I was at my daughter's swimteam practice the other morning, when I overheard a conversation between two moms about one of their sons who had passed out during a painful office procedure at a doctor's office the previous day. He was fine, but it sounded pretty scary.
About 3 weeks ago, I made a houescall to a sweet little 8 year old girl who had passed out while playing miniature golf with her family. She, too, was fine, but as you can imagine, the family was more than a little distressed over the event.
While at a monthly bunco girls' night gathering a while back, one of my friends passed out. Granted, we had been enjoying an awesome bottle of red wine (okay, and someone also brought a pitcher of margaritas), but trust me...the half a glass of wine that she had sipped on at that point in the night certainly had nothing to do with her passing out. (Although we laughed later that to a casual observer, seeing a bunch of women flittering about in a panic, one passed out on the couch, another knocking over her wine, some in tears, and another rushing off to call her husband the surgeon on his cell phone, the scene probably would have looked like something off of Housewives!)
Just last night, while having a conversation with some running buddies, I learned that one of them had a tendency to pass out for no apparent reason. His doctor had told him he had some "condition" but he couldn't remember the name of it.
"Vasovagal syndrome" I exclaimed! "That's it!" he said.
And so....since it seems like every friend, child's playmate, patient, or neighbor I know has had some experience with this, I figured that it might be a worthwhile topic to post about! If you have a child that has had something like this happen and can relate, or if you know of someone who has, feel free to chime in with your own input!
The term, "vasovagal syndrome" comes from the vagus nerve, which is a large nerve running the length of the body, that when stimulated, causes a person's blood vessels to suddenly relax, and good-old-fashioned gravity takes over, pulling blood downward, away from a person's brain, and presto, they are on the floor! Often children will describe "tunnel vision" right before they pass out. They usually "come to" within a matter of seconds, but the alarming part is that sometimes as their nervous system is "re-setting", they will have little twitches and eye movements, that can be mistaken for a seizure. With vasovagal syndrome, the person awakens pretty quickly, and other than feeling a little tired, they're usually feeling fine a short time later.
If it happens, the most important thing for observers to do, is to remain calm. Once the child begins to wake up, ask them if they are hurt anywhere, and have them lie on their left side for a few minutes before they try to sit up. Contact your pediatrician, to let them know that it happened, but most likely, there won't be any need for testing unless it starts to happen fairly frequently. Vasovagal syndrome is not serious and is extremely common. Sometimes it can occur if children haven't been drinking enough in the summer heat, and their blood pressure drops a little. My oldest daughter had it happen in the middle of Harris Teeter, right after she accidentally pinched her finger in the cart. (Pain is often a trigger). Sometimes extreme emotion will trigger a person to pass out. (Think Scarlet O'Hara). And sometimes, it happens for no good reason, which is the most frustrating scenario of all! The bottom line, however, is that scary as it may be to witness, it isn't dangerous, and it's certainly no cause for panic.
Happy 4th to everyone!!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Food Allergies - The Latest Buzz
I can't turn on the news or look at my homepage the last day or so, without reading the headline "Food allergies more common than previously thought!" Gee, do you think so? Well, if my kids' classrooms are a reflection of the rest of the country, I'd say this study sort of stated the obvious, right? This past year, each of my 3 children had at least one, and in one classroom there were six kids with food allergies. Peanut is certainly the most common, and the most talked about, but the other ones ranged from milk to eggs to wheat to treenuts. All the while througout the school year, the other parents and I would remark to each other about how none of us remembers having this many kids with food allergies when we were growing up.
The recent study that's making all the headlines was the biggest food allergy study to date in the U.S. It included 36,000 kids and revealed that about 8% of kids in the U.S. suffer from food allergies. This is double what was previously found in older studies. What's even more interesting than the flat statistic, is examining how the data was collected. Survey phonecalls were placed randomly to families asking about whether or not their children had food allergies. If parents answered "yes" to this question, then the researchers followed up by asking "to what foods". Parents were also asked if their child's food allergy had ever been diagnosed by a physician, and they were also asked to list what their child's symptoms were. From there, researchers "weeded out" any answers that seemed less than valid. (Example: If a parent stated that their child became bloated after drinking milk, but had never been tested or formally diagnosed with a milk allergy, this child was not counted.)
So, what should we take away from this study? It's really hard to know. Since the information was based on parent-report only, it's impossible to know if all of the food allergies reported were accurate. Some say that the method of collected the data makes the results of the study skewed, overestimating the prevalence of food allergies in children. In my world, it almost doesn't matter whether the national prevalence of food allergies is 8% or 4%, if my child is one of the ones with food allergies. These families suffer tremendous burden, whether it be having to be their child's advocate at school, to ensure the classroom and the lunchroom is a safe place for their child to be, or whether it's the burden of having to be mindful at every restaurant, birthday party, and neighborhood cook-out. There are lots of theories floating around about why there seems to be an increasing prevalence of food allergies from one generation to the next. No definite explanation has been agreed upon. One thing that we can all agree upon, however, is that food allergies constitute a real, serious health issue for the children in this country.
The recent study that's making all the headlines was the biggest food allergy study to date in the U.S. It included 36,000 kids and revealed that about 8% of kids in the U.S. suffer from food allergies. This is double what was previously found in older studies. What's even more interesting than the flat statistic, is examining how the data was collected. Survey phonecalls were placed randomly to families asking about whether or not their children had food allergies. If parents answered "yes" to this question, then the researchers followed up by asking "to what foods". Parents were also asked if their child's food allergy had ever been diagnosed by a physician, and they were also asked to list what their child's symptoms were. From there, researchers "weeded out" any answers that seemed less than valid. (Example: If a parent stated that their child became bloated after drinking milk, but had never been tested or formally diagnosed with a milk allergy, this child was not counted.)
