCH!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298231,00.html

Pregnant, NMF member Nicole, submitted this article.

Nic, Does this make you nervous?? :) :)

Maternity Store

Check out this cool website!

Submitted by Amisha: http://www.bellyelan.com/index.php

Question of the Week! 12-3-07

Tell us your three favorite places you like to do your holiday shopping. Websites count!

November NMF Holiday Meeting

Pregnant NMF Women!
Idea Swap: (See below for description)

Add-A-Pearl Necklace

Magnetic Picture Holder

1/2 of the Red Envelope Family Tree

T-Shirt Quilt

Framed Mosaic

Jen Our "Creative Crafter!" :)

Everyone working on their homemade holiday gift bags.

Maria, Danielle & Amy

Our box of children's mittens for First Step!

Our November meeting was a huge hit! We had an excellent turnout! Our meeting consisted of good food, wine, crafting, idea sharing, and great conversation!!!

Topics Included:

• Thank you so much to everyone who donated children's mittens to First Step.
• Our group voted on Make A Wish Foundation as our charity of choice for the upcoming year. Our spring walk/run will be announced at a later meeting. Fellow NMF member, Tara, had an excellent idea of a "Make It, Bake It, Fake It" fundraiser at our one year anniversary family bbq in June.
• Fellow NMF member, Andrea, gave an excellent talk on Blood Cord Banking.

From CBR: "We are always excited to share the latest advances in medical treatment using cord blood with you. A large percentage of our clients have told us they chose to bank with CBR, in part because of the advances in Regenerative Medicine - the science of using the body's own cells to repair and replace damaged tissues and organs. In the attached media clip - you can see an example of how cord blood stem cells can potentially repair damaged brain tissue associated with cerebral palsy." Click here to watch the remarkable story of one of our clients

CBR: 1-888-932-9010

Andrea, Danielle & Stephanie have coupons available for anyone interested in getting a discount off of their initial investment.

http://parentsguideblood.org/ is a great resource also.

• Congrats to the new moms-to-be!!!! Christine, Ashley, Kim, & Corey.
• Upcoming Meeting Schedule: Dec.- off, Jan.- 30 Minute Meals, Feb.- Organization
• Welcome Back Amy!!! It was so great to have you back! Thank you for your heartfelt talk and wonderful words of wisdom!!!
  
  ***Idea Swap: Holiday Gift Giving Ideas:

1) Maria- Make a framed mosaic with proof sheets from your digital photo orders, Family ABC's scrapbook, T-shirt quilt

2) Tara-Bracelets with baby-to-be's name made for mom and grandparents during baby shower to say thank you, chocolate carmel apples with pecan nuts as gifts

3) Christina-"My Own Fairy Tale" book with your child's name. Christina, send us the website for this book! :)

4) Amy- Add-A-Pearl necklace. Buy your little one a pearl every year and add to a necklace. By the time they are 16, they have a beautiful pearl necklace. Larsons in Novi sells the necklace.

5) Mel- Big tins of homemade popcorn.

6) Jen- Personalized fortune cookies. Place in oven for a few minutes to get the old fortune out and put a personalized fortune in it.

7) Holly- Framed Scrabble board with words that describe a loved one. Glue the words in place and frame the board. You can order extra letters when you buy the box of Scrabble.

8) Andrea- Personalized stationary http://www.tinyprints.com/, Diapers with baby's name on it http://www.diapergrams.com/.

9) Amanda & Kristy- Magnet strips from IKEA, cover with fabric and add magnets with a ribbon to hang in the kitchen or den.

10) Jodi- Family Fun handout describing the tradition of "Gordy" a traveling Gourd and journal that is passed between family members. Family members write stories about the gourds adventures.

11) Danielle-Personalized homemade family tree http://www.redenvelope.com/

Favorite Recipe of the Night provided by NMF member Christina:

EGGNOG TRIFLE
1-1/4 cups cold fat-free milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Filling
4 Tbsp. orange juice, divided
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg (I used a little more - you can keep adding a little bit to your liking)
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping, thawed
1 pkg. (13.6 oz.) fat-free pound cake
1/4 cup PLANTERS Sliced Almonds, toasted (spread in single layer on baking sheet, bake at 350°for 5-7 min) & 3 cups halved strawberries

POUR cold milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix, 2 Tbsp. of the orange juice and nutmeg. Beat with wire whisk 1 minute. Gently stir in whipped topping. SLICE cake horizontally into 4 layers. Sprinkle cake layers evenly with remaining 2 Tbsp. orange juice. Cut into 1-inch cubes. PLACE 1/2 of the cake cubes in bottom of 2-1/2-quart straight-sided bowl. Spoon 1/2 of the whipped topping mixture over cake cubes. Top with strawberries and almonds, reserving several for garnish, if desired. Layer remaining cake cubes and whipped topping mixture over strawberries. Top with reserved strawberries and almonds. REFRIGERATE until ready to serve. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator.

CONGRATS TO JEN M. FOR RECEIVING THE CREATIVE CRAFTER AWARD!!! :) :)

Thanks again for attending!

National Marrow Donation Information

Submitted by Kelly

The following hospitals in our area collect cord blood onsite, ask you doctor or midwife before your 34th week if you would like to donate your baby's cord blood. If you are not delivering at one of these hospitals, but would like to donate, you can easily do so by printing the forms from http://www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating/ and following the fairly simple directions with your doctor. For good information on cord blood donation, visit the National Marrow Donor Program at http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/index.html.

