Breathe! Push! And have some yogurt, will ya?
Doctors have long told women not to eat while in labor, but a new study now says that some light snacking doesn’t harm mom or baby. Previouly there was fear eating could lead to breathing food in the lungs in case of an emergency C-section.
Researchers compared two groups of moms — one was only allowed to drink water and the other could have bread, fruits, yogurt and fruit juice during delivery, AFP News reported. The study of 2,426 moms found that there was no difference between the two groups in terms of duration of labor, percentage of C-sections or even rate of vomiting. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, suggested that fasting while in labor could even be more harmful since who wants to work on an empty stomach?
Levine
The separate allegations involve a N.C. doctor renowned for helping kids with learning difficulties and twin brothers who practiced in the Cincinnati area.
Dr. Mel Levine, a best-selling author who founded a learning institute, has been banned from practicing medicine ever again. Five former male patients had accused him of conducting inappropriate genital exams on them, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. Levine says that he is innocent, but on Friday agreed to give up his medical license forever. With that, the N.C. Medical Board agreed to drop an investigation against Levine, who practiced at the University of North Carolina. The incidents allegedly occurred between 1987 and 2006 in North Carolina and Massachusetts.
In the Ohio cases, both brothers are out of jail on bond, but will not be allowed to practice medicine, the Middletown Journal reported. Drs. Mark and Scott Blakenburg, 53, have been charged with sexually abusing young male patients and making cash and writing prescriptions as “hush” payments to their alleged victims. The twins, from Butler County, Ohio, had separate practices and are scheduled to face separate trials.
M. Blankenburg
The Russian boy has undergone an operation to fuse the sex organs together. The child, identified publicly only as Arytom G, was reported to be in good condition after the surgery.
“We had to form one penis out of two, make the abdominal wall and create a bladder,” a doctor at the Moscow clinic told the Sun newspaper of Britian, which printed a photo of the child. The doctor added that the boy should grow up normally and be able to father children.
Officials said that the mother’s pregnancy seemed normal, and it wasn’t until the child was born that the birth defect was discovered.
Ruth Schofield transmitted a strain of herpes to her newborn by kissing her or breastfeeding, according to the results of a medical investigation announced this week. The child, Jennifer, was 11 days old when she died.
Schofield, from Lancaster, England, likely caught the herpes infection, which can be transmitted through a cold sore, when she was in the late stages of her pregnancy, Coroner James Adeley said. She had flu-like symptoms days before she gave birth. Since Jennifer’s death in 2006, her mother has been trying to raise awareness of the condition, the BBC News reported. About six babies die from the condition each year in the United Kingdom.
“I have been left totally devastated and heartbroken by the death of Jennifer. The pain has not lessened,” Schofield, 35, told the BBC. For more information about how to prevent the virus transmission to babies, click here.
Kamani Hubbard was otherwise so normal that at first, doctors and nurses didn’t notice the extra fingers and toes. “They told me he was six pounds in good health, that was all they said,” the baby’s mother, Miryoki Gross, told KTVU TV News in San Francisco.
But father Kris Hubbard noticed. The rare condition runs in his family, although the new baby is the only one that has extra digits on both his hands and feet. Hubbard, 34, had six fingers on each hand. The extra ones were nonfunctional and removed when he was a child.
However, it doesn’t seem likely that Kamani, who was born three weeks ago in San Francisco, will have his extra fingers and toes taken away. All of his little piggies look to be functional. Maybe he’ll be teased, but Dr. Michael Treece is more hopeful: “Imagine what sort of pianist a 12-fingered person would be. Imagine what sort of a flamenco guitarist. If nothing else, think of their typing skills.”
Photo by Funky Shapes
An 18-month-old girl in North Carolina was hospitalized for severe breathing problems after Vicks VapoRub was put under her nose. The incident prompted a recent study that concluded Vicks should not be used on children under age 2.
The rub, which is commonly used to relieve symptoms of cough and congestion, can irritate young children and affect their breathing. Researchers at the pediatric department at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina found that the rub stimulates mucus production and airway inflammation. The study involved ferrets, which have an airway anatomy similar to humans.
Labels on Vicks VapoRub caution against using the product on children, but doctors say that many parents are tempted to do so, thinking that it could bring some relief to their sick kids.
“Infants and young children have airways that are much smaller than those of adults, so any increase in mucus or inflammation can narrow them more severely,” lead researcher Dr. Bruce K. Rubin said in a news release from the American College of Chest Physicians. He said that salves similar to Vicks could cause the same reaction. The rubs should never be put in or under the nose of anybody, including adults.
