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Some vital issues facing our youth.
In honor of this month’s Kids and Pets edition, and the ever important issue of health and wellness, the following feature offers area parents and caregivers helpful information regarding health issues facing our children, from the growing threat of childhood obesity to asthma and dental health.
CHILDHOOD OBESITY
A recently published study, by researchers at the University of Bristol, showed that even 15 minutes of activity is helpful in preventing childhood obesity, a worldwide epidemic.Over 30 percent of children and adolescents are considered overweight and over 15 percent of them are obese (statistics from the Center for Disease Control). In the study, 5,500 children were asked to wear an accelerometer, which senses motion, to determine how much they moved in a day. The children, who were on average 12 years old, were not asked to change their exercise habits while wearing the device.
However, those who turned out to get the equivalent of 15 minutes of daily activity, similar to the intensity of a brisk walk, were 50 percent more likely to be within recommended weight ranges for their height. With this type of positive result, physical educators and other leaders in child exercise programs can feel good about creating an active environment for children, without the children having to exercise hours a day to reap health benefits. Just getting kids moderately to vigorously active for a short time each day can help make a dent in the obesity epidemic.
A recent study with Kaiser Family Foundation questioned whether the obesity epidemic in children could partially be a result of thousands of annual advertisements related to snack foods and candy that an average child sees on television. According to the study, children ages 8-12 watched the most food ads, a whopping 7,600 per year. Children tend to be more open to the suggestions of food they see on advertisements since they are not as experienced in calorie counting and recognizing foods that have healthy nutritional values.
In addition to Type 2 diabetes and a predisposition to the risk factors for coronary heart disease, obesity takes its toll on children’s bones and joints and can lead to the demise of other organs. For example, recent statistics show that fatty liver disease occurs in about 15 percent of hildren who are obese. The consequences are not as fatal in children, but can later lead to cirrhosis and the need for a transplant by the time a child reaches adulthood. Researchers at Indiana University’s school of medicine are leading a study to discover a better treatment in 8-17-year-old children with fatty liver disease. Diet and exercise alone do not seem to help once the liver has become damaged. The study’s lead pediatrician, Dr. Jean Molleston, feels that all obese children should routinely be checked for fatty liver disease so that it can be treated prior to the damage it causes.
ASTHMA
A survey done on almost 1,000 children with persistent asthma showed that only about 20 percent of those surveyed were obtaining an optimal level of asthma control. The study, led by Dr. Jill Halterman at Golisano Children’s Hospital, came as a surprise to investigators since therapies offered for asthma these days are capable of good symptom control.
Guidelines for children with recurring asthma attacks recommend daily anti-inflammatory medicine. Of those children studied, however, only 63 percent were actually prescribed that type of preventive medication. Close to one-half of the children who did receive medication, however, still had poor symptom control.
Dr. Halterman and her fellow investigators searched for the reasons behind the lack of control despite proper prescriptions. One common reason would be that children are less likely to take medicine as prescribed. Otherwise, triggers for asthma, such as staying away from pets or smoke in the household, may not be avoided.
The findings lead to the observation that asthma care in children needs cooperation on behalf of everyone involved. Parents need to help children by tracking symptoms and assuring that information is reported to the physician, making sure that their children are taking medication as prescribed and educating children on how to avoid things that trigger asthma attacks (and removing triggers from the home). On the physician’s part, he or she needs to be aware of a child’s symptoms that occur despite proper prescriptions. The physician may need to get creative in managing each patient individually.
(The report also found that insurance issues may also play a role in problematic asthma symptom control. For example, if insurance did not cover the prescribedmedication or parents did not have insurance, some of the people surveyed may not have administered medication because they could not afford to buy it. )
DENTAL HEALTH
Since people in well-developed countries have the luxury of being very concerned with outward appearance, it is not unusual that even children have yielded to pressures to look good. There are reports regarding girls who loathe their figures at extremely early ages, children belittling others because of their looks, and now a desire to have their teeth as white as those seen in TV commercials. However, as little research exists regarding whitening products tested on children, dental professionals do not typically recommend them. However, dentists deal with children who have negative self-images because of permanently and extensively discolored teeth. The problem could be a result of trauma to a tooth or teeth, one of several agents, used by the mother during pregnancy or by the child, that resulted in staining or graying. In such cases, bleaching may be an appropriate measure. Policy has been outlined for dentists when dealing with this situation in order to ensure safety and reduce long-term tooth sensitivity.
First and foremost, timing is important to consider – if bleaching is done when the child has both “baby” or primary teeth and permanent teeth, bleaching results could yield teeth of varying color once permanent teeth fill in. Permanent teeth tend to be more yellow than baby teeth. Also, bleaching, which often involves acceleration of dental lighting systems, should not be used on children under age 18 because of pulpal damage, which means significant sensitivity would follow. Also, with children’s teeth, the line where teeth meet gums will change slightly as the child grows, exposing more enamel that erupts from the gumline and additional bleaching may be required to match the remainder of exposed teeth.
Overall, the biggest risk for bleaching in children under the age of 18 remains that of hypersensitivity compared to adults. However, weighing the benefits for certain children versus possible risks should be done by both parents and dental professionals.
