[News release] Are temper, anxiety, homework trouble medical issues? Many parents don’t realize it

From the 18 May 2015 University of Michigan news release

Just half of parents of school-aged children would discuss anxiety or temper tantrums that seemed worse than peers

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Parents often bring their school-aged children to check-ups or sick visits armed with questions. What should he put on that rash? What about her cough that won’t go away?

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But when children’s temper tantrums or mood swings are beyond the norm, or they are overwhelmed by homework organization, do parents speak up?

Today’s University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health finds that many parents of children age 5-17 wouldn’t discuss behavioral or emotional issues that could be signs of potential health problems with their doctors. While more than 60 percent of parents definitely would talk to the doctor if their child was extremely sad for more than a month, only half would discuss temper tantrums that seemed worse than peers or if their child seemed more worried or anxious than normal. Just 37 percent would tell the doctor if their child had trouble organizing homework.

The most common reason for not sharing these details with their children’s doctors? Nearly half of parents believed that these simply were not medical problems. Another 40 percent of parents say they would rather handle it themselves and about 30 percent would rather speak to someone other than a doctor.

“Behavioral health and emotional health are closely tied to a child’s physical health, well-being and development, but our findings suggest that we are often missing the boat in catching issues early,” says Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., associate director of the National Poll on Children’s Health and associate research scientist in the University of Michigan Department of Pediatrics.

…

[Report] 40% of Children Miss Out on the Parenting Needed to Succeed in Life

Father and child, Dhaka. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Full Text Reports...

40% of Children Miss Out on the Parenting Needed to Succeed in Life
Source> Sutton Trust

Four in ten babies don’t develop the strong emotional bonds – what psychologists call “secure attachment” – with their parents that are crucial to success later in life. Disadvantaged children are more likely to face educational and behavioural problems when they grow older as a result, new Sutton Trust research finds today.

The review of international studies of attachment, Baby Bonds, by Sophie Moullin (Princeton University), Professor Jane Waldfogel (Colombia University and the London School of Economics) and Dr Liz Washbrook (University of Bristol), finds infants aged under three who do not form strong bonds with their mother or father are more likely to suffer from aggression, defiance and hyperactivity when they get older.

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[News item] Ruling with an iron fist could make your child pack on pounds — ScienceDaily

Ruling with an iron fist could make your child pack on pounds — ScienceDaily.

Date:
March 19, 2014
Source:
American Heart Association
Summary:
Kids whose parents are demanding but not emotionally responsive are about one-third more likely to be obese than kids whose parents set healthy boundaries, are affectionate and discuss behavior. Researchers compared kids whose parents are generally affectionate, have reasonable discussions about behavior with their child and set healthy boundaries (authoritative) with those whose parents were strict about limits without much dialogue or affection (authoritarian).

[reblog] Don’t use websites for child health, parents told

Don’t use websites for child health, parents told.

Reblog

ALLISON BRAY – 25 JUNE 2013

PARENTS have been warned against the dangers of trying to diagnose their children’s health problems using the internet.

An online poll of 1,800 mothers in April conducted by the parenting website Eumom.com found that 43pc of respondents consult the internet first when their child presents with symptoms rather than going directly to a doctor or pharmacist.Close to half of Irish mothers are using the web to diagnose conditions, a new survey reveals.

But such a practice can cause unnecessary anxiety or result in a misdiagnosis, according to Dr Conor Fitzgerald.

“Firstly, if your children have a serious condition, it might go undetected and untreated without a professional, medical examination by a doctor. Secondly, internet searches often lead parents to believe their child might have a more serious condition than is actually the case, creating unnecessary worry.”

But Dr Fitzgerald, who has a GP practice in Lucan, west Dublin, said parents should always consult a GP if they are concerned about their child’s health.

However, he added the internet could be a useful tool once a diagnosis has been made by a doctor, whereby the patient can read up on their condition.

