Safety

Your child comes to you with a rather widespread and unsightly rash. You’ve consulted your sister, your neighbor, and the helpful UB online community, but you’re still not sure exactly how to best handle the outbreak. The authors of The Baby Book, which is widely regarded as the “baby bible,” have just published the newest must-have resource for parents and caregivers that can guide parents to help heal and protect their child.

The Portable Pediatrician: Everything You Need to Know About Your Child’s Health by William Sears, MD, Martha Sears, RN, Robert Sears, MD, James Sears, MD, and Peter Sears, MD is an encyclopedia of trusted and accessible information on every pediatric concern, illness, and emergency from birth through adolescence.

A thorough list of topics are arranged alphabetically for quick reference and include:

* acne
* allergies
* autism
* bedwetting
* choking & cpr
* colic
* eating disorders
* lice
* obesity
* sleep problems
* speech delay

Other important information presented in The Portable Pediatrician:

* Choosing a pediatrician
* Getting the most out of every check-up
* The Four things all parents must do to keep their child healthy
* Treating at home vs. Time to call the doctor

This thorough guide is an invaluable resource for parents, grandparents, and other caregivers that comes from years of experience from trusted doctors.

Available at Amazon.com

We are parents and by design, we worry. Our days are infiltrated with media warnings on hidden dangers in our products and homes. The constant stream of updated information regarding the health and well-being of our families can be overwhelming and confusing. What is the truth and what is merely the latest neurosis based on suspicion?

In her new book, Worry Proof: A Pediatrician (and Mom) Explains Which Foods, Medicines, and Chemicals to Avoid to Have Safe and Healthy Children, Cara Natterson, MD works to break through the conflicting reports and deliver direct answers on hot-button issues like sunscreen, cell phones, and cough medicine.

“Dr. Natterson’s sage and reasoned advice will dispel the perils that plague your daydreams, while making clear what you should, in fact, be concerned about. It will, quite simply, calm you down and thus ruin your neurotic day.” – Ayelet Waldman, author of Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace.

Now we can get back to worrying about their education and the economy.

Available at Amazon.com

Parents are starting to rev up for their holiday travel, and if you have a toddler or infant, one indisputably useful piece of equipment you’ll want to pack is the Dream Baby No Tools-No Screws Safety Kit. Quickly and easily, and without installing any hardware or getting out the toolbox, parents can cover outlets, secure doors, drawers, and appliances (no more weird stuff in the dishwasher!), cushion corners of tables, and prevent doors from slamming or pinching little fingers.

Nothing will damage the objects they secure, and everything installs in just a few minutes and can be taken off just as quickly. Renters can leave them in place for months or years at a time, removing them when they’re packing up to leave. Or those who travel frequently can take the locks and latches with them in a suitcase. When you arrive at the hotel or at Aunt Margie’s, spend 20 minutes scouting for and fixing up safety issues. Whew, now you can relax and enjoy your vacation.

Dream Baby No Tools No Screws Safety Kit, $17.50

Every parent worries about who can find their kid online. But Geoffrey Arone, co-founder and co-CEO of Internet monitoring service SafetyWeb, says that what can be an even bigger concern in the fullness of time is not who can get to your kid, but the traces of himself he leaves behind.

“This is the first generation of kids growing up with a log file,” says Arone. “You wouldn’t believe the things you can find about kids, just doing a Google search. If they won the spelling bee, if they played on a sports team, it’s out there. And so are networking profiles from years ago that they set up and forgot about.”

It’s a parent’s nightmare: what if on these old profiles, something your kid said or did comes back to haunt her later?

With such concerns in mind, Arone and company set up SafetyWeb to chaperone kids in a unique way. When parents visit SafetyWeb, they type in their kid’s email address. SafetyWeb then searches social networking sites for your kid’s profile, and for activity. If your kid uploaded a photo to Flickr, you’ll know. If your child made a new friend on Facebook, you’ll see it. Parents who decide to join SafetyWeb ($10 a month, $100 a year), get regular reports on what their kids have said and done online. Everything that’s in the public domain (not hidden away behind some kind of password), is visible, and anything that might concern parents, such as text containing curses, or Facebook friends whose profile reveals them to be much older than your child, is flagged in the reports sent to parents.

