The new mandatory crib standards, approved unanimously on Dec. 15, 2010, are the most stringent crib safety standards in the world. As of  June 28, 2011, all importers, distributors, manufacturers, and retailers must offer only cribs that meet the CPSC’s new and improved full-size and non-full-size crib standards.

Federal mandatory crib standards had not been updated in nearly 30 years and the new rule will usher in a safer generation of cribs, which will mean a safer sleep for babies across the country. These mandatory standards will:

• Stop the manufacture and sale of dangerous, traditional drop-side cribs
• Make mattress supports stronger
• Improve slat strength
• Make crib hardware more durable
• Make safety testing more rigorous

“A safe crib is the safest place for a baby to sleep. It is for this reason that I am so pleased that parents, grandparents and caregivers now can shop with confidence and purchase cribs that meet the most stringent crib standards in the world,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum in a news releasea. “From the start, our goal has been to prevent deaths and injuries to babies in cribs, and now the day has come where only stronger and safer cribs are available for consumers to purchase.”

CPSC has recalled more than 11 million dangerous cribs since 2007. Drop-side cribs with detaching side rails were associated with at least 32 infant suffocation and strangulation deaths since 2000. Additional deaths have occurred due to faulty or defective crib hardware. The new standards aim to prevent these tragedies and keep children safer in their cribs.

Starting on December 28, 2012, child care facilities, including family child care homes and infant Head Start centers, as well as places of public accommodation, such as hotels and motels, and rental companies must use only cribs that comply with the new crib standards.

To learn more about crib safety, visit CPSC’s crib information center at: www.cpsc.gov/cribs

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

Research has linked over-the-counter cough and cold products to poisoning or death in hundreds of children, ages 2 and younger. And studies have  shown that these medicines do little to control symptoms. As a result, in 2008, the  FDA formally recommended that OTC cough and cold products not be given to children under age 2.

A new poll released  last week by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health shows that 61-percent of parents of children, ages 2 and younger, gave their children OTC cough and cold medicine within the last 12 months. The poll also shows that more than half of parents report that their child’s doctor says these OTC medications are safe for children under 2; half of their physicians said they are effective.

“FDA warnings about OTC cough and cold medicines prompted a voluntary recall of products marketed for children younger than 2 years,” says Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the poll and associate professor in the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the U-M Medical School. “We wanted to see how well parents and physicians were adopting those recommendations. Unfortunately, this latest poll indicates that the FDA warnings have gone unheeded by the majority of parents, and surprisingly, many physicians.”

In January 2011, the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health asked randomly selected parents across the U.S. with children, ages 6-months to 2-years, about using OTC cough and cold medicines.

Parents were asked: “When was the last time you gave your … child an over-the-counter medicine for cold, cough and/or flu symptoms?”

The poll also found:

• Use of such medicines differs by race/ethnicity with higher use reported among black (80 percent) and Hispanic (69 percent) than among white parents (57 percent).

•Use also differs by income — highest (80 percent) in families with annual income of less than $30,000 and lowest (41percent) in families with income of $100,000 or more.

•Use is not different if the parent had older children at home.

•When deciding whether to use an OTC medicine, two-thirds of parents report wanting their child to be able to sleep better or to be more comfortable during the day as “very important” reasons for using the
medications.

•56 percent of parents say having their child’s health care provider recommend the medicine was very important.

“There are challenges to informing parents about this topic,” says Davis, in a press release. “The FDA warning is specific to young children, age 2 and under — but parents of those kids may not have heard the warnings issued more than two years ago. Each year a ‘new generation’ of parents must be educated about a wide variety of health care issues for their children.

“Physicians are a valuable source of information for parents about this issue, but it appears that physicians are not heeding FDA warnings about OTC cough and cold medicines either,” Davis said “Kids will be safer when parents and doctors are all on the same page in limiting these medicines to older children.”

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

Teachers and day care providers have been known to ask parents to pick up their children who have a runny nose or are coughing. But do those children really need to go home?

Certainly children who have a fever or are vomiting or are just plain miserable should be home or seeking medical attention. However, a cough or runny nose does not always indicate a contagious disease. Who really is infectious? Is there anything we can do about it?

Doctors overwhelmingly show more concern for children missing school unnecessarily than for potentially infecting a classmate. The reason is that we are not as infectious as often as we think and effective measures exist to prevent infection.

For example, some children can cough for weeks after they’ve ceased being infectious not because they still have a virus, but because their damaged lung lining is still recovering.

In addition, simple measures can reduce the likelihood of contracting a cold or flu. Simple hand washing and avoiding touching contaminated surfaces are very powerful measures to prevent illness.

It is far more important to avoid touching contaminated surfaces than it is to avoid being in a room with a sneezing person or a person with a runny nose.