Irish Independent

[Booklet] Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disasters: What Parents Can Do

Practical ways parents and others can help children in the days, weeks, and months after traumatic events.
From the US National Institute on Mental Health.
Tips are practical and some are arranged by age groups.
An excerpt from the booklet 

How Parents Can Help:

After violence or a disaster parents and family should:

• Identify and address their own feelings — this will allow them to help others
• Explain to children what happened
• Let children know:
  • You love them
  • The event was not their fault
  • You will take care of them, but only if you can; be honest
  • It’s okay for them to feel upset
• DO:
  • Allow children to cry
  • Allow sadness
  • Let children talk about feelings
  • Let them write about feelings
  • Let them draw pictures
• DON’T:
  • Expect children to be brave or tough
  • Make children discuss the event before they are ready
  • Get angry if children show strong emotions
  • Get upset if they begin:
    • Bed-wetting
    • Acting out
    • Thumb-sucking
• If children have trouble sleeping:
  • Give them extra attention
  • Let them sleep with a light on
  • Let them sleep in your room (for a short time)
• Try to keep normal routines (such routines may not be normal for some children):
  • Bed-time stories
  • Eating dinner together
  • Watching TV together
  • Reading books, exercising, playing games
• If you can’t keep normal routines, make new ones together
• Help children feel in control:
  • Let them choose meals, if possible
  • Let them pick out clothes, if possible
  • Let them make some decisions for themselves, when possible.

 

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‘Social Medicines’ Do Benefit Health and Wellbeing

Seems to be a mix of personal responsibility and government/social policy

From the 6 November 2012 article at Science Daily

‘Social medicines’ are beneficial to the health and wellbeing of individuals and the population. By combining social and biological information from UK Longitudinal studies (life-course studies) researchers have identified that the more ‘social medicines’ you have, the better your physical and mental health. These include a stable family life, stress-free childhood, alcohol-free culture for young people, secure and rewarding employment, positive relationships with friends and neighbours, and a socially active old age…

..

The booklet is available to download free of charge from the ICLS website at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/icls/publications/booklets. Hardcopies are also available on request…

Researchers from the International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health (ICLS) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) are releasing a plain English guide to their research demonstrating how ‘Life gets under your skin’ as part of the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science in November.

A stable family life where children have secure routines, including being read to and taken on outings by their parents, is more likely to result in them being ready to take in what will be offered at school (school-readiness). Getting a flying start at school is one of the most important pathways towards wellbeing later in life.

An environment free of constant bombardment with cigarette and alcohol advertisements helps adolescents avoid the first steps towards addiction. People with more friends have higher levels of health and wellbeing — and researchers have found this to be almost as important as avoiding smoking over the longer term. A supportive social network can make all the difference as people confront the problems of aging, helping them to maintain a high quality of life for many years.

The booklet demonstrates how social policy related to family life, education, employment and welfare can have beneficial effects for the health of individuals. It also shows how multi disciplinary, longitudinal research can deliver findings valuable to the individual, society and the economy.

 

 

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[UM Hospital Report] Sick Kids, Struggling Parents

From the report

• Nearly two-thirds of parents of young children in child care say their children could not attend because of illness in the past year.
• One-third of parents of young children are concerned about losing jobs or losing pay when taking off work to care for their sick children.
• 8% of parents with kids in child care say taking their sick child to the emergency room is more convenient than seeing a primary care doctor.

….

Work Impact

Missing work because a sick child was sent home or not allowed into child care is common; 42% of parents of young children in child care have missed work in the last year. Nearly a quarter of parents (26%) missed work three or more times over a one-year period because of their child.

When a child is sick, parents must either take time off from work, make other child care arrangements, or try to get immediate medical care in order to comply with exclusion policies for the child care setting. One-half of parents with children in child care report that finding alternative or back-up child care for their sick children is difficult (Figure 1).

In addition, about one-third of parents say taking time off of work with a sick child is difficult because they may lose pay or lose their job, and a similar proportion report that they do not receive enough paid time off from work to care for their sick children (Figure 1).

When asked about where to take a sick child for care, 8% of parents with children in child care say taking their sick child to the emergency room is more convenient than seeing a primary care doctor…..

