Focus 580; Childrens Health

Good morning it welcome to focus 580. This is our telephone talk program. My name is David Lynch. Glad to have you with us this morning. We're also pleased to have back with us once again Dr. Robert Bo check. He's a pediatrician from Christie Clinic in Champaign. And once a month on a Thursday in the 10 o'clock hour he's here and we talk about children's health. And we've been doing this for all these lo these many years because we thought people would like to have a regular chance to talk to pediatrician and ask questions so whatever's on your mind can be a sickness issue can be behavior development then all the kinds of things you would you could think of talking about with a pediatrician. You can do that here. And I know the Doctor Jack will share whatever thoughts he's got 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 that's the number here in Champaign Urbana and toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Well once again thank you very much. Good morning. Good to be here. Well we're now headed into or certainly into the cough and cold season and people may be headed to the drugstore for relief from some of their symptoms particularly things like coughing and runny

nose and congestion and sneezing and whatever and maybe it's as you suggested to be a good thing to talk about because just recently fairly recently the government decided to withdraw one component. That's in a lot of over-the-counter cold medicines. A decongestant federal probe. Which is. It's that thing that's in a lot of these medicines that I speak for myself I don't like and I think a lot of other people don't like either because it makes you feel like you've had about 10 cups of coffee. It's a drug that's like like adrenaline and gives you that really unless you like to think of it that really sort of nasty buzz and it's in one of those things that if you start reading the labels you see this is in a lot of a lot of these medications. So that's gone. But maybe people are still going to have questions about

well OK what what is in these things. What sort of drugs are there. And particularly if you're thinking about giving them to their children is that OK. Should I be worried about that. Probably not. Generally I think what they were worried about we felt appropriate although mean is a hemorrhagic stroke. And I suspect I haven't seen any of the reports on it but I suspect these were probably older folks with bad blood vessels anyway and what these medications do the decongestants tend to do as they tend to cause the blood vessels to shut down a little bit. The sleep deprived the mucus glands of blood and mucus glands make less mucus but then again there's less blood going to the heartless blood to go into the brain so all the blood vessels are shut shut down so I suspect that yet people with diabetes in atherosclerotic heart disease in and bad credit arteries and that's er stuff are at risk and I would suspect that most people healthy people probably are not at any risk from these medications.

But with any medication you get the benefit risk ratio. Does it make you feel better and I have not. I'm not convinced from my own experience in practice or from reading the literature that these medications do an awful lot either so you're running the risk of side effects and I'm not sure you get much benefit out of much in the way of benefit out of them. What they do. Yeah the decongestants fun appropriate I mean which is now gone. Ephedrine pseudoephedrine are the other major decongestants out in most of these products. What what a lot of products they tend to make you get a little bit hyper like 5 cups of coffee. So what most of these do is then they throw in an anti-histamine which tends to sedate and hopefully with the mixture of two you come out if and even. But you never know how your individual child because some histamines usually sedate particularly in young children sometimes they can make them higher than a kite too. So if you've got a mind an anti-histamine that's making higher than a kite and a decongestant that

has no potential to sedate you got a real high child and I'm not sure again you're getting much bang for the buck I'm not sure the evidence is particularly good. That does relieve a lot of symptoms. Other common ingredients in these medications are go Fenice and. Plane Robitussin is Fenice and that's supposed to be an expectorant. It's supposed to loosen the mucus and help you cough it up easier. Well except that we've just given you decongestant that they can see the mucus and lessens it. Now we get now we throwed an expectorant in there too. And then the DMN that you see in all these products that's dextromethorphan that's a cough suppressant. Well I think you have to be careful with that too because if you have good reason to cough you don't want to suppress it. Because you want to cough that stuff up so a lot of these products seem to be intrinsically illogical. If in effect unfortunately they're ineffective so it probably doesn't matter. Well the I guess the the one thing people might want to think about when they're looking

at these products because they are often they are a combination of things. They may have decongestant anti-histamine. They may have cost a present they may very well have acetaminophen which is like title also they have a They'll have a pain reliever. And also something that will reduce fever. So it has all of us that stuff in there so what you might want to do is think about OK what what symptoms do I have and what symptoms do I really want to treat and do I really need all of these things because it is also possible to get all of these things all of those things individually rather than take them all in one pill. So maybe you know maybe you'd say well one of these things well maybe that's not so important. You know if I'm not having a problem with a cough if it's not keeping me awake at night well maybe I don't need it. Yeah. And the other problem I have with especially the combination is with the fear reduces with the with the acetaminophen is mainly is if you push the

dose to get a correct dose of acetaminophen you've pushed a dose of ephedrine and then histamines too high. So with the with the fixed drug combinations like that you can get into it. And I'm with you had I think I'd rather see single products. For what symptom bothers you the most and I think my. I think the way I'd treat a cold is if you have a fever and you feel achy and that takes some acetaminophen or ibuprofen maybe run a humidifier. Keep a box of Kleenex next to you. Wash your hands frequently and I think that's probably the way I treat a cold. I think that there was some years ago and has been a little while since I heard anything about this but also I think some concern that there that people might be taking these combination medicines that had acetaminophen in them and then also taking additional Tylenol and getting an overdose of acetaminophen that can cause they get a liver liver damage. So there you get it you ought to be at least think a little bit about what's in these things so that you know you don't end up taking more of something that you're

already taking. Yeah get the dose right not too little not too much just get it right. We have a caller others a welcome doctor I would bow check here he's pediatrician from Christie Clinic. This is our monthly show on children's health. The number here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 dollars in urban and it's Line 1. Hello I think I have a question for you. On Sunday they had a segment on 60 Minutes regarding our faxing. I'm a big. Prominent of vaccinations vaccinated my shop for my 3 year old. Now I have a 5 month old. They didn't convince me on the reports that I be not taking the vaccine was going to be beneficial to her but why did the study cause such a scare with autism. I don't think they really got the report. The heart of the matter on proving that the vaccine

could cause. To sum it up. If I could take the answer off the air if you could sell me how you weigh in on the issue thank you. All right well thanks very much for the call. We appreciate it. I'm a strong supporter of the MMR I am a strong supporter of all the vaccines we have available. I think autism in MMR a few people have tried to link that for years. It's never held up under good scrutiny good scientific scrutiny there's no proof. And and I think we have just tons of proof about it. The mortality morbidity rate of measles prior to think the vaccine has been out since 67 I think first came out and I think there's no doubt that measles is is still a big killer of children in underdeveloped countries. And here we have virtually wiped out we rarely see a case of measles I'm not sure of it. I think it may be a handful of cases reported a year. We well know what rubella does

does if a pregnant woman catches rubella how devastating it could be to the baby. Mumps probably is more of an inconvenience than a. Tremendous astrally disease but I'm a strong supporter of MMR we've been using it for years. Are we seeing an increase in reports of autism. Yes. No I think we've sort of changed the diagnostic criteria for autism so we're diagnosing milder in milder cases and and but again there's been no doubt. Scientific proof whatsoever linking MMR with with autism or with I don't think anything else any other disease. And I think the case with autism is it's still something of a mystery. We really don't know what cause we don't know. Yeah it's these children are wired differently for some reason or other. OK. And we really don't know but it did. There's no link to infectious disease or no link to

vaccines. Well I think it's a question the caller will continue let's go to rental for somebody else here line too. Hi Actually my question is related to this. I already have an autistic child. I am expecting my I have an autistic boy 7 and I have a twin 1/2 year old who is severely speech like he's otherwise OK. And I think my fourth in about three weeks. And my sister is so terrified of the autism connection that her child is completely vaccinated. So we're going to go to Christmas Christmas with a 3 week old. Baby to visit completely unvaccinated 18 month old. Is there anything that I need to be concerned about if the kid is not actually ill and on the second level. Have you ever been asked for the separated vaccines or the vaccines without mercury in them and if so can you get them from Christy.

