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Are you among the half of Americans who are furious at the Denver Broncos? Because I sure am. After marrying a Colorado native, I decided that I would finally, at age 45, try being a football fan. I don’t mean crazy fandom, like where I could name all the players, I just mean, like, follow the game and care kind of fandom. You can overdo these things.
So I’m sitting on the couch with my kids watching the Super Bowl and fighting over the guacamole, when bam! Denver scores a safety! Or is it Seattle that scores the safety, since they get the points, even though Denver moved the ball? My point is, right away I had to Google “safety American football” so I could tell my kids why our team started losing milliseconds into the big game. From there, it was just one Google search after another: “fumble,” “interception,” “incomplete pass,” “kickoff return for a touchdown,” and “ignominious.” I’m just glad they started the game with Renee Fleming. She has been in my fantasy opera company ever since the Met crushed Glimmerglass at Lincoln Center.
Silly rabbit
I’m pretty sure acute bacterial sinusitis is the third most common reason pediatricians prescribe antibiotics, right behind acute otitis media and I-can’t-stand-here-arguing-with-you-anymore. But as a med-peds guy, I’ve always wondered why it is that we use antibiotics for sinusitis in kids when they’re not indicated for the same disease in adults? What is this, a Trixx commercial?
A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests that perhaps not all pediatric sinusitis is created equal. Researchers in Pittsburgh correlated antibiotic response with nasal cultures looking for common pathogens. While their samples turned up Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis, kids with the strep responded to treatment much faster than those harboring other bugs. I should clarify: “Fast” in this study meant a median 6.5 days to symptom resolution as opposed to 8.5 days. By that measure, “fast” would also refer to the Broncos defense.
Buried in the study, however, were other data that really gave me pause. In 54% of the study population, the overall time to resolution of symptoms was 10-19 days, and in 27% it was 20-30 days. These were kids with radiographic evidence of sinusitis who received antibiotics. I’m not thinking this is what parents have in mind when they ask, “Can you give him antibiotics and make him better?” Why yes! In only 10-30 days! I’m not saying we change the treatment guidelines just yet. For now, that’s one fewer thing I have to stand around and argue about.
Big kids
New data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that our efforts to curb obesity in late childhood and adolescence may occur after the horse is out of barn. Actually, the horse left the barn a while back, strolled out for some fries, and is now sitting in front of the TV with a large soda. According to study author Solveig Cunningham of Emory University, Atlanta, half of childhood obesity occurs in children who are already overweight by the preschool years, with the steepest rise in obesity striking between first and third grade. We’re talking about teaching kids to read food labels when the problem starts before most kids learn to read.
Given that some data implicate fetal and neonatal weight gain in lifetime obesity, I think it’s never too early to start building healthy habits. That’s why I’m launching a new fitness fad I’m calling “Cross-Fetus.” Cross-fetuses will learn basic exercises like leg curls, uterus kicks, and hiccups, which they will repeat, again, faster, until they have sucking blisters. Is that amniotic fluid or sweat? Who knows? Does it matter? Classes will begin as soon as I can figure out how to bring out the competitive spirit in a being that doesn’t know anyone else exists. When I find out, I promise to tell Broncos coach John Fox.
Smoking guns
At our practice, we ask every family at nearly every visit about firearms in the home, and parents sometimes want to know why. I love those moments, because despite what some outsiders may think of North Carolina (that we probably have more guns per capita then we have toothbrushes), I find that the vast majority of my families “get it” when we talk about firearm safety and kids. The handful who don’t already suspected that I was a United Nations secret agent when they saw me rappel into work from a black helicopter. Oops, I’ve said too much.
I can now point doubtful parents to a new study of firearm hospitalizations and deaths, demonstrating that gun injuries send one child or teen to the hospital nearly every hour in the United States, for a rate of 20 per day. Of those, more than 6% died, but the authors also focused on the enormous costs, both in terms of dollars and suffering, paid by the other 94%. I hope parents and policy makers will take note of this study. I dream of a day when, if I want to watch someone endure a long, painful, completely preventable ordeal, my only choice will be to watch highlights of Superbowl XLVIII.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP, is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
Are you among the half of Americans who are furious at the Denver Broncos? Because I sure am. After marrying a Colorado native, I decided that I would finally, at age 45, try being a football fan. I don’t mean crazy fandom, like where I could name all the players, I just mean, like, follow the game and care kind of fandom. You can overdo these things.
