World Autism Awareness Day

Today, April 2, is World Autism Awareness Day. Designated by the United Nations in 2007, this event highlights the growing number of people affected by this developmental brain disorder. According to Autism Speaks, autism affects one in 110 children in the United States. Tens of millions of people are affected worldwide, and the numbers are on the rise. "Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.," according to the Autism Speaks website.

Although there are a number of theories, no one knows exactly what causes autism. Researchers suspect that some people are more susceptible to developing the condition, because there appears to be a genetic link. For example, siblings of a child with autism are more likely to have the condition. (My friend Ilene blogs about her life with autistic boy-girl twins at My Family's Experience with Autism.) One thing is nearly certain: the cause of autism is a complex mix of factors.

How can you show support for World Autism Awareness Day? Learn the signs of autism. CNN has put together a link list of 10 sites worth checking out if your child has autism. Share the special autism-themed Arthur episode (airing on PBS on April 5) with your family. And wear blue today to show support for everyone touched by this condition.

Fingernails are like tree trunks

Little Brother's little hands
Ouch! In September, Little Brother caught two of his fingers in the door of our car. It was a horrible experience. He screamed, I panicked, and Kerm came to the rescue by opening the door. Two of Little Brother's fingers immediately turned purple, at which point I threw everyone back into the car and sped off to the Emergency Room.

But by the time we had arrived, Little Brother's fingers looked fine. Aside from a mild cut, there was no visible injury. I felt bad for bothering the ER staff. However, the medical personnel assured me that following up with a crush-type injury is important.

About a week later, we went to our pediatrician for a recommended follow-up. Again, I worried that I was wasting her time. I couldn't see anything wrong. But the doctor pointed out two very teeny tiny blue-black spots right at the base of Little Brother's nail beds. Those are the bruises, she told me.



Here is a picture of Little Brother's fingers today, over two months later. The color of the bruises has faded (from bluish-black to purple to red) as his nails have grown. The bruised part of his fingers seems to have spread, but in reality, the affected area has simply grown larger along with the nail.




In this way, fingernails are like tree trunks -- they mark the passage of time. When you count the rings on a tree stump, you might notice that some rings are closer together than others, indicating years when the tree grew less due to drought or other stressors. You can sometimes see damage from fire or insects, which can cause the rings to be lopsided.

Fingernails are much the same. They grow more slowly when people suffer from poor nutrition. Human fingernails can tell you something about the overall health of a person. Their color and texture can reveal systemic illness, nutritional deficiencies, or, as in this case, injury.

Luckily for us, Little Brother is healing nicely. But it looks like it will be another month or two before his fingernails go -- or I should say, grow -- back to normal.


Photo credit: Mama Joules

This is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week!

What a busy week this is! In addition to being National Chemistry Week in the U.S. and Waste Reduction Week in Canada, my friends at the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning have reminded me that October 18-24, 2009 is also National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, "childhood lead poisoning is considered the most preventable environmental disease among young children" and yet it still affects over one-quarter of a million of kids in the United States. The Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning says that "[l]ead poisoning is the number one environmental hazard threatening children throughout the United States."

Why is lead still a problem? I thought we banned it years ago.

Historically, lead was used in just about everything, including pesticides, pipes, gasoline, paint, and batteries. But two sources — leaded gasoline and lead-based paint — caused most of the remaining exposure risk in the U.S. today.

The U.S. government's ban on leaded gasoline in motor vehicles didn't fully go into effect until 1996. Prior to that time, exhaust from cars released lead onto roadways and adjacent soils.

Lead-based paint was banned from U.S. residential use over 30 years ago. But homes built before 1978 often contain lead-based paint. Home renovations can disturb lead paint lurking just below the surface. It is difficult to safely remove it. Traditional paint removal techniques, like dry sanding, are not recommended. Once released, lead dust can spread throughout your house, contaminating everything.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently passed a new rule requiring that contractors be certified in lead-safe practices before renovating or repairing buildings that may contain lead paint. This rule goes into effect next year.

How can exposure to lead affect me?

Our bodies mistake lead for the beneficial (and chemically similar) elements of calcium and iron. The human body can store lead in bones and teeth in place of calcium. Lead can be found in the bloodstream, substituting for iron. The effects of lead on the human body are most pronounced in the central nervous system.

The more lead in your system, the greater your risk for having adverse health effects, like cognitive impairment, headaches, irritability, stomach upset, learning disabilities, and seizures. These effects are most pronounced in children. Pregnant women exposed to lead can suffer from stillbirths and miscarriages.

I think my family may have been exposed to lead. What should I do?

Visit your doctor. Request a blood-lead test to put your mind at ease. Fortunately, the test is simple, involving a simple finger prick or blood draw.

