Hib Vaccination  

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The Center for Disease Control shared that a vaccine can prevent disease caused by Hib, but not the other types (“strains”) of H. influenzae bacteria. The best way to prevent Hib disease is to get the vaccine.

CDC Recommends Hib Vaccines for All Young Children and Certain Other People

CDC recommends Hib vaccination for all children younger than 5 years old. Older children and adults usually do not need a Hib vaccine. However, the CDC recommends Hib vaccination for people with certain medical conditions. Talk with your or your child’s doctor about what is best for your specific situation.

There are two types of Hib vaccine for children. With one vaccine, your child gets doses at 2, 4, and 6 months old. With the other vaccine, your child gets doses at 2 and 4 months old. With both vaccines, children need one booster shot when they are 12 through 15 months old.

Call your child’s doctor if you have questions and to make sure your child received all of the recommended doses. Read more 

Public Health Careers  

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Jacob Delgado,  the Outreach Coordinator for PublicHealth.org shared that every day, public health professionals work at government bodies, research institutions, and nonprofit organizations in order to improve the quality of our lives. Their significance in promoting the health and vitality of our communities cannot be understated. And the rapid growth of the public health field means it’s more important than ever to encourage individuals in your community to consider this career path.

With this in mind, his team put together a series of guides that dive into the wide array of public health career paths. From biostatisticians to public policy makers, we provide relevant information on specializations and salary data to help aspiring public health professionals find their best fit. In addition, we researched a guide to Master’s programs for those seeking career advancement:

In a world of skyrocketing tuition costs, they also thought our financial aid guide for public health students would be helpful: https://www.publichealth.org/resources/financial-aid/

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The Elective C-Section and What you Need to Know.  

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College of DuPage Nursing Student Susan Echard shared that the Elective C-Section can seem appealing initially; you are able to choose your delivery date, the delivery is quick and seemingly controlled, although the outcomes in an increasing number of studies demonstrate that the risks from C-sections are greater than many realize. It is worth knowing before opting to choose your baby’s birthday. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests an estimated 10 to 15 percent of all babies are delivered by Cesarean, although North America and Western Europe are well above this rate, with approximately 32 and 27 percent, subsequently, of babies delivered by C-section, respectively, during 2015.

An NPR article (2018) provides elective C-Section facts and the reason they are outpacing vaginal deliveries in number; and according to Salimah Walani, Vice President of March of Dimes, this procedure is performed when is it not really necessary or indicated. Ultimately, c-sections are a surgical procedure that may do more harm than good for moms and babies.

For moms; elected C-sections increase the risk of death by at least 60 percent (REF here). The mother’s risk of life-threatening are increased during childbirth, such as bleeding, uterine rupture, hysterectomy, and cardiac arrest – by about fivefold (REF???), and the risk increases further in subsequent deliveries (REF). These risks are also increased for the baby as well; studies indicate, c-sections increase the risk for obesity and autoimmune diseases later in life, although if the procedure is performed prior to 39 weeks, an early delivery increases the infant’s risk for respiratory problems. Read more 

Join Us at Time for Tots!  

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Take Time for Tots Day will be held Saturday, April 06 from 10 am-noon at the Sunset Knoll Recreation Center (820 S Finley Rd.) and sponsored by Gianorio’s Pizza and Pasta, State Farm Agent Bob Goldin Sr, and Culver’s of Lombard.

Healthy Lombard will be providing 200 FREE “Go Fly A Kite” Activity where every child will receive a FREE kite kit and have assistance assembling their kites after they decorate them with stickers and markers.

This is a fun event that we did last year and we are looking forward to repeating it this year.

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Good Nutrition Starts Early  

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The Center for Disease Control shared that kids’ early eating experiences can affect how they eat as they get older. That’s why it’s so important to introduce them to healthy foods from the very beginning.

What Foods Should I Introduce to My Child First?

When your child is about 6 months old, you can start introducing him or her to foods and drinks other than breast milk and infant formula. For most children, you don’t need to introduce foods in a specific order.

Try making a rainbow of different colored foods on your child’s plate.

By the time your child is 7 or 8 months old, he or she can eat a variety of foods from different food groups. Your child needs a variety of vitamins and minerals to grow healthy and strong. Try making a rainbow of different colored foods on your child’s plate. Here are a few examples:

  • Fruits: bananas, strawberries, pears, oranges, melons, or avocados
  • Vegetables: cooked spinach, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, or beets
  • Whole grains: whole grain bread, crackers, or pasta
  • Meats: soft, small pieces of beef, lamb, chicken, fish, or turkey
  • Dairy: yogurts or cheeses (pasteurized only)

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The Benefits of Boxing for Kids  

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Daniel Earle who runs the fitnessfighters.co.uk website.shared with Healthy Lombard that boxing is becoming an increasingly popular way to keep fit amongst adults, however, it is slower to grow in popularity for children. Here are a few reasons why it should be growing faster among our youth.

Keeping Active
Whilst this is possibly the most obvious advantage of boxing for kids, it is also one of the most important benefits. In today’s age of technology and video games, it is becoming increasingly difficult for our young people to maintain a healthy level of activity as, according to CDC Healthy Schools, only 21.6% of 6 to 19-year-olds in the United States are getting 60 or more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on at least 5 days per week. Boxing provides an activity for kids to take part in which will give them a few hours of activity in their week and therefore will provide them with health benefits.

