News of Interest for Late-in-Life Moms January 14, 2008

In the news:

Celebrity late-in-life moms continue to fuel the late-in-life mom trend.
Actress Courtney Thorne-Smith is a first-time mommy-come-lately at 40. Her son Jacob Emerson was born on Friday, January 11th.
Australian actress Toni Collette is a first-time mommy come-lately at 35. Her daughter Sage Florence was born January 9th.

Seven signs of serious illness in babies
Researchers compiled a checklist of seven signs mothers and healthcare workers can use to identify severe illnesses in newborn infants requiring urgent treatment in hospitals.
The article published in the Lancet said the list helps identify serious illnesses in infants under two months, bridging the gap in a previous checklist that did not cover infants in their first week of life.

The seven clinical signs are:

• history of difficult feeding
• history of convulsions
• movement only when stimulated
• breathing rate of 60 breaths per minute or more
• severe chest indrawing
• temperature over 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit
• temperature under 95.9 degrees Fahrenheit

Breast is best for reducing stress
Along with helping a mother to form a close bond with her infant, new research suggests breastfeeding may also help kids be more resilient to stress. Utilizing information compiled by parents, teachers, health-care workers and midwives, researchers found that breast-fed children were significantly less anxious than children who had not been breast-fed.

Study disproves Mercury-vaccine link to autism
A new study provides more proof that childhood vaccines with mercury as a preservative -- no longer on the market -- did not cause autism.
The study involved children diagnosed with autism in California from 1995 to 2007. It found that the number of autism cases continued to rise through that period even though the preservative thimerosal was removed from most vaccines in 2001.

FDA cracks down on makers of "biodentical" hormones
The Food and Drug Administration ordered seven pharmacies to stop making "false and misleading" claims about custom-made "bioidentical" hormones for menopausal symptoms.
The FDA took action against the pharmacies, which often market their compounds online, for three main reasons:

• claiming their mixtures could prevent or treat illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke and cancer
• claiming the mixtures were superior to approved commercial drugs
• and using the hormone estriol, a weak estrogen that isn't FDA-approved