Awareness: Of Medicines and Mismeasurements--- Pediatric Over the Counter Drugs ?

It is amazing how something as important as labeling childrens medication can be and how it is ignored. Unclear instructions can be deadly as the article below explains. What is even more interesting is how many kids are being given drugs that they don't need at all. Just because a child gets a runny nose or sore throat does not mean they need over the counter drugs. A high temperature needs to be controlled but not a mild grade one. Childrens bodies are very vital and always working to restore equilibrium and usually more than capable of staying well if fed correctly and exercised. No reason at all to interfere with the processes by polluting the system of the little person with the extremely powerful chemicals known as 'over the counter' drugs.

Over the year that ended on Nov. 1, 2009, researchers examined the directions and measuring devices in 200 nonprescription pediatric liquid medicines — drugs for allergy, cough and cold, pain or gastrointestinal problems, and medicines in combination products.

Writing online on Nov. 30 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers report that 52 of the medicines had no measuring device in the package, and that 146 of the other 148 had inconsistencies between the dosing directions and the devices, including missing or superfluous markings, unfamiliar units of measurement (for example, drams or cubic centimeters), or undefined or nonstandard abbreviations.

In November 2009, the Food and Drug Administration published voluntary guidelines for the labeling of dosing directions and measuring devices for over-the-counter liquid medicines. “The plan is that we can expect to see changes by next winter,” said Dr. H. Shonna Yin, the lead author.

But Dr. Yin, an assistant professor of pediatrics at New York University, is not finished. “When we do the study again,” she said, “we’ll see if voluntary guidelines work, or if we need something stronger.” In the meantime, she said, parents should pay careful attention to both directions on packages and the labeling on measuring devices. “A tablespoon,” she warned, “is three times as large as a teaspoon.”

NY TIMES REPORTS:

Giving the correct dose of an over-the-counter pediatric medicine is critical, but the package labeling and dosing information can be virtually incomprehensible. And an overdose can be deadly.

Obesity in the Developing world follows USA Obesity to epidemic level

Obesity in the developing world is following right behind the outrageous rate of obesity in the USA and other developed countries. Obesity is a crime against humanity in my opinion, especially childhood obesity. How can we let our children get obese? It is disgusting...truly. Let us prevent obesity and get the kids back in shape with exercise and good healthy foods that are not sugary, not fried, and not loaded with saturated animal fat and cooked proteins.

These poor kids are growing up and they have NO CHANCE to be healthy in adulthood because they are on a fast track to diabetes and heart disease and social ills. It is really something that is so preventable that this country needs to take a hard look at the obvious food industry culprits and interest groups like Dairy and Beef/Chicken rendering companies. Lets all wake up and stop following the heard off the cliff and knock some sense into our selves and leaders to stand up against this. It is almost a national security issue if everyone in the country is Fat how can we even defend ourselves? we certainly can not defend ourselves against the trillions of dollars that will be wasted dealing with the health care ramifications of an entire nation of overweight and obese sick people.

and now as the NY Times reports... the rest of the world is following our sad example.


Developing countries should act now to head off their own "obesity epidemic", says a global policy group.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity levels are rising fast.
In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.
Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip the OECD average.
Increasing obesity in industrialised countries such as the UK and US has brought with it rises in heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
However, increasing prosperity in some developing countries has led to a rise in "Western" lifestyles.
Now the OECD warns that they are catching up fast in terms of obesity rates.
Across all the countries represented in the OECD, 50% of adults are overweight or obese.
Childhood obesity
Rates in the Russian Federation are only just below this, and while fewer than 20% of Indians are classed this way, and fewer than 30% of Chinese people, the body says things are worsening fast.