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Health headlines: Fearless toddlers, Viagra for kids and Santa wants his vaccineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Other stories we’ve been reading: A new study says your child is more likely to become a criminal if they don’t have good fear conditioning. Pediatricians are ordering Viagra for children with heart defects. A new report says too much food, not a lack of exercise, is to blame for teen obesity, and researchers find that toddlers and obese kids suffer the most from secondhand smoke. More kids’ lives are saved as the cost of child vaccines fall and Santa says he wants his H1N1 vaccine too. Related posts:Health headlines: More H1N1 news, Down syndrome and smart phones for toddlersHealth headlines: H1N1 news, yoga for ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 21, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts eating well flu Flu vaccine h1n1 health headlines nutrition obesity secondhand smoke swine flu swine flu vaccine teen health teenagers unhealthful eating Vaccines Viagra Source Type: organizations

My family’s story: surviving swine fluEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Thanks to H1N1, Halloween came on November 15 for the Lord and Ladies of the Cyr household My wife, Sara, and I are the proud parents of newly minted 4-year-old triplets, and this fall we just haven’t been able to get healthy in our house. We get over one illness and another one crops up a week later. Fevers come and go. Coughs are incessant. Headaches bloom and recede. It’s been never-ending. So none of us was feeling particularly well on the Thursday before Halloween when Sara called me at work and told me she had spiked a fever. We weren’t sure it was H1N1, but working in the Public Affairs Department here at Ch...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 20, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Matt Cyr Tags: H1N1 (swine flu) One parent's story Flu vaccine seasonal flu swine flu vaccine Vaccines Source Type: organizations

My 9 year old is imitating Michael Jackson’s dance moves, how can I talk to him about it?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed telenovelas and toddlers. Here’s this week’s question: Q: I have two kids, ages 6 and 9, and they are both big Michael Jackson fans. I don’t think the music is a problem, though some of the lyrics are, so I don’t let them listen to just any old song. But my question is about the dance moves in videos. The kids know they can get MJ on YouTube (my son simply presses the letter M, and Michael Jackson is the first suggestion), but I always ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 20, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician Center on Media and Child Health Michael Rich parenting Source Type: organizations

How childhood stress can lead to adult depressionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Childhood should be a happy time, not a stressful time—that’s something everyone can agree on. But for many children, childhood is very stressful. Family tragedy, natural disasters, poverty, abuse or exposure to violence (in the home, in the community, or when the country is at war) are just a few examples of what can turn childhood from a dream into a nightmare. This is terrible for children. It’s not just a matter of robbing them of happiness; more and more research is showing that stress early in life can actually change the way a child’s brain works—for life. A study in the journal Nature Neuroscience this mo...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 19, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: All posts Claire McCarthy depression PTSD stress stressed kids Source Type: organizations

H1N1 (swine flu) weekly update: Nov. 11 – 17Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program. Burundi and Greenland have reported their 1st cases of H1N1, while North Cyprus, Bosnia, Poland, Kosovo, Tunisia, and Morocco have reported their 1st H1N1 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended early administration of antiviral medicines to prevent death in pregnant women, very young children, and people with underlying medical problems who fall ill with H1N1. Additionally, the WHO has warned of the dangers of H1N1 spreading rapidly at any big sporting or cultural events, as Saudi Arabia prepares ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 19, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: The HealthMap Team Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) Flu vaccine HealthMap swine flu vaccine Source Type: organizations

Massachusetts takes action on school bullyingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Kids who have fell victim to taunts and ridicule in school may finally be awarded a victory this week as Massachusetts lawmakers hold hearings on nearly a dozen bills that aim to crack down on school bullying. Bullying, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is an aggressive behavior that’s intended to cause distress or harm, and involves an imbalance of power or strength between the aggressor and the victim.For every child who is or has been bullied, it’s stressful and distracting at best, and frightening, damaging to self-esteem and physically dangerous at worst. If you know a child that is...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 18, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Melissa Jeltsen Tags: All posts bully legislation psychological school taunts violence Source Type: organizations

