The Health News Digest tells us more:

It seems the CPSC was alerted by Consumer Reports, an independent, nonprofit agency that tests and rates the quality of a wide range of products. Consumer Reports raised valid concerns when they reported thirty-seven infants who were seriously injured in the past eleven years from falling out of slings and seven deaths from suffocation. They specifically cited the Infantino “SlingRider” and the “Wendy Bellissimo” carriers as a major culprit in the suffocation deaths of two infants (largely due to its pouch-like design) and asked the CPSC to issue a recall noting that it had previously been recalled in 2007 for the breaking of shoulder strap adjusters. Such a recall was not included in their March 12th statement; however Consumer Reports insists that “Because of those incidents, and the lack of safety standards, infant slings are on our list of products not to buy for your baby.”1 They do so without considering product design or track record and without assessing the relative risks (in other words comparing the percentage of babies worn in slings to the considerably small percentage of deaths.)

(For your information, CPSC stands for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.)

So anyway, why the sudden attention on baby slings? I just don’t get it! Think about the countless issues regarding car seats, cribs, play pens, and similar other contraptions used regularly for babies. They have been under scrutiny for a long time, and yet they have not really been banned. Why? Because they are necessary and steps have been taken to ensure that children will be safe.

When it comes to baby slings, I think the same approach should be taken. My children have outgrown the sling, and they are just fine. I am sure that many other mothers will agree with me on this. What do you think? Are baby slings safe enough or should they be banned?

Halloween is my favorite holiday (after Christmas, of course!), so the next few weeks will be all about spooky ideas, tips and treats to make our little ones’ Halloween the best one yet. This week, I have a guest post from Kelly Rockey who writes about Halloween costumes over at Star Costumes. It’s all about safety – probably the most important thing we parents have to think about when getting our kids ready for Halloween. Thanks, Kelly!

It’s that time of year when your little ones turn into goblins and witches and head out in search of Halloween treats! We all want Halloween to be a happy and safe holiday for our kids, but sometimes with the excitement of the season kids can be less than careful. Using these simple safety tips can help you make the most of the Halloween season and keep your children safe at the same time.

1. Pick a Safe Costume – Help your child pick out a costume that will help keep them safe by making sure it has a few key characteristics. Make sure it is fireproof and that vision is not obstructed with small eye holes. Make sure there are no long capes, strings, or hems on the costume that the child can trip on. Bright colors can help them be seen at night; if they are wearing a dark colored costume make sure they are carrying a light or you can affix glow in the dark tape strips onto the costume.

2. Practice Pumpkin Safety – When carving pumpkins all children love to help, here’s how to let them help safely. Do not let them use a sharp knife to cut into a pumpkin. For older children there are plastic saw-type knives on the market. For younger children just have them scoop out the gunk and then draw a face on it for you to cut for them. When placing the pumpkin out with a candle, make sure that it is out of the way enough that your child’s costume doesn’t brush by it and accidentally catch on fire. Or better yet there are “flameless” LED lights on the market now that are completely safe and look realistic. Another option is to use a glow stick for an eerie but safe glow.

3. Keep Their Props in Check – If your child’s costume requires them to carry an ax, pitchfork, butcher knife, or the like then you must make sure that the tips are smooth and flexible enough to not cause injury if fallen on. Also teach your child to never swing at or hit anybody with their prop.

4. Safe Candy is Yummy Candy – Always inspect your child’s candy before letting them eat it. Do not let them eat any candy that has open or broken wrappers. Always trick or treat in a familiar neighborhood so you know where your child’s treats are coming from. Feed your child a spooky Halloween dinner before going out trick or treating so they are less likely to eat their candy before you have a chance to check it.

5. Basic Safety for Halloween and Everyday – To make trick or treating as safe as possible make sure that your children know basic everyday safety such as looking both ways before crossing the street, never getting into a strangers car, and not talking to strangers. Also never let your children go out trick or treating without a responsible adult or teenager to chaperone them.

Let’s face it. One of the things we parents have to deal with is our kids getting sick or injured. It’s a part of growing up, especially if you have accident-prone kids like I do.