So, what should we take away from this study? It's really hard to know. Since the information was based on parent-report only, it's impossible to know if all of the food allergies reported were accurate. Some say that the method of collected the data makes the results of the study skewed, overestimating the prevalence of food allergies in children. In my world, it almost doesn't matter whether the national prevalence of food allergies is 8% or 4%, if my child is one of the ones with food allergies. These families suffer tremendous burden, whether it be having to be their child's advocate at school, to ensure the classroom and the lunchroom is a safe place for their child to be, or whether it's the burden of having to be mindful at every restaurant, birthday party, and neighborhood cook-out. There are lots of theories floating around about why there seems to be an increasing prevalence of food allergies from one generation to the next. No definite explanation has been agreed upon. One thing that we can all agree upon, however, is that food allergies constitute a real, serious health issue for the children in this country.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
UVA rays, UVB rays - What's a litte one to do??
At least once a day, this time of year, I get asked a question or two about sunscreen use in kids. What does that SPF number really mean? Are sunblocks like zinc oxide safer than other kinds of sunscreens in kids? Can you put sunscreen on a baby under the age of 6 months?
Here is my best synospsis of the ins and outs of sunscreen use in babies and kids. Enjoy!
1. First, understand the difference between UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays are the sun's wavelengths that cause tanning. It used to be thought that UVA rays were only bad because they caused premature aging of the skin. Now we know that UVA rays also pose skin cancer risks. UVB rays are the ones that cause painful, red sunburns, and these are the rays that have long been associated with increasing skin cancer risk. The take-home message? Both UVA and UVB rays are potentially damaging to your skin, and both can lead to skin cancer, so look for a sunscreen that provides "broad-spectrum" protection against both of them.
2. SPF rating is a standardized way of describing how long someone can be out in the sun, before they get a sunburn. This rating system was really designed to make people aware about their risks and protection from UVB rays. An SPF of 15 means that a person can be outside, exposed to sun for 15 minutes, before they would start to develop a sunburn. An SPF of 60 means it would take 60 minutes. Of course, there are other factors that affect this, like, how well you applied the sunscreen and if you are swimming or sweating and therefore losing some of that protection. SPF really does mean something, so the higher, the better!
3. What about safety of these chemical sunscreens in kids? Sunscreens that provide this "broad spectrum" protection against both kinds of rays are safe to use in kids. Zinc oxide (the thick white paste that our mothers used to lather on our noses) is a physical blocker to the sun. It does not provide full-spectrum protection, but for some kids with skin sensitivities to some of the other sunscreens, it's a good alternative.
4. What about use of sunscreen in babies under 6 months? For years, the recommendation was to avoid putting sunscreen on very small babies. While it's still the recommendation that small babies avoid exposure to the sun during peak hours (between 10 and 4), and if at all possible, should be kept in a shaded area, we recognize that life's not always that simple! My youngest was only 3 weeks old when we dragged our newly-annointed family of 5 to the beach that year, and (gasp) yes, I had her out at the beach with me for short periods of time under our little tent. There will inevitably be times when young babies will be in a position of potential sun exposure, and if and when that happens, it's perfectly fine to apply a thin layer of sunscreen. Avoid the hands (because they're sure to be in their mouths!) and wash it off when you come back inside, but otherwise, don't panic or feel like you're breaking the rules.
So, as you gear up for another summer with fun in the sun, hope this sheds some light on the sunscreen issue for you! Happy summer!
Here is my best synospsis of the ins and outs of sunscreen use in babies and kids. Enjoy!
1. First, understand the difference between UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays are the sun's wavelengths that cause tanning. It used to be thought that UVA rays were only bad because they caused premature aging of the skin. Now we know that UVA rays also pose skin cancer risks. UVB rays are the ones that cause painful, red sunburns, and these are the rays that have long been associated with increasing skin cancer risk. The take-home message? Both UVA and UVB rays are potentially damaging to your skin, and both can lead to skin cancer, so look for a sunscreen that provides "broad-spectrum" protection against both of them.
2. SPF rating is a standardized way of describing how long someone can be out in the sun, before they get a sunburn. This rating system was really designed to make people aware about their risks and protection from UVB rays. An SPF of 15 means that a person can be outside, exposed to sun for 15 minutes, before they would start to develop a sunburn. An SPF of 60 means it would take 60 minutes. Of course, there are other factors that affect this, like, how well you applied the sunscreen and if you are swimming or sweating and therefore losing some of that protection. SPF really does mean something, so the higher, the better!
3. What about safety of these chemical sunscreens in kids? Sunscreens that provide this "broad spectrum" protection against both kinds of rays are safe to use in kids. Zinc oxide (the thick white paste that our mothers used to lather on our noses) is a physical blocker to the sun. It does not provide full-spectrum protection, but for some kids with skin sensitivities to some of the other sunscreens, it's a good alternative.
4. What about use of sunscreen in babies under 6 months? For years, the recommendation was to avoid putting sunscreen on very small babies. While it's still the recommendation that small babies avoid exposure to the sun during peak hours (between 10 and 4), and if at all possible, should be kept in a shaded area, we recognize that life's not always that simple! My youngest was only 3 weeks old when we dragged our newly-annointed family of 5 to the beach that year, and (gasp) yes, I had her out at the beach with me for short periods of time under our little tent. There will inevitably be times when young babies will be in a position of potential sun exposure, and if and when that happens, it's perfectly fine to apply a thin layer of sunscreen. Avoid the hands (because they're sure to be in their mouths!) and wash it off when you come back inside, but otherwise, don't panic or feel like you're breaking the rules.
So, as you gear up for another summer with fun in the sun, hope this sheds some light on the sunscreen issue for you! Happy summer!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)