3 Reasons the 2016 campaign may be good for children (parents, it is up to you!)

3 Reasons the 2016 campaign may be good for children (parents, it is up to you!) - Presidential campaign this year has been remarkable - and not for good reasons. 

It was full of rancor, which is common in the countryside, but this time, resentment was more vehement and more personal and involved different ethnic and religious groups in ways that are unusual for campaigns. 

As a parent, one of the first instinct is to protect children against it - change channels, recycle paper, talk about something else.

But do otherwise could be very good for children. Here are three reasons why children and families could find themselves not only with a new president, but also important new perspectives.

1. The countryside is full of negative examples. By the way candidates are trying to talk to each other in general, how have talked about groups like Mexicans or Muslims, the campaign has made many people wince.

But instead of just wincing, we can say these things to our children and to talk. Ask your child, "How would you feel if someone told you that - or you" Talk about how words can hurt; use what has been said for example Talking important. listening, kindness, do not make great judgments about people These are the lessons that we all want our children to learn;. use the 2016 campaign to help give you a tolerance during the accident.

2. The campaign can help children learn about the electoral process. Face it, some years it is a bit boring. This year, definitely not boring. Talking about the university and the electoral delegates (if you do not know, the Archives and Records Administration National useful information, like the Congress for children).

Speaking of surveys, and their influence on people. Talking about the party system of primaries and party conventions. Helping children understand what the candidates are trying to do.There There are also sites that were targeted for students, such as Time for Kids, CNN Student News News, News and Scholastic KidsPost.

The New York Times has a site that shows where the candidates on major issues and one of the candidates and what they have to do to win. This year, there is enough entertainment factor for the learning interesting.

3. The campaign offers opportunities for families to talk about beliefs and values. As much as we want our children to share our beliefs and values, which is not always easy to find natural opportunities to talk about them. This particular campaign was full of possibilities.

If it is to explain why you identify with a particular party or candidate, or what you think about a particular topic, or how you feel about an event or interaction, the campaign can be a starting point for some very important conversations that could have a real impact on your child - and maybe you even closer as a family.
Ultimately, the 2016 presidential campaign is a great teachable moment. If used the right way, there is much good that can come of it - despite its bitterness.

Read More

Why your baby may need wheezing TLC, not drugs

Why your baby may need wheezing TLC, not drugs - When a baby is sick with fever, coughing and wheezing, it is natural to think that they need is a drug - as an antibiotic, or one of the drugs used to treat wheezing in children with asthma (like albuterol). It is only if a condition called bronchiolitis is the culprit, the best treatment is no treatment. 

Bronchiolitis is a bad cold (caused by several viruses) that is installed in the lungs. When he does, leading to fever, heavy congestion, coughing and wheezing or noisy breathing. It is incredibly common.

In fact, five babies under 12 months ending in the doctor's office for bronchiolitis - and 2% to 3% until the end of hospitalization. It can be very serious, especially when it is caused by a particular virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

So here in the US It is rarely fatal, in other countries with less medical resources, thousands of babies die each year of bronchiolitis.

If it can be so serious, why the latest guidelines say doctors should not use antibiotics, albuterol, or other treatments? Because it does not help - and can have side effects that are not good for babies. 

Not that we can do nothing to help children with bronchiolitis. We just have to help in different ways.Some babies have a higher risk of getting really sick with bronchiolitis. Including premature babies, babies with lung disease or heart disease, and those who have problems with their immune systems are included.

For babies, it is recommended that they receive a monthly injection, called Synagis during the winter (around September-March) to help prevent RSV. If your baby falls into one of these categories and is under a year, you should definitely talk to your doctor about this treatment. 

For other babies, what we recommend is that families and caregivers use non-medical ways to help them feel more comfortable and breathe better. They understand:

       * plenty of fluids - dehydration can make things worse congestion
       * a humidifier to loosen congestion
       * a pear to clear the baby's nose (nasal saline drops, available in all pharmacies, can help you get the most out of the nose)
 
       * acetaminophen or ibuprofen for fever.

You should always consult your doctor if you think your baby has bronchiolitis and your doctor may want to see the baby to ensure that nothing is done that needs treatment. You should also call your doctor if, after being diagnosed with bronchiolitis, your baby grows

       * high fever (over 102 degrees F), or a new bout of fever after being sick for a few days
       * shortness of breath that is not relieved humidifier or bulb syringe (signs include shortness of breath or rapid breathing, sucking around the coast)

       * a pale or blue skin
       * sleepiness and irritability which is much worse than normal
       * refusal to take fluids, or not wetting diapers every 6 hours.

It is more likely that they are not going to happen, and that your baby is well. As with medicine and parenthood that most babies with bronchiolitis need a lot of TLC - and a little patience.
By: Claire McCharthy, MD. 

Read More

Vacation Travel: Keeping children safe and healthy

Vacation Travel: Keeping children safe and healthy - Traveling with children can be a great way to explore new places, spending time together as a family, and visiting friends and relatives who live nearby. For the safest and healthiest possible, consider these travel tips.

