Health care should be as simple as a library card for kids

I've been mostly mute about my thoughts on health care access in this forum, as the great children's health care debate waged on this fall. But, if you have been reading between the lines (or if you've looked at my comments on other blogs), you probably know that I think that it's criminal for children (or anyone really) to go without health care in the United States. All children should have equal access to health care regardless of race, gender, religious or political affiliation and socioeconomic status. Simply put, I think that gaining access to health care should be as simple as getting a library card.
Unfortunately this is not the case in America.
When reporting on high school sports injuries, I was horrified to learn that Caleb Bailey, a teenage boy living in Commerce, was forced to weight more than six months to receive an operation on his torn meniscus because he no longer qualified for Peachcare.
“You feel trapped as a parent,” Don Bailey said. “You want to take care of your kids, but sometimes you have to weigh it all out. If you don’t have insurance, you are always praying that nothing does happen.”
The number of kids in Caleb’s position is rapidly increasing, said Brian Robinson, chairman of the secondary school committee for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA). His part of Illinois is relatively upper middle class, but “you would be amazed at the number of kids without health insurance,” he said.
On the other side of the country, Wes Wirkkala deals with the same perpetual sense of worry that the Bailey parents encounter each day. Despite bringing in annual salary of approximately $70,000, the Wirkkalas can't afford health care coverage for their children.
So I leave you with one final question. Regardless of what side of the political fence you sit on, shouldn't all children have access to health care?

Tuck your kids in early tonight (and every night)!

My Thanksgiving bulge got me thinking again about obesity, so I thought since about a third of U.S. children are overweight or obese, it might be a good idea to re-examine childhood obesity.

As the holiday season looms before us, I thought parents should know that a recent study suggests that tucking your kids in early and letting them sleep late may reduce the risk of obesity. Children between the ages of 9 and 12 who got less than nine hours of sleep were at more likely to be obese regardless of other factors such as socioeconomic status, reported the study which appeared earlier this month in the journal Pediatrics. Lead researcher and pediatrician Julie Lumeng suggest that young children receive between 10 and 12 hours of sleep each night.

In addition to getting those zzzz's, children need to consume a healthy diet and participate in regular physical activity. Back in September, Jennifer Burnell, a nutrition education and fitness specialist with the Athens Regional Medical Center, reminded parents to nix the clean-your-plate rule and to help children make healthy food and lifestyle choices. We Can!, a national program designed to assist elementary-aged children in keeping off extra pounds, echoes Burnell's thoughts. In addition to providing children with commonsense steps to reduce weight, the program relies on parents to help kids make good decisions about diet and exercise. So, in addition to tucking your kids in early this holiday season, why don't you guys jog over to the park and have fun, instead of watching Tv and eating that extra brownie?

A Taste of New Orleans

Without detouring the more than 15 blocks to the lower ninth ward, I could have easily left the city with the impression that New Orleans is back to normal more than two years after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the city.

An eight-hour van ride with two special representatives of Women of the Storm, a group of influential women from New Orleans dedicated to educating the public about the plight of Katrina survivors, opened my eyes to the third-world like conditions that persist in parts of the city. Amidst piles of rubble and crumbling homes, countless individuals endure the daily struggle of rebuilding their storm-ravaged lives.

Only hours into the experience, I felt a sense of depression that I couldn’t shake. Imagine how residents of the ninth ward must feel each day.

In the wake of Katrina, Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the federal Center of Disease Control and Prevention, said that the storm’s greatest health challenge would be in the mental health resources. Her words still ring true today.

In the first four months after the storm, suicide rates rose to more than 300 percent above pre-Katrina levels, according to coroner’s office statistics.

In the last two years, approximately 80 percent of Cecile Tebo’s mental health calls have come from suicidal individuals, many of whom did not have a previous history of mental illness before the storm. A licensed clinical social worker that assists police officers on mental health calls, Tebo, has witnessed the number of severely depressed adolescents surge in the last nine months. Data collected by the New Orleans School System during the 2006-07 school year supports Tebo’s observations citing that 45 percent of students displayed symptoms in need of mental health care.