Sports violence: girls behaving badly?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
New Mexico Lobos soccer player Elizabeth Lambert's actions led to her suspension. The media’s attention has been captured by recent incidents of violence in girls’ and women’s sports, including a bench clearing brawl during a high school soccer game in Providence, and the suspension of New Mexico Lobos soccer player Elizabeth Lambert for unsportsmanlike conduct. David Mooney, MD, MPH, director of the Trauma Program at Children’s Hospital Boston and girls soccer coach, addresses issues raised by this recent media coverage. Passion for the game is one of the central tenets of sports. ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 18, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts David Mooney sports sports injury violence Source Type: organizations

Uninsured trauma victims more likely to die of their injuriesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Research from Children’s Hospital Boston’s Heather Rosen, MD, MPH, finds that people who are admitted to the hospital for trauma are more likely to die from their injuries if they don’t have health insurance than if they do. In this WBUR report, Rosen offers some possible explanations for the alarming disparity. Her research was also reported on by the Associated Press. Related posts:Health headlines: Premature babies, burn injuries and cherry flavored TamifluGlass-table injuries to children prompts industry changesConcussion injuries in youth athletes (Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston)
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 17, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Graham Tags: All posts health disparities trauma and children trauma injury and health care Source Type: organizations

More and more teens infected with STDsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The CDC just released its annual report on sexually transmitted diseases and the results for teens are pretty disturbing. Although 15- to 24-year-olds represent only 25% of the sexually experienced population, they acquire nearly half of all new STDs. The report notes that sexually active teens are at a higher risk of contracting an STD because of a combination of behavioral, biological and cultural reasons. Barriers to accessing quality STD prevention services– like lack of insurance and transportation, or concerns about confidentiality, may also play a big role, the study concludes. It’s well known that alco...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 17, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Kristin Cantu Tags: All posts Research at Children's alcohol Center for Disease Control drugs sex education sexually transmitted disease STD teen health teenagers Source Type: organizations

One son’s story: Getting to know my father thanks to advances in epilepsy medicationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Steve Coldwell and his father, Stephen, in 1974 When I think of my father’s epilepsy, I always go back to a seizure he had during one of my Boy Scout camping trips. It wasn’t the first time I saw my dad have an epileptic seizure, but it was the first time I was the only member of our family around to deal with it. We were playing softball and he was at bat. After a pitch or two went past him, he simply let the bat fall to the ground and sat down on home plate. I immediately knew he was having a seizure, so I helped him up, walked him off the field and talked to him until he came back around. When my mother heard about...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 16, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Steve Coldwell Tags: All posts epilepsy Source Type: organizations

This week on Thrive: Nov. 9 – 13Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here’s a quick look at what Thrive was up to last week. An eco-perspective is explored on H1N1. Survivors of childhood brain cancer face a variety of late effects and why you need to get rid of your old glass thermometers. Children’s explores how babies understand expressions and emotions and offers tips on how to prepare your child for a flu vaccine. A new study reveals that parents are out of touch about knowing their kids’ stress levels and a Children’s expert gives tip on how to help kids cope with the stress of having a parent at war. The HealthMap team gives us our weekly H1N1 update and your questions are an...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 15, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician asthma brain cancer Center on Media and Child Health Children's Hospital Informatics Program flu Flu vaccine food stamps glass thermometers h1n1 HealthMap injury Injury Prevention Michael Rich p Source Type: organizations

Health headlines: H1N1 news, yoga for kids and peanut-sniffing dogsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Other stories we’ve been reading: Educators are turning to yoga to connect with kids, with positive results. Once again, Children’s made the honor roll. We found out that childhood scents occupy a special spot in our brains, and that autistic children often struggle with handwriting. Many adults, including parents and high-priority adults still don’t have access to the H1N1 vaccine. A new experimental drug, Peramivir, is being used in emergencies to treat patients hospitalized with H1N1. College students don’t plan on getting the H1N1 vaccine and at least 540 children have been killed by H1N1 in the United States s...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 14, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts autism flu Flu vaccine Food allergies h1n1 health headlines peanut allergy swine flu swine flu vaccine Vaccines yoga Source Type: organizations

