Child Safety Blog

Tara Parker-Pope discusses a new Yale School of Medicine review of research on bullying from 13 different countries, published in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health.

The review came up with a new finding: there is a link between being a bully and being suicidal. It was previously known that the victims of bullies had a higher risk of suicide than others, but now it seems that the tormentors are also at risk.

From the article:

Compared to other kids, a child who bullies may be at two to nine times higher risk for suicide, according to the study. Girl bullies appear to be at highest risk. Some researchers have also found a “dose-response” relationship, showing that those who bully more frequently are at highest risk for suicide.

While the studies showed an association with bullying and suicide, it wasn’t clear whether the behavior actually increases risk for suicide or whether kids already at risk for suicide are more likely to become bullies or their victims. The researchers noted that most of the studies failed to take into account the influence of factors like gender, psychiatric problems and a history of suicide attempts.

Please read the full article and the comments section, which is full of people who have been bullied discussing how they were brushed off by parents and teachers and other authority figures as over-sensitive or cowardly. Many of the comments are interesting and insightful in their analysis of what bullying does to children's mental health.

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Posted In: Abuse , School Safety

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New research from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that tobacco companies have been deliberately varying levels of menthol in their cigarettes, marketing cigarettes with lower levels of menthol to younger smokers and then increasing the level of menthol with the age of the target demographic. From the article:

One document from R.J. Reynolds noted that all three major menthol brands "built their franchise with YAS (younger adult smokers) ... using a low-menthol product strategy. However, as smokers acclimate to menthol, their demand for menthol increases over time."

In 1987, R.J. Reynolds marketed low-level menthol varieties to persuade consumers to switch from regular brands and to recruit new, young smokers, noting: "First-time smoker reaction is generally negative. ... Initial negatives can be alleviated with a low level of menthol."

This new research serves as a reminder that, despite famous regulations about where and how Joe Camel can be displayed, tobacco companies continue to market deadly products to very young people.

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Posted In: Cancer , Drugs, Tobacco and Alcohol , Product Liability

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Recently, there was an outcry about new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics that suggest giving kids as young as 8 years old cholesterol-reducing statin drugs.

Tara Parker-Pope discusses the controversy in a recent column. Those who object to the new recommendations worry about the drugs' long-term consequences, the AAP's financial relationships with drug companies and the possibility that the new guidelines will lead to overuse of the drugs. The defenders argue that the guidelines specify that only a very small group of children--those with strong genetic and lifestyle risk factors--would even be considered for statin therapy. Parker-Pope's whole article is worth reading, as it discusses both the financial and the medical aspects to this debate.

One problem here is widespread throughout medicine: what some have called "indication sprawl." Once a drug or treatment is recommended for one narrow category of patients, it tends to get indicated for more and more categories with less and less testing and justification for the new categories. But more profit for the drug makers.

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Posted In: Childhood Nutrition , Drugs, Tobacco and Alcohol

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This blog has previously discussed the dangers of bisphenol A (called BPA), a common ingredient in the plastics used to make baby bottles, for fetuses, babies and small children. The intended effect of BPA is to make the bottle shatterproof, which it does, but now evidence of its side-effects are coming to light.

Now four Ohio parents are filing a class-action suit against five baby-bottle manufacturers, alleging that the manufacturers knew about the dangers of BPA but continued to use it in their bottles anyway.

From the article:

The parents, all from Franklin County, sued Avent America of Bensenville, Ill.; Handi-Craft Co. of St. Louis, also known as Dr. Brown's; Evenflo Co. of Vandalia; Gerber Products Co. of Parsippany, N.J.; and Playtex Products of Westport, Conn., on behalf of themselves and others who bought the products.

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Posted In: Childhood Nutrition , Product Liability

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A South Carolina boy named Johnny Jackson drowned more than an hour after he got out of the swimming pool.

How was this possible? Water can remain in the lungs after leaving the pool, and its presence in the lungs prevents the brain from getting enough oxygen. Left untreated, this eventually causes death.

Not many people know about this phenomenon, which is known as "dry drowning." And the symptoms can be hard to spot. From the article:

According to the latest figures, about 3,600 Americans died from drowning in 2005, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including a small percentage that die up to 24 hours later because of water entering the respiratory system. A not insignificant number of the victims are children who died after having a bath.

Dr Daniel Rauch, pediatrician at New York University Langone Medical Center, who spoke to Meredith Vieira on the TODAY show, said there are three important signs that parents and carers should look out for: difficulty breathing, extreme tiredness, and changes in behaviour. All three symptoms result from the brain not getting enough oxygen because of water in the lungs.

Those three symptoms can be easily mistaken for the ordinary after-effects of energetic play, as Dr. Rauch also points out. Therefore it is a good idea to be on the look-out for these symptoms after a child has spent time submerged in water and take the child to the emergency room if he or she has them.

