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Justin Timberlake has just released a new album, “The 20/20 Experience,” his first since 2006’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds.” Naturally, I expected at least one song about Lasik surgery. Instead, it’s the future, and Timberlake has wed actress/model/singer Jennifer Biel, so the new album is actually full of love sounds about married life. As Timberlake continues to mature I look forward to his future releases, including “PastSex/JointSounds” and “The Honey-Have-You-Seen-My-Reading-Glasses? Experience.”
Ouch
What if you did something really useful for the world, like, say, contributed to the breakup of boy band One Direction? Or invented a kind of chocolate ice cream that caused weight loss? Or -- let’s just blue sky here -- came up with a vaccine that could cut the estimated 3,700 deaths from cervical cancer American women suffer every year by 2/3? And then people were all like, “Thanks, but we’ll pass.” Would you not want to scream? That muffled sound you hear is the anguished cries of pediatricians now reading a new study that shows progressively fewer parents are planning to vaccinate their teens against human papillomavirus (HPV), even as evidence supporting safety of the HPV vaccine accrues daily.
Between 2008 and 2010 the percentage of parents reporting that they did not intend to have their children vaccinated against HPV rose from 38.9% to 43.9% Ironically, the number of eligible girls who actually were fully vaccinated against HPV rose during that period from 17.9% to 32.0%. If that makes sense to you then perhaps you can also explain the Higgs boson, the budget sequester, and Splash. Increasing numbers of parents reported that doctors had indeed recommended their children be vaccinated, and increasing numbers of parents reported that they felt the vaccines were not needed. That’s why I’m always careful to have a long discussion with parents which I start with the words, “Blah, blah, blah,” and end with, “yada, yada, whatever.” It has the same effect as my usual vaccine counseling, but I’m able to simultaneously give my spiel and check Facebook.
Study coauthor Dr. Paul Darden of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center was just as flummoxed as anyone at the results, saying, "You'd expect as people get more familiar with a vaccine that they would actually become more comfortable with it. That doesn't seem to be the case with HPV." I suspect the real problem is that word has hit the streets: This vaccine is really, really painful. Like wait-15-minutes-so-you-don’t-faint painful. Compared with cervical cancer (or head and neck cancer, against which it may also be effective) it’s no biggie, but what people are becoming familiar with may be the pain. Darden suggested physicians counter the negative trend with better patient education and, “...social media sorts of things.” You heard the man: Fight cancer! Tweet/Facebook this blog!
Hello, Baby
Is your hospital Baby-Friendly? Ours is working toward that designation, requiring that all staff wave and smile at infants and giving workshops in coochie-coochie-coo. That, and we’re implementing the World Health Organization’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, necessary to display the Baby-Friendly Seal of Approval. Now, however, increasing evidence suggests that one of those steps -- eliminating pacifiers -- may actually hinder successful nursing.
As if parents don’t already get enough conflicting advice about pacifiers (Don’t use them if you want to nurse! Do use them if you want your baby to keep breathing!), it now appears the conventional wisdom about pacifiers and nursing is ... what’s the word? Wrong. The data behind discouraging new mothers from giving their babies pacifiers were always sketchy, but a new study adds a big chunk to the growing evidence that moms who use pacifiers are actually more likely to successfully initiate and maintain breastfeeding.
Added to level A evidence supporting pacifiers’ role in preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, I sort of wish I owned Soothie stock right now. Of course 10 recommendations is such a nice, round number. In place of, “Never allow new moms to use a pacifier,” I propose, “Always greet newborns with Eskimo kisses.” Will it encourage successful nursing? I have no idea. But it certainly is friendly.
Simple syrup
What if it turned out that the solution to what everyone thought was a big, complicated problem turned out to be really straightforward? Like if the fix for war in the Middle East was a gun buy-back program. Researchers publishing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine may have a comparable answer for the childhood obesity. At least for children aged 2-11 years, it could all be about the sugar sweetened beverages (SSB’s).
It turned out that in evaluating the caloric intake of nearly 11,000 US children from 2003 to 2010, kids drank pretty much every extra calorie they consumed. For subjects aged 12-18 years, junk food also played a role in weight gain, with those who ate more fast food predictably also drinking more sodas. I’m sure this news will be greeted enthusiastically by television programmers, manufacturers of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and purveyors of frosted breakfast cereals. Now we just need a major marketing push for ... what’s that liquid without the flavoring and artificial colors? Oh, right, water! It could happen, hopefully right around the time Justin Timberlake releases his next album: “My FutureKids/LoveNoise.”