Despite the abundance of mental health issues, Tebo remains horrified by the dearth of mental health resources in New Orleans. “The healthcare system for people with mental illness has reverted back to the dark ages here,” she said. Currently, just less than half of the approximately 350 pre-Katrina public and private psychiatric beds in New Orleans are available to the public, according to Kevin Stephens, the director of the New Orleans Health Department.

Despite the clouds of gloom, rays of sunlight are beginning to shine through in the area’s fragmented mental health system. This week, a total of $523,000 in grant monies was awarded to six local organizations to treat children’s mental health problems, and the state launched a workforce initiative to recruit medical professionals to the area this summer. Still, much work is needed to repair the fragile state of mental health in New Orleans.

Since returning home, I have struggled to put into words the images that haunt my thoughts. No words can adequately express the sorrows and struggles of these survivors. I am grateful for all of the things in my life that I have long taken forgranted and want only to do something more to help the people of New Orleans.

As you gather around the table this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to consider walking a mile in the footsteps of a Katrina survivor living in the lower ninth ward. How would you feel if you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from? Count your blessings this holiday season and consider lending a helping hand in the rebuilding effort.

Heading back to New Orleans

In August 2005, I was balancing a full-time gig at the Athens Magazine with a full load of master's classes at Grady College. After an evening split-level newspaper design class, I journeyed home to Jefferson and crawled onto my couch to watch a few minutes of CNN (for what had become my Tuesday and Thursday night routine). I had heard bits of a story about Hurricane Katrina making landfall during my Tuesday morning commute. It sounded as if New Orleans had dodged a bullet, but I was curious to see what was going on. As a lay on the couch in exhaustion, CNN delivered quite a different assessment: New Orleans was quickly becoming a city under water. Over the next week, I was glued to the television as clip after clip revealed the disaster that was unfolding in the Gulf.

Each moment that I watched, flashbacks of a whirlwind visit to New Orleans during the 2003 Sugar Bowl flooded my mind. Before the game, my husband and I took in as much of the city's charm as we could. We visited the French Quarter, hopped on the trolley and even sampled a beignet or two. These images stayed with me over the next two weeks as I became increasingly horrified by the government's mismanagement of the disaster. Photographs of children crying before the Armageddon-like backdrop haunted me. New Orleans stayed in my thoughts daily.

But, like so many others, as the days turned into weeks and months, Hurricane Katrina slipped off my radar. My focus turned back to juggling: school and work, work and school. I hate how so many Americans, like myself, have let Katrina survivors become a distant memory only briefly considered during anniversaries of the event.

On Saturday, I will head back to New Orleans for the first time since 2003. When I think back about Katrina, my heart still hurts for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. While I pack, I'm left wondering: what will I encounter in New Orleans and how can I make a difference?

More school nurses please!!

I've been thinking about school nurses for awhile. A month or so ago, I told you about young Adella's visit to the school nurse in Barrow County. Because of translation issues the spanish-speaking kindergartner couldn't gain access to her cold medication.

Several weeks later I considered the role of the school nurse when I covered the increasing rates of hypertension in youth (doctors fear obesity's silent sidekick hypertension will continue to rise as our children's waistlines continue to bulge). While gathering information for the article, I was shocked and disheartened to learn that because of legal liability issues Athens Clarke-County school nurses could only check a child's blood pressure with a doctor's note.

Like I said, over the last two months, I've considered the precarious role of the school nurse. After reading an article in the NY Times this week, I'm still thinking about them (I'm reminded of the Willie Nelson song "Always on my Mind" right about now).

School nurses are inundated with visits from child after child every day. They have to determine if a child's illness is legit or an attempt to play hooky. In certain cases, like the latter example mentioned above, they can't fulfill a parent's request for a blood pressure check for fear of legal liability. In addition, some school nurses are forced to cover more than one school in a school system. (In Athens-Clarke County school nurses cover several schools each day). Simply put, school nurses are overwhelmed.

