When I think about high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other heart health issues, I envision a middle-aged or older guy with a beer gut and thinning hair, chomping on a huge greasy burger for lunch every day. Not my three-year-old daughter. The idea of her having problems like those seems ridiculous.

I just read an article that made me think twice about the absurdity of the possibility there.

Some children as young as two should be screened for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other heart disease risks, according to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Say what? That’s right — the AAP is recommending that kids who are obese, whose medical history is unknown, or who have a familial background including high blood pressure and the like should be screened for early signs of problems that can lead to heart disease. If necessary, children of at least eight years of age would even receive medication to help lower their cholesterol.

The AAP recommends that the screenings, which include the fasting lipid profile, take place between the ages of 2 and 10 years.

Posted by Sunshine.

A little over a year ago, I had my first real health scare when I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. I didn’t panic at the echocardiogram report until I Googled and found out that people with this condition are at risk for heart failure or sudden cardiac death. I was horrified. Here I’d been gearing up for my midlife crisis, and I was learning that I might have grossly miscalculated. And I had two toddlers to raise.

I was extremely lucky, more so than I can express. My condition was apparently the result of thyroid disorder. Once my medication was adjusted, my heart self-corrected. All tests since then have come back normal.

But I’m a changed woman. I think differently about my heart. I cherish it. And I ask you, if you do not do so already, to cherish your own heart as well.

Tomorrow, February 1st, is National Go Red for Women Day. We’re asked to get educated about heart disease. For starters, consider these facts and statistics from First Lady Laura Bush’s web site:

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women, accounting for 32 percent of all deaths per year. Nearly 366,000 women in America die every year of heart disease.
• 8 million American women are currently living with heart disease and of those, 6 million have a family history of heart disease.
• Fewer than half of all women are aware that heart disease is the number 1 killer of American women. Most women identify cancer as the leading cause of death.
• In the United States, all cardiovascular diseases combined claim the lives of more women’s every year than the next 16 causes of death combined — and almost twice as many as all forms of cancer.
• One in three women will die from heart disease, while one in 25 women die from breast cancer.
• Every year since 1984, more women than men have died of cardiovascular disease.
• There is no previous evidence of coronary heart disease in 63 percent of the women who suddenly die from the disease.
• Smoking is the most prevalent and preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in women younger than 45.
• 40 percent to 50 percent of women older than 45 have high blood pressure and an elevated total cholesterol level — both well-documented risk factors.
• Heart disease is often preventable.

According to the Mayo Clinic, these are the five important steps we can take to help protect ourselves from heart disease:

• Don’t smoke, or quit if you do.
• Be physically active.
• Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fats (and skip the trans fats altogether - these are the worst for the heart).
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Get regular health screenings. (May I add, ask for a blood test to look at thyroid function.)

We need to be our own advocates. When I told my doctor I was afraid something was wrong with my heart and described my symptoms, she wrote it off as “holiday stress” and gave me a prescription for a tranquilizer. The only reason I was tested was because, even though I was painfully self-conscious about it, I was persistent.

And my story is not unusual. As far as heart disease goes:

“Research shows that women may not be diagnosed or treated as aggressively as men,” says the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Since my brush with heart disease, I’ve not been perfect. I let some weight creep back on me (which I’m kicking with the Biggest Loser moms over on the Health and Fitness board), and I’ve scarfed my share of Milk Duds without checking the label first for saturated fat content (3.5 grams per 13 comforting duds). So I’m grateful to the Go Red campaign for reminding me that our hearts serve us well so long as they are treated well. They are resilient - I’m living proof - but they are not invincible.

Wear red tomorrow and help educate other women about heart disease. Look at your little ones and remember that one day you’ll be advising them on how to take care of their own children, so long as your heart is healthy and strong.

Posted by MommaSteph.

More on lead poisoning - it’s not just toys. I was quite surprised to read that the second most common cause of lead poisoning after paint is “folk” medicine. Traditional medicines used by immigrants from Latin America, India and other parts of Asia are the second most common source of lead poisoning in America today. These cases are found all over America, but especially where there are large immigrant populations. If you do use these traditional health remedies, please be careful and understand what exactly you are giving to your children and yourself.