It’s not an invasion of privacy: The only things parents can see are what’s public. SafetyWeb won’t capture texts sent from your tween’s phone, and you won’t be able to see her email. SafetyWeb is about giving parents the knowledge they need to guide their kids through the Internet’s wilds.

“We can’t guarantee your kids won’t make mistakes, but if it’s in the pubic domain, we’ll find anything risky to your child’s safety, privacy, or reputation,” says Arone.

For those of you who missed the big recall news over the weekend, get ready to clean out the medicine cabinets. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, is voluntarily recalling Children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl because of what the FDA calls “manufacturing deficiencies which may affect quality, purity and potency.”

Some of the medicines may contain a higher concentration than specified of an active ingredient. Others have inactive ingredients that don’t meet internal testing requirements. And some products contain tiny particles. The FDA says, “The potential for serious medical events is remote,” but is still advising consumers not to use the recalled items. On its Web site, McNeil notes, “This recall is not being undertaken on the basis of adverse medical events.”

All unexpired lots of more than 40 over-the-counter children’s and infants’ liquid medicines (of the four brands) are involved in the recall. Categories included are Tylenol Infants’ Drops, Children’s Tylenol Suspensions, Children’s Tylenol Plus Suspensions, Motrin Infants’ Drops, Children’s Motrin Suspensions and Cold Suspensions plus Children’s Zyrtec liquids in bottles and Children’s Benadryl allergy liquids in bottles.

For a full list of items and their accompanying product NDC numbers (these lot i.d. numbers are located above the brand name on the packaging), visit McNeil’s Web site (to which the FDA links.)

So is it okay to give Junior adult-strength Tylenol or Motrin products that are not being recalled? The FDA says no and that such use could result in “serious harm.” The FDA notes that there are other children’s products on the market, including generic versions of the recalled products, which are not affected by the recall.

Hey, your medicine cabinet could use a little spring cleaning anyway.

Let me paint a picture for you. You’re at an amusement park with the kids. One of them falls and hurts his knee, and in all the fuss over finding a bandage and kissing it, kid #2 wanders off. What do you do?

If you’ve applied Safety Tat, you rest just a little bit easier. The temporary tattoos are a unique and easy way to help keep kids safe. Put one on the kids’ arms when you’re on the way to a park, the grocery store, or another crowded venue; with your mobile phone number plastered to his arm, anyone who finds your wandering child will know how to return him.

Safety Tats can be ordered already-printed, or in write-on versions for the school field trip. They come in different versions too, including Safety Tats that warn strangers “I have autism,” “I have a peanut allergy,” or just the classic “If lost, please call.” For kids who are too young or otherwise unable to remember phone numbers, Safety Tats could prevent a whole lot of stress.

Safety Tats, from $19.95 for a pack of 30

Back in the 18th century, our relationship with the Brits wasn’t so hot - the whole American Revolution thing. But today we’ve got a lot to thank the UK for: Maclaren strollers, fax machines, penicillin, steel-ribbed umbrellas (a.k.a. bumbershoots), Burberry and Jude Law, to name a few. Now we’re getting some new hot wheels from across the pond.

Early Rider, already popular in Europe, is a light-weight, learner bike specifically geared toward toddlers and preschoolers. It’s got no pedals. Kids ride it Fred-Flintstone style, walking and jogging along, coasting when they feel like it. The point of the bike is to concentrate on learning to balance; kids can work on gross motor skills and gain self-confidence before throwing in pedaling. These British bikes weigh between seven and 11 pounds. All three versions of the Early Rider are made from Forest Stewardship Council sustainable birch, have an embossed flame and faux leather seat pad. Of course, with a bike this good-looking, Junior will need suitable headgear to match.