I think. You know I don't know what vaccines still have mercury and I know it's been pulled out of the appetite is B vaccine they're working. I think it's still in some of the other vaccines they're working hard to get it get rid of it all together but I think it's still in most of the vaccines except the MMR. The other thing though as far as the mercury is concerned there is a great deal. There is very very little mercury in these vaccines it uses a preservative. There's very very little mercury in these vaccines. Again there is no scientific data whatsoever to actually there's no consensus about what to what. What a toxic level of mercury is what it you know what it what it abnormally high blood level of mercury is. So again the major concern was with the hepatitis B vaccine. Newborns getting it right so they were you know relative to a two or three year old or a six month old even they were getting a relatively higher dose of mercury

per per per kilogram of body weight say. But you know we've been using the dif the DP vaccine has had mercury in it ever since it came out and I can't remember when that came out in the 40s or something like that I think. So we have had mercury in the vaccines and it's been very very low dose. And I'm not terribly concerned about that at all. Would I wait on vaccinations till the mercury free vaccines come out. No especially when we're talking about new about young children infants and and young children and the pertussis vaccine. As far as your visit over Christmas I think your sister is wrong. I think she should have her children vaccinated I think she's going to be in trouble when it becomes school age because state mandates them mandates them at that time. But as far as your visit if your kids are healthy I think go ahead have a merry Christmas with them. Have you read the newest thing from Andrew Wakefield in the way I have been. Get over to

see it. But I couldn't follow the abstract that was printed in the newsletter I fit. No and I my about the measles in the guts of autistic kids. OK you've done two things I know the first one was really more of a case that even the thing out. And the second one he supposedly had had control groups and whatnot. I just couldn't follow his abstract. No I didn't see it I'm sorry. You know I think we've got another problem with the MMR vaccine and associate with anything since particularly in the United States. Every kid gets two doses. But yeah you're for summary. Yeah Europe's much more let's say fair about immunizations not requiring them. But I don't think I have not seen any reports that we have excessive numbers of ot of autistic children in our country vs. other countries. You would think that well now we can't compare with underdeveloped countries because they have other things to worry about besides autism. But in the European countries where

MMR may not be universal I'm not I've not seen any reports that you know we have more autism in this country than they do in in the United Kingdom or Switzerland or any country that may not be doing it. OK. And if you get the separated MMR here are not no. You can get an MRI. You can get a measles rubella. I don't I don't think it comes as a as a as a measles alone. OK. And the recommendation is if there's a question about measles go ahead with the MMR. OK. That's what it sounds like she is what she was asking if you didn't want to get the measles but you want to get the mumps and rubella you can't you can't you know you can't do it you can't do it. I'm interested in getting all three I just want to get them separately. Yeah you can't do it now OK you can do it here. You can't do it here. OK that's what I needed to know. Thanks very much for the call our guest here this morning on focus 580 Dr. Robert Vogt Jackie's pediatrician from Christie Clinic in each month. He's here on the program. We do

these programs on children's health. It's always on a Thursday and we built this into the schedule so that you'll know that at least one time a month they'll be a pediatrician here. You got questions you can ask. The number here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. Also we have a toll free line good anywhere that you can hear us 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Another urban a person there next. And it's Line 1. Hello how are you doing fine thank you for taking my call Sure I went through it before. Right. I haven't lived a cancer for about four months and when I do see you on a regular basis I'm interested in finding out how they feel when I talk to. I don't know. I mean I'm doing it the right way to find out how they're going through it. Do you have any suggestions or resources for get find better. I guess the cup don't pump them. I think what I

do is they have fun with them. I'd have dinner with them and you know have good times with them and listen. And I think it's mainly listening don't pump him for. Yeah don't pump him for entry how old are they for him. OK. Probably they're doing perfectly fine. I'll bet you they're happy as can be. By and large at this at this point in time in their lives. But I think. Yeah. And I think the other rule I will give you is no blame ever goes on them. Their mother is not a bad mother in front of them. The problem between you have the reason for the divorce had nothing to do with them. The problem is you may now be having with custody and child support and all that stuff. Are there problems leave them out of it. Be a father to him. And yeah leave them out of it. Just be a father to him. And I