The NY Times article confirmed an earlier hypothesis: we need more school nurses. For schools that say, "we can't afford them." I'm reminded of a rather astute comment from Brian Robinson, the secondary school committee chair for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Though he was discussing certified athletic trainers the comment applies here. Here's a quick paraphrase, most schools hide behind the fact that they can’t afford an additional health care provider (i.e. certified athletic trainer or school nurse), but they don't make it a priority. Fact is schools can't afford not to.

No-pain, no-gain culture of sport trickles down to youth

After a routine tennis practice early in May, I wandered home and rested on the couch. Later that night, I noticed a nagging pain in my lower back. I took a couple of Advil and ignored it. In two days, I was back out on the courts again...but every time I hit my backhand a sharp pain shot through my leg and back. Still, I played through the pain, after all it was a USTA match--I couldn't let my team down. The next day I could barely walk. I took Sunday off but came back for more on Monday. I couldn't miss my tennis drills. During Tuesday's singles match, I had to retire because of pain. When I visited the doctor in intense pain, he said that I aggravated my piriformis and should take a month off. I lasted two weeks.
Last month, I watched my stepsister Alex in her first basketball scrimmage of the season. Fearlessly, Alex stepped in the lane, drawing a charge. She went down with a thud, knocking her head against the court. More than a minute later, she slowly pulled herself up off the ground, rubbing the back of her head. In the absence of a certified athletic trainer, Alex wandered back to the sideline as the final seconds of the first half dwindled away. In the second half, Alex was back in full action as if nothing had happened. After the game, Alex complained of a headache and her parents watched for symptoms of concussion. When I spoke to her later, she admitted that she probably shouldn't have played the second half. "I just hated not to," she said. "I'm tough."
Both of these stories illustrate the influence of sports no-pain, no-gain culture. From an early age, children learn to sacrifice their bodies, to play through pain and to be tough in sports. After all, "there's no crying in baseball" (or any sport for that matter). We learn these cues from every aspect of our culture, even from our parents.
In June, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel aired a provocative piece on "boomeritis." According to the sources in the piece, American baby boomers, unwilling to kick their daily sports habit, are pushing their bodies to the edge. Instead of slowing down, these weekend warriors with overuse sports injuries fill doctor offices and hospitals looking for an easy cure--a quick pill. What the weekend warriors fail to consider is the message that they are sending to their children and grandchildren.
We need to look in the mirror and consider if we are sacrificing our health for the love of the game?

Concussions are brutal reality in high school sport

Since 1997, more than 50 teens have been killed after sustaining head injury in sport (see graphic from NY Times). Concussions, 'the silent sports injury,' are a stark reality in high school sports. A recent series of studies out of Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital revealed that girls are more than twice as likely to sustain concussions in sport than boys (see NY Times article). Although football still causes the highest rate of concussions (with 47 per 100,000 incidents of participation), girls soccer is next in line (with 36 per 100,000).

Interesting stuff, I know. So should we ban kids from playing sports, you may be asking yourself? Of course not. Dr. Dawn Comstock, a co-author of the study, points out that the benefits of participating in sport far outweigh the dangers. But, we should be aware of the risks of playing sport. (Believe it or not, this research out of Ohio State is the first sustained epidemiological study on high school sports injury. It will allow the general public to learn about injury patterns in sport and most importantly prevention techniques).

These particular findings do raise several questions: why are girls more likely to sustain concussions than boys? And, why are they held out of competition for longer than boys? Researchers noted that several factors may be at play here: 1. perhaps there are physiological differences 2. perhaps it's because girls were less protective head gear in sports 3. perhaps girls are more likely to report concussions or 4. perhaps coaches, parents, trainers, etc., are more likely to listen when a girl reports symptoms of a concussion.

According to CDC guidelines, an athlete diagnosed with a concussion should sit out at least a week before resuming play. According to the study, boys sit out approximately three days while girls sit out for a week or more. Why aren't boys held out for the appropriate amount of time? I dare say culture might be a factor here. Whatever the reason, it's a problem to stick an athlete back in competition before he or she is ready.