How hospitals are keeping up with the surge of H1N1 casesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy NBC Nightly News features Children’s in a story about how hospitals are keeping up with treating H1N1. Below, check out more footage of Patty Dauksevicz, RN, discussing how Children’s Emergency Department has seen a 50 percent increase in patients due to H1N1. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Related posts:Tracking H1N1 in the digital ageNo one’s worried about H1N1?H1N1 (swine flu) weekly highlights: August 21 to 27 (Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston)
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 13, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Graham Tags: All posts emergency departments and swine flu hospitals treating h1n1 Source Type: organizations

Should my asthmatic child get the H1N1 vaccine?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We’ve received a lot of questions from parents who want to know if the H1N1 vaccine is safe for children with asthma and what complications could result if an asthmatic child is infected with H1N1. We consulted with Children’s Hospital Boston’s associate chief of general pediatrics, Joanne Cox, MD, and reviewed the latest reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to bring you the most recent information. Is the H1N1 vaccine safe for my child with asthma? Children with asthma or a reactive airways disease should receive the H1N1 vaccine shot, not the H1N1 nasal spray vaccine. The nasal-sp...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 13, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) asthma asthma and h1n1 Flu vaccine swine flu vaccine Source Type: organizations

Will watching telenovelas harm my 2 year old?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed graphic violent and sexual content in the media. Here’s this week’s question: Q: My husband and I immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 2003, and since then, we had a son, who is now 2. We have The Filipino Channel at home, and my husband and I watch telenovelas and variety shows on that channel all the time. Should we let our son watch with us? I know some telenovelas can be emotional and disturbing. How will I know i...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 13, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician Center on Media and Child Health Michael Rich Source Type: organizations

Children increasingly rely on food stampsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A new study that came out last week reports that half of American kids will receive food stamps before the age of 20. Mark Schuster, MD, PhD, chief of the division of General Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, says that while the findings are sobering, they don’t come as a surprise. “The public perception is that food stamps primarily go to families that are dependent on them for many years. The reality, however, is that many families go through periods of economic difficulty and programs like food stamps can help make the difference in getting them through rough times.” The study revealed that while 20 perc...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 12, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts children on food stamps economic hardship and food stamps race and food stamps Source Type: organizations

H1N1 (swine flu) weekly update: Nov. 4 – 10Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Slovakia, and St. Lucia reported their first H1N1 deaths, while Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Latvia, and Armenia reported their 1st cases of H1N1. Last week, Ukraine (population 46 million) saw a first wave of H1N1 begin. Since last week’s blog, the number infected has increased at least five-fold to 1.3 million sick and 174 dead. Neighboring Slovakia and Russia tightened their borders as Ukraine’s outbreak spread. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that H1N1 has b...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 12, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: The HealthMap Team Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) Flu vaccine HealthMap swine flu vaccine Source Type: organizations

Helping kids cope with the stress of having a parent at warEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Veterans’ Day is a time to honor those who have served our country. For clinicians at Children’s Hospital Boston, it’s also a time to think about the children whose parents are away from home, serving their country. What does having a parent at war mean for a child? We talked to Children’s psychiatrist Stuart Goldman, MD, about how to help a child cope with this stressful time. What impact does having a parent away at war have on a child? In general, it is very hard for children when a parent is deployed. It has two broad effects. The first is that the child is actually missing a parent. Mom or dad ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 11, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Kristin Cantu Tags: All posts kids whose parents are at war stress Veteran's Day Source Type: organizations

