Hundreds of thousands are acutely malnourished, which suggests the death toll will rise

Image: Schalk Van Zuydam / AP | Donkeys try to get water from a container in front of a home at a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, Thursday, Aug. 4. Dadaab, a camp designed for 90,000 people now houses around 440,000 refugees. Almost all are from war-ravaged Somalia. Some have been here for more than 20 years, when the country first collapsed into anarchy. But now more than 1,000 are arriving daily, fleeing fighting or hunger.

NAIROBI, Kenya — The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5, according to U.S. estimates, the first time such a precise death toll has been released related to the Horn of Africa crisis.

The United Nations has said previously that tens of thousands of people have died in the drought, the worst in Somalia in 60 years. The U.N. says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, a statistic that suggests the death toll of small children will rise.

Nancy Lindborg, an official with the U.S. government aid arm, told a congressional committee in Washington on Wednesday that the U.S. estimates that more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia. That number is based on nutrition and mortality surveys verified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.N. on Wednesday declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones, bringing the total number to five. Out of a population of roughly 7.5 million, the U.N. says 3.2 million Somalis are in need of immediate lifesaving assistance.

Getting aid to Somalia has been made more difficult because al-Qaida-linked militants control much of the country’s most desperate areas. Al-Shabab has denied that a famine is taking place, and won’t give access to the World Food Program, the world’s biggest provider of food aid.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled south-central Somalia in hopes of finding food at camps in Ethiopia, Kenya and in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been donated to fight the hunger crisis, but the U.N. says it needs hundreds of millions more.

Over 2 million school days a year are lost because over 40 million children in America suffer from allergies. Having uncontrolled allergies can put your child at risk for getting a secondary sinus infection, ear infections, and for having poor concentration at school. It can also make asthma symptoms worse. So what can you do to recognize allergic symptoms and control them in your child?

What is an Allergy?

An allergy is the immune system’s response to a substance that the body perceives as “foreign”, meaning a substance not recognized by the body as safe. In an attempt to protect the body, the immune system generates antibodies, in the case of allergies they are mainly IgE antibodies. The response of the body to these IgEs is to release histamine into the bloodstream. It is primarily this histamine release that causes the typical allergic reactions such as watery eyes, runny nose, difficulty breathing, rashes, hives and upset stomach.

Who Gets Allergies:

Allergies tend to run in certain families and are more common in children that have asthma or eczema. If both parents have allergies, there is a 75- 80% chance that their children will develop allergies. If one parent is allergic, then the chance of an allergy developing in his/her child is about 40%. Pets, second hand smoke and air pollution are also risk factors.

Causes of Seasonal Allergies

The major source of seasonal allergy is pollen, from grasses, ragweed and other elements of nature that are released in to the air during different seasons of the year. The type of pollen a child is allergic to determines when symptoms will occur. For example, in the mid-Atlantic states, tree pollination begins in February and lasts through May, grass from May through June, and ragweed from August through October. The most common pollens causing spring/ summertime allergies include:

Tree pollens (APRIL-JUNE): Maple, Ash, Oak, Elm, Birch and Cedar.
Grasses (JUNE-JULY): Kentucky Blue grass, Rye, Orchard and Timothy. Grass allergies are worsened when the grass (lawn) is mowed.
Ragweed (MID-AUGUST-OCTOBER):
Pollen counts measure how much pollen is in the air and are usually higher when it is warm, and windy, whereas they’re lowest when it’s colder and and wetter.

Seasonal Allergy Symptoms

1. Allergic rhinitis: (Also known as hay fever). The most common symptoms are runny nose and sneezing, with itchy eyes and nose, and a persistent cough without a fever. Other signs include the ‘allergic salute,’ a common habit of children which consists of rubbing their nose upward which leads to the development of a small crease in the skin of the lower part of the nose. ‘allergic shiners,’ are dark circles under the eyes that many children develop due to the chronic nasal congestion that many parents mistakenly attribute to fatigue.

If a person has wheezing and shortness of breath, the allergy may have gotten more severe, and may be an early sign of developing asthma.

Symptoms:

1. Nasal: runny or stuffy nose, itchy nose, itchy palate(the top of the mouth), frequent sneezing.
2. Eye symptoms: redness, itchy and/or runny eyes. Sometimes these symptoms make a child very uncomfortable.
3. Asthma: symptoms include wheezing, cough and/or difficulty breathing.

