1 in 5 overweight when start school

  • April 18, 2010 2:34 pm

NHS figures show that over one in five children in England start their school life overweight or obese. Shockingly this rises to 1 in 3 by the end of primary school, which makes the child approximately 11. The statistics showed that obesity levels were higher in London, the North East and West Midlands than elsewhere in 2008-9.

The data revealed that more boys than girls were overweight in both reception and year six, 24% of boys aged four to five were overweight or obese, while 21.5% of girls were. In the 10 to 11-year-old age group, 34.5% of boys and 30.7% of girls weighed too much.

Public health minister, Gillian Merron, said evidence is stacking up to suggest that child obesity is “levelling off. It’s important to monitor children’s weight and wellbeing, and I’m glad that we achieved a 90% take up of the scheme. But we need to keep the momentum going.We’ll only turn the tide on obesity for good if everyone plays their part.”

It is already known that obesity can cause health problems such has heart disease and diabetes but the scary factor is that we could out live our children should this problem not be addressed and measures put in place to correct the problem.

Postponed Nursery Funding Change

  • April 6, 2010 10:00 am

Controversial plans to re-work the way English local authorities fund nursery education are being delayed because of problems with their implementation. These problems were highlighted by the BBC News website after many state-run nurseries warned they faced budget cuts or closure because of the changes.
Children’s Minister Dawn Primarolo said only a third of local councils would be ready to bring in the new arrangements.

A government poll of councils said many were having “serious difficulties”. Under the Early Years Single Funding Formula, the government wants private, voluntary and independent nurseries to be funded at the same level as state-run pre-schools, which currently get more cash. It’s really important that we take the time to get this right so that the really disadvantaged children aren’t the ones to lose out.

Many predicted this change would lead to very effective state-run nursery schools being unable to continue as they do at present. And ministers faced the prospect of local campaigns to prevent highly-valued nurseries from being run down or even closed. But now the introduction of this change has been postponed until April 2011 – after the General Election – and it is unclear whether it will ever be brought in.

Announcing the move in a written ministerial statement, Children’s Minister Dawn Primarolo said many local authorities had been working hard to prepare for the formula’s implementation in April 2010. “However, during the summer it became clear that a significant number of local authorities were experiencing difficulty in developing their EYSFF.

“More recently, parents and providers, from both the maintained and the PVI sectors, have expressed concerns about the potential adverse impact on provision if the EYSFF is introduced now,” she said. She added that the department had surveyed all local authorities in November to establish how much progress they had made.

It found “considerable variation in terms of their readiness,” she said, with less than a third predicting they would be ready to introduce the EYSFF from April 2010. “While it is difficult to generalise about the underlying reasons it seems clear that some local authorities have experienced serious difficulties in obtaining accurate data from their providers, while others have simply found the task extremely challenging,” she added.
Megan Pacey of Early Education, which represents state-run nurseries, welcomed the move, saying: “Many local authorities were really struggling to make the balance and the formula work.

“The minister said two-thirds of local authorities were not ready to run this properly. “We are in a place now that it’s acknowledged that maintained nurseries have a role to play and do a very different job to those in the private, voluntary and independent sector.” But, she added, that nurseries in the maintained sector would have to “reform and evolve” in order secure their futures.

“It’s really important that we take the time to get this right, so that the really disadvantaged children aren’t the ones to lose out.” Shadow Families Minister Maria Miller said: “Over the summer, around 300 nurseries left the childcare market. “Two thirds of all nurseries say they are not getting enough money from government to deliver free hours. “The Early Years Single Funding Formula should have helped private and voluntary nurseries get a better deal. But the government have failed to ensure its delivery. Hard working parents will suffer as even more places are lost.”

Child Cancer Heart Risk

  • April 6, 2010 9:45 am

Children who battle and survive cancer run a higher risk of heart problems and must be closely screened, say experts. Aggressive cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy can harm the heart, multiplying the patient’s death risk by seven, data shows.

UK guidelines recommend routine heart trace checks every five years. But many survivors currently receive no follow-up, US doctors, who studied data on 14,000 childhood cancer survivors, say in an article published at bmj.com. With the number of survivors steadily rising thanks to improved cancer care, health workers need to look out for signs of heart problems in their patients, say the specialist cancer doctors.

