Health

A new government report says that one in 50 children are abused in the first year of their life. Of course we know the psychological damage child abuse can cause, but the report also states that it can affect children physically all the way into adulthood:

“Kids unfortunately who are being maltreated show problems in brain development,” said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who, along with the Administration for Children and Families, created the report. Maltreatment can begin “a trajectory of a number of negative outcomes, including health outcomes,” according to Arias.

Now, the mechanism behind those problems may have been pinned down.

A recent study revealed a physiological connection between child abuse and feelings of intense pain. Researchers at UCLA and the University of North Carolina compared pain responses in a group of women with and without irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with surprising results.

Nowadays the technical advances made in fertility treatments seem commonplace enough to not even be noteworthy any longer. But we’re old enough to remember back when the whole controversy surrounding “test tube babies” and the discussion of whether or not it was “playing god” — seems like it was just yesterday. But apparently not, as the first twins born through in vitro fertilization are celebrated their 25th birthday on the “Today” show:

With [Heather Tilton and her brother, Todd Tilton II] was their mother, Nan Tilton, 56, who had been told that she and her husband, Todd Tilton, Sr., would never have children and should quit trying. She was 30 years old in 1982 and the couple had been married for eight years and been trying to conceive for six.

But her fallopian tubes were blocked and his sperm count was low, and even after five surgeries between the two of them, their chances of conceiving were still virtually zero.

“We tried every technique and were told we would never have a child,” she told TODAY’s Ann Curry. That news was, she said, “absolute heartbreak.”

A Quaker, Nan Tilton prayed for guidance and felt strongly that she should not surrender to medical opinion. “I felt very strongly that if we tried and never gave up, it would work,” she said.

There was one chance, and it was a slim one at the time. It was a new and controversial technology called in vitro fertilization that generated massive media coverage in 1978 when the first child, Louise Joy Brown, was born in England.

As parents of a preemie ourselves (he was born at 32 weeks), a recent study has done nothing to reduce our already irrational hand wringing and paranoia. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that besides the obvious risks premature babies face when they are born, they may have health problems that extend into adulthood:

Women born prematurely are at greater risk of themselves giving birth preterm or having stillborn children, and their babies have higher rates of death in the first year.

The earlier babies were born, the greater their risk of all these problems, according to the study, which included detailed records from more than 1 million Norwegians born between 1967 and 1988. The study “reminds us that prematurity is a very significant health problem that lasts a lifetime,” says David Adamkin, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, who was not involved in the paper.

In an editorial that accompanies the study, researchers Melissa Adams and Wanda Barfield say doctors might be able to better identify and manage chronic conditions if they know a patient was born prematurely.

Adamkin, the director of newborn medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, says the study reinforces the need to reduce preterm birth. The U.S. preterm birth rate — 12.7% — has increased 20% since 1990, the March of Dimes says.

The parents of a baby boy who was born with a rare condition — missing bones from his arms and legs, must consider total amputation or 8 year long, excrutiating reconstructive surgery which is expensive and painful.

THE parents of a baby boy with a rare condition which could see his legs and an arm amputated, want their brave little boy to be an example to others.
Seven-month-old Cavan Kirkham-MacCallum has hemimelia, which means he was born without crucial bones in his arms and legs.

He is a happy little boy but his future means facing the option of amputation or painful limb reconstruction, which is only available in America and may not be effective.

Cavan’s condition was discovered by his parents, Bernadette and James of Allerton Drive, Burnley, during an ultrasound scan. But so little is known about it that no doctors could give the couple, who have an older son, Joey (6), any real information.

No, not sperm from a 4-year-old, but rather from the girl’s father who had his sperm frozen before dying of cancer in 2004. Hooray for science, for allowing a person’s legacy to live on even after death.

Her father couldn’t be there when she was born. And he won’t be able to watch her grow up.

But Jaimie-Rose Roberts, born four years after his death, will still be a Daddy’s girl.

James Roberts, who died from cancer at 33, had always dreamed of adding to his family.

As he battled his illness, he and his wife Lisa, who already had a son together, decided to have his sperm frozen to ensure they could have more children after his treatment.

Last week, Mrs Roberts fulfilled their dream on her own after a course of IVF treatment that doctors had warned had only a 20 per cent chance of working.

“She’s amazing,” she said as she held her week-old daughter in her arms.

“I hope James is looking down on us with a smile on his face.

