Seminar Gives Hints For Healthy Families

A healthy community requires healthy families and a healthy family requires healthy children at all ages.

That's the message given Thursday at the Building Blocks for Healthy Families, a luncheon seminar sponsored by Kosciusko Community Hospital, The Child Abuse Prevention Council and The Cardinal Center.

"We all believe in children," said Sandy Rader of KCH. "At our recent health retreat in 1997 we determined that child abuse was a key area that needed to be addressed. And in 1998 family values was selected as a main area of concern. What greater family value is there than the health of our children?"

Three KCH pediatricians provided the luncheon attendees with the important health and child-rearing considerations in three distinct groups: infants and toddlers, school-age children and adolescence.

Dr. Anita Kishan said healthy infants require mothers to be concerned about the health of their children even before the mothers have children.

"Taking care of a baby starts before you even conceive," she said. "Drug abuse, drinking alcohol and smoking all have an effect on the health of the mother, which bears directly on the health of the baby."

Once the baby arrives, a new mother needs a strong support system to help her learn about proper infant care and how to deal with the stresses of caring for a newborn.

"New mothers are usually concerned about their babies crying," she said. "They need to understand that babies cry, on average, four hours a day and that this is normal."

Parents who don't have this understanding often become distressed over their inability to keep the child from crying and sometimes that frustration is taken out on the child.

"Shaken Baby Syndrome is the most prevalent injury to children at this age," Kishan said.

Holding an infant and providing plenty of physical contact and interaction is the most important thing a parent can do at this early stage in a child's life, she said, And despite the conventional wisdom put forward by some "experts," there is no good reason to withhold this type of contact from infants.

"You can't spoil a baby (by picking up and holding it)," Kishan said. "The only way you can spoil a child at this age is to by disrupting its sleep patterns."

As the child moves into the toddler stage, another stressful time for parents usually occurs with "potty training," she said. This is another preventable occurrence, because children will develop proper toilet habits as a natural progression.

"You can't teach a child through 'potty training'," Kishan said. "When a child is ready, they'll do it on their own."

For school-age children, the most common illnesses that parents need to be concerned with are colds and respiratory illnesses, according to Dr. Leonora Noel. To prevent the more serious of these, proper immunization is the key.

"Children 4 to 6 years old need to have their mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) booster, and then again between 11 and 12," Noel said.

Aside from immunizations, parents need to be most mindful of safety and accident prevention.

"Fifty-one percent of deaths for children between 6 and 13 is due to auto accidents," she said. "Studies have shown that the use of seat belts and car seats would cut the fatality rate by 70 to 80 percent."

If sexual abuse is present, this time in a child's life is usually when the effects tend to manifest themselves, she said.

"The child withdraws, stops participating in school events, and can demonstrate self-destructive behavior," she said. "Parents need to keep a sharp eye out for this type of behavior."

Sexual abuse carries over into adolescence, creating problems as the victims enter their teenage years, according to Dr. Dean Lasseter.

"Many of our troubled adolescents are victims of child sexual abuse," he said. "These kids are in need of serious emotional counseling.

"This is probably the worst time in history to be an adolescent," Lasseter said. "There are more choices for teens these days than in any time in the past.

"Sexuality is being used more than a means of procreation - it's become a prevalent means for marketing a wide variety of products," he said. "Teenagers are extremely susceptible to this type of marketing."

Self-esteem is also an important component in the emotional well-being of teens, Lasseter said, with depression - sometimes severe - affecting one in 20 adolescents.

Parents should be aware of changes in sleep and eating habits, mood changes and changes in friends, he said.

The depressive episodes can often lead to suicide attempts, with girls being more likely to attempt such a drastic act.

"Girls are three times more likely to attempt suicide than boys. But boys are three time more likely to succeed in their attempts," he said. "This is mostly a function of the method chosen for their attempts, with girls most likely to use pills of some sort and boys are more likely to use guns."

Teen pregnancy is another area of adolescent health that parents and the community need to focus on, Lasseter said.

"One in 10 females between 15 and 19 will become pregnant," he said. "And most of them are intending to become pregnant. They don't understand all the implications of what pregnancy means."

Sex education is one way to address the teen pregnancy rate, but a strong value system is just as important, Lasseter said

"Physiology is easy to teach teens, but values can only be taught in the home," he said. "Parents need to look at their own values and why they believe sex outside of marriage is wrong, then explain it to their kids."