Most checks have focused on heart damage related to a cancer drug called anthracycline.
But latest work shows that young adult cancer survivors are at risk for a variety of cardiovascular complications, including heart attacks, inflammation of the heart and heart valve abnormalities, as late as 30 years after therapy. The largest study on the issue yet, which looked at data from more than 14,000 childhood cancer survivors, also shows damage can occur at lower exposures and with more types of cancer treatment than previously appreciated.

Lead researcher Professor Daniel Mulrooney, of the University of Minnesota, said that young adults who survived childhood or adolescent cancer were at risk of serious heart problems not usually recognised within their age group. “Such individuals require ongoing clinical monitoring, particularly as they approach ages in which cardiovascular disease becomes more prevalent.”

Professor Mike Hawkins, a childhood cancer survival expert from the charity Cancer Research UK, said: “This study is useful in helping healthcare professionals understand the risks of heart disease for those who have had cancer as a child or teenager – and especially which groups will be most at risk.”
However, he said that while the research was based on feedback given by survivors who filled in a questionnaire reporting heart disease, the questionnaire responses were not confirmed by doctors.
He said Cancer Research UK was currently confirming all reports of heart disease in this group.
“This will provide valuable information about the best ways to monitor and help young British cancer survivors.”

Take a deep breath

  • March 31, 2010 8:07 pm

Earlier today my daughter was getting rather stressed which started to turn into a tantrum. I got down to her level and explained what we were going to do then asked her to take a deep breath and then slowly breathe out; which she did a few times. This calmed her down which was what I wanted to happen.

I didn’t think anything of it until a lady with a pushchair walked up to me and said “how did you do that?” Which confused me as it hadn’t occurred to me that this was odd, the woman must have noticed the look on my face, so she said “your daughter went from having a tantrum to a calm little girl in 2 minutes”.

At this point still thinking I was missing something I just told her what I had done and then walked away. I looked at my best friend who explained that a lot of parents just tend to yell at their kid when their kids have a tantrum or just drag them along screaming behind them. Until that point I’d just thought that the way I dealt with the kids when they were acting up was nothing out of the ordinary, because I don’t see the point of shouting and screaming at the girls as it makes the situation worse as everyone involved just gets even more frustrated.

Coil- Nightmare

  • February 28, 2010 7:36 pm

In attempt to stop my hellish periods, which are that bad I end up having to use maternity pads to deal with them, the doctors decided to try the Mirena Coil. I figured it was worth a try given I’ve tried the pill and the implant, neither of which worked.

So I went to the appointment went through all the routine questions not a problem, it was after that the problems started. With no warning what so ever the doctor performed a pelvic exam which had me climbing the walls. She then tried to fit the coil, unfortunately what should have been a straight forward procedure was extremely painful, unsurprisingly my cervix went into spasm and the whole thing had to be abandoned.

I had to book another appointment, this time I was told to take 6mg of Diazepam. So I turned up for the appointment, went through the same routine as the 1st attempt only this time after 6 attempts they finally managed to get the bloody thing in.

Since then it’s all gone downhill, I feel like crap, I’ve had bleeding heavier than my usual period; which I didn’t think was possible. To add insult to injury I found out that I’ve got a few torn ligaments in my pelvis and I have pelvic Inflammatory Disease from the damn thing. So all in all not a happy bunny.

For more information about the coil or PID see these websites:
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Mirena Coil

Baby P understaffed clinic

  • February 25, 2010 2:24 pm

Doctors at a clinic that failed to spot a broken back in Baby Peter two days before he died were under an “excessive workload”, a report has said. Peter Connelly, killed in 2007 in Haringey, north London, was seen at St Ann’s Hospital two days before he died. Dr Kim Holt, who warned about the way the clinic was run in 2006, said the 17-month-old baby could have been saved if managers had listened to her.

But the report found “genuine attempts” were made to address her concerns. Dr Kim Holt, a senior consultant paediatrician, had warned the clinic’s appointment system was “chaotic”. She was one of four who wrote a letter detailing problems at the hospital’s clinic a year before the failed diagnosis. They warned the clinic – run by Haringey Primary Care Trust and manned by Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors – was understaffed.

There had once been four doctors at the clinic, but two posts were cut before Baby Peter’s death. Since the case, the number has risen to nine. The independent report found “delays in seeing children must have the potential to affect patient safety”. It described Dr Holt as highly intelligent and committed, and added that communication between doctors and senior administrators needed to be managed “more effectively in the interests of patient care”.But it also said “genuine attempts” had been made to improve the situation after Dr Holt’s letter.