Huron Valley HospitalCommerce Twp., MI
J.P. McCarthy Cord Stem Cell Bank http://www.karmanos.org/cordblood

Oakwood Hospital Medical CenterDearborn, MI
CORD:USE(407) 667-4842http://www.corduse.com

Hutzel HospitalDetroit, MI
J.P. McCarthy Cord Stem Cell Bankhttp://www.karmanos.org/cordblood

St. John Hospital & Medical CenterDetroit, MI
Cryobanks International, Inc.http://www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating

Thankyou to my NMF friends for all of your love and support during the past few months. I love my "Hope" angel I received last night, but more importantly, I love that it came from all of you :) We are all so lucky to have each other as an awesome support system!
Love,
Amy

Little Genius!

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4023

What now???

(Be sure to read Dr. Mercola's comments)

How Cell Phones May Cause Autism

Rates of autism, a disabling neurodevelopmental disorder, have increased nearly 60-fold since the late 1970s, with the most significant increases occurring in the past decade.The cause of autism is unknown, although theories include such potential causes as:

Genetic predisposition

Inability to clear heavy metals

Increased vulnerability to oxidative stress

Environmental exposures including mercury preservatives in vaccines

Trans-generational accumulation of toxic heavy metals

Now a groundbreaking new theory has been suggested by a study published in the Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine: electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from cell phones, cell towers, Wi-Fi devices and other similar wireless technologies as an accelerating factor in autism.

EMR May be the Missing Link. The study, which involved over five years of research on children with autism and other membrane sensitivity disorders, found that EMR negatively affects cell membranes, and allows heavy metal toxins, which are associated with autism, to build up in your body. Meanwhile, the researchers pointed out that autism rates have increased concurrently along with the proliferation of cell phones and wireless use. EMR, the researchers say, could impact autism by facilitating early onset of symptoms or by trapping heavy metals inside of nerve cells, which could accelerate the onset of symptoms of heavy metal toxicity and hinder therapeutic clearance of the toxins. Speaking in reference to the huge rise in autism rates, Dr. George Carlo, the study’s co-author, said, “A rise of this magnitude must have a major environmental cause. Our data offer a reasonable mechanistic explanation for a connection between autism and wireless technology.” They also suggest that EMR from wireless devices works in conjunction with environmental and genetic factors to cause autism. Primary researcher for this article is Tamara Mariea. Her clinic is called Internal Balance™ Inc.(www.internalbalance.com) and is a state-of-the-art Detoxification Clinic located in the Nashville, TN area. Her objective is to provide high quality and current up-to-date information on the hottest topics in the natural health industry including sound advice on how to implement a personal wellness and detoxification program that works.

One of the most successful programs offered at Internal Balance is the unique strategies implemented for autistic children. In working backward through the autistic child’s life, making changes to their environment, diet and implementing State-of-the-Art detoxification strategies, the Internal Balance team has witnessed numerous changes and improvements in the lives and families of these children. In a few cases, they have witnessed miracles that have changed lives forever, including Mariea’s team. Parents consistently report back that during and after the detoxification process and most importantly after making modifications to their home, they see huge changes in their children’s developmental progress and a decrease in the children’s general sensory discomfort.

Although Mariea believes that autism is a complicated condition that must have several factors at play for a child to fall to this diagnosis, she does believe that the three largest factors at play are:
Genetically determined detoxification capacity
Early insult to immune system via contaminated vaccines and
Being born with high levels of toxic burden and into a technologically advanced society riddled with ever increasing levels of radiation

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

I am absolutely convinced that the explosion of cell phone usage around the world is one of the primary contributors to the autism epidemic. The information-carrying radio waves from cell phone base stations and cell phones makes children’s exposure to vaccines and heavy metals much more dangerous than they typically are. Why? Because EMR may actually trap heavy metals inside your cells, allowing them to cause damage and hindering your body from detoxifying them.While I realize that most people will not avoid cell phones because of their convenience, I would urge you to not let your kids use them. I warned of these dangers on my Today Show interview last month, but the media blacklisted it and only showed a short section of what I had to say. So let me say it again here: the density of your child’s skull is far less than an adult’s, and their brain is far more susceptible to these information-carrying radio waves. For this reason, you should not allow your child to use a cell phone, and you should also never hold an infant while you’re talking on one -- when you are on a cell phone the radiation plume can easily reach an infant in your other arm and penetrate their skull. In October, I spent two full days with Dr. George Carlo, who is the co-author of this groundbreaking study and an undisputed world expert in cell phone safety. I was so compelled with the information I heard that my next book in 2009 will detail the reasons why I believe using cell phones is far more dangerous than smoking cigarettes ever was. Largest Study Ever on Cell Phone SafetyDr. Carlo was given a $28-million grant from the cell phone industry in the '90s to prove cell phones were safe. He is an MD, taught as a professor at George Washington Medical School, and has a degree in public health -- so he was up for the challenge. However, Dr. Carlo did not come up with the results the cell phone industry would have wanted. After his research he found that they DO, in fact, cause damage. The cell phone industry offered him a position for $1 million a year to silence him, but he refused, and started a non-profit institute called The Safe Wireless Initiative to inform the world of this danger. Folks, by the end of this year it’s expected that 4 billion cell phones will have been sold. This is a massive explosion in cell phone use, and one that is undoubtedly linked to health problems, including autism. The information-carrying radio waves from cell phones may:
Damage your cell membranes
Decrease your intracellular communication by disrupting microtubular connections that allow biophotons to communicate between cells
Increase deposits of heavy metals into your cells, which increases intracellular production of free radicals and can radically decrease cellular production of energy -- thus making you incredibly fatigued

Cell phone users are also 240 percent more prone to brain tumors, and a study back in 2004 found that your risk of acoustic neuroma (a tumor on your auditory nerve) was nearly four times greater on the side of your head where your phone was most frequently held. What is even more concerning, though, is that there is VERY solid evidence that the number of brain tumors will increase to 500,000 per YEAR in 2010 -- and this will double to 1 million every year by 2015 if the causes are not addressed. Folks, this is the real deal and represents an impending health care crisis.Can Cell Phones Ever be Used Safely? Ideally, I believe you should not use cell phones. In reality, though, I know that’s not a practical option for many of you.If you choose to use a cell phone you should use the speakerphone function whenever possible -- and keep the phone about two feet away from any body part. Do not keep the phone on your belt or in your pocket even when you’re not using it, as the radiation WILL penetrate your body wherever the phone is attached. Instead, stow it away in a purse, backpack, or your car’s glove compartment. For times when a speakerphone isn’t practical, you can use a NON-Blue Tooth headset, such as the Blue Tube headset. While Blue Tooth is certainly safer than no headset at all, it is still broadcasting its own information-carrying radio waves into your brain, just at a lower intensity than a cell phone. And there quite simply is no safe biological threshold for either of them. I feel SO STRONGLY about the dangers that cell phones pose to your health, and your children’s, that I agreed to host an event with Dr. Carlo in Chicago in the near future.