think the other thing in my experience is it's not. I guess what I've often link divorce to it is kind of a death of the grieving process. Something's been lost and they've got to grieve and this grief can go on for years before it's resolved. And then my person I think what I've dealt with in my practice recently is teenagers who are now feeling done too even though divorced happened you know 10 or 15 years ago that they still resent it so I think be open to him listen to him. I think so often one of the mistakes we make with teenagers is we talk Adam and we don't listen to their feelings and. And so I think just make the opportunity to have to listen to their feelings not judge mentally. If they ask for advice you please give it to him but I think mostly I think my best advice is listen to him and listen to him listen to their

report cards listen to how they're doing with friends and as long as they're doing well interpersonally with their friends as long as their report cards are OK as long as they have a good relationship with both you and mom and their mother. I think things are going as well as can be expected. My son is the teacher said that he is doing very well and the academic part is only in kindergarten. Aren't that developmental but she has noticed. Behavior Problems just acting out things that he hadn't seemed to have been there to in the past and how how could I sort of remedy that. There's counseling or something like that. We can take it and have our just kind of commit them to you for it. Yeah I think if I think if he's functioning reasonably well

he's not in trouble counseling main that you might want to go to counseling just to get a couple of sessions to see if there's a problem. Yeah see if the counselor picks up a problem. I think the other thing what kind of relationship do you have with your ex-wife. It's good. OK. I think that is very important to stay in communication with her. So you're both following I think one of the big problems I hear in the office is you know they love living with their father because there's no rules a dead house right. Well I guess the other problem I have in the in the exam you know dealing with parents is I hear from one parent or the other but I seldom hear from both So who's telling the truth. But I think if you can keep in. Keeping contact with your wife so you're both on the same game plan. Yeah true you're prioritizing the same behaviors so you're communicating if one's nosing a problem here you've got the problem too. And if you do how are you dealing with that that you know that that helps. Work but mainly keep your eyes open or keep your ears open and listen to him Keep your eyes open and watch him.

But but sort of I think if you know how you how you doing just great dad and what you know why why I ask him. So you have to listen for that. Yeah you have to listen for the alternate agenda right. Well thanks for the answer my questions are you're welcome to go. We got some other folks here ready to go next up will be champagne. That is lie number 3. Hello good morning doctor. Good morning. I have sort of a developmental question. Is it normal for a canned almost 11 year old girl to be able to freely wink. Either I voluntarily she can sort of wink or right I bet amounts to school putting both eyes shut and then opening the left eye and she can't momentarily weaker left eye at all. Yes some people just can't wink now when she sleeps she closes her eyes. You know you close your eyes and blink and all that you know some people just can't wink. There's like some people go wilderness some

can't some just can't wink. And it's it's not a deficit it's nothing to worry about OK it's just turned out to be a little bit of a nuisance for things like looking in the microscope. Yeah. Actually when you look through a microscope if you can be a researcher she's going to have a buy an ocular microscope Anyway the other thing we like we learn as we look through a microscope is we keep both eyes open because you get tired if you're scrunched in one shot so you can look. You learn to look through a microscope with both eyes open you just don't see through yet you just saw sort of the back of the brain closes one eye if you will. So she's really not had a tremendous deficit there. So I don't think the ability to not wink is going to handicap her in any way. But it isn't terribly abnormal. No will see it often enough. All right thank you. You're welcome. We're at our midpoint here. And again just to tell you that our guest is Dr. Robert Boe check. He's a pediatrician from Christie Clinic he's on the program every month on a Thursday

we do these shows on children's health. And if you have questions you can call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 that's for champagne Urbana and toll free anywhere that you can hear us around Illinois Indiana 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 0 2. Aurora line number four for next person Hello. Yes hi good morning good morning honey. Yes I'm going how is your family doing. Well I think well we had Saturday night we had a birthday party for my mother she's a hundred and five on Sunday. Wow. And what was a lot of fun. I hope was a lot of fun for the grandchildren she said. The grace and so on back and so yeah voice so loud and strong it was just a blessing really a truly a blessing great. What I wanted to talk about was years ago I put up a bulletin board I had seen my sister in law do this of all the pictures and as they went through first grade up to the seventh grade and then high