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC, and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and 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. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Justin Timberlake has just released a new album, “The 20/20 Experience,” his first since 2006’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds.” Naturally, I expected at least one song about Lasik surgery. Instead, it’s the future, and Timberlake has wed actress/model/singer Jennifer Biel, so the new album is actually full of love sounds about married life. As Timberlake continues to mature I look forward to his future releases, including “PastSex/JointSounds” and “The Honey-Have-You-Seen-My-Reading-Glasses? Experience.”
Ouch
What if you did something really useful for the world, like, say, contributed to the breakup of boy band One Direction? Or invented a kind of chocolate ice cream that caused weight loss? Or -- let’s just blue sky here -- came up with a vaccine that could cut the estimated 3,700 deaths from cervical cancer American women suffer every year by 2/3? And then people were all like, “Thanks, but we’ll pass.” Would you not want to scream? That muffled sound you hear is the anguished cries of pediatricians now reading a new study that shows progressively fewer parents are planning to vaccinate their teens against human papillomavirus (HPV), even as evidence supporting safety of the HPV vaccine accrues daily.
Between 2008 and 2010 the percentage of parents reporting that they did not intend to have their children vaccinated against HPV rose from 38.9% to 43.9% Ironically, the number of eligible girls who actually were fully vaccinated against HPV rose during that period from 17.9% to 32.0%. If that makes sense to you then perhaps you can also explain the Higgs boson, the budget sequester, and Splash. Increasing numbers of parents reported that doctors had indeed recommended their children be vaccinated, and increasing numbers of parents reported that they felt the vaccines were not needed. That’s why I’m always careful to have a long discussion with parents which I start with the words, “Blah, blah, blah,” and end with, “yada, yada, whatever.” It has the same effect as my usual vaccine counseling, but I’m able to simultaneously give my spiel and check Facebook.
Study coauthor Dr. Paul Darden of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center was just as flummoxed as anyone at the results, saying, "You'd expect as people get more familiar with a vaccine that they would actually become more comfortable with it. That doesn't seem to be the case with HPV." I suspect the real problem is that word has hit the streets: This vaccine is really, really painful. Like wait-15-minutes-so-you-don’t-faint painful. Compared with cervical cancer (or head and neck cancer, against which it may also be effective) it’s no biggie, but what people are becoming familiar with may be the pain. Darden suggested physicians counter the negative trend with better patient education and, “...social media sorts of things.” You heard the man: Fight cancer! Tweet/Facebook this blog!
Hello, Baby
Is your hospital Baby-Friendly? Ours is working toward that designation, requiring that all staff wave and smile at infants and giving workshops in coochie-coochie-coo. That, and we’re implementing the World Health Organization’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, necessary to display the Baby-Friendly Seal of Approval. Now, however, increasing evidence suggests that one of those steps -- eliminating pacifiers -- may actually hinder successful nursing.
As if parents don’t already get enough conflicting advice about pacifiers (Don’t use them if you want to nurse! Do use them if you want your baby to keep breathing!), it now appears the conventional wisdom about pacifiers and nursing is ... what’s the word? Wrong. The data behind discouraging new mothers from giving their babies pacifiers were always sketchy, but a new study adds a big chunk to the growing evidence that moms who use pacifiers are actually more likely to successfully initiate and maintain breastfeeding.
Added to level A evidence supporting pacifiers’ role in preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, I sort of wish I owned Soothie stock right now. Of course 10 recommendations is such a nice, round number. In place of, “Never allow new moms to use a pacifier,” I propose, “Always greet newborns with Eskimo kisses.” Will it encourage successful nursing? I have no idea. But it certainly is friendly.
Simple syrup
What if it turned out that the solution to what everyone thought was a big, complicated problem turned out to be really straightforward? Like if the fix for war in the Middle East was a gun buy-back program. Researchers publishing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine may have a comparable answer for the childhood obesity. At least for children aged 2-11 years, it could all be about the sugar sweetened beverages (SSB’s).
It turned out that in evaluating the caloric intake of nearly 11,000 US children from 2003 to 2010, kids drank pretty much every extra calorie they consumed. For subjects aged 12-18 years, junk food also played a role in weight gain, with those who ate more fast food predictably also drinking more sodas. I’m sure this news will be greeted enthusiastically by television programmers, manufacturers of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and purveyors of frosted breakfast cereals. Now we just need a major marketing push for ... what’s that liquid without the flavoring and artificial colors? Oh, right, water! It could happen, hopefully right around the time Justin Timberlake releases his next album: “My FutureKids/LoveNoise.”
