Archive for April, 2008

ADHD Drugs and Heart Monitoring

Friday, April 25th, 2008

The American Heart Association (AHA) has released April 2008 recommendations for monitoring the hearts of all children taking stimulant drugs, such as those used to treat ADHD. Parents may also want to learn about other options for managing ADHD. We know that these medicines tend to increase the blood pressure of children by three or [...]

BPA, Baby Bottles… Just the Beginning

Monday, April 21st, 2008

One of the reasons I wrote Raising Baby Green was to help parents easily sort through and prioritize which baby products area healthiest and safest for their children. In the book I suggest alternatives for plastics containing Bishphenol A (BPA) – a hormone mimicker found in most baby bottles. Within the last week BPA has [...]

Vitamin D, Asthma, and Eczema

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Kids who have low levels of vitamin D have a higher chance of asthma attacks, according to a study presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. This study is preliminary, at best, but the results are consistent with a growing number of papers looking at how vitamin [...]

Play is Good for the Heart

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill evaluated nearly 400 seven- to ten- year-old elementary school children to find out how much active play they were getting and whether they had good aerobic fitness. They also took other measurements, including height, weight, body fat, blood pressure, etc. They checked these same children seven [...]

DHA and Diarrhea

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

I received a letter expressing concern that some babies do not tolerate formula with added DHA/ARA and that parents are not aware of this possibility. DHA and ARA are important fatty acids, present naturally in breast milk and added to many formulas. About 4 million babies are born in the U.S. each year. Over [...]

Burning Fat

Monday, April 7th, 2008

What kind of exercise is most effective for burning fat in children? A new study delivers an objective answer. It’s no secret that childhood obesity has become a major problem, nor that physical activity is an important tool for preventing and reversing weight problems. As far as I know, a recent French study is the [...]

Cell Phones, Cigarettes, Cancer, and Children

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Whether or not cell phones cause cancer remains very controversial, but a renowned neurosurgeon has released a provocative paper reviewing over 100 scientific and medical studies, and concluded that the link between cell phone use and brain tumors on the same side of the head is now clear, and that tumors from cell phone use [...]

World Autism Day

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

The General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously voted to set aside April 2 every year, starting in 2008, as World Autism Awareness Day. The day is to be marked around the globe with education regarding what we know about how to prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); with events and media [...]