My four-year-old Ollie gets a bump/wound/scratch almost daily, and a few months ago had a bad accident in our garden where he cut his head open and was rushed to the ER. While playing with his big sister, he fell through the fence constructed by our handyman and nearly fell into our pool (which had just been cleaned out and empty). He was grabbed just in time by the handyman, so didn’t fall into the pool but slammed his head on the tile. My husband saw the whole thing and was going to kill the handyman for his shoddy work (it wasn’t nailed in properly), but he did save Ollie’s life…so it was a hard one. Luckily Ollie didn’t need stitches and aside from my husband being covered in blood ala Carrie, it turned out to be a minor injury. It could have been much much worse though, so we are grateful and have since taken extra precautions to make sure that all areas in our home were safe. Ollie was feeing a bit traumatized for the next few days (as were all of us), but I think he’s recovered now.

Here are some great tips from After The Injury, a really useful website for parents who have to deal with their child’s injuries. Whether your child’s injury is big or small, it helps to remember these things so that your child recovers faster.

While doctors know that injury prevention is the best “medicine,” the sad truth is that kids still do get hurt- lots of them- even with the most vigilant parents. In fact, 9.2 million children are treated in an emergency room for an injury each year, making it equally important for parents to know how to handle what happens after the injury.

1. Let your child know that he or she is safe. In the first days and weeks following an injury many children fear that something bad might happen to them again. Learn more about helping your child with new fears or worries.

2. Allow children to talk about their feelings and worries, if they want to. Let your child know that it’s ok to feel a little upset. The circumstances of an injury can be frightening, and it’s not always easy to know how to talk with your child about it. Here are some things that other parents have found helpful for talking with their child.

3. Go back to normal routines. It is important to help your child get plenty of sleep, eat regular meals, keep up with schoolwork, and spend time with friends. Here are some options to consider if the injury gets in the way of things s/he used to do.

4. Increase time with family and friends. Children who get support from family and friends seem to do better in recovering after upsetting events. Try reading together, playing games, or watching movies together. Listen to what some parents had to say about how to help their children remain connected after an injury.

5. Take time to deal with your own feelings. In addition to all of the things you do to help your child, it’s important to remember to take good care of yourself. Learn more about your own reactions and get tips for taking care of yourself.

6. Keep in mind people in the same family can react in different ways. Your child’s feelings and worries about the injury might be different from yours. It’s important to monitor how your child is doing and when reactions might signal trouble. Learn how to gauge your child’s emotional recovery and identify any reactions that might need special attention.

Visit After the Injury to read full tip sheets, learn more about child injury and pain care, take a quiz to rate your child’s reactions to injury, and create a personalized care plan to help parents help their child recover from injury.

Last night I was putting the kids to bed, and while I was tucking Ollie into the bottom bunk, Nat started swinging from the bunk’s ladder, saying “Mom! Look at all the ways I can get down”, proceeding to swing to the floor from different directions.

As I kissed my 4-year-old goodnight and tried to listen to something he was saying about a Super Mario game, I found myself saying “NAT!! Get down from there” “NAT! That’s really dangerous!” and “NAT! Stop that right now!”. THEN I heard a loud thud. I looked and Nat had fallen and whacked the back of her head on the floor. She was crying hard, saying “I’m so sorry Mom!” and I rushed to her side, feeling both angry and concerned. Why oh why don’t they just listen???

A goose egg appeared almost immediately, which I applied an ice pack on and I gave her paracetamol to deal with the pain. The fact that she cried loudly, spoke and did not lose consciousness or vomit, were signs that it wasn’t a serious head injury, but still, it was scary and worrying (she slept in our room last night, just to be sure). Especially after the recent tragedy with Natasha Richardson, who we were all very fond of .

I did some research after she went to bed, and was relieved to find out that most bumps to the back and front of the head are not likely to cause serious injury, as opposed to in the sides of the head. Here’s an interesting article I found on children’s head injuries, using case studies to help you understand better. It is such a common yet possibly dangerous occurrence with kids that I think every parent should at least be aware of the basics.

On Friday morning my 13-month old baby boy Wills had his Prevnar booster vaccine. That afternoon he fussed, and by late evening had a fever of 38.5. On Saturday he stayed pretty much the same, miserable and with a low-grade fever that went up to around 38.7 a little past Midnight. I gave him his last dose of Calpol by then, and by the next day the fever was gone.