school and then I thought well. And every. It's in my entry Roman as a people children and adults come through with a glance a picture at the pictures and and I you know continue to change them rearrange them and that kind of thing and they add to them. It's been really a source of fun and I thought Well now the children are getting older they won't be interested in anymore it in a more and I've put up the grandsons with their girlfriends when they went to the prom and that kind of thing. And that Saturday night it was just so much fun because the they come in with their girlfriend and then tell the family all that Harrer about who's who in the family and explain the pictures and who they are and where they fit in the family. And it's just been more fun than I could ever imagine when I am originally put up. It is

just it's been a lot of fun and I just thought I'd tell you about it because it's easiest to explain with something concrete like a picture. Who's who in the family and where I live and the geography that comes into it also these days with our very moving you know family and so it's and it's fun to hear them laughing about a baby picture. You know and that kind of thing. And when my grandson got his license at 16 there he was standing with his you know driving permit. It's a very good history story. And the so I just thought of it just been so positive and fun. And I think that's what we need these days is a lot of laughter and a lot of fun. And then the thing I did I have one question and I will hang up. What do you do with a nine

year old that uses illness as a means. Getting her own way you take the TAM and where do you go from there and I'll hang up and listen for your answer. OK. I think you don't. And I think we've talked a lot about temper tantrums don't let temper tantrums you know. Rule the household. And I think as kids get older they learn to temper tantrums don't work so they go to whining and then they then they go to to you know gee I don't feel good I can't go to school today or don't feel good I can't can't do this and that and I think I think you're you're on to it. You know you don't have a temperature you're going to school you haven't thrown up you're going to school. And usually for the most part when these kids get to school they usually kind of forget what they were complaining about in the first place and they get involved with school and they. Forget about their complaints.

Sometimes you're going to be wrong and sometimes by the time they get you know if you're going to get a call from school about noon that they're temps 100 100 to please come and pick them up. But for the most part I think you've got good judgment. You've seen you've been around children enough I think you've got good judgment and and when you think they're fake and you know. I'd not sure I'd call them fakers but I think you'd say well it doesn't look like you're sick enough to miss school. So where you go OK. Hope that helps. We have another caller and plenty of time for others you want to give us a call talk with Dr. Bill check 3 3 3 W I L L toll free 800 to 2 2 W I L L. And up next back here locally Urbana line to L.. Hi I have a question about chicken. I've heard that. Things about it. My kids haven't had the chicken and one thing that I heard was that it's possible that if you if you get a bean they could delay them getting it when

they're young then they'll get it when they're older and and it's it's worst when they're older. And so I think you know whether it's a good idea I like this vaccine. Historically this were used in the oak Australia vaccine it was developed in Japan. There's been 20 years of widespread experience with that. Some of the guinea pigs the initial recipients of the vaccine are 30 years ago. It still seems to be effective so that there's no recommendation for boosters at this time. It's being watched by the by the government by the CDC it's being watched by the drug company of course because they'd sure like to give everybody a second dose to be good for their stockholders. But so far I think we can very safely say it's good for 20 years. Looks like it's good for 30 years we think it's good for life because it is a live viral vaccine. Is it 100 percent effective no. It's got about a 10 or 15 percent

partial failure rate let's say that about 10 or 15 percent of kids who get the vaccine will get will get a diagnosable case of chicken pox although by all areas of measurement it seems to be much milder than what we'd expect fewer fewer skin lesions lower temperatures. So that's why I say it's a it's a partial failure only. But I do. How old are your children now. I have four. They're 7 7 7 1. OK because the other thing about chicken pox is the older the child when they get the illness the more severe it tends to be. Right now I've been surprised that my 7 year old at times and still hasn't done that and so now I'm starting to wonder if the vaccine would be. A good idea. The other thing you could do with the 7 year old is do a blood test do it tighter to see if unbeknownst to you the 7 year old had a real mild infection. But you know and I really

