Although many parents with kids at summer camp are worried about swine flu right now, there are still a lot of the old summer camp infection standbys out there, like impetigo and of course, head lice.

This summer, campers have a new weapon against head lice, which is especially good news for parents who don't like to use anti-lice drugs like Nix, Rid, Ovide, or Lindane, since they consider them to be pesticides. Now instead of coming up with their own recipes for head lice home remedies, such as mayonnaise, olive oil, or vaseline, they can try Ulesfia (Benzyl Alcohol Lotion 5%) which was recently approved to treat children over six months of age with head lice. Unlike other head lice shampoos, Ulesfia is a water-soluble gel that works to suffocate head lice.

There is yet another recall this week -- this time about 1 million play yards are being recalled because the Consumer Product Safety Commission says that their 'side rail can fail to latch properly and when a child pushes against the rail it can unlatch unexpectedly, posing a fall hazard to children.'

These play yards include a number of models made by Kolcraft, Carter's, Sesame Street, Jeep, Contours, Care Bear and Eric Carle Play Yards and were sold from January 2000 to January 2009 in stores nationwide. There have been at least 347 reports of play yards collapsing and 21 injuries to young children.

If you have a recalled play yard, you should stop using it until you can get a free repair kit from Kolcraft.

Related:
CPSC: Kolcraft Play Yard Recall Alert
Baby Cribs
Baby Product Recalls
Registering Your Car Seat

We are still dealing with several food recalls right now, including the E. coli cookie dough recall that has affected 72 people in 30 states and an E. coli outbreak from beef products that has affected 23 people in 9 states.

There is a new recall now -- various foods made with instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and gums (thickening agents) manufactured by Plainview Milk Products Cooperative. It is thought that these food products might be contaminated with Salmonella.

In addition to Malt-O-Meal Hearty Traditions Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal and other brands of instant oatmeal , other recall food products include some brands of non-fat dried milk powder, other drink mix products, and butter flavored toppings from Kroger. If you have any of these recalled products, throw them out or try to get a refund, and call your pediatrician if your child recently ate any of the recalled products and has any symptoms of salmonella.

July is National Hemochromatosis Awareness Month, and since most parents, and many pediatricians, don't know about any of the signs, symptoms, or problems associated with hemochromatosis, it is a great time for everyone to learn more about it.

Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease that can be inherited from a child's parents, and which causes the child to absorb too much iron, leading to extra iron being stored in the child's liver, heart, pancreas, and other organs. And although this usually doesn't cause any symptoms in childhood, later in life it can cause them to have arthritis, heart problems, liver disease, diabetes, and many other medical problems.

Learn if your child is at risk for hemochromatosis, especially if any adult family members, including parents, aunts, and uncles, have already been diagnosed with hemochromatosis.

The news that Accutane is being taken off the market has likely worried a lot of parents whose teens are taking this powerful acne medicine.

Although most people know about the possible serious side effects of Accutane, including severe birth defects if a women becomes pregnant while taking Accutane, serious mental health problems, including depression, psychosis, and suicide, bad headaches, gastrointestinal problems, bone and muscle problems, and vision and hearing problems, many continue to take it to treat their severe nodular acne that has not responded to other treatments.

The good news for these patients is that only brand name Accutane is being taken off the market. Other generic versions of Accutane (isotretinoin), including Amnesteem and Claravis, will still be available. According to Roche Holding AG, the maker of Accutane, the decision to take Accutane off the market was not because it was not safe, but rather because they could no longer compete with generic versions of the drug.

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New Acne Treatment Medications
Acne Treatments
Acne Questions, Myths, and Facts
Rashes

Although you should make every effort to keep your kids safe year-round, it is especially important in the summer when most kids are out of school.

From sunburn and heat stroke to drowning, hot temperatures and more time spent outdoors, perhaps unsupervised, can put kids' health and safety at risk. Review these hidden summer dangers to make sure your kids are safe this summer.

Fireworks are a 4th of July tradition for just about all of us in the United States.

In recent years, many child safety experts have tried to shift that tradition away from playing with fireworks and towards watching fireworks at public shows. This can help to do away with another 4th of July tradition that some families have -- the visit to the emergency room to care for a fireworks related injury.

