Health & Safety

A study published in this month’s issue of medical journal Pediatrics confirms what parents have been worriedly noting for some time: girls are going into puberty younger than ever before.

The study looked at 1,293 girls aged 6 to 9 in East Harlem, Cincinnati, and the Bay Area. Each group was made up of 30 percent each whites, blacks and Hispanics, and 5 percent Asians. Girls were measured to see if their breasts were beginning to develop, which the study theoretically considered the beginning of puberty. The results? At age 7, 10.4 percent of whites, 23.4 percent of blacks and 14.9 percent of Hispanic girls were developing breasts. At 8 years, the figures increased to 18.3 percent, 42.9 percent and 30.9 percent, respectively.

Lead researcher Frank Biro, who is director of adolescent medicine at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told the New York Times that his team blames the result on obesity (body fat produces estrogen that triggers breast growth), as well as on environmental triggers: “‘It’s certainly throwing up a warning flag,” Dr. Biro told the Times. “I think we need to think about the stuff we’re exposing our bodies to and the bodies of our kids. This is a wake-up call, and I think we need to pay attention to it.”

Biro also told the Times that his research team was now looking at the girls’ hormone levels and doing lab tests to measure their exposure to certain substances.

Whooping cough, one of those amusingly named childhood diseases you thought you didn’t have to worry about (see also: mumps, foot and mouth disease), has made a comeback in the nation and in Cali: this year there have been 910 confirmed cases reported, more than four times as many cases as had been reported at this time last year. State officials declared a pertussis epidemic last week.

Thankfully, the disease, which is characterized by coughs followed by a distinctive “whooping” inhalation (click here to hear what it sounds like), is usually not fatal. Only five deaths have been attributed so far to the outbreak; however, all of those deaths were of infants younger than three months, so parents of infants and pregnant women will want to take special care.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health lays out the recommended vaccination schedule for children and adults; children are particularly vulnerable as immunity is not complete until the last pertussis booster is given between 4 and 6 years of age. Health officials recommend that anyone living in the house with a child under age 1, particularly postpartum women, receive a pertussis booster. Any private doctor will do this, or the San Francisco Department of Public Health Adult Immunization Clinic offers them on a drop-in basis for $67. Pregnant women are advised to get immunized immediately after birth, as well.

Redwood City’s Counsyl has a new testing kit for prospective parents: They each spit in a tube, mail it back to Counsyl, and the company screens for more than 400 genetic mutations, including those for sickle cell anemia, Tay-Sachs, and cystic fibrosis. If each sample shows a marker for a mutation, the parents can consider their options, which include IVF and testing of the resultant embryos. The Counsyl Universal Genetic Test is $350.

Geneticists point out that the test has its limits–there are many diseases not covered, and some are so complex that couples may go through IVF (an expensive and arduous process) for nothing. Possessing a genetic marker for a disease doesn’t necessarily mean you will develop it. But since previous genetic tests required a blood sample and are generally looking only for a specific disease (such as one that affects a family member), this is a significant stride forward. Is it worth $350? Nervous parents-to-be, your guess is as good as mine.

One thing’s for sure, the test is easy to get. Unlike blood-sample genetic screenings, which require a trip to a clinic, Counsyl is available online.

Let’s put aside the question of whether or not you want to get the H1N1 vaccine because that is one spicy meatball, and for the time being assume you want to get it for yourself or your children. The first few flu-vaccine clinics last weekend were swamped with patients seeking the vaccine, waiting hours on line according to the San Francisco Chronicle. There will be more clinics in November, and only time will tell what the waits there will be like.Vaccine events vary in each city; you can supposedly go to your city’s public health department website (here is a list of California health departments) for more information. Many of the sites are all but useless, with a lot of information on covering your mouth when you cough but not much about where to get the vaccine they keep advising you to get. San Francisco’s site is typical in that it tells you to call your primary care provider and ask about vaccines, but the San Franicsco health department’s swine flu Twitter feed has more up-to-date information, and SF residents can also call 311 for updates. Contra Costa’s public health department site is a welcome contrast from SF’s, with detailed info on upcoming drive-through flu clinics.

Many Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS MinuteClinic locations also have the H1N1 shots; call the stores nearest you to ask. Kaiser patients can phone 800-573-5811 to find out where to go get the shot. Walgreens also has dedicated flu shot clinics. Flu.gov has a ton of information and links that will panic you and make you say “Just tell me where to get the shot! Argh!” Hmm, maybe you’re better off calling your primary care physician after all.

Taking a CPR/emergency class for infants and children is such a pain…but not as big a pain as helplessly watching a child choke or stop breathing in front of you. CPR classes are offered daily all over the Bay Area, and many organizations will give lessons free to a group of parents. Make learning CPR the focus of your next mommy-get-together, or contact one of these fine civic organizations:

DayOne: This San Francisco parenting support organization offers several classes monthly for $45.

CPR Family: Classes in San Rafael and San Francisco run $35-75; pre-crawling babies are welcome.

American Red Cross: The paterfamilias of lifesaving organizations offers classes in most communities for around $50. Type in your ZIP code to find the location nearest you.

SafetyMax: Will give seminars for groups of 12 (minimum) in your Bay Area home or office.

