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☆ RSV, flu and colds: How to tell when your child is too sick for school
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Almost all children catch RSV at some point before they turn 2, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Here’s how to assess when to keep your child home from school and when to visit the pediatrician, according to experts. Ideally, public health professionals would like it if no child showing symptoms were sent to school or day care, where they could potentially spread infections Schaffner said. Again, here is where schools may have different policies and it becomes important to check with written information, a school administrator or school nurse, Wen said. “Parents should know that treating RSV and other respiratory infections is the bread and butter of pediatricians and emergency physicians,” Wen said.

☆ At 3 weeks old, she caught RSV, the virus that's packing hospitals across the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Christina Zdanowicz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

And pediatric hospitals are feeling the strain, with more than three-quarters of their hospital and ICU beds occupied for the past few months. Her prematurity “increased her risk of how her body would react to the RSV virus,” the doctor explained. Medical teams at Greater Baltimore Medical Center helped Ayra Pokharel before she was transferred to another hospital. Sending patients to other facilities for treatment is common during the height of flu and RSV seasons, Nguyen said. RSV symptoms RSV is a common virus, but it can cause serious illness, especially in younger infants and older adults.

☆ When Kids Exclude Peers From Group Chats and Texts, Is It Bullying?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Julie Jargon | Photographs Lauren Justice For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Growing up means being left out sometimes, especially when friends splinter into new social groups during middle school and teen years. With group chats and social media, kids can more easily see when they’re not part of the crowd. Exclusion can result in hurt feelings, even when there’s no malicious intent behind it. But educators, pediatricians and researchers say online exclusion can be overt, particularly in group texts or chats on whatever platform teens use to communicate and make plans, be it Apple’s iMessage, Snapchat , Instagram—even Zoom.

☆ Children’s health leaders call for emergency response as respiratory viruses continue to spread across the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And health care systems nationwide continue to feel the strain of a respiratory virus season that has hit earlier and harder than usual. There have been about 8 flu hospitalizations for every 100,000 people this season – rates typically seen in December or January. While the Covid-19 emergency declaration remains in place, the federal government has not made a formal emergency declaration around children’s health care. HHS and the CDC are in regular contact with health care leaders and providers, actively monitoring situational needs and ready to provide assistance on a case-by-case basis, an HHS spokesperson told CNN. They also urge all those eligible to get their flu and Covid-19 vaccines, along with other routine vaccinations.

☆ Parents Are Giving Kids Melatonin to Help Them Sleep. Doctors Have Concerns.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Alex Janin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sleep doctors say they have more questions than answers about kids and melatonin. Stressed-out parents are increasingly giving their kids melatonin to help them sleep, raising concerns among some pediatricians about the long-term effects. Doctors report steep increases in child melatonin consumption in recent years, driven partly by parents trying to help their kids cope with sleep disruptions during the pandemic. Americans overall spent nearly twice as much on melatonin products in the past 12 months—nearly $1.1 billion—as they did in the same period three years ago, according to data from market research firm NielsenIQ. The company doesn’t track melatonin consumption specifically among kids.

☆ More adolescent e-cigarette users report vaping within five minutes of waking up, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The data included a total of 151,573 survey respondents, all in middle or high school in the United States. ‘Concerning’ trends in the intensity of useThe overall prevalence of e-cigarette use peaked in 2019 and then declined. But by 2019, more e-cigarette users were using within the first five minutes of waking up each day compared with traditional cigarette users. “It is encouraging that the prevalence of e-cigarette use has declined among U.S. adolescents from 2019 to 2021. “Unfortunately, early nicotine addiction could overturn the significant tobacco control progress made over many decades,” she said.

☆ More Children Are Being Screened for Mental-Health Issues. But Then What?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Andrea Petersen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A mental-health crisis among children and teens that had been brewing for years worsened as routines were disrupted in the pandemic. Mental-health screenings for kids are expanding across the country. But as more children are identified as needing assistance, families can face a tough time getting help from resources that are already stretched thin. A mental-health crisis among children and teens that had been brewing for years worsened as routines were disrupted in the pandemic and many kids faced isolation and loss. Schools have added or expanded screenings for mental health or emotional well-being, and earlier this month, a panel of medical experts recommended children and teens ages 8 to 18 be screened for anxiety disorders.

Pediatric cases of the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, are on the rise. Here are the signs and symptoms to look out for if your child has a respiratory virus. Does my child have RSV, Covid or the flu? Early symptoms of Covid, RSV and the flu can look similar for many children, including:CongestionCoughRunny noseMuscle achesFeverHeadacheA sore throat, Moffitt said, could be a sign of Covid, as doctors have noticed that infections with omicron subvariants often begin with sore throats. Hotez also urged parents to get their children vaccinated against Covid and the flu.

An unseasonal early surge of respiratory viruses among babies and toddlers has caught doctors off guard and worried about the coming months. "There is no one virus that's causing pediatric respiratory viruses this fall," said Dr. Deanna Behrens, a pediatric critical care physician at Advocate Children's Hospital in suburban Chicago. CDCWhile RSV is inundating many children's hospitals, the number of pediatric flu cases is also increasing. But the fact that kids are testing positive for multiple respiratory viruses at once can blur the signs of any one virus. In addition to RSV, Combs expects the number of pediatric flu illnesses to double in the coming weeks.

☆ RSV in children: Symptoms, treatment and what parents should know
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Jen Christensen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Almost all children catch RSV at some point before they turn 2, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That way, they know whether a sick child can be treated at home or needs to go to a hospital. Here’s what else parents need to know amid the surge of respiratory illnesses. When it comes to RSV, parents should be especially cautious if their children are preemies, newborns, children with weakened immune systems or neuromuscular disorders, and those under age 2 with chronic lung and heart conditions, the CDC says. And most of all, if anyone is sick – child or adult – they should stay home so they don’t spread the illness.

As soon as they saw her vitals, the staff at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland knew they had to admit Raegan, her mom said. “I’m glad I didn’t wait.”There’s now an “unprecedented” rise in RSV cases among children in the US, some doctors tell CNN. In Texas, where RSV cases usually spike in December or January, the emergency department at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth and its urgent cares are seeing a significant number of RSV cases. Nearly half the ICU is filled with RSV cases, hospital spokesperson Kim Brown said; between October 2 and 8, there were 210 RSV cases at Cook Children’s; a week later, there were 288. RSV symptoms RSV is a common virus, but it can cause serious illness, especially in younger infants and older adults.

☆ Facebook whistleblower, former defense and intel officials form group to fix social media
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A Facebook whistleblower, two former U.S. defense secretaries, several past lawmakers and intelligence chiefs are forming a new group to address the harmful impacts social media can have on kids, communities and national security. The council said it aims to drive bipartisan conversation around tech in Washington, D.C., and across the country, elevate nonpartisan voices like parents and pediatricians, and advance effective solutions to reform social media. Haugen said the issues stemming from social media are truly bipartisan in nature, which could be made more clear by avoiding framing them as issues of content moderation. Many conservatives are skeptical of content moderation because they believe platforms can use it to censor certain viewpoints, though mainstream platforms have repeatedly denied they do so. Haugen said she sees content moderation as largely a "distraction from the real path forward, which is around product design, safety by design, transparency."

The recommendation from the independent panel of experts applies to children who aren't showing any signs or symptoms of a mental health problem. The health panel's new guidance represents a final set of recommendations for mental health screening for children. The problem, however, is that there is a dearth of mental health professionals trained to help such children. A second report found that emergency room visits related to children’s mental health rose dramatically in 2020, compared with 2019. But Pbert said that true mental health problems in children can result in excessive behavior changes.

Flu cases are already rising in parts of the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The convergence of viruses is hitting health care systems as they're forced to reckon with staffing shortages that worsened during the pandemic. Staffing deficits mean there is little wiggle room to accommodate any additional surges of patients, whether they're sick with Covid, flu or other illness. But as the cold weather sets in and people increasingly gather indoors, Covid cases are expected to rise. The vast majority of Covid cases circulating now are an omicron subvariant, BA.5.

☆ Gen Z is increasingly using TikTok videos instead of Google search, but 1 in 5 of them contain misinformation, a new study says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A new study by a site that tracks online misinformation found that 1 in 5 videos on TikTok contain misinformation. The study found that TikTok often yields more partisan search results than Google. Gen Z users are increasingly turning to TikTok instead of Google as their primary search engine. Gen Z users have begun replacing Google with TikTok as their primary search engine, The New York Times recently reported. A new study by NewsGuard, a site that monitors misinformation across the internet, found that one in five search results on TikTok contains misinformation.

☆ China approved a COVID-19 vaccine mist that can be inhaled: the first needle-free booster option
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-05 | by ( Andrea Michelson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A COVID-19 vaccine mist has been approved for use as a booster dose in China. The vaccine maker CanSino repackaged its shot as a mist meant to be inhaled. Regulators in China approved a COVID-19 vaccine mist for use as a booster dose, making it the first alternative to injectable vaccines used during the pandemic. Similar to the COVID-19 vaccines used in the US, CanSino's formulation contains pieces of genetic material so the body can recognize the virus. Only time will tell if the mistable COVID vaccine provides enough booster protection to be approved and widely distributed in other countries.

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