 
Wear the important things in your medicine cabinet

      * Pack prescription medications your child. Make sure you have enough for the whole trip.

      * Bring commonly used over-the-counter medications such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), antibiotic ointment, medications against colds (as recommended by your doctor) and diphenhydramine (Benadryl).

      * Keep a thermometer and bandages on each trip; which can come in handy. Consider a pair of pliers, so if your child is often chips.

Children need car seats

* Make sure you have the proper place to the age and weight of the child, and is properly installed in the vehicle is moving. The website of the American Academy of Pediatrics offers tips on choosing and installing car seats. 

* If traveling by plane, the Federal Aviation Administration strongly wear safety seats for infants and toddlers and attachment to a seat tickets recommended. Remember that you have to buy a separate ticket for the child to use the seat.

Check with the airline to see if there are discounts available. The seat must be less than 16 inches wide to fit; Be sure to measure before you go! Booster seats are not allowed on planes.

Be aware of common health problem Travel

       * If your child gets dizzy easily, make sure it is high enough in the car to see out the window, as this can help. Keep a broken window open for a breeze, and have snacks like pretzels available; both can help eliminate nausea. If your child is particularly bad car sickness (eg, she vomits each way), talk to your doctor about medications that might take.

        * Ear pain can be a problem when people steal. Having a baby nurse or take a bottle during takeoff and landing is a good idea because it helps to fight against the evils swallow ears. For older children, they try to have a drink, chew gum (sugarless, of course!), Or play a game yawn to prevent their ears hang.

        * Since schedules and what you eat when traveling to different frequency than when you are at home, constipation (not having a bowel movement often as usual) may occur. Give your child plenty to drink, and make sure it is not the fiber (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) in your diet. 

        * Germs can be anywhere when traveling. Carry hand sanitizer with you at all times to help you carry within them with you!

Do not forget to child sealing

        * Bring a test kit for the child with outlet covers, cabinet locks, and everything you use at home.

        * If you are staying in someone's home, you can not be held throughout the childproof. Ask if there is a room can be completely childproof, so you can relax more while your child is there. 

Think of the greatest dangers, such as medication, cleaning products, knives and potential choking hazards. Ask if these and other particularly dangerous things can be moved and / or blocked out of reach during your stay.

        * For babies and toddlers, a portable crib can serve as a bed and a safe place to play.

        * Consider safety gates to block stairs you or to help keep your child safe. Your host can appreciate that scaling, if the guy that open, contrary to what needs to be done is used.

Do your homeworks

        * Note medical information of your child, especially drug allergies (if you forget the name of the antibiotic that gave the eruption Know before you go!), Health problems and prescription drugs. Keep it with you at all times. If your child needs to see a doctor while you're away, she needs to know these things.

        * Bring your child the names and phone numbers of everyone you see doctors, including specialists, if you see a doctor or need to communicate with them.

        * Ask your doctor about the best hospitals in the region where you travel, if you know where to go if necessary.

        * Make sure to bring your health insurance card, and check with your insurance company about coverage in your area. Most urgent care business is covered if your child needs, but you may need to call for approval or go to a particular hospital.

If you are traveling outside the country ,,,

* For travel to some countries, your child may need special vaccinations. For the latest recommendations, visit the section of the health community on the website Centers for Prevention (CDC) and disease control. 

Do this for at least six to eight weeks before your trip, as most vaccines must be given at least one month before the trip and you can have an appointment at a clinic Special trip for some vaccines. 

* Ask about specific health risks, such as malaria and dengue fever in the country where you are traveling and you can talk to your doctor before going on how to prevent them. 

The CDC website can help with this. It also has a large number of practical and useful information on topics such as food safety and water and traveler's diarrhea. 

That sounds like a lot, but mostly it is just a matter of planning. And it can make a big difference when it comes to make your trip memorable for all the right reasons.

By: Claire McCarthy, MD 

 

Read More

Medicare Advantage: When an insurance company to make house calls

When I was a kid, my doctor visits are always made when we were too sick to come to his office. But he stopped to visit people at home before retiring. 

He and his patients realized they were perhaps better served by going to your own office, well equipped for the care they needed.

So I am more than a little surprised when a woman representing my health insurance plan have called to book a home visit, a nurse or doctor. I have a Medicare Advantage plan, and thought it offered me this visit, because the appellant assumed he was frail and leave. 

I assured him that he could easily reach my doctor's office if necessary. I also just had my annual physical, my vaccines and tests were under way, and I felt great. Why do I need a call from home?

The only reason I can give is that the doctor would have more time with me than my doctor did. The house tour was to last 45 minutes to an hour and include a medical history, physical examination and health advice. Since I work full time, you can program the visit of a weekend. And she even threw in a gift card for $ 25 Walmart if I finished the exam. 

I refused, feeling a little creeped out - especially after consultation with my doctor and learn that she knew nothing of this. So I did a little research. 

I learned that these visits are legitimate - indeed, more than one million patients are registered for them so far. And I learned that a further examination has reduced hospitalizations, especially for patients with diabetes, heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

But what always puzzled me was why my insurance company want to hire the extra expense of doubling the examination and tests my doctor came. I do not have serious medical conditions and my regularly receives top marks from all classification systems.

