Baby's lack of sleep and obesity

I don't know about you, but my kids are not great sleepers. I strive for that one day, but right now, that's not the case. I saw this new study that says babies and toddlers who don't get enough sleep are more likely to be obese. Great! As if we don't have enough to worry about when we aren't getting good sleep ourselves!

Here are the highlights from the CNN story:

• Toddlers who sleep less than 12 hours daily are at greater risk for being overweight in preschool.


• Kids who slept the least, watched the most TV and had the greatest chance of becoming obese.


• Sleep's impact on appetite hormones may explain the effect. ("In prior studies, sleep-deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.")

"The researcher recommended practices that teach infants to fall asleep on their own, putting them to bed when they're drowsy but not fully asleep."

I almost always put my kids to bed when they're tired, but not asleep. It doesn't work for me! They go to bed alright, they just wake up throughout the night. Hopefully after my four-year-old's tonsillectomy he will start staying asleep. We don't have a lot of obesity in my family, but I still worry about it with my kids. It's so common. I don't want them to have heart disease because of something I did when they were younger.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Do your kids smoke and you don't know it?

From the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids:



A new Survey shows 65% of kids still say it is easy to buy cigarettes! Seventy-four percent of teens think tobacco companies want them to smoke.


The group is working to get more people to support solutions proven to reduce youth smoking, including FDA regulation of tobacco products and marketing, funding tobacco prevention programs, increasing cigarette taxes and smoke-free air laws.


New Tobacco-Free Kids Survey Finds:


70% of teens think tobacco companies target them with their advertising.

65 % of Kids Still Say It Is Easy to Buy Cigarettes.

76% of 15-17 year-olds think it is easy to buy tobacco products.

Teens are twice as likely as adults to remember tobacco advertising- 47% recalled tobacco advertising from two weeks before the survey, while only 24% of adults remembered the same tobacco advertising.

The group asks kids to urge elected officials to support higher cigarette taxes, smoke-free air laws and funding for tobacco prevention programs.

How do you plan on preventing your kids from smoking?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Tonsillectomy Recovery

Well, it didn't go as smoothly as we hoped, but my four-year-old is doing okay now. He had a meltdown this morning when they asked him to put on his scrubs. We ended up giving him a sedative. The surgery was fine as far as I know. He only lost a very small amount of blood. The doctor said his tonsils and adenoids were about the size of 2 1/2 to 3 ping pong balls! He said, "No question, they needed to be taken out."

The initial recovery was absolutely horrible. The nurses couldn't get him to calm down, so they called me back to the room. He was dry heaving and burping up air, screaming and then throwing up for at least an hour. It was really hard to take. There was nothing we could do to calm him down. The nurses said sometimes kids who have a sedative have a really hard time waking up. That is definitely true in our case. Eventually, my son calmed down for about a half hour and ate two Popsicles and we got to go home. The whole process took about four and half hours.

We gave him some Tylenol with codeine this afternoon and he did great. He even ate macaroni and cheese for dinner. He says his throat hurts, but he continues to take fluids, so I am grateful.

Thank you for all your well wishes!

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy a.k.a. The Big Day

I am a nervous wreck. My four-year-old is having his tonsils and adenoids out Tuesday. If you have never had to go through this, it is a big deal. It is a fairly common procedure, so I didn't realize the seriousness of it and the risks. I am dreading the tears as he asks me if he has to go back to the operating room. Parents are not allowed to go back there on the day of surgery. He has to go by himself. Ugh!

As you can imagine, I got all the information I could from the doctor. Here's my interview with Dr. Michael Gootee.

Jen: How common is this surgery?

Dr. Gootee: "Like a lot of things in medicine, it's a pendulum. Everyone was getting their tonsils out, , then no one was doing it. Now the children that have indications for having tonsils out do get it."

Jen: What are some of the reasons for getting tonsils and adenoids taken out?

Dr. Gootee: "Recurrent infections, airways obstructions, missing school due to illness, snoring, restless sleep and poor quality of sleep are the main reasons." Dr. Gootee said infections can include ear infections, tonsillitis and strep throat.

