Health and Safety

The following articles pertain to health and safety. I will try to update this page occaionally with the most current articles on top.

Cold Medicines for Children Under 4 Years of Age

Drug companies say no cold medicines

for children under 4

By Bruce Japsen | Tribune staff reporter

1:38 PM CDT, October 7, 2008

Bowing to pressure from pediatricians, lawmakers and consumer groups who say children should not take cough and cold medicines, drug companies today began advising parents not to allow children under age 4 to take them.

The voluntary move by the manufacturers comes a week after doctors and others asked the FDA to ban the products in children under age 6. In addition, outside advisers to the FDA have said over-the-counter cough and cold medicines should not be given to kids under six and there was no evidence they worked in children under age 12.

Although stopping short of critics' calls, the FDA, which currently says parents should not give such medicines to children under the age of 2, said it supports the move by the industry even while the agency has undertaken a highly-publicized ongoing evaluation of cough and cold medicines. The FDA has yet to give its own specific guidance and has worried that parents would give more dangerous adult dosages if it instituted a ban for use of children under the age of 6.

"(Parents) should follow very carefully the directions on the package," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "The number one cause of problems is children getting into medicine for accidentally ingestion. We at FDA support these voluntary actions."

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association said today it made its decision in consultation with the FDA, saying its member companies would begin "transitioning the labeling on oral over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold medicines to state "do not use" in children under four years of age." In addition, the association said manufacturers would be adding labeling language to certain antihistamines that warns parents not to use such products to "sedate or make a child sleepy."

Last year, an FDA advisory panel said children ages 2 to 6 should not use cough and cold medicines such as antitussives, decongestants and antihistamines because their effectiveness has not been studied in kids, and the risks outweigh their benefits.

That vote came a week after major manufacturers of over-the-counter drugs agreed to pull from pharmacy shelves cough and cold medicines for children under 2, citing the potential for misuse. The panel in October of 2007 also said in a more definitive, 21-1 vote that such products should not be taken by children under the age of 2.

Although the panel last year voted 15-7 that such products could be used for children between 6 and 12, studies have not been done on the products for safety and efficacy in that age group.

More than 800 over-the-counter cough and cold products are sold in the United States, the FDA said. Sales of cold and cough products are estimated at more than $3.7 billion annually, including nearly $300 million in children's cold remedies, according to Nielsen Co.

Sales have been deteriorating as more science and studies call the products into question, particularly for children.

In January 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study of hospital emergency departments that found more than 1,500 children younger than 2 were treated for "adverse events, including overdoses, associated with cough and cold medications." The report identified three deaths.

bjapsen@tribune.com

Exotic Pets

We will not be getting rid of Alu, our gecko, but we will continue with the rule that only Barbie touches the gecko or any of the items that have been in his cage. This will protect the children from salmonella and other diseases (and it will protect Alu from crush injuries). It's unfortunate they put this photo with the story because I want a hedgehog and this one is really cute!

Doctors: No hamsters or exotic pets for young kids

from The Associated Press

CHICAGO October 6, 2008, 07:43 am ET · Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of risks for disease.

That's according to the nation's leading pediatricians' group in a new report about dangers from exotic animals.

Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw — putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.

Young children are vulnerable because of developing immune systems plus they often put their hands in their mouths.

That means families with children younger than 5 should avoid owning "nontraditional" pets. Also, kids that young should avoid contact with these animals in petting zoos or other public places, according to the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The report appears in the October edition of the group's medical journal, Pediatrics.

"Many parents clearly don't understand the risks from various infections" these animals often carry, said Dr. Larry Pickering, the report's lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, about 11 percent of salmonella illnesses in children are thought to stem from contact with lizards, turtles and other reptiles, Pickering said. Hamsters also can carry this germ, which can cause severe diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.

Salmonella also has been found in baby chicks, and young children can get it by kissing or touching the animals and then putting their hands in their mouths, he said.

Study co-author Dr. Joseph Bocchini said he recently treated an infant who got salmonella from the family's pet iguana, which was allowed to roam freely in the home. The child was hospitalized for four weeks but has recovered, said Bocchini, head of the academy's infectious diseases committee and pediatrics chairman at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

Hedgehogs can be dangerous because their quills can penetrate skin and have been known to spread a bacteria germ that can cause fever, stomach pain and a rash, the report said.

With supervision and precautions like hand-washing, contact between children and animals "is a good thing," Bocchini said. But families should wait until children are older before bringing home an exotic pet, he said.

Those who already have these pets should contact their veterinarians about specific risks and possible new homes for the animals, he said.

Data cited in the study indicate that about 4 million U.S. households have pet reptiles. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, all kinds of exotic pets are on the rise, although generally fewer than 2 percent of households own them.

The veterinarian group's Mike Dutton, a Weare, N.H., exotic animal specialist, said the recommendations send an important message to parents who sometimes buy exotic pets on an impulse, "then they ask questions, sometimes many months later."

But a spokesman for the International Hedgehog Association said there's no reason to single out hedgehogs or other exotic pets.

"Our recommendation is that no animal should be a pet for kids 5 and under," said Z.G. Standing Bear. He runs a rescue operation near Pikes Peak, Colo., for abandoned hedgehogs, which became fad pets about 10 years ago.