ATVs and kids: a dangerous combo
More than 100 children died in all-terrain-vehicle accidents in 2006 (most current data available), according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which estimates that an additional 146,600 people were treated in emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries. More than a quarter of them were kids.
   
The CPSC notes that Pennsylvania has had the highest number of reported ATV deaths since 1982, followed by California, West Virginia, Texas and Kentucky. Every state had at least one death related to ATVs. Most of the deaths and injuries to children resulted from them riding adult-size ATVs.


Virtual reality helps autistic kids
Children with autism improved road-safety skills after practicing with a virtual-reality system, according to researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel.
   
The best way to teach skills to children with autism is through repeated practice in natural settings, claim researchers. But the danger of learning to cross the street in a natural setting obviously prohibits this method. This is where virtual reality is very effective, they say.
   
Six autistic children, ages 7 to 12, spent one month learning how to cross virtual streets, wait for the virtual light at the crosswalk to change, and look left and right for virtual cars using a computer-simulation program. The children showed substantial improvement throughout the study. At the beginning, the average child was able to use the second level of the software, and by the end, they mastered the ninth level, characterized by more vehicles traveling at a higher speed.
   
However, the research team was not looking to teach a virtual skill. They wanted to see if the kids were able to transfer the skills they had mastered in a virtual environment to the real world. A local practice area with a street, crosswalk and traffic signals was used for this purpose. The children were brought to the practice area before and after their virtual learning. Here, too, the children exhibited an improvement in their skills, following the training on the virtual street, with three of the children showing considerable improvement.

In more than 75 percent of incidents where the vehicle’s speed could be determined, the ATVs were going too fast for conditions. In nearly 60 percent of the deaths, riders weren’t wearing helmets. For younger riders ages 6 to 11, about 30 percent of the ATV accidents involved collisions, and 27 percent involved ATVs that rolled over.


Preemies: factors for survival
Premature infants are more likely to survive – and without a disability – if the baby is female, is from a single birth, is of a higher-than-normal birth weight for gestational age and if the mother has received steroids to help the baby’s lungs mature before birth, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. That combination of factors is more important than the single issue of gestational age.
   
In deciding on the kind of care to provide, doctors traditionally have relied heavily on an infant’s gestational age, because it is known to play a large role in the infant’s survival. “Our study found that this is much more accurate if the infant’s assessment is based on the combination of these five factors, rather than just on gestational age,” says one researcher.
   
“Many die after birth, despite our best attempts to save them,” says Waldemar Carlo, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Neonatology. “Some survive and reach adulthood relatively unaffected. The rest experience some degree of life-long disability – from minor hearing loss to blindness to cerebral palsy to profound intellectual disability.”


Hurdle the hurt
How to have an injury-free summer

It’s summer, and kids are swimming, playing ball and other sports. How do you keep them injury-free?
   
According to Tony Breitbach, director of athletic training education at Saint Louis University, parents
can do five things:

> Make sure equipment fits properly. Kids grow fast, which means the gear that fit perfectly last year may be too small now.
> Watch your child’s diet. To stay healthy while playing sports, kids need to eat a proper and balanced diet – low in fat, with moderate amounts of lean protein and high in complex carbohydrates.
> Keep your child well-rested, not over-booked. The right amount of sleep is critical to day-to-day function.
> Help your child stay fit. The more fit someone is, the less likely he or she is to be injured playing sports.
> Treat injuries right away. Take scrapes, pains and aches seriously, and if your child is hurt, make sure the injury gets immediate medical attention.


Ah-Chew!
How do you know if your child has food allergies? Some symptoms include abdominal pain, runny nose, skin rash, swelling, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Foods to blame are peanuts, milk, eggs, fish, soy or wheat. If your child is intolerant to certain foods, typical reactions are burping, headaches and indigestion. Intolerance to foods with lactose and gluten are most common with these symptoms.
   
Of the 12 million Americans who suffer from food allergies, 3 million are kids. Children should be given the “RAST test” to find out exactly what they’re allergic to. Parents should educate their children about safe foods and how to be aware when eating out. Even though children are commonly affected by food allergies, most of the time they will outgrow them. For more information, see a dietician.


CPR update: Hands off the kids!
The American Heart Association has new CPR guidelines for adults: “Call 9-1-1, then push hard and fast in the center of the chest.”
   
But the AHA says media reports have been vague about who these guidelines were meant for, leaving parents to wonder whether they apply to kids and infants, too.
   
The answer is, “No.” The AHA says conventional mouth-to-mouth breathing (not chest compressions) remains an important part of CPR for infants and children, largely because their breathing stops more often due to respiratory distress than because of heart problems.
   
If you’d like to attend a CPR class in your neighborhood, visit heart.org and highlight CPR & ECC in the left-hand column on the home page. Then click on Find a Class Near You, where you can type in your zip code. Or call 877.242.4277.