Do your children get the flu shot? Read this interesting article.

(submitted by Amisha)

FDA wants warnings on flu drugs for kids
Tamiflu and Relenza linked to abnormal behavior in some patients

The FDA began reviewing Tamiflu’s safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche’s Tamiflu and Glaxo’s Relenza. Next week, an outside group of pediatric experts is scheduled to review the safety of several such drugs when used in children. FDA began reviewing Tamiflu’s safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions.

Twenty-five patients under age 21 have died while taking the drug, most of them in Japan. Five deaths resulted from children “falling from windows or balconies or running into traffic.”
There have been no child deaths connected with Relenza, but regulators said children taking the drug have shown similar neurological problems.

While FDA said it isn’t clear whether the problems are directly related to the drugs, it recommends adding language about the possible side effects to labeling for physicians who prescribe Tamiflu and Relenza. In documents prepared for the meeting next week and posted on the FDA's Web site, agency staff recommended that Tamiflu's label be strengthened to note: "In some cases, these behaviors resulted in serious injuries, including death, in adult and pediatric patients."

The FDA staff also reviewed Relenza, a drug in the same class as Tamiflu, recommending its label be changed to note "reports of hallucinations, delirium and abnormal behavior" observed in some patients taking the drug. The current Relenza label has no label warning related to psychiatric events. The FDA staff said the evidence is "conflicting" as to whether the events are medication-related, a manifestation of disease or a combination of the two.

Japan probe Tamiflu has been more widely used in Japan than in the United States, and there is some evidence that the Japanese are more vigilant about reporting side effects, the FDA has said. Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, is a pill, while Relenza, generically zanamivir, is inhaled. A Roche spokesman said no causal relationship between Tamiflu and these psychiatric events has been proven. "Roche has extensively investigated the issue and is conducting ongoing clinical and nonclinical studies. Roche takes all adverse events reports very seriously," spokesman Terence Hurley said in a statement.

Besides being a drug side effect, the agency said the behaviors alternately could result from an unusual strain of flu or a rare genetic reaction to the drug. About 48 million people have taken Tamiflu worldwide, including 21 million children, since approval in 1999, he said.

A Glaxo spokeswoman said a review of premarketing and post-approval trial data showed no worrying safety signals on patients taking Relenza. The drug is a not a major revenue-generator for UK-based Glaxo. FDA staff based its recommendations on a review of nearly 600 cases of neuropsychiatric events reported by patients on Tamiflu and 115 cases of such events by patients taking Relenza.

The FDA staff will present the advice to the advisory panel of experts meeting on Tuesday, November 27. The agency typically takes the advice of these panels but is not bound by them. Japan in March warned against prescribing Tamiflu to those ages 10 to 19 as more than 100 people, mostly young, showed signs of abnormal behavior after taking the drug.

Earlier this year, Japan broadened its probe of Tamiflu to look at flu drugs Relenza and amantadine, after reports of abnormal behavior among young patients.
FDA staff reviewed recent side effect reports on amantadine and rimantadine, another flu drug in amantadine's class, but recommended no label changes. Amantadine already has a strong warning about suicide attempts and an increase in seizures seen in patients on the drug, while rimantadine notes seizure-like activity and hallucinations.

Tamiflu was having lackluster sales as a drug to prevent and treat seasonal flu but got a second life when it was the first drug to show real efficacy in treating and preventing bird flu.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Question of the Week! 11-26-07

Please give your best "traveling with little ones" advice?

Question Of The Week! 11-19-07

What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Do you have a picky eater?

(submitted by Kim)

By Melanie Shay, registered dietitian

As long as your child is growing normally, she's most likely okay, even if she doesn't seem to be eating enough. The truth is, it's quite common for children at this age to have trouble sitting still for meals, to eat irregularly, and to be very picky about what they will eat.You may be tempted to try to force your child to eat more, but don't: The more pressure you put on her, the more she'll resist and the less she'll eat. Instead, offer her a range of healthy foods, eat them yourself so you're setting a good example, and then sit back and let her choose what she wants to eat, and how much. Don't worry — she won't starve.

A recent study from the American Dietetic Association showed that nearly all children will eat enough to meet their nutritional needs when they have access to a variety of foods, even those whose mothers described them as extremely picky eaters.The important thing to remember is that normal growth is the best indicator of adequate nutrition, so if your child is maintaining adequate growth in both height and weight (which your doctor can help you determine), then she is getting plenty of calories. Talk to your child's doctor at the next well-child visit (or make an appointment before then if you're really concerned) to confirm that your child is growing at the expected rate.

While your child may be getting enough calories to grow, you may be worried that she's not getting these calories from the right sources. So you may want to record what your child eats for about a week (without making a big deal about it in front of her). Then you can use the Food Guide Pyramid to help you assess her eating. You'll probably find that she's eating better than you thought. If she seems deficient in any one food group, try offering more foods from that group for a while. If that doesn't work, you can always ask your pediatrician to recommend an appropriate multivitamin to help meet your child's nutritional needs.