The report’s authors described the workload of consultants at the clinic between 2006 and May 2008 as “excessive” and said the consequences of cutting a consultant post “were not adequately considered” by management. They also noted complaints of a “very hostile environment” at the clinic with poor communication between staff and managers. But they concluded: “We do not consider, however, that this descended into a bullying regime.”

After the publication of the report, Dr Holt said said she and her colleagues’ concerns were about the “quality of care” given to children at the clinic. Tracey Connelly was jailed for her part in Baby Peter’s death
She said: “We followed internal Trust channels, only going outside when they had been exhausted.
“I hope now that everyone will be able to learn from this report and move on. “I also hope that in future it will be far easier for NHS staff, in Haringey or anywhere, to speak out in the interests of their patients, particularly those who have no voice of their own.” Professor Trish Morris-Thompson, chief nurse at NHS London, said: “We accept in full the findings of this independent report, and we are working with NHS Haringey to make sure recommendations are put in place.”This report shows that Dr Holt’s concerns were taken seriously.”

The British Medical Association (BMA) is supporting Dr Holt’s claim to be reinstated to her original post.
In a statement Great Ormond Street Hospital said: “The Trust welcomes the report, accepts its recommendations and now wants to move to try to resolve outstanding issues swiftly and amicably.”
It added: “The Trust has apologised for its mistakes in the care of Baby Peter and has acted on all recommendations made.

Baby Peter died from abuse despite 60 visits from the authorities. His mother Tracey Connelly, 28, her partner Steven Barker, 33, and Barker’s brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed for their part in Peter’s death.
Haringey Council’s social services department was heavily criticised following the killing.

This is just one instance of a clinic where a child died as a result of abuse injuries being ignored due to being short staffed. This is just one of many, indicators that the NHS needs to be reviewed

Weight Loss

  • February 14, 2010 8:02 pm

Virtually every woman claims that she wants to lose weight, so those that decide to do something about it there’s then the dilemma about which diet to try, well STOP right there! These diets are often very expensive and don’t actually work.

Diet pills only actually make you lose water because the majority of them contain a diuretic (it makes you pee alot). Some of them can interfere with contraceptives such as the pill. Add into the equation that diet pills are pretty expensive too, for example a packet of alli costs approximately £32.95 for 42 tablets. You have to take 1 3 times a day so a packet of 42 will last 14 days so you end up spending approximately £70 a month.

So here is a link to a website that I found helpful beauty secrets for you. The information on this site is useful provided that you don’t pay attention to the adverts on the page.

School Phobia – Fact or Fiction?

  • February 6, 2010 7:17 pm

A school is being asked to apologise to the family of a boy it prosecuted for truancy. The boy was diagnosed as having “school phobia”, but what is that?

Most adults can remember days when they didn’t want to go to school. There would be claims of illness, and of the danger of passing on an unpleasant disease, before the eventual acceptance that the journey into school was inevitable. So it is not surprising that many might react with scepticism to the idea that there is such a thing as “school phobia”.

According to Nigel Blagg, author of School Phobia and Its Treatment, it is a condition that has been recognised since the 1960s. “They will experience extreme anxiety. They are off school, typically with their parents’ knowledge and approval. And they often have symptoms like tummy aches, head aches and nausea. Some of them suffer severely with depression. “Any attempts to get them to school, when they are at their worst can lead to quite extreme behaviour – temper tantrums, screaming, kicking. It is very distressing for the adults.”

The sceptics categorise these children as truants, but, says Mr Blagg, a former local authority educational psychologist who now runs a private practice, they are quite distinct in background and behaviour: “They are typically well behaved, socially conforming who are usually doing quite well. Normally they come from caring families. The truant group are the ones who [miss] school because they want to… often involved in delinquent behaviour.”

It is thought the worst ages for school phobia are five to six and 11-14, says Mr Blagg. There are no precise numbers for how many children suffer the condition, but he notes one estimate is that 1% of children will have it at one point during their school careers. A day at school is not every child’s idea of fun.

But the diagnosis is not without controversy, and even the term is subject to dispute, says Mr Blagg. “In the psychological world the preferred term these days is school refusal. [But] school refusal doesn’t convey the extreme distress, anxiety and panic, the physical symptoms that these children experience or the fact that it isn’t a volitional state.” There is a recognition among psychologists and other education professionals that school phobia/school refusal covers a range of different problems.

