Children’s Health

Exercise helps prevent diseases in kids

New studies have shown that when children increase their level of physical activity, they experience positive health benefits, which include less body fat, increased muscular strength and reduced risk factors for major diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic and lifestyle-related disorders, quickly.

The studies were conducted in a lab led by David Nieman,Dr.P.H., FACSM, a professor of health and exercise science in Appalachian’s College of Health Sciences.

In the study, 200 obese Chinese children were split into two groups. One group took part in a summer camp where they exercised three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon doing a number of activities that included swimming, running, cycling and ping pong.

The second group continued with their normal lives. Both groups maintained a caloric intake of 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day. The average child in the summer camp lost six to eight kilograms or 13 to 17 pounds.

“All of that exercise and weight loss combined to bring most of their risk factors down,” Nieman said. “Their blood pressure went down and insulin sensitivity improved. They were able to handle their glucose better. They had a reduction in total cholesterol. So the overall metabolic health of these children improved in just six weeks.”

In another study conducted as part of the BioMoto STEM Initiative, Nieman’s laboratory tested seventh and eighth graders from the greater Charlotte area using a sophisticated battery of physical fitness tests. They found a key concern for these youth is their body fat levels.

The study is published in journal of Sport and Health Science.

Source: deccan chronicle

 

Baby steps to saving lives

 

Each year, one in 10 babies around the world will be born prematurely and over a million of those will die. But could measuring the size of a baby’s feet help save lives?

In the final weeks of pregnancy, the idea of going into early labour might not seem like such a bad thing.

But giving birth prematurely – officially classed as before 37 weeks gestation – can lead to long-term health effects.

Depending on quite how early the baby is born, infants can either be completely unaffected or left with permanent disability and learning difficulties.

The issue of prematurity is particularly pronounced in South Asian and Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for over 80% of the deaths caused by pre-term birth complications.

In rural Tanzania, for example, about one in every 30 premature babies won’t make it past four weeks.

However, most of those lives could be saved with simple advice for mothers.

And that advice, says an international group of researchers, could start with just a footprint.

Foot chart with side rule

The larger foot on the yellow card represents a full term baby’s foot size. If a newborn’s feet are smaller than th

Sizing upe small foot on the card, the baby is probably premature and the advice is to take the baby to hospital immediately. Side rule added for scale.

Most mothers in high-income countries will give birth surrounded by medical equipment or with the support of a highly-skilled midwife.

This means that any problems, such as a low birth-weight or the mother’s waters breaking early, can be dealt with immediately.

In contrast, around 40% of women giving birth in low-income countries will do so without the help of a trained medical professional.

And due to inaccurate dating of pregnancy, many of those women will have no way of telling if their baby is too early or too small.

However, measuring the baby’s footprint could be used as a simple proxy for birth weight.

“There’s this grey area when the baby is between around 2.4kg (5lbs 5oz) and 2.1kg (4lbs 10oz) when the baby is more vulnerable to infection and other issues,” says Dr Joanna Schellenberg of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“But when a baby is born at home, there is no way of weighing them,” she told the BBC.
The BBC’s Tulanana Bohela has been to see the project in action
To help solve the problem, Schellenberg and her colleagues at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania have implemented a strategy called Mtunze Mtoto Mchanga – which means “protect the newborn baby”.

It includes using a picture of two footprints on a piece of laminated card and a local volunteer placing the baby’s foot against the images.

If the baby has feet smaller than the smallest foot, around 67mm, then the mother is advised to take the baby to hospital immediately. If it measures in between the big and the small image, then the mother is told about the extra care she needs to provide to increase the baby’s chances of survival.

Although the card is fairly accurate for five days after birth, it should be used it to identify small babies in their first two days of life, which is when they’re most at risk of dying without specialist care.

Mariam Ulaya is one of the volunteers at Namayakata shuleni village and visits the women before and after the birth.

“If I’ve measured the child’s footprint and seen that the child is smaller than usual, then I instruct them to carry the child skin-to-skin so that the child can share and feel the mother’s warmth,” says Ulaya.