Airway obstruction is why my son is having the procedure. The doctor said his tonsils rate at a 4 on a scale of 1-4. They are very large. I tried to take a picture for the blog, but it was impossible. My son kept getting his tongue in the way and my camera wouldn't focus that close. This is a disgusting picture I found on the Internet, but the tonsils are about the same size.

Dr. Gootee: "I see more pediatric ENT patients than others in the area. I have been in practice for 13 years and I had 6 years of residency before that. I have probably done 4000 tonsillectomies."

Jen: What are the risks?
Dr. Gootee: "The biggest risk is bleeding afterwards. It happens in maybe 2-3 cases out of 100. Sometimes it happens about a week to ten days afterwards. In rare cases, you have to take a patient back in to get cauterized. It's pretty obvious when it happens. We ask parents to avoid foods with red in them just in case you have bleeding. We don't want parents to questions whether there is bleeding on just red juice."

"Sometimes certain foods that are really scratchy can cause bleeding sooner. I always use the analogy -If there's a scab on the knee and it comes off early there's bleeding. The kids who bleed more usually haven't done anything to provoke it, it's really more bad luck than anything else. There's no good way to prevent it. "

Jen: What age is common for a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy?

Dr. Gootee: "Typically kids anywhere from 3-years-old up to 7 or 8 is a pretty common range. but a lot of the time we see it in the adolescent years too.

Jen: I have always heard the surgery is easier on your body as a kid than as an adult.

Dr. Gootee: "You are not at more risk when you're older, we just don't tolerate pain as well when we're older. You tell them(kids) you will have a sore throat, they live with it. And we don't heal as fast. Kids tend to bounce back quicker. Adults don't recover as quickly."

Jen: Do parents every push to have the surgery when it's not necessary?

Dr. Gootee: "Most of the time, not with the indications. We have a pretty good idea. This is a serious surgery. We say lets give it some time, most of the time if things don't add up, we will talk to the family physician. Most parents are not going to want their kids subjected to something if they don't need it."

Jen: What are the benefits of the surgery?
Dr. Gootee: "If the child has chronic infection, they can expect to see fewer. "

Jen: My son has airway obstruction. He can have 6-8 night terrors a night. (Night terrors are when the person is in a deep state of sleep and starts screaming or thrashing.) We are having the surgery to hopefully let him get better sleep.

Dr. Gootee: "Sleep apnea can be linked to kids not paying attention in class. Sometimes they are labeled as hyperactive. There's some thought that these kids are sleep deprived and they act out. There are certainly kids who have sleep apnea and when they get their tonsils out, they become different kids. I never promise parents their behavior will improve, but I am surprised by how many parents say this had made a difference."

Jen: I have had several people say to me this surgery is no big deal. (It's kind of offensive. Maybe I'm a little sensitive? Probably!)

Dr. Gottee: "Somebody once said it's only minor surgery if it involves someone else. Of all the surgeries we do, tubes and tonsils are the most common. It's not a simple surgery by any means, but the kids do well with it. "

Jen: I am concerned about giving a four-year-old general anesthesia.
Dr. Gootee: "Anesthetic concerns are understandable, but the anesthesiologists are really good. The ones I use are more geared toward pediatric anesthesia. With so many improvements in anesthetic agents, these kids recover much quicker than they used to. No more lingering sleepiness. That makes a big difference."

Jen: Can you explain the actually surgery to me?

Dr. Gootee: "The main thing we do is prop the mouth open and remove the tonsils and adenoids. The adenoids are a pack of tissue that sit behind the palate in the back of the nose. They used to use a blade and cut the tonsils out and cauterize the back. The standard of care over the last few years has changed. Now you cauterize the vessels themselves while you take out the tonsils. Coblation is what we're doing now. There's no painless surgery, but I think it makes the kids have less discomfort."

"Tonsils and adenoids are part of the body that fights infections, but we have over 300 lymph nodes, so we do just fine without them. The kids who have their tonsils out are actually less likely to have infections. That's because sometimes they trap bacteria in the tonsils."