 

Additional UM Reports (over 50) may be found here 
Titles include

• Parents of high school athletes speak out on performance-enhancing drugs
• Knowledge key to support for embryonic stem cell research
• Who do voters prefer for children’s health issues?
• Bullying worries parents of overweight and obese children
• Retail clinics: an emerging source of health care for children
• Obesity tops list of biggest health problems for kids in 2008
• Summer safety for ‘tweens’ home alone
• Children in research: many parents willing if risk of harm is small
• Ask the doctor: is my child’s medicine FDA-approved?
• Child health threats: are consumer alerts enough?

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• Times are tough for low-wage workers (miamiherald.com)
• Improving child care in the U.S.: A Q&A (nj.com)

 

Getting Physical With Unruly Kids

 

From the 7 August 2012 article at Medical News Today

Parents get physical with their misbehaving children in public much more than they show in laboratory experiments and acknowledge in surveys, according to one of the first real-world studies of caregiver discipline.

The study, led by Michigan State University’s Kathy Stansbury, found that 23 percent of youngsters received some type of “negative touch” when they failed to comply with a parental request in public places such as restaurants and parks. Negative touch included arm pulling, pinching, slapping and spanking…

..Stansbury said another surprising finding was that male caregivers touched the children more during discipline settings than female caregivers – and the majority of the time it was in a positive manner. Positive touch included hugging, tickling and patting.

She said this positive approach contradicts the age-old stereotype of the father as the parent who lays down the law.

“When we think of Dad, we think of him being the disciplinarian, and Mom as nurturer, but that’s just not what we saw,” Stansbury said. “I do think that we are shifting as a society and fathers are becoming more involved in the daily mechanics of raising kids, and that’s a good thing for the kids and also a good thing for the dads.”

Ultimately, positive touch caused the children to comply more often, more quickly and with less fussing than negative touch, or physical punishment, Stansbury said. When negative touch was used, even when children complied, they often pouted or sulked afterward, she said.

“If your child is upset and not minding you and you want to discipline them, I would use a positive, gentle touch,” Stansbury said. “Our data found that negative touch didn’t work.”

Related articles

• Getting Physical With Unruly Kids (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Spanking, Hitting Kids in Public Surprisingly Common, Study Finds (livescience.com)
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• Parents get physical with unruly kids, study finds (sciencedaily.com)
• Spanking, Hitting Kids in Public Surprisingly Common, Study Finds (sott.net)
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• Publicly Spanking Kids Might Still Be Way Too Common [Parenting] (jezebel.com)
• Can spanking cause mental illness? (cnn.com)
• Study explores parents ‘negative touch’ – New York Daily News (drugstoresource.wordpress.com)

 

Study: Most parents unaware of teen workplace risks

From the 27 June 2011 Eureka news alert
Most parents are unaware of the risks their teenagers face in the workplace and could do more to help them understand and prepare for those hazards, according to a new study.

Previous findings have shown that about 80 percent of teens are employed during their high school years. But the study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Injury Prevention Research Center and North Carolina State University highlights the role parents play in helping their children get those jobs, and making good decisions about workplace safety and health.

The paper will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

About 38 workers under the age of 18 in the U.S. die from work-related injuries each year, while an estimated 146,000 experience nonfatal injuries or illnesses.

“Because parents are so involved with their children about work, they are in an excellent position to help teens ensure that their employers are assuring good safety standards,” said Carol Runyan, Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator and director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center….
….Runyan and Schulman said questions that parents should ask their working teens include:

• How much training did you receive?
• If you are handling cash, have you been trained about what to do if there is a robbery?
• Are you ever alone in the workplace?
• Are there machinery or tools that could be hazardous?
• Have you been trained on how to deal with an angry customer?
• Is there an adult manager on site?

The researchers are planning additional work to determine how to get parents more informed and more involved. Parents, educators, teens and employers can find additional information at the U.S. Department of Labor website: http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/

###
Along with Runyan and Schulman, the paper, “Parental Involvement with Their Working Teens,” was co-written by Catherine Vladutiu, a doctoral student in epidemiology at UNC, and Kimberly Rauscher, Sc.D., of West Virginia University. The research was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service.

