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Text4Baby…Texts for Moms

Over the past few years the rate of US infant mortality has been text for mom-to-berising. More than 500,000 babies are born premature and around 28,000 children die in the very first year of their birth – sobering statistics for a country with such advanced medical capabilities. Because of this, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) have partnered with several major cellular carriers to create Text4Baby, a new, free mobile information service designed to bring timely health information to expectant and new moms.

According to a recent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Health Research, delivering health information via text messaging is an up-and-coming trend for healthcare providers, enabling them to easily reach patients who are most in need of monitoring. Since key predictors of a child’s’ chance for survival are birth weight and gestational age, moms-to-be are prime candidates for this kind of communication.

Text4baby promotes maternal and child health by offering health-related information through SMS text messages. Women can sign up for the service by texting “BABY” to 511411 (or “BEBE” in Spanish) and will receive three free SMS text messages each week timed to their due date or baby’s date of birth. The messages deal with diverse topics including: birth defects prevention, immunization, nutrition, seasonal flu, mental health, oral health and safe sleep. The Text4baby service also connects women to prenatal and infant care services and other resources.

According to Chopra“text4baby is the first free mobile health service to be taken to scale in the United States. We know that mobile phones hold tremendous potential to inform and empower individuals…Text4baby represents an extraordinary opportunity to expand the way we use our phones, to demonstrate the potential of mobile health technology, and make a real difference for moms and babies across the country.”

Texting for healthy babies – sometimes a little innovation can be a powerful combination

February 25, 2010 | Filed Under Awareness, Featured | 4 Comments 

YouTube – Adding Child Safety to the Menu

With millions of videos on YouTube, keeping your child safe from inappropriate videos has been a major challenge. There’s a significant amount of sexual content and violence…in fact, typing in the word “cartoon” on YouTube leads to over 300,000 hits and on the first page you find a video YouTubeentitled “very creepy, disturbing children’s cartoon, banned from TV”. And we all know how enticing something that is banned can seem. Scott Rubin, YouTube’s head of child safety, cites that “YouTube was never intended to be used by children under age 13”.  Unfortunately the best of intentions do not always match the end result.  So what is a parent to do??? You could of course choose to block YouTube entirely or keep a constant eye on your child while they scanned through the vast amount of video streams available to them. Finally however, there is another option for parents, one that should make the task of keeping your child safe a little more manageable.

As of last Thursday, YouTube’s parental controls will now be displayed on the bottom of every YouTube screen. You can also create a blocking filter to limit what YouTube will display. According to NY Times reporter Warren Buckleitner, here’s how to turn it on:

  1. Scroll to the bottom of any YouTube page.
  2. Click on the words “Safety Mode is Off.”
  3. Adjust the settings, click Save and start searching. To permanently lock on Safety Mode, you must log on to your YouTube account.

So how does Safety Mode work? CNET Senior Editor Natalie Del Conte describes Safety Mode as accomplishing three things: it “limits content on videos containing nudity, pornography, narcotics, graphic violence, and news events containing graphic violence; collapses all comments on videos automatically (you can choose to view comments, but comments with profanity will be filtered out); locks Safety Mode for all users, even if a user is logged out, so kids can’t turn off Safety Mode if they try to.”

Keep in mind, Safety Mode is both browser specific and account specific, so you must turn it on for every browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc) and every account you want to filter. And make sure private browsing is disengaged since Safety Mode will not function if that is turned on. Still nothing is failsafe, so monitoring your child’s internet use remains the best policy. Knowing however that a child’s search for “naked” brings up a message that says “the word “naked” has been filtered from the search because Safety Mode is enabled” should provide concerned parents the ability to breathe a little easier

February 17, 2010 | Filed Under Awareness | 3 Comments 

Finally – A Clue to Understanding SIDS

SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or “the death of an infant before his or her first sleeping safelybirthday that cannot be explained after a complete autopsy, an investigation of the scene and circumstances of the death, and a review of the medical history of the infant and of his or her family” is every parent’s worst nightmare. Finally, according to a new study whose findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this week, a new discovery may help identify babies at risk for SIDS, which each year kills more than 2,300 babies before their first birthday.

Taking the next step in more than 20 years of research, Dr. Hannah Kinney of Harvard Medical School and researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have linked sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) with low production of serotonin in the brainstem. In the brainstem, serotonin helps regulate some of the body’s involuntary actions, such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure during sleep. The findings suggest that some babies have an underlying vulnerability to SIDS, which can become fatal when combined with an external stress such as sleeping face down, especially when it occurs within the first year of life.

“Our research suggests that sleep unmasks the brain defect,” Kinney said in a statement. “When the infant is breathing in the face-down position, he or she may not get enough oxygen. In a normal baby rebreathing carbon dioxide, serotonin pathways in the brainstem would stir the baby awake long enough to turn its head, allowing it to breathe fresh air…a baby with low serotonin levels in the brainstem may never stir.”

The team hopes the study will lead to a test that measures a baby’s serotonin levels, making it possible to identify children at highest risk for SIDS….and possibly develop treatments to correct the serotonin deficiency.

Amazing how one small discovery can make such a tremendous impact.

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February 8, 2010 | Filed Under Awareness | 3 Comments 

Is This Toy Safe?

recalled toyIn 2008 Congress passed the first major overhaul of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) since its creation. The new compliance laws provided for tough new bans on lead and phthalates, required larger printed warning messages on toy packaging, cracked down on smaller toy pieces that could choke a child and greatly improved CPSC’s ability to monitor and hold wrongdoers accountable. Toy vendors were required to be fully compliant as of this past February.

