Weight Loss Diet And Exercise: Feb 26, 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Importance of Well-Baby Visits

In your baby's first year, every month brings changes: tiny smiles, budding teeth, and eventually, crawling and walking. During well-baby visits, your pediatrician will check for proper growth and development and answer your questions about eating, sleeping, and vaccinations.

The first exam should be 24 to 48 hours after your newborn leaves the hospital, says pediatrician Tanya Remer Altmann, MD, FAAP. She's a clinical instructor at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA and author of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Mommy Calls: Dr. Tanya Answers Parents' Top 101 Questions About Babies and Toddlers.

Later visits typically happen at 2 weeks and at 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months of age, she says. Here's what you can expect during well-baby checkups.

Baby Growth

During each visit, the doctor will measure your infant's weight, length, and head circumference. "I examine every baby from head to toe," Altmann says. "The first year is such a crucial time, and we want to make sure that babies are on track and doing everything that they should be."

The doctor will make sure that the fontanels (soft spots on your baby's head) are closing properly. She will also check your infant's eyes, ears, and mouth and listen to the heart and lungs. Next, the doctor will feel your baby's abdomen and check the genital area. She'll also look for rashes and jaundice and examine the arms, legs, and hips.

While every parent loves a checkup that ends with a clean bill of health, the exams are crucial to uncover problems, such as hernias, undescended testicles, or heart murmurs that require a specialist's attention. Spotting health problems early may mean improved treatment, Altmann says. For example, she says, "there's something called congenital hip dysplasia where the hip doesn't develop properly in the socket, and if you catch it early, it's something that is completely correctable."

Doctors also look for developmental markers at each visit, she says, such as your baby's ability to make eye contact, smile at you, or sit up without support.

Baby Vaccinations

Your baby will get the first recommended vaccination, the hepatitis B vaccine, before leaving the hospital, Altmann says. At later well visits, your baby will receive vaccines to prevent whooping cough, mumps, measles, and other childhood diseases.

Questions for Your Pediatrician

New parents may find themselves tuned in to when their baby needs a diaper change, or they may need a seasoned pro to guide them through the trials of cradle cap and trimming tiny fingernails. Certainly, if parents are worried that their baby seems ill, they should call the pediatrician any time of day or night, Altmann says.

But well visits are the perfect time to pick the doctor's brain. You just might learn that sticky or seedy bowel movements are normal in the early weeks, or that filing your baby's fingernails works just as well as cutting them.

Expert Tip

"Remember, no matter how old your baby is, she loves to hear your voice. Talk to her, sing to her, read to her. Your words will help her language blossom." -- Hansa Bhargava, MD

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#Trending Today: The 10 People You’ll Meet On The Tube, And How To Avoid Them

Last night, as I stood with my neck at a 45 degree angle trying not to let my cheek touch a fellow passenger’s beard and fighting a rising feeling of claustrophobia, I started to mentally put together a list of things I hate about my daily commute. And then I realised, it’s my fellow passengers.

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Harry Styles arrives at Heathrow Airport in London

Could another one of GLAMOUR’s Dream 2013 predictions come true, we wonder? Or is it just sheer coincidence that Harry Styles was snapped next to this Burberry campaign picture as he left Heathrow Airport?

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Whooping Cough Vaccine for Pregnant Women Among New Recommendations

U.S. experts also say egg allergy is no longer

MONDAY, Jan. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics have released new vaccine guidelines for 2013.

One change is a recommendation for women to receive a dose of the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine with each pregnancy. Another is the suggestion that mild egg allergy need no longer prevent people from getting the flu vaccine under certain circumstances.

The guidelines also clarify the use of the pneumococcal vaccine -- which protects against sometimes life-threatening meningitis, pneumonia and blood infections -- in certain vulnerable populations.

Current levels of vaccination in adults are low, according to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Because of this, the committee recommended that providers review patients' vaccination records and recommend needed vaccines.

"It's so important to adhere to these immunization schedules. People need to understand: These schedules are put together with great care and discussion and review of scientific data," said Dr. H. Cody Meissner, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee that makes vaccine recommendations.

Meissner said sometimes parents will ask to alter the way vaccines are given, requesting things like a half-dose now and the rest of the dose at a later time. "We just don't know if vaccines work at half-doses. It's critically important to adhere to the schedule," he said.

The latest vaccine recommendations can be found in the Feb. 5 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine and the February issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The most notable change is the new recommendation that pregnant women -- whether adolescent or adult -- receive a booster dose of the tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (TDaP) vaccine during each pregnancy. Ideally, this booster will be given between 27 and 36 weeks of gestation.

"We're seeing more pertussis now than we have in earlier years. When the final numbers are in for 2012, the number of reported cases will probably be around 35,000," Meissner said. "But the actual number could be far more than that, because they don't all get documented. There were about 20 deaths last year, primarily children in the first two to three months of life."

Meissner, who also is chief of pediatric infectious disease at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said that children in this age group don't yet have protection from vaccines. Since the vaccine crosses through the placenta, an immunization given later in the pregnancy should offer a high level of immunity to the baby.

He added that it's also a good idea for anyone who will be around the baby, including the father, siblings and grandparents, to be sure they're up to date on their vaccines.

Another expert said the resurgence of whooping cough is most likely due to a change in vaccine design that got rid of many side effects, but did so at the cost of long-term effectiveness.

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High Blood Pressure in Kids May Be Less Common Than Thought

U.S. study offers somewhat encouraging finding,

TUESDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- The number of U.S. kids with full-blown high blood pressure could be lower than previously thought, if new research findings are on the mark.

In a study of nearly 200,000 children aged 3 to 17 years, researchers found that only 0.3 percent met the standard for high blood pressure -- elevated readings at three consecutive doctor visits.

That stands in contrast to past studies, which have suggested that anywhere from 0.8 to 4.5 percent of American kids have high blood pressure.

But experts say the "correct" rate among U.S. kids is still unknown. And even if blood pressure is lower than earlier estimates, children should still have their blood pressure measured at routine checkups, said Dr. Stephen Daniels, an expert in pediatric high blood pressure who was not involved in the new study.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute both recommend that kids have yearly screenings for high blood pressure, starting at age 3.

"I don't think that should change," said Daniels, the chief pediatrician at Children's Hospital Colorado and head of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora. "I wouldn't want parents to get the message that their child doesn't need to have their blood pressure measured."

As for why the new figure is lower than past estimates, it's probably due to how the study was done, according to lead researcher Dr. Joan Lo, a research scientist with Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland.

The children in her study were from three different U.S. states, and all were visiting the doctor for routine "well-child" visits. Past studies have mainly been done in schools, in a single city or region. And some of those studies were run in urban areas, with a high proportion of black and obese kids -- both of whom are at increased risk of elevated blood pressure, Daniels noted.

Still, the true rate of high blood pressure among U.S. children remains unclear, according to Daniels.

"This new study is narrow in its own way," he said, noting that the kids involved had health insurance and got routine check-ups. The group was racially diverse, but Daniels said they may have been better off -- financially and health-wise -- than a random sample of U.S. kids would be.

The findings, which appear in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, are based on 199,513 children and teens enrolled in three large health plans.

Almost 11,000 of those kids had an elevated blood pressure reading at their first doctor visit during the study period. But after repeat tests at their next two visits, less than 4 percent of them were ultimately diagnosed with high blood pressure.

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