Study abstract: http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X%2810%2900494-5/abstract

[Online access to full text of the article is by paid subscription only.
For suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost, click here]

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The Sound Of Music Benefits Everyone

Image via Wikipedia

From the 6 May 2011 Medical News Today article

Children with disabilities and their parents are likely to benefit from music therapy sessions, which can improve social, motor and communication skills, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) research has found.

Kate Williams studied the effect of the Sing & Grow music therapy intervention on children with disabilities and found that music therapy also provided benefits for parent-child bonding and for parental mental health….

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Kids Healthcast: Pediatric Podcasts For Time Deprived Parents From IU School Of Medicine

Kids Healthcast: Pediatric Podcasts For Time Deprived Parents From IU School Of Medicine

(via Health News from Medical News Today) March 28, 2011 2:00:00 PM EDT Share

This month marks the first anniversary of Kids Healthcast, innovative monthly podcasts from Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children pediatricians providing easy-to-understand, evidence-based health information. Targeted to busy parents, the lay language programs are available without charge anytime in the iTunes store or here. The show can be heard on an iPhone, iPad, MP-3 player or computer…

 

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What Parents Can Do to Create a Positive Youth Sports Experience

From the American Academy of Pediatricians Healthy Children Web Page

What Parents Can Do to Create a Positive Youth Sports Experience

• Support for your child must be unconditional.
• Be patient for the process, and enjoy it.
• Understand how the developmental progression works for sports skills.
• Be knowledgeable that many of the developmental milestones for sports skills cannot be accelerated beyond their natural limit.
• Realize that physical, chemical, and mental development all affect ability and all progress along different timetables.
• Support achievements as they occur. This will reduce pressure to achieve skills that are not quite ready.
• Remember, your child has his or her own likes and dislikes and should be able to participate without pressure to choose a certain activity.
• Remember that there are developmental patterns for chemical changes that allow your child to be able to progress in training intensity when it is time.
• Understand the extra changes that occur in the puberty transition from child to teenager.
• Don’t overreact to normal developmental processes and changes that occur during puberty and may temporarily affect ability.
• Understand the profound developmental effect of a firm positive foundation of self-esteem on future performance and ability to handle competitive pressure.
• Redefine success and make sure performance disappointments are not seen as failures that the child might take personally.
• Teach your child that winning means a lot more than a gold medal (you first have to believe that yourself).
• Encourage your child any way you can.
• Find more things your child is doing right than things to criticize.
• Support by being visible at their events.
• Keep your comments positive without a lot of addenda or stipulations.
• Help your children take some responsibilities for their sport without making them feel overwhelmed with duties.
• Watch for warning signs of burnout or avoidance.
• Remember your child is a child, not a child-sized adult.
• Help your child set realistic goals (not your goals).
• Allow changes in sports, and encourage exposure to different sports.
• Instill a sense of value in exercise and fitness regardless of structured competition.
• Communicate sincerely and often with your child about his or her desires.
• Help your child build a strong sense of self-worth and identity that is not dependent on the sport itself or level of achievement.
• Provide positive momentum by celebrating reality successes as often as possible.

 

Author

Paul R. Stricker, MD, FAAP

Last Updated

6/9/2010

Source

Sports Success Rx! Your Child’s Prescription for the Best Experience: How to Maximize Potential AND Minimize Pressure

 

Kids of Deployed Soldiers May Face More Mental Health Woes

Study found they needed more doctor visits to handle issues from parent‘s absence

 

From a November 8, 2010 Health Day news item

MONDAY, Nov. 8 (HealthDay News) — Mental and behavioral problems cause children of U.S. soldiers deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones to need considerably more outpatient medical visits than those with non-deployed parents, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined the medical records of more than 640,000 military children between the ages of 3 and 8, and found that those separated from deployed parents sought treatment 11 percent more often for cases of mood, anxiety and adjustment disorders. Visits for conditions such as autism and attention-deficit disorder, whose causes are not linked to deployment, also increased.

