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Twelve children remain in a critical condition and more than 600 are still in hospital, some with brain damage and heart and lung problems.

A nationwide alert launched on the weekend has called for greater efforts to control the spread of all infectious diseases including hepatitis A and measles, as well as EV-71, particularly with the upcoming Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

The World Health Organisation says the virus does not currently present a threat to the Olympics or any other events.

The outbreak is primarily in Fuyang, in the eastern province of Anhui, where 22 of the deaths occurred; nurseries and schools have been closed and workers have sprayed disinfectant around houses in the affected areas.

However, it is my understanding spraying disinfectant alone will not help the situation. These schools need to thoroughly be cleaned with a bleach mixture.

UPDATE: 8:14 p.m.

Two more children have been pronounced dead, the death toll is now 26 children age six and under.

Labels: children, china, enterovirus 71

Some people sit down to read the morning paper and others, like me, sit down to read their RSS feeds. =o)

This morning the headline which caught my attention before all others was, "Diagnosis: ADHD-or Is It Trauma?" and it was written by Maia Szalavitz for MSN Health & Fitness.

It piqued my interest because I firmly believe children are more often inaccurately diagnosed with ADD or ADHD than they are accurately diagnosed. And putting your child on drugs to calm them down is not going to teach them how to cope and be calm on their own. Especially if your child truly does not have ADD or ADHD. Right? (Now, I'd like to note I do believe some people probably do need medicine for this and that is fine, I have no qualms with it. What I argue is diagnosing a child, because children are supposed to run around and have short attention spans it is how they develop and learn.)

In this article an adoptive Mom discusses how her child was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 7 and she hesitated to have him further evaluated or to give him medicine, because, "She knew that Dylan had been starved and neglected by his cocaine-addicted mother." Her argument was that due to the trauma in his early life, he was behaving inattentive and hyperactive.

"Though we tend to think of traumatic experiences as rare, in fact, by age 16, seven of 10 children have been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event-such as a natural disaster, severe car accident, child abuse or the loss of close family member-according to a study of a representative sample of more than 1,400 children living in North Carolina published in 2007."

I can attest to this being true. By the age of 16 there are more than a handful of traumatic events in the timeline of my life. To this day my Mom says they should make a Lifetime made for TV movie about my life.

In fact, I have very early memories of traumatic events and can describe everything right down to the amount of light, the smell and the textures in certain memories of mine. If only my long term memory were as bad as my short term memory these days. =o)

How do you handle a child who has been molded early on in their life by experiences which were far less than stellar? I honestly am not sure if it is possible. I spent a year of my recent life trying to sort things out with a psychiatrist. While medicine certainly took the edge off my extreme emotions; it can't make the reasons go away.

The article at one point discusses some of what this adopted child had witnessed before the age of 7.

"Dylan had seen his mother use drugs and had witnessed a stabbing. In response, his developing brain-in an effort to protect himself-would have tried to predict which adult moods were most likely to erupt in violence."

"These children are hypervigilant because they are looking for dangers or threats," says Frank Putnam, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "They become exquisitely attuned to sights, sounds and especially facial expressions or tones of voice that might be linked with impending trouble."

"Hypervigilance can look like hyperactivity or inattentiveness in school because these children are paying attention to "distractions" like the teacher's face or another child's movements, not their schoolwork. A slammed door might prompt them to jump from their seats—and cause a "fight or flight" response that might seem aggressive or defiant."

How do you break a cycle like this? Can time, patience, love and understanding really get through? I'm not so sure. I hate to sound like doom and gloom, but once your brain as been molded and developed with those acute responses, how do you change it?

I often find myself saying "well in my world" when I'm talking about life. How selfish it must seem to outsiders to hear me say something like that. But the truth of the matter is there is a "my world" my own internal world; it does exist. And no, you're not invited. Why would you want to enter? I'm still trying to find a way to keep the doors nailed shut.

Labels: ADHD, children, depression, mental health, trauma

Man oh man, if you ever want to get me riled up then talk to me about child abuse. My best friend was abused her whole life and I have known many, many other children throughout my lifetime who have been abused. It is completely unacceptable and I have absolutely no tolerance for someone who feels the need to hit or verbally accost a child. Quite frankly, those people deserve torturous suffering.

Nearly 1 million children in the U.S. were victims of abuse or neglect from October 2005 to September 2006, a figure government researchers Thursday called distressing.

What is more distressing is how many millions of children are abused and were NOT listed as a part of that figure. Of course I have no proof of that, but am 110% certain I am correct. It breaks my heart.