A Tale of Two Teen Mothers: Support breeds Success

As a fifth grade first baseman on the Winder-Barrow Cubs recreational softball team, I became fast friends with Kim and Christy (though they were just mere fourth graders). Over the next two years, we became inseparable as our comeback squad climbed from worst to first. We went to the batting cages and practiced fielding line drives. We laughed; we cried (you get the picture)….but after awhile, our friendship drifted into the realm of mere acquaintance when Kim and Christy entered the wide world of Winder-Barrow High School (with its myriads of clicks) and I continued my education at a local Christian school. I still ran into Christy at Wednesday night youth group and we often chatted about our crushes of the month and eventually her new boyfriend. I eventually completely lost touch with Kim—I only heard about her life through the grapevine.
Even so, I must admit it came as a shock to me (though I suppose it shouldn’t have given the locale of our upbringing) during my freshman year of college to learn that both girls were pregnant.
Despite the unexpected turn of events, Christy (who hailed from an upper middle class background) managed to finish high school. Although her parents were disappointed, they rallied around Christy, providing both financial and moral support. Christy remained in a nurturing environment. Although they didn’t get married, the young man who got Christy pregnant played a vital role in young Samantha’s life. In fact, it was in large part due to this experience that Christy decided to become a nurse. So, once more, her family pitched in and Christy juggled caring for Sam and attending college. Today, Christy is happily married, working at a local hospital and has a beautiful ten-year-old daughter.
Things didn’t go as well for Kim, who lacked Christy’s nurturing environment. You see Kim came from a part of Barrow County that I didn’t get to that often. Though I didn’t know it at the time, Kim played softball through a scholarship program. With three children, Kim’s parents often struggled to make ends meet. And, when she got pregnant during her senior year, her family wasn’t able to offer her much in the way of support. Though she was a good student, Kim was forced to drop out of school because of her situation and began working at the local Dairy Queen. The last I heard, things weren’t getting much better for Kim. A single mom (lacking any support from the baby’s father), Kim lives in a single-wide trailer down a dirt road a few miles away from her family. Though she wanted to get her GED, Kim struggled to find the time, juggling caring for Jackie and working full-time as an assistant manager at Dairy Queen (while making only slightly more than minimum wage).
Unfortunately, Christys are the exceptions and Kims are the general rule in this area. For individuals like Kim with little family support, the community provides few services. Based on the anecdotal evidence that I have seen and experienced, support breeds success in teen moms. In order to give teen moms the tools to succeed and become greater contributors to our communities, they need the resources to finish their high school education. Like Dr. Claude Burnett, I believe that combating teen pregnancy is key in the battle to end the cycle of poverty. So, I leave you with two questions: what can we do as a community to combat teen pregnancy? Is combating teen pregnancy the only solution to ending the cycle of poverty?

Teen Pregnancy: Does community support help end poverty?

Many studies have linked teen pregnancy with the cycle of persistent poverty that has plagued the South for more than a century. These studies don't surprise me, though.
While my mom may not have bombarded me with lectures about safe sex (see my last blog), she did instill in me the notion of avoiding sex at all cost as a teen.
You see, I come from a long line of teen mothers. My grandmother became pregnant as a high school senior and was forced to leave school and marry under a cloud of shame (the notion of a shotgun marriage should come to mind here). Following in her mother's footsteps (though obviously unintentionally), my mother, too, was forced to drop out of high school, as the result of a teenage pregnancy. Though there were by far more options by the late 1970s, my mom also married the man who got her pregnant, my dad.
Because of overwhelming family support, both women overcame the shame and challenges associate with teen pregnancy but not without a myriad of personal struggles along the way. Both women endured emotional scars and marital hardships. Both eventually divorced the men that they married more out of obligation than perhaps love. (My grandmother eventually remarried my grandfather). But, despite all odds, both women entered the workforce and achieved financial success and personal happiness.
However, as my mom mentioned repeatedly to me in my teen years, she never had a childhood. She was forced to grow up overnight. By her own admission, she lost the opportunity to explore career paths that intrigued her (like meteorology) because of her choices. (Of course, she also never failed to mention after relaying these warnings that having me was the best choice that she ever made.) Though in some ways I was very naive about sex as a teen, these motherly warnings did make me consider the consequences of teen pregnancy.
As a local journalist, I often have encountered stories of teen pregnancy. And, what continuously interests me is the notion of family and community support given to teen moms. Will family and community support of teen moms help combat the area's persistent poverty, as suggested by Dr. Claude Burnett? I will explore this question in next week's blog--A Tale of Two Teen Moms: Support equals success?