So I’m sitting on the couch with my kids watching the Super Bowl and fighting over the guacamole, when bam! Denver scores a safety! Or is it Seattle that scores the safety, since they get the points, even though Denver moved the ball? My point is, right away I had to Google “safety American football” so I could tell my kids why our team started losing milliseconds into the big game. From there, it was just one Google search after another: “fumble,” “interception,” “incomplete pass,” “kickoff return for a touchdown,” and “ignominious.” I’m just glad they started the game with Renee Fleming. She has been in my fantasy opera company ever since the Met crushed Glimmerglass at Lincoln Center.
Silly rabbit
I’m pretty sure acute bacterial sinusitis is the third most common reason pediatricians prescribe antibiotics, right behind acute otitis media and I-can’t-stand-here-arguing-with-you-anymore. But as a med-peds guy, I’ve always wondered why it is that we use antibiotics for sinusitis in kids when they’re not indicated for the same disease in adults? What is this, a Trixx commercial?
A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests that perhaps not all pediatric sinusitis is created equal. Researchers in Pittsburgh correlated antibiotic response with nasal cultures looking for common pathogens. While their samples turned up Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis, kids with the strep responded to treatment much faster than those harboring other bugs. I should clarify: “Fast” in this study meant a median 6.5 days to symptom resolution as opposed to 8.5 days. By that measure, “fast” would also refer to the Broncos defense.
Buried in the study, however, were other data that really gave me pause. In 54% of the study population, the overall time to resolution of symptoms was 10-19 days, and in 27% it was 20-30 days. These were kids with radiographic evidence of sinusitis who received antibiotics. I’m not thinking this is what parents have in mind when they ask, “Can you give him antibiotics and make him better?” Why yes! In only 10-30 days! I’m not saying we change the treatment guidelines just yet. For now, that’s one fewer thing I have to stand around and argue about.
Big kids
New data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that our efforts to curb obesity in late childhood and adolescence may occur after the horse is out of barn. Actually, the horse left the barn a while back, strolled out for some fries, and is now sitting in front of the TV with a large soda. According to study author Solveig Cunningham of Emory University, Atlanta, half of childhood obesity occurs in children who are already overweight by the preschool years, with the steepest rise in obesity striking between first and third grade. We’re talking about teaching kids to read food labels when the problem starts before most kids learn to read.
Given that some data implicate fetal and neonatal weight gain in lifetime obesity, I think it’s never too early to start building healthy habits. That’s why I’m launching a new fitness fad I’m calling “Cross-Fetus.” Cross-fetuses will learn basic exercises like leg curls, uterus kicks, and hiccups, which they will repeat, again, faster, until they have sucking blisters. Is that amniotic fluid or sweat? Who knows? Does it matter? Classes will begin as soon as I can figure out how to bring out the competitive spirit in a being that doesn’t know anyone else exists. When I find out, I promise to tell Broncos coach John Fox.
Smoking guns
At our practice, we ask every family at nearly every visit about firearms in the home, and parents sometimes want to know why. I love those moments, because despite what some outsiders may think of North Carolina (that we probably have more guns per capita then we have toothbrushes), I find that the vast majority of my families “get it” when we talk about firearm safety and kids. The handful who don’t already suspected that I was a United Nations secret agent when they saw me rappel into work from a black helicopter. Oops, I’ve said too much.
I can now point doubtful parents to a new study of firearm hospitalizations and deaths, demonstrating that gun injuries send one child or teen to the hospital nearly every hour in the United States, for a rate of 20 per day. Of those, more than 6% died, but the authors also focused on the enormous costs, both in terms of dollars and suffering, paid by the other 94%. I hope parents and policy makers will take note of this study. I dream of a day when, if I want to watch someone endure a long, painful, completely preventable ordeal, my only choice will be to watch highlights of Superbowl XLVIII.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP, is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
Are you among the half of Americans who are furious at the Denver Broncos? Because I sure am. After marrying a Colorado native, I decided that I would finally, at age 45, try being a football fan. I don’t mean crazy fandom, like where I could name all the players, I just mean, like, follow the game and care kind of fandom. You can overdo these things.
