Archive for the 'Health & Safety' Category

When choosing toys for your baby or toddler, make sure you inspect them carefully for things that could cause injury.

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these guidelines when choosing safe child toys:

• Make sure each toy is sturdy, well-made, and appropriate for your child’s age.
• Don’t let your baby play with toys that have sharp edges or points, or small parts.
• Make sure parts fit securely and are not loose.
• Read labels to check for safety information. Look for toys that are non-toxic, washable and hygienic.
• Don’t let your baby play with any toys that are smaller than 1 3/4 inches in diameter or 2 inches long, as these may pose a choking hazard.

Source: Yahoo News

Any baby can be affected with yeast infection in the moist diaper area. If the mother has yeast infection during her pregnancy, then there are greater chances for it to transmit to the baby.

Infant yeast infection can also result if the mother does not properly take care of her infant’s vaginal area. Inappropriate bathing to your child can also result in yeast infection.

The yeast infection usually begins with a diaper rash, but does not disappear that much easily and do not heal like a diaper rash.

But, sometimes it is very hard to tell the variation between infant yeast infection and the diaper rash. It can often be confused with diaper rash as this area is the most commonly affected area in every infant. The second most common type of infant’s yeast infection is oral thrush in your infant’s mouth.

If your baby sucks your thumb or fingers, your baby can get yeast infection. If the yeast infection occurs in the diaper area, then you can use special topical ointments.

Symptoms of infant yeast infection:

In some cases, your infant can experience full blown systemic-candidiasis symptoms. But, those who suffer from Candida infection symptoms, the effect and pain on their life are very severe.

Fever in the child strikes fear in many parents’ hearts.

If the child has high fever, parents may get shock that if their child gets an attack or the fever cooks the child’s brain and makes permanent damage.

Perhaps, fever is the most misinterpreted symptom in all of medicine.

But, you need to know the proper method in order to treat the child’s fever and when you should contact your practitioner.

Generally, fever is the body’s normal reaction to infection. Every person has an internal thermostat which controls their body’s temperature.

Whenever an infection exists, some chemicals produce in your body which can affect and reset the thermostat to a higher temperature.

This aids in explaining the chills that your child may experience when his/her temperature increases. So, the baby feels cold whenever his body wants to be at higher temperature. Once the fever breaks, the internal thermostat is turned down to normal.

If you understand how the fever comes, then it greatly helps you to treat the sweats and chills that accompany with illness.

Treating the child’s fever:

If your child has high fever or if he feels uncomfortable with the fever, then you need to go ahead and treat the illness.

Basically, infant colic is defined as uncontrollable crying in your baby that has no definite cause.

Typically, this condition appears in first 2 weeks after the birth. Infant colic is most common condition in bottle-fed infants, but it can also occur in breast-fed infants.

Usually, crying happens during the specific times of the day, most frequently in early evening.

The symptoms of infant colic are different from one another. Some infants have various symptoms while some others have only one symptom.

Here are the most common symptoms of infant colic:

• Your baby cries continuously and loudly from 1-3 hours at a time. These crying events often happen about three or four days in a week.
• Crying can occur at any time, most of the colicky babies cry more in the early evening or late afternoon.
• Colicky baby’s face becomes red due to crying.
• Hands become clenched.
• Baby faces difficulty in falling or staying asleep.
• Your baby can lift the legs and hands and pass the gas.
• Baby’s feet become cool.
• Most of the babies reject to eat or he/she becomes fussy quickly after eating.
• Generally, the baby appears uncomfortable and always feels pain.

Breastfeeding offers various health benefits for your baby. Your baby can easily digest the breast milk.

It contains all the hormones, nutrients, antioxidants, antibodies and various other factors that an infant need to thrive.

The frequency and duration of feeding also increases the concentration of milk fat i.e., the more you feed, the greater the concentration of milk fat.

Here are various health benefits of breastfeeding for your baby:

• Your baby receives the most complete and finest mixture of nutrients and antibodies [Infant nutrition].
• Your baby encounters fewer episodes of vomiting and diarrhea.
• There is a great protection against gastroenteritis and necrotizing enterocolitis.
• Breastfeeding reduces the risk of chronic colic, constipation and various other stomach upsets.
• There is less risk for childhood diabetes.
• Breastfeeding offers great protection against respiratory illnesses, bronchitis, blood poisoning, ear infection, pneumonia, and kidney infection.
• You baby is protected against botulism, meningitis, crohn’s disease, ulcerative enterocolitis, and childhood lymphoma.
• There is less risk for tooth decay.
• Higher IQ’s will be developed by breastfeeding your baby and their brain and nervous system also improves.
• Less risk for developing heart disease in your baby’s later life.

According to a review of data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, from 1990 to 2004, 53 babies died suddenly and unexpectedly in bassinets.

According to Drs. Jodi Pike and Rachel Y. Moon of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the cause of death in 85 percent of the cases was lack of oxygen.

Pike and Moon in their analysis of these deaths, also found that more than one third of the babies had been placed on their stomachs and one half was found on their stomachs.

In 74 percent of cases, items such as blankets [Baby Blanket], pillows, and plastic bags were found in the bassinets.

Nine infants died in bassinets that were not functioning correctly, either from misuse or mechanical problems.

According to a 2007 study, bassinets are most often used in the first 2 months of life, when more than 45 percent of infants sleep in bassinets.

Between 1992 and 2000, the percentage of infants sleeping in bassinets doubled, to almost 20 percent, Pike and Moon note in a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that mainly causes physical defects and mental retardation.

It is due to the existence of an extra copy of chromosome number 21.

This disorder is mainly called as trisomy 21.

Health problems that affect your newborn baby:

• Usually, Down syndrome causes mild to moderate mental retardation or gradual mental growth.
• There is slow development in your baby’s language skills if he/she has Down syndrome.
• Babies born with Down syndrome also have a chance to develop heart problems, among those some children need surgery.
• Intestinal problems, vision trouble, thyroid disease or hearing loss also develop in a baby with Down syndrome.
• The most common physical signs of Down syndrome include: small ears or abnormally shaped ears, upward inclined eyes, broad hands with little fingers, small head, and curved fingers.
• Your baby experiences difficulty in swallowing or he may also have blockages in his intestines or stomach. In order to fix these problems, surgery is essential.
• Frequent ear infection, colds and sinus infection are the most common problems in the babies with Down syndrome.

The transmitting routes of HIV include breastfeeding, which passes the virus from mothers to infants.

This is a major problem in many areas of Africa, where HIV-positive mothers have no alternative to breastfeeding. So far, no practical and effective methods are available to prevent HIV transmission by this route.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a global epidemic threatening the lives of millions of people.

Because there is no known cure, prevention of the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is critical for controlling the disease.

A team of researchers from Lavax (Palatine, Ill.) and the University of Illinois at Chicago is developing a new technology that prevents the infection of HIV by breastfeeding.

They have isolated a special strain of probiotic lactobacilli from the human mouth. It belongs to the same species as those found in dairy foods, such as yogurt and kefir. This strain captures the HIV virus by binding to its outer ‘envelope’.

Because it grows and reproduces itself in milk, once an infant is inoculated with the Lactobacillus, the protection may last until the infant is weaned. This technology offers an easily administered alternative to HIV vaccines, which are currently unavailable.