Toy recalls have dropped dramatically from 2007 when 45 million toys and other children’s products were classified as unsafe. Still there is no magic bullet to instantly make ALL toys safe. With that in mind, the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) published its 24th Annual Report on Safety for the Toy Industry with guidelines to help parents in purchasing toys for little ones. It also provides examples of toys that may pose potential safety hazards.

The main areas in the report concentrate on choking hazards, excessively loud toys, and toxins like lead and phthalates in children’s products. Key findings:

CHOKING HAZARDSrecalled toy

The law bans small parts in toys for children under three and requires an explicit, prominent warning label on toys with small parts for children between the ages of three and six. In addition, balls with a diameter smaller than 1.75 inches are banned for children under three years old. Unfortunately choking on small parts, small balls and balloons remains a leading cause of toy related deaths and injuries. In 2009 alone, 5.3 million toys and other children’s products were recalled due to choking hazards. 

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

  • Avoid small toys or parts of toys that can fit entirely into a toilet paper tube.
  • Avoid small balls and round objects. Balls should be at least 1.75” in diameter for children under three.
  • Avoid cylindrical pieces of toys that can lodge in a child’s airway.
  • Balloons and pieces of balloon can completely block a child’s airway. Never give balloons to children under 8. Mylar balloons are a safer alternative.
  • Avoid hand me down hazards – keep toys for older kids away from young children.

LOUD TOYS

Almost 15 percent of children ages 6 to 17 show signs of hearing loss. Noise-induced hearing loss can be caused by a one-time exposure to loud sound as well as by repeated exposure to sounds at various loudness levels over an extended period of time.

In March 2007, the American Society for Testing and Materials adopted a voluntary acoustics standard for toys, setting the loudness threshold for most toys at 85 decibels, and for toys intended for use “close to the ear” at 65 dB.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

  • If a toy seems too loud for your ears, it is probably too loud for your child. Don’t buy it.
  •  Toys used close to the ear (like toy cell phones) should not be louder than 65 decibels, measured from 10 inches away. More info here. 
  • Other toys should not be louder than 85 decibels measured from 10 inches away.
  • For “loud toys” you already own: take the batteries and/or cover the toy’s speakers with tape.

TOXINSrecalled toy 3-lead-smaller

Exposure to lead can affect almost every organ and system in the human body, especially the central nervous system. Lead is especially toxic to the brains of young children. Despite the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) bans, in 2009 the CPSC has recalled nearly 1.3 million toys or other children’s products for violations of the lead paint standard and an additional 102,700 toys and other children’s products for violation of the 300 ppm lead standard.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), levels of phthalates found in humans are higher than levels shown to cause adverse health effects. The data also show phthalate levels are highest in children. Still despite a CPSIA ban, 2 toys were found this year that exceeded the maximum phthalate levels.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

  • Keep costume/novelty jewelry away from young children.
  • You can screen a piece of jewelry or toy for lead using a home lead tester available at the hardware store. (This is a screening method, and should not be relied upon as a definitive test.)
  • Check www.recalls.gov for recalled toys.
  • Avoid plastic toys labeled as “PVC” They often contains phthalate softeners. Look for toys labeled “phthalate-free.”
  • Choose cloth or unpainted wooden toys instead of soft plastic toys.
  • Read the labels of play cosmetics and avoid products with xylene, toluene or phthalates.
  • Avoid plastic bath toys or bath books.

For parents concerned about toxin exposure, the “Absolute Greatest Guide to Green Gifts for Kids” from Healthy Child Healthy World and www.HealthyStuff.org can be excellent resources

WHAT’S A PARENT TO DO?

The CPSC is one small agency and there are numerous new toys produced every year in the US…as well as imported from other countries. Unfortunately that means that CPSC is not able to test all toys, and not all toys on store shelves meet CPSC standards. This also means that there is no comprehensive list of potentially hazardous toys. There are things however that a safety conscious parent can do:

As always, in the end, it comes down to you and I being vigilant in the toys we purchase. Hopefully the tips we’ve provided can be of some help…for the holidays…and beyond.

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December 24, 2009 | Filed Under Awareness | 19 Comments 

November is National Adoption Month: Help a Child Celebrate

you dont have to be perfectDid you know it would take less than one percent of the U.S. population to provide a forever family for every child in foster care available for adoption? November is National Adoption Month and Pediatric Safety as a member of Global Influence is participating in a coordinated effort between Adopt Us Kids, the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Ad Council, and Child Welfare Information Gateway to make the difference of a lifetime for about 130,000 children who deserve a family of their own.

The mission of Adopt Us Kids is to recruit and connect foster and adoptive families with waiting children throughout the United States. Funded by the Children’s Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families, the national photolisting website contains photos and information about children in foster care.

If you’re considering foster parenting or adopting…

  • The Adopt Us Kids website has information about foster parenting, the seven step journey to fostering/adoption, and lots more useful information.
  • Information about adoption subsidies is available
  • Every state has its own guidelines on adoption. You can find this information here
  • You can search for children in your state or area who are in need of an adoptive family here at the Adopt Us Kids website:
  • If you would like to speak with someone regarding the adoption process, you can reach AdoptUsKids at 1-888-200-4005.

A national adoption public service advertising recruitment campaign was launched in July 2004 in a partnership of the Children’s Bureau, the Ad Council, and Adopt Us Kids, with the goal of raising awareness of the significant number of children in this country waiting to be adopted. New Public Service Announcements have been developed as an extension of this highly successful campaign.

If you just want to help…

Adoption/fostering is not for everyone, but there are things that you can do, such as provide respite care for families and lots more! You can reach out to your state rep (contact info here) to get more info.

Each one of us can play a role in helping a child find their forever family…

adoptuskids

This campaign is brought to you by Global Influence, the former Momfluence network.

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Awareness | 2 Comments