I’m always wary after my children have a vaccine. I suppose its because of all the news one hears on television and in the papers, that vaccines like MMR particularly, have been linked to Autism. Its something that parents dread hearing the most, especially after pediatricians (like mine) are staunch defenders of vaccines. It was actually reported in the Huffington Post a few weeks ago that in spite of a federal ruling in the “vaccine court” which showed NO link between MMR and autism, a little boy named Bailey Banks was also awarded nearly a million dollars because the courts found that his brain damage leading to autism was indeed caused by the MMR vaccine. You read horror stories on blogs like this one, called Vaccines Exposed, or even by celebs like Jenny McCarthy:

We believe autism is an environmental illness. Vaccines are not the only environmental trigger, but we do think they play a major role. If we are going to solve this problem and finally start to reverse the rate of autism, we need to consider changing the vaccine schedule, reducing the number of shots given and removing certain ingredients that could be toxic to some children.

I have to say that I agree with the Mc Carthy’s. I think it’s a wonderful thing she did for her son – taking the matter into her own hands, finding a way which incredibly enough helped him recover – whether or not it was truly caused by the vaccine. While I am fortunate that my kids have had minimal reactions to these vaccines I can’t help but worry every time they do go into the doctors office for one. My two older kids are done with theirs at ages 4 and 7 – the DPaT’s and MMR’s and luckily had no reactions other than the occasional low grade fever. But when I also think of the risks of the serious diseases, like the Pneumococcus disease that Prevnar prevents, it is also a terrifying prospect. Here’s one Mom’s opinion on how that nasty bacteria affected her family.

On a more personal note, my aunt, whose daughter had the DPT vaccine in 1984 at 6 months, believed that it triggered her epilepsy – from being a perfectly normal baby, she suffered severe seizures right after the shot and it never really stopped, causing her severe brain damage. Consequently, her sister, my other aunt, refused to vaccinate her 3 children (and one got a mild case of TB).

When our firstborn arrived, my husband and I deliberated whether we should vaccinate our kids, and decided in the end that we would. Like Jenny Mc Carthy says, all children are different and react differently. I think its up to us parents to learn as much as we can about these vaccines routinely given to our kids today so that we can make our own informed decisions.

Having experienced medical emergencies as a volunteer which developed my abilities to recognize life-threatening and trivial injuries, just hope more people would recognize this as a vital skill to have for it helps you lower your insurance premiums. Do some research on the web for health tips that can add to your knowledge of which emergencies to treat seriously and which are mere casual. Information and knowledge is the key, the more trips you take to the ER, the more a risk you are for the insurance firm so they have the option to ask more for insurance.

Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything too serious! I was simply rushing around as usual on Saturday and just as I was getting down from my car (well, 12-seater kid mobile), my wedge sandal twisted and sent me plummeting to the curb, half in a bush, sprawled in an un-ladylike position. Yes, it hurt, but in typical Supermom fashion, I dusted myself off, poured rubbing alcohol on my wounds (I always have a supply in the car) and limped to the warehouse supermarket still determined to do my weekly grocery (which I did, amazingly).

Not such a good idea, because by the time I got home, my foot was in terrible pain. An advil later, I called my Mom who insisted that I get it checked in the emergency room just in case. She had two falls in the past 10 years which she ignored, and she later found that she had suffered a fracture. Years later it has affected her hip, resulting in an injury which they tell her now could mean surgery. Poor Mom.

So she came over and took me to the emergency room, which took ages and was not at all like I pictured it to be – with George Clooney and Noah Wyle in mad chaos, bloody victims everywhere. Maybe its because we live in a relatively quiet suburb, but the only other patients were a kid who had gotten the exact kind of sprain like me playing basketball and a middle-aged man who had stepped on a rusty nail (which he brought, in a rotten piece of wood- ugh!).

Luckily, the X-Ray results came out clear. I had suffered a mild-moderate sprained foot, which would heal on its own in a week or so. The doctor gave me a ice pack, bandaged my foot and sent us home with instructions of RICE, telling me to use a cane and take it easy. And because I am still nursing, I can’t even take pain killers. Oh well. As my Mom said, maybe this is God’s way telling me I need to take it easy and that my holidays-to-do-list can wait………this week at least.