The experts at CHOC recommend these easy tips to get your family “moving” on the right track:
• Plan the week’s menu and shop on the weekend.
• Cook large meals on Sunday afternoons for re-heating later in the week.
• Make a double batch of your favorite soup, casserole or stew and freeze part of it.
• Try a slow cooker recipe.
• Serve more fruits and veggies.
• Send children out to play right after school. Limit TV viewing until after 5 p.m., or when it gets dark.
• Limit screen time to no more than one or two hours per day.
• Choose an exercise the entire family can do together. Invite your children’s friends to come along.
• There a lot you can do indoors, too. Try running in place, push-ups or stretching.

For more helpful nutrition and obesity prevention guidelines from CHOC, please click here:
http://www.choc.org/publications/index.cfm?id=P00303&pub=KH&aid=240

http://www.choc.org/publications/index.cfm?id=P00303&pub=KH&aid=187

“Let’s Move!” includes giving parents helpful information and fostering environments that support healthy choices, providing healthier foods in schools, ensuring that every family has access to healthy, affordable food and helping children become more physically active. First Lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” today, where she will discuss her initiative. She’ll appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” later this week. To learn more about “Let’s Move!” please visit: http://www.letsmove.gov/

CHOC relies on volunteer blood donors like you, your friends and co-workers to meet these needs. Donating blood is a safe and easy process, and all blood types are needed.Volunteers who donate can leave knowing they will have a direct impact on the recovery of a child.

Check out these interesting facts from the American Red Cross: 

• 1 pint of blood can help save up to 3 lives.
• Adults have around 10 pints of blood in their body. 1 pint is given during a donation.
• Blood cannot be manufactured; it can only come from volunteer donors.
• 5 million patients in the U.S. need blood every year.
• Every 2 seconds someone needs a blood transfusion.
• The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
•  A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.
• There are four types of transfusable products that can be derived from blood: red cells, platelets, plasma and cryoprecipitate. Typically, two or three of these are produced from a pint of donated whole blood.
• Platelets, critical for cancer patients, have a shelf life of about 5 days. 

To donate blood to CHOC patients, please call 714-532-8339. For more information, please visit  http://www.choc.org/donateblood/index.cfm?id=P00208.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests the following kid-friendly resolutions, that are sure to help you and your family start the new year right. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/jankidstips.cfm

What are some of your family’s new year’s resolutions?

Over 1,500 Internet users, ages 10 through 17, were surveyed about their experiences with appearing in, creating or receiving sexual images or videos. The study found that 2.5 percent of youth surveyed have participated in sexting in the past year. If sexting is defined as transmitting sexually suggestive images, rather than sexually explicit images, that number increases to 9.6 percent. Most kids who have participated do so as a prank or while in a relationship, and a significant number of the incidents included alcohol or drug use.

Study authors recommend that more young people are educated on the consequences of possessing or distributing sexually explicit images, which is currently treated as a criminal offense.

Experts agree that talking openly with your kids is a great way to learn how much your kids know about the topic, and an opportunity to discuss with them the potential consequences. Express how you feel in an age-appropriate, non-confrontational way. An ongoing, two-way dialog can go a long way in helping your kids understand how to minimize legal and social risks.

In many cases, kids are acting this way in response to peer pressure, in a form of cyberbullying or pressure from a boyfriend or girlfriend. Sometimes it’s impulsive behavior, blackmail, or flirting. Make sure they understand that sharing these type of images should be avoided via email and the web too – not just their cell phones. Let your kids know that in any case, this is activity they should not participate in or support.

For more information on kids and cell phones, please click here:
http://www.choc.org/publications/index.cfm?id=P00303&aid=621

Food Safety

Many holiday family traditions are centered around special foods. If your child wants to help in the kitchen, remember the following tips:

Wash hands before, during and after food preparation.
Keep common baking ingredients such as vanilla and almond extract out of their reach.
Use soap, water and a disposable paper towel to clean surfaces that have touched raw meat, fish or poultry.

Trimming the Tree

If your family picks out a real tree, make sure you check the tree’s freshness-it should be green and not dry. Keep it away from fireplaces or other heating sources. When decorating trees, also keep the following tips in mind:

Turn off the tree lights before leaving the tree in an unattended room.
Keep burning candles out of your children’s reach. Do not leave burning candles unattended, and never place them near anything that might easily catch fire.
Keep small ornaments, tinsel, small figurines and other decorations out of reach. Also avoid ornaments that look like food or candy.

Make a List Check It Twice

Make sure you know what you’re buying. It’s important to select age-appropriate toys. For small children, avoid those with small, removable parts that may not be appropriate for younger children. Also, stay away from toys with strings, straps or cords. These may pose a strangulation hazard to small children.

If it’s a new bicycle, tricycle, scooter, skateboard or skates that are on your child’s list, don’t forget the trimmings. Make sure you also purchase the proper safety gear, including helmets and any other appropriate protective equipment.

Stay on Top of Toy Recalls
 
You can get the most up-to-date info about any toys that may be recalled for safety hazards by contacting the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 800-638-2772 or online at www.cpsc.gov.
 

What holiday safety tips do you follow?

Energy drinks, another increasingly popular drink among kids, are not appropriate for children or teenagers– water should be the primary beverage choice. These beverages contain large amounts of caffeine, as well as other ingredients that aren’t healthy for a growing child.