doubt that because you've got four other children so if your 7 year old had a mild infection. The other rule is the one who brings it home has the mildest infection and then the sibs get it seem to get a more severe infection so I thought it's a bit hard for me to believe that your 7 year old even had a mild infection because you might have missed it in the 7 year old cause it could have been so mild. But one of the other three kids certainly would have would have blossomed well and would have been diagnosed very easily diagnosable. So and the other thing you could do a blood test that cost by 60 dollars to get a titer or $30 somewhere in there. Anyway the blood test and the vaccine are about the same price and if you do the blood test to see if they really need the vaccine and then you find out as I would guess in this case this child has not had chicken pox. Then you end up with the shot anyway and the child's not terribly delighted with you for getting to two sticks. Right and the bill payer is not terribly delighted with either

for run up the bill and what's the danger. If you have you are immune to chicken pox and you get the vaccine. Basically what you get is a booster dose no harmful effects. And the other thing is the other thing we worry about chicken pox is shingles later on in life and there's no reports so far of the chicken pox vaccine is a live viral vaccine. There's no reports thus far and again we're talking about 20 years of shingles resulting from the vaccine. So it seems to be like the vaccine. You know again we're not saving a lot of lives with the chicken pox vaccine at least in the developed countries. We're saving a fair number of hospitalizations mostly I think what we can really say is you know we're saving these kids and their parents a week of discomfort to misery and a week of misc rule. Right. And maybe we're maybe we're lessening the risk of them ever getting shingles in their life

later on. OK. Thank you very much. You're welcome to the call that you just write. Got a question I was thinking about asking the chicken pox and shingles are both caused by the same virus. It's herpes zoster So one of the herpes viruses and what happens is when you get the chicken pox when you're little and you have that disease and then the virus goes and hides. Yeah. And then and some people not everybody and some people later it manifests as shingles. So but in this case now if you can prevent your giving a live virus but you're preventing them from having the chicken pox Oh but it's an open question whether or not this also would would then be a preventive for shingles. Yeah I think we can't say that yet because those can be decades after the birth after the primary infection so I think we can't you know I can't honestly say we're preventing shingles with the butt but it looks so far after 20 years of data that there's not been a reported case of shingles. In a vaccinated child and we

will we will see shingles in children is more common in adults but we will see shingles in children. Nice thing nice thing about shingles in children if you can say those nice thing about shingles in children is it tends to be one time it doesn't tend to scar and it doesn't tend to give you the rop at the you don't have the pain around your side forever the way it adults can it's Mormon and chicken pox is more miserable and shingles more miserable than adults. But yeah they're both to her. Yeah they are but that's the same virus and the herpes family virus the cold sore virus Herpes Simplex likes to hide to and in the nerve roots and come back out as a as a canker sore or it can also cause a vegetal infection of agile herpes that tends to be recurrent. I'm wondering given the fact that a chicken pox a pretty contagious disease and the way people get it you know as kids as they get it from some other kid either at school or playmate or neighbor or sibling or whatever. How how common is it that somebody should get to age 7

and not have encountered it. I would I would guess and I don't know I think the caller is off the line now. I would what's happened with chicken pox recently with the advent of daycares and that is we used to see the prime age for chicken pox is five six seven years of age kindergarten first grade sort of thing. Now the prime age of chicken pox is like the three four year old because of daycares and nursery schools and that sort of stuff. And I would guess perhaps that the 7 year old wasn't a daycare was was a home raised child mother a home child parent at home child and was a home raised child and just didn't get it. Exposed to it and all the peers in the classroom had already had it prior to starting school and snuck by that way. Sometimes you just get lucky one of my one of my fellow residents came down with chicken pox at age how old were you that we were much younger then but yeah you know whatever into it

into adult life by then. So some people do sneak through. You know we'll see. Yeah we'll see adults come down with chicken pox or want to while some do sneak through. It's unusual I think it's something like only three percent three percent of adults 3 percent of the people arrive at adulthood without having had chicken pox so it's most unusual and it's very very contagious it's almost if it gets into the household it's almost guaranteed that anybody who hasn't had chicken pox is going to get it. That's one of our most contagious diseases. We have about 10 minutes left in this part of focus 580 with Dr. Robert Bocelli He's a pediatrician at Christie Clinic. And once a month on a Thursday we do these shows on children's health. And if you have questions you can call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. So you folks over at your place have enough flu vaccine have you been able to give it to all the people who want it. No. We did until the last week and then they then they shut down the influenza vaccine clinic yet we've got a temporary shortage we hope that it will be.

