\
http;//www.thecharlottepost.conn
1B
CF)c Cliarlotte
LIFE
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2003
When the flu
hits children,
what to do?
By Lauren Neergaard
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - It can be
hard to tell when a child’s flu
is bad enough to go to the
emergency room or doctor’s
office - or whether toughing
it out, perhaps with some
physician phone advice, is
enough.
With widespread publicity
about deaths and serious flu
complications in children,
alarmed parents are flooding
doctors’ offices.
“I’m seeing mostly kids now
who would have been OK
with a phone call,” says Dr.
Jeff Mjaanes of Chicago’s
Rush University Medical
Center. ‘We’re all in a terrible
kind of predicament here. A
couple ’ of cases were very
severe; there’s a lot of hype
out there and a lot of very
concerned parents.”
Here are answers to some
common questions:
Q: Is flu more dangerous
to kids this year?
A; Most children bounce
back fine from a week of flu
misery. It’s not yet clear if
this season really is harsher
for kids, or if serious illnesses
are getting more attention
because influenza struck ear
lier than usual and because a
strain is spreading that the
vaccine doesn’t protect
against as well as usual.
The^ovemment’^ Jpest esti
mate sii^geists some 92 chil
dren imder 5 die from flu
annually. So far this year, the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention has received
reports of about three dozen
deaths among children of all
ages.
Q: How can my child get
vaccinated?
A: Remaining flu shots are
being reserved for children at
high risk of flu complications
. — those ages 6 months to 23
months, or.who have asthma,
a weak immune system or
other chronic illness. Ask the
child’s pediatrician about
local availability; CDC will
ship another 150,000 doses to
hard-hit areas next month.
Healthy children 5 and
older can get the new nasal
vaccine, FluMist, so they
won’t spread flu to unvacci
nated siblings. There’s plenty
of it so far. Unlike the less-
expensive shots, FluMist is
made of live but weakened
flu virus, so it isn’t for
younger or chronically ill chil
dren.
If a high-risk child isn’t vac
cinated and a family member
becomes sick, ask your pedia
trician about Tamiflu. Taken
soon enough, that drug can
prevent flu.
Q: How can I tell if it’s
influenza or just a cold?
A: With flu, the child
becomes sicker, faster.
Symptoms include high fever,
extreme fatigue, muscle
aches, chills, dry cough, sore
throat, headache or runny
nose.
Child symptoms can differ.
Infants may show solely a
fever; toddlers often vomit or
have diarrhea. Very young
children can’t explain symp
toms _ be suspicious if they
quit playing and refuse to eat
or drink.
Q: What’s a flu emer
gency?
A: Get immediate medical
care for signs of bacterial
infection or other flu compli
cations:
Please see WHEN/3B
#o
TALKING ABOUT SAINT NICK
Taking up Santa’s
cause with kids
By Artellia Burch
arteUia.burch@ihecharloUepost.com
Santa Claus, the myth and secular person
ification of Christmas, may be hundreds of
years old. But St. Nick isn’t played out.
Take Steve B3Td, who is married and has a
3-year-old son. He says that he and his wife
share the Santa Claus legend with their son.
‘When I’m out with him I’ll say something
like ‘look over there, there’s Santa Claus,”’ he
said. “He knows who . Santa Claus is because
we told him. On Christmas, we teU him that
Santa Claus brought him his toys.”
Marcus Hobgood is married with four chil
dren. He says he didn’t have to teU his kids
about Santa Claus.
“TLey were fed the idea of Santa Claus out
side of the household,” he said. “They learned
about him through the daycare, family,
fiiends and television. I supported the idea or
mythology in conversation. Like if they would
ask me if they could write Santa a letter I
would say yes. Especially when they were
two-years-old and below. “But when they
start hitting school and are around the age of
four they start to ask questions like ‘Daddy
how can Santa Claus slide down our chim
ney? Or wouldn’t the fire bum his butt?’ Plus
once they get older when they ask certain
questions I make subtle hints until they can
put one and one together. I don’t just say
there’s no Santa Claus.”
