Asian Sweet Warning, Prescription Drug Safety, Dyslexia, Goldenhar Syndrome, MMR, Green Parenting, Asthma, Gene-Testing Kits

ASIAN JELLY SWEETS KILL BRITISH CHILD

These sweets have killed children in several countries but this week saw the first British death when an 18 month-old child choked to death. The sweets are packaged in a dangerous way: they look like small plastic cups of jelly – the cups are about 4cm high and are made of clear plastic. They are typically sold in a large glass jar. Each jelly is one colour but you get many different colours in the jar.

The sweets are dangerous because if you don’t use a small spoon, the child’s instinct to get the jelly out is to lean his head back and suck the sweet out. Because of its texture it comes away suddenly and can block the windpipe. An added danger is that it contains konjac, a jelly fibre that swells up when damp – and of course this happens in the throat, making the sweet very hard to remove. In Japan one family resorted to a vacuum cleaner to suck the jelly out of their child’s throat. They are quite safe if removed from the pot and cut up although many parents may choose to avoid the artificial colours and flavourings in them.

These sweets are widely available in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and other Asian countries. They have been banned in Britain but last month a container load was confiscated at Southampton docks.

They are sold under the following brand names: ABC Fruit Mini Bites, Fuji Coconut Flavour Jelly, Healthy Konnyaku Jelly, Jin Jan Konjac Coconut Mini Gel snack, New Choice Mini Fruit Gels, New Century’s Choice, Rolin Mango Jelly Cup and Troofy Gels. They are also sold under the manufacturers name Mong Lee Shang Fruit Jelly and Jian Fu Trading Co. Lichee Jelly.

Pictures can be seen at jelly sweets pictures and in the Government’s press release at Mini fruit gel hazard.

SAFETY AT THE DOCTORS

An article in this week’s British Medical Journal discusses increasing concern over safety in the NHS. One of the aspects covered is the problem with prescription drugs. They estimate that there may be a serious problem in 1% of prescriptions. Problems included prescription of contraindicated drugs, errors in dispensing, ignoring known allergies and prescribing the wrong drug.

Parents should always ask their doctor if there are any common side effects and remind their doctor if their child has an allergy - this includes food allergies, for example to eggs. Also check with your pharmacist when you pick up the prescription that the drug is for what you think and that it doesn’t interact with any other medicines your child is on.

A lot of drugs prescribed for children on a regular basis are not actually registered for use in children because of the prohibitive cost of testing them. The Government is planning to rectify this by allowing drug companies a longer drug patent period in return for more information on the effects on children. There is also concern over the prescription of adult tablets for children as it is very difficult to divide tablets accurately and to get a small child to swallow drugs in tablet form, and many drugs are currently not available as syrups.

Read Drug industry urged to develop medicines for children and Enhancing public safety.

NEW TREATMENT FOR DYSLEXIA

The Daily Mail reports on an innovative new treatment for dyslexia which involves prescribing glasses with different coloured lenses for each eye. David Harris, a Cheshire optician, had made the glasses with one blue and one green lens for a patient with colour blindness. The patient, who also had dyslexia, put on the glasses and immediately said: “Wow! The words have gone straight”. The lenses are called ChromaGen lenses and are coloured filters.

The Mail tells the story of a child with a high IQ and dyslexia who was fitted with these glasses, a blue lens for the left eye and a green lens for the right eye and they had an immediate effect. His reading speed increased dramatically as did his behaviour and his happiness. The optician believes that there is a defect in the magnocells in the back of the eye in dyslexics. They relay information from the back of the eye to the brain and are involved with monitoring timing.

Further information can be found at ChromaGen Dyslexia Information and ChromaGen Dyslexia: A comparative study produced by the company that makes the lenses.

For information on dyslexia read our section on dyslexia or contact The British Dyslexia Association.

A self testing kit for dyslexic children over the age of seven can be bought from the Dyslexia Testing Service.

GOLDENHAR SYNDROME

This facial syndrome has been in the news this week as a small girl born in Saudi Arabia with the syndrome was moved to an NHS hospital for treatment – she unfortunately made headlines because the doctors were worried about her breathing and wanted to do a tracheotomy (to prevent brain damage in case breathing difficulties developed) and her parents refused as they felt that the tests done in Saudi Arabia were sufficient and did not need repeating. This luckily seems to have been resolved amicably.

But what is Goldenhar’s syndrome and what causes it? It is a cluster of abnormalities of the face and neck and like a lot syndromes with no definite genetic basis its severity is variable. The main features are hemifacial microsomia (one side of the face is small) and vertebral abnormalities in the neck. There can also be other abnormalities of the heart and kidneys. The facial abnormalities can be very variable and may include a small or absent ear with narrow or absent ear canal and inner ear, lack of muscles on one side of the face and a small jaw bone. The nose may also be affected.

This is not a chromosomal abnormality and does not run in families. It occurs sporadically and is extremely rare (one in 500,000 births). Possible causes include environmental factors or developmental factors in the womb.

Information and support for families with Goldenhar syndrome can be found at Goldenhar Syndrome and the British support group can be contacted on .

Advances in plastic surgery make this increasingly treatable. Read the story of an affected eleven year old, ‘The bravest face of all’ from the Telegraph.

Other syndromes that affect the face on one side only include Treacher Collins Syndrome and Nager Syndrome.

You can read the news stories about the affected baby in 'Parents allow surgery for disfigured baby' and a discussion of the treatment in 'What is Goldenhar's syndrome?'.

MMR

There have been no reports of measles epidemics. In the Telegraph, James Le Fanu reviews MMR’s safety and discusses whether the Government should have caved in to pressure for a single vaccine. Read ‘In sickness and in health’.

ARE YOU A GREEN PARENT?

That’s environmental, not envious.

It is amazing how becoming a parent can make you instantly concerned about the future environment. The Evening Standard (a London-based paper) in conjunction with Friends of the Earth has compiled a list of things that make you a green parent. Apparently one in four children develops asthma and one in eight eczema. They suggest that we use glass feeding bottles or non-polycarbonate plastic bottles (available from Mothercare) and terry nappies (although the cost of washing those equals any savings made). Nickel cutlery can apparently aggravate asthma, and they also suggest using organic cotton as it decreases world pesticide use. They also criticise PVC wellies and plastic toys. You can read the article at ‘How green is your baby?’.

What do you think – do you have any special ideas for saving the planet? I’m not sure if the suggestions here are practical or particularly useful, especially as I manfully struggled through a year of terry nappies with my first baby – steaming buckets of pooh in the bathroom, anyone? I defy anyone to leave them long enough to do a wash only twice a week – and as for mixing them with other washing!! So it’s frequent, small, unecological washes – and what about when you are out? The bliss of disposables! – do any mothers use washable nappies regularly? Are they economical? They are thought to increase nappy rash – we’d love to hear your views on our message boards.

ASTHMA, POOR HOUSING AND POLLUTION

Following on from our recent review of a report that poor air quality causes asthma, Shelter has said that 750,000 children live in damp, mould-infested or unhygienic homes causing asthma and gastroenteritis. Read ‘Poor housing fuels rise in asthma and ill health’.

The Independent newspaper has started a cleaner air campaign looking at the problems of school runs, and the increase in asthma when pollution levels are high and the air is still. Read letters about air quality, ‘Improve air quality and increase asthma consultants’ and ‘The choking, poisonous reality of the school run’.

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Body Shop is selling gene-testing kits to help you live a healthier life – they are a complete nonsense and cost £120 a year. The Government gave the company who markets them a grant of £130,000 last year – read about the science behind them in the Guardian’s special report ‘Public 'misled by gene test hype’’.