Flu Shot and Flu Mist time!

It is that time again to get your annual flu shot or flu mist. Flu shots for all children ages 6 months and up, as well as FluMist for all children ages 2 years and up!  All of our doctor's do recommend getting an annual flu vaccination.

Flu vaccines will be by appointment only; we will not be doing walk-in flu vaccines this year.  Appointments are available on Tuesday from 2:00-7:30, Wednesday from 2:00 7:00 and Thursday from 2:00- 5:00.  Feel free to call the office Monday through Friday to schedule your children for their flu vaccine!

Please contact your insurance company prior to your appointment to find out if they cover the flu vaccine and if they require a copay.  Most insurance companies do require a copay anytime a fee is generated.  If you choose not to pay your copay at the time of service, there is an additional $5 fee to bill you for your copay

Fact Friday :Many parents switch child safety seats too soon

75% of 500 parents started placing their child in a front-facing car seat before age 2 and 30% of parents switched their child to the front-facing seat before age 1. The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines for the use of car seats in April, recommending that children stay in rear-facing car seats until age 2. A rear-facing child safety seat does a better job of supporting the head, neck and spine of infants and toddlers in a crash, because it distributes the force of the collision over the entire body. Thank you Dr Jopling for bringing this article to our attention. Click here for the full article and also read a past blog entry reminder about the new recommendations.

Utah has Child Safety Seat Inspection Stations in every community throughout Utah that work to educate families about the proper use of child safety seats.  Many of these Inspection Stations offer child safety seats and booster seats at a reduced cost to low-income families. To find the nearest location, call the Primary Children's Car Seat Hot Line 801-662-CARS or visit these informative web sites:

• Safe Kids Utah
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Utah Department of Public Safety
• Keeping Kids Safe During Crashes

We know you want to keep your children safe and we want to help. If you have any questions please ask your pediatrician or visit one of these great websites.
Info from-AAP and
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-x-1005-car-seat-guidelines-20111005,0,50595.story

Organic or Not?

Eat your fruits and vegetables! The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure. Dr O'Mara recently found this website that will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce. Click here for the full article and use EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides to reduce your exposures as much as possible, but eating conventionally-grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all.

Buy these organic:
Apples
Celery
Strawberries
Peaches

Spinach
Nectarines (imported)

Grapes (imported)
Sweet bell peppers
Potatoes
Blueberries
Lettuce
Kale or Collard Greens

Lowest in Pesticide :Ok to Buy

Onions
Sweet Corn
Pineapples
Avocado

Asparagus

Sweet peas

Mangoes

Eggplant

Cantaloupe(domestic)

Kiwi

Cabbage

Watermelon

Sweet potatoes

Grapefruit

Mushrooms

 

*info from http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

Kids Sugar Cravings Might Be Biological‏

Do you have a child that loves sweets? Maybe you try and try to give them veggies and fruits but they always want something with sugar? Many do and Dr Jopling recently found this article on http://www.npr.org/ and wanted to share. It is very interesting and has some things that make you think....Click below for further links.

Ask a child if they like sweets and the answer is almost universally a resounding "Yes!" It's no surprise to most parents that kids love candy, cookies, sweetened drinks, and some kids have even been known to add sugar to a bowl of Frosted Flakes. But don't blame the kids, say researchers: It's biology.
Scientific evidence shows that children not only have a stronger preference for sugar than adults – but that sweet-tooth is hardwired from Day One.
"We know that the newborn can detect sweet and will actually prefer sweeter solutions to less sweet ones. The basic biology of the child is that they don't have to learn to like sweet or salt. It's there from before birth," explains Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical Senses Center.  Unlike adults, who often find overly sugary things unpleasant, Mennella says kids are actually living in different sensory worlds than adults when it comes to basic tastes.
"They prefer much more intense sweetness and saltiness than the adult, and it doesn't decrease until late adolescence. And we have some evidence they may be more sensitive to bitter taste," Mennella says.
A reason for this may be that a preference for sweet, caloric substances during rapid growth may have given children as an evolutionary advantage when calories were scarce. That notion is supported by the fact that sugar doesn't just taste good to children -– it actually makes them feel good, too.
Mennella's research has shown that sugar is a natural pain reliever in children, and many hospitals even put a sweet-tasting liquid in a baby's mouth during circumcisions or heel stick procedures to help lessen the pain.
When researchers gave adults and children water mixed with various amounts of sugar, adults preferred sugar concentrations similar to that of a can of soda, while finding higher concentrations too sweet. By comparison, children preferred at least twice that concentration, and younger children had virtually no limit.
"You can keep putting sugar in to the point where you can't dissolve it in the water anymore and they still like it," says Sue Coldwell, a researcher at the University of Washington who has studied kids and sweets.
But there seems to be an age limit on the super-sized sugar preference.
Coldwell and her colleagues suspected that sugar preferences changed during adolescence. They checked a bunch of indicators, like body image and hormones, and then they checked bone growth. They gave the sugar-water test to adolescents while simultaneously measuring a marker of bone growth in their urine. What they found was that kids who were still growing preferred sweets. Those whose growth had already stopped –- around age 15 or 16 — had taste preferences similar to adults.
Exactly how this all works is still somewhat of a mystery, but Coldwell says that one important clue lies in the discovery that growing bones actually secrete hormones that can influence metabolism. Other well-known metabolic hormones like leptin and insulin have been shown to act on brain areas that control cravings and appetites, and even directly bind to the tongue, where they affect the preference for sweet tastes. Coldwell suspects that hormones from growing bones may be doing the same thing. In other words, it's not your kid's fault he raided the cookie jar – the hormones from his growing bones made him do it.
"I don't know for sure, but I am very suspicious that the bones are somehow telling either the brain or the tongue that there is energy needed for their growth and signaling for that preference to increase," says Coldwell.
That's not to say a kid can't overdo it. In a modern world of calorie overload and childhood obesity, cravings for sugar are no longer the evolutionary advantage they once might have once been. But if the goal is to get children to reduce their intake of sugar, researchers say understanding the biology behind their cravings is the first step.
**Info from http://www.npr.org/

Parenting with Positive Guidance CLASSES!!

