Rx For Parenting Today

If your Child Starts Acting Out at School

Now that school has started, some parents find their children are resistant to go to school. If they are not resisting, they may be acting out once they get there. School phobia is something pediatricians and family doctors encounter quite often at the beginning of school. The first step I have always advised parents to take is to talk with the child's teacher. If  that doesn't offer any insight to the problem, the next step is to be sure the child is not being bullied and also can see and hear well. Talking to the  parents of other children in the same classroom is often helpful. When my grandson started misbehaving in pre-school, his parents asked me what to do. I suggested they see a wonderful child psychologist I knew who would do some testing. The psychologist didn't take long to find the problem. Alexander was bored because he was reading his sister's books at home and didn't want to play silly games. Once the teacher  let him read he was fine. That was a simple solution, but sometimes it is more complicated than that. If a child has a learning disability, an emotional problem, autism, or some other disability that could be the problem.  Parents need to push their child's doctor for answers. If he or she is not helpful, then changing doctors or finding a specialist would be the next step. All children need a good complete yearly physical examination, including a blood count and  urinalysis. It always amazes me  what can be found when you do a thorough examination. Sadly with the time crunch, many doctors  just do a quick examination these days and miss vital signs of problems. Thus parents have to be the ones to advocate for their children and insist on further studies.

Teen Athletes and Supplements

Sports are so important to many kids and families today that teens often try all kinds of things to improve their ability to participate. One problem that doctors are seeing more and more is that teens are using protein powders and energy drinks in order to improve their athletic ability. This can create a problem because many of these protein powers and energy drinks are not checked by the Food and Drug Administration. Some have been found, when tested, to contain substances which can be fairly dangerous. The energy drinks usually contain quite large amounts of caffeine and this, too, can be a problem.

What the young people need instead of these supplements is to eat a good diet. This means a good breakfast with some protein and not just a sugar-containing cold cereal. Kids often don't like to eat breakfast, but it if parents eat with their children this can be a good way to start the day. Eating a lot of junk food or fast food is not a way to build muscle. Sadly, our American diet contains much junk food, as people get too busy to shop and cook. I think all teens need to know how to cook a good meal for themselves and also they need to learn about good nutrition. Lots of pizza and fried foods  are not  part of a healthy diet.Keeping a three day record of what a teen and the family eats can be very revealing. Instead of protein powders and energy drinks lots of good food will help teens perform better both in school and in athletics. 

Sex Education and Children

Many parents find it extremely difficult to answer even direct questions from children about anything sexual. I know my mother certainly did. Now with so much sexual material on the TV many children see a lot that is sexual but may have little understanding of what they are seeing. I have given many sex education talks to students in both public and private school and been amazed at some of the questions I was asked. I always tried to have the students write down their questions before I came, so they would not be embarrassed to ask them. The questions would have made a a startling book had I saved them. 

One of the things that I felt good about in giving talks to teenage girls was to stress how getting pregnant and  having poor medical care increased their chances of have a baby born with a disability. Hopefully, I prevented a few pregnancies and a few babies born with little chance of a good life. Girls are having sex at younger and younger ages these days. Having cared for pregnant teenagers I know what it does to them and the rest of their life. The vice president and other Republicans are against abortions and yet make no provision for babies born to young mothers who have no education and no money. Children put in foster home after foster home may have terrible lives. One man said to me "I was a child who never should have been born." He told me his mother was 15 when he was born. She was poor and he was placed in one bad foster home after the over. Many cities have little oversight of foster care and the foster parents may treat the kids very badly. I fear for what we are doing to the next generation.

Measles and Whopping Cough (Pertussis) Cases are on the Rise in the U.S.

If a parent saw a car headed for a little child, I am sure they would run to snatch the child from harm. So I am unable to understand why far too many parents these days are not allowing their children to be immunized when the results can be fatal or extremely dangerous. I  had one patient who was deaf from mumps, have seen encephalitis with measles and whooping cough and several less serious complications. These were before immunizations were available. I would be unwilling to be the pediatrician for any parent who would not allow their child to be immunized.

Dr. Andrew Wakefied, who is now in Texas, caused great harm by his erroneous report that immunizations caused autism. That has been proved over and over again not to be true. He lost his British license and is now trying to spread  this false  formation again even to the White House. Two-thirds of autism cases are genetic. I talked to one family where autism was present in three generations. 

Whooping cough is particularly dangerous in infants and small children. Sudden deaths have occurred in infants. Pneumonia is also a concern, as well as seizures. Measles can cause not only encephalitis, but ear infections and pneumonia. 

Polio is still found in several countries and with all the overseas travel,is still a risk to children in the U.S. As an intern I cared for many children with polio and saw the great harm it caused. I wish any parent who refuses immunizations for their children could spend time in a children's hospital. I think they would quickly change their mind and take their child to the pediatrician for immunizations. At  least I sincerely hope so.

Precautions to Take with Children Having Dental Work

In the past week there was an excellent article in the New York Times about sedation for children having dental work. The article was by Catherine Saint-Louis. It was based on a study at University of Washington done in 2013. The researchers found that in 30 years, 44 children had died after sedation for dental work. The scary thing was that the majority of the children were between two and five years old. I cannot imagine allowing a dentist to give a little child an anesthesia without having a board certified anesthesiologist present. Little children have very small airways and should never have a general anesthetic without a pediatric anesthesiologist in charge.

Other children who are at risk with dental anesthesia are those who are obese or developmentally delayed. The one group not mentioned in the article are those with certain muscle diseases. Boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy can be at risk if certain anesthetics are used because of a condition called Malignant Hyperthermia. Children with Central Core disease are also at risk if certain anesthetics are used. 

If a dentist wanted to use an anesthetic on a child I would ask about his anesthesia training and if an anesthetic was really needed. I would certainly get a second opinion if the dentist had not had the necessary two plus years in anesthesia training. Babies can get cavities if they are allowed to suck on a bottle for several hours. So dental  problems and care in children are  important  for parents to research and know as much as you can about the subject.