(Family Features) Staying up to date on recommended vaccines is important during pregnancy. This is especially true during the winter months when more people tend to get sick from flu, COVID-19 and RSV. These viruses can be especially dangerous for pregnant people and babies.

Vaccines are an important part of routine pregnancy care, both for you and your baby. Getting vaccinated against flu and COVID-19 can cut your risk of hospitalization by about half.

Now is the time to get vaccinated if you haven’t already. Flu vaccines help protect you from getting the flu and getting seriously ill, so it’s a good idea to schedule an appointment now. The latest COVID-19 vaccines are important too because they lower your risk of serious illness. An RSV vaccine may also be recommended for when you are 32-36 weeks pregnant. Be sure to talk to your doctor.

“Right now, we are seeing a concerning increase in cases of respiratory diseases, such as the flu, COVID-19 and RSV,” said Adm. Rachel Levin, MD, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “I encourage all pregnant people to take preventive action to protect their health and the health of their baby. The best and safest way to do this is to get vaccinated. Getting vaccinated is easy and is usually covered by insurance.”

Help Protect Your Baby 
When you get flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines, you’re helping protect your baby by passing your immunity on to them. Getting vaccinated against flu, COVID-19 and RSV during pregnancy can protect your baby during the first 6 months of life. These viruses can be very harmful to newborns. In fact, RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants

Talk to Your Doctor About Timing
Millions of people in the U.S. have already gotten vaccinated against flu, COVID-19 and RSV this season. If you haven’t gotten your vaccines yet, be sure to talk with your doctor. They can help you choose the right vaccines and determine the best timing to help protect you and your baby.

Get the Facts
Getting vaccinated can give you peace of mind, ensuring you have done everything you can to protect yourself and your baby from serious respiratory illness. Information can give you power and comfort, especially when you’re pregnant.

Go to cdc.gov/RiskLessDoMore to learn more about flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines, or go to vaccines.gov to get started today.

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SOURCE:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

(Family Features) A new year can bring feelings of hope and optimism. This can be especially true for pregnant people as they look forward to the arrival of their baby. Keeping themselves and their baby healthy is also a great New Year’s goal, and in the colder months, that means avoiding respiratory illnesses. Flu, COVID-19 and RSV – which are common in many parts of the country right now – can become severe, sometimes requiring hospital care.

Vaccines are the best protection against severe respiratory illness. They cut your risk of being in the hospital for flu or COVID-19 by about half and for RSV by about 70%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines help pregnant people risk less severe illness and focus on preparing for their new baby.

How do vaccines protect pregnant people and babies?

Flu, COVID-19 and RSV can be very harmful to infants, especially in their first 6 months of life. Infants are at higher risk for serious flu-related illness and are hospitalized for COVID-19 at about the same rate as adults ages 65-74. RSV is the leading cause of infant hospitalization.



Getting vaccinated for flu and COVID-19 during your pregnancy can provide protection from serious respiratory illness for both you and for your infant in their first 6 months. Your immunity is passed along to your baby before birth.

An RSV vaccine during pregnancy can also protect your baby from severe RSV in their first 6 months. An RSV vaccine is recommended during weeks 32 through 36 of pregnancy if that period falls from September through January when RSV is more common.

It is safe for a pregnant person to get these vaccines at the same time. Any side effects from the vaccines are usually mild and go away on their own in a few days.

Get vaccinated for a healthy new year

Talk to your doctor or visit cdc.gov/RiskLessDoMore to learn more about flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines. Find a pharmacy near you at vaccines.gov. You can also order free COVID-19 test kits (up to four per household) at COVIDTests.gov.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

SOURCE:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Steven Wolterning, Texas A&M University and Paige Williams, Texas A&M University

The “choking game” has potentially deadly consequences, as players are challenged to temporarily strangle themselves by restricting oxygen to the brain. It sounds terrifying, but rough estimates suggest that about 10% of U.S. teenagers may have played this type of game at least once.

There’s more, unfortunately: The Skullbreaker Challenge, the Tide Pod Challenge and Car Surfing are but a few of the deadly games popularized through social media, particularly on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X – formerly Twitter. Many of these games go back more than a generation, and some are resurging.

The consequences of these so-called games can be deadly. Skullbreaker Challenge, for example, involves two people kicking the legs out from under a third person, causing them to fall and potentially suffer lasting injuries. Swallowing detergent pods can result in choking and serious illness. A fall from car surfing can lead to severe head trauma.

Coming up with an exact number of adolescent deaths from these activities is difficult. Data is lacking, partly because public health databases do not track these activities well – some deaths may be misclassified as suicides – and partly because much of the existing research is dated.

A 2008 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 82 U.S. children over a 12-year period died after playing the Choking Game. About 87% of the participants were male, most were alone, and their average age was just over 13. Obviously, new, updated research is needed to determine the severity of the problem.

A 2008 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 82 U.S. children over a 12-year period died after playing the Choking Game. About 87% of the participants were male, most were alone, and their average age was just over 13. Obviously, new, updated research is needed to determine the severity of the problem.

Peer pressure and the developing brain

We are a professor of educational neuroscience and a Ph.D. student in educational psychology. Both of us study how children regulate their behaviors and emotions, why teenagers are particularly vulnerable to dangerous games, and how social media amplifies their risks.

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Risk-taking is a necessary part of human development, and parents, peers, schools and the broader community play an integral role in guiding and moderating risk-taking. Children are drawn to, and often encouraged to engage in, activities with a degree of social or physical risk, like riding a bike, asking someone for a date or learning how to drive.

Those are healthy risks. They let children explore boundaries and develop risk-management skills. One of those skills is scaffolding. An example of scaffolding is an adult helping a child climb a tree by initially guiding them, then gradually stepping back as the child gains confidence and climbs independently.

Information-gathering is another skill, like asking if swallowing a spoonful of cinnamon is dangerous. A third skill is taking appropriate safety measures – such as surfing with friends rather than going by yourself, or wearing a helmet and having someone nearby when skateboarding.

The perfect storm

During adolescence, the brain is growing and developing in ways that affect maturity, particularly within the circuits responsible for decision-making and emotional regulation. At the same time, hormonal changes increase the drive for reward and social feedback.

All of these biological events are happening as teenagers deal with increasingly complex social relationships while simultaneously trying to gain greater autonomy. The desire for social validation, to impress peers or to attract a potential romantic interest, coupled with less adult supervision, increases the likelihood of participating in risky behaviors. An adolescent might participate in these antics to impress someone they have a crush on, or fit in with others.

That’s why the combination of teenagers and social media can be a perfect storm – and the ideal environment for the proliferation of these dangerous activities.

Social media shapes brain circuits

Social media platforms are driven by algorithms engineered to promote engagement. So they feed you what evokes a strong emotional reaction, and they seem to prioritize sensationalism over safety.

Because teens strongly react to emotional content, they’re more likely to view, like and share videos of these dangerous activities. The problem has become worse as young people spend more time on social media – by some estimates, about five hours a day.

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This may be why mood disorders among young people have risen sharply since 2012, about the time when social media became widespread. These mood disorders, like depression and conduct issues, more than double the likelihood of playing dangerous games. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Rather than parents or real-life friends, TikTok, YouTube and other apps and websites are shaping a child’s brain circuits related to risk management. Social media is replacing what was once the community’s role in guiding risk-taking behavior.

Protecting teens while encouraging healthy risk-taking

Monitoring what teens watch on social media is extraordinarily difficult, and adults often are ill-equipped to help. But there are some things parents can do. Unexplained marks on the neck, bloodshot eyes or frequent headaches may indicate involvement in the choking game. Some social media sites, such as YouTube, are sensitive to community feedback and will take down a video that is flagged as dangerous.

As parents keep an eye out for unhealthy risks, they should encourage their children to take healthy ones, such as joining a new social group or participating in outdoor activities. These healthy risks help children learn from mistakes, build resilience and improve risk-management skills. The more they can assess and manage potential dangers, the less likely they will engage in truly unhealthy behaviors.

But many parents have increasingly adopted another route. They shield their children from the healthy challenges the real world presents to them. When that happens, children tend to underestimate more dangerous risks, and they may be more likely to try them.

This issue is systemic, involving schools, government and technology companies alike, each bearing a share of responsibility. However, the dynamic between parents and children also plays a pivotal role. Rather than issuing a unilateral “no” to risk-taking, it’s crucial for parents to engage actively in their children’s healthy risk-taking from an early age.

This helps build a foundation where trust is not assumed but earned, enabling children to feel secure in discussing their experiences and challenges in the digital world, including dangerous activities both online and offline. Such mutual engagement can support the development of a child’s healthy risk assessment skills, providing a robust basis for tackling problems together.

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Steven Wolterning, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University and Paige Williams, Doctoral student in Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.