Do you know how stressed your child is?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The American Psychological Association (APA) released results from a survey that reveal that parents are out of touch when it concerns their kids’ stress levels. The APA reports the greatest stress sources for kids are related to school pressure and family finances, and that parents often underestimate how stressed their kids really are. We talked to Children’s Hospital Boston psychiatrist Stuart Goldman, MD, about how parents can help manage their child’s stress and how they can be more in sync with what’s bothering their kids. Why aren’t parents more perceptive to their child’s feelings of stress? Teen an...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 11, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Kristin Cantu Tags: All posts anxiety depression stress stressed kids teen health teenagers Source Type: organizations

Preparing your child for a flu vaccinationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Most children have some fear of needles and may get scared before a vaccination. You might think the best way to handle this anxiety is to avoid telling your child about a vaccination ahead of time. But, like usual, honesty is the best strategy. Here, Child Life specialists offer tips and techniques for preparing your child for vaccination. Before the vaccination Choose a quiet time to talk with your child and speak with a calm and relaxed tone of voice. Use honest, simple explanations that your child can understand. For example, you could say “We need to make sure that you stay healthy. This medicine will help keep you...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 10, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) child life distraction technique fear needle vaccination vaccine Source Type: organizations

How babies understand expressions and emotionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Today, the Boston Globe features the work of researcher Charles A. Nelson, PhD, who runs Children’s Hospital Boston’s cognitive neuroscience laboratory. Nelson studies how babies learn to decode facial expressions by monitoring the connection between children’s eye movements and their brain activity. He hopes to learn how people distinguish faces and how we learn to link expressions with emotions. Here, you can read about how Nelson’s lab is exploring how babies see race. In this article, find out how Nelson is studying the brain development of babies with a higher risk of autism to discover early indic...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 10, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Graham Tags: All posts decoding facial expressions early signs of autism facial recongnition how babies learn how babies see race neglect and the brain Source Type: organizations

Get rid of those old glass thermometersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
by Lois Lee, MD, MPH, Injury Prevention Program Working in a busy urban emergency department, I often see children with injuries that could have been prevented. One infrequent but real hazard is glass mercury thermometers. Aside from the mercury, we’ve seen children injured by breakage of the glass — either while their temperature is being taken or when the child (or a sibling) is playing with them. This requires us to expose them to radiation from x-rays and CT scans to look for any retained glass. Some children even require minor surgery to remove parts of the thermometer (glass or wires) from their mouth, rectum...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 10, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Research at Children's glass thermometer Injury Prevention thermometer danger Source Type: organizations

The legacy of childhood cancer: Brain cancer and its long term effectsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Celiane Rey-Casserly, PhD, ABPP-CN, director of Children’s Neuropsychology Program and neuropsychologist for the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Every year, about 2,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with a brain tumor. Thanks to better technology and treatments, children are now surviving brain tumors at increasing rates. But as these survivors age, pediatric cancer specialists like me are beginning to understand that the legacy of childhood cancer extends well into adulthood. We’re learning that survivors of brain tumors face a variety of late effects from ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 9, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Source Type: organizations

A new eco-perspective on preventing an epidemic: How H1N1 compares to SARS and the Nipah virusEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, physician in Medicine at Children’s and faculty, Center for Health and the Global Environment Sometimes the best perspectives come from far away places and few places are farther from Boston than Singapore, a small yet highly developed island nation in southeast Asia where I spent much of October. The distance between Boston and Singapore is more than geographic, however. While I was away, H1N1 reclaimed the national spotlight back home. Not a day went by without mention of it in the news. It became the topic of conversation among doctors and patients everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 9, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) perspective on flu preventing epidemic SARS SARS and H1N1 Singapore flu Source Type: organizations

A new perspective on preventing an epidemic: How H1N1 compares to SARS and the Nipah virusEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, physician in Medicine at Children’s and faculty, Center for Health and the Global Environment Sometimes, the best perspectives come from far away places and few places are farther from Boston than Singapore, a small, developed, and modern island nation in southeast Asia, where I spent much of October. The distance between Boston and Singapore is more than geographic, however. While away, H1N1 influenza reclaimed the national spotlight back home. Hardly a day went by without mention of it in the news. It became the topic of conversation among doctors and patients everywhere. Well, almost e...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 9, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) perspective on flu preventing epidemic SARS SARS and H1N1 Singapore flu Source Type: organizations

This week on Thrive: Nov. 2 – 6Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here’s a quick look at what Thrive was up to last week. Read why the days of jumping back into a game after a possible concussion are over. A new study shows that adult survivors of childhood cancer are much more likely to experience suicidal thoughts than their peers. Children’s expert Ellen Hanson, PhD, questions whether autism really is on the rise. An experimental heart valve saves a child with H1N1. Children’s has established and unprecedented partnership with the state’s largest health plans. The HealthMap team gives its weekly H1N1 update. Children’s Dennis Rosen, MD, questions whether sleeping late can ke...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 8, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician autism cancer Center on Media and Child Health CEO blog Children's Hospital Informatics Program concussion flu Flu vaccine h1n1 Health Reform HealthMap injury Injury Prevention James Mandell blo Source Type: organizations

Health headlines: More H1N1 news, Down syndrome and smart phones for toddlersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Other stories we’ve been reading: The Swiss drug maker, Novartis, says it will meet the United State’s H1N1 vaccine order on time and new research shows that people on cholesterol-lowering drugs are twice as likely to survive seasonal flu hospitalizations. The World Health Organization announced, again, that the H1N1 vaccine is safe and that one dose is enough for everyone except children under the age of 10, who need two doses. NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed Children’s experts about what parents should do when they think their child has the flu. Does your toddler have enough educational toys? This writer argues...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 7, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Down syndrome Flu vaccine h1n1 health headlines media seasonal flu swine flu swine flu vaccine Vaccines Source Type: organizations

The 411: teens and self-esteemEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the beginning of October, we blogged about how the French Parliament was trying to pass a law stating that published images must have a bold face notice saying if they are digitally enhanced. It got us to thinking about the sorts of images that teens are exposed to every day in magazines and television shows. How are they affected by it? What sort of pressure are teens under in order to obtain “perfection”? Here, guest blogger Tynaya, a 17-year-old youth advisor for Children’s Hospital Boston’s Center for Young Women’s Health, lets us know what she thinks. Ever wonder how the media affect...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 6, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts digitally enhanced images media teen health teens and media Source Type: organizations

Aren’t the lessons in violent or sexual media damaging regardless of how graphic they are?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed “s. lists” and sex in the media. Here’s this week’s question: Q: My 10 & 12-year-old children want to go to PG-13 and R rated movies with their friends, whose parents think that the sexual innuendo and violence “goes over their heads” because the movies don’t show the graphic details of the sex act or the actual bullet hitting the person. Aren’t the lessons implied and taught damaging to children regardless of the ca...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 6, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician Center on Media and Child Health Michael Rich Source Type: organizations

A Children’s expert answers parents’ questions about the swine fluEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Joanne Cox, MD, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Primary Care Center, answers questions about H1N1 during a Karson & Kennedy Morning Show on MIX 104.1. She dispels common myths and answers questions about the swine flu virus and vaccine, like: How do you know if you have regular flu or H1N1? Can you be immune if you’ve already had swine flu? Is there harmful mercury in the vaccine? Related posts:Thimerosal, squalene and Guillain-Barré: Expert answers to your seasonal and H1N1 flu questionsWhy are you getting your child vaccinated? Four parents’ answers.Should my child get the swi...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 6, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Graham Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) h1n1 answers myths about h1n1 parents questions about swine flu Source Type: organizations

Does sleeping late keep you slim?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Is it possible that children who sleep in on the weekends and holidays are less likely to be overweight than their sleep-deprived counterparts? A recent study suggests as much. But Children’s Hospital Boston sleep specialist Dennis Rosen, MD, says that the study’s findings are problematic. Here, he explains why letting your child sleep in isn’t such a good idea. by Dennis Rosen, MD The connection between insufficient sleep and overweight and obesity is well recognized and has been demonstrated in multiple studies over the last several years. In the November 2009 issue of Pediatrics, researchers report t...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 5, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts obesity sleep Source Type: organizations

