Cosco and Eddie Bauer car seat recall. In a week or so Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) will announce a recall of more than four million Cosco and Eddie Bauer car seats. The models affected are Cosco Alpha/Omega, Touriva and Hi Back and Eddie Bauer Touriva and Hi Back car seats. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there are two problems: The webbing on 3,957,826 Dorel seats fails to conform to standards for abrasion; and the webbing on 54,400 car seats may degrade when exposed to sunlight. In both cases, the concern is that the seats won’t provide sufficient protection in a crash. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Cybex strollers recalled because hinges pose hazards. A third stroller has been recalled for problems with the hinges after a child suffered a broken finger when he caught it in the stroller’s hinge mechanism. This recall involves 1,200 Ruby, Onyx and Topaz models of Cybex umbrella strollers, sold at department and juvenile product stores nationwide between August 2009 and November 2009 for between $140 and $260. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Cheap bike helmets offer same protection as expensive ones. When it comes to bicycle helmets, spending lots of money to get good protection is not necessary. The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute bought and tested six helmets—ranging in price from less than $10 to more than $200—and found they performed almost identically on standard impact tests. So find one that fits well so that it will be positioned correctly when you hit and then choose based on what you can afford to pay. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are flame-retarding chemicals used in many everyday products, such as mattresses, furniture, computers, televisions, and other electronics. PBDEs are not chemically bound to these products, which means they can be released into the environment. And released they often are, as PBDEs can be found in our air, water, food, household dust—and bodies. Blood samples show that nearly all Americans harbor varying amounts of these chemicals, and children appear to absorb higher levels than adults. (For related information, see Green dreams: “Natural” claims are no guarantee of a greener mattress.)
In a recent study, researchers tested blood samples from the umbilical cords of 210 newborns. They then followed up with these children at ages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. The children with the highest levels of PBDEs in their cord blood scored lower on tests of mental and physical development at all five ages studied. The link was particularly strong at age 4, when verbal and full IQ scores were 5.5 to 8 points lower for those who had the highest PBDE exposure. Overall, the reductions in IQ scores were similar to those associated with low-level lead exposure, say the researchers.
The good news is that some governments and manufacturers are taking note. Three large chemical companies recently agreed to phase out a common form of PBDEs called decabromodiphenyl ether (deca, for short). And deca has already been banned in some states. Several electronics manufacturers have also committed to phasing out PBDE flame retardants in their products.
To learn more, and find out ways to reduce your family's exposure to PBDEs, see the full post on our Health blog.
FTC trains kids to spot scams, ID theft. The Federal Trade Commission has launched a Web site to help students in fifth through eighth grades recognize scams, identity theft, and advertising gimmicks. You Are Here features a virtual shopping mall where children can play games, design ads, and chat with customers and store owners. According to the not-for-profit Identity Theft Resource Center, children themselves can be the subject of identity theft, typically when their Social Security numbers are used by strangers. Learn more in the full Money blog post.
Recall: Salmonella found in salami. Rhode Island firm Daniele International has voluntarily recalled 1.24 million pounds of sausage products, including salami, which may be contaminated with salmonella. As of January 22, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reports of 184 people from 38 states who had been infected with a matching strain of Salmonella Montevideo since July 1, and at least 35 people have ended up in the hospital. Recalled products may still be in grocery stores and in consumers’ homes, including in the freezer. Infants, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are especially likely to develop severe illness. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Pins discovered in pot pies sold as school fundraisers. Frozen chicken pot pies sold as school fundraisers were recalled by Park 100 Foods of Indiana last week after metal straight pins were discovered in one of the pies. Almost 20,000 pounds of pies were distributed for the schools by Market Day. They were produced on October 9, 2009, and were distributed by through Internet or catalog sales in Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in five children ages 12 to 19 now have abnormal lipid levels—a telltale risk factor for the future onset of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among U.S. adults. Of the children in the study, nearly a third were overweight or obese, making them eligible for lipid screening under American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines based on their body mass index (BMI).
The AAP recommends cholesterol screening of children and adolescents with a family history of high cholesterol or heart disease. It also recommends screening patients whose family history is unknown or those who have other factors for heart disease, including obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes. That screening should take place after age two, but no later than age 10. For children who are older than eight and who have high LDL (bad) cholesterol, AAP says cholesterol-reducing medications should be considered. But lifestyle changes can make a huge difference. Talk to your child’s pediatrician about the best course of action.
For related information, see slower eating helps with child obesity, and more child health news.
—Artemis DiBenedetto
Mars and Venus haven’t got a clue as to real differences. Try preparing one meal that both my son and daughter will eat. He’s the Esoteric Eater, and she’s The White Food Queen.
My 11-year-old son has never met an ethnic cuisine he didn’t like. When he was in kindergarten, sushi spider rolls were his favorite food. He likes all the usual foods, but he also likes foods with tentacles and suckers, what he calls “vegetables with mucus” (eggplant and okra are favorites), and anything slippery and bathed in soy sauce. He’s also a heat addict—hot sauce and dried chiles have ended up on his sandwiches.