The study, reported online Nov. 8 and in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics [article is free through this link], also revealed larger increases in mental and behavioral visits among older children, children with military fathers and children of married military parents.

“It’s statistically significant, but I also think it’s clinically significant,” said lead researcher Dr. Gregory Gorman, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. “These are also probably the worst cases.”

Gorman said he was surprised to find that while these types of medical visits went up, the rates of visits for all other medical conditions dropped.

“I have no direct evidence, but we hypothesize that when a parent is deployed . . . and the other parent has to do all of the duties, they may want to handle other problems at home,” Gorman said. “These parents who remain at home need to multi-task even more.”…

…In Gorman’s study, the most frequent primary diagnosis during mental and behavioral health visits was attention-deficit disorder (ADD). Adjustment and autistic disorders came next, while farther down the list were mood and anxiety disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, developmental delays, post-traumatic stress disorder, bedwetting and separation anxiety.

SOURCES: Gregory Gorman, M.D., assistant professor, pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md.; Rick Olson, retired Army general, director, strategic communications, Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Proponency, Fort Lewis, Wash.; December 2010 Pediatrics

 

Improving mothers’ literacy skills may be best way to boost children’s achievement

From an October 26 US National Institutes of Health press release

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health concluded that programs to boost the academic achievement of children from low income neighborhoods might be more successful if they also provided adult literacy education to parents.

The researchers based this conclusion on their finding that a mother’s reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors, such as neighborhood and family income.

The analysis, performed by Narayan Sastry, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, and Anne R. Pebley, Ph.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, examined data on more than 3,000 families.

The study, appearing in Demography, was supported by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

[Editor Flahiff’s note: This article is only available online through paid subscription. Check with a local medical, academic, or public library for availability. The library may charge a fee for access or for a copy. It would be wise to call ahead and ask a reference librarian for details]

“The findings indicate that programs to improve maternal literacy skills may provide an effective means to overcome the disparity in academic achievement between children in poor and affluent neighborhoods,” said Rebecca Clark, Ph.D., chief of the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH institute that funded the study.

After mother’s reading level, neighborhood income level was the largest determinant of children’s academic achievement.

The researchers undertook the study to isolate factors contributing to the disparity in academic achievement that other studies have found between children in low income and affluent neighborhoods….

….The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s Web site athttp://www.nichd.nih.gov/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visitwww.nih.gov.

 

Jailed Dads Tied to Greater Risk of Kids’ Drug Use

Kids whose dads have put in time behind bars may be at a greater risk for using marijuana and other illegal drugs, according to a new study

From an October 20 Reuters Health Information press release

By Lynne Peeples

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Kids whose dads have put in time behind bars may be at a greater risk for using marijuana and other illegal drugs, according to a new study.

The incarcerated population of the U.S. has grown from 250,000 in the mid-1970s to about 2.25 million today. Rising alongside has been the number of kids growing up with a parent that has served jail time: now about 7.5 million.

In other words, one out of every eight young people in the U.S. now has a father that has been incarcerated, notes lead researcher Michael E. Roettger, formerly of Bowling Green State University in Ohio and now at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

“In the context of the massive increases in incarceration in the U.S. and growing number of children being affected, we wanted to know what issues these children would likely face,” Roettger told Reuters Health. “It appears that drug use is one of the unintended consequences of these rising rates.”

Already on the troubling list, he added, were increased risks for mental health problems, criminal behavior, dropping out of high school, family instability and poverty

To determine the extent of the role a father’s incarceration might play in youth drug use, Roettger and his colleagues looked at data from about 150,000 young men and women followed from adolescence into early adulthood during the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample beginning in 1995.

The team found that over half of young men and 39 percent of young women who had a father with a history of incarceration reported using marijuana, compared to 38 and 28 percent of young men and women whose fathers never went to jail.

This unfortunate group also used marijuana more frequently and continued using it longer into adulthood.