Immunizations Up; Parents Seeking Just a Little More Control
November 10, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Vaccines
Well, here’s a headline that hasn’t been heard so much of late, it seems:
Immunization rate among children rising (from MSNBC via WTHR TV)
According to a recent CDC survey, 77 percent of children have been fully vaccinated in the schedule of recommended vaccines, while less than 1 percent of children had received no vaccines by age 19 to 35 months. Vaccination rates among children are “at or near record levels, with at least 90 percent coverage for all but one of the individual vaccines in the recommended series for young children.” In Indiana, 94 percent of public schools and 68 percent of private schools have complete immunization data for the 2006-07 school year, an increase from last year.
Sue Goebel, a nurse with the Delaware County Health Department, notes that more parents are choosing to space out the vaccinations for their children, though there’s no data to suggest why this should be done. Says Goebel
“It gives moms a little more control”
—-it gives parents the feeling that they have some right to choose.
And the need to have that kind of choice, or feeling that you have that choice: For doctors, researchers, scientists, medical professionals to understand that need — that might, of parents needing to feel in control—it might make a big little difference.
Horses Are For Riding
November 3, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Animals, Sports, Technology
The West Side News reports on the benefits of hipportherapy for disabled children; a friend’s daughter started this sport some months ago and has been enjoying it:
….[hipportherapy's] techniques involve more than just putting a child in saddle and walking him around a riding ring.
Participants ride forward, backwards, and sideways in an effort to strengthen different muscle groups and experience the horse’s movements differently.
Something tells me you can horseback ride on a Wii, or not?
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield