Tag Archives: children’s health

THE INTERNET IS NOT A DOCTOR

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Do you grab your phone and head for Google, Bing, or one of dozens of other search engines the moment a question on any subject pops up? If you’re looking for driving directions or good rate on a motel, that’s usually not a problem.

On the other hand, maybe you’re concerned about a rash on your baby’s bottom or a sudden increase in her drooling or crying. You call your mother, who says it’s just diaper rash, or the drooling and crying is just teething. That’s only comforting if your mom is a doctor. If not, you want to be sure she’s right, but it is ten o’clock on a Saturday night, and your doctor’s office is closed. Do you call her answering service or make a trip to the Emergency Room?

Or do you go to your phone or computer to look up your baby’s symptoms? If you do that, proceed with caution. The Internet is not a doctor!

Your search engine cannot guarantee that the sites you visit will give you the medical advice you need. What you find online may be unreliable at best, or dangerous at worst. Consider recent false news of a cannabis cancer cure. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6426557/

To avoid those pitfalls, you might try visiting the National Institute of Health’s U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/

Let’s get back to that mother with the unhappy baby. The most helpful of the US NLM options for laypersons seeking information would likely be MedlinePlus.

After reading through causes, symptoms, exams, tests and treatment, let’s look at their advice about when to call the doctor for diaper rash.

Call your child’s provider if:
The rash gets worse or does not go away in 2 to 3 days
The rash spreads to the abdomen, back, arms, or face
You notice pimples, blisters, ulcers, large bumps, or sores filled with pus
Your baby also has a fever
Your baby develops a rash during the first 6 weeks after birth

What about the drooling and crying? Let’s see what advice the NIH site offers:

MedlinePlus indicates the signs of teething are:
Acting cranky or irritable
Biting or chewing on hard objects
Drooling, which may often begin before teething starts
Gum swelling and tenderness
Refusing food
Sleeping problems
Teething does NOT cause fever or diarrhea. If your child develops a fever or diarrhea and you are worried about it, talk to your health care provider.

Notice in both cases, the warnings about calling your health care provider. No matter how well you do your research, or how certain you feel that your mother’s diagnoses are correct, the NIH reminds you that consulting your doctor is your best choice when it comes to keeping your baby, or yourself, healthy and happy.

For more information about the U.S. National Library of Medicine, go to: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/


Aimee Machado, hospital librarian with a specialty in forensic collections, finds herself investigating a sordid crime involving medical procedures performed on undocumented immigrants in private prisons. Primary Source is book five in the Aimee Machado Mystery series published by Camel Press and Harlequin Worldwide Mysteries.

 

Child Prodigy: Is Genius an Abnormality?

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Welcome to another post on facts I’ve learned by writing fiction.

While researching the third book in my Aimee Machado Mystery series, I came across many fascinating examples of child prodigies and their stories. The plot of Breach of Ethics centers on the plight of a ten-year-old piano prodigy who suffers a burst appendix. The little girl becomes a patient in the hospital where Aimee works as a forensic librarian and coordinator of Timbergate Medical Center’s Ethics Committee. To avoid spoilers, I won’t reveal more of the plot here.

Among the things I learned about prodigies is that they emerge most often in fields of athletics, mathematics, chess and music. Think Tiger Woods, Stephen Hawking, Bobby Fischer, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Recently, reality television has begun showcasing young prodigies with programs like Little Big Shots, and Genius Junior. But prodigy can come with a downside. “Many gifted kids have A.D.D. or O.C.D. or Asperger’s,” says Veda Kaplinsky of Juilliard, a pre-eminent teacher of young pianists. “Genius is an abnormality and can signal other abnormalities.”

A decade ago, The Big Bang Theory, a scripted television series, introduced us to physicist Dr. Sheldon Cooper. In a spin-off, we now see Young Sheldon as a child prodigy. The success of these two series was followed more recently by Dr. Shaun Murphy in The Good Doctor, on a different network.

In both cases, these characters are brilliant in their respective domains, physics and medicine, but they struggle in other areas. The Shaun Murphy character is written with a diagnosis of autism along with his savant syndrome. And although The Big Bang Theory does not state that Sheldon Cooper is on the autism spectrum, there are viewers who believe his character exhibits some Asperger-like characteristics.

Returning full circle to the musical prodigy in Breach of Ethics, and to musical prodigies in general, there are many amazing examples of these gifted children online. Here’s one site that’s worth a look, and there many others on the topic of child prodigies.

http://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/child-prodigies-video/

The Aimee Machado Mystery series is available in print and e-Book format from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on request from your local bookstore. Come back soon for another post on facts I’ve learned while writing Spine Damage, book 4 in this series.

HOW TO KEEP VEGAN CHILDREN HEALTHY

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With this post I’m sharing an another fact I learned by writing fiction. This one is from book three in my Aimee Machado Mystery series featuring a health sciences librarian. The mystery in BREACH OF ETHICS centers around a famous ten-year-old piano prodigy. The young girl falls ill from being restricted to a faulty vegan diet. This leads Aimee to wonder if an ongoing battle for the girl’s custody led to murder. Here’s what I learned by researching story details involving vegan diets for children.

BOOK THREE QUESTION:
Can young children fall ill or even die as a result of a faulty vegan diet?

FACT:  The answer is yes, and a national survey found that nearly 20 percent of people surveyed about knowledge of vegan diets for children were unaware that it was a risk.

A young child restricted to a faulty vegan diet by well-meaning parents who are not sufficiently informed is at risk of failure to thrive and may not grow at a normal rate. Leafy greens are not enough. The child may develop a broad range of health problems due deficiencies in amino acids, calcium, vitamin D, and B12.

Unfortunately for vegan families, B12 is readily available in meat and animal-based foods, but not in a plant-based diet. With malnourishment, there is risk of rickets and even more dire consequences. Lack of B12 can cause brain damage and even heart failure, so vegans must acquire this essential vitamin through fortified foods or supplements.

Although vegan diets are in many respects very healthy, they are more likely to cause nutrition problems for children than for adults. Any family contemplating a vegan lifestyle for young children would be well-advised to consult a qualified nutritionist before beginning.

For information on vegan diets and B12, visit The Vegan Society at: https://tinyurl.com/ya9k3qay

Visit www.sharonstgeorge.com again soon for more facts I’ve learned by writing fiction.

Books in the hospital-based Aimee Machado Mysteries are published by Camel Press (an imprint of Epicenter Press) and are available for purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and from your local bookstore in trade paperback and as ebooks. http://camelpress.com