A new report from the University of Rochester indicates that kids with stressed, anxious or depressed parents have a higher rate of illness. Does that mean “visibly” stressed? Is it some sort of “placebo effect” (don’t know if that’s the appropriate term here, hey we’re not scientists) caused by the children worrying about their parents? In any case, it does seem to point that kids do better in what they feel is a safe and happy environment.

It also found links between stress and immune system activity in the children.

A UK scientist said children were “highly resilient”, and urged parents not to worry about the findings.

It has long been known that stress can cause immune system changes that make a person more prone to infections and other illnesses.

However, the new study, first published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, is the first to provide evidence that the problem can be transmitted from parent to child.

The researchers, led by Dr Mary Caserta, followed the parents of 169 children over a three-year period, with the parents recording instances of childhood illness, before undergoing six-monthly psychiatric evaluations.

The total number of illnesses was significantly higher in the children of parents with higher levels of “emotional stress”.

Wow, the flu seems to be hitting hard this year, claiming twice the number of children in Massachusetts than usual, and the season isn’t even over yet. Is it too late to get a flu shot? Is there a doctor in the house? Scary stuff.

A 12-year-old Worcester County girl died Sunday from influenza, the fourth Massachusetts child to succumb this year to the respiratory illness, state public health authorities announced this afternoon.

Officials also disclosed that a 15-year-old boy from Newton died Friday of pneumonia triggered by the flu. Neither of the children was identified because of patient confidentiality laws.

Most years, no more than two children die from the flu in Massachusetts. This flu season, though, has proved especially severe, with significantly more cases of the viral disease reported among adults and children than the previous two winters. Disease specialists estimate that during a typical winter, 36,000 people — mainly the elderly and patients with chronic illnesses — die nationally from the flu.

Given the reports that keep coming out about the risks of bisphenol A, a chemical used to make plastic, many people are turning away from plastic containers and switching to reusable glass or stainless steel. This has certainly had an impact on the use of plastic baby bottles as well, and the “old school” glass bottles are making a comeback in a big way:

Some pediatricians advise families to use alternatives to polycarbonate bottles to be on the safe side.

“I can’t assure parents that it’s safe, and I would not use that for my own babies,” said Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician and author of “Raising Baby Green.” “There are a number of BPA-free bottles, and I also love glass bottles.”

As parents turn to glass, manufacturers are responding with new versions of the old-fashioned favorite.

Babies “R” Us had a dramatic increase in glass bottle sales in the spring of 2007 and current sales are more than five times what they were a year ago, the company said, without releasing figures.

Dr. Brown’s, which has been making a polycarbonate bottle for about a decade, introduced a glass version in early January because of customer demand, said Carolyn Hentschell, president of Handi-Craft Co./Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow.

Holy Sh*t! 25% of teen girls have an sexually transmitted disease??

Bring back the chastity belts!!

At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls — nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Among girls who admitted ever having sex, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

Despite the lack of scientific studies linking vaccines and autism, the government has agreed to a settlement in the case of Hannah Poling, whose parents had sued believing that vaccines administered to Hannah caused her autism. Advocates are jumping all over the ruling, claiming it to be the proof they previously lacked. Government officials, however, are cautioning parents from jumping to conclusions:

“Let me be very clear that the government has made absolutely no statement indicating that vaccines are a cause of autism,” Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. “That is a complete mischaracterization of the findings of the case and a complete mischaracterization of any of the science that we have at our disposal today.”

Given that the details of the case have been sealed by court order, what is certain is that there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

Hannah’s father, Dr. Jon Poling, was a neurology resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the time, and she underwent an intensive series of tests that found a disorder in her mitochondria, the energy factories of the cells.

Such disorders are uncommon, their effects can be significant but varied, and the problems associated with them can show up immediately or lie dormant for years.

There are two theories about what happened to Hannah, said her mother, Terry Poling. The first is that she had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that vaccinations aggravated. The second is that vaccinations caused this disorder.

“The government chose to believe the first theory,” Ms. Poling said, but added, “We don’t know that she had an underlying disorder.”

Niemann-Pick Type C, an extremely rare condition that generally affects school age children, is a fatal disease that blocks the body’s ability to metabolize cholesterol, which leads to neurological deterioration. The disease is so uncommon that previously it’s been difficult to diagnose as well as secure funding to research a cure. But now a pricey, experimental drug is giving the parents of these afflicted children hope:

The Hadleys are banking their hope on Zavesca, [a] drug that has slowed progression of the disease in some patients.

“It gives us time,” Bryan Hadley said. “We believe strongly in our faith and that God or doctors, or a little of both, will find a cure.”