That’s when you turn to Nutcase, a Portland-based helmet company. They make a line for kids (toddlers to age 5) called Little Nutty. Each helmet is made from an ABS shell and with an EPS shock-absorbing liner. The helmets are one-size-fits-all and have a spin-dial fit system. One of the company’s co-founders was a creative director at Nike. No wonder these helmets have got such great visuals. The newest Little Nutties are Flower Power and Paint Fight (pictured), but you’ll also want to check out the 8 Ball, Dots and Urban Caution designs.

Ride, baby, ride.

Early Riders are available at earlyrider.com, and Little Nutty helmets at nutcasehelmets.com.

There’s a new version of the ABCs to learn these days, only it doesn’t have a catchy tune, is associated with plenty of health hazards and contains letter combos such as DEHP, BBP (phthalates) and PVC (vinyl). It’s hard enough keeping track of what these mean, let alone which products contain them.

Enter HealthyStuff.org, a new website from the Ecology Center, a Michigan-based, non-profit environmental organization. The site just released the biggest database ever of independent tests of toxic chemicals found in everyday products. It covers 5,000 consumer items, including toys from its two-year-old predecessor, HealthyToys.org. Car seats, cars, back-to-school products, pet accessories, even women’s handbags, were all put to the test. Researchers were looking for the presence of lead, cadmium, bromine, mercury and arsenic plus phthalates and PVCs. Each subject is rated - high, medium or low - according to the level of toxic chemicals found. Below are some highlights from the database:

*More than half of the car seats tested contained one or more hazardous chemicals.
*56% of back-to-school supplies contained PVCs and 22% contained detectable levels of lead.
*Lead was detected in 75% of the more than 100 plastic women’s handbags tested.

And don’t worry, for the non-chem majors, Healthystuff.org details the health risks posed by the various toxic chemicals for which it’s testing. One great feature of the site: You can nominate products you believe Healthystuff.org should evaluate.

Power to the people.

Take the word “air,” engage in a little free association, and phrases such as Air Jordans, Air Supply, air pollution (and, possibly even, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) may come to mind. Car seat’s not likely to make the list. Until now.

Safety 1st has just introduced the Complete Air Convertible car seat. It uses air to protect a baby’s head from a side impact crash. Not to be confused in any way with an airbag, the Air Protect system inside the seat’s side head flaps not only shields the head but also reduces crash forces. Side impact crashes have increased by 20% over the past two decades and are among the deadliest. One quarter of all crashes involving children are side impact crashes. Air Protect technology was developed in conjunction with Kettering University’s Crash Safety Center. The Complete Air Convertible car seat is for kids 5-50 pounds and has a five-position adjustable headrest.

Air you go.

Available at toysrus.com.

No matter how much we learn about an infant’s brain, no matter how expensive our strollers become, no matter how hi-tech the baby gear gets, science and technology seem to have no impact on one key aspect of parenting - the schlep factor. Traveling with baby is still one big exercise in inconvenience.

Short of hiring a staff to do your heavy lifting, your next best option is to rent baby gear at your destination (a good way to avoid all the airline baggage charges). The newly-formed Baby Travel Pros Association represents baby equipment rental companies across the country. Members must agree to adhere to various safety and cleanliness standards. The organization’s co-founder and president, Sarah Peters, outlines what you need to know and ask when renting gear on the go:

The real deal: Ask if the product you see pictured on the company’s website is what you’ll actually be getting. No bait and switch. Who wants a pack n’ play when you ordered a full-sized crib!

The recall loop: Ask point blank if the company regularly checks lists of recalled products. Also, inquire if they’re on the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) e-mail list for updates and recalls. Find out whether they register all their products.

Age: Inquire how old the equipment is and how often it’s replaced. Car seats should be no more than seven years old. No car seat should be expired.

Shape: Gear should be in “like-new” condition. It goes without saying that nothing should be broken or missing parts. Feel free to ask for the owner’s manual.

Specifics: Let the company know your child’s age, height and weight, and make sure that the equipment (in particular, car seats and strollers) is suitable.

Cleanliness: You may want to ask what kind of cleaning products they use on the rental items. Eco-friendly? Hypoallergenic?

A last word on car seats: All car seats manufactured after September 2002 should have the LATCH system and a five-point harness.

For more information, visit babytravelpros.com.