Some of the younger sufferers can be diagnosed as having “separation anxiety”, leaving them distressed at parting from their parents at the school gate. But some psychologists say this is more about refusal, not phobia – a true school phobic will experience a reaction even if their parents are present. “Other children could be classified as having a social phobia to do with performance aspects of school – reading out loud or changing for PE,” says Mr Blagg. Other children might be off sick for a prolonged period, fall behind with work and fall out of a routine. Some might simply have changed school and lost friends they relied on to feel secure at school. Still others may have had a single distressing experience. “More typically what you have is an accumulation of stresses to do with home and school that add up over time and cause the child to be anxious,” says Mr Blagg.

School phobia – irrational fear of school or the school situation
School refusal – Refusal on the part of a child to attend school
Refusal to go to school may be caused by a school phobia but most school refusals due to separation anxiety
In a true school phobia a child will show the phobic reaction even if his or her parents are present
Source: Penguin Dictionary of Psychology

“The avoidance leads to greater problems. They fall behind with school work. They worry what friends will say. The longer they are out the worse the problems get. If they are told they don’t have to go they feel fine and the symptoms disappear.”

Not only is there disagreement over the name for the condition, but also how to treat it, and whether it exists at all. Sociologist Prof Frank Furedi, author of Wasted: Why Education Isn’t Educating, is not convinced. “You take an understandable anxiety about going to school and turn it into a disease… Children will internalise it and play the role that’s been assigned to them. It cultivates the idea that these [exaggerated medically diagnosable] anxieties are normal. You do begin to encourage children to think in these terms.”

Even if you do accept that school phobia exists, there can still be disagreement over the best approach to tackling it. Mr Blagg insists that while educational psychologists, teachers and parents must be sensitive to the child’s needs, they must recognise that confrontation and getting the child back to school is necessary.
“They need that very firm handling and confronting them and getting them back to school. You might have to take them to school and escort them [in].” For those who have been away schools should assign tutors, help them catch up and offer them quiet space to be in while they are adjusting.

There are some advocates of home schooling who believe that rather than being a psychological aberration requiring a cure, the symptoms of school phobia may simply indicate that the child is best educated away from the school, at home. Ann Newstead, a spokesperson for the home tuition charity Education Otherwise, says school phobia is a “very real condition”. “I see a lot of families where they are in that situation – you only have to meet the children and families to see that it’s not a made up condition. It’s genuine. Not sending your child to school is something parents can be prosecuted for. You don’t risk prosecution lightly. You wouldn’t dream of forcing an adult to engage in an environment that wasn’t beneficial to them. So why do we think it’s ok to treat children in this way?”

But aren’t children more malleable? Doesn’t keeping them back from school indulge their fear rather than tackle the problem? “I agree with the tackling but not the forcing of it. That’s like treating someone who is scared of spiders by putting a spider in their hand. You tackle these things gradually, help someone to overcome a phobia and home education is a way of doing that.” More generally, many schools seek to make some of the changes for children less stressful, for example working on acclimatisation for children moving up to secondary school but Prof Furedi does not believe that such a sensitive treatment is necessarily always helpful. “Kids going from primary school to secondary school often get transitional counselling. If you tell them enough times this is an extremely difficult, painful step, you make the kids more anxious.”

The sceptics of this theory are making their voices heard here are just a few:

  • Bill Thorpe: “Thirty years of teaching in inner city schools has shown me that as soon as a “syndrome” is named, you can be sure that you’ll have a rash of ‘diagnosed’ sufferers within a few weeks. (Tourettes for example). Even if “School phobia” is real; and the pupil who have been prosecuted is a sufferer.. Why should the school apologise? Presumably the evidence of non-attendance was real and provable. The “syndrome” is a circumstance that can be considered by the court. The school is right to pursue truants, their only evidence is attendance records.”
  • Yes, phobias exist in school settings, but I don’t think that there is actually a school phobia. The reason why the profile of all these school phobiasts are “well behaved, socially conforming….” is for the simple fact that they are suck ups that probably get whatever they want, and their mommies and daddies cradle their kids until their out of college. I think everybody at some point or for a period of time didn’t want to go to school. This was probably because we had to deal with something we didn’t want to, like: giving a speech, a bully, or maybe getting up too early. These fears or anxieties are normal for everybody. Being afraid of a public institution is just another way to label something else we want to have as an excuse to coddle our kids.
  • This is ridiculous. There is always a name for anything that makes us as adults uncomfortable. I am a teacher and i have dealt with children who don’t want to come to school, one is now okay as he realised nobody was going to put up with his nonsense. The other left the school as he was very good at manipulating his mother who just did whatever her children wanted. We need to stop labelling children and helping them to come up with excuses. I am sure when they grow up with no qualifications and become yet again another burden on society we will think of another psychological condition to excuse. The problem with the west, too many excuses for bad and manipulative behaviour!!