Feed your family a good, nutritious diet high in calcium and iron. The more calcium and iron in your system, the less likely that your body will take up the lead.

Maintain your home. If you think that your home contains lead-based paint, damp-mop areas that may contain lead dust, like windowsills or doorways.

Keep dirt outside. Have family members remove their shoes when coming in from the outdoors. Wipe the paws of your pets before they come inside. Wash your hands after gardening or playing in the dirt.

Avoid cheap costume jewelry. Some items, simply put, are frequent offenders of the lead paint ban. It is best to avoid giving them to children. If you have concerns about a toy, check with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to see if it has been recalled.

For more information:

Visit The Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning for more tips on how to protect your family.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer these Lead Poisoning Prevention Tips.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an entire section of their website devoted to the topic of lead. They also have a nice page detailing different Lead Prevention Week activities scheduled across the country.


Portions of this post previously appeared in Blood Level Basics: What You Really Need to Know in the October 2006 issue of Washington Parent magazine.

Website of the Week: Neuroscience for Kids

I haven't posted a Website of the Week in awhile, but I couldn't resist this one. Alexandra at Happy Hearts at Home pointed me toward this great page of neuroscience coloring pages which are part of Neuroscience for Kids, the brainchild of Dr. Eric Chudler of the University of Washington.

The brains behind this site have thought of everything:

*Check out these experiments and lesson plans.

*Explore the nervous system.

*Color a neuron or brain online.

*Solve an online jigsaw puzzle and send the resultant wacky brain-themed postcard to a friend.

*Watch the BrainWorks TV show!

and

*Don't miss these brain-themed creative writing projects.

This year's drawing contest is over (check out the wonderful drawings of the brain!), but the Neuroscience for Kids Poetry Contest is coming in November 2009. (Yes!!)

Get a head start on next year's Brain Awareness Week (March 15-21, 2010) with these brainy lesson plans. And if you're near the University of Washington, mark your calendar now to attend next year's Brain Awareness Week Open House on March 11, 2010. Information about registration will be available soon.

If you've got a neurology question, head over to the question/answer page, where Dr. Chudler and his staff will pit their brains against your questions.

Does Neuroscience for Kids grab you, too? Sign up for the free newsletter to stay informed. (I think I'll do that now!)

Look! My synapses are on fire!

Image credit: (top) Neuroscience for Kids website, (bottom) titus tscharntke, through BurningWell.org
Bad joke courtesy of Mama Joules

The ABC's of Skin Cancer

Things are heating up here in the northern hemisphere, so I wanted to remind everyone to take a moment and check over your skin and that of your loved ones. It could save a life!

When you are examining a mole, remember your ABC's:

A - asymmetry. If you divided the mole in half, does each side look different?

B - border. Does the mole have a ragged or irregular border?

C - color. Is the mole one color in one spot and a different color someplace else?

D - diameter. Is the mole larger than the end of a pencil eraser?

E - evolving. Is the mole changing over time?

And I would add this letter to the mix:

F - funky. Is the mole unusual-looking?

If you've answered yes to any of these questions, it's better to be safe than sorry and have the mole checked out by a dermatologist. Stay safe this summer and remember to use your sun-block! The American Academy of Dermatology reminds us to Play Sun Smart(SM).



Photo credit: C. E. Price, through BurningWell.org

How much sugar are you *really* eating?

Itinerant Cryptographer found an interesting website recently. Sugar Stacks shows how much sugar is in commonly eaten foods, using sugar cubes to visualize the amount. Each sugar cube depicts 4 grams of sugar. Check out the amount of sugar in soda! The page comparing breakfast foods is making me think twice about scarfing down Cinnabon® cinnamon rolls.

Photo credit: Mykl Roventine, through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Fake snot & real mucus

Well, it's cold and flu season again where I live. I can't quite shake this congestion in my sinuses, which has got me thinking about mucus. When referring to the secretions of the nose, mucus is just a fancy word for snot.

According to the article What's a Booger? at KidsHealth, "your nose and sinuses make about a quart of snot every day." This viscous (slippery) fluid coats the inside of your nose and helps to trap dirt and other foreign items -- like pollen, cat fur, and dust -- before they can reach and irritate your lungs.

Snot is a morbidly fascinating topic. Just thinking about it makes me squirm in my chair. And then I found this page from Glencoe that describes how some bacteria like to eat our snot. Eew. I never thought of a bacterial infection in that way before.

And if your own snot just isn't enough, ThinkQuest has a recipe for making fake snot. You can even add your own dirt to create dried up "boogers". Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, of About.com's Chemistry section, also has a recipe on How To Make Fake Snot. She writes that this green goo is "...great for Halloween and other occasions requiring snot."