Over soon and we sort of shut down the general come on and get your flu shot. We've still got it for those at high risk those with heart disease or chronic lung disease or diabetes and that sort of stuff. So we've still got it available we just don't have the doors open for everybody walking off the street. And I'm glad you mention it because we. Yeah. Flu epidemics. The CDC finally fessed up. You know what they usually don't pop in till January so you still have all of November and most of December to get your flu vaccines and and again I'd say there's two populations those who should have it that I mentioned and then anybody else as well. This is welcome to it and does it guarantee a well winter. No it just guarantees that it doesn't guarantee much if it guarantees that if they're guessing right in the strains of flu that they're predicting come out you will be protected against that.

You'll still get pear influenza and add no virus and all the other viral infections that are out there. But influenza we can protect and prevent hopefully if they get the right strains and they probably have just the right strains to put in the vaccine. I keep hearing in the office people say there's going to be a terrible flu year and that the strains coming around this year are going to be disastrous. And I'm of I don't know how does anybody know I don't yeah I don't know. But certainly I've had my flu shot and I I think they're good ideas. So given one of the things that people need to remember I guess is that it takes time for the immunity to be established so if you get a shot today and you get exposed to the flu tomorrow that's yeah it's not going to do it. But if if somebody say you think if somebody got their flu shot within the next month say chances are they're probably going to be there would be OK that by the time they'd be a likely to be exposed their immunity would be up and running it should be you know OK for most people they've had flu so this is essentially kind of a booster dose so probably within

oh a week 10 days you've had you're immune systems had as amnestic response and you're probably protected. Did do you think that seem like part part of the problem here was that there was some difficulty in manufacturing the virus but I also heard people in all some help people say well maybe the Whoever it was that was making the recommendation whether it was the CDC or somebody else about who should get the shot kind of went overboard and virtually said everybody should get it so that not only was there a problem with supply but that the demand was a little bit greater because now because now people were saying oh gosh maybe I should have this. Who in the past did and more interested. I think mostly there were technical difficulties for some reason the viruses didn't want to grow in culture. So they there were technical difficulties making the vaccine and its weight came out a little bit late and there's some some supply problems. Yeah. And since it's still it's still the case that.

Eggs are used in the manufacture of this. So if you have an egg allergy that means you can't get the shot and then are you out of luck. Then yeah maybe. I think there's still controversy about this and most people who've studied it say that these vaccines are so purified that there's really although the viruses may have been grown on an egg yolk but they're so purified that there's still a debate whether you should. Yeah. If your eggs sensitive Well you can have the vaccines or not. And it seems that it's coming around to go ahead because the vaccines are so pure there's virtually there's probably no egg protein in there at all and they're probably safe to give if your eggs sensitive. But yeah if your eggs sensitive I think I'd talk to your doctor I don't think I'd go through one of the drive through you know roll down your window hang your arm out. Yeah I think I'd do that more individually and carefully and see what your own doctor thinks.

Right. Well again we have time for some other questions here. Something's on your mind having to do with children's health. You are invited to call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 or W-well. I guess we're invented first. We get stuck on vaccines a lot. Well there's a. Hey that's pretty that's ok much. Well a big part of what pediatricians do that's right. And I think let me let let me talk briefly about the Prevnar vaccine and we mentioned once before that the pneumococcal vaccine. And I think one of the ways I got on focus 580 in the first place was when the list influenza B vaccine came out I guess 20 years ago or something like that and the MAF less influenza B is a bacteria that was responsible for as I recall about 17000 cases of meningitis a year. So this vaccine came out and just knocked the socks off of just not the number of cases of meningitis we saw in kids. Way way down. There were some

