Road Safety, MMR & Autism, National Allergy Week, Antibiotics in Pregnancy, Mercury in Fish, Caesarean Births, News in Brief

ROAD SAFETY – COULD YOUR DRIVING KILL A CHILD?

This week’s British Medical Journal concentrates on the issue of road safety. Each year a staggering one million people are killed and 10 million injured on the world’s roads. Although the death rate is far higher in the Third World, one in a hundred people in developed countries can be expected to die in a road traffic crash and we have a one in three chance of being injured. The Government is continuing its Cut Your Speed campaign with a series of adverts asking drivers if they could stop if a child ran out in front of them.

If you have read our road safety section you know that if you hit a pedestrian while driving at 20 mph then 5% will be killed but at 40 mph 80% will be killed. Roger Browning, a trustee of the charity RoadPeace, writes movingly about the death of his young daughter in a car crash in ‘Where are the protests?’

Suggested improvements include soft impact car bodies to protect pedestrians and a continuation of the voluntary ban on bull bars on the front of cars – see ‘Car makers press Europe for voluntary agreement on safety’. Seat belts reduce the risk of death by 65% and even using a standard adult seat belt for a child reduces death rates by 9 times in the front seat and 2 times in the back seat. Air bags only reduce injury by 8% - if you are unsure about the safety of children in cars with airbags read up on air bag safety and never put your baby or young child in the front passenger seat if there is an air bag fitted. Read about seat belts and school age children.

Read ‘Ensuring the safety of school age passengers’ which recommends using booster seats up to the age of 8 years and ‘Protecting pedestrians’ which has relevance for us as parents as most pedestrians killed are school age children and those killed in cars are mostly teenagers and young adults. Interestingly ‘Safety education for pedestrians’ concludes that there is no evidence that educating children about road safety actually reduces road deaths. This means that children will always run out in front of cars and it is our moral duty as drivers to make sure that we drive safely in residential streets and can always stop.

MMR AND AUTISM AWARENESS WEEK

This is Autism Awareness Week and two additions to the MMR debate have been published this week The National Autistic Society has commissioned a survey of schools in Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottinghamshire and Islington asking for the incidence of autism in their primary and secondary schools. The report showed that the incidence of autism was three times higher in primary than secondary schools, suggesting a massive increase in autism. However the report was filled out on a voluntary basis and only 30% of schools replied; also there was no assessment of the severity of the autism. The incidence could be explained if we have we got better at detecting milder forms of autism such as Asperger’s syndrome. Another question that wasn’t addressed is whether secondary school pupils with autism are being educated in mainstream schools – the Government has this policy but many children do not get the care they need for their special needs at school and may be being taught at home. MMR was introduced in 1988 so all children under the age of 15 would be expected to have had the vaccine now as it is given at around the age of one year.

Read ‘Schools report rise in number of younger pupils with autism’ and ‘Autism ‘doubles’ in young children’.

‘MMR advocate wants to give parents the choice’ reports on Dr. Eileen Rubery who helped introduce MMR to the UK has suggested that offering parents the choice of three single vaccines could end the stalemate between parents and the government over MMR. Also see a similar report in the Independent.

The Daily Telegraph has been running a series on autism the following articles may be of interest.

Understanding autism: I pray the Government will support us
‘I would not wish this on anybody’
‘My boys are everything . . . the right help is crucial’
Understanding autism: can MMR damage your baby?
Understanding autism: breaking out of the bubble

See our sections on autism and MMR for more information.

NATIONAL ALLERGY WEEK

There has been a big increase in eczema in recent years. The cause of eczema is unknown but there is a genetic link as eczema runs in families. The reports this week suggest that eczema may be caused by the increased number of chemicals and detergents that we are exposing children to including shampoos, soaps and bottom wipes It is suggested that we should be using more simple emollients such as aqueous cream to clean our children’s skin. The authors also suggest that central heating and poor ventilation may play a part and in the past it has been suggested that being too clean and not catching childhood infections may be a factor.

Read eczema which discuses the best treatments for eczema at different ages and also ‘‘Soap and warm homes’ causing rise in eczema’.

ANTIBIOTICS IN PREGNANCY MAY INCREASE ALLERGIES

A report published this week found that if mothers took antibiotics in pregnancy their child was 43% more likely to develop asthma, 38% more likely to develop hay fever and 11% more likely to develop eczema. Most antibiotics are given for respiratory infections so it may be that mothers with asthma in their genes were more likely to receive antibiotics but it also suggests that pregnant mothers should avoid antibiotics in pregnancy unless absolutely necessary. Read ‘Disease link to antibiotics in pregnancy’.

MOTHERS TO BE AND CHILDREN LESS THAN 16 YEARS ADVISED TO AVOID EATING SWORDFISH

The Food Standards Agency warned this week that swordfish, shark, and marlin contain high levels of mercury. Mercury is a neurotoxin which can damage the brain and nerves and also the development of unborn babies. A mother and her children were admitted to hospital in Glasgow recently with mercury poisoning caused by eating swordfish several times a week. They also recommend that adults only eat these fish a maximum of once a week. Tuna, which has previously been linked with high levels of mercury, has much lower levels than these three fish.

Read Food Standards Agency - Mercury in fish survey - Q&A, ‘Mothers-to-be urged to avoid eating swordfish’, and our piece on mercury in vaccines.

CAESAREAN BIRTHS

The Caesarean section rate in England has reached 22%, up from 18% in 1997 and the rate has tripled in the last 20 years. The medically needed rate for sections is around 12 to 15 % and the recent death of a mother at the Portland Hospital in London during a caesarean highlights the increased risks for the mother. Read ‘Caesarean section rate reaches 22%’.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Today’s babies will live to be a hundred says a report in Science which is discussed in the Independent.

The myth of the low fat diet – does it do more harm than good?

Girl denied HIV therapy by father is put into care – further discussion of the rights of parents over their children. The father is an alternative practitioner who opposes conventional treatment. The girl’s mother has died from AIDS. See ‘We can choose hell - kids can't’.

Haunted by a baby I never held – how men feel about miscarriage and stillbirth.

The Guardian asks on its message board: Should children conceived by sperm donation have the right to trace their fathers?

A mother in Oxfordshire has been jailed for 60 days for failing to send her children to school. The children are in the care of an older sister. Read ‘Truant children ‘devastated’ by mother’s imprisonment’ – is this what we want as a society?