According to the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, parents can do several things to help a child with pain from a procedure:

Stay with your child during the pain. This is important for children as young as babies and as old as teenagers. Having a loved one near is very comforting to children.

Hold or touch your child. If you can hold your child in your arms during the procedure or without causing pain, this can greatly lessen your child’s pain.

• Kangaroo care: This is when a mother or father holds the baby against her or his bare chest, like a kangaroo holds their young, with the baby wearing only a diaper.  It has been used all over the world, and research suggests that it can increase babies’ breastfeeding, bonding with parents, and growth and development. A recent study found that babies who had kangaroo care during a painful procedure had less pain, even compared with babies who were given other pain management techniques.

• Holding hands: If you are not able to hold your child during a procedure, even a gentle touch or holding a hand can be helpful to your child.

Be honest. It is not a good idea to lie to your child and say that a painful procedure will not cause pain; this may hurt the trust your child has in you.

Distract your child during the procedure. There are many ways to help your child focus on things he or she enjoys, even during a procedure. If a child has other things to think about, the procedure may not affect him or her as much. Some ways to distract your child include playing music or singing with your child, showing a favorite video, reading a book, or just telling your child a favorite story.

Include time for play. If a visit to the doctor’s office or hospital included a painful procedure, make some time for fun afterward. Consider a trip to a favorite toy store, the zoo, or the library or spending time at a friend’s house.

Ask for help from experts. Many hospitals include staff with special training in ways to help children cope with being in the hospital, including ways to help children cope with procedures. Pediatric psychologists can also be helpful in working with children who are struggling with chronic illnesses or numerous painful procedures. Expressive therapists can help children find ways to express their anger or frustration from having procedures in a beneficial way.

For more on child medical issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

Only one of the 29 infants who received human milk developed the dangerous intestinal condition necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and recovered without surgery, compared with five out of the 24 babies on formula, four of whom required surgery. The findings, say the researchers at Johns Hopkins Chidren’s Center, justify a move toward a “human milk only” diet in extremely premature babies — those born weighing less than 1,500 grams, or 3.3 pounds.

“The stark differences in the risk of NEC, its complications and the need for surgery between babies who receive human donor milk and those who get formula signal the need for a change in feeding practices across neonatal intensive care units,” said lead investigator Dr. Elizabeth Cristofalo, a neonatologist at Hopkins Children’s, in a press release.

Moreover, babies who got human milk tolerated feeding better, allowing them to be taken off supplemental IV nutrition much sooner — after 27 days on average — than the group who received cow’s milk formula.

Those babies spent an average of 36 days on IV nutrition, largely because their intestinal tracts were not adapting to food as well, the researchers say. IV nutrition, used temporarily in all premature babies to supplement feeding, carries risks, the most serious of which is liver damage.

“Although we didn’t look specifically at liver function, we know from experience and from previous research that prolonged IV nutrition can harm a premature baby’s liver,” Cristofalo said. “Using human milk cuts that risk by allowing us to wean babies off IV nutrition sooner.”

Necrotizing enterocolitis is marked by tissue damage to the baby’s bowel. Because up to 40 percent of babies who develop NEC die, the condition is considered an emergency. Some cases of NEC can be treated with antibiotics and by temporarily withholding of food, but some babies require surgery to remove the dead portions of the intestines. The remaining intestine, however, can develop scarring that leads to poor absorption of nutrients, growth problems and the need for more surgery down the road.

The health advantages of mother’s milk have been well established, but some concerns about donor milk have lingered, including how it compares to mother’s milk and whether it is, indeed, superior to cow milk formula. The new findings should resolve any residual doubts about the risks and clarify the benefits of human donor milk, the investigators said.

The multi-center study is the first trial of its kind to compare the risk for NEC and NEC surgery between premature infants fed human donor milk and those fed preterm baby formula. An earlier study by the same team showed that babies who get their own mother’s milk fortified with the standard cow milk protein are more prone to NEC than babies given a combination of their mothers’ milk fortified with human donor milk.

