• A blue or purplish tinge to the child’s skin, often around the fingernails or the mouth
• Rapid breathing
• Poor blood flow to the hands and feet. Your child’s hands or feet might feel much colder than usual, or their fingernails might take longer than a couple of seconds to turn pink again after being squeezed
• A rash caused by broken blood vessels under the skin. This kind of rash can be a symptom of meningitis. Some rashes will go away if you press them, but this kind won't.
• You can check by rolling a glass over the rash
• Drowsiness or loss of consciousness
• A seizure
• A fever measuring over 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Also, trust your instincts. If you have a bad feeling that something might be seriously wrong, go ahead and take your child to the hospital. Those instincts are often correct, and if they're wrong, no harm is done by being cautious.

Here is the full report from Consumer Reports.

• Weakness of the face, arm or leg, usually on one side of the body
• Trouble walking due to weakness or trouble moving one side of the body
• Problems speaking or understanding language, including slurred speech, trouble trying to speak, inability to speak at all, or difficulty in understanding simple directions
• Severe headache, especially with vomiting, sleepiness, or double vision
• Trouble seeing clearly in one or both eyes
• Severe dizziness or unsteadiness that may lead to losing balance or falling
• New appearance of seizures, especially affecting one side of the body and followed by paralysis on the side of the seizure activity.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends parents don't buy these bracelet charms and pendants, and throw away any that they already have. Don't try to sell them!

Some Chinese manufacturers have started using cadmium in these trinkets to replace lead, which they were required to remove by safety regulators. Cadmium is just as bad.

The health danger comes when children chew, suck on or even swallow these shiny metal trinkets.

One can be a solo operation, using a necktie, belt or other type of binding to put pressure on the carotid artery in the neck. The other method involves a partner, who can apply pressure to the neck or chest until the subject passes out, cutting off blood flow to the brain.

The resulting rush of oxygen once pressure is released generates a pleasurable sensation, or "natural high."

Statistics on the exact number of deaths over the years can be difficult to ascertain because such deaths are often mistaken for suicide. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in February 2008, from surveying news stories, that the game probably resulted in 82 deaths from 1995 to 2007.

The relatively low incidence rate corresponds to fewer physicians being aware of the game than is ideal. In an Ohio survey, only 68% of responding physicians had heard of the game. However, there is plenty of reason for doctors to learn about and screen for the signs of patients playing this game: there have been at least 65 YouTube videos of the game, and according to surveys, many children do not realize the dangers associated with the game. An Injury prevention article reported that as many as 40% of students in a survey “said they perceived no risk from [the game].”

Doctors are encouraged to educate themselves and their patients about the game, and to look out for signs such as “unexplainable headaches, red marks dismissed as hickeys, bloodshot eyes, signs of depression,” says Khan in the Times story.

The Associated Press reports:

The recall of Simplicity-manufactured cribs began in December 2005. More than 2 million Simplicity drop-side cribs have been recalled so far because of problems with their plastic hardware. Some of the recalled cribs have the Graco logo and Winnie the Pooh motif.

The crib's hardware can break or deform, causing the drop side to detach. This detachment creates a space between the drop side and crib mattress that babies can roll into and become entrapped, leading to suffocation risk.

The CPSC says caregivers should check their cribs to see whether they have a recalled Simplicity crib. If they do, consumers should stop using them immediately and should not attempt to fix the cribs.

Although many babies have found comfort in these hammock beds, there is a hidden risk of suffocation: as the bed moves back and forth, babies could roll and become trapped or wedged against the fabric or the mattress pad. In fact, as Jennifer Kerr reports, two infant deaths in the United States have been associated with Amby Baby Motion Beds, which prompted the CPSC’s recall of the product.

In her story, Jennifer Kerr quotes Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger, “There is currently no safety standards that would cover hammocks.” Kerr says that safety advocates maintain that it’s safest for babies to be “in cribs or bassinets with a firm bottom support and no soft bedding, gaps or other points where they could become trapped.”

The CPSC urges parents to immediately stop using the hammock beds for the safety of their babies.

The causes of deaths include, among others, airway obstruction, strangulation, and blunt force. Dangerous toys also account for other serious injuries like laceration and burns, as well as more than 170,000 emergency room visits annually for injuries to children 15 years or younger, according to Don Keenan, Atlanta attorney and child advocate.

Don Keenan has put together a list of Top 10 Dangerous Toys for 2009, available on his website, Keenan’s Kids Foundation. He also has a link to CPSC’s list of recalled toys.

Notably, in Don Keenan’s introduction to the Top 10 Dangerous Toys list, he cautions consumers that many of these dangerous toys, although banned or recalled by the CPSC, still made their way onto the shelves in stores like Target or Walmart. The recalled toys are also easily available on the Internet at sites like eBay or in used toy stores. Other toys that were not recalled also may not be completely safe – in February 2009, the government enacted stringent standards, but Keenan’s Kids Foundation estimates that as many as 5% of toys currently on the market probably do not meet the new safety standards (such as requiring all children products to be tested by a third-party lab to ensure they meet safety standards, and banning the use of phthalates, a plastic softener, or products that contain trace amounts of lead).

Therefore, in this holiday gift-buying season, parents are urged to use extra caution in selecting safe toys, by carefully reading the safety warning label to see if the toy is age-appropriate for your children, and comparing against the CPSC’s recall list.

A true story that happened in Britain recently suggests that the heart monitors shouldn’t replace a trip to the obstetrician if there is any concern for the baby’s health, writes Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times.

According to a commentary published at BMJ.com by doctors of the Princess Royal Hospital in Britain, a woman who was nearly full-term at 38 weeks noticed one day that the baby wasn’t moving. Instead of seeking medical advice, she turned to a home fetal heart monitor and heard what she thought was the baby’s heartbeat. After three days when she finally went to a doctor, an ultrasound scan showed the baby had already died.

Although the doctors cannot know for sure in this case that the baby would have been saved had the mother sought medical advice earlier, they said the monitors should never be used for reassurance. Dr. Chakladar, one of the authors of the BMJ commentary, said that it takes experience to determine the baby’s health. Sometimes what sounds like a baby’s heartbeat may be the mother’s own heart. And even when parents can pick up the baby’s heartbeat, it is still difficult to determine if the baby is healthy or distressed. “If a mother is concerned and feels she needs reassurance, she should immediately consult her doctor,” writes Parker-Pope.

So what is the bottom line? Dr. Chakladar advised, “On their own, these monitors are harmless; it is their improper use by parents to reassure themselves which can be dangerous…they are dangerous if they are used by untrained people as an alternative to seeking medical advice.”

The JAMA study examined four top-selling atypical antipsychotics (powerful drugs prescribed to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder): Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa. Among them, Zyprexa was found to cause the most weight gain: 19 pounds in 11 weeks. It was also found to “significantly raise levels of blood sugar, cholesterol, insulin and triglycerides,” thereby increasing users’ risk of diabetes and heart problems. Patients taking other three medications had an average of 10 to 13 pounds of weight gain.

Dr. Correll, the lead author of the study, recommends using extra caution in prescribing these atypical antipsychotics to youths under the age of 18, and encourages psychiatrists to frequently monitor the weight and metabolic rate of those who are taking these drugs.

Sandra Boodman's article interviews Patricia Dawn about her 4-year-old daughter Brooke's illness, that was eventually discovered to be Kawasaki disease, an unusual heart condition. Brooke got the right treatment in time, but only because of her mother's persistence. Mrs. Dawn refused the recommendation of the emergency room doctors to take her daughter home at 2 a.m. when she wasn't feeling any better but they had run out of things to do. At her insistence, her daughter was hospitalized, and an infectious disease specialist eventually figured out that the red lips, red eyes, fever longer than five days, and swollen lymph node in the neck all were signs of Kawasaki, which affects about 2,000 American children a year.

It was also at the family's suggestion that the infectious disease doctor was brought in who made the correct diagnosis.

The story underlines the importance of having a good advocate present at all times with a patient in the hospital. Even a lay advocate can see when symptoms aren't improving and can insist on action.

I discuss this subject in depth in Chapter 12 of my book, "The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care -- and Avoiding the Worst."

A medical adviser to Consumer Reports and also a board-certified neurologist, Dr. Orly Avitzur says that carrying a heavy backpack can cause low-back pain in children, and carrying the backpack on one shoulder instead of two exacerbates the problem.

Parents can consult some suggestions provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics about how to choose the best-fitting backpack and how to prevent injuries. Consumer Reports has also published its full report and buying guide.

Some of the American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines include the following:

- Always use both shoulder straps. Slinging a backpack over one shoulder can strain muscles. Wearing a backpack on one shoulder may increase curvature of the spine.

- Tighten the straps so that the pack is close to the body. The straps should hold the pack two inches above the waist.

- Pack light. The backpack should never weigh more than 10 to 20 percent of the student's total body weight.

- Organize the backpack to use all of its compartments. Pack heavier items closest to the center of the back.

- Stop often at school lockers, if possible. Do not carry all of the books needed for the day.

- Bend using both knees, when you bend down. Do not bend over at the waist when wearing or lifting a heavy backpack.

- Learn back-strengthening exercises to build up the muscles used to carry a backpack.

- Ask your pediatrician for advice.

But an article appearing in the latest Journal of American Medical Association has good news, as reported by Shirley Wang of The Wall Street Journal: a multicenter trial conducted in 4 U.S. cities found that a group prevention program effectively reduced the risk of subsequent depression for a target group of teenagers.

The study involved 316 “at-risk” teenagers (ages 13-17). All had a history of clinical depression and parents who had had depressive disorders. The youths were assigned to either a group cognitive behavioral prevention program or usual mental health care. After 9 months of treatment, of the teenagers who were assigned to the group CB prevention program and whose parents were not depressed at the time of the study, only 11.7% had a new depressive episode. In contrast, among teenagers in usual care whose parents were not depressed at the time, 40% experienced another episode of depression.

Although the prevention program only worked for teenagers whose parents were not currently depressed, the new finding is still encouraging, shedding light on future research directions and clinical recommendations.

Although scientists have not had a chance to develop conclusive findings on the health effects of texting because the phenomenon emerged so recently, they already see that the behavior causes “anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.”

Dr. Martin Joffe, a pediatrician in Greenbrae, California, surveyed two local high schools and found many of the students regularly send hundreds of texts every day. When a text message comes in or goes out every few minutes, it’s almost impossible for a student to stay focused on his or her work. That results in, among other things, poorer school performance and disrupted sleep at night.

Teenagers often rely on text messaging to get immediate updates on their buddies’ lives because they are genuinely interested in what’s going on with their friends. Many of them also are driven by a fear of being “out of the loop,” says Michael Hausauer, psychotherapist in Oakland, California. The nonstop line of communication created by so much texting can, Mr. Hausauer worries, make teenagers feel “frightened and overly exposed.”

The 80-text per day “thumb exercise” may also result in musculoskeletal diseases often found in computer users, said Peter W. Johnson, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington. “Intensive repetitive use of the upper extremities,” be it on the computer keyboard or on a cell phone, can lead to temporary or permanent musculoskeletal disorders.

Teachers and parents are often unaware of the extent to which texting has affected the children’s physical and mental health. But once they learn of the problem and impose some restrictions – such as a no-texting window overnight or a limited number of texts allowed each month – they can see visible improvements in the students’ grades and probably energy level too, from regained quality sleep.

The FDA is advising consumers to stop using these face paints, which were manufactured by a Shanghai, China company. The agency has also published a complete list of face paint products in this recall.

On May 13, 2009, Chicago’s City Council joined a handful of other jurisdictions in a unanimous decision to ban the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups that are made with BPA and intended for children under the age of 3, reports Karen Ann Cullotta of the New York Times.

One of the reasons why not more jurisdictions are banning BPA use in plastic containers is the lack of direct evidence that human exposure to this chemical is harmful to our health. So far, all the evidence for the adverse effects of exposure to BPA comes from animal research studies. FDA said last year that BPA levels found in products appeared to be safe – a conclusion condemned by a panel of scientific advisers to the agency, saying the FDA “ignored crucial studies and used flawed methods.”

To protect their children from exposure to BPA and its potential dangers, parents can turn to the BPA-free products that are already available at retailers.