Diagnosing Allergies Approaching Seasonal Allergies
The most common presentation is if your child has cold-like symptoms lasting longer than a week or two or develops a “cold” at the same time every year. To determine the cause of an allergy, there are skin tests which can be done that are more reliable in children over 2 years old. The test is a skin prick allergy test or a special blood test called RAST.??

Treating Seasonal Allergies?
The best treatment for seasonal allergies is avoidance. For seasonal allergies, this includes keeping windows closed in the car and at home during the pollen season will prevent the pollen from entering the home. Also attempt to limit outdoor activities when pollen counts are very high. During the pollen season avoid hanging the laundry outside to dry and keep the Air conditioners running to filter out the pollen.
The medications that are used to control the symptoms of allergic rhinitis include decongestants, antihistamines and steroids. Over the counter allergy medicines with antihistamines ( such as Benadryl) cause drowsiness and poor performance in school. Prescription allergy medications include Claritin and Zyrtec and topical steroids, such as Nasonex, Flonase, and Nasacort Aqua. Allegra is another antihistamine that is commonly used in older children because it is not available in liquid form so your child must be able to swallow a pill.
For seasonal allergies, it is best to start using these medications just before your child’s season begins because it takes a while for the medications to work and they are not emergency relief.

Winter months tend to bring on more illness for your children, but in fact just being at school or daycare can significantly impact on your child’s overall health risk, especially when they are first starting out. This is because children do not know how to practice health hygiene( many adults do not either) and many children are sent to school sick because of childcare issues.
In children who are vaccinated, most Infections in children are caused by common viruses. Imagine a crowded classroom, where children wipe their noses with their hand and then play with a toy, or sneeze and cough onto the activity table where others are sitting. The germs then land in the area and are easily spread to other children.

Similarly, a child who has diarrhea uses the toilet and returns to the classroom without washing his or her hands. Then anything the sick child touches can become contaminated with microscopic amounts of feces spread to other children who play with the same toy and then put their fingers in their mouths.

As always, prevention is the best form of medicine. Teach your children some very basic rules and reinforce them with the teacher.

Encourage the teacher to make visual clues such as pictures and signs about covering your nose and mouth, washing your hands and wiping down the shared objects frequently.

Bring hand sanitizers and disinfecting wipes to the classroom

• Do not allow your child to share food, glasses and water bottles, or hats and combs.
• Remind your child not to touch his or her eyes and to keep their fingers out of their mouths
• When your child gets home from school have him or her change out of the school clothes, wash up and put on “indoor clothes” that are fresh so they don’t carry home infections from school.
• Consider having your child receive the flu vaccine which is now recommended for every child over 6 months.

Today marks one year since a powerful earthquake devastated Haiti causing widespread death and destruction. That day, in less than 40 seconds, millions of lives were changed forever.

Mobile Pediatric’s volunteer doctors, nurses and emergency medical staff responded to the disaster. While Haiti has faced a hurricane, flooding and cholera, Mobile Pediatric has continued to stand by the Haitian people in our mission to improve the children’s lives and the medical services in Haiti. But things are worse here in Haiti today than they were a day after the earthquake. I hope today that you will continue to show your support as you have in the past.

Sadly, the disease is also the focus of political debate because the people of Haiti believe it is the result of UN peacekeepers who are working in Haiti who may have brought the disease with them. According to the New York Times, local protests left two people dead as demonstrators directed their ire at the peacekeepers, a 12,000-strong, multinational force that arrived in Haiti in 2004 in response to political conflict. The UN believes the protests are an effort to push the troops out of the country prior to the upcoming presidential election on November 28 in order to encourage chaos and destabilize the country.

Sadly, the protesters have made it harder to treat the victims in Cap Haitien, where supplies are running low and the death rate is high.

While South Asia is home to many strains of Cholera, officials found that the bacteria, which lives in feces, had contaminated a river where Nepalese troops who arrived in Haiti in October shortly before the outbreak began. Prior to this outbreak, Haiti has not suffered from Cholera epidemics in this century.

For the medical staff attempting to treat and contain this disease, the issue of where this Cholera strain came from is not the focus. They are struggling to save lives, contain the infection and prevent spread.

From the New York Times, Studying the genetics of the strain “would give a better idea where it came from,” said Dr. David Sack, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies cholera outbreaks, “But I agree it is more important to prevent the disease and control it. It should not be killing people.”

