How many hours of sleep kids need

Here are the latest stories from our continuing series on getting kids to sleep.
How many hours of sleep kids need:
Babies: 16-18 hours
Preschool: 11-13 hours
School-aged:10-11 hours
10 year-olds: 10 hours
High School: 9 hours

Getting kids to sleep using "The Sleep Fairy" book:

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

Down Syndrome Birth Decline

FROM ABC NEWS: More accurate screening and an increase in the number of younger mothers being screened for Down's syndrome may have forestalled an expected increase in the number of babies born with the condition in the United Kingdom, a study shows.

From 1989 to 2008 in the number confirmed prenatal or postnatal diagnoses of Down's syndrome in England and Wales increased by 71 percent -- from 1,075 to 1,843 -- according to Dr. Joan Morris and Dr. Eva Alberman of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

However, the number of babies born with Down's syndrome remained relatively steady despite an increase the age of mothers -- there were 752 in 1989 and 743 in 2008 -- because of terminations following prenatal diagnoses, they reported online in the British Medical Journal. The termination rate remained unchanged.

Dr. James Goldberg of San Francisco Perinatal Associates, past chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Genetics, said he didn't know whether there was a similar trend in the United States or in other countries.

He said he believes the situation would be much the same here, although at least one small study has shown an increase in the number of live Down's syndrome births over time in women older than 35.

A spokesperson for ACOG noted that there are no national U.S. data on the number of women who receive prenatal screening for Down's syndrome or reliable data on the number babies born with the disorder.

Morris and Alberman examined data from the U.K.'s National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register, which includes about 93 percent of all diagnoses of Down's syndrome in England and Wales.

The database included information on diagnoses in live births and stillbirths, as well as antenatal diagnoses and subsequent terminations, fetal losses, and a small number babies brought to term.

Over the 20-year study period, the large increase in diagnoses occurred even though the overall number of births remained constant.

I was offered the new Down Syndrome test during my last pregnancy. It is supposed to be pretty accurate and it is offered in the first trimester-before many women reveal they are pregnant. I didn't take the test. I don't think I was ready to know anything about the baby at that point. It was so early. I was more worried about a possible miscarriage.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

Halloween Danger

What is the biggest danger for kids this Halloween? It's not unsafe candy. It's getting burned so badly they have to go to the emergency room! MediaSource sent me this information about a recent survey at Nationwide Children's Hospital. I am glad I read it. The tips may be obvious, but they are good reminder!
While Halloween burn hazards aren’t going away anytime soon, there is some good news: according to a recent study in the November issue of Pediatrics, the number of kids getting burned is going down over time.

The bad news: toddlers and kids under 6 are still being burned at alarming rates. The study, one of the largest on pediatric burns to date and conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, reports that burns in toddlers and kids under 6 account for more than half of all injuries.

The study also found that hands and fingers are most frequently injured, followed by the head and face. Experts at Nationwide Children’s encourage parents to keep the following tips in mind to keep their kids safe and burn-free this Halloween:
-Choose costume accessories and props keeping in mind that all items should be flame resistant. Avoid long, flowing sleeves that could get caught in candles and light on fire.
-Use candles with caution around children and supervise children around candles at all times. -Use long fireplace matches when lighting candles and keep pumpkins away from combustible materials.

Nationwide Children's Hospital burn research

Are your kids' Halloween costumes flame resistant? I am going upstairs to look at mine. I didn't think about it until just now. Yikes!
I do think I have talked my 6-year old into using lights from the dollar store for our jack-o-lantern instead of candles! He is not easily convinced to this is a big success for me to do this without a fight!

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

H1N1 Questions answered

I am getting a lot of H1N1 questions right now. Here is the latest. I thought these were some good ones to get answered. I am not sure if every doctor would answer them the same, but this response is from an OSF doctor who is answering a lot of questions on the topic.

Hello there, as a concerned mother of four, will your child still need the H1N1 vaccine if they come down with it this season? Also, will there be a need to vaccine the children next year or will H1N1 become less of a threat as the years go on like the 1976 episode?

"We would still recommend vaccinating people with H1N1 unless they have had testing confirmed H1N1 (which we are only testing inpatients at the present time)"

"Next year the H1N1 likely will be incorporated into the seasonal flu vaccine."

Brian S Curtis, MD
Medical Director, Adult Hospitalist Service
OSF Saint Francis Medical Center

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

When car seats are out of the car....

FROM NBC: Although babies must be strapped into their car seats when they're on the road.. A new study suggests that's the only place the seats should be used for extended periods of time.

The problem, according to experts at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is when caregivers lift the infant carriers out of the car, and then place them on counters or soft surfaces, where they can fall.

More than 87-hundred infants are taken to the emergency room each year because of injuries sustained when their car seats fall from high places or onto couches where they can suffocate.

I don't remember ever putting the car seat on anything but the floor. Maybe it's because I have two other kids and I don't trust them not to knock the car seat off the table, etc. What do you guys think about this? Close to 9,000 kids end up in the ER because their parents put the car seat in an unsafe spot? I am surprised.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.