Vaccines: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Most of us have not had personal experience with illnesses like measles, mumps, German measles, or polio. Thank goodness for that. It is because a generation ago individuals, families, and doctors choose a different path. They witnessed loved ones stricken with these diseases. When the opportunity arose to protect themselves from these ...

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Here in the Boston area, we’ve all been shaken by the news that a known sexual offender raped and molested children for years at a daycare just north of the city—even babies. It’s beyond horrible. For those with a child in daycare, this story is especially terrifying. You can’t help thinking: could this happen to my child? Ultimately, the sad truth is that we can’t always stop these things ...

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This series is brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. ADHD Diagnoses Up Sharply. The rates of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis has increased by nearly 25% over the past decade. 2. New HIPAA Rules Fortify Patient Privacy. Addressing 15 years of digital advances in health record information, the Department of Health and Human Services released stronger rules and protections governing patient privacy. 3.
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My first encounter with a children’s hospital was as a first grader in 1980, when my 5-year-old cousin was diagnosed with cancer. Although her family was challenged to afford her cancer treatments, St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis welcomed her and treated her cancer into remission. I remember my parents saying, “Everybody in that hospital loves children. No child is turned away.” In 1997, walking into the Children’s Hospital of Alabama ...

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Add to the growing list of reasons antibiotics might not be good for you and your children: a recent study showing a statistical link between early ear infections and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Researchers in the UK analyzed data from about a million children, looking specifically at the 750 who developed IBD (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, mostly.) They then compared the kids with IBD to children without that ...

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My favorite day of the year is December 26th. All work done, house a mess but, who cares – the kids are happy. No dinner to make. There’s enough left-over turkey for the apocalypse. I was sitting by the fire, new book in one hand, glass of Prosecco in the other. I never sit and haven’t read much this year so you’ll forgive me that I did not at first ...

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The problem of bouncy houses and the injuries they cause For around four years in a row, starting around 1996, my husband and I rented one of those inflatable bouncy houses for my son’s birthday party every August. We invited a whole bunch of his friends and cousins to bounce in it for a few hours (and let them play in the sprinkler and fed them cake). Nobody got hurt. Which, in retrospect, ...

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This series is brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. ICD-10 First of Many Health IT Mandates. With 2013 barely started and the "fiscal cliff" debate barely finished, many doctors are worried about a "cliff" of a different sort that they will be facing a year from now -- one dealing with information technology (IT). 2. Fast Foods Tied to Allergies, Eczema in Kids. ...

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This series is brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. Sweetened Drinks Hike Depression in Seniors. Older adults who drink sweetened beverages, and artificially sweetened diet drinks in particular, are at increased risk for depression. 2. Acetaminophen Can Ease Infant's Surgical Pain. When very young babies have major surgery, intravenous acetaminophen can reduce the need for morphine. 3. Beta-Blocker May Boost Lung Cancer ...

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How to get your kids to listen to you We pay a lot of attention to hearing. Newborns get their hearing tested in most states, and periodic hearing screening is part of regular checkups. We know which children cannot hear. So why is it that so many kids don’t listen? When we’re raising little kids, we know that we’re supposed to talk all the time. We yammer on in the grocery ...

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