problems when their vaccines first came out we could only give it to kids over two years of age because it was a polysaccharide vaccine in kids under 2 years of age don't respond well to polysaccharide vaccine so we stuck approach so that somebody stuck a protein on there and bam away we went we had a good vaccine and knocked the socks off of a chart of human flu is influenza B bacteria. Or meningitis. Well streptococcus pneumonia I think probably everybody's heard about in the news because it's become resistant to multiple antibiotics. It also causes meningitis amongst other infections but meningitis is probably the most serious infection. It again we've had the vaccine for gosh I don't know 15 20 years something like that but it was a polysaccharide vaccine so kids under 2 didn't respond didn't form antibodies to the vaccine. And recently I think about six months ago they came out with a again a protein conjugate vaccine to protect against up to caucus pneumonia. The one we have now has that has

seven different types of pneumococcus in it which are the most which cause I forget 95 percent of the diseases we see. And so it is now a recommended vaccine in all children up to two years of age. This disease causes this bacteria likes to cause problems as most disease do in the very young and the very old. And it's out. And I do recommend it. It causes it's estimated cause about fourteen hundred case of meningitis a year. So a lot less than the old influenza B did the thing about this meningitis is it's uglier than him off with influenza B meningitis has got a lot higher mortality rates got a lot higher morbidity rate or brain damage rate afterwards. And I like all vaccines Maybe someday they'll put me out of business I doubt it. But I think any disease we can safely prevent let's do it.

Here's a question that is not about something that's earth shaking or life threatening but I happen to live not very far from the Urbana High School so I walk along that Washington Street on my way to work and sometimes I see kids going to school and you know this time of the year one starts to see kids that are inappropriately dressed. And here here's the late dad coming out and me I guess you know you see him go along and obviously they're cold. They don't have a good color. They don't have a hat they don't have a scarf they don't have gloves. And you want to say Son why did you leave the house that way. Didn't you know that it was going to be called digital isn't it Keizer. But having been a child myself I guess I know that you know you get certain ideas is that something either to protect particularly people worried about or when you see him headed out and you know that it's cold outside and they're just wearing a little sweatshirt and none of the other accoutrements you know is that just a losing battle and you say fine you're going to be cold. You know you're That's up yet that's your call there until it gets to the point where frostbite would maybe be an issue.

I think that's you know I think no they're not going to get they're not going to get influenza or a cold or anything like that they're just going to get goose pimples. And yeah if they should pass out some place or faint or something like that they could have suffered hypothermia but outside of that that's not about that in the messy room is not a battle as a parent I'd used to used to take on. Well anything here when I got a couple minutes left anything sort of general you might want to drop on people but maybe now we're headed into the holidays. Anything is particularly holiday related. Yeah I think if you're Christmas shopping again pay attention to. What you think your child would like not what you'd like. If you want electric train in your kids 2 years old buy yourself an electric train but don't don't. Yeah don't give it to that. Yeah don't say it's a chip children's gift. Make sure that the gift is appropriate for the child you know if it says up to five years of age I don't care how bright your child is it's

probably you know been tested up through five years of age. Check the toys some of the toys especially some of the important toys. Get a list of recalls all the time you know about the small parts that they might aspirate necessary stuff so yeah you might examine the toys when you get them home or rattle the box see if it sounds like there's too many small parts but I think make the toys appropriate for the child and not something they'll grow into because something they grow into is probably going to collect dust in the basement and they're not going to joy or may be harmful. And you know if you want to treat yourself treat yourself but if you're getting a present for your child make sure it's for the child. Bike shouldn't should fit the child they shouldn't be grown into. I think I wish all bikes were created with bike helmets. But make the holidays like the earlier caller did and talked about the pictures reminiscing and that so as to keep the holidays.

Keep the spirit of the holidays in a Christmas wasn't invented by burglars. It's not a birder's holiday and you know if you're Christian. Yeah focus on that if you're not Christian. Well you know do whatever you want. You know whatever's appropriate for your family that way but again it's not a it's not. It wasn't started by burners or coal not that we have anything against no cars no no no. Well thank you very much. It's good to be here ablaze they have your Dr Robert he's pediatrician from Christy clinic in Champaign is with us once a month with a Thursday and he will be back again next month and we will do the show again.