Believe it or not, scientists also make fake snot! A research team from University of Warwick and Leicester University found that adding artificial snot to electronic noses helped the devices to detect more odors. Electronic noses can be used for things like quality control in a food processing plant. After adding the fake snot, the artificial nose in this study could detect the difference between the smell of milk and the odor of banana, something it couldn't do before. You can read about it in Warwick's article, Artificial Snot Enhances Electronic Nose.

Other scientists prefer real, old-fashioned snot. Check out this recent article, entitled Thar she blows: Snot offers clues to whale health from Catherine Brahic of New Scientist. Apparently, it's hard to get a blood sample from whales, so researchers have settled for the next-best thing: flying toy helicopters through exhaled "whale snot" to collect samples when these large animals surface and blow. Studying the "whale snot" gives researchers clues as to the overall health of the animals.

Yuck. I think I'm going to go and wash my hands now!

Home remedies

In the early 90's, a friend of mine went to South America to perform community service. As part of her stay, she lived with a host family. One day, I received a letter from her in which she told me that she had been ill. I don't remember what was wrong with her (she recovered, thankfully), but I do remember the prescribed cure: she was supposed to drink her own urine.

Which brings to mind an important tip: try home remedies at your own risk!

How popular are home remedies? If you conduct an internet search on the topic, you can unearth over one million pages devoted to these "sure-fire" cures. Barefoot Lass has compiled a list of unusual (although slightly more palatable than my example above!) home remedies, including wet tobacco compresses for bee stings, banana peels for bruises, and rubbing 1/2 of a lime on your head to cure a headache.

Do these cures work? I'm not sure. Overall, I suspect that a small number of home remedies are truly effective, a large percentage do nothing, and a few are downright dangerous.

But some home remedies have actually undergone scientific testing to gauge their effectiveness. For example, Dr. Stephen Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center conducted a 1993 study that showed that chicken soup has anti-inflammatory properties that help you recover from a cold.

More specifically, chicken soup with vegetables was shown to inhibit the activity of neutrophils (white blood cells that fight infection), which in turn was thought to retard the spread of the cold through the upper respiratory tract. Interestingly, the broth alone did not have this property, and the researchers couldn't isolate exactly which ingredient or combination of ingredients in the soup caused this effect. (Dr. Rennard also shares his wife's chicken soup recipe, but notes that other chicken soups have similar properties, although they do vary in their effectiveness.)

So, should you try a home remedy the next time you are sick? Always remember to use common sense and be careful out there!

In Sickness and In Health ...

Under the weather? Have a health-related question for homework? Want to see how the heart works? Check out Kids Heath for answers to these questions and more. There’s a special section just to explain Kids’ Health Problems, with answers to your questions about food allergies, asthma, eczema and a whole rash (sorry for the bad pun!) of other conditions.

Website of the Week: BAM!

This week’s Website of the Week is BAM!, the Body and Mind pages created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

The mission of BAM! is to provide kids with the information they need to make healthy lifestyle choices. BAM! is divided into six categories, including Diseases, Food & Nutrition, and Your Body. See the Immune Platoon fight "The Flu Krew", discover what may be Lurking in the Locker Room, and find out what type of gear you need to safely take up a new sport. And be sure to check out the healthy recipes in Cool Treats!

Fun at the dentist

Did you know that the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that every child visit the dentist by the age of one to establish a “dental home”? I didn’t either, until I talked to my friends at Dr. Bob Testen’s dental practice.

Prepare for your next check-up by reading the interactive story, Visit the Dentist with Marty. And be sure to visit MouthPower, where you can play games and learn about dentistry and your teeth from Mouthie, the dancing, singing mouth!

Website of the Week: NIEHS Kids Page of Optical Illusions

This week, we explore the mysterious and fascinating world of optical illusions. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has put together a great page of images to delight and confound. Check out the NIEHS Kids Page of Optical Illusions and see for yourself. The Man in the Coffee Beans was my favorite because I literally jumped out of my chair when I found him!

Optical illusions fool us for different reasons. Some rely more upon perception than optics. For example, take the one where you are asked what color you see when the word “blue” is colored green. Our brain perceives one thing (as we read the word “blue”) while our eyes see something else (the color green). Other optical illusions, like those involving after-images, take advantage of how the eyes function.

Some optical illusions, like 3-D puzzles, rely upon how your eyes work together. If you are blind in one eye, like me, you won’t be able to see these kinds of optical illusions. (When I was younger, I had a book of illusions that suggested pointing both index fingers at each other over the bridge of your nose. Supposedly, if you pulled your fingers apart very slowly and stared straight ahead, you would soon see a small “hot dog” type image floating over your nose. Try as I might, I could never make this illusion work because it relies upon the viewer having three-dimensional vision).

If you like visual puzzles, check out the work of artists who specialize in creating optical illusions, like the late M. C. Escher.