Have you heard about chickenpox lollipops? You’ve probably heard of chickenpox parties where parents of infected children invite other children over to catch those lovely germs. Those children then contract chickenpox, which provides them with immunity from the disease for the rest of their lives.

Well, now parents are taking this concept one step further. When a child gets the chickenpox, the parents will let the child lick a lollipop (or several) and will then send these chickenpox-laced treats to far-flung friends and family who want their children to get the disease.

Hmmm…

While we have chosen to vaccinate our son mostly on schedule, I do totally understand the hesitation with vaccines—especially one such as the chickenpox vaccine which is relatively new, and in some parents’ view, unnecessary. But, isn’t the idea of chickenpox lollipops, well, totally crazy?!

I can’t imagine feeding my son a lollipop that had been licked by a sick child and then traveled through the mail. It seems like he could contract a lot of other diseases in addition to chickenpox! It is true, though, that getting the actual chickenpox gives a child greater immunity that getting they would get from the vaccine.

What do you think? Would you try to help your children get chickenpox “naturally” or do you think the vaccine is the best way to immunize them?

Many doctors recommend that parents give their breastfed babies a Vitamin D supplement since breastmilk is low in this vital nutrient. However, we need to ensure that everyone—kids and adults—are getting enough Vitamin D as they get older as well.

A recent study showed that many fair-skinned people are lacking in Vitamin D, and it may be beneficial if they take a daily Vitamin D supplement. Since most people get the bulk of their Vitamin D from short exposures in the sun, it is especially important to think about whether you or your family may have Vitamin D deficiencies now that summer is over.

I previously posted that low levels of Vitamin D are linked to mental health disorders. Vitamin D deficiencies can cause other health problems as well. If you suspect that you or your children may have low levels, you may want to consult a doctor to have a Vitamin D test administered.

To learn more about Vitamin D and what to do if you have a true deficiency (as opposed to just lower-than-ideal levels), check out WebMD’s article on Vitamin D.

As the official start to fall quickly approaches, I’ve noticed more and more kids getting sick. I want to try to help my son stay as healthy as possible, so I’m contemplating giving him probiotics. Per our pediatrician’s recommendation, we’ve been giving Pudge a multi-vitamin (Poly-Vi-Sol), which is supposed to help boost immunity. But I know some parents also swear by probiotics. At my son’s 18-month check-up, we saw a new doctor (whom I will NEVER go back to for a variety of reasons…I’ll save that for another blog post). I asked her about probiotics, and she told me that a multi-vitamin alone is the best for young kids. But since I didn’t trust her judgment on a number of other issues, I hesitate to trust her when she says not to use probiotics.

Do you give your kids probiotics? If so, which ones specifically (or which brand)? Do you think it helps your kids stay healthy? Have you seen any negative side effects?

In a word, no. While a woman may not begin menopause until well into her 50s, she does begin to get significantly less fertile beginning around age 35. But, an article by MSN Health argues that women shouldn’t panic about their biological clocks. Instead, women need to become more educated about fertility.

In modern society when many people are choosing to enjoy their 20s as singles, wait longer to get married, and wait even longer to start a family, it’s no surprise that fertility issues are quite prevalent. Sadly, biology and society are in conflict—people who become parents later in life often make better parents because they are more responsible and financially stable and have more life experience. However, biologically, a woman’s peak fertility years are still in her 20s.

Therefore, women need to plan properly to ensure that they are fertile when they want to be—even if that is several years down the road. MSN advocates seeing a gynecologist early to see if any red flags are present. For example, long-time smokers, obese people, and people who suffered from eating disorders are all at higher risk of having fertility trouble. So, those people will need to understand the challenges that may lie ahead and, as a result, may not want to wait until 35 to start trying to conceive.

MSN also warns that women shouldn’t use celebrities as fertility examples. While it seems that every time we turn around, another celebrity of the over-40 set is announcing her pregnancy, doctors agree that getting pregnant at that age is not easy. Those women probably underwent substantial fertility treatments, and often, doctors say, the women also had to use donor eggs because eggs that old are unlikely to be viable.

The bottom line is that if you want to have children, it’s never too early to see a gynecologist to assess your fertility. It’s better to do your homework early than wait too long and find out you missed your chance.

NPR (my favorite radio station!) recently ran a very interesting story about SIDS. Parents find SIDS to be one of the scariest illnesses because the consequences are so dire and because SIDS deaths are, by definition, medically unexplainable. But NPR’s story argues that perhaps parents don’t need to be overly concerned about SIDS any longer.

Researchers studied the incidence of SIDS cases over the past several years. They found that following the “Back to Sleep” campaign, many parents learned a lot about SIDS. Most parents now know to put their infant to sleep on his/her back, not to allow blankets or pillows in the crib, and to give an infant a pacifier during sleep (if he/she takes one). As a result of these minor changes in infant sleep environments, the incidence of SIDS plummeted.

But the story doesn’t end there. When researchers dug a little deeper, they found that many cases that were initially labeled “SIDS deaths” actually weren’t. Social workers evaluating these supposed SIDS deaths found that many of the infants died from suffocation because their caretakers did not follow the guidelines of the “Back to Sleep” campaign.

So, basically, these social workers discovered that many current “SIDS” cases are actually suffocation deaths that were completely preventable. And since these deaths are explainable, they are no longer SIDS deaths.

As a parent, this finding is very comforting. Obviously, any infant death is devastating. But knowing that SIDS is virtually non-existent and that crib deaths don’t just happen for no reason allows parents to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Parents who take the proper precautions to ensure their infant safe sleeping environment can feel more assured that their efforts will indeed prevent their child from unexplainable death.