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Starts at an Early Age

In our first class meeting, Northeast District Health Director Dr. Claude Burnett stressed that combating teen pregnancy was crucial in the battle to end the cycle of poverty in this area. This thought has resonated with me for more than a month, and over the next few weeks, I will discuss the impact of teenage pregnancy, relaying some personal anecdotes along the way.

Last spring, I wrote a series of pieces for the Barrow County News examining the issue of teenage pregnancy. Through the series, I noticed an interesting paradox: parents realize the importance of sex education and providing birth control to sexually active teens but don't want to give them "mixed messages" by encouraging abstinence while providing condoms. This observation seemed to be supported by the random telephone survey conducted by the Northeast Health District, which said that while 71 percent of Georgians supported providing condoms to sexually active teens, only 31 percent of Georgians felt that their community would support such an initiative.

In addition, I noticed that parents continue to rely on the school system and on occasion the church to deliver sexual education to their kids. My interviews of area residents supported my own personal experience. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, sex was a taboo topic in my household. I can only remember one "sex" talk from my mom, and it centered only on menstruation. Unfortunately, I was a shy child and didn't inquire a lot about it; thus, I gained much of my knowledge about sex from the media (scary, I know).

Based on my personal experience, as well as anecdotes gained as a reporter, I believe that this lack of parent/child interaction about sex is pretty common in this region. I think it has something to do with cultural norms that still linger ("sex talk"=taboo topic). Parents are just plain scared and uncomfortable with talking to their kids about sex. At an early age, we're taught to use inappropriate lingo for our sexual anatomy and, in some cases, that sex is bad. Children can sense when a parent is uncomfortable, and some kids will avoid asking inherent questions about sex because of it, choosing instead to find the answers through other means (i.e., school, church, the media, peers, etc.).

By avoiding or sidestepping conversations about sex (or even worse providing misinformation such as the "stork story"), parents are contributing to the cycle of teenage pregnancy and perhaps to the greater cycle of poverty within this region. My advice: parents need to get over it. They need to realize that talking to kids about sex is no different than talking to kids about drugs or smoking. Giving kids answers allows them to make informed decisions in their life. That said, I was pleased to see that there's a growing body of children's literature devoted to helping kids and parents talk about sex.

However, these books are only helpful if parents use them. Parents need to realize that they are the first step to breaking the cycle of teen pregnancy. In my next blog, I will consider how teenage pregnancy contributes to the cycle of poverty.

Bullying scars can last for years

A recent study in Pediatrics Journal revealed that emotional and psychological scars of bullying can last long after the tormenting stops. I didn't need a study to tell me that though. As a child, I experienced bullying firsthand and still struggle with self-confidence issues associated with it. Let me explain.

I've always been what some would term a school nerd--this is a fact that I've learned to embrace (after all, I'm what my mom calls a career student). Early on, I'll have to admit that I was somewhat of a goodie-goodie, too, though somewhere along the way I've lost that label. Combine these two personality traits and the tendency to be unassertive (i.e. not stick up for oneself), and I was the perfect candidate for bullies lurking around the halls of my Christian school (I know the irony here, but I'll get to that later). Some of my earliest school memories are of a snobby, little girl (think Nellie Olsen on Little House on the Prairie) who would step on my fingers at recess and try to take my lunch candy and pocket change.

Though it doesn't sound particularly traumatic, it was. I struggled to learn how to stick up for myself, but the pattern continued into middle school. Though I didn't experience constant bullying, I did experience incidents of bullying. I would gain some confidence then it would be squashed by these mean little devils that seemed to have radar for kids, like me, that lacked assertiveness.

