Kaiba Gionfriddo was born with an incompletely formed bronchus (one of the two airways that connect the lungs to the windpipe). This condition, which affects about 2,000 U.S. babies annually, is rarely discovered at birth. For most babies, more tissue develops over time, and the condition corrects itself around age 2 or 3. But in severe cases, like Kaiba’s, the baby suddenly stops breathing. It is only then that parents learn of their child’s condition, and often, by that time, it’s too late. That was almost what happened to Kaiba when, at six weeks old, he accompanied his parents to a restaurant.

“He turned blue and stopped breathing on us,” April Gionfriddo, Kaiba’s mother told CBC News.

April said that the little boy’s father managed to revive him with CPR, but more episodes followed. By the time he was two months old, doctors had placed him on a breathing machine. It was then that they delivered a very grim prognosis to Kaiba’s parents.

Kaiba’s airway kept collapsing. Sometimes his heart stopped too. Without something to keep his airway open, it was only a matter of time before his parents lost him forever.

“Quite a few of them said he had a good chance of not leaving the hospital alive,” April said. “We pretty much prayed every night, hoping that he would pull through.”

But Marc Nelson, a doctor at Akron Children’s Hospital, suggested that they consider some experimental work that was being done in Michigan. There, doctors were testing airway splints made out of biodegradable polyester – a material sometimes used to repair bone and cartilage. Though they’d never actually implanted one of these splints, it seemed that they might be little Kiaba’s only hope.

So, doctors in Michigan “printed out” 100 tiny tubes from a 3D printer. They used the computer-guided lasers to stack and fuse thin layers of plastic instead of paper and ink. They constructed various shapes and sizes, to try and find the perfect fit for Kaiba. After receiving special permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, one of those tiny tubes was implanted into Kaiba.

To keep it from collapsing, surgeons stitched the tiny tube to Kaiba’s defective bronchus and then placed the tube around it. And just like that, a little boy who wasn’t expected to leave the hospital alive was able to breathe normally for the first time in months. Even better, he hasn’t had a single breathing crisis since. In fact, he’s doing so well (now at 19 months old!) that doctors are getting ready to take out the tracheotomy tube that was needed to keep him alive while on his breathing machine.

“He’s a pretty healthy kid right now,” Dr. Glenn Green, a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where the operation was done, told CBC News.

And, though it’s not as amazing as saving his life, the tube itself does some pretty amazing things. With a slit up its side, the tube actually grows with Kaiba’s body; that’s something a permanent, artificial implant could never do. And, as new tissue forms to take its place, the biodegradable plastic will actually be absorbed by his body over the next three years, the biomedical engineer who led the work, Scott Hollister, told CBC.

Dr. Green and Scott Hollister are already working on a patent pending for the device, though it may be some time before it is made available for the general public. Still, even just seeing an experimentation do this well, there are doctors who are impressed with the work, and hope to see it used in the future.

Pediatric specialist at the University of Missouri in Kansas City called the device “the wave of the future.”

“I’m impressed by what they were able to accomplish,” he told CBC.

Dr. John Bent, a pediatric specialist at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine didn’t go quite that far. He says that more time is needed to determine if the device will serve as a permanent solution. He did, however, praise the researchers for their ingenuity and perseverance.

“I can think of a handful of children I have seen in the last two decades who suffered greatly…that likely would have benefited from this technology,” Bent told CBC.

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Presented by senior author Scott Graziano, MD, and Payton Johnson at the 61^st Annual Clinic Meeting of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in New Orleans, the study included a total of 170 pregnant women; 104 of them completed a questionnaire during their first trimester and 66 completed one during their third trimester.

Out of the first trimester participants, 72% reported bowel disorders, and 61% of the third trimester respondents reported one or more bowel disorders, including constipation, bloating, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Interestingly enough, when asked to measure the extent to which those bowel problems affect their quality of life (such as the problems making them enjoy life less, limit what they’re eating, make them embarrassed, isolated, depressed or angry), few said it had a significant impact. The only exceptions were constipation, which, out of a 1 to 100 scale (1 being the most impactful), scored 4.4 points and bloating, which scored 4.0 points.