H1N1 (swine flu) weekly update: Oct. 28 – Nov. 3Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program. Afghanistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Croatia, Belarus, Slovenia, Austria, and the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Yukon reported their first H1N1 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the number of global H1N1 deaths jumped to over 5,700 worldwide. In other statements, WHO reiterated that the vaccines are safe, that one dose is sufficient for adults and children over 10, and that pregnant women should be vaccinated since they are a high-risk group. Researchers at the annual meeting of the Infectiou...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 5, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: The HealthMap Team Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) Flu vaccine HealthMap swine flu vaccine Source Type: organizations

An unprecedented partnership with the state’s largest health plansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As Washington works toward national health reform, we’re pleased to announce that Children’s has established an unprecedented partnership with the state’s largest health plans to help accelerate the transformation of the pediatric care delivery system by expanding innovative approaches and models of care. Working with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, Children’s and its physicians volunteered to cut its fiscal year 2010 payment rates. A portion of these savings will be targeted to support such efforts as: SCAMPs (Standardized Clinical Assessment and Managem...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 4, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: James Mandell, MD, CEO Tags: All posts CEO blog posts efficiency at hospitals integrated care model for national health reform partnership with health plans SCAMPS Source Type: organizations

An experimental heart valve saves a child with H1N1Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Wall Street Journal features a story about a Children’s Hospital Boston patient with congenital heart disease who was stricken with H1N1 and required a new heart valve. Because the boy was too sick to undergo open-heart surgery, James Lock, MD, led a team that implanted the new valve using a catheter. Lock and Peter Laussen, MD, chief of cardiovascular critical care at Children’s, talk about how H1N1 presents a serious problem for children with heart disease. Last week, a multicenter study led by Children’s reported good preliminary results in 30 patients receiving this catheter-implanted valve, which...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 3, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Graham Tags: H1N1 (swine flu) Source Type: organizations

Is autism really on the rise?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo by Webb Chappell By Ellen Hanson, PhD, Developmental Medicine Center “Has autism increased or hasn’t it?” As a researcher and psychologist with a specialty in developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), this is a question I get all the time. I wish I had a short answer, but I don’t. On the other hand, if you have a few minutes, read on. The question is a really important one. A study just came out in Pediatrics, saying that the prevalence of ASDs is now one in 91 U.S. children – and one in 58 boys. This is much higher than the most recently quoted rate of one in 150. And that is up fro...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 3, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Research at Children's autism Source Type: organizations

Suicidal thoughts in childhood cancer survivorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Cancer care for children has improved dramatically in the last 40 years. Prior to the 1970s, childhood cancer was often a fatal diagnosis. Now, thanks to advances in cancer treatments, about 80 percent of pediatric cancer patients can expect to be cured of their cancer and grow into to adulthood. Unfortunately, the intensive treatments needed to cure children of their cancers can have significant effects on their physical and emotional health later in life. As the number of childhood cancer survivors rapidly increases, doctors and scientists are performing research into the long-term effects of cancer and its treatment. ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 2, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Melissa Jeltsen Tags: All posts cancer chemotherapy pediatric cancer suicide treatment Source Type: organizations

Concussions: heads, you loseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many athletes think they’ll never make it to the big league unless they’re willing to play hard and take a few knocks on the field. But does playing hard mean that they should play hurt—especially if they’ve had a blow to the head? At every level of competitive sports, coaches, athletes and parents are rethinking when it’s appropriate for athletes return to the game. As Children’s Hospital Boston’s William Meehan, MD, director of the Sports Concussion Clinic in the Division of Sports Medicine, writes in an article for The MetroWest Daily News, the days of an athlete having his bell r...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 2, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Nitya Rao Tags: All posts athlete and concussion brain injury head injury sports injury treating concussions young athlete and head injury Source Type: organizations

