(Family Features) Fall brings cooler days and more time indoors. This makes it easier for viruses like influenza (flu), COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to spread. These illnesses can be especially risky for pregnant people and newborns. Getting vaccinated for flu, COVID-19 and RSV during your pregnancy lets you pass protection to your baby. Your immunity helps keep them from getting very sick from one of these viruses in their first few months of life.

Virus Vaccines

Vaccines for flu and COVID-19 also protect expectant parents from serious symptoms. Pregnant people are more likely to need medical care or hospitalization for flu and COVID-19 than people their age who are not pregnant, according to the Risk Less. Do More. Public Education Campaign.

“It makes sense that people are very careful about the health choices they make during pregnancy,” said Manisha Patel, MD, MS, MBA, Chief Medical Officer of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “The good news is that flu and COVID-19 vaccines are the best way to protect you and your baby against serious disease. RSV vaccines cut by more than half the risk of your baby being hospitalized for severe RSV disease, the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States.”

Here are some key facts about pregnancy and vaccination:

Getting vaccinated protects you during and after pregnancy.
Common respiratory viruses can be dangerous for people who are pregnant or have recently been pregnant. This is because respiratory illnesses during pregnancy are more likely to be severe. Studies show that the flu and COVID-19 vaccines are the best protection for pregnant people. They lower the risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death. Like medications, vaccines can cause side effects, but side effects from flu and COVID-19 vaccines are almost always mild and brief. The benefits of these vaccines outweigh the risks for most people.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends an RSV vaccine during pregnancy. Vaccination during pregnancy cuts the risk of a newborn being hospitalized with RSV by half.

Getting vaccinated protects your unborn or nursing child.
Flu, COVID-19 and RSV viruses are dangerous for both unborn and newborn children. About 20,000 children under age 5 in the U.S. are hospitalized with flu each year. Infants under 6 months are at the highest risk of serious complications. Infants are also at higher risk for RSV. In fact, it’s the top reason babies in the U.S. are hospitalized.

When a pregnant person gets vaccinated for flu, COVID-19 or RSV, they share their immunity with their child. Recent studies also show that some breastfeeding parents maintain infection-fighting antibodies in their breastmilk after vaccination. This immunity can also help protect their baby.

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Timing for vaccinations is important.
Getting vaccinated for flu, COVID-19 and RSV during pregnancy builds antibodies that can help protect the baby. Get the yearly COVID-19 and flu vaccines this fall season. For RSV, it is recommended that pregnant people get vaccinated between 32-36 weeks of pregnancy during the RSV season, which is from September-January in most parts of the United States.

If you have questions or concerns, talk to your doctor. Knowing the facts about vaccination and pregnancy can offer confidence and comfort. Visit cdc.gov/RiskLessDoMore to learn more and talk with your doctor about getting your flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

SOURCE:
United States Department of Health and Human Services

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Ian Brodie, Cape Breton University and Moira Marsh, Indiana University

“Dad, I’m hungry.”

“Hi, hungry. I’m Dad.”

If you haven’t been asleep for the past 20 years, you’ll probably recognize this exchange as a dad joke.

The term dad joke is credited to a June 20, 1987, editorial in the Gettysburg Times. Writer Jim Kalbaugh praised fathers’ telling of groan-inducing jokes to their children – or, importantly, to others in front of their children.

The practice, Kalbaugh wrote, was “one of the great traditions of fatherhood worth preserving.”

The term stayed remarkably dormant until the internet age: The first entry in Urban Dictionary was in 2004 by a contributor named Bunny; it debuted on Twitter in 2007; joke compilation books were published under the theme starting in 2013 in the U.K. and 2016 in the U.S.; and the Oxford English Dictionary added it to its entry for “dad” in 2014.

The popularity of the term speaks to its resonance. But why do so many dads embrace this form of corny joke telling?

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A (beer) league of its own

To better understand dad jokes, let’s start with what they aren’t.

As folklorists who study humor, we’re used to analyzing what are called joke cycles: jokes that spread that share the same structure or topic.

Elephant jokes and light bulb jokes are examples of joke cycles. (How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change.)

But dad jokes don’t have a uniform structure. Nor do they center on a specific topic, such as parenting.

Furthermore, dad jokes are not transgressive; they are not sexist, racist, scatological, profane or political. They punch neither up nor down. For these reasons, they don’t involve any sort of risk of offending people; the dad joke is almost the opposite of stand-up comedy.

In addition to being “safe,” dad jokes are generally bad, lame, groan-inducing and so forth. But so are plenty of other jokes – all you have to do is turn on the TV and watch a sitcom to find them.

‘Daaaaaaad!’

So, what makes a dad joke a dad joke?

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It might be best to think of the dad joke not as a kind of joke but as a kind of performance, one that involves a teller – the dad – and an audience: his kids, friends of his kids, his spouse.

Say a family is out to dinner. Over breadsticks, a daughter might say, “Dad, you need a haircut.” Then dad responds with an unexpected punchline: “I usually get them all cut.”

Abruptly, dad has shifted the mood from casual conversation to joke. Because it’s a harmless quip, no one can recoil in indignation.

The only rule broken is the taboo against telling a bad joke. The child feels vicarious embarrassment for dad’s display of lameness. For his part, the dad knows perfectly well that it was a poor joke – but he doesn’t care.

Soft power plays

There’s a reason they’re called dad jokes and not father jokes.

“Father” retains the seriousness and stature of a patriarch and all of the power imbalances that accompany it: physical dominance, discipline and dependence. In contrast, “dad” implies affection and care. He’s still a male authority figure, but without the toxicity that patriarchy can often imply.

We see the dad joke, then, as an occasion for the dad to assert his fatherly privilege over his family and anyone else within earshot.

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It’s a win-win situation for the dad. If the joke gets a laugh, well, good.

But if the joke doesn’t get a laugh … that’s good, too: Dad has intentionally invited this possibility, which is technically known as “unlaughter” and refers to jokes that create embarrassing and socially awkward situations. In this case, the way he flusters his children is his reward.

He’s commanding the room, as a patriarch would, but doing so in the gentlest, most playful way possible.

Telling corny jokes, of course, is not limited to fathers: Most of us are guilty of going for the joke we know will be met with an eye roll and a headshake.

Dad jokes are comfortable jokes for comfortable situations among friends and family. They might elicit a disapproving glare, but they ultimately bring people closer together.

They represent a dad at his most annoying, but also at his best: warm, silly and loving.

Ian Brodie, Professor of Folklore, Cape Breton University and Moira Marsh, Librarian for Anthropology, Folklore and Sociology, Indiana University

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

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Newswise — SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The American Academy of Ophthalmology is sounding the alarm on over-the-counter eye drops advertised as eye color-changing solutions. These products are not FDA approved, have not been tested for safety or efficacy, and could potentially damage the eyes.

“Consumers seeing these products on TikTok or elsewhere online need to know that they are not FDA approved,” said JoAnn A. Giaconi, MD, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. “The ads show dramatic before-and-after shots and vague information on how the drops actually work to change eye color. But here’s the reality, there’s no evidence that they do anything at all, and no evidence that they’re safe.”

Because the products are not FDA approved, they have not undergone rigorous safety and efficacy testing, and it’s unclear if Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations were followed during production. Unregulated manufacturing facility conditions can lead to contaminated products that can cause dangerous eye infections. 

Eye Color-Changing Drops

Potential safety risks of using unregulated eye drops include:

• Inflammation
• Infection
• Light sensitivity
• Increased eye pressure or glaucoma
• Permanent vision loss

Manufacturers claim that the drops include an ingredient that adjusts natural levels of melanin in the iris, the colored part of the eye. But there is no evidence that the formula can target the iris pigment. And if the drops did destroy the pigmented cells in the iris, it could potentially harm the eye, causing light sensitivity, eye inflammation, and eventually vision loss. It’s also unclear how other parts of the eye that rely on melanin to function properly, such as the retina, would react to this ingredient.

“Social media and the internet are full of potentially dangerous eye health claims. Bottomline, the Academy advises the public to never put anything in the eye that isn’t made to go in the eye,” Dr. Giaconi said. “You’re putting yourself at risk for painful eye conditions or even blindness.”

The safest way to change eye color is with colored contact lenses, but only if the lenses are prescribed, dispensed, and fitted by a qualified eye health professional.

For more information about eye health and how to protect your eyes, visit the Academy’s EyeSmart website.

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About the American Academy of Ophthalmology

The American Academy of Ophthalmology is the world’s largest association of eye physicians and surgeons. A global community of 32,000 medical doctors, we protect sight and empower lives by setting the standards for ophthalmic education and advocating for our patients and the public. We innovate to advance our profession and to ensure the delivery of the highest-quality eye care. Our EyeSmart^® program provides the public with the most trusted information about eye health. For more information, visit aao.org.

Source: American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)

Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.