Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

Painful breasts are the second most common reason that women give up breastfeeding in the first two weeks. Engorged breasts can hurt! And this can happen both at the beginning and ending of the nursing season, as supply adjusts to meet demand. This is one of the reasons that I encourage new mothers to work with lactation consultants to learn practical wisdom about breastfeeding.

People with Asperger.s Syndrome (AS) have a normal IQ, and may be unusually talented in a specific area. Nevertheless they may have a tough time .fitting in. because of an inability to read social cues in other people, or because of a heightened sensitivity to certain textures, sights, sounds, tastes, or smells. AS is one of the autism spectrum of disorders, and may overlap with high-functioning autism.

When I was in junior high school, one of my science teachers told me that if a frog is placed in water that is gradually heated, the frog wouldn.t notice the danger until it was already being harmed. I see something similar happening to our children.s nutrition today.

Breastfeeding can help improve mothers’ bone density. During the months of nursing, calcium is taken from the bones, and the density decreases - whether or not they are getting plenty of calcium in their diets.

How you handle television viewing now may make a measurable difference in how your child will look when she is in her mid-twenties. Kids who watch more than two hours a day between the ages of 5 and 15 will be different from their peers more than ten years later, whether or not they still watch much TV.

Parents are sometimes frustrated or disappointed by treatments for their children with cerebral palsy. Eager for anything that might bring improvement in this chronic condition, parents often turn to untested or unproven treatments.

Not all kids are affected the same way by exposure to smoke in their environments. Tobacco smoke is a complex mixture of toxic gases and toxic particles, over 4000 chemicals in all. Repeated exposure will cause asthma in some children, but not in others. Is there any way to tell which are which?

Dog and cat allergens are found in almost all US homes, whether or not dogs or cats live there. The highest concentrations are found on sofas, especially upholstered sofas. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted a national survey to measure levels of indoor allergens that might trigger asthma.

I.ve seen several headlines trumpeting that over-the-counter cough syrups are no more effective than water. The headlines are based on a study performed at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine and published in the electronic version of the July 2004 Pediatrics. I disagree with the headlines and the conclusions. In the study, the researchers followed about 100 children, ages 2 through 18 who had coughs for around 4 days.

We know that the first months of life are a very impressionable time when it comes to the developing immune system. Even brief breastfeeding in the first few months of life, for instance, may give long-term protection from asthma. On the flip side, exposure to some foods in the first months may predispose to later allergies and asthma. Could the same thing happen with multivitamins?

In a resent survey 1,000 people were asked where they thought disease-causing germs were most likely to be found: shopping cart handles, porta potties, playground equipment, escalator handrails, or picnic tables. The results were compared to the real culprits disclosed in a paper by University of Arizona professor Dr. Charles Gerba, one of the nation’s leading experts on environmental microbiology.