“I also carry a small doll with me called Opendo. I use the doll to illustrate the proper way to breastfeed the child.”

‘It has helped my child to survive’
Such advice may seem simple but can really be the difference between life and death.

A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) says that of the 15 million premature births globally each year, more than 80% will occur between 32 and 37 weeks’ gestation.

Risks factors for premature birth

There is no clear cause of premature birth and there tend to be many different risk factors involved.
These include infections of the genital and urinary tract, pre-eclampsia, problems with the placenta and gestational diabetes.
Obesity is another major risk factor for premature birth.

Fetal fibronectin is a protein which can be used as a reliable indicator of preterm birth. It normally appears around 22 weeks and then again at the end of pregnancy. If it appears between these dates, early labour often follows.
Research also suggests that low levels of the hormone progesterone in the saliva could also help spot women at risk of sudden premature labour.

Most of these babies will survive if given extra warmth through skin-to-skin contact and very regular breastfeeding to help fight off infection.

In fact, the report states that an estimated 75% of deaths in preterm infants can be prevented in this way – without the cost and emotional upset of intensive care.

Salima Ahmad is 25 and has three children who live with her in Namahyakata dinduma village, Tanzania. Her youngest son, Alhaji, was born prematurely.

“I was a little bit shocked because many premature babies end up dying but I was also happy because I had a live baby,” says Salima.

Although Alhaji was born at the local hospital, Salima was given advice and support by volunteers from Mtunze Mtoto Mchanga about how to care for him once she got home.

“Carrying skin-to-skin was good but difficult in the beginning. But when the volunteer was visiting me and encouraging me, I could see myself managing it slowly. It is good, it has helped my child to survive,” she says.

Salima also feels that understanding more about premature birth helps mothers like herself to deal with it properly.

“It helps a lot for the mother not to be surprised when having a premature birth. It is useful to know in advance as you get good knowledge on how to handle the premature. Myself, I do thank the volunteer who talked about it when I was pregnant and she even taught me how to carry skin to skin.”

Source: BBC

NYC requires flu shots for all daycare, preschool children

If your child wants to attend daycare or preschool in New York City, he or she will now be required to get a flu vaccine.

New York City’s Board of Health voted unanimously Wednesday to require all children under 5 attending one of these facilities to receive the vaccine before Dec. 31, right before flu season peaks.

Young children often pass influenza to other children and family members, who then spread the infection to others in the community. This mandate will help protect the health of young children, while reducing the spread of influenza in New York City,” the board said in an emailed statement.

City health officials told CBS News Tuesday they anticipate this effort would affect 150,000 children and, based on traditional vaccine effectiveness rates, prevent more than 20,000 cases of flu in young kids.

“A lot of people have a misconception that the flu is just like the common cold and nothing that needs to be worried about,” said Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “In fact, flu is common and can be very serious for children under the age of 5.”

In New York City, children of these ages are already required to receive common vaccines including the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), polio, pertussis (whooping cough), chickenpox and tetanus shots, so flu will just add one more shot to this list.

The rule will be enforced by the facilities, which may choose to exclude a child if he or she doesn’t get the vaccine. If the facility does not keep up to date vaccination records for its kids — as it’s required to do for all childhood vaccines — it could be subject to a fine.

Flu season typically begins as early as October, with the number of cases increasing dramatically by December and often peaking from January through March.

A flu season can range in severity, but children and the elderly are often most likely to be hospitalized or die from disease complications, even kids who were previously healthy.

Last year’s severe flu season killed at least 165 children. In the prior 10 seasons, between 43 and 153 kids died.

Since Dec. 31 is only weeks away, this mandate would not go into effect until next year’s 2014-2015 flu season.

Parent’s can only opt out of the flu vaccine if their child has medical reasons for not being able to take it, which are rare, or for religious exemptions. Philosophical exemptions, such as over vaccine concerns, are not allowed in New York State.

Children entering family daycare, which are held in people’s homes, won’t be subject to the requirement.

According to Varma, only New Jersey and Connecticut have similar requirements for flu vaccinations.