The drug will cost about $108,000 per year per child, Hadley said. Their insurance will cover 50 percent, but the financial burden remains overwhelming. He is a wholesale distributor of cell phone accessories, and his wife works in real estate.

Bryan grew up in Salem and graduated from North Salem High in 1989. His family and friends have rallied to organize two local fundraisers to help with medical expenses and to benefit the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. The former football coach lost three of his four grandchildren to Niemann-Pick.

A wine-tasting event is March 7 at Capitol Chevrolet, and a basketball exhibition March 8 at Chemeketa Community College. For tickets, contact the Salem Family YMCA, (503) 581-9622.

“Because it’s so rare, there’s not a whole lot of money going into research for this,” Bryan Hadley said. “That’s why we’re trying to raise awareness.”

We’re already extremely paranoid about the flu, a seemingly innocuous virus that most think will just mean a couple days home from work or school, but that actually kills about 20,000 people a year especially the elderly and young children. The first tragic case at the beginning of this year’s flu season comes from Minnesota, where a Twin Cities 12-year-old has died from influenza.

Police responded to a call around 2:30 in the morning last Monday at the 4200 block of South Fifth Avenue.

When they arrived the 12 year-old girl was already dead.

Neighbors say the girl had been sick for a couple of days.

This as doctors say the flu season has just started in Minnesota.

Counties are also working on a mobilization effort to get more flu shots out to kids.

Doctors at West Health in Plymouth say spring may be around the corner, but the flu season is far from over.

First we had the story of the boy who could only eat deer meat, then we had the British teen who could only eat Tic Tacs, but a 19-year-old in Melbourne, Australia may take the prize — Ashleigh Morris is allergic to water. That’s right, she can’t go swimming, take a long bath, or even get overly sweaty without breaking out in a painful rash ever since she was 14. How awful!

She suffers from an extremely rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria - so unusual that only a handful of cases are documented worldwide.

When Ashleigh gets wet her body explodes in sore, itchy red lumps that take about two hours to ease.

She has to wash. But showering is a painful experience and she can only do it for a minute at a time.

These brief showers are the only contact Ashleigh has with water. The one thing she doesn’t miss is the washing up.

“People find it hard to believe, they say things like ‘Oh my god, how do you wash. “That makes me feel dirty, but I consider myself a very clean person,” she said.

Most of us take showering for granted but for Ashleigh it’s a painful endurance that often reduces her to tears.

Oops, good thing the mother didn’t decide to have an abortion based on the doctor’s information! Pediatricians told a British mother during pregnancy screening that her unborn baby had a rare brain disorder — rhomboencephalosynapsis — that would cause the baby to be born deaf, blind, and that he would probably only live a few hours. Much to everyone’s surprise and delight, the baby was born perfectly healthy, and with full vision and hearing.

Now Brandon [Kramer] is teething and attempting to talk, and Kriss, 24, from Pembroke Dock, South Wales, said: “The fact that he is here now, alive and kicking, truly is a miracle.

“The doctors say that he has defied all the odds but it’s really more than that because he wasn’t given any odds at all.

“He was written off completely and we believed he was 100 per cent certain to be handicapped.”

Becky, 23, whose father Paul Weatherall is Mayor of Pembroke Dock, said: “I feel incredibly guilty thinking that I could have killed him – and then I find myself wondering how many other babies are killed who would have turned out to be completely healthy.

“Just two weeks before he was born scans showed that his head was so swollen it was off the scale for normal babies but when he had an MRI scan on Christmas Eve it was confirmed he was completely healthy.

“We had prepared to spend Christmas without him – we thought we’d be planning a funeral. Instead, it was the best Christmas present ever and now we’re having a christening.”

Last November, we told you about the little girl who was born with 8 limbs, the result of what doctors call a “parasitic twin”. The girl underwent 24 hours of surgery by 30 surgeons, and we’re happy to report that she is recovering nicely and even has taken her first steps:

Lakshmi’s mother Poonam said her daughter, named for the six-limbed Hindu goddess, gets closer to being a “normal child” with each day that passes, the Daily Telegraph reported.

“Lakshmi always knew she was different,” the girl’s mother told Channel 4. “After the operation she instinctively started behaving like a normal child — it’s like she had always been waiting for the opportunity.”

“When she was put in the baby walker she started pushing herself backwards with her legs and burst into laughter with a huge grin on her face,” Poonam Tatma said in the report. “She loves it.”