Neglect accounted for about 70% of the total reported cases in infants 1 week old or less, researchers say, while physical and sexual abuse accounted for 13%.

With that data all I can say is of course 70% was neglect, that is the one easiest for outsiders to spot. A child comes to school in the same clothes all week, hasn't been bathed and looks malnourished. A teacher is obligated to report something like that and if reported there is an obligation for investigation. However, a child can be sexually and physically assaulted and if there is no visible wound than outsiders will not see, right? Many, MANY of those cases go unreported. And you know, children feel guilty, they think it is their fault. It kills me, it pains me, you have no idea how deeply.

I hope this is looked into more frequently and with greater depth. I'm glad the research is being done, it's about flippin' time.

I urge you to stand up for children even if you only have an inkling that something might be going on. It is better to be safe than sorry, you can be a child's hero. I have stood up for children many times. It is VERY difficult, but there is no other choice as far as I am concerned. Silence is acceptance.

SOURCE

Labels: children, drug abuse, neglect

Last night I ate a bowl of cereal for dinner, a FiberOne cereal, the honey flavor, it's really good. Anyway, the back of the box had all this content about eating healthy and such. There was an entire paragraph devoted to how eating a bowl of cereal at breakfast can actually help you maintain a proper body weight.

Then this morning I see an article about the very same topic at WomensHealthMagazine.com, coincidence, I think not. It's a fact, a truth known to Mom's forever I might add. But since research and data has been "officially" collected now then I suppose there will be less eye-rolling, I don't know.

"Researchers from the University of Minnesota studied the eating and exercise habits of 2,216 teens for five years and found that the more often a person ate breakfast, the lower the (Body Mass Index) BMI."

Read more at Journal Watch >>

Labels: breakfast, children, obesity, weight gain

Now that the Easter Egg hunting has commenced, I think it's only fair we talk about the candy which is now all over our houses.

Don't worry too much if your kids like the Peeps, star bursts or fruit snacks but let's face it those items are not necessarily the number one candy on kids' lists, right?

The chocolate bunnies whether hollow or solid are both high in fat and sugar. Other offenders in the candy world are jelly beans, peanut butter cups and the foil-packaged chocolate eggs. Don't believe me, well look at the facts; just one half of a solid chocolate bunny has 26 grams of fat, 460 calories and 42 grams of sugar. The recommended intake of sugar per day is only 40 grams. See the problem? While jelly beans are low in fat, they have a lot of sugar and calories. Just 13 jelly beans will put your sugar intake up at 27 grams. Just 13!

So if your kids crave chocolate and won't touch the marshmallows or fruit snacks, then try and give them a tootsie roll they are much lower in both fat and sugar. It's also filling because tootsie rolls require more chewing, it takes longer to eat them and kids think they have eaten more that way.

Of course it's all up to you. If you're like me you started throwing away some of the candy already. Braeden eats solid chocolate only, typically in the form of Hershey kisses. But he certainly has a variety of other goodies to choose from and that worries me. I want my boy to eat more, but I'd rather it be sweet corn than sweet jelly beans. =o)

SOURCE

Labels: candy, children, diet

This seems common sense to me, but I suppose it isn't.

This study was specifically done with children who live in poverty in an area of Oregon. This clearly means the study needs to be intensely expanded.

"Researchers at the University of Oregon studied a unique counseling strategy in a small group of poor families enrolled in a federal Head Start program in Oregon. They looked at measures of thinking skills in young children before and after parents had special counseling."

"Fourteen children aged 3-5 were tested on language ability and attention, and they had brain scans before their parents began the counseling. Another 14 children had the same tests, but their parents did not receive any special counseling. Once a week for eight weeks, parents of the experimental group went to sessions where they learned good parenting practices, like keeping consistent routines at home and how to discipline children in constructive ways."

Now I'm not sure studying fourteen children in one area who probably all know each other can give you any sort of insight on whether or not this theory is founded. But it's something interesting to further pursue.

The real issue is the lack of parental involvement in a child's life. And for the majority of parents they are less involved because they have to work more to make the money they need for their families. By the time these parents have time to spend with their children they are stressed and tired which doesn't make for good company. Right?

I wish I had a way to mend this situation, because it is indeed an issue which needs repair. If children grow up in this type of environment they will have trouble succeeding as adults. This only causes the cycle to continue repeating.

It's important for everyone to realize what is at stake here whether you are directly involved or not. This needs to happen in all communities, not just poverty stricken ones. Perhaps volunteer to be a mentor or tutor for the children. Employers, allow more training opportunities for these adults so they can progress within your company. Together we can make a difference.

SOURCE

Labels: children, education, intellect, parenting