Search Results for: label/Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases

• About that pacifier study…

  …initial interview, the parents kept a diary of the babies’ first year of life, recording “food introduction, weaning, diseases, medications and other significant events.” The parents provided this info in a 6-month interview where they were also asked if their child used a pacifier (74% said they did) and whether it was “cleaned by boiling, rinsing in tap water or by the parents sucking on it?” Let’s stop ther…

  Authored by Tara Haelle on May 8, 2013

• YES. The CDC childhood immunization schedule is safe. For reals.

  …s—that is, inactivated or dead viruses and bacteria, or altered bacterial toxins that cause disease and infection—in vaccines.” Antigens are what usually cause most adverse reactions, and they’ve dropped from over 3,000 in 1980 to fewer than 130 in 2000. Still, parents have worried about the additives in vaccines, such as aluminum (an “adjuvant” used to enhance the immune response) and thimerosal (a preservative now only f…

  Authored by Tara Haelle on January 24, 2013

• Anorexia nervosa, neurobiology, and family-based treatment

  period. These results were a clear illustration of just how profound the effects of months of starvation were on the body and mind. Alas, Keys’ findings were pretty much ignored by the field of eating-disorders treatment for 40-some years, until new technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and research gave new context to his work. We now know there is no single root cause for eating disorders. They’re what researchers call…

  Authored by Jeanne Garbarino on August 10, 2012

• Vaccination attitudes are contagious

  …eople do or think something can be a much more powerful force than being told what should do or think.” But Brunson also found that nonconformers listed more people that they had consulted for their decision (an average 6.7 people, compared to 4.8 among conformers) and more non-people sources (4.4 on average, compared to 3.4 among conformers). Also, 39% of nonconformers said they had actively sought out the non-people sources, compared to 2…

  Authored by Tara Haelle on April 24, 2013

• Vaccine fears: What can you do?

  …st those who promote vaccines for public health are not unknown. The fact that the vast majority of parents overcame those fears and had their children vaccinated has led to some of the greatest public health successes of the 20th century. Thanks to the willingness of people to participate in vaccination programs, smallpox disappeared and polio became a thing of the past in much of the world. Indeed, people in those eras knew, often from personal…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on December 4, 2011

• Pertussis: Get the vax or at least listen to why you should

  …household — especially mom — to protect a young infant from pertussis (whooping cough). The latest news is that Governor Jerry Brown in California signed a bill last Sunday that had been sitting on his desk since September 6 and was the target of a number of rallies by parents who didn’t want to see it pass. Among those fighting the bill was Dr. Bob Sears, who says he walks a middle ground with vaccine policy but in reality tends to flirt with…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on October 10, 2012

• Leah Gerber, conservation biologist and lover of sushi

  …uencers in your career? LG: My first child, Gabriella, was born just after I submitted my application  for tenure – so it was good timing.  And I was able to slow down.  I quickly realized that I wasn’t able to work a 60+hour week.  Before kids, I lived to work.  Now, I work to live.  I absolutely love my job and I feel so lucky that I have a career that I believe in and that I am actually paid to do it – it’s not just a hobby.  But havin…

  Authored by Jeanne Garbarino on September 17, 2012

• The path from science to alarmism: How science gets twisted before it gets to you

  …hem have never shown any connection to Autism (or even ADHD, another diagnosis they name-check). In fact, many of them show that with exposure to these chemicals, the outcome differentials between exposure and non-exposure is 5 IQ points. FIVE IQ POINTS. Statistically significant? Perhaps. Practically important for a parent? No. IQ itself is a strange and vague thing. And 5 points isn’t going to move your super-genius down to the level of an aver…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on May 4, 2012

• Why a UN ban on thimerosal in vaccines would be a big mistake

  …ry in thimerosal. As Dr. Walter Orenstein  today’s AAP articles, “Had the evidence that is available now been available in 1999, the policy reducing thimerosal use would likely have not been implemented. Furthermore, in 2008 the World Health Organization endorsed the use of thimerosal in vaccines.” But apparently, the WHO’s endorsement can’t overcome thimerosal’s PR image problem in the eyes of the UN. And so the UN is short-sightedly and d…

  Authored by Tara Haelle on December 18, 2012

• Depressing genes

  me overzealous and attack their own body’s tissue, often leading to serious health problems and death. Only rarely do gene variants cause primarily negative consequences, such as BRCA1, the breast cancer gene, or APOE epsilon 4, the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease gene. If insurance companies did, in fact, try to weed out clients based on their genetic make-up, they would soon find that most gene variants that put carriers at risk for some diseas…

  Authored by DXS Contributor on May 17, 2013