A method for the alleged insanity

Dr. Michael McWilliams suggested an answer. As a partner of the health care policy at Harvard Medical School, which includes the arcane rules covering how Medicare reimburses my Medicare Advantage plan for care teacher. 

He said that each of us covered by these plans is assigned a risk score. As we develop more health problems, increases our risk score. "Home visits by Medicare Advantage plans allow the capture of more diagnoses, which in turn increases the risk score that adjusts Medicare payments. In general, recorded diagnoses, plus the payment," says Dr. Williams.

He explained that the risk equalization system was created to ensure that the plans are not only enroll healthy patients who are less likely to have to pay for expensive procedures and hospital stays. To provide an incentive for insurers to cover the sickest patients, the plans pay proportionally more for their care.

I received two calls from that rejected the home visit, each more persistent than the last. Now I understand why. If your doctor can diagnose me with a serious health problem, the company could increase my credit score and get a higher Medicare reimbursement each time you visit the doctor.

What to consider if he is offered a home visit

If you or someone you know has offered a home visit from a Medicare Advantage plan, consider the following:

       *  If you have a serious health problem, special attention can help prevent hospitalization.
       *  The care they provide is not permanent. This is the only time you see the doctor who examined. The test results and evidence will be sent to your doctor regularly for follow up.
 
       *  If you're healthy and stay results in an increase in the risk score, you will not have to pay more for their care. But the higher Medicare reimbursement received your insurance may contribute to rising costs of the nation's health care.
 
       *  You are not required to have a tour of the house - they are completely optional. 
By: Beverly Merz 

 

Read More

10 tips for parenting in the digital age

10 tips for parenting in the digital age - For years, the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) when it comes to media and children was quite simple: limit TV to two hours a day, and do not let children under 2 watch.

As the Internet has grown and new devices arrived, the recommendation was set at two hours of "entertainment media" with the recommendation that the screen without the stay of children under 2 crowd.

But these days, even that got hard. He made a math game in iPad entertainment? How the rule is two hours if your child is checked intermittently media while doing homework online? What about text messages - that is the media and on the basis of the screen, but a large part is the conversations between friends, rather than attaching the home phone for hours, like teenagers used to do.  

And if you let your child watch a video on your phone to silence them on a bus full of people (so that you do not get the evil eye from everyone around you), is that terrible?

Our children are growing up in the digital age, and parenthood should reflect that. The AAP understands this and works hard to understand the current research on media effects on children, in order to give the best advice to parents. Meanwhile, they have released Ten tips for parents in the digital era:

1. Treat the media as you would for any other environment in your child's life. Want to know what their children are doing in school and with friends - you should want to know what they are doing online, too. And as you have rules on behavior at school and with friends, you should have rules of life online.

2. Set limits and encourage recreation. The AAP recommends establishing "reasonable limits" for media use, which vary with the child and the situation. It is also important that children have a lot of time away from the media, using their brains and bodies in different ways and the interaction with the three-dimensional world around them.

3. Families that play together learn together. This is especially important for young children - if you let them use the media, to do with them so they can come and go, which is so crucial to the early development of the brain. And instead of using the media as a babysitter, they use it as a way to have fun together. 

4. Be a good role model. If you are on your phone or laptop at any time, or turn the TV as soon as you sit on the couch, what kind of message do we send?

5. Knowing the value of the communication face-to-face. It is not only crucial to the developing brains of infants, it is crucial for relationships and mental health. The media can sometimes help with this, as with video chat with distant relatives, but for most, the house take is: everybody must end devices and talk to each other on a regular basis.

6. Creating the ALE technology. Sometimes technology can really get in the way - relations (so that the dinner table is a good place for a free technology zone) or sleep (which is becoming a big problem with teenagers - The phone should be charged outside the room). It is also a safety issue: texting while driving (or walking in the street) can be fatal.

7. Do not use technology as an emotional pacifier. Yes, it may be useful to the child in the crowded bus. But children also need to learn to manage emotions - and boredom - without the help of a device. It is an essential skill.

8. Do your homework when it comes to applications for children. They are definitely not all the same. An excellent resource is Common Sense Media, which examined applications and all sorts of other media such as movies and TV shows.

9. It's good for her teenage son to be online. It is really where teenagers are connected these days, and it's not a good idea to keep them out. However, they must learn to be good and responsible digital citizens: Not many activities online and offline time relationships; they need to be friendly; and they should remember that everything they do online is truly private - and all you do is potentially permanent. 

10. Children can make mistakes. Because what kids do. They fall kick the ball into the goal of the opposing team, the rules are broken, hurt feelings. They can make mistakes online, too. The AAP recommends errors trying to approach with empathy, and turn them into moments conducive to learning. But if the "errors" continue, especially if you have concerns about bullying, sexting, or signs of depression, tell your doctor. 

AAP has many great resources to help families make healthy choices of communication - such as the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital. 
By: Claire McCarthy,MD 

Read More