Other hospitals participating in the study included Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, University of Texas, University of Florida-Gainesville, Innsbruck Medical University in Austria, Baylor College of Medicine and Children’s Hospital and Research Center, Oakland, Ca.

For more on child medical issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

The most common reason mothers fed supplements and teas to their infants were to help with fussiness, digestion, colic and relaxation.

Although these parents fed their infants the products as a remedy, the products have not been evaluated by FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

“Our study is the first to examine the prevalence of dietary botanical supplement and tea use among a sample of U.S. infants,” wrote the study’s authors. “The wide variety of dietary botanical supplements and teas given to infants increases the likelihood that some are unsafe.”

Results of the study are published online May 2 in Pediatrics. The report is scheduled to appear in the June print version of the journal.

Dietary botanical supplements and herbal teas don’t receive the same scrutiny that pharmaceutical products do, according to background information in the study. Use of such products can cause adverse reactions with other medications, and these products may be inherently unsafe themselves.

The study drew on surveys of 2,653 healthy mothers with term or near-term infants between 2005 and 2007.

The study found mothers who fed their infants dietary botanical supplements and teas were more likely to have used such products themselves, and were more likely to breastfeed.

Hispanic mothers were more likely to give infants these products than white mothers. Many of the supplements and teas were marketed and sold specifically for infants.

Some supplements may contain heavy metals or other contaminants, and infants are more susceptible to such toxins, according to the study. In addition, some dietary supplements have caused seizures and even death in previously healthy infants. One dietary supplement was recalled in 2007 because of microbiological contamination.

The most commonly used products were gripe water, chamomile, teething tablets and unspecified tea, according to the study. The most common reasons for giving these products were fussiness, digestion problems, colic and relaxation.

When asked whom they talked to for information about such products, only 27 percent said they talked to a health-care professional. Almost 28 percent  got their information from the media, and 30 percent talked to friends and family about botanical supplements and teas for their babies.

During the first four to six months of life, child health experts recommend that babies only be fed human breast milk or infant formula, according to the study.

For more on child health issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

Since the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) was passed in 1976, tens of thousands of new chemicals have been developed for widespread use with little oversight or testing and the law itself has never been really updated, the pediatricians claim in a new position paper for the AAP.

“It is widely recognized to have been ineffective in protecting children, pregnant women, and the general population from hazardous chemicals in the marketplace. It does not take into account the special vulnerabilities of children in attempting to protect the population from chemical hazards,” write the authors.

It is because of the inadequacies of the TSCA that parents and pediatricians have been subjected to multiple high-profile media blitzes about specific chemicals, such as phthalates in toys and bisphenol A in infant bottles, that create anxiety without solving the problems of risky chemical exposures

Under the TSCA, companies must disclose any known hazards of chemicals used to make consumer products, but unlike drug companies, they are not required to perform pre-market testing, or even post-market followup. Pediatricians say the system works as a disincentive for companies to learn more about the chemicals because any problems found would need to be remedied at a company’s expense.

Among the changes called for by the AAP:

• Manufacturers should be responsible for developing information about chemicals before marketing.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should have the authority to demand additional safety data about a chemical and to limit or stop its marketing when a high degree of suspicion about safety exists.
• The federal government should provide funding to evaluate the effects of chemicals on children’s health. Research should include effects on reproduction and development.

The EPA has implemented several voluntary programs in attempts to compensate for inadequacies of the TSCA. These programs include the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, the Voluntary Children’s Chemical Evaluation Program, and the Chemical Assessment and Management Program.

Because these programs are voluntary, the EPA cannot require companies to produce information about the health and safety risks of these chemicals. Each of these programs has produced few data over long periods of time, and none has led to any significant regulatory changes.

Under the EPA Inventory Update Reporting program, the chemical-manufacturing industry estimated that approximately 27 trillion pounds of chemicals were produced in or imported into the United States per year in the early part of this decade, which is the equivalent of approximately 74 billion pounds a day (nearly 250 pounds per person) and does not include fuels, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, or food products. Yet, in the past 35 years, the TSCA has been used to regulate only five chemicals.