CPR Education Seminars: Teaches safety classes all over the North and South Bay as well as in San Francisco.

Last week’s horrific death of young Everett Carey, the four-month-old who died in a BART parking lot when his father forgot to drop him off at daycare and instead left him in the car with windows rolled up, underlines how tragic accidents can happen to anyone unwary. It’s easy to think that it couldn’t happen to you, that you’re more responsible and aware than that. But Alan Carey, Everett’s dad, probably thought that too.

The combination of a sleep-deprived parent, a busy schedule, and a rear-facing infant seat that holds a sleeping, silent baby can be a deadly one. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, “Nationally, an average of 36 children a year die when they are trapped in overheated cars. Some get into the cars on their own and some are intentionally left by parents, but the majority are forgotten by a parent or caregiver who fails to glance in the backseat.”

What Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten calls a “fatal distraction” could happen to you. Some tips on keeping your kids safe, from kidsandcars.org:

– Keep a stuffed animal, preferably a large or eye-catching one, in your car seat and place it in the passenger seat as a reminder whenever the child is in back.

– Always put something in the backseat, such as a purse, lunch bag, or briefcase, that makes you have to open the back door each time you park.

– Tell your daycare provider to call you and other emergency contacts if your child does not arrive by a certain time each day.

But you’re not going to buy those hard, yucky, white-inside berries from the grocery store, are you? Get the very best berries, and teach your children a lesson about nature at the same time, with a trip to a local farmers’ market. The produce in Northern California is some of the best in the country, and the farmers’ markets are thus bursting with stalls selling fruits and vegetables so fine they’re the stuff of fever dreams. Carrots as sweet as apples! Peaches with juice that runs down your face and you don’t even care!

Picking through piles of produce can also help introduce kids to new fruits and vegetables. The delicate swirls of sweet pea shoots and mounds of emerald kale and mustard green are so beautiful, they must be tasty too, right, kids?

Some markets have prepared-food stalls too: honey, dips and jams, nuts, ethnic food. Or there are fish, egg, or fresh-poultry sellers, it’s not all about produce. But it is about buying food that’s as beautiful as it is healthy. To find out what markets are near you, visit localharvest.org.

Healthy-food-oriented parents whose kids attend a SFUSD school will want to be at Mission High School on Thursday night, at a special meeting organized by parents who hope to change SFUSD’s food policies. Here’s what the flyer says:

Are you interested in learning more about the food in SFUSD schools, and how to improve it? Do you want to see more fresh fruits and vegetables served with school meals? Perhaps you have heard about the food in Berkeley schools and wonder why San Francisco is different? Are you dreaming about locally-grown foods in our cafeterias?”

Why, yes! Yes, I am! I’ll see you there. This is just an evening of brainstorming; petitioning the SFUSD will come later. The meeting is at Thursday, May 21 at 7pm at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street (at Dolores) in San Francisco. Email lenabrook@yahoo.com or visit groups.yahoo.com/group/sffoodsystems/.

For more inspiration, see our earlier post on Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition for the exemplary Berkeley Unified School District.

While trying to handle the unspooling chaos that is life with kids, many a parent has wished there were someone to bring groceries to them. There are grocery stores that deliver, but you have to know exactly what you want, including product sizes, when you call in to order. Safeway.com has a delivery service too, but in general the produce you can get ranges from meh to total crap.

Sonoma’s Planet Organics has groceries and prepared foods that are much more in line with what health-minded Bay Area parents want their kids to eat. Pristine, local, organic fruits and vegetables in season, organic meats, dairy, pantry staples, even prepared meals all ready to heat up. Customers can have regular deliveries of fruits, vegetables, and groceries; they can go in and order what they want for each weekly or bi-weekly delivery, or they can just order once to try it out. Meat and other perishables are packed with cold-packs so they can sit in a hallway or on a porch until you get home to put it in the fridge.

There’s no delivery fee, but you’ll pay out the nose: $5 mangoes and $8 pounds of asparagus are not uncommon, though there are always decent bargains on seasonal fruit. What you get, however, is choice, beautiful, and absolutely top-notch. You know, the kind of food you’d like your kids to eat.

Planet Organics serves the entire Bay Area: as far east as Livermore, as far North as Petaluma, and as far south as San Jose. Call 800-956-5855 or visit planetorganics.com.

Since when did shopping for groceries become an exercise in balancing priorities instead of just an errand? When you made kids. Having a couple of small people along for the ride really makes you think twice before you grab a box of Pop-Tarts. On the other hand, who can afford to buy organic/natural/locally made all the time? Choosing products is, too often, a tradeoff between what you want and what you can afford, with a lot of information gaps in between to guarantee that you’re both confused and stressed.

Good Guide, once an academic project at UC Berkeley, has become a valuable parental hand-holding resource, with ratings and health/environmental information on thousands of products. What’s in that store-brand toothpaste? Does it really make sense to buy Annie’s organic mac-and-cheese instead of Kraft blue box? Is a tube of California Baby sunscreen worth the $18 or so it costs? For each product Good Guide has an ingredient list that notes which additives are controversial and why, information on makers’ environmental performance, data on the water and energy used to make products, and even data on “social performance:” how the company treats its workers and customers. You’ll never buy blind again.

Good Guide, goodguide.com.