Seeing STARS

Celebrating success in seeing STARS at our KP San Diego Complete Care Site Visit - San Diego Leadership and Complete Care team reminds us it's okay to have fun while working on reaching stars.

A Script for Chewing Gum???

Here's a prescription my daughter would actually take!

Chewing Gum Cuts Ear Infection Risk in Kids

In a review and meta-analysis of four studies: three randomized controlled trials in 1,826 Finnish children, and another among 1,277 Finnish children in day care who had a respiratory infection researchers saw a reduced risk of acute otitis media in children who were given 8 to 10 g/day of xylitol in any form -- either as gum, a lozenge, or syrup - Gum working the best.

Potentially... two pieces of chewing gum five times a day after meals for at least five minutes -- can prevent acute otitis media in kids without acute upper respiratory infection.

Reading this article brought up a fond childhood memory of our family vacation trips where we would have to go over the grapevine.  My sisters and I all had bad ear problems when we were young, three of us requiring surgery, so changing elevations where our eardrums would pop was a very painful experience.  My parents didn't like us chewing gum on a normal basis, but they always gave us gum before we crossed the grapevine.  What a treat that was!  As a child, I associated the gum as part of the vacation experience and didn't know there was some other possible medical reason for giving the us gum.  Maybe the gum didn't actually do anything for us medically, but it sure got us to focus on blowing bubbles instead of popping eardrums.

Now when I fly, I always carry gum.  Not just for me, but for the crying kid sitting next to me. 

We have a pretty popular neighborhood for trick or treating and get people that will literally pull in to our driveway in a van and have 12 little kids pour out to come get our treats.  Kids of all ages, shapes, and sizes hike up our steps to see what treat awaits.  My family teases me because I give out glow sticks and glow bracelets to trick or treaters instead of candy. I do this because 1) I think there is too much diabetes in the world, 2) you need to be able to see the kids and parents who are darting across a busy street in dark clothing for someone else's candy, and 3) because, well... it's just cheaper than buying candy. $15 dollars will buy me 300 glow bracelets!  My husband thinks I'm cheating those kids because I don't give candy and always goes out and buys some tootsie rolls to pass out, like a drug pusher sneaking a piece of candy in some other person's territory.  Not cool...  The funny thing is, my older daughter was handing out my glow bracelets with me this year and after one particularly chubby child walked away, she whispered... "Yep... he'll have diabetes one day".  I had to laugh because it told me that my kids really do listen to me (even if they pretend they don't).  This morning my 16 year old text me the following picture and said... this sounds like something you would say.  Unfortunately, she is right.  So... here is a little math and medicine for you.