Pampers Investigation

Help me out parents~ Has anyone heard of this or it just a few random cases? I haven't used the dry max diapers on my kids. I have been using the Sam's Club generic diapers and saving a ton. I haven't had any problems so far.

FROM NBC: The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating a handful of claims that a new Pampers diaper product is leading to severe diaper rash. Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble introduced new versions of its Swaddlers and Cruisers diapers.

The diapers are thinner and are advertised as having "dry max" technology. Now some parents say their babies developed bad diaper rashes and what look like chemical burns as a result of using the new diapers. The CPSC says it's investigating the claims. Meanwhile -- Procter & Gamble says it has no evidence that the dry max diapers cause any harm.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Fixing a Baby's Flat Head

We are running a story on when to go see an orthotist if your baby has a flat spot on his or her head. The story came about after this post from a few months ago that says babies with flat spots may be at risk for cognitive delays.

While researching this story, I talked to cranio-facial specialist Dr. Eric Ellwood. He is the doctor most parents are referred to locally when their kids have a flat spot. He says he sees about 10 a week and for most of them, surgery is not necessary. I asked him why pediatricians don't send the kids to an orthotist at the same time they are sent to him. He thinks it has a lot to do with insurance. I guess you have to have a prescription to get a helmet for your insurance to cover it. He said he doesn't have a problem with parents going to see an orthotist at four months.

If your baby has a flat spot on his or her head, there is a small window of opportunity to get it fixed. And many people are waiting too long to send the infant to an orthotics expert.

This picture is of 9 month old Layla Hull. she is getting her head circumference checked to see if her helmet is changing the shape of her head. Jade Hull said, "Now that I've seen the progression and it has gotten better already, I am hopeful and optimistic."

You've probably seen a lot more babies wearing helmets. Layla is one of thousands of babies with positional plagiocephaly. One side of her head is flat.

Jade Hull said, "I think it started actually before she was born." She is a twin and her head may have been cramped in utero. Plus, she tends to turn her head to the same side when she sleeps.

The helmet is perfectly shaped. When the baby has a growth spurt, her head will start forming to fit into the helmet. Orthotist John Brinkmann said, "Their head is so soft and moldable right after they're born that if they spend a lot of time on that one flat spot, it just gets worse."

The big problem--Brinkman says--is that babies are coming to his office when it's almost too late. John says to see an orthotist and get a scan at 4 months and again at 5 months--the scans are typically free. Brinkmann said, "A lot of the deformities do correct on their own just as a child spends more time tummy time, crawling sitting, the deformity isn't getting increased because they are not on that one spot."

But if your child's head deformity isn't correcting itself, you will have the option of buying the $2400 dollar helmet. Hull said, "A lot of people said it is so worth it. You can't even tell that anything was wrong after wearing it for the directed amount of time they were supposed to."

A flat head is typicaly a cosmetic issue, but preliminary research out of at WASHU in St. Louis shows the flat spot may cause cognitive delays.

Layla was referred at 7 months. Brinkmann said,"I think we'll see some significant reduction, but fingers crossed. you don't ever know." Brinkman says if your child is under one year old, you will probably get some correction, it just won't completely eliminate the flat spot.

Her mom is already seeing an improvement. "I'm excited. I can't wait to put bows in her hair again."

One big component is insurance. If you are on Medicade or if your insurance covers the cost of the helmet, you will need a prescription. It is also a good idea to see a cranio-facial specialist to make sure your child doesn't need surgery for a tight neck muscle or fusion of the bones.

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THE LINK TO THIS STORY BELOW TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO IS PREGNANT OR HAS A NEWBORN. What you don't know about flat headed babies

I have talked to so many moms who didn't know to take their babies in early and are worried their child's head will be disfigured forever.

NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Bad News for T.V. Junkies

I love my T.V. time. I am probably not as strict as I should be about how much television my kids watch. They haven't been very interested in T.V lately since the weather is warmer and we finally have neighbors next door! My oldest is more into Super Mario Brothers on the Wii than anything else.

I don't like that this study showed kids who watch more T.V. are more likely to be bullied. That freaks me out a little. The rest of the information seems logical to me. What do you think?

FROM NBC: Figuring out why a fourth grader is having trouble in school may stem back to how much time they spent in front of the T.V. as a toddler. A new study out of the University of Montreal finds toddlers who watch too much T.V. are more likely to have problems in school and with their health.

After studying the T.V. viewing habits, school evaluations and health history of nearly 13 hundred children -- the researchers found each additional hour in front of the tube equated to a nearly ten percent decrease in physical activity.

It also meant children performed worse on math tests, were more likely to be bullied and had a high B.M.I.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents limit their children's T.V. viewing to fewer than two hours per day.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Major Medication Recall

I know I have at least three bottles of potentially recalled medication for kids in my cabinet. This is a pretty big recall so please check out the full list by clicking on the link at the bottom. You have to enter a number found on your bottle.

FROM NBC :Some of the most common allergy medicines and pain relievers for babies and young children have been recalled because of manufacturing problems. The impact of the recall could be huge -- as most medicine cabinets in homes with young children are fully stocked with liquid pain relievers and allergy medicines.

McNeil, a division of Johnson & Johnson, is voluntarily recalling 43 child and infant formulations of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl. The company says internal testing showed some of the products may contain higher concentrations of an active ingredient -- other products may contain tiny particles.

Dr. Alfred Aleguas, Rainbow Babies & Children's hospital:"McNeil felt that while none of their products were actually released to the public, they couldn't be sure." The recall is for liquid drops, syrups and oral suspensions in various flavors. It does not include chewables. No injuries have been reported -- and the company says chances of any adverse reactions are remote. Still -- experts warn parents not to give their children any of the recalled products.

Consumers can either return their products for a refund, or exchange them for new products once the company's manufacturing problems are resolved. In the meantime -- experts say parents should not give their kids medications meant for adults. Dr. Alfred Aleguas: "It very easily could lead to an inadvertent overdose. So it's not recommended at all." There are alternative brands on the market -- including generics."

CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS ON THE EXACT PRODUCTS RECALLED

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Friends with Benefits

I think this is a scary road for teenagers. I know some people say having sex with people you are not romantically involved with is okay, but I don't want my kids doing that. We recently ran a story on "swingers" or swapping partners and I was surprised by some of the responses. I guess it's a hot button topic. We didn't have time in the story to talk about precautions that need to be taken when having sex with people you don't know that well. I didn't realize the extremely high chances of people spreading STDs when they have friends with benefits. I pray my little guys do not go down this path.

FROM CNN: When Jennifer Nicholas sees television shows or movies where characters "hook up" or have sex with "friends with benefits," she cringes, because that's how she got herpes.

"Getting an STD wasn't even something that crossed my mind," said Nicholas, 39, who learned that she had herpes at age 22. "One day I'm at the doctor's office and it was, 'Surprise! You've got herpes.' "

Experts in sexually transmitted diseases say they've become increasingly concerned about the trend toward having what they call "sexual involvement in nonromantic contexts" -- the technical term for hookups or "friends with benefits" -- because they're especially likely to spread sexually transmitted diseases.

The concern is that that people who have nonromantic relationships tend to have several partners at one time -- "concurrency," in sexual behavior lingo -- in contrast to people engaged in romantic relationships, who tend to be monogamous for the duration of the romance.

"We're concerned that concurrency is speeding up the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases," said Tony Paik, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Iowa who recently published a study on the subject.

"This is a direct route for spreading STDs. There are important implications here for public health," he added.

In Paik's study, published last month in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, he found that 17 percent of men and 5 percent of women had at some point had more than one sexual partner at a time. Seventeen percent of women and 8 percent of men said they'd been exclusive but their partner had not.

For both genders, having sex with a friend made someone less likely to be monogamous.

"Sex with the ex"

Peggy Giordano, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University, studies the sexual behavior of young people, and she's also concerned about the phenomenon of having sex in nonromantic ways.

"It seems more acceptable now to have nonromantic sexual encounters," said Giordano, who's studied the sex lives of 1,300 teens and young adults in Lucas County, Ohio. "When there's no romance, there's no basis for demanding fidelity from the other person."

She says it's not just the number of partners at one time; it's that people's behavior seems to be different when they're having "friendly" sex in contrast to romantic sex.

When people have sex with a friend, they tend to be more trusting that the person doesn't have a sexually transmitted disease and therefore fail to use a condom, she says.

"If you've known a person for a while, you don't have that vigilance. You're probably not going to ask them to go and get tested for STDs," Giordano said. (To find out whether you should get a test for an STD, you can take this quiz.)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can help you find a testing site near you.

This lack of vigilance about STDs is especially true when the sexual partner is a former boyfriend or girlfriend, she adds.

"We're finding that 'sex with the ex' is a very common experience," said Giordano, who's been studying the group of Ohio youth since 2001.

"It's seemingly safe, since they used to be your girlfriend or boyfriend. But of course you don't know what they've done since you broke up. You don't know their full portfolio of partners," she said.

What are the chances?

Through her work with the Atlanta H Club, a social and support group for adults with herpes or the human papillomavirus, Nicholas is now more aware of the chances that a prospective partner could have a sexually transmitted disease.

It's impossible to say precisely what the chances are you'll catch an STD from any one person, but there are studies that can give you a clue. One important factor to keep in mind: For biological reasons, women are more likely to catch an STD from a man than vice versa.

Human papillomavirus

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About one in four U.S. females age 14 to 59 has HPV, according to a 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The HPV rate was highest -- 44 percent -- for women ages 20 to 24.

HPV is not as common in men, according to a 2006 article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, but is still "highly prevalent." The study, which looked at 40 studies on HPV and men, found that 56 percent of the reports found that at least one in five men had HPV.

Herpes

Nearly one in five Americans has herpes simplex virus, according to a 2006 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The rates for women were higher than for men: 23 percent, compared with 11 percent. Rates were especially high among African-Americans.

Gonorrhea

Your chances of getting gonorrhea from a sexual encounter are significantly lower than your chances of getting HPV or herpes. A 2007 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed a 0.24 percent prevalence rate. Rates were highest among teens but still less than 1 percent.

Chlamydia

Nearly half of the people in the above study who had gonorrhea also had chlamydia, but again, infection rates were significantly lower than for HPV and herpes.

According to a 2007 report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 2.2 percent of Americans ages 14 to 39 had chlamydia. The rates were highest for teenage girls (4.6 percent) and for black women (7.2 percent).

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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