This week on Thrive: Oct. 26 – 30Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here’s a look at what Thrive was up to last week. Frances Jensen, MD, senior associate in Neurology, was featured in a piece on 60 Minutes about the prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of funding research that can lead to its cure. It’s clearer than ever before: American children are suffering from a Vitamin D deficiency. A novel surgery saves one baby’s vision. The HealthMap team gives our weekly H1N1 update. Children’s doctors talk about how easily H1N1 spreads and Dr. Sanjay Gupta visits Children’s. Our Mediatrician tackles “s. lists” and a Children’s expert offers parents a guide to a healthfu...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - November 1, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician eating well epilepsy Flu vaccine h1n1 HealthMap infants Michael Rich parenting seasonal flu sex education swine flu swine flu vaccine teen health teenagers unhealthful eating Vaccines vita Source Type: organizations

Health headlines: Artificial bones, puberty blocking drugs and Halloween treatsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Other stories we’ve been reading: Surgeons put an artificial bone in a 3-year-old’s arm. Parents can use these guidelines for letting their diabetic kids enjoy Halloween’s treats. Listen to the new guidelines being reviewed by British doctors that would lower the country’s age limit for transgender patients receiving puberty-blocking drugs. The segment begins at the 34 minute marker. Multiple studies show how pregnant women getting the flu vaccine is an important way to protect their babies. Sesame Street characters Elmo and Rosita show your child the right way to sneeze. Last weekend, Emergency Department doct...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 31, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts artificial bone diabetes flu Flu vaccine health headlines infants media seasonal flu swine flu swine flu vaccine transgender Vaccines Source Type: organizations

Trick and treatmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Georgia makes a pretty princess. Each year, many Children’s Hospital Boston patients dress up and go trick-or-treating throughout the hospital. The children love to decorate their bags and the inpatient floors in spooky themes. The staff get in on the fun too. Here are some of today’s costumed kids. Do you have Halloween photos of your children you’d like to share? Email them to us—and tell us their names—at thrive@childrens.harvard.edu and we’ll include them in our gallery. Alyssa goes as a cute Kitty. Kitty Sophia goes trick-or-treating with her mom, Cecilia. Vladimir is a brav...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 30, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Graham Tags: All posts hospital halloween patients trick or treat photos of costumes Source Type: organizations

A parent’s guide to HalloweenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Halloween. For kids, it’s a once-a-year opportunity to dress up as someone (or something) else for a night, adventure around the neighborhood after dark and, of course, stockpile candy. But along with the thrills comes some serious considerations. We talked to Children’s psychiatrist Stuart Goldman, MD, about appropriate costumes, scary decorations and how to make the candy last. This year, it seems like most of the costumes marketed towards kids are inappropriate. How do you explain to kids why they can’t have that sexy outfit, or why the neighbor kids are wearing itty bitty nurse outfits or gruesomely gory ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 30, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Kristin Cantu Tags: All posts media Source Type: organizations

Can I blame the “S. List” on all the sex in the media?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed whether you should take your child to see Where the Wild Things Are. Here’s this week’s question: Q: I’ve been hearing about the high school in NJ where older girls are putting freshman girls’ names on a “s. list”—and the worst part is that being on the list is considered a good thing! I can’t help thinking that all the sex in the media is to blame for girls thinking it’s a badge of honor, but maybe I’m overreact...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 30, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Ask the Mediatrician Michael Rich sex teenagers Source Type: organizations

Dr. Sanjay Gupta visits Children’s to check on flu prepEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a special report from the Children’s Hospital Boston’s Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to Children’s Anne Stack, MD, about what precautions the hospital is taking to prepare for a potential influx of flu patients. Related posts:No one’s worried about H1N1?Glass-table injuries to children prompts industry changesA study reignites the question: Do current levels of BPA exposure represent a true health hazard to children? (Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston)
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 29, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine Source Type: organizations

