Medical Therapy

Less Cold and Cough Medicine in Children Means Fewer ED Visits (Article)

 

Cold and cough medications (CCMs) have been linked to a high number of emergency department visits and rare cases of deaths in infants and children. It is for this reason that manufacturers and government agencies stopped recommending these medications be used for children less than four years of age. In 2007, manufacturers voluntarily withdrew infant cough and cold medications sold over the counter from the US market. In 2008, the US government acted to revise labels of over the counter CCMs to warn against use by children < 4 years. These new recommendations and labeling revisions have been followed by efforts to educate parents about the dangers of giving over the counter CCMs to infants.

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New Treatment for Migraine (Article)

If you are one of the 37 million Americans who suffer from migraines, you know the symptoms all too well: pounding pain in a specific area in your head, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound. You continually reach for the Advil to relieve your pain, but it doesn’t always work, or sometimes even causes additional discomfort from side effects. Some other prescription anti-migraine drugs have side effects that numerous patients can’t handle. For example, pregnant women, women who certainly require relief from migraines, often cannot take some of these drugs because some cause birth defects and other potential side effects of the medicines. Shouldn’t there be a more effective, less risky solution? Now there is for adult migraine sufferers and hopefully children as well soon.

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Good News on Baby Shots, But… (Article)

We still have more children to immunize as the recent Disney measles outbreak demonstrates, but there is great cause for celebration by pediatricians and public health officials: vaccination rates among young children are actually quite high. From 2012-2013, many of the most important vaccines for young children such as the measles vaccine (MMR), hepatitis B vaccine, poliovirus vaccine, and chicken pox vaccine have been administered to over 90% of children aged 19 -35 months. It is estimated that this level of vaccination in children born between 1994 and 2013 will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 deaths during these children’s lifetimes.  What a tremendous achievement! But it is too early to rest on our laurels. In order to get the maximum benefit from vaccines for our children, we need to continue to improve vaccine delivery for every child. Currently, we are having problems getting the children of families with either very low and very high incomes vaccinated.
 

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Overweight Kids Misperceive their Weight (Article)

Overweight children who do not perceive themselves as overweight are much less likely to make changes in their life that would improve their body proportions. This is the conclusion of experts who have been studying the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Recent studies have found that children who see themselves as overweight or obese are more likely to get in shape by eating whole foods and exercising. Unfortunately, the same research found that 76% of overweight youth and 41.9% of obese youth age 8 to 15 years old consider themselves to be Continue reading →

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