CHOC Children’s experts couldn’t agree more with these recommendations. Shonda Brown, clinical dietician at CHOC offers some must-read guidelines for parents about these drinks. Please click here: http://www.choc.org/publications/articles.cfm?id=P00303&pub=KH&aid=622

The nursery at home may be prepped; prenatal classes passed with flying colors; and mom’s bags packed and ready to go for baby’s delivery.  But, all the planning in the world rarely prepares parents for having their precious newborn admitted into a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  For families in Orange County and beyond, the CHOC Children’s NICU provides leading-edge care in a family-centered environment dedicated to securing healthy futures for the community’s youngest, most fragile children.

CHOC’s 54-bed Level IIIC NICU – the only one in the region – offers the highest level of neonatal intensive care available.  Providing world-class expertise and cutting-edge technology to treat the most complex conditions affecting newborns, the unit features a two-bed Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) unit. Often used for infants suffering from respiratory or cardiac failure due to birth defects or a severe infection, ECMO is a life-saving therapy that mimics the natural function of the heart and lungs, allowing the patient to rest while natural healing of any affected organs take place. CHOC’s ECMO unit is the only one of its kind in Orange County.

CHOC’s NICU is the first hospital in the region to offer the Olympic Cool-Cap System to prevent or reduce the severity of neurological injury associated with moderate or severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). (HIE is damage to the brain and spinal cord as a result of inadequate oxygen.) 

Clinical trials have shown that temporarily lowering brain temperature by 2 to 5 degrees Celsius within six hours of birth may reduce the risk of death or disability in infants with moderate or severe HIE.  CHOC experts utilize the cool-cap technology to cool the newborn’s brain for 72 hours and then slowly re-warm the patient for an additional four. 

CHOC also opened a special unit within the NICU that focuses on caring for the unique needs of the smallest and sickest babies. The Small Baby Unit, staffed with highly-trained staff, is designed for babies born at less than 28 weeks gestation or who weigh less than 1,000 grams, and is the only one of its kind in the Southern California area.

The unit has been designed to be as womb-like as possible to aid in an infant’s development. The lighting is dimmed, and voices and other noises, including the hospital’s overhead paging system, are reduced to “library level.” The unit has noise-absorbing tiles on the floor and ceiling. Even the walls curve away from each other in order to deflect sound.

CHOC understands the fear and anxiety experienced by parents of NICU patients.  It’s one of the reasons mom and dad are part of the care team, and are encouraged to spend as much time at their baby’s bedside as possible.  Parents are also encouraged to provide skin-to-skin “kangaroo care” – even in the Small Baby Unit – as soon as it’s safe for the baby.

No parent wants to imagine a baby in a NICU.  But, if a newborn requires life-saving neonatal care, there’s no place like CHOC.

To learn more about the NICU at CHOC Children’s, please click here: http://www.choc.org/nicu/index.cfm?id=P00532

Brushing teeth as soon as possible after eating candy may keep harmful bacteria from developing. 

Children and parents can take additional steps to protect their teeth:
• Parents should examine their children’s candy and remove anything they consider unacceptable before allowing their kids to eat it.
• Avoid candy that is too tacky or gummy, which can stick to teeth and cause decay.
• No matter what time of day children eat candy, they should remember to have good dental hygiene.
• Before Halloween rolls around, a dentist can put sealants into the grooves of children’s teeth to protect them against corrosion caused by too much sugar.   Ask your pediatric dentist if sealants would be good for your child.

For more information from the American Dental Association, visit http://www.ada.org/

Ira T. Lott, M.D. is a Pediatric Neurologist at CHOC Children’s. His research has focused on the many aspects of Down syndrome, most recently on the relationship between aging and development. Dr. Lott serves as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Down Syndrome Society in New York.

To address these concerns, Dr. Lott recommends a child with Down syndrome undergo a general evaluation to determine their specific needs. Then, a bridge must be created between the primary care physician and the specialty care providers. Collaboration within the various providers is needed to ensure the patients reach their potential as they join community life and go through school. The following support services are recommended to ensure a Down syndrome child’s needs are being met:  

• Comprehensive medical assessment, from birth to age 18, including continued follow-up care coordinated with between the providers and the patient’s family
• Referrals, as required, to other sub-specialists and ancillary services as identified by the primary care physician and specialists
• Supplementary medical care and case management services should complement primary care physician efforts 

Although people with Down syndrome experience cognitive delays, the effect is usually mild to moderate and is not indicative of the many strengths and talents that each individual possesses. Children with Down syndrome learn to do most activities a child without the condition would, only somewhat later.

“I find children with Down syndrome a joy to work with – they are very social and have a positive effect on the healthcare provider,” says Dr. Lott. “Many do great in the Special Olympics and even become big T.V. stars.” 

For more information please visit the National Down Syndrome Society at www.ndss.org.

In a recent Orange County Register article, Mery Taylor, pediatric psychologist at CHOC Children’s, addressed this topic and suggests talking openly with your children about what they’ve heard and how they feel, and assuring them that their feelings are normal. She recommends limiting their exposure to media coverage and answering their questions honestly and in an age-appropriate manner.

Parents should also watch for signs that their kids are distressed, irritable or aggressive. For the full story, please click here: http://www.ocregister.com/news/parents-321869-children-taylor.html