“The current policy really is virtually useless,” said Dr. Jerome Paulson, the paper’s author and medical director of the Child Health Advocacy Institute at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., in a press release. “In the last couple of years we’ve had a ‘toxicant of the month’ situation. Why aren’t these chemicals tested before they’re in the market so we . . . can know if they’re unlikely to do harm to the environment or to human beings?”

For more on medical safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach medical malpractice attorney.

A recent Archives of Surgery report finds that a group of 6,000 Colorado doctors reported 27,230 unfavorable events over six years 2002-2008. Of those, 25 were the wrong patient getting the wrong surgery and 107 patients were operated on in the wrong place.

Of the 25 patients who received the wrong surgery, five suffered serious medical malpractice injury. Of the 107 patients whose surgery was on the wrong side of their body, 38 suffered serious medical malpractice injury.

Shoulder dystocia describes a birth in which the baby’s shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone, thus preventing the baby’s delivery. If the shoulder is not freed in a timely manner or is freed in a negligently manner, serious injury and death will occur. In fact, 20 percent of births involving shoulder dystocia result in the baby suffering serious injury. Examples include birth asphyxia, fractures of the humerus or collarbone, cuts, bruises or damage to the brachial plexus nerves, which can lead to paralysis of the arm and hand.

However, if a baby is determined to be at high risk for shoulder dystocia, preemptive c-sections can be performed to avoid the dangers associated with delivering a baby with shoulder dystocia. CALM is the tool of choice to predict this dangerous condition and give expecting parents some peace of mind about at least one aspect of birth. In making its prediction, the program weighs such factors as maternal history including previous shoulder dystocia and gestational diabetes, gestational age, estimated fetal weight, maternal weight and maternal height.

Though not perfect, CALM is the best tool we have to predict shoulder dystocia and can provide a measure of ease to expecting parents.

Researchers report that tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity and mental health are the four greatest problems facing our nation’s youngest. If we can check these problems in children younger than five, they will lead significantly healthier lives and burden the nation’s health care system much less. Preschool-age children suffering from problems in these four categories are at a higher risk for health problems as they mature and age.

About one-third to one-half of American children are adversely affected by one of these four health problems. However, tobacco exposure and unintentional injuries were found to be the largest threat to child health while obesity has just been officially labeled as a major health problems for American preschool children.

About 25 percent of American children are victims of tobacco exposure and 500,000 babies are born every year in America whose mothers smoked while pregnant. Reducing tobacco exposure in children younger than five would save the U.S. $500 million.

The largest child health problem in financial terms is unintentional injuries. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death, disability and medical bills for Americans under the age of 19. Unintentional injuries suffered in the first four years of life cause $4.7 billion in lifetime medical expense and $14 billion in lost productivity. For more information on protecting your child from unintentional injuries read this Florida Child Injury Lawyer blog on water safety, this Florida Child Injury Lawyer blog on car seat safety, this Florida Child Injury Lawyer blog on furniture safety, this Florida Child Injury Lawyer blog on childproofing your home, and this Florida Child Injury Lawyer blog on age appropriate child safety tips.

The robots reduce physical impairment by stimulating neurological development. By guiding a user’s limb when they initiate movement, the robots “teach” the children to move differently. That new movement done repeatedly then stimulates neurological development as the child’s brain and nerves learn to move differently.

The technology has been targeted for use with children because their neurological connections are much more malleable than adults’. Thus they will experience much more neurological development in response to the robot treatment than adults.

The robots work with shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand movements as well as ankle movement. The next step MIT wants to take is to allow the robots to assist users with improving their grip

The technology was originally developed to treat stroke patients and was adapted for use with cerebral palsy sufferers. One in 278 children have cerebral palsy.

Many people who write about birthing techniques, birth injuries or anything related with childbirth are very opinionated and biased. However, this blog author takes a very even handed approach and evaluates both sides of the argument.

Please visit this childbirth nurse blog. It’s well-written and informative. The author is a nurse who provides an insider’s account of childbirth that is very educational and fair.