Doctors recommend that congestion be treated with a bit of salt water and gentle rubber bulb suction to clear out mucus. Warm drinks and chicken soup can also help. The congestion should clear up after a few days, but if a child struggles to breathe, take her to a doctor.
Moms who schedule C-sections for their convenience could be putting their babies in danger.
That’s the conclusion of the first comprehensive study on the topic, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. While experts recommend that elective C-sections be done no sooner than 39 weeks, about 36 percent of the procedures were done sooner. Researchers examined data from 13,258 C-sections from 1999 to 2002 that were considered elective, or done without any indication that it was necessary because the child could not be delivered through labor.
Ten percent of those babies had respiratory distress, low blood sugar, infection or the need for a respirator or intensive care. Until the study, “we didn’t really have great data to say, ‘This is what your risk is, this is why you should wait,’” study co-author Dr. Catherine Spong told USA Today.
Natural childbirth is decreasing, with C-sections representing a third of all births in 2006. The trend “has increasingly important public health implications,” the researchers wrote in an article published in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine.
It’s tempting to reach for the medicine bottle to help your stuffy, sniffling, coughing child. But doctors warn that the cold pills and cough syrups can actually make her sicker.
About 7,000 kids each year end up in the hospital emergency room because of drugstore cold medicine, according to pediatrician groups. Most of the problems occur because of dosing errors.
Last fall, doctors’ groups called for a ban on all cold medicine for kids under age 6. Drug companies compromised, saying that they would recommend on the packages that medicine should not be given to kids under 4. The Food and Drug Administration has not issued an opinion, saying it is studying the effectiveness of cold medication on children.
Doctors at the University of Michigan have the following recommendations for a child’s cold symptoms:
– Use nasal saline drops and a bulb suction to loosen up and remove mucus in blocked noses, or have the child blow his nose.
– For coughs, give a teaspoon of honey or corn syrup to kids over the age of 1. Have them drink warm fluids like water, apple juice and chicken broth.
– Take the child into the bathroom and run a hot shower. The steam relaxes the airways and helps with coughing spasms.
– Increase the humidity in the home to help reduce nasal congestion and coughing.
Cold symptoms caused by a virus typically last between four and five days. If a child is still sick, a doctor’s visit is needed.
Twins in Michigan and England are getting attention for what makes them different.
A set of twins from a Detroit suburb was born on different days — and different years. Tarrance Griffin was born just before 2008 ended, at 11:51 p.m. His twin brother Tariq came in 26 minutes later, in 2009.
The mom, Tangerica Woods, told WXYZ TV News in Detroit that she was trying to hold out to have both born on New Year’s Day, but Tarrance just couldn’t wait. Maybe he knew that his parents could use the tax deduction for 2008. See a video of the cuties here.
In England, a mixed-race couple produced a set of black and white twins — twice. One child from each set has fair skin like her mother and the other has dark skin like her father.
The first set, Lauren and Hayleigh, was born in 2001. Sisters Miyah and Leah came into the world in November, a few weeks early. The kids are fraternal, not identical, twins, but doctors say that it’s rare for twins to look so different from each other. Take a look at the four kids here.
Parents Alison Spooner and Dean Durrant told Sky News that they were tempted to bet on whether they would have another black-and-white set, but a bookie refused because he couldn’t set odds on it. A spokesman for William Hill bookies said that if the couple wants to try a third time, he’ll let them place a bet. The odds would be set at 10,000 to 1.
Spiteful teachers telling Junior there is no Santa. The fully loaded tree catching on fire at 3 a.m. Not being able to afford any presents. As if parents didn’t have enough to worry about this holiday season, there is an underpublicized peril for their newly toilet-trained boys: the crushed penis.
The scenario goes like this: you take the family to a holiday party at a friend’s house. After a couple glasses of punch, your 3-year-old boy proudly toddles off to the bathroom, alone. Unfortunately, the owners have a heavy toilet seat, perhaps wood or ceramic. Your boy, not quite manipulating things properly, gets his organ smashed.
A fanciful prospect? Not according Dr. Joe Philip and his colleagues at Leighton Hospital, Crewe, England. In the latest issue of BJU International, a urology magazine, the doctors report on four boys under the age of four who were admitted to Leighton with injuries serious enough to require an overnight stay.
The medical team quotes a recent market research report that “there has been a worldwide increase in the number of wooden and ceramic toilet seats sold.” They say that parents should check out toilet seats in advance, including the ones in their own homes, and accompany their children if necessary.