The new rule takes effect in 30 days, according to CBS New York.

“We feel strongly that we are doing something that’s always been done to protect the health of children,” he said.

Source: cbs news

9,400 Kids Injured in High Chairs Every Year

Every year, about 9,400 young children in the U.S. are injured falling off high chairs, a new study finds. Doctors warn that despite the chairs’ perceived safety, children in high chairs can be harmed if a chair is not used properly. The study also showed that the rate of such injuries increased by 22 percent over the study period, from 2003 through 2010. Head injuries were the most common type of injury associated with high chairs, followed by bumps or bruises and cuts, according to the study. The researchers looked at children ages 3 and younger who were treated in U.S. emergency departments, and the results are published today (Dec. 9) in the journal Clinical Pediatrics. “Maybe even more concerning, the rate of head injuries has increased by almost 90 percent between 2003 and 2010, and I think it begs the question, what’s going on?” said study researcher Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Nearly all injuries associated with high chairs or booster seats involved falls. Most children fell as they were climbing or standing on the chair, suggesting that the chair’s safety restraint system was either not being used, or faulty, the researchers said. “We know that over the recent years, millions of chairs have been recalled in the U.S. because of not meeting safety standards. But usually, a very low percentage of recalled products are actually returned,” Smith told LiveScience. Parents should check the website of the federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission for product recalls, he said Another reason for the increase seen in the study could be that more parents are taking their children to the hospital if a head injury occurs, Smith said. “There has been an increased awareness about the importance of minor head injury and concussion in the news. It is primarily related to sports, but it has also become on the radar for clinicians and parents,” Smith said. The researchers also compared injuries related to high chairs and booster seats with injuries associated with other types of chairs, including traditional chairs, and kids’ chairs. More than 40,000 injuries associated with chairs were reported each year during the study period, which translates to four children every hour. Children injured while using traditional chairs were more likely to sustain broken bones, cuts and bruises, compared with children who got hurt using high chairs, which have restraining systems. “I believe high chairs are safe, if they haven’t been recalled and if they are used properly,” Smith said. “Parents need to check the high chair they are using hasn’t been recalled. They also need be careful to use the restraining system, and use it every time.” Source: live science

Stressed parents make for obese kids

Researchers including an Indian-origin scientist have linked parental stress to weight gain in children.

The study found that children whose parents have high levels of stress have a Body Mass Index, or BMI, about 2 per cent higher than those whose parents have low levels of stress.

Children with higher parental stress also gained weight at a 7 per cent higher rate during the study period than other children.

Those figures may sound low, said lead author Dr. Ketan Shankardass, but they’re significant because they are happening in children, whose bodies and eating and exercise habits are still developing. Plus, if that weight gain continues and is compounded over a lifetime, it could lead to serious obesity and health issues.

Dr. Shankardass, a social epidemiologist with the hospital’s Centre for Research on Inner City Health, studied data collected during the Children’s Health Study, one of the largest and most comprehensive investigations into the long-term effects of air pollution on the respiratory health of children.

The childrens’ BMI was calculated each year. Their parents were given a questionnaire to measure their perceived psychological stress that asked how often in the last month they were able or unable to control important things in their life and whether things were going their way or their difficulties were piling up so high they could not overcome them.

Dr. Shankardass noted that more than half the students followed in the California study were Hispanic, and that the effects of stress on their BMI was greater than children of other ethnic backgrounds.

The research has been published in the journal Pediatric Obesity.

Source: top news

New guidance limits antibiotics for common infections in children

Every year, as many as 10 million American children are at risk for side effects from prescribed antibiotics that most likely won’t help them get over an upper respiratory infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Many of these upper respiratory infections are caused by viruses, which are not helped by antibiotics.

“Our medicine cabinet is empty of antibiotics to treat some infections,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. in a press release. “If doctors prescribe antibiotics carefully and patients take them as prescribed we can preserve these lifesaving drugs and avoid entering a post-antibiotic era.”