As of this week, the death toll has reached 1,034, with 16,799 people treated for cholera or symptoms of the disease.

but you can always write a comment and Dr Natalie Geary will respond

Here are some tips to help navigate the holiday.

The Costumes:
Make sure they can SEE out of their mask, especially if they are walking on crowded street.
Make sure they can WALK by avoiding high heels or unstable shoes.
Make sure they are visible especially if they are trick-or–treating in the dark.
Keep their hands free of dangerous objects such as swords or knives or even fairy wands.

The pumpkins
Be sure all carving is done by an adult or with close adult supervision.
Encourage young children to decorate with markers, glitter and stickers rather than carving.
Remember to keep any pumpkins that have candles lit away from young children and away from curtains or other flammable areas.

Trick-or-treating safely
Be sure your child is in a neighborhood you know and he or she knows well. But just in case, be sure they are carrying identifying information in case thy get lost or separated.

Don’t let young children go alone- plan to travel as a group and establish a route
Review safety rules, which should include walking only on the sidewalk, never ever entering someone’s home and avoiding houses that are dark or poorly lit.

Don’t let your older child who may be out alone with friends and without adult supervision to travel outside of a well established route. Make sure they have a cell phone number to call and a curfew.

The Candy
Insist that you inspect all the candy when they get home before they dive into it! Throw away candy that is not sealed. Watch for possible choking hazards.

Ration the candy, especially if they get a huge amount. Explain to them that the candy can be saved and could last a whole year until next Halloween or better yet they can share with friends and children who didn’t receive as much.

For your own House
Safety means making sure kids who come to your house are also safe.
Turn on the lights so they feel safe and don’t trip or fall.
Be sure your dogs or other pets are contained.
Alternatives to more Candy include stickers, other small treats like pencils or rubber balls. Many stores have these objects for sale at the same cost as candy.

The form above is an excerpt from the book, not a real form.

A must-have resource for the parent of any child who just doesn’t feel well…

It’s a frustrating treadmill: you take your child to the doctor for treatment of yet another ear infection, respiratory issue, tummy ache, or rash…. meanwhile the symptoms (and the treatments) can affect growth, susceptibility to infection, school performance, and energy levels. Yet within weeks, your child feels unwell again.

The Food Cure for Kids shows how minor changes to your child’s nutrition can have a real and lasting impact. Instead of prescribing elaborate dietary restrictions, pediatrician Natalie Geary and nutritionist Oz Garcia explain in straightforward terms how nutritional imbalances, food allergies, and dietary intolerance can dramatically affect a child’s health. With this book in hand, parents will be able to relate symptoms to diet, and take the right steps to
improve a child’s health.

Natalie Geary, MD, who has a private pediatric practice in New York City, regularly gives seminars and workshops on wellness and integrative health. She is the author of a popular blog, modernmums.com. Oz Garcia, PhD, an internationally renowned nutritional counselor and life extension specialist, is the author of Redesigning 50, Look and Feel Fabulous Forever, and The Balance. Both authors live in New York City.

Empty Nest Syndrome may not be a term you’ll come across in many medical text books but any
mother who’s had a child “fly the nest “ KNOWS exactly what I’m talking about.
No wonder it’s most prevalent now, autumn-time, when our teenagers may be off at boarding school or
attending College or University. Heck, there may even be some of you Moms out there who feel that
intense feeling of “separation”, a “mourning in fact, just by having your little one attend a few hours
of playgroup! Fear not! It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom for us moms – The “Empty
Nesters”.

Here’s a thought to help you along in this very new stage of your life! The next time you reach for the
kleenex and pull out that tissue, be it once, twice or a thousand times over, (you’re allowed to do it as
many times as you like by the way) you may just pleasantly take yourself by surprise. Because, YOU,
now the new Empty Nester, will look deep down into that kleenex box. And, what you will see is the
Golden Egg! The Golden Egg is filled up….never to be hatched….with all those beautiful memories
and experiences that YOU as MOM have been lucky enough to share with your child. And guess
what? That Golden Egg is YOURS and mine to keep forever! So the next time you are sitting alone
with your coffee cup, staring out the window and feeling sorry for yourself , PLEASE, do yourself a
favor! Reach deep into that box and grab that Golden Egg!

Are you an Empty Nester? Have you got a story to share? I would love to hear it!