Extreme childhood allergies. There is a six-year old boy who has food allergies so extreme all he can eat is venison meat and oats. With the relatively rare and new disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, all other foods severely irritate his esophagus. And more concerning is that this allergy is increasing - doctors are seeing 1-2 new cases per week. I hope this poor boy outgrows his allergy as he grows older. I can’t imagine life without being able to eat food!

Infant mortality rates still shockingly high. The UN’s annual report (for 2006) was just released, and over 9.7 million children under age 5 died in 2006. Sub-saharan Africa rates remain the highest, with 28 of the top 30 countries with the highest death rates coming from that region. Africa reports 186 deaths per 1,000 children, while industrialized nations report 6 deaths per 1,000 children. Just reading those figures give me pangs of guilt knowing that I have three healthy (and admittedly a bit spoiled) at home. To tangent slightly, I am always impressed with the generosity of the Gates Foundation and what they are doing to immunize and improve the health of children all over the world. So much, I can almost forgive all the bugs with my Windows PC!

Constipation the biggest cause of abdominal pain. Does your little one have a tummy ache? Chances are, she might be constipated. In a study of children treated for abdominal pain in one hospital, it was found that in nearly have of those cases, constipation was the culprit. Signs of constipation include fewer than three bowel movements per week, one or more episodes of stool incontinence per week, passing of stools so large that they obstruct the toilet, retentive posturing (withholding behavior) and painful defecation.

Experience matters in treating heart defects. A University of Michigan study found that infants born with certain complex heart defects were much less likely to die if they were treated in a hospital that more frequently dealt with these specific concerns. This study echoes the sentiment often expressed in the forums by MomSquawk’s resident pediatric nurse, Joannpicu1: experience matters. If your child is sick, get them to a children’s specialty hospital whenever practical.

More recalls. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced more recalls of note: Infantino Lion Teethers, for a choking hazard; and some Dollar Tree toys, Jo Ann Fabric Stores water globes, and Codeena Princess metal jewelry for lead paint.

Just a spoonful of honey… In a three-way test between children’s cough medicine, honey or nothing, honey was the most effective at calming children’s coughs and helping them to sleep better. This is good news for parents seeking alternative remedies to help their children, following the recent warning not to give children under the age of 6 years old OTC medicines. Please note that honey is not recommended for children under the age of one due to a rare risk of contracting botulism.

Obesity risk. Half of maternal deaths occurred with overweight women. Maternal obesity was now a “major and growing risk factor for maternal death.” Nearly 40% of these deaths could have been prevented with proper diagnosis and treatment. The study encourages pre-conception awareness to help prevention.

But death is not the only problem. Obese pregnant women are more at risk of dying, suffering heart disease, miscarriage, diabetes, infections and blood clots. Related obesity issues are becoming more and more understood and confirmed. It is time to focus hard on the root cause… obesity itself.

Struggling to find lead-free toys for Christmas? You are not alone. Many charities, including the Salvation Army and Goodwill are struggling to ensure that the toys they receive and distribute are safe for children. Please, remember that this is the time to spread holiday cheer and help a child. If you are aware that a toy has been recalled, please do not “regift” it to a Christmas charity.

New research suggests that babies who are breastfed for the first three months of life are less likely to develop food allergies.

“A review of 18 studies demonstrates a significant protective effect of exclusive breast-feeding for at least three months for children with high risk for atopy (genetic tendency to develop allergic diseases) against the development of atopic dermatitis and early childhood asthma-like symptoms,” Dr. Robert Wood, international health director for pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

In fact, the research suggests several of allergy prevention strategies, including these:

* Women should avoid peanuts and tree nuts during pregnancy and while breast-feeding.
* Mothers should supplement breast-feeding with a hypoallergenic formula (extensively or partially hydrolyzed).
* Delay feeding these children solid foods until they’re six months old.
* Delay introduction of milk and egg until age 1 and peanut and tree nuts until age 3.
* Start early intervention when signs of food allergy appear (secondary prevention).

(I’m a little unclear as to whether the supplementing advice is for those who are already supplementing or is intended for all BFing moms.)

This article also notes that a child (anyone, really) may be allergic to one part of a food family, but not to the entire category (nuts, for example), and that physicians should look to food allergies as possible causes of skin and gastrointestinal issues in patients of all ages.

As if you needed another reason to breastfeed - but now you know!

Posted by Sunshining.

Time to Quit: It’s the Great American Smokeout!

