Babies May Benefit from Co-Sleeping
In most of the world, it is common practice for parents and babies to sleep together. In the United States and several other countries, including Britain, Germany, and parts of western Europe, parents tend to put babies in their own beds and usually in a separate room. This custom is largely due to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warnings about…
The Question of Vitamin K for Newborns
Essentially all human infants are born with very low blood levels of vitamin K and, since low amounts of vitamin K crosses into breast milk, levels remain low for several weeks after birth in breastfed babies. The purpose of this natural, universal experience of low vitamin K levels in newborns is not known. Has Mother Nature really made a mistake? Or is there a perfectly good reason…
The Cost of America’s Childhood Asthma Epidemic
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. The prevalence of chronic diseases among children continue to rise1 with asthma being one of the most common chronic disorders in childhood affecting an estimated 7.1 million children under 18 years of age, of which 4.1 million suffered from an asthma attack or an episode in 2011. Asthma is a chronic…
Unraveling the Mystery of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death
There are five main causes for infant mortality: birth defects, maternal health complications, unintentional injuries, preterm-related causes of death, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It is particularly with SIDS, however, that many questions persist and remain unanswered. SIDS is defined as “infant deaths that cannot be explained after a thorough case investigation, including a…
Why is the U.S. Infant Mortality Rate So High?
Infant mortality, defined as death within the first year of life, is commonly accepted as one of the key gauges of a nation’s socioeconomic development. So how is it possible that the United States, which spends more on health care per capita—$8,713 per person annually—than any country, has one of the highest levels of infant mortality among the world’s developed countries? According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, “This rate is often used…
Former Media Power Player Bob Wright Sounds Alarm Over Vaccines
Conservatives are frequently accused of being beholden to big corporations. But on the matter of mandatory, and sometimes risky, vaccines, it’s the liberals and the left-wingers who come down on the side of the drug companies, known as Big Pharma. They want government to force parents to have their infants injected with potentially dangerous vaccines that may be linked…