My 13-year-old daughter distrusts spices, and never ate a vegetable without drinking copious amounts of water to choke it down (with much theatrical gasping and grimacing). For her, sauces and seasonings are taboo—foods should be pristine, should not touch each other (no casseroles for her), and are preferably white. She could happily subsist on white rice, pasta with butter, white bread and plain chicken breast.
Some nights, making a healthy dinner that both will eat feels like an episode of Iron Chef. Add to that a deep resistance on my part to cook multiple meals individually tailored to each member of the family, and it becomes all too tempting to reach for the takeout menu. Do I have the answer? No, but I do have a couple of ideas that have had some success in our family.
Get the kids involved. The University of California, San Francisco’s Children’s Hospital suggests involving children in meal preparation to make foods more familiar. If you’re rushing around trying to fix dinner, the last thing you may want to do is have a bunch of “helpers” that need supervision. But take a deep breath, then assign them specific jobs. It might take a couple of times showing them how to prepare something, but they do get the hang of it. My son is becoming an expert at making a salad, while my daughter (since she’s older) usually takes on the job of cooking up whatever starch we’ll be having (she’s a whiz at making rice), which means she can also set aside a small bowl—without sauce, of course—for herself.
Let them choose. An amazing thing happened when I told my daughter to choose a vegetable out of the freezer and prepare it for dinner—she actually tried it. Then she harassed her father into eating it, too. Does she also (miraculously, voluntarily) nosh on those vegetables? Don’t be silly. But by letting her have some control over what we eat, she seems to take a proprietary interest in how much of it was eaten. She’s even started asking if she can pick out the vegetable, and has plans for what we’ll plant in the garden next year.
Start at the store. One of the Mayo Clinic’s recommendations for working with picky eaters is to take them to the store with you to help pick out healthy foods. If you’re currently using grocery shopping as your only “me” time, this suggestion will sound painful. At the risk of limiting your alone time to an occasional solo trip to the bathroom, try to get your kids involved in at least some of your grocery trips. Think of it as a learning experience. Check out the produce aisle—if they show interest in something, pop it into the basket. Show them how to read the nutrition panel on foods. Let them pick out what you will have for dinner one night, then have them work out what ingredients they will need.
Teach your children to cook. If there is one thing I want to leave to my children, it is the ability to be able to prepare their own food. Being able to make something from scratch will give them more control over what they are eating. Studies have shown that when children are more involved in preparing meals they eat healthier, and consume more fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Not to mention that home cooking helps save money, and will provide them with a useful life skill that might even impress a few dates one day! Not comfortable in the kitchen? Try learning together. There are lots of Web sites with recipes for time-crunched cooks, recipe books dedicated to simple dishes prepared in record time, and community organizations that teach basic cooking techniques. I’m not sure which is more satisfying—the look of pride they have when you serve a meal that they have picked out and prepared, or actually watching them eat it.
—Erin Gudeux, senior project leader, sensory department
Tylenol recalls include children's OTC medications. The maker of Tylenol, Motrin, Rolaids, St. Joseph, Benadryl and other over-the-counter medications is recalling certain lots of those drugs following consumer complaints of an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor that, in a small number of cases, has been associated with temporary gastrointestinal distress. The list includes children's medications. Learn more in the full Health blog post.
Family-friendly winter activities. If you’re like me, I’m trying to find ways to stay healthy and beat the winter bulge during these long months when playgrounds and beaches are a distant memory. So my kids and I sat down and made a list of our favorites. Learn more in the full Health blog post.
Kitchen spoons and cold medicines. If you’re like many Americans and often use kitchen spoons to measure liquid cold medicines, it’s likely you’re over- or under-dosing, according to a January 5th study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. That’s because the amount of liquid dosing varies based on the size of the silverware spoon you use. Learn more in the full Health blog post.
Slower eating helps with children's weight loss. Research out this month from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine tells us that overeating is becoming a bigger health risk than smoking tobacco. So finding ways of fighting obesity, especially in children, is becoming ever more important. Could slowing down the rate at which we eat help us lose weight? The answer is yes, according to a BMJ study of 106 overweight children and teens at a hospital in England. Learn more in the full Health blog post.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Graco Children’s Products Inc., of Atlanta, Ga., today announced a voluntary recall of about 1.5 million Graco Passage, Alano, and Spree strollers and travel systems. Consumers should stop using recalled products.
The stroller’s canopy can pose a fingertip amputation and laceration hazard to the child when the consumer is opening or closing the canopy. Graco has received seven reports of children placing their fingers in the stroller’s canopy hinge mechanism while the canopy was being opened or closed, resulting in five fingertip amputations and two fingertip lacerations. The affected products were made in China.
The recall involves Graco Passage, Alano, and Spree strollers and travel systems with 64 different model numbers and two different styles of hinge mechanisms. Only strollers or travel systems with a plastic, jointed hinge mechanism that has indented canopy positioning notches (see photo) are included in this recall.