Ambitious Autism Study: Enrollment is beginning on the largest study undertaken to look at environmental and genetic risk factors for autism. The five-year study will involve 2,700 children and their families from around the US. “We hope this study will help us learn more about the factors that may lead to autism and other developmental disabilities, and how genes and the environment may affect child development,” said Lisa A. Croen, PhD, the study’s local principal investigator and an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. “The results may also contribute to better services and treatments for affected children and to prevention strategies.”

Conjoined Twins Doing Well: Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias, 27-month-old twin girls from Costa Rica, survived a nine-hour surgery and are now separated. The riskiest part of the surgery on the formerly conjoined twins was clamping their hearts after separation, as they had been connected there. Their surgeon announced that, baring any complications, he expects the girls to live normal lives. The two are the ninth and tenth children in their family.

Health Scare for Nancy Grace: CNN anchor Nancy Grace, who gave birth prematurely earlier this month, is back in the hospital because developed pulmonary edema. Her husband reports that the new mother is now on medication and under observation, and is doing well. The new babies, John David and Lucy Elizabeth, are also continuing to do well and are, according to their dad, “out of the critical area”.

Do the brains of kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) mature more slowly than those of their non-ADHD counterparts?

New research suggests this is true.

Developing more slowly in ADHD youngsters — the lag can be as much as three years — are brain regions that suppress inappropriate actions and thoughts, focus attention, remember things from moment to moment, work for reward and control movement.

The sharp differences were discovered only after a new image analysis technique allowed the researchers to pinpoint the thickening and thinning of thousands of cortex sites in hundreds of children and teens, with and without the disorder.

Brain imaging is not advanced enough, however, to detect the delays characteristic of ADHD on a case-by-case basis, so it is not yet possible to use imaging to make a diagnosis.

Kids with ADHD have normal brain function; it’s just on a delayed timeframe, says Dr. Philip Shaw of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

That’s good news - and it is also perhaps reassuring that ADHD does seem to be a biological phenomenon, rather than an environmentally-created one. Although up to five percent of schoolchildren may have ADHD, most kids diagnosed with it eventually outgrow the disorder.

Posted by Sunshining.

Early Predictors of School Success: A study published in the current issue of Developmental Psychology finds that early math and reading skills, as well as attention-related skills, seem to predict later academic success, while behavior issues and social skills do not. The study is a meta-analysis of six other studies involving nearly 36,000 preschoolers. Knowledge of early math concepts, such as grasp of numbers and numbering, was the best predictor of success. One of the researchers notes, “Our results did not address what types of preschool curricula are most effective in promoting these school readiness skills…But we do know that play-based, as opposed to ‘drill-and-practice,’ curricula designed with children’s developmental needs in mind can foster academic and attention skills in ways that are engaging and fun.”

Drugs Not Beneficial for ADHD? One of the authors of a 1999 study that concluded that medication is more effective than behavior therapy in treating ADHD now states:

“I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study. We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn’t happen to be the case. There’s no indication that medication’s better than nothing in the long run.”

Moreover, drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta, he notes, tend to stunt a child’s physical growth.

“The children had a substantial decrease in their rate of growth so they weren’t growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight.”

Crib Recall: The CPSC issued a recall of Wendy Bellissimo Collection Convertible Cribs, sold exclusively at Babies R Us, because the bolts at the top corners of the cribs can become lose, which can create a gap that poses a strangulation hazard. Parents should stop using the cribs and contact Bassettbaby at (888) 897-4689 for a free repair kit.

Lead Toy Recalls: The CPSC is recalling Curious George plush dolls, sold with activity or story books, because the paint on the dolls violates lead paint standards. (Sample picuted below, see the recall site for additional recalled models.)

The CPSC is recalling children’s yellow sunglasses, sold at Dollar General stores nationwide, because they have excessive levels of lead.

The CPSC has issued a recall of pearl-like beads accompanying Tween Brands girls’ gift sets, sold at Limited Too, because they contain excessive levels of lead.

Good News for Preemies: A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that premature babies who are treated with caffeine therapy to alleviate breathing problems do not suffer from neurological problems as a result. In fact, caffeine may protect preemies against cerebral palsy and cognitive delays. Caffeine is used with preemies to treat apnea or to help ease babies off of mechanical ventilators. (Thanks, Sonya, for the link!)