According to Graziano, the reason that bowel problems have so little impact on the quality of life may likely be because pregnant women have learned to expect these issues during pregnancy. As a result, they’re more likely to tolerate them for a short period of time.

And, to a point, women are correct in their expectance of bowel disorders. Physiological changes and hormone changes that occur during pregnancy are the main cause for the presence of bowel disorders during pregnancy, Graziano said. For example, increased progesterone levels affect smooth muscles in the intestines, which causes food to take longer to move through the digestive tract, which, in turn, leads to constipation. Another culprit in the bowel changes is the additional vitamins and supplements that women take during pregnancy, Graziano said.

To help alleviate or, at the very least, minimize some of the common bowel issues, Graziano says that pregnant women should make sure they get plenty of fluids and fiber. In fact, a lack of fiber may also play a part in bowel disorders during pregnancy since most pregnant women consume only 16 to 17 grams of fiber a day when the recommendation is 25 to 30 grams.

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Gisele carried Vivian in an ErgoBaby Carrier, while Tom pushed Ben in the stroller.  Tom’s oldest son John(from ex Bridget Moynahan) walked with Gisele as they made their way through the park.

Also along for the trip was the couple’s dog Lua who got some love when the family stopped to relax.

The downtime was short lived for the model. Last night she joined her sister Gabriele Bündchen at a private party thrown in her honor by photographer Johan Lindeberg in New York City.  She shared a photo of the sibling moment saying,

‘So happy my sister Gabi is in town @blkdnm‘

It truly was a family day all around for Gisele!

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“As I was getting the mammogram, the radiologist started to look like she was watching a train wreck,” Jenise told Public Opinion Online. “I asked her what was going on. She hugged me and told me I had cancer.”

But that wouldn’t be the worst news. After being sent to an oncologist to determine the next course of action, blood tests revealed that Jenise was pregnant.

“It felt like everything was hitting us all at once,” Greg told Public Opinion.

Greg was right. Cancer treatments, which usually involve surgery, anesthesia and chemotherapy and/or radiation, aren’t recommended for pregnant women. But for women in the early stages of pregnancy, these procedures are especially dangerous to the developing fetus.

“The fetus is a developing baby,” Christopher Marsh, M.D., a medical oncologist at the Regional Cancer Center. “Chemotherapy can affect rapidly dividing cells, so you always worry about doing it to a pregnant woman.”

To make matters worse, Jenise had HER-2 positive breast cancer, an aggressive type of breast cancer. She needed to start treatment immediately. A decision about the baby needed to be made; in the end, Jenise agreed to the treatments, but only if they could do it in a way that would allow her to keep the baby.

“The way my ob-gyn explained it, I was so early in my pregnancy that either I would miscarry during surgery or the embryo would be completely protected,” Jenise said.

Doctors started with a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction. Though Jenise only had cancer in one breast, opting to have them both removed reduce her chances of developing cancer later on. The baby handled surgery very well, which was good news. But like all of their recent good news, it was laced with some bad news; cancer had spread to at least one of Jenise’s lymph nodes.

“That was maybe the scariest moment for me,” Jenise said. “That’s when I leaned a lot on my faith, friends and my doctors, who were great.”

At that point, most women would have started chemotherapy and Herceptin, an intravenous drug specifically used for aggressive HER-2 cancers. But Jenise had to pass on the Herceptin because it’s even more toxic for a fetus than chemotherapy.

“We don’t like to give chemotherapy to pregnant women, but there are ways you can protect the baby,” Marsh said. “But Herceptin – we don’t even think about giving that during pregnancy.”

So Jenise went to Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh to meet with a fertility specialist, oncologist and high-risk ob-gyn to decide which treatment methods would be most effective at keeping the baby safe while still helping her body fight the cancer. They decided that chemotherapy could be started around Jenise’s 13^th week of pregnancy, but the regimen would be altered to help reduce the risk to the baby.