One study shows illustrates this nicely: groups were divided into “sitters,” “touchers” and “cuddlers.” The sitters simply sat in the room with a sick baby. The touchers entered the room when the baby was not there and simply touched the crib. The cuddlers of course cuddled the sick baby.  The cuddlers and touchers got sick, not the sitters. It is more dangerous to touch something a sick person touched than to sit in a room with them. Washing your hands and avoiding contaminated surfaces is more important than staying home from school.

Do not forget your annual flu shot though, children from 6 months to 18 years old should get them.

However, that importance seems to be lost on dentists, orthodontists and other specialists like maxillofacial surgeons. Misinformation about the safety and effectiveness of new cone-beam CT scanners is partly to blame, but dentists also continue to use outdated x-ray film requiring high amounts of radiation.

New cone-beam CT scanners emit substantially more radiation than standard CT scans so they can provide crisp 3 dimensional images. However, 3D images are not always better than standard 2D images according to experts. They say the increased clarity does not justify using the cone-beam on every one all the time like many orthodontists do.

The increased use of cone-beam scanners has been fueled by misinformation coming from several sources including scanner manufacturers themselves as well as dentists paid by manufacturers to give seminars, speeches and conferences.

In fact in an ethically compromised move last month, the Journal of the American Dental Association allowed one of the leading cone-beam manufacturers to underwrite an issue devoted entirely to cone-beam technology which included a favorable article equating a cone-beam CT with an airport scan. The truth is that a cone beam can produce hundreds of times more radiation.

Cone-beam technology can be useful in dealing with complex cases, but should be limited to such cases especially with respect to vulnerable populations.

Unfortunately, market forces are helping push cone-beam scanners. For example, a popular brand of braces requires the 3D images that cone-beam scanners provide. Orthodontists often opt for that method of obtaining 3D images over the safer digital camera method because the CT scanner is faster.

In addition, dentists can profit by charging more for 3D scans. “More profit per unit chair time,” promises a cone-beam manufacturer.

To be fair, the risk posed by a single cone-beam CT scan is small even in vulnerable populations. The real trouble begins when high radiation devices are used too often for unnecessary reasons.

Unfortunately, that is the path we are set on.

Paul Scott exposes the child marketing industry’s unethical practices and harmful effects in his outstanding article in Children’s Health.

He warns parents that child marketing is everywhere, not just in the 30 second TV ads that we typically think of as marketing. The child marketing industry seeks to influence your children every chance it gets. The results are a quiet disaster. From the internet to cell phones, corporate brands are using every tool in the book to move your child “from brand awareness to investigation, from investigation to selection, to repeat purchase, to loyalty and ultimately to advocacy.”

If you’ve ever heard your child ask you for a brand, he or she has become that brand’s advocate and is now working for that company as part of its sales force. Seizing children’s brains is like shooting fish in a barrel it turns out.

Research has shown that children younger than 7 or 8 are unable to tell whether something or someone is trying to persuade them to do something. That, coupled with with proven damage that marketing to children causes, is why an organization no less prestigious than the American Psychological Association considers advertising to children under 7 to be unethical. In fact, it is illegal in Norway and Sweden and many other countries severely restrict it like we restrict cigarette and alcohol advertising.

Scott’s article lists the many harmful effects marketing has on children from higher body mass index to lack of creativity, and points out that the increasing sexualization of marketing to girls is particularly harmful. The American Psychological Association found “ample evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative effects on cognitive function, physical and mental health and healthy sexual development.”

These findings would not be so scary if our country’s children ages 8-18 did not spend 44.5 hours a week exposed to media and marketing. What can you do to fight this flood? Scott has some answers in his Princess Diatribes.

He also recommends toys that stimulate a child’s imagination and intellect. Hint: no branded toy can. Try PlanToys, Magna-Tiles, Gustafer Yellowgold, Back to Basics Toys, Thames & Kosmos, and TRUCE Toy Action Guide.

One such death was that of 13-month-old Aiden Truett who stopped eating and began vomiting. Doctors attributed the symptoms to a viral upper respiratory infection, but were forced to re-evaluate after treatment only led to worsening symptoms.

X-rays revealed the baby had swallowed a button battery, which was quickly removed surgically. Two days later, however, the baby started coughing blood and soon died.

Before doctors could remove the small battery, it had already burned a hole in the baby’s esophagus and damaged his heart. In the past, such batteries were not strong enough to cause such massive damage, but today’s batteries are supercharged for their small sizes and have caused a sevenfold increase in serious injuries and death since 1985.

Deaths are still very rare, fewer than 10 since 2004, but 3,500 button battery ingestions occur annually and today’s stronger batteries are causing more serious injuries. Every organ that encounters a button battery is a risk.

Vocal chords have been damaged, leaving children suffering from a lifelong whisper. Digestive tract injuries have caused children to undergo multiple surgeries and require feeding tubes. Children are not the only population at risk for these injuries. Our elderly have mistaken the buttons for candy and medication.

The worst offenders are batteries that begin with the number 20. They measure 20 millimeters and are the strongest of today’s tiny power plants. Batteries numbered 2032, 2025, and 2016 cause more than 90 percent of serious injury.

