News of Interest for Moms August 25, 2009

News to know:
CDC's advice to parents: Swine flu shots for all

A Center for Disease Control (CDC) spokesman said the most important thing parents can do to protect their children from swine flu is to have them vaccinated as soon as a vaccine is available.

For additional information from the CDC about swine flu, go here.

Hazards: Lead illness in children linked to car seats

Car seats, as well as a family's car, can become a source of lead poisoning if parents work in jobs that expose them to lead, according to a report published last week.

Six babies and toddlers in Maine were found to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood last year,according to the report in The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . All the children's parents had exposure to lead through their jobs.

Infant car seats may lower oxygen levels

Leaving young infants in car seats for extended periods of time could cause low oxygen levels, putting them at risk for breathing problems, according to a new study published in Pediatrics.

Researchers say car seats are essential for the safe transportation of infants.

Leaving an infant in an upright position for a long period of time can partially compress the chest wall, affecting airway size. Healthy 2-day-old infants placed in car seats for 60 minutes had lower average blood oxygen levels than those lying on their backs in hospital cribs, according to study results.

ADHD drug abuse soars among U.S. teenagers

Calls to poison control centers about teens abusing attention-deficit drugs soared 76percent over eight years, according to a study published in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Researchers evaluated 1998-2005 data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. During that time, nationwide calls related to teen abuse of ADHD drugs, specifically stimulants, increased from 330 to 581 yearly. Overall, 42 percent of teens involved had moderate to severe side-effects and most ended up getting emergency-room treatment.

Calls were from worried parents, emergency room doctors and others seeking advice on how to deal with the problem, which can be deadly. Four deaths were among cases evaluated in the study.



Back to school: Tips to ease the transition

Parent-tested back-to-school tips