Jen: Why do some kids have problems with their tonsils/adenoids and not others?

Dr. Gootee: "I don't know if anyone knows the answer to that. It may be genetic."

Jen: You put the kids on antibiotics afterwards, but that's not always the case.

Dr. Gootee: : "I have looked at studied that have shown kids have less post operative pain and drink more when they are given antibiotics. (They need to drink a lot afterwards to avoid dehydration.) It's a personal choice. There are some physicians who don't do that.

Have your kids been through this?

Anyone have any comforting words for me as I get ready to take my son for this procedure?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Child Safety Outlet Plugs

One dad is on a mission to make those little child safety plugs we put in our outlets safer. George DeCell said he has spent years researching this topic after his daughter turned blue and almost swallowing one! DeCell now sells larger versions of the safety caps. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said they are not opposed to any product that could be safer for a child, but they do not believe the standard plugs are a risk.

Here's my interview with dad and inventor George DeCell from SafetyCaps.com

Jen: First, please tell me a little bit about your credentials.
George: First and foremost I am a dad. I have spent four years researching choking and the products and sizes that cause suffocation. I researched via on-line,via phone calls and through articles I could find at the library. I own a company called devoted daddy inc that produces SafetyCaps.

(George said he followed vol. standards. when creating the safety plugs. I asked what that means.) The standards to which I refer are voluntary standard. This means that producers are not required to comply with these specifications. If the company wants to, they can have their product tested against these specifications and then place the UL mark on the packaging or the product and it gives the purchaser more reliance that the product is safer.

Jen: You have received some awards for your invention?

George: My theory about wider and ventilated plugs has won several awards to include the National Parenting Centers 2006 Seal of Approval and the Lemelson-MIT Inventor of the Week. My theory also has the approval of 44 of the largest children's hospitals in the United States of America and also from over 100 Safety Personnel and Safe Kids Coalitions. The Home Safety Council recently announced that standard sized outlet plugs pose a choking hazard all because of efforts that I have put forth.

Jen: Tell me what happened with your daughter.
George: My story starts with me working as an executive in Burlington Vermont. Myself and another executive quit our jobs to start a company managing a few of the clients we were working with at our old job. We quit our jobs on September 10th with two of the largest banks in the world agreeing to hire our services. We went to do an exit interview on September 11th and found out the building beside our home office was attacked by terrorist. The big banks refused to move to our new company because they were worried about the financial strength of the U.S. We were of course escorted to the door. I became a stay at home dad because of the 911 attacks.

One day I removed a standard sized plug from the outlet to vacuum and I set the plug on the edge of the table. My daughter, Sage, grabbed the plug when I wasn't watching and of course stuck it in her mouth. When I turned around she was blue on the floor. I was in the room with her the whole time but could not hear her choking as I was running the vacuum. Once she went out, I was able to remove the device from her throat using my fingers and after a short time (seemed like hours though) I was able to her breathing again. I then ran outside and got extremely sick to my stomach.

Jen: What do you think needs to be done?
George: The CPSC needs to step up to the plate on this one. Pressure from the large corporations needs to end.They need to regulate these devices. The Small Part Test Cylinder(SPTC)only applies to product intended for use BY KIDs, not for kids.These plugs have no regulations on them nor do they have to comply with the SPTC. They can be made any size the producer deems fitting. Also,the SPTC is too small. Various research has proven that for a product to be truly safe, it needs to measure larger than 1 3/4 inches in greatest diameter. This research used data from choking incidents from around the world and was lead by RAM Consulting which is the testing company that tests all of McDonald's toys to ensure that the toys are safe. The researchers removed all items from the data of choking incidents and found the 1 percent of deaths are cause by products that fall between the size 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 inches. Not a huge number, unless of course your kids happens to fall in the 1%, then the number might as well be 99% because you still are not going to get your kids back.

