Don't be a fucking idiot. Vaccinate your kids.

There's a terrifying story on Stuff (see link) about a family in New Zealand who opted not to vaccinate their children and then watched their 7 year old suffer for three weeks and almost die from tetanus.  If you know me or have read this blog at all, you m ow that I am completely pro-vaccine.  

Vaccines save lives.  End of discussion. The only reason we actually have this debate at all is because vaccines are so effective.  So effective that no one who is a parent today saw a friend die of tetanus or smallpox or become physically disabled from polio.  Our parents did.  My dad's friend H had polio as a child, and it stunted his growth and left him with a limp.  But we didn't, because we were all immunized.  That means we aren't scared of these diseases.

We should be.

Child Suffering from Smallpox

According to this article in JAMA, prior to 1947 there were a combined  average of 10,433 deaths per year in the US from measles, mumps, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, rubella, smallpox and pertussis.  In 2004, there were a TOTAL of 31 deaths from these illness in the US; 27 from pertussis and 4 from tetanus.  

Holy shit.  Without accounting for the massive increase in population in the US, this means that 10,402 people don't die each year because of vaccines.

The anti-vaccine fanatics will have you believe that because vaccines are so dangerous, we are actually no better off.

Here's the truth.  In the US there are about 11,000 adverse reactions to vaccines reported each year.  About  1600 of these result in hospitalization, and 220 result in deaths.  

Hmmm 10,433 versus 220.  Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather that vaccines had no risk - but nothing in life (especially medical procedures) are without risk.

Remember, public health is a game of odds, and the odds of saving lives are clearly on the side of vaccines.

Don't be an idiot.  Vaccinate your kids.

Please.

This Week in Science

1. Growing Years Cut Short For Toddlers From Poor Families

Continuous poverty during toddler years can curb the height of children by the time they reach kindergarten, even in industrialized countries, according to new research from the Université de Montréal. Regardless of hereditary factors such as maternal height and education level, according to the finding published in the Journal of Epidemiology Community Health, children from poor families are more likely to be shorter than their peers.

N Z Ehounoux, M-V Zunzunegui, L Séguin, B Nikiema, and L Gauvin. Duration of lack of money for basic needs and growth delay in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 2009; 63 (1): 45 DOI: 10.1136/jech.2007.072157


2. Breastfeeding May Prevent Breast Cancer

 Dr. Michael Lisanti and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson University found that extended lactation protects again mammary tumor development.

Sotgia F, Casimiro MC, Bonuccelli G, Liu M, Menezes DW, Er O, Daumer KM, Mercier I, Witkiewicz AK, Minetti C, Capozza F, Gormley M, Quong AA, Rui H, Frank PG, Milliman JN, Knudsen ES, Zhou J, Wang C, Pestell RG, Lisanti MP. Loss of Caveolin-3 Induces a Lactogenic Microenvironment that is Protective Against Mammary Tumor Formation. Am J Pathol, 2009, 174: 613-629

3. School-based Physical Activity Has Benefits Even If It Doesn't Help Lose Weight

School-based health and exercise programs have positive outcomes despite having little effect on children's weight or the amount of exercise they do outside of school, say Cochrane Researchers who carried out a systematic review of studies on physical activity programs in schools.

Dobbins M, De Corby K, Robeson P, Husson H, Tirilis D. School-based physical activity programs for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6-18. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD007651 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007651

 

Parental Behaviour Affects Quality of Child's Sleep

A new study done at Montreal's Sacre Coeur Hospital and set to be published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine shows that parental behaviour can dramatically affect the way kids sleep.

Parents also reported their behavior at children’s bedtime (including whether they lulled children to sleep, laid them down awake or stayed with them until they fell asleep) and during nighttime awakenings (including comforting children in bed, taking them out of bed, giving them food or bringing them to the parental bed for cosleeping).

“Early (age 5 to 17 months) sleep disturbances predicted maladaptive parenting behaviors (e.g., mother present at sleep onset, giving food/drink after child awakens) at ages 29 and 41 months,” the authors write. “Some parental behaviors in turn predicted future bad dreams, total sleep time of less than 10 hours per night and sleep-onset latency [delays in falling asleep] of 15 minutes or more. However, most relationships did not remain significant in adjusted models that controlled for early sleep problems.” Cosleeping after nighttime awakening remained associated with more than 15-minute delays in returning to sleep, while the mother’s presence at the beginning of sleep appeared protective against such delays.