It is perfectly normal for preschoolers to object to the shape, color, or texture of a food — or to suddenly decide that they hate everything, even foods they loved yesterday. It's also common for them to have what experts call food jags. That is, they insist on eating the same few foods at every meal."It's a fear of new things," says Nancy Hudson, a registered dietitian at the University of California, Berkeley. "We think it's one of those quirks that humans probably developed to protect themselves as mankind evolved. You don't try new things because you don't know if they're safe." This fear of new things usually tapers off by age 4, but for some children it continues into adulthood. At any rate, whether it's his bedtime routine or his peanut butter sandwich cut on the diagonal, your child probably likes things to be consistent and familiar — so he may not be willing to try new foods until you've served them numerous times.

Picky eating can also be a preschooler's way of declaring his independence ("You can't make me eat that") and may have less to do with the actual food than a need to push the limits of your authority and assert some control over his life. Finally, because preschoolers are a wiggly lot, it may seem as though your child can't sit still long enough to eat very much at one sitting. You can try to keep your child interested in his food longer by making mealtime as calm and uneventful as possible, without distractions from toys, television, or pets.


Your child has an innate sense of how much food his body needs to grow and be healthy, and it's up to him to decide what he's going to eat. The best thing you can do is to provide a wide variety of healthy foods in a positive, relaxed environment so mealtimes will be enjoyable for everyone.

Here are some specific tips on how to handle a picky eater:
• Provide a variety of good foods for your preschooler to eat at each meal. Keep in mind that it takes numerous exposures to a new food for a child to see it as familiar enough to try. So be patient. When you do offer a new food, simply place it on the dinner table with everything else, and don't make a big deal about it. Don't put it right on your child's plate, which may seem threatening or cause him to rebel. Eventually, after he's seen you eat the food a few times, he may feel more open to trying it himself.
• Serve child-size portions. For example, two slices of bread provides the daily grain requirements for a 2- or 3-year old, and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (just enough to barely cover two slices of bread) give a young child about half the recommended amount of daily protein.
• Don't give your preschooler too many options at mealtime. If you say "It's dinnertime. What do you want to eat?" your child will probably choose something familiar, and he'll seem like a picky eater, says Hudson. However, if you say "Here's dinner," he'll have to choose from among the foods you're offering. Of course, you won't want to offer an entire meal of unfamiliar foods because your child simply won't eat them. Instead, always offer a meal that includes at least one thing you know your child likes.
• When introducing new foods, don't present them in large quantities. If by some miracle your preschooler is interested in trying a new food, give him just a taste and let him ask for more. That way he'll feel more in control and you won't feel like you're wasting food if he doesn't eat it. When you can, give him a new food to try when you know he's hungry — slices of mango when he has the afternoon munchies, for example.
• Keep in mind that some children's palates are more sensitive than others', and they simply won't like the texture, color, or taste of some foods. That's why a child might claim to dislike a food he has never even tried. Likewise, some children may reject a food because it reminds them of a time when they were sick or because they have some other negative association with it. If your preschooler complains that a particular food will make him sick, stop offering that food for a while. You can try again when he's a bit older.
• Whenever possible, let your preschooler be involved in food decisions and preparations, including shopping and making meals and snacks. (And if he can help you grow some of the family's produce in the yard, so much the better!) This will give him a sense of control over his diet. And he'll be more likely to eat something that he's chosen, or prepared, for himself. (This works best if you let your child choose from a small selection of foods you've already identified rather than just asking him to pick his supper.) Make fun, healthful treats together — like yogurt-and-fruit banana splits or ants on a log (raisins placed on top of peanut butter-filled celery sticks).
• Look for ways to boost the nutritional value of the foods your preschooler enjoys. Put some tuna or ham on his grilled cheese, or meat or tofu in his spaghetti sauce, for example.
• Teach your child (without lecturing) about good nutrition. Hang a food chart in the kitchen and have him color in the requirements as he meets them each day, and mention nonchalantly that his oatmeal will help him run and jump better this morning.
• Don't cater too much to your preschooler's pickiness. While it was fine to indulge your toddler's desire to have his cheese sandwiches cut into star or moon shapes, your preschooler is getting old enough to eat without special gimmicks.
• As your child's world expands and he begins attending preschool, his taste in foods might broaden as well. It's not uncommon for children to be more open to new foods when they're away from home.

Touching Story!

(submitted by kim)
Couple who lost three children expecting triplets!!!

In May, Lori and Chris Coble’s three children were killed in a car accident. But now they can smile again, because Lori is pregnant with triplets. They spoke with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira.


In an instant last May, Chris and Lori Coble lost their three young children in a horrific traffic accident not far from the family’s California home. The couple was devastated by the sudden and profound loss of their two daughters and a son, but knew even through their grief they were meant to be parents and would be again.

If all goes well, the Cobles told TODAY anchor Meredith Vieira on Tuesday, they’ll have two new baby girls and a baby boy next spring. The couple can’t help but think that it’s all connected.

“We both knew we wanted more kids,” Lori Coble told Vieira. “We’re parents right now without kids. The kids are what made us so happy in life. We knew that if we were still living that we wanted to have more kids.” Chris Coble said he can’t help but think, from a spiritual perspective, that the children he lost somehow had a hand in his wife’s pregnancy. He believes firmly they are in a better place, and watching over their mom and dad. “Your mind can’t even think otherwise. If you feel they’re somewhere watching over you, protecting you, and something like this happens, it’s hard to think that somehow they weren’t involved in crafting this,” he said.

The triplets Lori Coble is carrying — two girls and a boy — were conceived through in vitro fertilization. In the procedure, 10 of Lori Coble’s eggs had been fertilized and three became viable embryos. Chris Coble, 36, said there was just a 10 percent chance that three of the 10 eggs would be viable. The doctors wanted to implant just two of the embryos, but the couple had lost two girls and a boy and asked for all three embryos to be transferred to Lori Coble’s womb.