Still working full time as a lead transportation security officer at Erie International Airport, Jenise didn’t suffer from any serious side effects, outside of the loss of her hair. But even with the altered chemotherapy drugs, treatment was taxing on her pregnant body.

“I’d get tired and I wouldn’t know if it was from the chemo or the pregnancy,” said Jenise, who had to go in every three weeks for a round of chemo. “The pregnancy is what helped me get through those days, looking forward to that little miracle.”

And the further along her pregnancy got, the more and more apparent it became that she’d have that little miracle to hold. Doctors carefully monitored the baby through ultrasounds, and it looked as though the baby was growing normally. Seeing that baby every single week reminded Jenise that every decision made affected her baby. But when it finally came time for the treatments to stop, she was ecstatic that she’d no longer have to put her baby at risk, just to ensure her survival.

“Through the pregnancy, I never considered just myself as a patient,” she said. “[The baby] and I were a team, both one patient – whatever procedure or treatment I went through had the potential to affect her, too. I’ll never forget the feeling I had at the last treatment we received before delivery. We were pausing partway through the treatment cycle to get my blood counts where they needed to be prior to delivering. Sitting at [the cancer center] on March 11^th, it instantly hit me…she no longer had to suffer being the patient; she was now simply the daughter, and I became the patient. It was the happiest day I can recall, knowing that my baby would never have to endure that poisoning again.”

Healthy baby Brinley was finally welcomed into the world by her parents on April 7^th.

“I was so happy that Brinley looked….” Greg said, holding his 1-month-old daughter against his chest.

“Healthy,” Jenise finished for him, laughing. “I was so worried about preterm labor because it’s so common with women who are pregnant and undergoing treatment.”

But not Brinely. One month later, she’s beautiful, perfect in the eyes of her parents. And all because they weren’t willing to give up something they’d wanted.

Brinely wasn’t the only good news they’d receive though. Even though Jenise still has to continue three more weeks of chemo and a year of Herceptin, her prognosis looks good.

“Her scans have been good,” Dr. Marsh said. “I think she has a good chance of being cured.”

Looking back, even after all she’s been through, Jenise says she refuses to see herself as a victim. She has a beautiful baby, and she’s managed to keep her focus on beating a disease that claims around 40,000 American women each and every year. In fact, if anything, she considers her battle with cancer to be an opportunity to inspire others because she refused to let the word “cancer” take her hope of life and a future away.

“I’m glad it was me instead of anybody else in my family,” she said. “I have seen what my family and friends have gone through during my illness. I know that I’m OK, but they don’t and they feel so helpless.”

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Published in the British Medical Journal Open, the new study analyzed 1,472 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) cases and 4,679 control cases from Australia, the UK and Europe. News.com.au called it the largest study on cot death to date.

Led by Professor Robert Carpenter, the researchers say that infants are five times more likely to die of SIDS if they co-sleep with their parents, even if their parents aren’t smokers. They also say that this risk extends to babies that have previously been thought to have a less of a risk of SIDS while co-sleeping (ex: babies that are breastfed or babies whose mothers have not consumed drugs or alcohol prior to falling asleep).

According to the researchers, the SIDS death rate would “plummet” if parents stopped bed sharing and public health messages were more forceful about the dangers surrounding co-sleeping, particularly for infants under the age of three months.

“Eighty percent of the deaths that occurred while bed sharing would probably not have occurred, had the baby been placed on its back in a cot by the parents’ bed,” the authors said.

Jill Green from the safe sleeping organization, SIDS and Kids, who was not involved in the study, backs this information and recommends that infants sleep on their backs in their own cots next to their parent’s beds for the first six to twelve months.

“Sharing sleeping surfaces with a baby can increase the risk of not only SIDS but also fatal sleeping accidents,” Green told News.com.au. “We need to take both of those into consideration. There are as many fatal sleep accidents as there are little ones dying from SIDS. We need to go further and inform parents about what is a safe sleeping environment and what is not so they can make an informed choice.”