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC, and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and 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. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Justin Timberlake has just released a new album, “The 20/20 Experience,” his first since 2006’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds.” Naturally, I expected at least one song about Lasik surgery. Instead, it’s the future, and Timberlake has wed actress/model/singer Jennifer Biel, so the new album is actually full of love sounds about married life. As Timberlake continues to mature I look forward to his future releases, including “PastSex/JointSounds” and “The Honey-Have-You-Seen-My-Reading-Glasses? Experience.”
Ouch
What if you did something really useful for the world, like, say, contributed to the breakup of boy band One Direction? Or invented a kind of chocolate ice cream that caused weight loss? Or -- let’s just blue sky here -- came up with a vaccine that could cut the estimated 3,700 deaths from cervical cancer American women suffer every year by 2/3? And then people were all like, “Thanks, but we’ll pass.” Would you not want to scream? That muffled sound you hear is the anguished cries of pediatricians now reading a new study that shows progressively fewer parents are planning to vaccinate their teens against human papillomavirus (HPV), even as evidence supporting safety of the HPV vaccine accrues daily.
Between 2008 and 2010 the percentage of parents reporting that they did not intend to have their children vaccinated against HPV rose from 38.9% to 43.9% Ironically, the number of eligible girls who actually were fully vaccinated against HPV rose during that period from 17.9% to 32.0%. If that makes sense to you then perhaps you can also explain the Higgs boson, the budget sequester, and Splash. Increasing numbers of parents reported that doctors had indeed recommended their children be vaccinated, and increasing numbers of parents reported that they felt the vaccines were not needed. That’s why I’m always careful to have a long discussion with parents which I start with the words, “Blah, blah, blah,” and end with, “yada, yada, whatever.” It has the same effect as my usual vaccine counseling, but I’m able to simultaneously give my spiel and check Facebook.
Study coauthor Dr. Paul Darden of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center was just as flummoxed as anyone at the results, saying, "You'd expect as people get more familiar with a vaccine that they would actually become more comfortable with it. That doesn't seem to be the case with HPV." I suspect the real problem is that word has hit the streets: This vaccine is really, really painful. Like wait-15-minutes-so-you-don’t-faint painful. Compared with cervical cancer (or head and neck cancer, against which it may also be effective) it’s no biggie, but what people are becoming familiar with may be the pain. Darden suggested physicians counter the negative trend with better patient education and, “...social media sorts of things.” You heard the man: Fight cancer! Tweet/Facebook this blog!
Hello, Baby
Is your hospital Baby-Friendly? Ours is working toward that designation, requiring that all staff wave and smile at infants and giving workshops in coochie-coochie-coo. That, and we’re implementing the World Health Organization’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, necessary to display the Baby-Friendly Seal of Approval. Now, however, increasing evidence suggests that one of those steps -- eliminating pacifiers -- may actually hinder successful nursing.
As if parents don’t already get enough conflicting advice about pacifiers (Don’t use them if you want to nurse! Do use them if you want your baby to keep breathing!), it now appears the conventional wisdom about pacifiers and nursing is ... what’s the word? Wrong. The data behind discouraging new mothers from giving their babies pacifiers were always sketchy, but a new study adds a big chunk to the growing evidence that moms who use pacifiers are actually more likely to successfully initiate and maintain breastfeeding.
Added to level A evidence supporting pacifiers’ role in preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, I sort of wish I owned Soothie stock right now. Of course 10 recommendations is such a nice, round number. In place of, “Never allow new moms to use a pacifier,” I propose, “Always greet newborns with Eskimo kisses.” Will it encourage successful nursing? I have no idea. But it certainly is friendly.
Simple syrup
What if it turned out that the solution to what everyone thought was a big, complicated problem turned out to be really straightforward? Like if the fix for war in the Middle East was a gun buy-back program. Researchers publishing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine may have a comparable answer for the childhood obesity. At least for children aged 2-11 years, it could all be about the sugar sweetened beverages (SSB’s).
It turned out that in evaluating the caloric intake of nearly 11,000 US children from 2003 to 2010, kids drank pretty much every extra calorie they consumed. For subjects aged 12-18 years, junk food also played a role in weight gain, with those who ate more fast food predictably also drinking more sodas. I’m sure this news will be greeted enthusiastically by television programmers, manufacturers of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and purveyors of frosted breakfast cereals. Now we just need a major marketing push for ... what’s that liquid without the flavoring and artificial colors? Oh, right, water! It could happen, hopefully right around the time Justin Timberlake releases his next album: “My FutureKids/LoveNoise.”
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC, and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and 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. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).