Then came high school. The small, private Christian school lacked a diverse groups of students (what some people might call a variety of cliques), and as a smart, average athlete that didn't drink or smoke, I struggled to fit in with the cooler kids. For awhile I would fit in, and then they would inexplicably turn on me. I had friends but they didn't have the confidence to stand up for me and risk the teasing (I can't say I blame them).

Don't worry my story has a happy ending.

After a particularly bad case of bullying in eleventh grade (that I don't care to expound upon), my parents agreed to let me attend public school.

I found a more accepting group of kids at my new school and slowly my confidence re-emerged. Somewhere along the way, I gained an assertive attitude (my husband claims that I'm too assertive now). As I said, my battle scars still linger. At times, I've struggled with confidence issues, some more than others. I tell this story not to gain your pity, but to put a face with the study.

National Childhood Mental Health Trends: What to Make of a Complex Situation

Over the last ten days, several studies have examined complex national trends in children's mental health. It seems that an eight percent spike in adolescent suicides has reinvigorated a debate about the safety of antidepressants within the mental health professionals community. The report in the September issue of the American Journal of Psychology suggested a correlation between increases in suicides and government warnings of the late 1990s that questioned the safety of prescribing antidepressants to America's youth. Since the release of the study, other mental health experts have questioned the study's validity, arguing that it oversimplifies a complex national trend. Regardless of the reason of the suicide hikes, the study does reveal a perplexing trend: a sharp increase in suicides in preteen girls by hanging.

In related news, another study revealed that the number of adolescents treated for bi-polar disorder (once known as manic depression) has nearly doubled in the last decade (click here to read a provocative series with about children with mental illness).

While both studies are somewhat troubling, as a journalist, it's interesting to examining how they were covered. Regarding the first case, the New York Times and many other national outlets reported that increases in suicide rates might be related to government warnings that began appearing on antidepressants to warn consumers that these drugs might actually increase rates of suicide in youth. This week, the New York Times responsibly reported concerns about the study's validity with in the mental health community. In the latter example, it's interesting to look at the New York Time's coverage compared to the LA Time's coverage. Both reports noted that the increase may be due to more diagnoses not cases; however, the LA Time's coverage seemed more quick to label it over-diagnosis of an illness (a la ADHD in the 1990s) that was once thought to occur primarily in a patient's early 20s (i.e. in the headline and nut graph). Also, interesting was the New York Time's note that the onslaught of bipolar diagnoses, which require expensive medication, was a boon to pharmaceutical companies. As I mentioned, it's important to critically examine this pieces. I think that journalists need to remember that mental health disorders, especially bi-polarism, are extremely difficult to diagnose. It's more subjective than diagnosing heart disease or cancer.

In any case, both studies are disturbing, especially the suicide spike in preteen girls. Are we putting too much pressure on young girls to be beautiful like movie stars while juggling insane schedules that include sports teams, music lessons and most importantly getting good grades? Do kids need to have more time to just be kids?

Food for Thought

Childhood obesity stole headlines yet again this week: from a study that gestational diabetes is linked to early childhood obesity to news of a national trend to minimize or eliminate junk food in schools (thank God)! In addition, new studies suggest that those nasty sugars and preservatives in everyday foods are linked not just to hypertension but also to hyperactivity and rotting teeth (surprise, surprise).
Just a few quick thoughts from me on the matter...perhaps it's because I'm reading Fast-Food Nation for the second time but obviously obesity and particularly childhood obesity has been on my mind lately....I often ask myself why is the childhood obesity epidemic surfacing now? I posed this question to Jennifer Burnell, a nutrition education and fitness specialist with the Athens Regional Medical Center, today. Since great minds obviously think alike, we had similar thoughts on the issue. "There’s no one thing that we can pinpoint that is the ultimate cause of epidemic," she said. "Several factors are involved." She cited family lifestyle changes (i.e. eating more fast food, known for large portions and poor nutritional content, and less structured family meals) and greater periods of inactivity in childhood (i.e. more "tube or screen time" at home and less opportunities for physical activity in schools). Since I liked her reasoning here, I asked her the million dollar question, "what can we do about it?" She encouraged parents to be healthy role models for kids (chunking the "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do approach out the window). "The ultimate parent role is to provide proper portions of healthy foods," she said. "Allow kids to make healthy choices (such as knowing when to stop eating)." Burnell begs parents to nix the clean-your-plate rule. It sounds as if someone on high is finally listening to experts like Burnell (see school story above). Now if we can just figure out a way to stop craving those McDonald's french fries.