Unfortunately, some people predict a big increase in the use of home fireworks this year, as less people are traveling, and so may decide to buy fireworks at a local fireworks stand. If you have kids, before buying them fireworks to play with, you might keep in mind that in 2008 there were seven fireworks-related deaths and 7,000 fireworks-related hospital emergency room treated injuries that could have been avoided if they had simply gone to a public fireworks show instead of lighting their own fireworks.

Although there may be fewer fireworks shows this year, to keep their kids safe, parents should follow the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Alliance to Stop Consumer Fireworks, a group of health and safety organizations which 'urges the public to avoid the use of consumer fireworks, and to only enjoy displays of fireworks conducted by trained professionals.'

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the recall of another 400,000 Simplicity Drop Side Cribs because the 'crib’s plastic hardware can break or deform, causing the drop side to detach.' This follows the crib recall of 1 million Simplicity cribs in 2007 and 2008.

There has been at least one death of an infant and 25 other incidents that involve the drop side detaching from the crib, which allow the infant to become entrapped between the drop side and the crib mattress. These recalled Simplicity cribs were sold between January 2005 through June 2009 and include model numbers 8050, 8325, 8620, 8745, 8748, 8755, 8756, 8765, 8778, 8810, and 8994, 8995, 8996.

Unfortunately, the CPSC reports that Simplicity Inc. no longer seems to be in business, so no repair kits are available and parents will have to stop using these cribs and find a safer, alternative crib. The CPSC does state that parents can try to 'return the crib to the place of purchase for a refund, replacement or store credit.'

Related:
Simplicity Crib Recalls
CPSC: Simplicity Drop Side Cribs Recall Alert
Crib Safety
Baby Cribs

Tylenol (acetaminophen) is in the news, but not because of a recall or any new drug warnings.

Instead, health experts are concerned about the many accidental Tylenol overdosages that affect people each year. To help reduce them, a joint panel of several FDA committees have made several recommendations to the FDA, including lowering the single adult dose to 650 mg, lowering the maximum adult daily dose, making the 500 mg pill available by prescription only, banning prescription medicines that combine Tylenol with a narcotic, like hydrocodone or codeine, and placing a black-box warning on medicines that combine acetaminophen with another prescription pain ingredient.

How will this affect parents if the FDA adopts these recommendations? Besides changing the way parents themselves take Tylenol and Tylenol containing products, since many teens reach the single adult dose, it will likely affect the dose of Tylenol that their kids can take. It doesn't look like the dose of Tylenol will change for younger children though, although parents should still be careful about combining Tylenol with another Tylenol containing product, such as a multi-symptom cold medicine with acetaminophen.

The other big change for parents of younger children may come if the FDA follows the joint panel's recommendation to limit liquid Tylenol to a single formulation, so that you might not have the more concentrated Tylenol drops to give an infant or toddler vs. the less concentrated Tylenol suspension that you would give an older child. Also, a ban on prescription medicines that combine Tylenol with a narcotic for adults, like Percocet and Vicodin, might include those for children too. Of course you could still give the medicines separately, as a dose of hydrocodone and a dose of Tylenol, but since kids usually don't like to take medicine, that might be easier said than done.

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Tylenol Dosage Calculator
Don't Panic - Your Child has Fever
Health Alert - Cold Medicines

Not surprisingly, the FDA has found a sample of prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough that was contaminated with the E. coli O157 bacteria. Previously, the FDA strongly suspected that the cookie dough was to blame, since many infected people said that they had eaten raw refrigerated prepackaged Nestle Toll House cookie dough products, but they had not actually found any contaminated cookie dough.

Remember that an E. coli outbreak prompted the recall of all varieties of prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough earlier this month. So far, there have been reports of 69 people getting infected in this outbreak in 29 states.

Although news of the recall is not being publicized as much as it was when it was first announced, it is important to remember to get rid of any recalled Nestlé Toll House cookie dough that you may still have in your home and watch your kids for E. coli symptoms.

Related:
CDC: E. coli Outbreak
Toll House Cookie Recall Q&A
Cookie Dough Recall Alert
Food Poisoning