People without kids sometimes take a dif
ferent perspective to sharing the legend of St.
Nick. Bryan Simmons, who’s engaged with
no kids says he doesn’t believe he would teU
his kids about Santa Claus. “I don’t have kids
but the older I get I tell myself if I ever have
children I will not teU them there’s a Santa
Claus,” he said.
Hobgood says people don’t have to teU chil
dren there’s no Santa Claus. Children are
smart and they eventually figure it out on
their own. “My 9-year-old knows there isn’t a
Santa Claus,” he said. “My 6-year-old calls
her grandmother for gifts. My 4-year-old is
just excited about Christmas period. She has
n’t said anything about Santa Claus. She
thinks Santa Claus is more of a decoration. A
couple of years ago she wanted to sit on his
lap and make out a list. Now she looks at
Saturday cartoons and asks me about certain
toys for Christmas.
“I’m not going to break their heart by telling
them the news. But they have common sense.
Fm giving them the benefit of the doubt. They
know a big fat man can’t come down our chim
ney. They hear Mommy and Daddy talking
about money this time of year. They hear their
grandparents calling asking what do they want
for Christmas. They know mommy and daddy
stay up Christmas Eve wrapping gifts.”
Hobgood says if you don’t teU your kids
there’s no Santa another child, eventually
will. “Once your children go to school they
start hanging around older children, eventu
ally some 10-year-old buUy will tell them
there’s no Santa Claus,” he said. “My kids
pretty much know the deal. This time of year
if you ask kids if there’s a Santa theyTl say
yes. Ask them in June and the}^ say no.”
ILLUSTRATION/JIM HUNT
By. Asjylyn Loder
WOMEN E-NEWS
WASHINGTON - The
birth of Miriam Singer’s
fourth child was tinged with
a sense of loss for the mother,
who knew that she was
among the last few who
would deliver a' baby at the
midwifery center at the
University of Chicago
Hospitals and Health
System, where Singer had
delivered all of four of her
children.
The hospital stopped
accepting new midwifery
patients in early October
after 18 years, and will soon
close its doors despite an out
pouring of community sup
port from loyalists such as
Singer.
The demand for midwifery
care has more than tripled in
the last decade, but rising
insurance costs have made it
difficult for midwives to stay
in business.
Midwives spend more time
getting * to know patients
throughout their pregnancy
and are less likely to inter
vene by inducing labor or per-
formir^ Caesarean sections.
For those reasons, many
women favor midwifery care.
But midwives earn substan
tially less than obstetricians
and hospitals and indepen
dent midwives alike are find
ing it hard to shoulder sky
rocketing malpractice premi
ums.
Midwives attended 305,606
births in the United States in
2001, or nearly 10 percent of
vaginal births, a 100 percent
increase from 1990, accord
ing to the National Vital
Statistics Report by the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Studies have
shown midwife deliveries to
be as safe as physician-assist
ed deliveries. Of births
attended by midwives, 97
percent take place in hospi
tals, where an obstetrician is
on call to handle complica
tions.
Singer, for example, suf
fered serious postpartum
bleeding after the birth of her
third child. Her midwife
called in a physician to han^
die the bleeding, but stayed
by Singer’s side. Singer had a
high risk of bleeding with the
next delivery, but the midwife
brought Singer safely
through without complica
tions while a physician
remained on-call for emer
gencies.
Certified niirse midwives
are typically registered nurs
es who have completed a
Bachelor’s degree, often in
nursing, and earned
advanced certification in the
care of pregnant women.
There are no statistics on
Midwives popular, but more forced out of business
how many midwifery prac
tices across the country have
closed recently but several
prominent midwifery ser
vices have been scaled back
or closed since August.
On Sept. 29, Full Circle
Women’s Health, a nonprofit
midwifery practice in
Tallahassee, Fla., closed its
doors after 20 years due to a
rent hike and doubled mal
practice insurance rates. In
Des Moines, Iowa, a hospital
that handles most midwife
assisted births in the area
cannot find enough physi
cians to meet the require
ment that midwives work
with two attending physi-
See MIDWIVES/3B