Two months before her due date, Valerie Post was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with swine flu. Doctors performed an emergency C-section and delivered a healthy baby girl, Nora. But Post, 24, has been in a medically induced coma since the Aug. 7 delivery.
Swine flu usually causes only mild problems in otherwise healthy people. But it can strike harder in pregnant women, and doctors are urging them to get the vaccine once it’s available in October. The hospital in Tampa, where Post is being treated, reports that an average of one pregnant woman a week has been hospitalized for the flu. Usually it’s about two per season, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Cases as severe as Post’s are rare, but doctors are urging expecting moms are urged to call immediately if they have a fever, cough or sore throat. For the latest updates on swine flu, click on the Centers for Disease Control Web site.
This fall and winter, when health officials anticipate a surge in swine flu (H1N1) cases, there likely won’t be enough vaccines to go around. Wednesday, health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended which Americans should have access to the H1N1 vaccine first, according to the New York Times.
Pregnant women, caregivers for infants under age six months old, children and young adults ages six months up to 24 years old were all among the group of 150 million Americans who should be given top priority, according to the CDC. The federal government expects about 120 million doses of the vaccine available by the end of October.
In the United States, pregnant women have been particularly hard hit by swine flu. Expectant moms make up about six percent of verified swine flu deaths in the country, while pregnant mothers only account for one percent of the U.S. population.
The CDC, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the World Health Organization all recommend that pregnant women get seasonal flu shots, too, in order to protect themselves and their babies-on-the-way.
For more information on flu shots and pregnancy from the CDC, click here.
Just what a woman needs while in labor — a doctor who tells her that she deserves to be in pain. Dr. Scott Pierce has been put on one year’s probation by a state regulatory agency for allegedly chastising a Chicago-area woman and denying her pain medication.
Pierce, an ob-gyn, also has been fined $500, the Chicago Tribune reported. It seems a slap on the wrist if all the allegations against him are true. In a lawsuit, Catherine Skol accuses the doc of berating her for not calling first before she arrived in labor at Rush University Medical Center in March 2008. He was allegedly so angry at her that he said she deserved the pain, commenting that “Sometimes pain is the best teacher.” Pierce was a fill-in for Skol’s regular doctor, who was out of town.
Rush hospital has since revoked Pierce’s clinical privileges and his medical staff membership. He resigned on Feb. 18. An attorney for Skol, a former Chicago police officer who has five kids, said she would proceed with her civil lawsuit against Pierce.
“An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away.” That’s the slogan in a British-government-sponsored health pamphlet targeting teens.
The leaflet, being given out to parents, teachers and youth workers to pass on to their kids, says, “Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes’ physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?”
Steve Slack, an official at the National Health Service in Sheffield, says that the unorthodox message is not advocating irresponsibility. “Far from promoting teenage sex, it is designed to encourage young people to delay losing their virginity until they are sure they will enjoy the experience,” he told reporters.
Most parents wonder how to keep their children from getting hooked on smoking. This dad taught his two-year-old son to smoke in hopes that it would help him deal with the pain from a hernia, according to the Daily Mail.
Tong Liangliang puffed his first cigarette at the age of 18 months. He now smokes a pack a day, and throws a tantrum if he’s not allowed to light up.
“The father wasn’t aware of how serious the toddler’s habit became until the child began to increase the number of cigarettes he smoked per day,” China Radio International reported.
Even the President of the United States admits to the occasional cigarette. Tips on preventing your child from developing the habit are here.
Photo from the Daily Mail
Every year 16,000 children are injured in lawn mower accidents, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Most injuries– such as severed fingers and toes, limb amputations, broken bones, burns and eye injuries – are caused by carelessness and can be prevented.
“Power lawn mowers are dangerous adult tools, but many children, and sometimes adults unfortunately, see them as toys,” said John Canady, MD, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “Lawn mowing can be dangerous to the operator as well as those nearby if proper safety precautions aren’t taken.”