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Posted In: Pool Safety

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Minors who are 16 or 17 years old can donate blood, and many high schools across America host blood drives. But as Tara Parker-Pope points out in the NY Times, 16 and 17 year olds suffer increased health risks from donating blood.

From the article:

Complications like passing out and bruising after donating blood occurred in 10.7 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds and 8.3 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds, compared to 2.8 percent of donors ages 20 or older. Injuries related to fainting were uncommon but higher among the younger teens. There were 86 such injuries, or 5.9 events per 10,000 blood collections, from 16- and 17-year-old donors. Injuries were nearly three times as common in this age group compared to older teens and 14 times more likely compared to donors ages 20 and older. Almost half of all injuries occurred in 16- and 17-year-old donors. Many injuries, like those involving concussions, cuts requiring stitches, dental injuries and a broken jaw, were severe enough to require outside medical care.

Of course the risk of injury to any teen donor is still very slight but, as Ms. Parker-Pope's article points out, a bad experience donating blood may make a teen donor less likely to donate as an adult. A good solution would be to take special care to encourage younger donors to be cautious observant of their own health in the immediate aftermath of a donation and to stay in the company of people who will notice if they begin to pass out.

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Posted In: Organ Donation

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Senate Consumer Affairs subcomittee members sharply critized federal agencies for a slow reaction to the problem of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles and water bottles and other plastic drinking containers. As the linked blog post and article both describe, the National Institutes of Health found cause for "some concern" that BPA has a harmful effect on very young children.

The Food and Drug Administration does not recommend that consumers immediately cease using products with BPA. Some Senators, however, are pushing for legislation that would ban BPA in products intended to be used by children aged 7 or younger.

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Posted In: Infants

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Candi Martinez is filing a wrongful death suit against Las Cruces Public Schools because her daughter Destinie, who had heart disease, died after she was sent to gym class despite a note excusing her for medical reasons and then was kept from the hospital because the school called the wrong parents to obtain consent.

Destinie was kept in class even after she began vomiting.

This case (whatever its merits) reminds us of how the institutional nature of schools can lead to a child's individual medical problems going ignored by teachers and administrators, who may be too busy keeping general order to pay attention to an individual child.

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Posted In: Cases

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The artificial turf used in high school football fields may contain dangerous levels of lead:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission opened an investigation this month after the New Jersey health department found elevated lead levels in two fields, which then were closed.

But until more information comes out, local school districts are not assuming that their fields contain unsafe levels of lead, several officials said.

"I'm not going to alarm parents. There's just not enough data to raise a red flag," said Paula Smith, an assistant superintendent at the Alief Independent School District. "We're in a holding pattern."

Hopefully this is a false alarm. The effects of lead, even small amounts, can be extremely dramatic (though this is usually found in younger children).

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Posted In: Product Liability

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Previously, we blogged about a link between bisphenol A and problems in human development. As the article says, the advisory panel to the National Toxicology Program (part of the NIH) had previously dismissed all concerns about this as "minimal." This new report concludes that there is reason for "some concern." Bisphenol A can cause problems for fetuses, babies, and young children, but apparently not for adult humans.

Plastic industry representatives argued that there are no "serious or high-level concerns", and the National Toxicology Program concedes that more research is needed.

Nevertheless, the bottle maker Nalgene Outdoor Products has decided to stop using plastic containing bisphenol A . This may have something to do with the new report, and may also be related to Canada's plans to declare bisphenol A toxic. In any case, hopefully more studies will be done to determine how much of a threat this is to young children.

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Posted In: Infants , Product Liability

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Given the frequent confusion over what drugs and foods are and are not dangerous to breastfeeding infants, mothers will be relieved to kow that breast-feeding while on seizure medications does not have any apparent harmful effects on children. From the article:

"Our early findings show breast-feeding during anti-epilepsy drug treatment doesn't appear to have a negative impact on a child's cognitive abilities," study author Kimford Meador, of the University of Florida at Gainesville, said in a prepared statement. "However, more research is needed to confirm our findings, and women should use caution due to the limitations of our study."

The study will follow up on these children until they reach the age of six.

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Posted In: Infants

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The migrant worker parents of a 3-year-old Florida boy have won a significant settlement from Ag-Mart Produce, arguing that their child's birth defects were caused by exposure to pesticides in Ag-Mart's fields. This is enough to provide for the boy's expenses for the rest of his life, as the plaintiff's lawyer says. From the article:

Terms of the settlement have been kept private, but the family's attorney, Andrew Yaffa, said the money is "significant." Carlitos will not have to worry about medical care the rest of his life.

"Hopefully, someday, some way through medical research, they will be able to equip him with a wheelchair so he can gain some independence," Yaffa said.

Carlitos' parents said the boy is representative of many more children affected by pesticides, but their families are afraid to come forward. Yaffa credited the family for exposing deplorable conditions in farm work and creating changes that will benefit others for years to come.
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Posted In: Birth Defects

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