These health benefits of this physical activity include building strong bones and muscles, which is particularly important for young people to aid them in growing and providing a good foundation for the rest of their life. It also provides young people with hand-eye coordination, an important skill which many struggles with and is very difficult to develop later in life. Having good coordination will allow young people to have an advantage in other sports as well as improve their ability to carry our everyday tasks. Boxing at a young age also reduces the chances of becoming overweight in the future as this is a battle that many now face. Avoiding becoming overweight will help children to avoid many cardiovascular diseases that affect the overweight such as heart disease, strokes and type II diabetes.

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My child has a heart murmur, what does it mean?  

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Mehmet Gulecyuz, M.D.Specialty: Pediatric Cardiology shared in the Edwards Elmhurst Healthy Driven Blog that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states a heart murmur is simply a noise heard between the beats of the heart. Although they can be unsettling for parents, heart murmurs are extremely common and are usually “innocent” or normal.

Innocent heart murmurs (also called functional or physiologic murmurs) are harmless and a high percentage of children are likely to have had them at some time. These murmurs result from a healthy heart pumping blood normally.

If your child has such a murmur, it will probably be discovered between the ages of 1-5 during a routine examination. Your child’s doctor can usually tell if a murmur is normal just by listening to its sound through a stethoscope.

According to the AAP, heart murmurs are a concern when they occur very early at birth or during the first 6 months of life. These murmurs, common in premature babies, are not innocent, and most likely will require the attention of a pediatric cardiologist immediately.

By the time your child is in preschool and school-aged, heart murmurs are almost always not a concern.

Innocent murmurs may disappear and then reappear. When a child’s heart rate changes, such as when they are excited or scared, the murmurs may become louder or softer. Murmurs can also be heard in a child who has a fever or who is anemic. Read more 

Tortillas can help prevent birth defects?  

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Laura MacCleery, Policy Director for Center for Science in the Public Interest shared that most flour is fortified to help prevent birth defects? It’s just one way our food system helps to improve health outcomes for Americans and is well-known as one of the most important and simple public health advances. But not everyone is benefiting equally from this kind of fortification.

You can help change that!

Consuming folic acid before and during the first few weeks of pregnancy helps to prevent major birth defects of the brain and spine, such as spina bifida. Thankfully, since mandatory fortification took effect two decades ago, these birth defects have dropped nationwide.

Unfortunately, corn masa flour, which is consumed more often by Hispanic women, lacks the fortification requirement that applies to other flours, and thus, it is rarely fortified.

Failing to fortify corn masa and corn tortillas with folic acid increase the risk of serious birth defects.

CSPI and our partners are working diligently to fix this problem. We’re calling on you to help us better understand the mix of corn masa products in your local supermarket, as we tackle this problem. Read more 

Stand against bullying  

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College of DuPage Nursing Student Janett Barrera shared that Bullying has become a national problem. Thinking back to my childhood I realize that bullying has always existed, although perhaps not as nasty as it is today. Bullying is not something that has popped up within the last few years, but it was not talked about as much as it is today. Bullying is not a game, it can have serious consequences such as death. Just the other day I was reading a news article about a boy who committed suicide because his classmates were making fun of the odors of his colostomy bag.

The National Centre Against bullying talks about four different types of bullying which include verbal bullying, social bullying, physical bullying and cyberbullying. With the advances in technology and the easy availability of it, children can very negatively impact someone else’s life through cyberbullying. Millions of people miles away can read and add to negative posts online. There is such a thing online as “trolls”. These people hide their faces on the internet and majority of the time make nasty remarks on an already existing post, adding to the bullying being done online (cyberbullying). These four types of bullying can be done at school and sometimes the faculty is not aware that it is going on.

I will admit; when I think about bullying I think about children bullying other children. The truth is that bullying can affect adults as well. It can happen in the workplace as well as within a friend group. Emily A Kuhl wrote an article for the American Psychiatric Association Foundation where she talks about workplace bullying. This kind of bullying does not only affect the involved persons, but it also affects the company for which they work for. It reduces productivity, therefore, increasing monetary losses. Anyone in the workplace can be the bully, but according to Kohl, it is often a male or someone in a supervisory position. A supervisor has the power to bully because employees are often afraid of what that may entail. From experience, I can say that the constant torment and humiliation from bullying makes the workplace absolutely horrible. According to some research, adult bullies are often those who were bullies or were bullied as children. Read more 

Healthy Valentine’s Day  

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Vegan Sugar Cookies

Carolyn Casner EatingWell Recipe Developer & Tester shared that it’s hard to imagine a classic buttery sugar cookie without the butter, but trust us, it’s possible. Here, we use coconut oil instead of butter for dairy-free eggless cut-out cookies that taste delicious and are fun to make and eat. Decorate with a citrus glaze colored with a little food dye, sprinkles and/or sanding sugar as you wish.

What you need;
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ tablespoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • Great Value Salt, 26 oz
  • ½ cup room temperature coconut oil (not liquid)
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ⅓ cup water
  • 4 teaspoons grated lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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