Tragedy on the highwayOn May 4, Lori Coble, 30, was driving home from lunch on Interstate 5 with her mother, Cynthia Maestri, 60, in the front seat of the family’s minivan. Behind them were Kyle, 5, who was playing a video game, Emma, 4, who was watching TV, and Katie, 2, who had fallen asleep. Traffic was moving rapidly in the center and left lanes, but the right lane was stop-and-go with cars backed up on the Mission Viejo exit ramp Lori Coble intended to take. She remembers looking back while the car was stopped to check on her children, and squeezing Katie’s toe to wake her up so she would be able to nap when they got home. What happened next she knows only from what others have told her.

A tractor-trailer loaded with 20 tons of electronics and traveling an estimated 70 mph slammed into the back of the minivan, killing all three children and seriously injuring Lori Coble and her mother. The funeral was a heart-wrenching affair, presided over by Chris Coble’s father, the Rev. Robert Coble, a Presbyterian priest from Pennsylvania, and attended by hundreds from the family’s community. At the service, the parents spoke about the joy their children had brought them, and Chris Coble talked about the welcome they would give him when he came home from work. “It was a stampede to the front door, screaming ‘Daddy!’ I felt bad because I couldn't hug them all at once,” he said at the time. “We don't know how we're going to move on from here.”

“I hope that some day they will be parents again, because they have so much to give,” Robert Coble told a reporter at the funeral. Chris and Lori Coble shared that desire. The couple knew they couldn’t replace their children, but hoped they could still bring more children into the world.

“It was an amazing thing,” Chris Coble said of learning that three viable embryos had survived the procedure. “We kind of took this as a sign. Even though the doctor was more conservative and wanted to put two back, we decided once there were two girls and a boy — that’s pretty ironic, and we put all three in.”

Since the accident, the Cobles have become active in the Virginia-based Truck Safety Coalition, a citizen’s lobby working for stricter regulation of the trucking industry. According to the coalition, some 5,000 lives are taken in accidents with big rigs.

“This is an industry that’s based on payment on miles driven,” Chris Coble told Vieira. “For a lot of truckers, if that truck isn’t rolling, they’re not getting paid, which really sets up an entire industry where it promotes danger and real safety concerns. These truckers are speeding and they’re tired and we’d like to get that changed.”

They’re trying to see laws enacted to further limit the hours truckers can be on the road. The man who hit their minivan, Jorge Miguel Romero, 37, had been cited for speeding in 2002 and 2006. Investigators said he had been inattentive at the time he hit Lori Coble’s van and may have been talking on a cell phone. Romero has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular manslaughter.

The Cobles want the United States to adopt the same laws that are in place in Europe and many other countries that require onboard computers in trucks to track their speed and location through a GPS system. “This has dramatically cut down on truck deaths in other countries,” Chris Coble said. “I want to ask lawmakers and everyone else, ‘How come we can’t have that same policy in this country?’ We’re woefully behind.”

The couple still sees a counselor every week to help them deal with the conflicting emotions they are going through with the loss of three beautiful and vital children and the promise of three new babies next year. “That’s helped us sort through the issues about trying to deal with the grief and at the same time thinking about the happiness to come,” Chris Coble told Vieira. “It’s a two-sided coin and we deal with it every day.”

Question of the week! 11-12-07

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Feel free to share the recipe.

Baby Parenting

About nine months ago, my wife and I were blessed with a wonderful little bundle of joy baby boy! Since our other kiddos are ages 14 and 22 years, we're re–learning a lot about babies. We're also being given a lot of advice about how to proceed, as well as plenty of books on the subject.

Some books say, "Don't hold them too much! They'll get spoiled."Other books say, "Make sure they're fed on a tight time schedule. Make them wait until it's time for a feeding."Some of our friends say, "Just let him cry it out at night until he falls asleep."

Fortunately, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend eleven years of my life learning from the scientific research on child development. From this blessing, I can say without any reservation that the advice mentioned above is dead wrong.In a nutshell, here's what research really says about parenting during the first year of life:

Love them and take good care of them. Comfort them when they cry. Feed them when they are hungry. Hold them as often as you can. Don't worry for a moment about spoiling them by giving them too much attention.In our Early Childhood Package, we teach that the first year of life is all about bonding and attachment. As the second year looms closer, parents find more and more opportunities to set and enforce limits.

The more practical tools we have for doing both, the more successful we will be!

Thanks for reading.

Dr. Charles Fay
Love & Logic

Lack of Sleep May lead to Fatter Kids!

(submitted by Amisha)

CHICAGO - Here's another reason to get the kids to bed early: More sleep may lower their risk of becoming obese. Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent.

The less sleep they got, the more likely the children were to be obese in sixth grade, no matter what the child's weight was in third grade, said Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan, who led the research.

If there was a magic number for the third-graders, it was nine hours, 45 minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that lowered the risk significantly. The study gives parents one more reason to enforce bedtimes, restrict caffeine and yank the TV from the bedroom. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that are the "yin and yang of appetite regulation," said endocrinologist Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new study.

In experiments by Van Cauter and others, sleep-deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.
Another explanation: Tired kids are less likely to exercise and more likely to sit on the couch and eat cookies, Lumeng said.

Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of sleep medicine at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, praised the study and called for more research. He said children's sleep may be disturbed by breathing problems — some caused by overweight, such as sleep apnea, and some caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoids. "I'm not so sure we have enough information yet on cause and effect," said Sheldon, who was not involved in the study.

Researchers used data from an existing federal study and focused on 785 children with complete information on sleep, and height and weight in the third grade and sixth grade. The children lived in 10 U.S. cities. Mothers were asked: "How much sleep does your child get each day (including naps)?" On average, the third-graders got about 9 1/2 hours sleep, but some slept as little as seven hours and others as much as 12 hours.

