Fall Concerns For A Child

There is no need to rush to the doctor every time a child falls down but when children tumble on their heads, it is better to be on the safe side, a German doctor advises.

Small children tend to stumble and fall on their heads more often since the head is proportionally much larger than the rest of the body, said Matthias Albrecht, a child pediatrician who works with a Dortmund-based accident prevention group.

But according to the child surgeon, “if a child cries out, that usually means nothing serious has happened”.

If the child is silent after a fall or even becomes unconscious, please call for an ambulance or doctor immediately. The same applies if the child starts to vomit since these symptoms could point to cerebral concussion, said Albrecht.

It is perfectly normal for children to fall down, especially when they are taking their first steps but danger arises when a baby or child slips from a high nappy-changing table.

Without prior warning, children are always learning something new. This can mean that a baby, which up until now has always be laying on its back, can suddenly flip over and tumble off the nappy-changing table.

When changing a baby’s nappy, the parent should always hold the child. Experts say a good nappy-changing table should be 85cm to 92cm tall, 55cm long and 70cm wide, and best placed in a corner where the walls provide additional protection.

No Vaccine Effect After 3 Years!

The vaccine for whooping cough commonly administered to the young loses its effectiveness after three years, according to the preliminary results of a new US study. The results released recently come from a survey of 15,000 children in Marin County, California, where an outbreak of the bacterial disease killed 11 infants and infected more than 8,000 people in 2010.

“When we first started having a pertussis outbreak, we assumed that this would be primarily in the unvaccinated population,” Dr David Witt, of Kaiser Permanente Medical Centre in San Rafael, California, told
a conference in Chicago, using the scientific name for the once-common childhood disease.

“What we pretty quickly identify is that the bulk of the outbreak was in fully-vaccinated children in the 8 to 12 age group,” he said. “Older kids and younger kids seemed to be pretty well protected but the age of 8 to 12 was the vast bulk of the cases.

“And when we examined that, it was correlated to being more than three years from the last vaccine booster dose,” he said, adding that many of the children did not seek care because the vaccine mitigated the symptoms. He cautioned that more research was necessary as he presented the preliminary results at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy organised by the American Society of Microbiology. Continue Reading >>

Fish to lower strokes risk?

People who eat fish a few times each week are slightly less likely to suffer a stroke than those who only eat a little or none at all, according to an international analysis.

The omega-3 fatty acids in fish may lower stroke risk through their positive effects on blood pressure and cholesterol, wrote Susanna Larsson and Nicola Orsini of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet in the journal Stroke.

Their analysis was based on 15 studies conducted in the United States, Europe, Japan and China, each of which asked people how frequently they ate fish, then followed them for between four and 30 years to see who suffered a stroke.

“I think overall, fish does provide a beneficial package of nutrients, in particular the omega-3s, that could explain this lower risk,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, a Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist whose research was included in the analysis.

“A lot of the evidence comes together suggesting that about two to three servings per week is enough to get the benefit.”

Vitamin D, selenium, and certain types of proteins in fish may also have stroke-related benefits, he added. Data for the analysis came from close to 400,000 people aged 30 to 103. Continue Reading >>

Babies Heart Defect

Babies who are exposed before birth to ethyl benezene, a toxic component in crude oil, may have a higher risk of developing congenital heart disease (CHD), US researches said.

Another chemical used as an industrial metal degreasing agent, trichloroethylene (TCE) also boosted heart risks, said the research to be presented at the Paediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Denver Colorado.

“Congenital heart disease (which occurs when the heart is malformed before birth) is a major cause of childhood death and life-long health problems,” said D. Gail McCarver, lead author of the study and pediatrics professor at Wisconsin’s Medical College. Continue Reading >>

Tai Chi For The Heart

People with chronic heart failure may be able to boost their quality of life by doing the ancient Chinese exercise regimen of tai chi, a US study suggested. Two group sessions of one hour each per week were enough to show significant improvements in mood and confidence, said the Bostonbased study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

The study compared 50 US heart patients who enrolled in tai chi classes to 50 who took classroom study in heart education. Physical responses were similar in both groups, but those who did tai chi showed “significant” improvements according to their answers in a questionnaire to assess their emotional state. The tai chi group also reported better “exercise self-efficacy (confidence to perform certain exercise – related activities), with increased daily activity, and related feelings of well-being compared with the education group,” said the study.

 While experts admit they do not fully understand the science behind the findings, the study offers a positive option for complementing standard medical care of people with chronic heart failure, a debilitating and progressive disease that limits a person’s ability to breathe and move.

 “Tai chi appears to be a safe alternative to low-to-moderate intensity conventional exercise training,” said lead author Gloria Yeh of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre.

“Tai chi has a good rate of adherence and may provide value in improving daily exercise, quality of life, self-efficacy and mood in frail, deconditioned patients with systolic heart failure.” Yeh is also assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Research and Education in Complimentary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School.

Previous studies have suggested Tai Chi, which involves slow, circular movements and balance-shifting exercises, may be helpful to people who suffer from high blood pressure, fibromyalgia and stress.