We are so excited to announce that Amanda Morgan is going to be teaching "Parenting with Positive Guidance" classes at our Willow Creek Office. Amanda has been a guest "blogger" on our site and has given us valuable information. Our doctors are so excited to offer such a great resource to our parents. Amanda has a Master's degree in Family and Human development and has worked with children and families in a variety of settings. She currently works part-time as a trainer and consultant for The Children's Center of Salt Lake, and full time as a mom to three boys. She also writes at Not Just Cute,a blog devoted to intentional whole child development.

• Four sessions that start Thursday nights, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm October 27-Nov 17th
• At Willow Creek Pediatrics Conference Room
• $65 for individuals or $100 for couples
• Sign up at the front desk or email margiet@wasatchpeds.net to reserve your spot!

If you are looking for more positive parenting tools please contact us before the spots are gone! Thanks Amanda for this great resource!

Facts about HPV Vaccine

Lately we have heard of a lot of confusion and misinformation about the HPV vaccine. Here are some basic information and links to help you make a informative discussion on the vaccine. The AAP made this statement this past week.
 "The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation," the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. "There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record."

Please feel free to discuss your concerns with any of our pediatricians and check out the links below for more information

What is HPV?

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States. More than half of sexually active men and women are infected with HPV at some time in their lives.
About 20 million Americans are currently infected, and about 6 million more get infected each year. HPV is usually spread through sexual contact. Most HPV infections don’t cause any symptoms, and go away on their own. But HPV can cause cervical cancer in women. Cervical cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world. In the United States, about 10,000 women get cervical cancer every year and about 4,000 are expected to die from it.  HPV is also associated with several less common cancers, such as vaginal and vulvar cancers in women and other types of cancer in both men and women. It can also cause genital warts and warts in the throat. There is no cure for HPV infection, but some of the problems it causes can be treated.

HPV vaccine - Why get vaccinated?

HPV vaccine is important because it can prevent most cases of cervical cancer in females, if it is given before a person is exposed to the virus. Protection from HPV vaccine is expected to be long-lasting. But vaccination is not a substitute for cervical cancer screening. Women should still get regular Pap tests.
The vaccine you are getting is one of two vaccines that can be given to prevent HPV. It may be given to both males and females. In addition to preventing cervical cancer, it can also prevent vaginal and vulvar cancer in females, and genital warts and anal cancer in both males and females.
The other vaccine is given to females only for prevention of cervical cancer.

Who should get this HPV vaccine and when?

• HPV vaccine is recommended for girls 11 or 12 years of age. It may be given to girls starting at age 9. Why is HPV vaccine given to girls at this age? It is important for girls to get HPV vaccine before their first sexual contact – because they won’t have been exposed to human papillomavirus.Once a girl or woman has been infected with the virus, the vaccine might not work as well or might not work at all. The vaccine is also recommended for girls and women 13 through 26 years of age who did not get all 3 doses when they were younger. Males 9 through 26 years of age may get HPV vaccine. As with females, it is best to be vaccinated before the first sexual contact.

HPV vaccine is given as a 3-dose series

• 1st Dose: Now
• 2nd Dose: 1 to 2 months after Dose 1
• 3rd Dose: 6 months after Dose

How can I learn more?

• Ask your doctor. They can give you the vaccine package insert or suggest other sources of information.
• Call your local or state health department.
• Contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
• Call 1-800-232-4636 (1-800-CDC-INFO) or
• Visit CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov/std/hpv and www.cdc.gov/vaccines

For more information about the HPV vaccine Cervarix, click here
*info from www.healthchildren.org and www.aap.org and www.cdc.gov/vaccine

UTAH FAAN Walk is October 8th!

Saturday, October 8^th at Wheeler Historic Farm, South Lawn 6351 South 900 East, Salt Lake City is the Annual FAAN Walk.  Registration starts at 11:00 am and the Walk begins at noon. 

The FAAN Walk is an awesome opportunity to help raise money for food allergy research and educational programs and to help raise community awareness...not to mention an exciting event to bring the family and friends to where everyone 'gets it' and the kids can play with no worries and make food allergy friends! There are lots of exciting things taking place on Walk day for everyone to participate in...Munchkin Radio will be there rockin' out, face painting, games, race cars, and lots more! 

 

We know many of our patients participate in this walk and we wish them all luck. Here is some more information about this from there website and click below for more info.

Because of the money we raised last year at the FAAN Walk, UFAN was able to apply for a community grant which helped fund the Utah Food Allergy Conference in June and we nominated a Utah school nurse who sits on the state board to attend the National Association of School Nurses Conference where she went to a special food allergy presentation by FAAN and brought the information back to other nurses in the state. 

UFAN would like to encourage everyone to create a team, tell your friends/family/neighbors/co-workers, raise as much money as you and your team members can, and then celebrate with us all at the Walk on Saturday October 8th!! You can also register as a 'virtual walker' to donate and fund raise without even being there!  

We need each one of you to make this year a success and we hope to be able to bring some of the money raised back to Utah to directly benefit you!

http://www.utahfoodallergy.org/

**Info from Michelle Fogg and UFAN