Jen: What can we do as parents to protect our children?
George: Look closely at the products being sold to you. Because of the lack of funding at the CPSC, they are becoming reactive instead of proactive which means that products can be produced and sold. Products are basically tested by parents, which is fine for say Microsoft to do with Windows. But I have a problem with this "fix it later theory" when it comes to child safety. If the CPSC finds that there are problems with the product, the CPSC re-acts. Remember, just because it is sold as a child safety product does not automatically make it a safe product.

Jen: Is this campaign you are on a money making venture for you or not-for-profit?
George: It started out as a me just trying to get the makers to produce a product that is not a choking hazard. After about a year of work, the makes kept telling me if I thought the plugs are a problem then do something about it. I discovered pacifier regulations and determined a plug with the same specs would be safe. They laughed at me and again told me to do something about it. I spent a ton of money and had a plug produced. I filed for a patent and received it on July 4th of last year. Because of the money I spent and the lack of effort of the other producers to change, I have created Devoted Daddy, Inc and now sell SafetyCaps as a for profit company. I sell a product that is safer, and made in Vermont by the way, to parents at a reasonable cost as most parents can't afford a whole house full of outlet safety covers.

Jen: I have seen outlet covers where you have to twist the plug part to make the holes appear. Are these another safe option or do you feel there are problems with these also? Those are what my pediatrician uses.
George: These are a reliable option. However, I have heard of stories where the plug is not allowed to be plugged into the outlet all the way as the cover plate is about 1/8 to 1/4 inches in thickness. You see, when you place the cover plate onto the outlet it makes it so that not as much of the plug prongs are touching metal inside the outlet. Because the device turns, it is possible for the plug to only be part way in the outlet and be held there by the resistance of the twisting cover and the plugs can arc starting a fire. Also, they are expensive. Not every family can afford to use them throughout their entire home.

Jen: Do you think they work?
Geroge: Yes. Are they any safer? No, my tests show that kids can figure them out just as easily as they can figure out the safety plugs. Both are really training tools. You use them to keep kids out of the outlet and all require proper adult supervision. They are made to give you time to stop a child from playing with an outlet.The safest option is to use outlets that are child proof. This does not mean to install the outlet that have the reset button like the ones used in kitchens and baths. Instead, they produce an outlet that has a tiny chip inside and will not allow electric flow unless two prongs are inserted into the outlet. However, these are extremely expensive and would cost even more than the outlet safety covers. Of course these are not fool proof because if a child were to stick something into both sides at once, then power would be on and the the kid would get shocked. Once again, proper adult supervision is the key.

The Foreign Body Ingestion in Children study compares two databases of foreign body (FB) objects causing injury in children.

There is also a follow up study with the goal of developing design criteria for consumer products, based on foreign body injury and fatality data, to prevent airway obstruction injuries to children.

REBUTTAL: Scott Wolfson from the Consumer Product Safety Commission wants to reassure parents the standard plugs are safe. He said they are certainly better than not using anything at all to protect children from electric shock and he does not believe they are too small.

"My whole house has those plugs and they work. They are not a choking hazard. Based on the data that CPSC uses-both incident data as well as analysis on what constitutes choking hazards- we would strongly suggest people put safety plugs in their home. Is there technology that are more elaborate than your average safety plugs? Yes. If people want to utilize that, that's great, but they are more expensive. We do not want children sticking their finger or a metal object into an outlet. The ones on the market now are safe and we would be very concerned about parents choosing not to use them. They are more of a benefit than a risk. The data does not support the concerns. "

I asked Wolfson about DeCell's product. If we can afford them, will they better protect our kids? He said, "I am not in a position to comment specifically on his product. There is an array of different safety covers and plugs. Our effort is to continue to bring down a declining number of electrocutions. We feel the safety plugs are one of the safety things that improve a house. Many parents can't afford the more elaborate ones. Parents need to prioritize."

The average conventional safety plugs are about $.50 per outlet. The twisty safety outlet covers are around $3.50 per outlet. George's wider safety caps are about $.50 per outlet.

Which safety plugs do you use in your house?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen