Author: Kristin Cantu

Ray Tye with Children's patient, Omar

Ray Tye, a successful businessman turned noted children’s philanthropist, died yesterday morning at the age of 87. Tye was devoted to helping children in medical need.

Tye helped numerous patients receive care at Children’s Hospital Boston, many coming from all over the world. Fernanda Medeiros, manager of the International Center at Children’s, worked side-by-side with Tye to help children from foreign countries receive life-saving treatments. “The world has lost a great, great man,” Medeiros tells The Boston Herald.

One of the many patients whose care he helped pay for is Omar, who was badly injured while traveling to Baghdad. He needed extensive reconstructive surgery and the Ray Tye Medical Foundation donated $100,000 to help cover medical expenses. Tye also lobbied on behalf of Omar and his family to receive political asylum in the United States, which they were recently granted.

Dumanel Luxama, a boy from Haiti with a rare congenital facial malformation, was another child Tye helped. You can read Dumanel’s story and watch a video about him here.

Tye’s generous spirit will be remembered by many, especially those of us here at Children’s. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.

Thrive would like to congratulate Children’s Hospital Boston’s Facebook fan page for reaching more than 100,000 fans. That’s almost enough people to fill up Fenway Park three times!

To celebrate, we’d like to share some of the most popular posts on Children’s Facebook fan page with you.

• Valentine’s Day: This post received more interactions than other any post in Children’s Facebook history.
• Cardiac Grant: Most liked post.
• Thrive stories: You’re an Ava-what? and Call of Duty were the most popular Thrive stories Children’s Facebook fan page linked to.
• Fan favorites: Dr. Judith Palfrey Carries the Olympic Torch and Haiti: Children’s Response to a Country in Need were loved by Children’s Facebook fans.
• Celebrity Visits: Bruins, Celtics and Boys Like Girls

If you’re not one already, become a Children’s Facebook fan today!

Whether it’s Chocolate Cheerios advertising that it “may reduce the risk of heart disease”, Juicy Juice claiming it aids “brain development” or Nestle’s Drumsticks showcasing it has “0g Trans Fat” but leaving out that eating them may actually help make you fat – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is fed up with false and misleading claims on food labels.

The FDA has sent out a group of letters warning companies about their misleading advertising practices. The commissioner of food and drugs, Margaret Hamburg, M.D., stated on the FDA’s website, “Today, ready access to reliable information about the calorie and nutrient content of food is even more important, given the prevalence of obesity and diet-related diseases in the United States.”

The FDA sent out 17 letters in total addressing the questionable labeling on 22 food products. You can view a list of all of these products on the FDA’s website.

Children’s Brian Fligor, ScD, CCC-A, director of diagnostic audiology, is quoted in a recent article by The New York Times about the importance of protecting your children’s hearing.

Hearing loss from exposure to loud noises is cumulative and irreversible; if such exposure starts in infancy, children can live half their lives with hearing loss.

Learn more about the signs of hearing loss in your children and how to care for children with hearing loss.

Children’s Hospital Boston’s Facebook fan page was recently given the honor of being named one of the “Best Hospital Facebook Pages” in the children’s hospital category by the social media and e-commerce blog Alert Presence.

Here’s what they have to say about Children’s Facebook fan page:

Children’s Hospital Boston has created a Facebook page by which all other hospital pages should be judged.  It’s so impressive it inspired a future Alert Presence article, “The Anatomy of a Great Hospital Facebook Page.”  The expertly designed profile picture, beautifully presented tab pages and even their own viral marketing Facebook applications have all contributed to the page attracting over 90,000 fans.

If you have a minute to browse the page, we suggest you view the “interact” tab which contains the Flu Fighter, I Saved a Life and Get Well Soon applications.

We are approaching 100,000 fans. So, if you haven’t already, please show Children’s your support by becoming a Facebook fan.

We’re constantly told that if we eat less and exercise more, the pounds will come sliding off. Not true. According to a recent study, small caloric changes have almost no long-term effect on weight.

While this news is disappointing, Children’s obesity expert – David Ludwig, MD, PhD, tell The New York Times that there is hope, especially for children. Small changes made during childhood lead to a much healthier adult lifestyle.

You can read more of Ludwig has to say on topic of childhood obesity here on Thrive.

Your teens may actually have an excuse for their erratic, irrational and even downright odd behavior. Children’s neurologist, Frances Jensen, MD, spoke to NPR about how she discovered that contrary to previous beliefs, human brain development isn’t complete by age 10. A couple of reasons for this are:

1. A crucial part of the brain — the frontal lobes — are not fully connected.
2. Adolescents have a much more robust habit-forming ability that is helpful when it comes to learning new things, but also causes an increased risk for addiction.

Read more about Jensen’s findings in this Dream article and watch these videos where Jensen explains why teens behave the way they do.

You can also listen to Jensen’s personal story, as told to NPR, on what sparked her interest in the teen brain.

More than four million babies are born in the United States every year. Of those, 13 percent will be born prematurely. For these infants, their time spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is critical to the future of their well-being.

A recent study finds that routine tests performed on infants in the NICU can increase their pain response. It was once believed that newborns don’t feel pain from routine tests. However, some infants undergo many of these routine tests daily and this study shows that “repeated exposure to pain and stress early in life may have lasting effects, including increased pain sensitivity later in life,” according to Reuters.

Studies have shown that once a premature infant reaches school age, they have shown to be at significantly higher risk for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), lower IQ, difficulties in social-emotional functioning and self-regulation and increased need for specialized school services.

There has been much study into NICU environments and how they can be improved to best suit the needs of the infant. Leading the way is Children’s Hospital Boston’s Director of Neurobehavioral Infant and Child Studies, Heidelise Als, PhD, whose work has focused for some time on pain how premature infants experience pain.
Als says the recent research is important because it points to frequent painful events whose side effects put the infant’s brain at risk. Pain can, for the most part, be prevented in these routine procedures by:

• using distraction techniques
• providing access to a mother’s milk or sugar water
• changing the infant’s position during the procedure
• encouraging parent involvement in the procedure
While some of these measures may seem like common sense, they are often not considered. Physicians underestimate how painful these routine tests can be and the consequences they can have on the baby.
Als’s NICU research takes a comprehensive approach. She looks at all of the events that can happen in a 24-hour period for an infant, including behavioral cues given by infants to see which events cause them stress. This sort of pain management leads to the overall well-being significantly better short-term and long-term outcomes for the infant.

Her approach has led to the education of NICU caregivers, including the parents of preemies. The care becomes collaborative with the infants. Skilled caregivers need to be emotionally in tune with the infant. Their connection allows the caregiver to read the world from the baby’s perspective.

Data shows that being able to read the language of the baby results in significantly better short-term and long-term outcomes. Als is the originator of the Newborn Individualized Development Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP), which is an individualized, behaviorally-based developmental care model that’s changing NICUs around the world.

More girls are playing soccer than ever and as you can guess, that means more girls are suffering from soccer-related injuries. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine takes a look at a Swedish research exercise program designed to help girls prevent one of soccer’s most common injuries – a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

The study’s participants (all female soccer players) showed that over the course of one season, those who participated in the exercise program suffered fewer injuries and those that did sustain injuries were ones that were less severe.

We talked to Children’s orthopedic surgeon, Martha Murray, MD from Sports Medicine about this study and the research she’s currently working on in the field of ACL repair.

Are girls more likely to injure their knees playing soccer than boys?

Girls are five to eight times more likely to get injured than boys. We don’t know the reason for this, but experts have theorized reasons ranging from hormonal and anatomical differences to differences in training techniques. Injury is very common in women just after puberty, after the girls have had a growth spurt. During this time, girls get taller, but they don’t automatically get the stronger muscles needed to keep the longer legs stable. When they’re playing soccer, it’s a mismatch of what their bodies are being asked to do and what they are capable of. On the other hand, boys typically get a boost in muscle mass as they are getting taller and thus their knees may be more protected.

But, fortunately, we’ve learned that girls can overcome this problem to a large extent by training their muscles, especially during and after puberty. Training can help to improve muscle strength, flexibility and coordination, and subsequently reduce their risk of injury. This is what the Swedish researchers did with their study on girl soccer players. We’ve been using this sort of program in the United States for about 10 years and it’s nice to see these sorts of studies being performed in Europe as well.

What sort of time commitment do these injury prevention programs entail?

It depends on the program. Some are longer, such as the program that Tim Hewitt, MD – who is a pioneer in this field – of Cincinnati Children’s developed. This is a six-week preseason training program. However, other programs, such as the PEP Program from the Santa Monica Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Group, can be performed in the same amount of time as a traditional practice or game warm-up.

Only 1-2 percent of soccer programs in the United States use these injury prevention programs. What can be done to encourage more programs to participate?

It’s largely a question of getting the word out there. Many people haven’t heard of an ACL injury until they have one. While most college level programs participate in the regimens, it is rarer at the high school or middle school level. Getting the message out that these programs are available and can be performed often with little or no special equipment could help a great deal. Several local physical therapy groups that specialize in adolescent athletes also offer teaching of these injury prevention programs for teams and individual athletes.

What is the status of your ACL work currently?

We’re always trying to find better ways to treat patients with ACL injuries. We work on studying ACL cells and tissues in the laboratory and on researching new surgical techniques. Several of these have already translated into our clinical practice and how we do surgery. Other parts of our research, like getting the ACL to heal itself after it tears, are pretty far from being translated to the clinic, but we still think they are important to work hard on.

Use this knee injury prevention program for your child.

Read about ACL surgery for young athletes.

Did you know that girls who play sports grow up into women who have better educational, work and health prospects?

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. Did you know that your children should have visited a dentist by the time they’ve reached the age of 12 months? You can find other helpful information like this at Children’s Dental Health Center.

Massachusetts passed a new children’s dental health law that went into effect January 1 of this year. The state Department of Early Education & Care now requires all children in day care longer than four hours and/or who eat a meal, to have their teeth brushed on-site.

Some parents think that day care providers already have enough on their plate without adding this to the mix, while others have voiced concerns about the possibility of spreading germs.

But Children’s Dentist-in-Chief, Manwai Ng, DDS, MPH, thinks this new law is a great idea.

In this Boston Globe letter to the editor, Dr. Ng makes her case:

We see young children every day with pain and infection from untreated early childhood tooth decay. Children as young as 2 commonly present with eight or more cavities. Each year, we take more than 500 patients to the operating room to provide dental care under general anesthesia.

Ultimately, parents are responsible for the oral health care of their children. However, with many young children spending more time in preschool and day care than at home, tooth brushing during the day can help prevent and control tooth decay.

But what about parents who are worried that the day care providers just won’t do a good enough job brushing their kids’ teeth?

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health offers training and guidance on tooth brushing for day care providers. It covers everything from how to brush kids’ teeth to how to properly store the tooth brushes to when tooth brushes need to be replaced.

Some parents have voiced concerns over American Dental Association guidelines advocate brushing only twice a day.

“Brushing twice a day is meant to be a starting point for the minimum amount to brush every day,” says Dr. Ng. This law doesn’t mandate that day care providers brush the kids’ teeth after every meal. It’ll only happen once during their daily visit.

If you still don’t like the idea of having your kids’ day care providers brush their teeth, you can always opt out. Whether or not your kids are getting their teeth brushed at day care, teaching your children good oral health is something you should start early.

Forty percent of children will have a cavity by the time they reach kindergarten. Teaching your kids to brush and floss – and to do it often – should be on every parents to-do list.

What do you think about Massachusetts’ new tooth brushing law?

That’s what a recent study is claiming. This study found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era.

According to Children’s psychiatrist, Stuart Goldman, MD, the interpretation of these findings all depend on how you slice it.

It’s a little hard to know if there really are more youth dealing with mental health issues today as opposed to youth from the Great Depression era. I think there’s a greater awareness level of families identifying children with these difficulties. There is an increasing permissiveness for people to express distress in ways they couldn’t in the past.

Goldman does think that kids are feeling a significant amount of stress today, but doesn’t necessarily know that it’s greater today than – in say – the 1960s, during the Vietnam War. He does agree with the study’s author who speculates that our current culture obsessed with material items, wealth, looks and status contributes to mental health issues.

There is a greater level of materialism today than there was 70 years ago. If you were a poor kid during the Great Depression, you didn’t know how the rich and famous lived. There’s much more awareness of what the lives of wealthy people are like thanks to television and the internet.

An example of this sort of media exposure is MTV’s show “My Super Sweet 16” – it showcases the lavish and over-the-top birthday parties for America’s richest teens. One teen’s family flew her to Italy to have three custom-made pairs of shoes designed for the big event. With shows like these, how can the average teen compare?

Goldman says technology plays a huge role in teens’ media exposure, potentially eroding other personal resources. The hours your teen spends watching television and on Facebook are hours they could be doing something productive and enriching. He doesn’t recommend more than two hours of screen time a day.

Goldman also cites the greater fragmentation of family to teen stress.

With two working parents, there is less infrastructure around children and they need to be able to reach out to adults for support. People forget to have family time. Having a few family dinners a week reduces negative outcomes for adolescents like depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

No matter how you slice it – whether there really are more teens dealing with mental health issues or if they are just more willing to talk about them than in the past – teens need the resources to be able to identify and deal with what’s plaguing them today.

In other pediatric mental health news, the number of children 2- to 5- years old who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs has double over the past decade.

The number of pregnant teens had been dropping since 1990, but last week Time reported that since 2006 that number has been steadily rising. Children’s Joanne Cox, MD, medical director of Children’s Primary Care Center and Young Parents Program, spoke on WGBH’s Callie Crossley Show about the rise in numbers of pregnant teens.

You can also read in a previous Thrive post what Cox has to say on how to prevent a teen pregnancy epidemic.

While some are blaming abstinence only sex education for the rise, one study begs to differ.

What do you think is causing the rise in teen pregnancies?

Earlier this week, Children’s Brian Skotko, MD, MPP, Clinical Genetics Fellow, wrote a blog about how some enthusiast of the film Avatar have taken to calling themselves Avatards. He reflects on how the use of this term resembles another that negatively reflects people with disabilities.

Skotko appeared Thursday night on ABC World News to discuss the use of the “R” word.

That news piece was also a source for The View’s “Hot Topics” yesterday morning.

Children’s pharmacist, Shannon Manzi, recently returned from Haiti where she provided emergency care for Haitians affected by the earthquake. Last night Manzi appeared on WGBH’s Greater Boston to speak about her experience in Haiti.

You can also read this ASHP article about how Manzi’s unique thinking helped Haiti’s earthquake victims.

Children’s Trauma Program director, David Mooney, MD, MPH recently returned from Haiti, where he provided emergency care to Haitians injured by the devastating earthquake. Last Friday he spoke to WBUR’s Bob Oakes about his experience in Haiti. You can read more about and listen to that interview on the news station’s website.

Read more of Thrive’s coverage on Children’s efforts in Haiti.

There has been nationwide coverage of the tragic event involving the death of the South Hadley, Mass. teen, Phoebe Prince. This is not the first incidence of a youth’s suicide being linked to bullying.

Thrive previously covered Massachusetts lawmakers attempts to pass anti-bullying legislation. Within the last couple of weeks, due to the recent event, this legislation has taken on new urgency.

We’ve heard a lot from adults on this issue, but what about the teens? Youth adviser, Erica Cueves, from Children’s Center for Young Women’s Health, wrote a piece on their blog about the death of Phoebe Prince, how bullying affects all teens (even those not directly bullied) and what should be done to stop it.

This is a serious issue that deserves our attention. We’d like to hear from you about any experiences your child has concerning bullying and what you think should be done to stop it.

Anti-bullying resources can be found on the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center’s website.

Read this Live Science article about studies that reveal why kids get bullied and rejected.

Another team of Children’s clinicians departed Hanscom Air Force Base yesterday for Haiti, this one including John Meara, MD, DMD, and Gary Rogers, MD, both of Plastic & Oral Surgery, David Waisel, MD, and Craig McClain, MD, both from Anesthesia, a team of Children’s nurses (Nelson Aquino, RN, Lisa Pixley, RN, Stella Harrington, RN, Jay Hartford, RN, Pam Gorgone, RN) and surgical technician, Johanne Jocelyn, with colleagues from Partners in Health. We got word that they arrived safely, and we’ll keep you updated with more info as we get it.

As 40 percent of Haiti’s population are children, pediatric medical and surgical care is desperately needed right now. The National Disaster Medical System is calling for pediatric critical care and critical care transport teams to assemble for possible deployment. Additional support teams from Children’s are currently being mobilized.

Volunteers from Children’s have been a part of the relief efforts from the beginning. Shannon Manzi, David Mooney, MD, MPH, and Gary Fleisher, MD, headed to Haiti on one of the first transports available, with no knowledge of what kind of conditions awaited them. An article from The Boston Globe today reports on the tough decision Mooney had to make in amputating a young Haitian boy’s fingers.

This week there has been a lot of coverage on the topic of childhood obesity. It’s not a new subject and one that we’re likely to hear much more on this year.

The Boston Globe reports that for the next 18 months, every public school in Massachusetts will evaluate whether students weigh too much or too little by calculating their body mass index (BMI) scores.

How will students respond to being measured and weighed? Children’s psychologist, Allison Lauretti, PhD, with the Optimal Weight for Life Program suggests likening these new tests to hearing and vision screenings by telling your children, “This is just another way of schools letting Mom and Dad know how you’re growing.”

Read what Children’s obesity expert, David Ludwig, MD, PhD, has to say about schools’ BMI report cards.

Reuters reports that the United States Preventive Services Task Force is now urging screening for obesity in children. The percentage of children between 2- and 19-years old is six times the amount it was in the 1970s, hovering between 12 and 18 percent. Could school screenings be the answer?

It seems like it’s never too early to be an obesity watchdog for your children. This Reuters article reports that starting spoonfeeding later may reduce your infant’s risk of becoming an overweight adult. The World Health Organization and American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively until they are six months old and advise against introducing solid foods until then.

Read more of what Children’s experts have to say on the childhood obesity epidemic.

Nearly 1.5 million strollers made by Graco’s Children’s Products have been recalled, according to reports from MSNBC and CNN. After seven reports of children’s fingers being cut when the stroller canopy hinge is opening or closing, the following strollers have been recalled – Graco’s Passage, Alano and Spree strollers and travel systems. Two children’s fingers were cut and there were five reports of children losing their fingertips.

Another large recall occurred in November when the federal government recalled 2.1 million cribs.

Children’s own Judith Palfrey, MD, FAAP, will be carrying the Olympic torch today as it makes it way through Calgary, Canada. Palfrey will be one of 12,000 torchbearers who will relay the Olympic flame on its 28,000 mile trek from Victoria, British Columbia to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. She is the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which is the nation’s largest pediatric organization, with a membership of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists.

We’re proud to have someone as committed to children’s health as is Palfrey carrying the Olympic torch. We hope you’ll join us in watching Palfrey live today from 11 a.m. to noon as she participates in the longest relay held by a single country in the history of the Olympic Games.

Palfrey has been a pediatrician at Children’s since 1974 and is a dedicated child advocate. She was chief of Children’s General Pediatrics Division from 1986 to 2008 and currently directs the Children’s International Pediatric Center.

Read what Palfrey has to say after one of her first AAP meetings as president.