Children’s doc talks on NECN about how easily H1N1 spreadsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Ron Samuels, MD, MPH, associate medical director of the Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center, was interviewed last night on New England Cable News about how quickly and widely H1N1 can spread compared to the seasonal flu, the importance of mass vaccination and how Children’s is having a high volume of patients with flu-like illness in its emergency room. Related posts:Does my child have the common cold, seasonal flu or H1N1?How to protect your child from H1N1H1N1 (swine flu) weekly update: Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 (Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston)
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 29, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Matt Cyr Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) Flu vaccine seasonal flu swine flu vaccine Vaccines Source Type: organizations

H1N1 (swine flu) weekly update: Oct. 21 – 27Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here are this week’s H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program. Serbia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Finland, Russia, and the U.S. state of North Dakota have all reported their first H1N1 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that there have been 414,945 confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide, and nearly 5,000 deaths. The WHO’s Director-General Margaret Chan also stated that the pandemic would reach its natural end when enough people had become immunized. United States President Barack Obama declared H1N1 (swine flu) a national em...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 29, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: The HealthMap Team Tags: All posts H1N1 (swine flu) Children's Hospital Informatics Program Flu vaccine HealthMap seasonal flu swine flu vaccine Vaccines Source Type: organizations

Seeking sight: A novel surgey saves one baby’s visionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
After her daughter was born with a non-cancerous tumor obstructing her left eye, Katie Lane spent an afternoon lurching around her Waltham home, her hand blocking one eye, imagining life with monocular vision. With 20/20 eyesight, neither she nor her husband, Dan, even owned reading glasses. Now they were faced with the possibility that their daughter would be partially blind. Little Kyleigh’s right eye was perfect: pale blue and brimming with mischief. But much of her left eye was covered by a choristoma, a tumor made up of normal tissue that formed in the wrong spot. After spending five days in the Neonatal Intensive C...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 28, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Melissa Jeltsen Tags: All posts artifical cornea choristoma cornea surgery corneal transplant eye patch eye surgery ophthalmology vision Source Type: organizations

Vitamin D: A generation at riskEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A study in the November Pediatrics adds to mounting evidence that the U.S. population is starved of an important nutrient—vitamin D. Based on the latest analysis of national data, roughly 20 percent of all children in this country fall below the blood level of vitamin D recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (50 nmol/L). And far more—two thirds—fall below 75 nmol/L, the level many people now believe should be the standard. A shocking 80 percent of Hispanic children and 92 percent of Black children fall short. If not corrected, this deficiency will put an entire generation of children at greater risk. Vitam...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 27, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Nancy Fliesler Tags: All posts Research at Children's vitamin D Vitamin D deficiency Source Type: organizations

Frances Jensen on 60 Minutes: Why funding epilepsy research is importantEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Last night, Frances Jensen, MD, senior associate in Neurology, was featured in a piece on 60 Minutes about the prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of funding research into its cure. Watch the piece here, then keep reading below as Jensen describes how epilepsy is often overlooked as a public health problem and how researchers like her are trying to stop it in its tracks. Also watch below as Jensen shows Katie Couric what an epilepsy looks like from a molecular perspective. Watch CBS News Videos Online By Frances Jensen, MD Last night, research by myself and my team was featured on 60 Minutes in a wonderful story abo...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 26, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Research at Children's Bumetanide epilepsy epilepsy surgery Frances Jensen neuroscience Source Type: organizations

Why funding epilepsy research mattersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Last night, Frances Jensen, MD, senior associate in Neurology, was featured in a piece on 60 Minutes about the prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of funding research into its cure. Watch the piece here, then keep reading below as Jensen describes how epilepsy is often overlooked as a public health problem and how researchers like her are trying to stop it in its tracks. Also watch below as Jensen shows Katie Couric what an epilepsy looks like from a molecular perspective. Watch CBS News Videos Online By Frances Jensen, MD Last night, research by myself and my team was featured on 60 Minutes in a wonderful story abo...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 26, 2009 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Children's Hospital Boston staff Tags: All posts Bumetanide epilepsy epilepsy surgery Frances Jensen neuroscience Source Type: organizations