Up next: Children and Mental Illness

¿Cómo se dice...Translators Needed in the Nurse's Office

Over the last 24-hours, I keep remembering a particularly cool winter morning when I encountered my mentee Adella. As I rounded the corner of the chilled school halls and entered the first-grade classroom, I heard a hacking, wheezing cough. To be honest, part of my mind said turn around before illness invades your body, but then I saw my normally jubilant mentee slumped in the back of the classroom. Poor Adella, I thought, as she looked up and a smile crossed her face just under her runny nose. Already plagued by a string of absences, a language barrier and lackluster grades, Adella didn't need this lingering bronchitis-like condition, which promised to leave her further behind her classmates. Just before recess, she peered into her bag along the cubby holes and pulled out a box of medicine. Moments later, Ms. Snow reached over Adella's shoulders and confiscated the contents of the box. "You need to see the nurse before taking medicine at school," she said. Walking by Adella's side to the nurse's office, I grew more worried about her persistent cough. Soon my worry turned into a horrified feeling of frustration. The school nurse took the medicine from Adella. She said that in order to administer the medicine a signed note must be in her file. Of course, I thought, this makes sense to me. When the necessary paper work was not located, the nurse attempted to call Adella's mother. "May I speak to Ms. Rodriguez," she said. "um, um...¿Cómo se dice...? I'll have to give you a call back." Slamming the phone down, the obviously frustrated nurse attempted to compose herself and explain the adult situation to Adella. While she proceeded to explain why Adella couldn't take her medicine at school, I was appalled at the utter communication breakdown that prevented a child from taking necessary medication. As I remember this episode, I am reminded again and again of the need for translators in our school systems. What if Adella's persistent cough had been something even worse? Every school in America should have access to a translator for instances such as this; otherwise, we are providing a great disservice to our children.
Up Next: Roessner's weekly health update, available this weekend.

Welcome

This blog will provide readers with my final word on this week's children's health news, as well as links to the most relevant health topics impacting what's most important to you--your children. In order to create a coherent blog, I will normally focus on one area of children's health that's making headlines (this week--obesity).

As you may be aware, childhood obesity is an epidemic in our society. In recent weeks, the topic continues to make headlines with several new studies on the matter and even Shaq weighing (no pun intended) in on the matter (i.e. "Shaq's Big Challenge"; see http://www.abc.com/ for t.v. times in your area). A recent issue of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine revealed what we in this business have assumed to be true for many years--that food branding impacts kids' taste perceptions (see an insightful article published in last week's New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/health/nutrition/14nugg.html?ex=1188619200&en=9e8e2de89b6584ca&ei=5070). In the study, children (ages 3 to 5) from a low socio-economic area tasted five identical foods and beverages in McDonald's and unbranded packaging; the researchers concluded that children preferred McDonald's packaged food over unbranded food (77 percent of the children sampled preferred McDonald's french fries and 54 percent preferred carrots in McDonald's packaging). In related news, a study in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that among 14,000 children diagnosed with hypertension only 26 percent of the cases were properly documented by pediatricians (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-web_hypertensionaug22,1,6951803.story; http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/298/8/874). Obesity is dramatically impacting our youth increasing their likelihood of suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attack. In plain English, obesity issues could cut short the life of your child. If you doubt me, chew on this link (http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-obesity28aug28,1,2527430.story?coll=la-headlines-health&ctrack=1&cset=true) That's all for now!