Wednesday, May 1

Tag: children

How Is The Problem Of 18 million US Children At Risk Of Hunger Being Addressed And What More Can Be Done?
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IN OTHER NEWS

How Is The Problem Of 18 million US Children At Risk Of Hunger Being Addressed And What More Can Be Done?

The economic crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has increased the number of Americans who can’t always get enough to eat, including children. The Conversation U.S. asked four experts to explain how common child hunger is and what’s being done to address it. 1. How big a problem is child hunger in the US? Heather Eicher-Miller, associate professor of nutrition science at Purdue University: Hunger has two very different meanings. It can describe that uncomfortable feeling you get after not eating in a while. It’s also a long-term physical state. Heather Eicher-Miller. Purdue University, CC BY-SA People who experience long-term hunger aren’t just uncomfortable. They can feel weakness or pain and run an elevated risk of illnesses, including asthma, iron-deficiency anemia and poor...
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Children’s Books Rooting Out Racism
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EDUCATION

Children’s Books Rooting Out Racism

Ten years ago, I sat down with my then 8-year-old daughter to read a book before bedtime. The book was sort of a modern-day “boy who cried wolf” story, only it was about a little girl named Lucy who had a bad habit of telling lies. In the story, Lucy borrowed her friend Paul’s bike and crashed it. Lucy lied to Paul, telling him “a bandit” jumped in her path and caused the crash. I saw the image and stopped reading. I was stunned. The image on the page was the racist stereotype of the “Mexican bandit” wearing a serape, sombrero and sandals. By training, I am a critical race theorist in education who understands that racism is ingrained into the fabric of our society in general, and in educational institutions in particular. One area of my research is about how people of color experience r...
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Questions Parents Are Asking, When Can Children Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Questions Parents Are Asking, When Can Children Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?

The first U.S. COVID-19 vaccines are expected in clinics in mid-December, and states are drawing up plans for who should get vaccinated first. But one important group is absent: children. While two vaccines are expected to be cleared soon for adult use in the U.S., testing is only now getting started with children – and only with adolescents. There are still a lot of unknowns. As an infectious disease pharmacist and professor who helps manage patients hospitalized with COVID-19, I frequently hear questions about vaccines. Here’s what we know and don’t know in response to some common questions about vaccinating kids for COVID-19. When can my child be vaccinated? Right now, it appears unlikely that a vaccine will be ready for children before the start of the next school year in August. A...
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Children With Lethal Cancers And Incurable Illnesses Have Benefited From The Affordable Care Act, They’ll Suffer If Overturned By The Supreme Court
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IN OTHER NEWS

Children With Lethal Cancers And Incurable Illnesses Have Benefited From The Affordable Care Act, They’ll Suffer If Overturned By The Supreme Court

The Affordable Care Act once again is headed for a date with the Supreme Court, with health insurance coverage for tens of millions of Americans possibly on the line in a case that will be heard Nov. 10, 2020. But a much smaller group of people with exceptional needs could also lose coverage – children with cancer and other serious diseases. This benefit is an example of another benefit of the ACA, and one that many people don’t know about, that could go away if the court strikes down the ACA. Under the law, children with cancer and other serious illnesses who are enrolled in hospice care – or end-of-life care – can still receive coverage for medical treatment. Through this provision, the ACA gives these very ill children and their parents a glimmer of hope. The law mandates an option ca...
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Kids’ perceptions of police fall as they age – for Black children the decline starts earlier and is constant
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Kids’ perceptions of police fall as they age – for Black children the decline starts earlier and is constant

The deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and most recently Dijon Kizzee at the hands of officers come in an age when overpolicing and underserving minority communities has, as some experts believe, resulted in a “legitimacy crisis” in American policing. The reality is that these events are also impacting children. Youth today are growing up in what has been described as an “era of mistrust” of police. Across racial and ethnic groups, youths’ perceptions of police have dropped in recent years to a decades-long low. Yet, the amount of the decline differs across demographic groups. In fact, Black youth report the most dramatic declines, and the gap between their perceptions and white youths’ perceptions has been increasing. As scholars of policing and the criminal justice system, we stud...
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What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19

While most children who get COVID-19 develop little more than a mild illness, several hundred have ended up in hospital intensive care units with alarming symptoms that begin appearing weeks after the initial infection. The view through an electron microscope shows the spikes that create the ‘corona’ effect on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, CC BY-ND This new condition progresses rapidly and can strike multiple organs and systems, including the heart, lungs, eyes, skin and gastrointestinal system. It’s known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C. More than 790 U.S. cases had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Sept. 3, and 16 of those children have died. I have been consulting on M...
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Yes, kids can get COVID-19 – 3 pediatricians explain what’s known about coronavirus and children
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COVID-19

Yes, kids can get COVID-19 – 3 pediatricians explain what’s known about coronavirus and children

We are three pediatric infectious disease specialists who live and work in West Virginia. The West Virginia University health system serves 400,000 children and according to our internal data, to date, 2,520 children up to 17 years of age have been tested for the coronavirus. Sixty-seven of them tested positive and one became sick enough to be admitted to the hospital. We are asked almost daily about children and COVID-19: Do they get COVID-19? Should they attend day care or school, play sports, see friends and attend summer camps? What are the risks to themselves and to others? Based on current research and our own experiences, it would seem that kids 17 years old and younger face little risk from the coronavirus. Nearly all children have asymptomatic, very mild or mild disease, but a s...
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5 ways parents can support their college-age children who’ve been forced to return home due to COVID-19
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COVID-19, EDUCATION

5 ways parents can support their college-age children who’ve been forced to return home due to COVID-19

With many college students forced to return home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions and arguments are bound to flare up. Here, Matthew Mayhew, an education researcher who co-authored a book about the college experience and its effect on students, offers five things parents and families of the many college students who are now learning from home should consider. 1. Empathize Whatever feelings of grief and fear are affecting you are also affecting your college students. Put yourself in their shoes – they are probably under just as much stress, if not more, as they try to complete the semester in unexpected ways. Also, many students might be questioning their decisions to go to college in the first place. Or what school will be like when they return. Can they still choose their roommates...
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5 ways parents can motivate children at home during the pandemic – without nagging or tantrums
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SOCIETY

5 ways parents can motivate children at home during the pandemic – without nagging or tantrums

Parents have always helped with homework and made sure their children fulfill responsibilities like chores, but the extended and often unstructured time families are spending together during the current crisis creates new challenges. After a disaster like a hurricane or fire, establishing structure is important to keep consistency and maintain a sense of control for both parents and children. This includes creating a schedule and communicating clear expectations and guidelines on things such as screen time. But how do parents get children to follow the schedule and fulfill responsibilities without nagging and in a way that prevents blowups and tantrums? Wendy Grolnick, a psychologist and parenting expert who has worked with parents in disaster situations, has studied how parents can hel...
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America’s poorest children won’t get nutritious meals with school cafeterias closed due to the coronavirus
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COVID-19

America’s poorest children won’t get nutritious meals with school cafeterias closed due to the coronavirus

Schools aren’t only places where kids learn. They are also places where kids eat. Thanks to the National School Lunch Program, 30 million U.S. children – some 60% of all school-aged kids – regularly eat some combination of breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks at school. Federal subsidies ensure that school meals are affordable for all children to stave off hunger and malnutrition. But what is happening to meals provided by the nation’s largest child nutrition program as public schools shut their doors to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic? Based on my research on how schools provide meals for poor children, I worry that these closures might leave some of the nation’s poorest children without access to nutritious meals. School meals address hunger Despite persistent concer...
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