Infant and Child Health » Safety Issues
Home Alone Safety for Your Teen
July 2, 2008 by Pauline Lupercio | No questions or commentsWhen I was a tween, the word didn’t even exist. Neither did many of the concerns today’s parents have when it comes to leaving their 11 to 13 –year-olds home alone on summer days. It wasn’t that long ago, but times were just different, and ... (read more)
Breastfeeding, The Original “Environmentally Safe” Resource
July 2, 2008 by Karen Gromada | No questions or commentsWhat could be “greener” than mother’s own milk flowing directly into baby from the product distribution centers, usually referred to as breasts? The entire process is self-contained in each mother—factory, packaging, warehouse, transportation, and delivery system. Only 500 kcal per day are needed to ... (read more)
Keeping Your Baby’s Hot Seat Cool
July 2, 2008 by Pauline Lupercio | 1 question or commentWhen it comes to fire and burn prevention safety, I’m sure you are already practicing many child-proofing techniques to ensure your little ones stay safe. Just plug “child burn prevention” into your Internet search bar and you’ll come across plenty of sites offering tips like ... (read more)
Bottoms Up!
June 25, 2008 by Amy Spangler | No questions or commentsA television commercial aired a number of years ago, in which a toddler, upon seeing a newborn baby, says to the young mother, "Too bad you had to get a bald-headed one." If a similar commercial aired today, the toddler would likely say, ... (read more)
Sun, Sand, and … Sickness?!
June 21, 2008 by Heidi Green | No questions or commentsYay, summer is here! Time for longer days and sunshine. Time for playing in the sand. Time for getting sick. Yup, you read that right. Time for getting sick. We tend to think of sickness with winter, but one type of sickness—foodborne illness (a.k.a. ... (read more)
Safety Sometimes Means Going Against the Grain
June 20, 2008 by Pauline Lupercio | No questions or commentsI’ve never been a trendsetter. Instead, I’m usually the one following the crowd, doing my best to blend. A few examples include the years I tried in vain to straighten my kinky curls to look more like my high school friends. Or the time I ... (read more)
Dry-drowning Death Highlights Little Known Danger
June 19, 2008 by Pauline Lupercio | 2 questions or commentsA ten-year-old boy went swimming at a nearby pool with his mother and drowned more than an hour later. It is a shocking and heart-breaking story that has brought a little-known phenomenon referred to as “dry drowning” to light. It is an occurrence, albeit ... (read more)
Michigan “Boosts” Child Safety Requirements
June 11, 2008 by Pauline Lupercio | 1 question or commentMaybe it’s because my child is so young that I failed to pick up on the new Michigan law that will require children between the ages of four and eight and less than 4 feet nine inches tall to use an approved ... (read more)
Prevent Head Covering to Reduce SIDS Risk
June 11, 2008 by Heidi Green | 1 question or commentSIDS. It is a tiny acronym that signifies an enormous loss. We don’t know what causes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It is a diagnosis of exclusion; it includes all of the deaths for which no other cause of death can be identified. ... (read more)
The Great Co-Sleeping Survey
June 11, 2008 by Karen Gromada | No questions or commentsIt isn’t completely clear who constructed The Great Co-Sleeping Survey and keeping mum on the identities of the survey designers’ "us" seems a deliberate move. In a culture where a "very special parenting choice that you had the instinct to make ... (read more)
How Safe is Your Baby’s Car Seat?
May 30, 2008 by Pauline Lupercio | No questions or commentsIf there is one thing I have learned since becoming a mother, it is that there is always going to be something I want to protect my daughter from. This little lesson in parenting was only reinforced when I received a recent email from ... (read more)
Makeup Play
May 29, 2008 by Heidi Green | No questions or commentsMy daughter Kate has been interested in makeup for a while now. After Grandma visited, she was excited about lipstick. After I painted my nails, she was eager to have hers painted, too. Inside, I quaked. I pay attention to the health news—I’d read ... (read more)


















