Archive for the ‘News’ category

Avoid this flu shot brand for small kids….

August 5th, 2010

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have recommended that you (and your kids) should avoid using the CSL vaccine in children ages 6 months through 8 years.  The AP article states:

“Committee members were concerned about the unexplained higher rate of fevers and related seizures seen in young children who got the vaccine earlier this year in Australia and New Zealand. In kids under 5, the rates were roughly 10 times that of other flu vaccines. No deaths have been linked to the problem.

The panel said the vaccine could be used in children older than 5 if they were at greater risk of flu complications and no other vaccine was available.

The committee provides vaccine advice to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which usually adopts its recommendations and sends the advice to doctors and the public.”

The full article is here.

How Much Does it Cost to Raise a Kid?

August 11th, 2009

The US Dept of Agriculture recently updated their annual analysis of how much parents will spend to raise their kids. Their findings: the average total that parents can expect for the first 17 years in the life of a child who is born this year is about $221,190 — $291,570, accounting for expected inflation. That’s up from $25,229 in 1960, $69,333 in 1980 and $160,140 in 2000. Yikes…. seems like we might have found a new form of contraception. The full report is here.