Safety

Dental X-Rays
A lead apron to protect the reproductive organs may not be enough to protect a developing baby when her mother has dental x-rays. Researchers at the University of Washington analyzed the pregnancies o…

Front Seats, Booster Seats, and False Security
Even though most of us have heard that it's not safe for kids to ride in the front seat, millions of adults in the United States put their kids up front every day. About 6 percent of all kids under 12…

Seatbelts: A Family Affair
I don't want to be a projectile weapon. Most of us know that seatbelts and car seats protect the people using these safety devices. But they also protect others in the car. Unrestrained passengers ris…

Bird Flu, SARS, and Public Health
A six-year-old boy in Thailand has died from bird flu, along with seven others in southeast Asia whose deaths have been confirmed to have been caused by this avian flu. Although a deadly epidemic is p…

The Mad Cow Lottery
The chances of your children eating mad cow infected beef in the U.S. appear to be extremely small - on the order of your chances of winning a supper lottery jackpot. Only 81 animals are believed to h…

Echinacea and Colds in Children
In the U.S., more than $300 million are spent each year on echinacea, mostly in an attempt to treat and prevent the common cold. Colds are especially common in children, who average 3 to 8 colds a yea…

Why Do Bones Break In Children?
Kids who have more than one broken bone during childhood should be checked to find out why - especially if the trauma leading to the break was minor. We used to think that these were just very active …

Toss That Ipecac
What should you do if your child swallows something toxic? Traditional advice used to be to keep a bottle of syrup of Ipecac at home for just such an emergency. At the 2003 annual meeting of the Ameri…

The Toll of Driving Drunk
I wept again this morning when I stood with my family at the spot in our neighborhood where 7-year-old Alana Pack and her 10 year-old brother Troy were killed. This was an entirely preventable tragedy…

Baby Bath Seats
Some baby-baths are times of giggling delight; some are frustrating fits of crying ? for the baby and the parents. Baby bath seats are one attempt to make bath time easier, safer, and happier, but the…

What If Mom’s Mother Smoked Years Ago?
Sometimes our actions ripple onward to our children and our children's children. Babies born during the Dutch winter famine of 1944-45 had birthweights that varied depending on what trimester they wer…

Back to After-School
As the school year starts up again, more parents are concerned with the hours after school than with school itself, according to a survey commissioned by a national nonprofit coalition of more than 2,…

Try This At Home
Medical Centers are equipped with oxygen outlets on the wall. When newborns are having trouble at birth, 100% oxygen is routinely used as part of the resuscitation efforts. But around the world, not a…

A Tragic Lesson
A young doctor named Hitoshi Nikaidoh graduated from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School in June 2003. He began work as a surgical intern in July. In August he stepped into a second-floor e…

Football, Heatstroke, and Head Injuries
The statistics are in, and happily there were no deaths from heatstroke among U.S. football players during the 2002 season (or so far in 2003), according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports…

Smoking Rate in Young Girls on the Rise
Young girls are now smoking cigarettes almost as much as young boys are, according to the results of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey released on August 7, 2003. And both boys and girls are using other…

Congratulations! You’ve made an important choice …
...to pursue CPR training. I salute you in your efforts to be trained to help save lives. In the United States, you can find a CPR event near you by just entering your zip code here. In any country yo…

Helmet Fit and Condition
Shoes protect the feet; helmets protect the head. Helmets can be very effective at preventing serious head injuries, but nevertheless, head injury during active play remains a leading cause of death a…

Summer Is Heating Up!
It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere ? and hot, really hot, in many areas. We are warm-blooded. Our bodies produce heat. When a muscle contracts, only about 25 percent of the energy is used for the …

A True Lifesaver
A major change in lifesaving recommendations was made in July 2003. Amazing machines called automated external defibrillators or AEDs can be found in an increasing number of public places. These machi…