Of the children who slept 10 to 12 hours a day, about 12 percent were obese by sixth grade. Many more — 22 percent — were obese in sixth grade of those who slept less than nine hours a day. The researchers took into account other risk factors for obesity, such as the children's body mass index in third grade, and still found the link between less sleep in third grade and obesity in sixth grade. They acknowledged that factors they did not account for, such as parents' weight or behavior, may have contributed to the risk.

Jodi Mindell of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Sleep Center noted there are plenty of other reasons for encouraging good sleep habits, such as success in school. "I don't want parents to think, 'If I get her to sleep, she's not going to be overweight,'" Mindell said. "I think this is a small piece in the picture."

Making The Cut!

(submitted by Kim)

Expectant parents have loads of decisions to make, from whether to find out the baby's gender beforehand to planning the birth. But recently some have taken up another debate, over a cut that used to be nearly as routine in the U.S. as that of the umbilical cord: circumcision. When Jessica Davis learned she was having a boy, she and her husband assumed that the baby's foreskin would be removed. But when asked why by her obstetrician, who is originally from South Africa, where circumcision is rare, Davis, 28, a college administrator, did research and decided that the risks trumped the benefits. She left her son Aiden, now 20 months, intact--though she says her spouse remains leery of the decision: "He's kind of like, 'Well, I work just fine.'"

On Davis' side are the small but vocal, and growing, forces against circumcision, so-called intactivists: young parents who don't want to alter their perfect babies, men who feel their circumcisions left them psychically scarred and sexually disadvantaged ("I always felt something was missing, not functioning properly," says David Wilson, whose Stop Infant Circumcision Society marches on Washington annually) and even some medical professionals who consider the procedure genital mutilation. And at least in some parts of the country, opinion is shifting in their favor. According to the National Health and Social Life Survey, the total proportion of U.S.-born males who were circumcised peaked in 1965 at about 85%, dropping to 77% in 1971, the last year of the study. The National Hospital Discharge Survey, which began tallying newborn circumcisions in 1979, shows a downward trend, from 65% that year to 57% in 2005. Much of the decline is attributed to immigration from Latin America and Asia, where the procedure is rare. Additionally, in more than a dozen states, Medicaid no longer covers the surgery routinely, leaving many poor children without the option. But intactivism is also gaining traction among educated, middle-class whites. As University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox observes, "It's these new parents that are unwilling to let kids suffer."

But circumcision partisans say a foreskin causes suffering too. Intact boys are at greater risk for kidney infection as infants, and for penile cancer, foreskin disorders, HIV and other STDs like human papillomavirus later in life, leaving female partners more likely to get cervical cancer. The cost of prevention, proponents say, is the brief trauma of the procedure. Says Edgar Schoen, former pediatrics chief at Kaiser Permanente, who led the 1989 American Association of Pediatrics circumcision task force, which came out neutral on cutting: "A newborn baby is programmed for stress and recovers quickly." Opponents, on the other hand, say foreskin-related afflictions are rare, condoms block STDs, and circumcision has its risks. Michelle Richardson, of Fort Worth, Texas, says her 5-year-old has two genital disorders due to his botched circumcision.

The debate has even extended to the religious practice of Jews. Instead of opting for a bris, the rite in which a boy's foreskin is removed at 8 days old, Theo Margaritov's family welcomed him in April with a brit shalom, a cut-free ceremony. "That's the way God made him," says his mom Deborah, 33, a raw-foods cooking teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Still, religion and health aren't the only concerns parents weigh when making the decision to cut or not to cut; tradition is also a factor. Liz Arnaiz, 30, a Brooklyn architect whose son Lucas was circumcised when he was born last November, says her husband is circumcised, so it made sense for the boy to be like his dad. Besides, she adds, "to imagine your kid in the locker room the odd man out is tough."

Great Holiday Website!

(submitted by Jodi)

Looking for holiday recipes, activities, etc.?

Check out Northpole.com

Question of the week! 11/5/07

As a mom, what do you worry about the most?

Development? Sickness? Nutrition? Your child's happiness? Etc.?

Being a Mom!

(submitted by Andrea)

We are sitting at lunch when my daughter casually mentions that she and her
husband are thinking of "starting a family."

"We're taking a survey," she says, half-joking.

"Do you think I should have a baby?"

"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.

"I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous
vacations...."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide
what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth
classes.

I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but
that becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that
she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without
asking "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash, every house
fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she
will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no
matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the
primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of "Mom!"
will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moment's
hesitation.

I feel I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in
her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might
arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important
business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have
to use every ounce of her discipline to keep from running home, just to
make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that everyday decisions will no longer be
routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather
than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right
there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of
independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a
child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself
constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she
will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about
herself. That the wants and ambitions of her life, now so important, will be
of so much less value to her once she has a child. That she would give up
her life in a moment to save her offspring, but that she will also begin to
hope for more years - not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her
child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become
badges of honor.

My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way
she thinks. I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who
is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child.
I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for
reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout
history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I hope she will understand why I can think rationally about most issues, but
become temporarily insane when I discuss the threat of nuclear war to my
children's future.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child
learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby
who is touching the soft fur of a dog or a cat for the first time. I want
her to taste the joy that is so real, it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my
eyes. "You'll never regret it," I finally say. Then I reach across the
table, squeeze my daughter's hand and offer a silent prayer for her, and for
me, and for all of the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this
most wonderful of callings.

This blessed gift from God that of being a Mother.

November Holiday Craft

Example Homemade Gift Bags & Tags

The $14.00 cost of this craft includes a set of ten gift bags (various colors and sizes), gift tags, ribbon, glue, decals & stickers.

Personalized stickers are not included. A sheet of personalized holiday stickers can be purchased at snapfish.com for $4.99.