So I’m sitting on the couch with my kids watching the Super Bowl and fighting over the guacamole, when bam! Denver scores a safety! Or is it Seattle that scores the safety, since they get the points, even though Denver moved the ball? My point is, right away I had to Google “safety American football” so I could tell my kids why our team started losing milliseconds into the big game. From there, it was just one Google search after another: “fumble,” “interception,” “incomplete pass,” “kickoff return for a touchdown,” and “ignominious.” I’m just glad they started the game with Renee Fleming. She has been in my fantasy opera company ever since the Met crushed Glimmerglass at Lincoln Center.
Silly rabbit
I’m pretty sure acute bacterial sinusitis is the third most common reason pediatricians prescribe antibiotics, right behind acute otitis media and I-can’t-stand-here-arguing-with-you-anymore. But as a med-peds guy, I’ve always wondered why it is that we use antibiotics for sinusitis in kids when they’re not indicated for the same disease in adults? What is this, a Trixx commercial?
A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests that perhaps not all pediatric sinusitis is created equal. Researchers in Pittsburgh correlated antibiotic response with nasal cultures looking for common pathogens. While their samples turned up Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis, kids with the strep responded to treatment much faster than those harboring other bugs. I should clarify: “Fast” in this study meant a median 6.5 days to symptom resolution as opposed to 8.5 days. By that measure, “fast” would also refer to the Broncos defense.
Buried in the study, however, were other data that really gave me pause. In 54% of the study population, the overall time to resolution of symptoms was 10-19 days, and in 27% it was 20-30 days. These were kids with radiographic evidence of sinusitis who received antibiotics. I’m not thinking this is what parents have in mind when they ask, “Can you give him antibiotics and make him better?” Why yes! In only 10-30 days! I’m not saying we change the treatment guidelines just yet. For now, that’s one fewer thing I have to stand around and argue about.
Big kids
New data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that our efforts to curb obesity in late childhood and adolescence may occur after the horse is out of barn. Actually, the horse left the barn a while back, strolled out for some fries, and is now sitting in front of the TV with a large soda. According to study author Solveig Cunningham of Emory University, Atlanta, half of childhood obesity occurs in children who are already overweight by the preschool years, with the steepest rise in obesity striking between first and third grade. We’re talking about teaching kids to read food labels when the problem starts before most kids learn to read.
Given that some data implicate fetal and neonatal weight gain in lifetime obesity, I think it’s never too early to start building healthy habits. That’s why I’m launching a new fitness fad I’m calling “Cross-Fetus.” Cross-fetuses will learn basic exercises like leg curls, uterus kicks, and hiccups, which they will repeat, again, faster, until they have sucking blisters. Is that amniotic fluid or sweat? Who knows? Does it matter? Classes will begin as soon as I can figure out how to bring out the competitive spirit in a being that doesn’t know anyone else exists. When I find out, I promise to tell Broncos coach John Fox.
Smoking guns
At our practice, we ask every family at nearly every visit about firearms in the home, and parents sometimes want to know why. I love those moments, because despite what some outsiders may think of North Carolina (that we probably have more guns per capita then we have toothbrushes), I find that the vast majority of my families “get it” when we talk about firearm safety and kids. The handful who don’t already suspected that I was a United Nations secret agent when they saw me rappel into work from a black helicopter. Oops, I’ve said too much.
I can now point doubtful parents to a new study of firearm hospitalizations and deaths, demonstrating that gun injuries send one child or teen to the hospital nearly every hour in the United States, for a rate of 20 per day. Of those, more than 6% died, but the authors also focused on the enormous costs, both in terms of dollars and suffering, paid by the other 94%. I hope parents and policy makers will take note of this study. I dream of a day when, if I want to watch someone endure a long, painful, completely preventable ordeal, my only choice will be to watch highlights of Superbowl XLVIII.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP, is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
