subject: What Do Parents Have To Worry About Now? [print this page] What Do Parents Have To Worry About Now?
Parents worry too much about fevers. A leading group of pediatricians has counseled against treating mildly feverish children with over-the-counter medicines. There's no evidence anti-fever medicines prevent fever-related seizures. Most fevers are caused by viruses, don't last long and aren't harmful. In fact, fever is one way the body fights infection. Nevertheless, 50% of parents think a temperature under 100.4 degrees is a fever, 25% give medicine to children with temperatures under 100 degrees and 85% wake children to give them those medicines. Instead, parents should keep children comfortable, evaluate all symptoms and remember children can be "hotheaded".
However, parents should worry more about secondhand smoke. According to a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics, when non-smoking pregnant women are exposed to secondhand smoke, it increases their risk of having a stillborn baby by 23% and their risk of having a baby with birth defects by 13%. In fact, secondhand smoke can be almost as dangerous to a baby as having a mother who smokes. Pregnant smokers have a 20%-34% increased risk of having a stillborn baby and a 10%-34% increased risk of having a baby with birth defects. This information is secondhand - but it's good for babies.
The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't think parents worry enough about tanning salons. The Academy wants teenagers banned from these salons to prevent them from getting skin cancer. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Dermatologists and the World Hearth Organization agree. In fact, it was WHO that classified tanning as a carcinogen in 2009. Considering that teens account for 10% of the industry's clients and that melanoma is the second leading cancer among women in their 20's and that 8,500 Americans die from melanoma a year, parents should prohibit teenagers from going to tanning salons in spite of "tan-trums".
And then there's teenagers and texting. In 2009 nearly 5,500 people were killed because of distracted driving and 500,000 more were injured. In a 2011 Consumer Reports survey, 30% of the respondents under age 30 said they text while driving and 64% said they weren't worried about it. When it comes to teenagers, both they and their parents should worry. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, teens are involved in 3 times as many fatal crashes as other drivers and texting multiplies the risk of collision 23 times. For parents the teen years are "risky business".
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