Suit against Baby Product Companies

Lawsuit Filed Regarding Baby Products

2009-03-24 07:48

Manufacturers questioned about ingredients used.
Some of the nation's largest child-product companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Proctor and Gamble and Kimberly Clark, are the target of a nationwide class-action lawsuit by parents after a study revealed that many of the companies' products contain questionable chemicals.The suit, filed March 19 in U.S. District Court in Chicago, will represent parents or other consumers who purchased any of an extensive list of products, if the court certifies the action, according to law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.The findings were part of a study conducted by nonprofit, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which tested commonly used baby products and found amounts of carcinogens such as formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. According to the report, manufacturers say the levels of the potentially cancer-causing toxins are so small that they do not pose a risk to the public, and are within government guidelines.The defendants include Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Gerber Products Company, The Proctor and Gamble Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Expanscience Laboratories Inc. doing business as Mustela, and Limited Brands Inc.

Test questions for my students

I want you as my students to have some idea of what you need to know on the test for the certification.

Know:
Diaper Rashes and their definition
Clothing Rules the temperature and what to wear
Reflexes defined
Chemicals that are dangerous
When is a baby sleep and when is a baby overtired
Crying schedule (timing)
When to swaddle when to stop swaddling

Of course there are many other questions but these questions are the ones most missed.

Update on Chemicals that are harmful

Methylparaben and Propylparaben
The health concern regarding these chemicals suggest that they may alter hormone levels, possibly increasing risks for certain types of cancer, impaired fertility, or alteration of the development of a fetus or young child. Paraben is a common ingredient in many cosmetic and shampoo items. Anything with that ends with paraban is potentially very toxic. Paraben's mimic estrogen. Long term exposure to paraben's can lead to a higher risk of breast cancer It accumulates in our fatty tissue and increases over time. When estrogen activity occurs it may be the reason why we are getting puberty earlier and getting infertility in women in their early 20’s. This is either one culprit or the culprit, according to Cornell university.

DREAM FEED

A dream feed is the feed done before the parent or the Newborn Care Specialist goes to bed. This is around 10 or 11PM. The baby is not wakened but picked up and given a bottle or breast. Generally they will eat without wakening. This gives the adult a stretch of approximately 3 – 4 hours of solid sleep as they are feeding the baby just before they, the adult, is going to bed. This method is used by NCS's who want to 'say' the baby is sleeping through the night at an earlier age. It is easier to get a baby to sleep from 10 PM – 4 AM than it is to be able to get a baby to sleep from 7 PM through 4 AM. If you are sleep training the baby for a 12 hour period, it is much easier to work from the 7 PM time frame letting the infant sleep until they wake up. If you are trying to get the infant to sleep from 10 PM – 6 AM you can use the dream feed method.

WHY IS SLEEP IMPORTANT- ARTICLES

40% OF ALL BABY'S ARE SLEEP DEPRIVED

The Importance of Sleep

Prof. Avi Sadeh

Body Maturation
“Sleep is a basic physiological need required for physical recovery, reinvigoration, body growth, brain maturation, learning and memory. Chronic and sustained sleep deprivation can lead to exhaustion, physical damage to body tissues, dysfunction of the immune system, severe stress and even death.
The growth hormone, the one responsible for a baby’s physical growth, is secreted mostly during the deep stages of a baby’s sleep. A severe sleep disorder could, therefore, lead to insufficient secretion of this hormone and to compromised body maturation.
Brain Growth
When a baby suddenly becomes active during sleep -- her breathing becomes uneven, her eyes dart from side to side, and she smiles and grimaces – it means she is in a unique stage of sleep -- Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This stage is associated with dreaming. Babies spend as much as 50 percent of their sleep in REM sleep, which is very important for brain maturation, learning and development. A baby is born with about 30 percent of her full brain size, and during the first 3 years, the brain grows very rapidly -- to almost its full adult size. It is believed that REM sleep is an essential stage that facilitates brain growth, which is why babies spend so much time of their infancy in this unique sleep stage. We also know that during REM sleep, the brain “digests” and stores all the information that bombards a baby during the wakeful hours. Disruptions to their REM sleep could lead to the compromised learning of all the smart things we teach our babies when they are awake and alert.
Time to Sleep
When babies don’t get enough sleep, or if their sleep is disrupted, they tend to be very agitated, nervous, hyperactive, and difficult to manage or soothe. Most parents experience these situations when their baby reaches the time she needs to go to sleep. These signs present important information for parents, telling them when their baby is ready for sleep. Many parents know that when they miss their baby’s sleep time, it could become much harder for her to calm down and fall asleep. This is because their baby, like an adult, has an internal biological clock that makes it easy to fall asleep at certain times, and difficult to fall asleep at others. Keeping to a regular schedule and a relatively constant bedtime helps the baby (and her parents) to regulate the biological clock and develop healthy sleep patterns.”

Sleep
Dr. Luis Rivera
Diplomat of Philippine Pediatric Society

“Good sleep is essential to a baby’s growth and development. It is expected that on their first year of life, babies should sleep between 11 and 18 hours a day, and during this time have growth hormones actively working on their physiological and emotional development at three times the normal rate.
A baby who doesn’t get enough good sleep will exhibit very real developmental problems that may include hyperactivity, aggression and learning difficulties. His physical and mental growth may also be impeded, and he may experience more behavioral problems and a reduced ability to pay attention and concentrate.
According to Dr. Luis Rivera, a Diplomat of the Philippine Pediatric Society, Fellow of the Philippine Society of Sleep Medicine and a Pediatric Consultant for Makati Medical Center and Asian Hospital, “Sleep for babies is not just rest for the body. It assists in brain development, proper learning and, to a certain extent, social adjustment. And since our growth hormones are released during sleep, the child is given developmental and growth values as well. Poor sleep can impact growth—they become stunted, or thinner, or smaller, crankier, and they develop slower.”
Dr. Rivera further explains, “What a baby really needs is good sleep, which is really nighttime sleep.”
Quality and duration of a baby’s nighttime sleep has a greater impact on overall growth and development than daytime sleep according to studies. At night, a baby’s brain development kicks in at full speed, as neurons grow and develop at an accelerated pace. This allows the child to develop cognitive and organized thoughts that allow him to learn and unlearn all the sensory input he encountered during his waking hours.
One of the best treatments for sleep problems in children is to adapt a regular bedtime routine that will signal the transition from wake to sleep for the child.
Bedtime routine
A good way to adopt a baby bedtime routine is to consistently practice it every day because, according to studies, babies as young as a few weeks respond well to bedtime routines.
The Baby Bedtime Routine is a simple three-step process. As per Dr. Rivera
1. Give the baby a relaxing five-minute warm bath.
2. Give the baby a two-minute oil massage applied with downward strokes for her limbs, clockwise circles on her tummy, outward sweeps on the chest, small circles on her head and face, and sweeping downward strokes on her back and feet. It would be best to perform the massage while talking to your baby in a soothing voice to further calm baby and get her ready for sleep.
3. Engage in quiet bonding time, talking to baby with a soothing voice in a dimly lit room. This will allow you both to wind down and welcome sleep. Some moms can use this time for breastfeeding, singing, or reading a story. It would be best to put your baby to bed as soon as she gets drowsy, but while still awake. This teaches her to be self-soothing and makes her more able to put herself back to sleep when she awakes during the night.
Dr. Rivera attests, “I actively recommended the bedtime routine to two or three of my patients recently and after three to four weeks, the babies were sleeping better. The bedtime routine is sleep-training for babies.”
According to studies, babies fall asleep 37 percent faster and experience 37 percent less night awakenings. The total duration of night awakenings decrease by as much as 49 percent, while at the same time increasing the length of babies’ longest continuous sleep by 23 percent. And more than just allowing babies to sleep longer and better, a well-rested baby also means a mom who is less tense, less tired and more energetic”.

NEWBORN CUES FOR OVER STIMULATION

Infants use cues as mentioned above for interaction and to signal a time for you to recognize they have had enough stimulation and are becoming stressed or disorganized. This form of recognition is used in preemies and in full term babies. There are four kinds of clues for you to be familiar with.

1. Physiological: This is the way the organs of the body function. The brain regulates body functions such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, body temperature and many others. If the baby is premature then the organs and the central nervous system is also, so most of the cues will be of this nature.

Breathing rate: may be faster or slower or may have pauses that last 2 seconds or more. If this happens we call this disorganized and we would realize the baby is overloaded.
Skin Color: if disorganized the skin may be pale, dusky, red or blotchy. If there
is nothing wrong the skin will be a healthy pink color.

2. Motor: The visible signs of over stimulation would be in tone, posture or movement.
Tone: This would be the amount of tension or energy seen in a baby's body when
resting. When a baby is limp it is a sign of low tone. As the baby matures, the tone will develop more fully and the baby will learn to curl or tuck the body. This will start in the legs and move to the trunk and then the arms.

Posture: This is the position of the arms and legs. When the baby is stressed the
arms and/or legs may be extended or stretched out. When the baby is relaxed the arms and legs will be curled near the body.
Movement: This will vary from jerky and uncontrolled to more smooth and controlled movements as the body matures.

If the baby is stressed: Stretched arms, fingers and/or toes splayed, hands in
fists, high arm position where arms are over the head and fore arms lay across the
face in a self-protecting or shielding manner. Other signs include a rigid or flaccid
body, squirming, jerking, mouth open limply, tongue extending beyond lips, or body arching.
If baby is calm: The will lie in a soft position with arms and legs softly bent around the body. Hands may be near face. Movements will be smooth. Arms and legs stay close to the body and may move in circles.

3. State: This refers to all aspects of the sleep and wake cycles. Patterns of sleeping and waking are important for babies development because the sleep habits they learn now they will carry though there entire life time. Being alert and learning to interact and relate to people is also a very important task. When a baby is born prematurely he is ready to learn to sleep but not to socialize. They are extremely sensitive to their environment. Even things as easy as eating and breathing at the same time can be difficult for the premature baby to learn. When they finally get these movements learned it is an important accomplishment. You can make it easier to adjust by recognizing these sings and honoring them.
If the baby is stressed: He will have a low level of alertness with this eyes slightly open, he will have little movement, or he may be quiet with eyes wide open like panic – he may be focused on something and unable to break his gaze, he may be unable to calm himself, have an upward gaze, be staring or grimacing.
If the baby is calm: He will have little or no movement but will have bright eyes, focused and appearing ready to interact. He may be in a deep sleep with regular breathing, with no rapid eye movement and relaxed facial expressions, and mildly sucking. There should be no spontaneous movements or irregular breathing, eyes should be closed or partially open, and no REM.

4. Self Regulation: Is what we call self soothing and dealing with one's surroundings. The baby is learning to maintain balance in all of the above systems all at once. Self Soothing methods will become evident as the baby's system matures. They become better at this with the help of you and the parents.

Self Soothing or Self Regulation will include any of the following behaviors:
Hands to mouth and face
Bracing feet and legs together
Clasping hands together
Clasping feet together
Tucking their bodies
Sucking behavior
Grasping and holding on
Looking and attending

When the baby is doing any of these he is beginning Self Soothing Techniques.

Taken from “ Getting to Know your Baby” 2003 Special Start Training Programs, Mills College Dept of Education, Oakland CA

READING A BABY'S SIGNS

I am content:

No crying or fussing
Looking around
Alert
No flailing – just relaxed movements

I am self – soothing:

Sucking on pacifier contently
Fussing very little
Same as above

I am overloaded:

Yawning
Flailing of arms or legs
Crying
Won’t look at you – stares at a spot over your shoulder
Arching of back and neck
Rubbing eyes
Tremors
Twitches
Coughing
Grasping
Sighing
Sneezing

Infants use cues as mentioned above for interaction and to signal a time for you to recognize they have had enough stimulation and are becoming stressed or disorganized. This form of recognition is used in preemies and in full term babies. There are four kinds of clues for you to be familiar with.

CARE OF THE UNCIRCUMCISED PENIS

“Many physicians improperly believe that the foreskin of a intact, non-circumcised male infants must be forcibly retracted and the glans penis examined. Forcible retraction of the newborn prepuce is guaranteed to cause pain and possible injury to your son as the newborn prepuce is usually too narrow to permit retraction, and furthermore, is fused with the underlying glans penis. Premature retraction will cause the foreskin to be ripped from the glans and raw surfaces will be formed which when they heal will cause adhesions. In addition the raw surfaces are more prone to infection. The physician should be advised that no retraction of the foreskin is to be done. Premature retraction of a newborn foreskin is medical malpractice and grounds for legal action”. © copyright by George Hill

SENSORY STIMULUS OF PREMATURE BABIES

PREMATURE UPDATES:

PHYSICAL SIGNS OF DISCOMFORT/OVER STIMULATION

If a preemie is more irritable and less consolable than a normal baby you may be over- stimulating them. Here are some things to watch for:
Changes in skin color - Arching of back and/or neck
Repeated yawning - Eyes lids drooping
Hiccups - Crying
Flailing of arms an legs - General crankiness
Will not look at you or make eye contact. They may stare at something over your shoulder.

SENSORY STIMULUS

Many NICU centers are now telling parents not to swaddle their premature babies because they need to have their hands by their face. The reasoning they are giving is 'Sensory Stimulus.' The theory behind it is that if baby has his hands by his face he will be able to calm himself easier. Maren Peterson-DeGroff an educator and advocate for children and families wrote the following:
“Babies who don't have mature neural systems are "disorganized." They can't synthesize all the sensations and stimulus they are receiving, and they need help to get organized. The first thing a full term baby does naturally is to put their hands together in front of their body, to their "center line", to organize. If your child isn't doing this, help her, gently hold her hands together. Babies also suck on their hands; you can bring her hands to her mouth if she doesn't on her own. This is calming and organizing. This work to organize is important to the brain development, so your job is to help give her an environment that will allow her to do the work, create the neural pathways in her brain that will be the building blocks for later complex activity. That center line is key to later on development, so help her find it.”
I would suggest to you that when the baby has awake time it would be a good time to unswaddle them and allow them or guide them to putting their hands to their face. However, when they sleep they need to be swaddled for good, sound sleep.