Swell Care for Kids LLC

Books are fruits and vegetables for your brain. 📚

New guidelines for screening for iron deficiency.
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/158/1/e2026077414/207901/Prevention-Screening-Diagnosis-and-Treatment-of?autologincheck=redirected
for general education and information purposes only. Not medical advice. Please speak with your personal physician for information on your specific situation.

Cyclospora outbreak - why the big discrepancy in reporting from the CDC compared to individual states?

FoodNet - established in 1995 to track food borne illness, was a collaborative program between the CDC, USDA, and 10 different states that required 8 different pathogens to be tracked.

Until 2025. When it was determined that only *2* of those pathogens needed to be tracked.

Unfortunately cyclospora was not one of them. So here we are, with a big outbreak but a failing national surveillance system due to funding cuts to the CDC. There’s only so much you can do with limited resources (and I KNOW the brilliant scientists at CDC are trying there best!).

Public health is political.

Resources:
(A big shout out to Dr. Morgan McSweeney aka who offered the best description of this in his Substack - which I found after I read the other two articles that were not as helpful)

https://www.cdc.gov/foodnet/about/index.html

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-cdc-food-net-monitoring-parasite-cyclospora-12180951

https://drnoc.substack.com/p/a-parasite-is-surging-in-18-states?utm_source=substack&publication_id=733061&post_id=206428434&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=24uwa2&triedRedirect=true

For information and educational purposes only, not medical advice. Please speak with your personal position for information on your particular situation.

for entertainment and education purposes only. Not medical advice.

❤️ EKG requirement in Florida - new law as of 7/1/26 (though many kids will have had an EKG done in the past since it was recommended but not required in the past)
💚All high school athletes will need an EKG done within the past two years.

❤️ Who We Play For is an organization that helps teenage athletes get EKGs done quickly.
💚https://www.whoweplayfor.org/heart-screening-registration

❤️Here is the link for the form that you'll need to bring with you when you get your EKG done. It must be the 2/26 form (upper right corner of the document)

***not medical advice. For general information, education, and entertainment purposes only.

Not all fiber is created equal, and for that matter, no body is, either. So beware of marketing and hype. It might be just gas and cramping and bloating disguised as a fun soft drink.

New sunscreen approved in the US!!!
This is GREAT news. Bemotrizinol (BEMT) has finally been approved here by the FDA. It's been used in Europe and Asia for years, and is effective against both UVA and UVB rays.

The FDA just approved Afrezza, an inhaled insulin option for kids 6+. This should be a game changer for kids with type 1 diabetes.

70% of kids quit sports by high school in the US
and now we have a study from Finland showing that kids who do play sports in childhood and adolescence have much greater health related outcomes in comparison to their peers
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/how-childhood-sports-shape-adult-activity-and-health-2026a10004u7

- Sports for kids should focus on FUN
- all kids should have access to all sports regardless of socioeconomic status
- kids should not specialize in a sport too young
- parents should not be pressuring their children

Resources :
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2024/01/22/70-of-kids-drop-out-of-youth-sports-by-13-new-aap-study-reveals-why/72310189007/

https://www.reuters.com/sports/leave-kids-alone-norway-explains-formula-behind-success-2026-02-16/

Healthy Kids
For general medical information purposes only. Not medical advice.