The recalled strollers were manufactured between October 2004 and February 2008, and sold at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies “R” Us, Toys “R” Us, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Meijers, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Walmart and other retailers nationwide from October 2004 and December 2009 for between $80 and $90 for the strollers and between $150 and $200 for the travel systems.
The model number and manufacture date are located on the lower inside portion of the rear frame, just above the rear wheels.
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled strollers and contact Graco to receive a free protective cover repair kit. Contact Graco at (800) 345-4109 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET), Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.gracobaby.com.
See Maclaren recall: Fingertip amputations, Stroller hinges: A closer look at the standards, and 7 common stroller mistakes for related information.
After the strangulation death of an Iowa baby and 10 injuries, Dorel Asia is recalling 635,000 cribs, most with drop sides. The company is offering owners replacement kits that include slatted crib rails and a drop-side immobilizer.
Dorel Asia and the Consumer Product Safety Commission received a report of the death of a 6-month-old child from Cedar Rapids, Iowa who became entrapped and strangled in a crib after the drop-side hardware broke. According to the CPSC notice, the parents had tried to repair the drop side themselves before the incident. In addition, the CPSC and Dorel received reports of 31 drop-side incidents. In six of those, children were entrapped between the drop side and crib mattress and three suffered bruises as a result. The CPSC and Dorel Asia also received 36 reports of slat breakage, including seven of bruises and scratches to children and two reports of entrapment that resulted in no injury.
Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Recalls of cribs, baby food. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a recall notice of 1,000 Caramia “Diane” drop-side cribs. The slats on the cribs drop-side can detach from the top and bottom rails. And Nurture Inc. recalled selected varieties and date codes of HappyTot Stage 4 and HappyBaby Stage 1 and Stage 2 pouch meals that were sold in 300 retailers nationwide. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
FDA fails to ban BPA. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg last week announced a shift in her agency's stance on the health risks posed by Bisphenol A, a chemical used in clear plastic bottles and in the linings of food and beverage cans, but did not call for a ban on its use in food contact substances. Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, had recommended that manufacturers and the government take that step after our recent tests of canned foods found that nearly all of 19 name-brand foods we tested contained BPA. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Wear a helmet on the slopes. This is skiing’s National Safety Awareness Week. The National Ski Areas Association’s list of facts shows that close to 40 people, on average, die skiing or snowboarding every year, and another 43 or so are seriously injured—and they mean serious—becoming paraplegics and suffering serious head injuries. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Lead in children's charms replaced by other toxic metal. Now that tough regulations governing lead are in effect, some Chinese manufacturers of cheap metal jewelry have turned to something just as dangerous—the heavy metal cadmium, according to aninvestigation by the Associated Press. "There's nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It's a poison," Bruce A. Fowler, a cadmium specialist and toxicologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the AP. Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the CPSC, said that his agency would investigate the charms and pendants cited in the story. He added: "We will not accept the substitution of dangerous heavy metals in place of lead." Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
I’ve lost my voice. It’s pretty common this time of year with all the roving viral disasters waiting to happen, but it doesn’t make it any easier. When it didn’t clear up after a ridiculous amount of time, I found a tiny break in my schedule to go to the doctor.
“You need to rest your voice,” she told me. “Talk as little as possible.”
Definitely one of the dreaded diagnoses for mothers. On par with “get more sleep”, “slow down a little”, “don’t strain yourself”, or the ultimate laugh-riot “you need to rest.”
I’m a mother. I don’t do rest. It’s not in my contract. It’s right there in the fine print, just below the part that talks about how you will instinctively put out your hands when your child starts to throw up at someone else’s house, and above where it details how you will not have a completely restful night’s sleep for the next 18 years. All mothers sign that contract when they hand you that beautiful new baby, and the contract is quite specific – mother’s are not allowed to be sick or injured.
Every mother I know has been in this spot. Got a stomach virus bad enough that you can’t keep anything down? You still manage to make dinner. Threw your back out so bad it hurts to move? You struggle to find the least painful position on unforgiving metal bleachers so that you don’t miss that all-important game. Become so hoarse that Marge Simpson sound melodious next to you? You still read (and re-read) that favorite bedtime story. My mother, recovering from a heart attack, still put a belated Thanksgiving dinner on the table when she got out of the hospital. A friend juggled chemotherapy sessions around her son’s hockey schedule.
Why are we convinced that we have to take care of everyone else before ourselves? In my case, it’s far too easy to buy into the “Super Mom” mythology: faster than a speeding deadline; more powerful than a trunk full of groceries; able to leap midnight laundry marathons in a single bound. But I’m starting to question whether I’m setting a good example for my own daughter to follow. Do I want her thinking that her health and well-being should always be secondary? Am I somehow sending the message that in order to be a good mother you have to always put others before yourself?
As I mused on this thought last night, trying not to strain my suffering vocal cords with unnecessary talk, my daughter came up and gave me an unexpected hug.
“Don’t worry Mom,” she said sweetly. “You just rest your voice. And we don’t have to talk about my report card until you’re feeling better.” —Erin Gudeux, senior project leader, sensory department