The overuse of antibiotics, a significant factor fueling antibiotic resistance, is the focus of a new report Principles of Judicious Antibiotic Prescribing for Bacterial Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Pediatrics by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in collaboration with the CDC.

The new report was released to coincide with Get Smart About Antibiotics Week which runs from November 18 – 24.

The AAP has outlined responsible antibiotic prescribing for three common upper respiratory tract infections in children:

• Ear infections
• Sinus infections
• Sore throats

“Many people have the misconception that since antibiotics are commonly used that they are harmless,” said co-author of the report Dr. Lauri Hicks in a press release. “Taking antibiotics when you have a virus can do more harm than good.”

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve and are able to outsmart antibiotics, making even common infections difficult to treat.

Each year more than two million Americans get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and 23,000 die as a result, according to a CDC report from September 2013.

AMA recommendation for clinicians: 3 Principles of Responsible Antibiotic Use

1. Determine the likelihood of a bacterial infection: Antibiotics should not be used for viral diagnoses when a concurrent bacterial infection has been reasonably excluded.

2. Weigh benefits versus harms of antibiotics: Symptom reduction and prevention of complications and secondary cases should be weighed against the risk for side effects and resistance, as well as cost.

3. Implement accurate prescribing strategies: Select an appropriate antibiotic at the appropriate dose for the shortest duration required.

Source: health2fit

Mother-to-child HIV infections decreasing: UN

The U.N. Children’s Fund says it is alarmed about increasing HIV and AIDS rates among adolescents over the last seven years and is advocating an aggressive program that includes condom distribution and antiretroviral treatment.

In a more positive development, UNICEF found that mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus has been dramatically reduced and estimated that some 850,000 cases were prevented in low- and middle-income countries.

Its 2013 Stocktaking Report on Children and AIDS released Friday said AIDS-related deaths among those aged 10 to 19 increased between 2005 and 2012 from 71,000 to 110,000. About 2.1 million adolescents were living with HIV in 2012.

Nearly 90 percent of children newly infected with HIV live in just 22 countries. All except one are in sub-Saharan Africa.

“If high-impact interventions are scaled up using an integrated approach, we can halve the number of new infections among adolescents by 2020,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “It’s a matter of reaching the most vulnerable adolescents with effective programs – urgently.”

High-impact interventions include condoms, antiretroviral treatment, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, voluntary medical male circumcision, communications for behavior change and targeted approaches for at-risk and marginalized populations.

UNICEF found dramatic improvement in prevention of new HIV infections among infants. Some 260,000 children were newly infected with HIV in 2012, compared to 540,000 in 2005.

New, simplified life-long antiretroviral treatment known as Option B+ provides the opportunity to effectively treat women with HIV and to prevent the transmission of the virus to their babies during pregnancy, delivery, and through breastfeeding.

The treatment involves a daily one-pill regimen.

Some of the most remarkable successes were in sub-Saharan Africa. New infections among infants declined between 2009 and 2012 by 76 percent in Ghana, 58 percent in Namibia, 55 percent in Zimbabwe, 52 percent in Malawi and Botswana and 50 percent in Zambia and Ethiopia.

UNICEF said that globally, the number of AIDS-related deaths overall fell by 30 percent between 2005 and 2012

Source: Deccan Chronicle

 

1 mn deaf children in India awaiting medical aid: Natarajan

Noting that about one million deaf children in the country are in need of modern medical treatment like cochlear implantation, Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan today said a holistic effort by government, medical fraternity and others would help in propagating the technology for the benefit of such kids.

“Even though more than 20,000 cochlear implantations have thus been done across India, we still face an uphill task with potentially one million children awaiting implantation, for many of whom cost of implant is a deterrent,” Natarajan said.

She said this fact has come to light from the Central government’s deafness survey titled “The National Program for the Prevention and Control of Deafness”. The minister was speaking after inaugurating the 9th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants and Related Sciences (APSCI 2013) here.

“States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have taken the initiative for totally funding cochlear implants through their ‘Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Schemes’, which has motivated other states to follow up in the same way,” Natarajan informed.

She observed that a holistic effort by government, in collaboration with medical fraternity and society, can make a “remarkable transition in the lives of the deaf children in bringing them out of the gloomy world of silence, onto the vibrant world of sound.”

“Such an effort can be fulfilled only when technology is propagated to all rural areas across the country and the success of such an effort would lead to realising a deafness free India in the near future,” Natarajan said.

The minister said the science of deafness was undergoing rapid changes in recent times. “…There is a need for updating the recent advances among the medical and allied fraternity (otolaryngologists, audiological scientists etc) and the symposium is a step in that direction,” she said.

The APSCI 2013 is being attended by over 1,000 delegates from around 60 countries across the globe.

Source: Business Standard

Garlic may help protect babies from pathogens in baby formula

A new study has revealed that garlic is good for your baby, as two compounds derived from garlic may help kill contaminants in baby formula.

The study from the University of British Columbia has found that the compounds, diallyl sulfide and ajoene, can significantly reduce the contamination risk of Cronobacter sakazakii in the production of dry infant formula powder.

“A trace dose of these two compounds is extremely effective in killing C. sakazakii in the food manufacturing process. They have the potential to eliminate the pathogen before it ever reaches the consumer,” corresponding author Xiaonan Lu from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, said.

C. sakazakii is a food borne pathogen that is sometimes present in dry infant formula powder and other fortified foods. C. sakazakii infection is rare, but often fatal for infants. It can poison a baby’s bloodstream and lead to life-threatening cases of meningitis.

According to Lu, the garlic compounds could be used to prevent C. sakazakii contamination on food contact surfaces and in every step of food production- from processing, packaging and delivery.

Lu said that pipes used in the manufacturing of milk products are typically cleaned with chemicals like chlorine, but these garlic compounds are a natural alternative.

The study is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Source: ANI

Children’s cardiovascular fitness declining worldwide

Many kids don’t run as far or fast as their parents did, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2013.

The decline in running fitness may indicate worse health in adulthood, the researchers said.

“If a young person is generally unfit now, then they are more likely to develop conditions like heart disease later in life,” said Grant Tomkinson, Ph.D., lead author of the study and senior lecturer in the University of South Australia’s School of Health Sciences.

“Young people can be fit in different ways. They can be strong like a weightlifter, or flexible like a gymnast, or skillful like a tennis player. But not all of these types of fitness relate well to health. The most important type of fitness for good health is cardiovascular fitness, which is the ability to exercise vigorously for a long time, like running multiple laps around an oval track.”

Researchers analyzed 50 studies on running fitness between 1964 and 2010 that involved more than 25 million kids, ages 9 to 17, in 28 countries. They gauged cardiovascular endurance by how far kids could run in a set time or how long it took to run a set distance. Tests typically lasted five to 15 minutes or covered a half-mile to two miles.

Cardiovascular endurance declined significantly within the 46 years, the researchers found. Average changes were similar between boys and girls, younger and older kids, and across different regions, although they varied country to country.

The study is the first to show that kids’ cardiovascular fitness has declined around the globe since about 1975:

In the United States, kids’ cardiovascular endurance fell an average 6 percent per decade between 1970 and 2000.

Across nations, endurance has declined consistently by about 5 percent every decade.

Kids today are roughly 15 percent less fit from a cardiovascular standpoint than their parents were as youngsters.

In a mile run, kids today are about a minute and a half slower than their peers 30 years ago.

Declines in cardiovascular endurance performance are probably caused by social, behavioral, physical, psychosocial and physiological factors, Tomkinson said.

Country-by-country fitness findings are mirrored in measurements of overweight/obesity and body fat, suggesting one factor may cause the other. “In fact, about 30 percent to 60 percent of the declines in endurance running performance can be explained by increases in fat mass,” Tomkinson said.

Kids should engage in at least 60 minutes of daily activities that use the body’s big muscles, such as running, swimming or cycling, he said.

“We need to help to inspire children and youth to develop fitness habits that will keep them healthy now and into the future,” Tomkinson said. “They need to choose a range of physical activities they like or think they might like to try, and they need to get moving.”

Source: American Heart Association