Separate sleeping for mothers and babies has only been around for about two centuries (Davies, L. (1995). “Babies co-sleeping with parents.” Midwives: Official Journal of the Royal College of Midwives, 108, 384-386), but Western cultures, as well as other developed cultures, have adopted the practice of separate sleeping space for better safety and more privacy, among other reasons.

Researchers on the latest study say there’s been a shift in that practice, and that co-sleeping rates in developed countries have increased “markedly” over the last decade. They say that parents who endorse the practice are active on the internet and social network outlets. However, Murdoch University associate professor, Catherine Fetherson, believes these parents are being driven underground because of the blanket messages against co-sleeping.

“They are continuing to do it, even though people are being warned against it, and so what is happening is they are shutting down all communication with health professionals,” Featherson told News.com.au. “We don’t have the opportunity to talk to them about how they can do it safely and how they can minimize the risks associated with it.”

Considering the fact that Featherson says that research estimates somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all parents co-sleep at some point, that’s a lot of parents that aren’t receiving the message of how co-sleeping can be done safely.

So, can it be done safely?

Though there is a great deal of evidence against it, there are many parents and experts who will tell you that co-sleeping can be done safely. Experts like Dr. Sears, Attachment Parenting supportive doctor, who says that there are seven key benefits to co-sleeping, and that it can be done in a way that helps reduce the risk of SIDS.

According to Dr. Sears:

• Parents can make their beds a safer place for baby by using fitted sheets on their mattresses and removing all fluffy blankets and pillows that could pose a risk to baby. Parents should also avoid waterbeds, damaged beds, or beds with holes. Also, there shouldn’t be any gaps (even ones that you think baby would be too big to fit through) between baby and the wall.
• Parents who have consumed alcohol, drugs, or have taken medications that may alter sleep patterns should not co-sleep. Additionally, parents that are over-tired should put the baby in their own cot because exhaustion can keep you from waking up at night.
• Items that could wrap around baby – jewelry, strings, cords, etc. – should be removed from your person, your clothing and your bed before co-sleeping. Any of these items could create a hazard for your baby. Babies should not be swaddled while co-sleeping either.
• Parents who wish to co-sleep should be very mindful of the temperature of their room. A room that is too cold could encourage parents to pull the blankets up in their sleep, putting baby at a higher risk. And rooms that are too warm could cause baby to overheat while snuggled against an adult.
• Co-sleeping should never be done on a couch or chair. Baby can become trapped in between baby and the furniture. Additionally, furniture can make it easier for the baby to roll off onto the floor.

Any sleeping location can be unsafe for a baby. And babies can die of SIDS, regardless of where they are sleeping. So, whether you choose to co-sleep or place your baby in a separate location, you should know the difference between safe and unsafe sleeping conditions. In the end, every parent has to make their own choice – and that applies to almost every aspect of parenting.

Although I would not consider myself an advocate, I’m definitely not a person that speaks out against co-sleeping since I shared a bed with all five of my children. My youngest still finds himself in our bed from time to time. Was I right? Did I make a mistake? I honestly can’t say, other than the fact that all of my children are healthy and safe.

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Important for the production of hormones made by the thyroid, iodine is extremely important during pregnancy because it can have a direct effect on fetal development. Studies have linked serious deficiencies to cretinism (the medical term for retardation), but even mild or moderately deficient can bring harm to their unborn baby, the recent study says.

Published in The Lancet, this study was the first to look at the effects of mild to moderate iodine deficiencies during pregnancy. The researchers, from Surrey and Bristol University, measured the iodine in urine samples or 1,040 during the first three months of pregnancy. Two-thirds were found to be deficient, and their children were more likely to have low scores in verbal IQ, reading accuracy and reading comprehension tests when compared to those that had adequate iodine levels during pregnancy. Overall, their children had a 60 percent higher risk of lower scores and poor reading abilities by ages eight and nine.

Study founder Professor Jean Golding believes it’s likely that this lack of achievement would carry on throughout the child’s life. She added that those who were unable to “achieve their full potential” might end up having lower exam grades, particularly GCSE and A level exams.

“Our results clearly show the importance of adequate iodine status during early pregnancy, and emphasize the risk that iodine deficiency can pose to the developing infant, even in a country classified as only having mildly iodine deficient,” Golding told Daily Mail UK.

Co-author Dr. Sarah Bath told Daily Mail UK that women planning to become pregnant, those who are pregnant and those that are breastfeeding should make sure they have an adequate intake of iodine from natural food sources. She warned that kelp supplements should be avoided since they may have excessive iodine levels, which could be harmful.

Iodine is naturally found in milk, yogurt and oily fish. But for whatever reason, this study indicated that organic milk contains less iodine. However, they pointed out that the iodine content of skim and full-fat milk are the same. In most countries, iodine can also be found in regular table salt. It is not, however, contained in most brands of Sea Salt.

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With just a couple weeks to go before her baby arrives, the actress has been keeping busy by staying fit.

For the last couple months Jenna has called London home while her husband Channing Tatum films Jupiter Ascending.

When she returns to the United States she will likely start production on ‘Witches of East End’.  Lifetime has ordered 10 episodes of the show, which is based on Melissa de la Cruz’s best-selling novel of the same name.  Jenna will plays Freya when the show debuts this year.

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The actress visited the pharmacy before picking her daughter Nahla up from school.

This Fall Halle and her fiance, French actor Oliver Martinez, will welcome their first child together. While at the 20th Annual Entertainment Industry Foundation/Revlon Run/Walk the actress revealed she is thankful to be pregnant at 46.

“I’m thinking that this is a miracle,” she said via Entertainment Tonight. “I feel really happy. It’s one of the best things that happened in my life, for sure.”

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Over the course of six months, study co-author Cynthia C. Woo, a project scientist at the University of California, Irvine, analyzed 28 autistic boys and compared progress of traditional autism therapies alone with the progress of traditional autism therapy when paired with sensory-motor enrichment therapy. All of the boys, aged between 3 and 12, were separated into two groups based on their age and autism severity. Both groups participated in standard behavioral therapy, but one of the groups of boys also received daily environmental, or sensory-motor, enrichment therapy.

Parents of the 13 boys in the enrichment group were given a kit that contained various sensory-motor items:

• Essential oil fragrances (apple, lavender, lemon and vanilla) to stimulate sense of smell
• Squares of plastic doormat, smooth foam, a rubber mat sink, felt, sponges, fine sandpaper and aluminum to stimulate the sense of touch
• Pieces of carpet, pillows, bubble wrap, hard flooring and cardboard to lay on the floor to create a multi-textured walking path.
• Piggy banks with plastic coins, miniature plastic fruits and small fishing hooks with magnetic hooks.

Parents were instructed to spend 15 to 30 minutes twice a day using these items. They were given four to seven exercises that involved different combinations to help stimulate touch, temperature, sight and movement.

At the end of the six month period, researchers found that 42 percent of the children in the enrichment group had a significant improvement in behaviors relating to people. They also showed an improved response to sights and sounds. In contrast, only 7 percent of the control group – the group without the sensory-motor enrichment therapy – displayed this type of improvement.

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Much of the research done on ADHD has focused on internal factors, like genetics, genome mutations, brain function differences and more. But some scientists have recently started to take a look at external factors – factors that can actually be controlled. The most recent examination, conducted by Eugene Arnold, MD, a psychiatrist and ADHD expert at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Nisonger Center and colleagues, looked at what is known as ‘The 3 S’s” – sunlight, sleep and screens.

Arnold and his team looked at ADHD statistics all over the world and compared them. Interestingly enough, the team found that places with more sunlight (Arizona, Colorado, California, Spain and Mexico – all places considered “sunny regions” because of their high solar intensity) had fewer ADHD patients. In addition, places with the least amount of sunlight had more cases of ADHD.

“It’s about a 2-to-1 ratio,” Arnold said. “There are many possible explanations. For example, with more sunlight, maybe kids get out more to play and get more of the exercise that, increasingly, we know is good for brain function.”

