Pediatrics In the News
Stay cool this summer and drink plenty of water
Galveston County Daily News, July 7, 2010
When the weather gets above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the only way for the body to cool itself and stay at 98.6 degrees is to sweat, write UTMB Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly in their Keeping Kids Healthy column. “Sweating is effective in keeping the body at its normal temperature, but the body has to have plenty of water to produce sweat. When your body runs out of water, you can overheat quickly. … Even if your child doesn’t say he or she is thirsty, they still should drink because usually by the time you’re thirsty — you’re already dehydrated. Caffeinated drinks should be avoided because they can cause dehydration.” Read more here ...
Tragedy in the backseat: Hot-car deaths
By Melissa Balmain, Parenting.com
Each year about 37 babies and toddlers die when they are accidentally left strapped in car safety seats or become trapped in vehicles that rapidly heat up. Read more here ...
Protect your children from summertime parasites
Galveston County Daily News, June 30, 2010
In their Keeping Kids Healthy column, UTMB Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly offer tips to parents on protecting their children from parasitic infections that occur during the summer months.
Protecting your children from insect bites, stings
Galveston County Daily News, June 23, 2010
In their Keeping Kids Healthy column, UTMB Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly offer tips to parents on what to do if their child is stung or bitten. “Venomous insects inject painful, toxic venom through their stingers. The stings are painful, red and can swell up to 12 inches from the site of the sting. This is called a local reaction. A person who is allergic to the venom of the insect might have a systemic or ‘whole body’ reaction. Redness, hives and swelling can occur, and this type of reaction can affect airways, as well as circulation and could become life threatening if not treated in time. Nonvenomous insects bite in order to feed on your blood. Allergic reactions do occur from nonvenomous insect bites, but severe allergic reactions are rare. The two greatest risks from most insect stings and bites are allergic reaction, which can be fatal,” they wrote. Read more here ...
Fourth of July: Wave your flag, not your Roman candle
As the Fourth of July rapidly approaches, kids around the country have begun stockpiling their mini arsenals of fireworks. I, too, remember ...Read more here ...
Baby Fat Might Indicate Obese Future
Beaumont Enterprise, June 23, 2010
A recent UTMB analysis found in retrospect that 16 percent of 6-month-olds treated at the UTMB pediatric clinic between April 2005 and December 2007 were obese — at or beyond the 95th
percentile. The percentile shows the relative position of the child’s body mass index number among children of the same sex and age. Children with a body mass index at or greater than the 95th percentile are considered obese. Those children, researchers found, had a greater chance of being overweight and obese at 2 years than children who were in a normal weight range at 6 months.
Make pool time as safe as possible
Galveston County Daily News, June 16, 2010
In their Keeping Kids Healthy column, UTMB Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly urge parents to ensure that correct safety measures are in place to protect children against entering the pool without proper supervision. “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission states 77 percent of the children had been seen 5 minutes or less before being missed and subsequently discovered in the pool. Different methods of protection can be put into place that will create as close to a fail-safe system as possible.”
Read more here ...
Tips on preventing, treating swimmer’s ear
Galveston County Daily News, June 9, 2010
Swimmer’s ear, known in the medical world as otitis externa, is an infection in the middle ear, the tubular opening that carries sound into the eardrum. The culprit is usually bacteria or fungi settling into a breakdown in the ear canal’s skin. If you think your child has swimmer’s ear, you can do some things to make your child more comfortable. A warm, not hot, heating pad over the ear, over-the-counter pain reliever, and keeping your ears dry while showering are all things you can do until you can make it in to see a physician. Read more here ...
The challenges of treating youths with bipolar disorder
Psychiatric Times, June 2, 2010 Dr. Karen Dineen Wagner, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at UTMB, writes that there is substantial controversy about the use of psychotropic medications in youth, especially in children, with bipolar disorder. “The widespread use of atypical antipsychotics in this age-group is of particular concern, given their cardiometabolic risks. Yet, to date, atypical antipsychotics have the largest evidence base for their efficacy in the treatment of youths with bipolar I disorder, manic or mixed. … Despite the current limitations regarding medications, there has been a remarkable increase in the evidence base regarding treatment of BD in youths in the past five years. Studies are needed that compare different classes of medications, examine the safety of long-term medication use, determine the efficacy of medications in young children and assess the effectiveness of medication combinations.” |
Children’s eyes need protection from the sun too
Protect your child’s skin from sun’s harmful rays
| Galveston County Daily News, May 26, 2010 “Most of the damage the sun causes to our skin happens when we are children. Even a few serious sunburns can increase your child’s chance of getting skin cancer,” wrote UTMB Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly in their Keeping Kids Healthy column. They offer tips on how parents can prevent sunburn. Read more here ... |
UTMB professor receives research grant to study teen dating
violence and mental health
| GuidryNews.com, May 26, 2010 Dr. Jeff Temple, an assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, will study the impact of teen dating violence on mental health with the help of a research grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. His proposal was selected from a pool of 47 applicants from 19 universities across Texas. The foundation awarded 10 grants totaling nearly $150,000. The one-year grants are capped at $15,000 each. Read more here ... |
Protect your family from lead poisoning
Galveston County Daily News, May 19, 2010
In their Keeping Kids Healthy column, UTMB’s Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly warn that lead-based paint can cause irreversible brain damage, nerve damage, hearing loss and can affect growth organs of the body like the kidneys. In high concentrations — it can kill. It affects children the most because children tend to eat and play with flaking paint chips. But, lead also is found in dust from paint that’s pulverized and in soil around homes that contain lead paint. Read more here ... |
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