The results support the notion that some parental behaviors develop in response to early sleep problems, the authors note. However, they also indicate that such parental behaviors could have negative effects. “Parental strategies that were effective for early sleep difficulties (e.g. giving food or drink) may later become inappropriate to the child’s age and needs. Mothers might adopt the inappropriate response of giving food or drink to 29- to 41-month-old children awakening (which is associated with bad dreams and shorter total sleep time at age 50 months) because they commonly attribute infant cries to hunger and come to believe that infants cry only when hungry,” the authors write.

“Our findings clarify the long-debated relationship between parental behaviors and childhood sleep disturbances,” the authors conclude. “They suggest that cosleeping and other uncommon parental behaviors have negative consequences for future sleep and are thus maladaptive.”

This last paragraph surprises me. My understanding, from my experience with both kids, and from reading the article, is that the real problem is that parents fail to adapt their behaviour as children get older. Cosleeping with infants is one thing, cosleeping with a toddler or young child is another. Parents need to remember that their kids needs change, sometimes very rapidly and it is important to be aware when a strategy is no longer working.

Red fish, blue fish - How kids identify objects

Curious Boy is going through a dramatic language explosion, in both French and English.  One thing that has struck me though, is his choice of words to describe various objects.  It turns out that I'm not the only person who finds this interesting.  Cognitive Daily has a 
post elaborating on research into the word choices that children make when asked to locate an object.  

The research shows that kids start with simple, obvious identifiers like colour and move to more complex ones (like location) as they age.  There is a marked progression from colour to location between the ages of 3 and 4.  In perspective, adults almost always use location to identify an object.

Weekly Science Round Up

Excessive Tantrums In Preschoolers May Indicate Serious Mental Health Problems

ScienceDaily (2007-12-13) -- Certain types of tantrums in preschoolers may be a sign of serious emotional or behavioral problems. Although temper tantrums are common and normal in young children, the researchers found that long, frequent, violent and/or self-destructive tantrums may indicate the presence of psychiatric illness.

Even Low Lead Exposure Linked To ADHD

ScienceDaily (2007-12-06) -- Very low levels of lead in the blood -- previously believed to be safe -- could be contributing to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The research findings support a growing body of national evidence suggesting there is no safe level of lead in the blood. Other studies show a link between low-level lead exposure and lower IQ.

Heavy Traffic Makes Breathing A Burden In Children

ScienceDaily (2007-12-14) -- Exposure to traffic pollution may increase respiratory problems and reduce lung volumes in children with asthma, according to researchers who studied the effects of road and traffic density on children's lung function and respiratory symptoms in the border town of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.

Weekly Science Roundup

Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Detected In Newborns

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2007) — MIT researchers have found that the children of mothers whose water supplies were contaminated with arsenic during their pregnancies harbored gene expression changes that may lead to cancer and other diseases later in life. In addition to establishing the potential harmful effects of these prenatal exposures, the new study also provides a possible method for screening populations to detect signs of arsenic contamination.

Rapid Response Teams Save Children's Lives At Pediatric Hospital, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2007) — Gut feelings can save lives, say clinicians and researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Science Roundup

It's been a busy week, and posting has suffered some.

Family Members Most Often Source Of Whooping Cough In Young Infants

When the Curious Boy was born, right at the onset of winter and the flu season, we got a lot of flack for staying away from big groups and being really strict about who we saw and how well they washed their hands. We all managed to stay healthy, and frankly, when the next one comes I'll be the same.

A High Beef Diet During Pregnancy Linked To Lower Sperm Counts In Sons

Women Of All Sizes Feel Badly About Their Bodies After Seeing Models


Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder At Risk For Alcohol Problems




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15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense

Although the publicity surrounding the teaching of evolution vs. the teaching of so called creation science or intelligent design has waned, the fact remains that legislators in a number of states continue to prepare legislation on the subject. Here in Canada, the religious right is gaining momentum (we're always a little behind the U.S. - I hope we had missed this outright) starting to lobby for similar things here.

Next time the subject comes up at a PTA, whip out a copy of

"15 Answers to Creationist Nonesense" from Scientific American.

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