But screen time and lack of sleep may also play a part in the higher ratio of ADHD cases in these areas. After all, even adults notice they’re more irritable and have a harder time concentrating when they’re sleep deprived. Why wouldn’t it make sense to equate less sleep (which could possibly be exacerbated by screen time) with worsened ADHD symptoms?

“There’s a correlation with things like irritability, impulsiveness, inattentiveness – which are core symptoms of ADHD,” Arnold said. “And what’s robbing them of sleep may be their computer and TV screens. They emit a blue light that could be disrupting melatonin, which is the hormone that helps regulate sleep. Children’s duration of sleep has decreased over the past decade or two, since the introduction of those electronic devices.”

And would it be too far-fetched to consider that maybe this lack of sleep, sunlight and too much screen time is leading to an over-diagnosis of the condition? Some experts don’t believe so. In fact, there are some experts that believe children are too quickly diagnosed with the condition, and teachers, doctors and parents are all too quick to give medication for even the slightest indication that ADHD may be present.

“There’s no way that one in five high school boys has ADHD,” James Swanson, professor of psychiatry at Florida International University said in an interview with the New York Times. “If we start treating children who do not have this disorder with stimulants, a certain percentage are going to have problems that are predictable – some of them are going to end up with abuse and dependence. And with all those pills around, how much of that actually goes to friends? Some studies have said it’s about 30 percent.”

Tim Sutton, the Commissioner of Alamance County in North Carolina agrees. And he says that it seems to him that there’s a desire to nudge parents into actually believing their children have a condition they may not.

“I am concerned about our children,” he said in an interview with a local news outlet. “They are claiming that there are thousands of kids in this county who have got attention deficit disorder, and I’m not saying we don’t have some, but the ratio, I think, probably is higher than it would be because I think there is too much of an effort to push families and children into it.”

So why is over-diagnosis and over-medication matter so much? Well, other than the fact that children and families may feel pigeonholed or limited by a diagnosis, the long-term implications aren’t completely clear.

Powerful drugs, like Ritalin and Adderall, are often prescribed to children with ADHD to help manage symptoms. In fact, about two-thirds of all children with ADHD are prescribed these or similar drugs, with children between the ages of 6 and 12 to be the highest percentage of children prescribed these drugs, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health.

A recent study, published in the medical journal PLOS ONE, found that the long-term use of Ritilan can actually lower the drug’s efficacy over time. And if the medication is stopped, symptoms are even worse than they were when they first started taking the medication.

Obviously, more research needs to be done – both in the areas of ADHD causes and long-term effects of the usage of ADHD prescription drugs. But in the meantime, there may be some serious considerations for parents dealing with an ADHD diagnosis.

There is no denying that ADHD is real. And there are definitely children that have a hard time just functioning in their day to day lives. But are all cases diagnosed truly accurate? Is medication needed for the majority of those that are real? Only a parent can truly answer that question. It’s an answer that, most likely, isn’t easy to come to, especially when it seems that so many schools are eager to see children complying and fitting into the larger, less personalized classrooms from just a short decade ago. When, even just walking through the grocery store, stares and judgment are abundant for the parent of an inconsolable or disruptive child.

Though I do not have a child with ADHD, I do have a child with autism. They are different conditions, but there is a common factor here: I have faced that difficult question of whether to medicate or not to medicate.

We tried to help him manage without medication for years, but in the end, we chose to medicate. Not because the school wanted him to take it so they could better manage him in the classroom (and trust me, they wanted him on it). Not because we received stares and whispers at the store or other public places (I learned to grow a very thick skin). But because, for him, functioning with medication is possible; life is more manageable. Because without it, he constantly feels out of control, overwhelmed and angry. He didn’t ask for his condition. But as his mother, I want, more than anything, for him to have a childhood that is as close to normal as possible. So the choice to medicate wasn’t for anyone else – not me, not the school, not the doctor; it was for him.

Every parent will reach their decision differently. But this was how we made ours.

If your child is medicated, how did you come to the decision to do so? Do you feel you’ve made the right choice? Why or why not?

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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