A coalition of physicians groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, has issued new guidelines on how to keep your kids safe while cutting the grass. Some of them include:
1. Children should be at least 12 years old before operating a lawn mower and 16 for a ride-on mower.
2. Kids should never been passengers on a ride-on mower.
3. Young children should be at a safe distance from the area being mowed.
4. Pick up stones, toys and debris from the area being mowed to prevent flying objects.
Photo by Tod Baker
With father’s day coming up, here’s some powerful new research about the importance of dad’s involvement in their kids lives.
Teens whose dads are more involved are less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors. And while a mom’s influence can help stave off unprotected sex too, a dad’s devotion has twice the effect, according to a new study by researchers at Boston College.
“Maybe there’s something different about the way fathers and adolescents interact,” the study’s lead author Rebekah Levine Coley told MSNBC. “It could be because it’s less expected for fathers to be so involved, so it packs more punch when they are.”
The researchers surveyd 3,206 teens, ages 13 to 18, who all came from two-parent homes. They were asked both about their sexual behaviors and about their relationships with their parents, including how much each parent knows about how they spend their time when they’re not home, and how much time they spent with each parent on activites like eating or playing games.
The impact of family time overall was especially notable. One additional family activity per week predicted a 9 percent drop in sexual activity.
Photo by Mike Baird
Restaurants aren’t doing you a favor by offering a kiddie menu; they’re helping to supersize your child. The standard offerings of mac and cheese, burgers and chicken fingers are loaded with fat and sodium.
So what’s a parent to do?
Diabetes educator and mom Hope Warshaw told the Houston Chronicle that families should order off the regular adult menu. Instead of chicken nuggets, try an order of grilled chicken and veggies and share it with your child. “We need to take food decisions a lot more seriously than we do,” she says. “It’s about realizing sometimes that food can be a battle zone, but the battle is worth fighting.”
The Institute of Medicine has some numbers that should scare parents into action. Kids ages 4 to 8 shouldn’t have more than 1,200 milligrams of salt a day. But a kiddie meal at a typical restaurant blows that cap. The kiddie nuggets at Chili’s restaurant has 1,600 milligrams of sodium. The kid’s cheese pizza at the Olive Garden has 1,170 milligrams. A couple of meals out, and your kids are walking salt-shakers.
Warshaw, a dietician, had the following tips to help make your child’s dining-out experience healthier:
– Eat at ethnic restaurants, which encourage “family-style” sharing of entrees.
– Order low-fat milk or water. Avoid soda and fruit juices.
– Divide desserts.
– Be a role model. Don’t lecture your kids and then pig out on fatty foods.
Back away from that ice cream carton. Sure, pregnant women are eating for two, but that’s no excuse to binge.
The government has issued new guidelines for pregnancy weight gain. Obese women should gain only between 11 and 20 pounds. Previously, the Institute of Medicine had no category guidelines for obsese women.
About half of all women of child-bearing age are overweight, according to the insitute. Being overweight or obese during pregnancy can cause problems for mother and baby. Risks include gestational diabetes, labor and delivery complications and premature birth. Babies who are born overweight are also at higher risk for being overweight kids. Doctors recommend that women start a pregnancy at a healthy weight.
Guidelines for other women haven’t changed. The institute recommends that underweight women gain 28 to 40 pounds during pregnancy; women of normal weight should put on 25 to 35 pounds. Check out the report here.
A 7-year-old Texas girl survived a car accident, which killed her father, and then drove three miles to get help.
After 40-year-old Guillermo Montes, the driver, was thrown out of the family’s vehicle, when it went off a highway in New Mexico, Elizabeth Kazza realized her dad was dead. But the girl kept her head, and drove the vehicle three miles before another motorist spotted her, according to the Associated Press.
Elizabeth and her little brother, who is four, were treated for minor injuries. Montes was driving from Bovina, Tex., to Clovis, N.M., to buy beer, a distance of about 25 miles, according to Elizabeth. The children said their father was drinking while he was driving, and beer bottles were found at the crash scene.