Boardash: Bubbles minimize flu shot fussing

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Bubbles minimize flu shot fussing

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Tuesday September 29, 2009

Bubbles minimize flu shot fussing
Program yields healthier eating in kids
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Bubbles minimize flu shot fussing

LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Bringing soap bubbles is a way parents can help minimize flu shot fussing, a U.S. child pain expert advises.

The parents blow bubbles during the injections, suggesting they are "blowing away the hurt." With a crying infant, if the parent places the plastic bubble maker in front of the child's mouth, as the children cry out they will make bubbles.

"I have seen babies stop crying mid-cry because they were distracted by the bubbles," Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer, director of the Pediatric Pain Program at Mattel Children's Hospital, University of California, Los Angeles, says in a statement.

Parents can help an older child relax and breathe out by asking them to pretend they are blowing up a balloon or using their imagination to experience being somewhere else, such as at the park or the beach. Other distraction ideas include jokes, video games, stories and music.

"Finally, do not lie to your child about getting an injection," says Zeltzer. "No one likes to get poked with a needle, but if you reassure your child that there are ways to make the hurt go away, then you can help them achieve a successful, less painful experience."

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Program yields healthier eating in kids

AMES, Iowa (UPI) -- The Switch program, "Switch what You Do, View and Chew," increases healthier eating and reduces TV and computer screen time in children, U.S. researchers say.

Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, worked with a team of researchers to evaluate the intervention in a group of 1,323 children and their parents from 10 schools.

The community component is designed to promote awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyles using paid advertising such as billboards and unpaid media such as letters to the editors of print publications.

The school component reinforces the Switch messages by providing teachers with materials and methods to integrate key health concepts into the school day. The family component involves participating families receiving monthly packets containing behavioral tools to assist families in altering their health behaviors.

The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, found the intervention yielded encouraging results, with the experimental group showing significant differences from the control group in both screen time and fruit and vegetable consumption.

"Although modest, these results are not trivial," Gentile says in a statement. "The effects remained significant at the six-month follow-up evaluation, indicating maintenance of these differences over time. Such maintenance may contribute to reduced weight risks in the future."

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