In 60 percent of child injuries, the child has removed the batter from an electronic device, not found it loose. Store your battery powered devices in a safe place.

Read the full article here.

Staying off busy roads is not enough. More than half the 135 children who die in bike-related car accidents are killed on minor roads or in residential areas. They don’t have to – bike helmets reduce the risk of severe brain injury by 88 percent.

Make sure you set a good example for your child. You are a role model whether you like it or not. Your approach cannot be “do as I say, not as I do.” Children are always watching you for what is acceptable behavior.

Use hand signals in traffic and always ride responsibly. Ride on the right side of the road with traffic. Don’t let your child be one of the 75 to 85 percent of children who ride bikes without helmets. Show them that using a helmet is the only way to bicycle.

Even though you may be riding responsibly, sometimes injuries occur due to the fault of others. Helmets significantly reduce your risk of needing a Daytona Beach personal injury lawyer.

Today’s researchers are now finding that many things that we traditionally thought of as innate human traits such as happiness and talent are actually more a result of nurture instead of nature. That means that we have control over how happy or talented we are. It’s a mistaken belief to think that some people are born more talented or happy than others. Studies show that talented and happy are the way they are because of their actions and behaviors, not any innate trait.

I recently read a fascinating review by Nancy Shute of USNews.com of the latest book to show us that there are many steps we can take to make ourselves happier parents. The book, Raising Happiness, was written by Christine Carter, a sociologist who studies happiness and also a mother.

Carter’s advice to parents is founded on solid science and provides often simple solutions such as why praise is a much more powerful tool to promote good behavior than punishment or nagging.

The book review mentions two simple steps to more familial happiness. You determine when you are happiest with your kids and what part of your normal day with your family routinely causes suffering. Step two is to structure your day so that you routinely get those happiest moments every day and so that you eliminate those routine pain points.

The review gives the example of bed-time reading being the favorite time of day for the author, but she couldn’t always be home at that time so she switched the bed-time reading to after-school reading so she could be sure she would have that time.

Another thing the author did at that bed-time reading session was to talk with her children about three good things that happened that day. This is another simple but powerful technique that research has shown makes significant improvements in happiness and self-confidence.

The review said that Raising Happiness is full of simple, powerful steps you can take to increase your happiness as a parent and the happiness of your children. It comes well-recommended.

In essence, toddler’s brains are only about as developed as the brains of our ancestors the cavemen were. When adults throw tantrums, we refer to it as “going ape” for similar reasons. When adults lose our temper, the left side of our brains literally shut down and we revert to emotional and not logical beings.

However, toddlers are constantly going prehistoric on us as parents and we would be better off communicating with them in a way they can recognize and respond to. So instead of using a soothing voice to tell a toddler to calm down, researchers suggest we communicate to their right brains, their emotional caveman brains.

The way we do that is to repeat short phrases while slightly mirroring their emotional state. Now this gets really interesting because research and experience shows that adults instinctively do this already when children are happy.

For example, if a child is happy about learning a new word or doing something else good, adults often say something like, “Yes, yes, yes, wow, great job, great job,” in an excited tone of voice that mirrors the child’s mood. However, we usually do the opposite when children misbehave. We use soothing tones and give them reasons why they shouldn’t behave that way.

Researchers suggest we would receive much better outcomes if we communicated to children’s right brains when they’re misbehaving.

Researchers also point out that adults do this with other adults sometimes which makes sense because we too become cavemen when we’re angry because our left brain shuts down. If you’ve ever found yourself using a charged tone of voice to say something like, “sorry, sorry, sorry, I can explain myself, but I’m sorry,” that is effective communication with the right brain. It’s mirroring the other’s emotional state while repeating short phrases.

Try it sometime with your toddler and see if they don’t respond better.

For example, some adults are afraid of flying but not driving even though your chances of dying in a traffic accident are much greater than your chances of dying in a airline crash. Unfortunately, many adults cannot shake their fear of flying even when confronted with the facts.

Luckily, the circumstances are different with most fears. For example, we might panic upon discovering that our child just ate our deodorant stick – that is unless we knew it could not cause serious injury. So while correct information may not cure your fear of flight, correct information is likely to be very helpful in assuaging parents’ fears of child injury and illness.

As a great service to parents everywhere, pediatrician and author Lara Sibners has written a book titled: If Your Kids Eat This Book, Everything Will Still Be Okay: How to Know if Your Child’s Injury or Illness Is Really an Emergency.” In it. She presents a detailed guide to everything you don’t have to worry about your child eating, licking, putting in their ear, etc, etc.

She teaches parents to know the difference between the household items that will and won’t hurt our children. The book is full of great information about why each item is dangerous or not and when you really need to go the the emergency room.

Sibners presents worst case scenarios that usually turn out to be not so bad. This priceless book will put parents’ minds at ease.