To be honest me and my partner accept that there is anxiety for some children with regards to school but we’re are uncertain about whether there is such a thing as school phobias. With things like this it raises concerns about the impact on both the education system and the NHS. The education system will become too afraid to act if they suspect truancy and the NHS will be inundated with claims of children who allegedly have school phobia; Not only that but you risk creating a self fulfilling prophercy, if you tell someone something often enough they start to believe it. You are also providing truants with another excuse to skip school

Calorie Count – Wrong?

  • January 29, 2010 10:13 pm

The calorie counts used as the foundation for diet plans and healthy-eating guidance for the past 18 years may be wrong. The recommended daily intake of calories could be increased by up to 16%, a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition said.

Intake levels are currently 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men. However the panel stresses that people should only eat more if they exercise more, given rising levels of obesity. The committee says its report provides a much more accurate assessment of how energy can be burnt off through physical activity.
A 16% increase would mean that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day, equivalent to an average sized cheeseburger.

The proposals, seen by The Times and The Grocer magazine, are due to go out for a 14-week consultation period. Final recommendations will then be made after that time. Health campaigners say the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency could seek to “sweep this report under the carpet” in a bid to avoid sending out mixed messages in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was a “dangerous assumption” to say that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day. “This is not a green light to eat yourself silly,” he said.

This seems to be another one of those situations where there is conflict such as the situation with alcohol some say that a glass of red wine is good for you where other say alcohol is bad, so I guess as long as you eat healthily and are not overweight then don’t worry about how many calories you are consuming as these figures are only guidelines anyway. Everyone’s calorie intake varies depending upon their activity level and their metabolic rate.

To Cry or Not to Cry?

  • January 26, 2010 7:45 am

We all know that babies cry, so my question is, is it ok to let them cry sometimes or not?
Well on the one hand babies cry for a reason so if you drop whatever you’re doing as soon as you hear them crying and find out what they need then that can be good, as you are meeting the needs of your baby.

However allowing that child to cry teaches them to wait and can in some cases stop them from becoming a mardy child. From a parents perspective it seems to be that the general concensus is that it’s ok to choose a little from colum A and a little from colum B. Basically what this means is that in some cases it is best to drop whatever you’re doing and in other cases to let the child cry. As parents you quickly learn to distinguish the diffference between different cries and if in doubt you watch what they are doing, so you know which ones it is ok to delay attending to.

If you child is in pain then NEVER ignore this one, or if your child is ill. However if your child is crying because they are tired it is ok to put them in their cot or pushchair, to sleep and leave them to settle themselves checking every 5 mins to make sure that they are ok. THis has positive benefits for the child as it teaches them to settle themselves. Which in turn is beneficial for you as it means that you don’t have to spend ages trying to get your child to sleep then attempt to change the habit when they get older, as one parent found out. She was a single mother and would sit cuddling her son till he fell asleep, sometimes it took 5 minutes other times it took hours. As the child got older and moved into his own room it took her years to get her son out of this habit, 5 to be exact. Not only does it take ages to change the habits but it can also cause other problems such as only you can put the child to bed thus meaning that if you wanted to go out, you wouldn’t be able to go very far in case the child woke up. Plus if you have a partner then in some cases the child wont settle if your partner tries to put the child to bed.

Some parents say that they find that they can’t get anything done. As a mother of 2 I’ve found that the following things can help:

  • Putting the baby in a sling/baby carrier
  • Putting the child in a bouncer and moving it from room to room with you
  • Putting them on a mat surrounded by toys then move it when you leave the room (this only applies if you are out of the room for more than a few minutes)
  • If your child is mobile a playpen with plenty of toys in can be helpful

At the end of the day it is your child you have to do what is right for you and your lifestyle.