Expert Offers Advice on How to Choose Age Appropriate and Safe Toys for Children During the Holidays

04.12.2008 08:10

With the excitement of the holidays, parents and relatives eagerly purchase the hottest toys and latest items for their children. But it??™s during the hustle and bustle of the season that many fail to buy age appropriate gifts for their children and they tend to disregard warnings on these toys and gifts when it comes to ensuring safety. Cincinnati Children??™s Hospital Medical Center suggests parents consider their child??™s age, interests, and skill levels when purchasing toys. While shopping, parents are urged to read product warnings and labels, look for sturdy construction and avoid items with sharp edges and points. Once the gifts are opened, it??™s important to quickly discard plastic wrappings and keep older children??™s toys away from younger siblings. ???Children under five years ??“ and especially those under three years ??“ are particularly vulnerable to airway obstruction due to small upper airways, inexperience with chewing and a natural tendency to put everything in their mouths,??? says Michael Gittelman, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Cincinnati Children??™s. Read more…

Privatizing Canada's health care is not the answer: Lessons from the United States

07.10.2008 at 08:03 - Category: Health News Today

OTTAWA, OCTOBER 6, 2008 – Investing in Canada's public health system is the best way to improve it, rather than privatization, writes Dr. Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine. The article was published online today in CMAJhttp://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.081177.

Dr. Angell cautions against a US-style model of health care, arguing that "the US health care system is enormously inefficient compared with the Canadian system." Health care costs in the United States per person are double those in Canada, outcomes are worse and it is less efficient.

"I would urge Canadians not to be swayed by the siren song of the privatizers," writes Dr. Angell. "This is about profiteering as much as it is about health care. The same businesses that have made an exorbitantly expensive and unhealthy mess of the US system stand ready to do the same in Canada."

"Canada's medicare is one of the best health care systems in the world – far superior to the US system….The wisest course for Canada is to expand and reinforce the public system, not undermine it," she concludes.

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