Autisim Check-ups

(submitted by Amisha)

Pediatricians urge autism screening
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO - The country's leading pediatricians group is making its strongest push yet to have all children screened for autism twice by age 2, warning of symptoms such as babies who don't babble at 9 months and 1-year-olds who don't point to toys.

The advice is meant to help both parents and doctors spot autism sooner. There is no cure for the disorder, but experts say that early therapy can lessen its severity. Symptoms to watch for and the call for early screening come in two new reports. They are being released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday at its annual meeting in San Francisco and will appear in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics and on the group's Web site — http://www.aap.org/.

The reports list numerous warning signs, such as a 4-month-old not smiling at the sound of Mom or Dad's voice, or the loss of language or social skills at any age.
Experts say one in 150 U.S. children have the troubling developmental disorder.
"Parents come into your office now saying 'I'm worried about autism.' Ten years ago, they didn't know what it was," said Dr. Chris Johnson of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She co-authored the reports.

The academy's renewed effort reflects growing awareness since its first autism guidelines in 2001. A 2006 policy statement urged autism screening for all children at their regular doctor visits at age 18 months and 24 months. The authors caution that not all children who display a few of these symptoms are autistic and they said parents shouldn't overreact to quirky behavior.

Just because a child likes to line up toy cars or has temper tantrums "doesn't mean you need to have concern, if they're also interacting socially and also pretending with toys and communicating well," said co-author Dr. Scott Myers, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician in Danville, Pa.

"With awareness comes concern when there doesn't always need to be," he said. "These resources will help educate the reader as to which things you really need to be concerned about." Another educational tool, a Web site that debuted in mid-October, offers dozens of video clips of autistic kids contrasted with unaffected children's behavior. That Web site — http://www.autismspeaks.org/ — is sponsored by two nonprofit advocacy groups: Autism Speaks and First Signs. They hope the site will promote early diagnosis and treatment to help children with autism lead more normal lives.

The two new reports say children with suspected autism should start treatment even before a formal diagnosis. They also warn parents about the special diets and alternative treatments endorsed by celebrities, saying there's no proof those work. Recommended treatment should include at least 25 hours a week of intensive behavior-based therapy, including educational activities and speech therapy, according to the reports. They list several specific approaches that have been shown to help. For very young children, therapy typically involves fun activities, such as bouncing balls back and forth or sharing toys to develop social skills; there is repeated praise for eye contact and other behavior autistic children often avoid.

Mary Grace Mauney, an 18-year-old high school senior from Lilburn, Ga., has a mild form of autism that wasn't diagnosed until she was 9. As a young girl, she didn't smile, spoke in a very formal manner and began to repeat the last word or syllable of her sentences. She was prone to intense tantrums, but only outside school. There, she excelled and was in gifted classes.
"I took her to a therapist and they said she was just very sensitive and very intense and very creative," said her mother, Maureen, 54.

Pediatricians should send such children for "early intervention as soon as you even think there's a problem," Johnson said. Dr. Ruby Roy, a pediatrician with Loyola University Medical Center, who treats at least 20 autistic children, applauded the reports. "This is a disorder that is often missed, especially when it's mild, and the mild kids are the ones ... who can be helped the most," Roy said.

Dr. Dirk Steinert, who treats children and adults at Columbia St. Mary's clinic in suburban Milwaukee, said the push for early autism screening is important — but that it's tough to squeeze it into a child's regular wellness checkup.

Some pediatricians have tried scheduling a visit just to check for developmental problems, when children are 2 1/2. The problem is that insurance doesn't always cover these extra visits, Steinert said.

Prepare to be buzzed- even if you ordered decaf.

(submitted by Amisha)

Dave Yoder for The New York Times

You may be getting an unwanted jolt from that morning decaf. Coffee sleuths from Consumer Reports recently tested cups of decaf ordered at Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, 7-Eleven, McDonald's and Burger King. They visited six locations of each chain, evaluating 36 cups of decaf in all.

A regular cup of coffee has from 85 to 100 milligrams of caffeine. Most of the 10- to 12-ounce decafs tested had less than five milligrams, the magazine reports in its November issue. But one decaf from Dunkin' Donuts contained 32 milligrams of caffeine — about the same amount in 12 ounces of Coca-Cola Classic. A cup of Seattle's Best was found to contain 29 milligrams of caffeine, while a tall Starbucks decaf packed 21 milligrams. Results varied at each chain, but the magazine found that the decaf at McDonald's consistently had the lowest levels of caffeine.
It's long been known that the decaffeinating process doesn't eliminate 100 percent of the caffeine in coffee, but there are no standards for acceptable levels in brewed decaf. Last year, University of Florida researchers also tested several 16-ounce servings of decaf, finding the caffeine content ranged from nine to 14 milligrams, according to a study published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.

By testing nearly four times more cups of coffee, Consumer Reports showed there is wide variability in caffeine levels in both decaffeinated and caffeinated coffees. Notably, even the caffeinated coffees purchased at the chains varied widely in terms of caffeine content, ranging from just 58 milligrams all the way up to 281 milligrams.

The findings are important for people with certain health issues. Caffeine can increase heart rate, interfere with sleep, cause heartburn and increase anxiety, and heavy consumption isn't advised for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and for those who take certain medications. The findings show that one or two cups of decaf will contain some caffeine, but probably not enough to cause a health concern. Still, people who drink several cups of decaf coffee a day may be getting far more caffeine than they bargained for.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK, 10-29-07

Are you a working mommy or do you stay at home with your kids? Be specific! Are you full time or part time? Does your husband work full time too? Are you on the same shifts? What do you do for childcare? What is your long term plan?

What do you find to be the advantages/disadvantages of your situation?

Member of the Month- November

Member of the Month: Jodi

Age: 32

Spouse: Dave

Kids: Kara, 1

Pet: Jack the Cat

Woman Plus: I am a teacher as well as a mom. Trying to do both of these well leaves little time for other hobbies right now.

Your favorite song to sing loud in the car?
“This is the Day”

Guilty indulgence?
Any type of ice cream and French fries with ranch dressing! (not together!)

Your favorite children’s book?
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

A way you stay focused?
I make lists… list after list!

Favorite Gift from one of your kids or a memorable gift from a friend?
My friend just made my daughter a pumpkin at her ceramics class, and in the mouth it says “Kara”. It is really cute and my daughter can have it as a keepsake.

A discovery you’ve made recently?
I can’t do everything and do it well all of time…something ends up having to give!

Three things you love:
Vacationing~ being on the beach in the warm sun with my family!
Christmas time~ decorating, buying gifts, food, the spirit that comes with the season, Santa, the radio station playing Christmas songs all the time, Wigilia (Polish tradition I married into)… indulging!
Any minute that I am not at work and get to be with my daughter Kara!

Interesting Article

(submitted by Kim)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland were intrigued when a friend at the Oakland Tribune asked them and their two young children to take part in a cutting-edge study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies. Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland were surprised to learn the extent to which industrial chemicals were present in their kids' bodies.

"In the beginning, I wasn't worried at all; I was fascinated," Hammond, 37, recalled.
But that fascination soon changed to fear, as tests revealed that their children -- Rowan, then 18 months, and Mikaela, then 5 -- had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents.

"[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with a chemical I've never heard of," Holland, 37, said. "He had two to three times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."

The technology to test for these flame retardants -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) -- and other industrial chemicals is less than 10 years old. Environmentalists call it "body burden" testing, an allusion to the chemical "burden," or legacy of toxins, running through our bloodstream. Scientists refer to this testing as "biomonitoring."

Most Americans haven't heard of body burden testing, but it's a hot topic among environmentalists and public health experts who warn that the industrial chemicals we come into contact with every day are accumulating in our bodies and endangering our health in ways we have yet to understand. See which household products contain industrial chemicals »

"We are the humans in a dangerous and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable," said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Watch Anderson Cooper get his blood drawn for testing »

Dr. Trasande says that industrial toxins could be leading to more childhood disease and disorders. "We are in an epidemic of environmentally mediated disease among American children today," he said. "Rates of asthma, childhood cancers, birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased, and it can't be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed? All the chemicals we're being exposed to."
Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, a public health advocacy group, disagrees.

"My concern about this trend about measuring chemicals in the blood is it's leading people to believe that the mere ability to detect chemicals is the same as proving a hazard, that if you have this chemical, you are at risk of a disease, and that is false," she said. Whelan contends that trace levels of industrial chemicals in our bodies do not necessarily pose health risks.
In 2004, the Hollands became the first intact nuclear family in the United States to undergo body burden testing. Rowan, at just 1½ years old, became the youngest child in the U.S. to be tested for chemical exposure with this method.

Rowan's extraordinarily high levels of PBDEs frightened his parents and left them with a looming question: If PBDEs are causing neurological damage to lab rats, could they be doing the same thing to Rowan? The answer is that no one knows for sure. In the three years since he was tested, no developmental problems have been found in Rowan's neurological system.
Dr. Trasande said children up to six years old are most at risk because their vital organs and immune system are still developing and because they depend more heavily on their environments than adults do.

"Pound for pound, they eat more food, they drink more water, they breathe in more air," he said. "And so [children] carry a higher body burden than we do." Studies on the health effects of PBDEs are only just beginning, but many countries have heeded the warning signs they see in animal studies. Sweden banned PBDEs in 1998. The European Union banned most PBDEs in 2004. In the United States, the sole manufacturer of two kinds of PBDEs voluntarily stopped making them in 2004. A third kind, Deca, is still used in the U.S. in electrical equipment, construction material, mattresses and textiles.

Another class of chemicals that showed up in high levels in the Holland children is known as phthalates. These are plasticizers, the softening agents found in many plastic bottles, kitchenware, toys, medical devices, personal care products and cosmetics. In lab animals, phthalates have been associated with reproductive defects, obesity and early puberty. But like PBDEs, little is known about what they do to humans and specifically children.
Russ Hauser, an associate professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, has done some of the few human studies on low-level phthalate exposure. His preliminary research shows that phthalates may contribute to infertility in men. A study led by Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester in New York shows that prenatal exposure to phthalates in males may be associated with impaired testicular function and with a defect that shortens the space between the genitals and anus.

The Environmental Protection Agency does not require chemical manufacturers to conduct human toxicity studies before approving their chemicals for use in the market. A manufacturer simply has to submit paperwork on a chemical, all the data that exists on that chemical to date, and wait 90 days for approval.

Jennifer Wood, an EPA spokeswoman, insists the agency has the tools to ensure safe oversight.
"If during the new-chemical review process, EPA determines that it may have concerns regarding risk or exposure, the EPA has the authority to require additional testing," she said. EPA records show that of the 1,500 new chemicals submitted each year, the agency asks for additional testing roughly 10 percent of the time. The EPA has set up a voluntary testing program with the major chemical manufacturers to retroactively test some of the 3,000 most widely used chemicals.

Dr. Trasande believes that is too little, too late. "The problem with these tests is that they are really baseline tests that don't measure for the kind of subtle health problems that we're seeing," Dr. Trasande said.

In the three years since her family went through body burden testing, Michelle Hammond has become an activist on the issue. She's testified twice in the California legislature to support a statewide body burden testing program, a bill that passed last year. Michelle also speaks to various public health groups about her experience, taking Mikaela, now 8, and Rowan, now 5, with her. So far, her children show no health problems associated with the industrial chemicals in their bodies.

"I'm angry at my government for failing to regulate chemicals that are in mass production and in consumer products." Hammond says. "I don't think it should have to be up to me to worry about what's in my couch."