Friday, 3 February 2023

5 questions a pediatrician wishes more parents would ask.

February 3, 2023 | VIEW IN BROWSER

This is TODAY

The U.S. military spotted a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the northern U.S. and considered shooting it down. Plus, five questions a pediatrician wishes more parents would ask during regular visits with their child, and Netflix reveals how it plans to crack down on password sharing.

The Latest

A suspected Chinese spy balloon is found floating over the northern U.S.

The U.S. military has been tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. for the past few days, a Pentagon spokesperson said yesterday. Military leaders have discussed shooting it out of the sky but decided against it because of the safety risk to people on the ground below, two U.S. officials and a senior defense official told NBC News. The high-altitude balloon was spotted over Billings, Montana, yesterday, and it's still flying over the U.S., a senior defense official said. The official said China has flown balloons like this before, but this one has stayed over the U.S. longer than usual. The Chinese government said it's "looking into reports" of the balloon hovering over the U.S., while Canadian officials said they are monitoring "a potential second incident." Here's the latest.

💗 An MSNBC anchor shares how a common cold led to a dangerous inflammation of her heart.

MSNBC anchor Yasmin Vossoughian began suffering from sporadic chest pains in December when she went to urgent care and was told she just had "reflux." The next morning she woke up with severe pain in her chest and thought she was having a heart attack. Vossoughian, 44, was hospitalized and diagnosed with pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac-like structure surrounding the heart that can be caused by viral, bacterial, fungal and other infections. Three days after being discharged, she had to be readmitted to the hospital with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. Doctors determined her condition was caused by a common cold. See Yasmin's journey here and learn about the symptoms and warning signs to watch for when it comes to heart inflammation.

The 5 questions a pediatrician wishes more parents asked her during visits.

In order to make the most of your visit to the pediatrician with your child, it can help to have some questions prepared in advance. But what should you ask? Dr. Maureen Ahmann, a staff pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic, shared tips on 4 topic areas to consider before making a well-child visit. Dr. Edith Bracho Sanchez, a pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, shared the 5 questions she's always happy to hear from parents, including questions about what to feed their child, optimizing sleep, and what to bring up with their child's teacher. See all the tips here.

📺 Netflix finally revealed its plan to crack down on password sharing. Here's what to know.

Remember the days of Netflix tweeting, "Love is sharing a password?" Yeah, those days are over. The streaming giant announced its plans to crack down on password sharing, limiting accounts to one per household. It says it will verify accounts using IP addresses, device IDs and account activity from devices already signed into the Netflix account. The company is reining in password sharing to help its subscriber growth get back on track, and the change has predictably not gone over well with users. Netflix has not yet released a date of when the new guidelines will go into effect. Here's what to know about the new rules.

Live Better TODAY

Achieve your life goals with easy tips.

Author Colleen Hoover is all over the fiction best-seller list, and her fans have made her the queen of the #BookTok corner of TikTok, propelling her to millions in sales. One podcast host called her books "a masterclass" in the love story-romance novel genre, and her 2016 megahit "It Ends With Us" is being made into a movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. (Though some fans aren't happy with the casting.) If you're looking to see what the phenomenon is all about, we have breakdowns of the best Colleen Hoover books to start with, as well as some of the controversies they have kicked up.

What's for dinner?

Allow us to do the meal-planning for you.

If you're planning on making a Valentine's Day meal for that special someone next week, we have a dinner and dessert idea from husband-and-wife chefs Scott and April Franqueza. They stopped by the TODAY kitchen to make palmiers (above), a classic French pastry with swirls of jam sure to hit the sweet spot. They also shared their recipe for Beef Wellington, which is packed with flavor thanks to duxelles, a fragrant mixture of mushrooms, shallots, herbs and garlic sauteed in butter. Get the recipes.

Daily Delight

A little pick-me-up before you go.

OK, so maybe the five orders of 20-piece jumbo shrimp were a little much. A 6-year-old from Michigan got on his dad's phone and had a Grubhub binge for the ages, ordering $1,000 worth of food from multiple restaurants. Keith Stonehouse was yelling at his son Mason, who was supposed to just be playing a game on the phone, while simultaneously getting fraud alerts from his bank for a $439 order from Happy's Pizza. Mason, meanwhile, had more pressing questions. "Mason stops me mid-sentence and puts his hand out and says, 'Dad, stop. When are the pepperoni pizzas coming?'" Keith told us. After the doorbell stopped ringing, Keith and his wife had a talk with Mason about the value of money. Grubhub also stepped in and gave them $1,000 in gift cards after hearing the story. Mason already has his next order ready.