News Bits

Good news for families who love milk: a new study out of Johns Hopkins suggests that children with milk allergy can safely consume dairy products, and that allergic reactions grew increasingly milder over time with continuous exposure to milk allergens. The researchers had previously found that increasing the dose of milk in allergic children eased reactions, a novel idea because our initial reaction with respect to food allergies is to take away the trigger food.

In the regulatory corner of our world, warnings have been added to leukotriene-modifier drugs (montelukast sodium, zafirlukast, and zileuton) about neuropsychiatric effects, such as behavior and mood changes (including suicidal thinking and behavior). The FDA has also approved valganciclovir hydrochloride to prevent CMV in heart or kidney transplant patients between the ages of 4 months and 16 years. The approval letter can be reviewed here. Sorry, you’ll have to do a little digging… the FDA website isn’t terribly “link friendly” with its search contents.

In the upcoming issue of Pediatrics, the results of another new study suggest that women aren’t getting appropriate visual messages with respect to appropriate sleeping environments for infants in mainstream media. The study, which focused on women’s magazines, as of today was not yet available online and the press release did not differentiate between images used in advertisements and those used in articles (which may be a differentiating factor with regard to women’s acceptance of images as being an okay “real life” scenario). Since we actively counsel mothers on how to reduce the risk of SIDS, is it important to also point out mainstream media deviations from recommendations? It’s your call.