Tuesday, October 6, 2009

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Physician urges awareness By SHAVAUGHN MOSS ~ Lifestyles Editor ~ shavaughn@nasguard.com: A good breakfast, doing away with processed foods, teaching children how to resolve conflict, listening to what teachers have to say about their children and checking up on any unexplained medical happenings which may occur are also important for parents to be aware of as most students settle into their second week of the new school year. General practitioner Dr. Patrick Whitfield encourages parents to ensure that their children have a proper breakfast before sending them out daily. "There have been numerous studies, some of which have been done in the Caribbean by UWI (University of the West Indies), on primary school students which clearly shows that there is a distinct difference in the learning abilities of kids who had breakfast as opposed to kids who didn't have breakfast. They compared two different populations of students, those who came from poorer backgrounds, and who didn't eat breakfast every morning. "The kids who had breakfast — their learning ability increased tremendously. That's because our brain operates off of glucose, and if you're not having any breakfast, when you get that mental surge which tends to happen around 11 a.m. -11:30 a.m. when you're at your maximum capacity, if glucose isn't going to your brain, then the capacity of the brain to retain — and this speaks to adults as well as children — goes down. So it is vitally important if children are going to be successful learning and to be healthy, they have to have breakfast. Nothing can distract more than blood sugar getting low and children getting hungry in class, getting headaches and can't concentrate on what they're doing." Dr. Whitfield encourages parents to ensure that their kids have healthy eating practices, and move them away from snacks that are primarily processed foods. "That would probably be a hard sell, because of their age, but you have to start with the kids at some point in time to at least try to encourage them to follow the regular dietary guidelines which encourages that the majority of your calories come from fruits and vegetables. LISTEN TO TEACHERS On the still young new school year, he says parents should also be keenly aware of issues with their children related to learning disorders. He encourages them to pay attention to what teachers tell them and to work closely with the teachers to establish whether the child is a slow learner, has Attention Deficit Syndrome, or something else going on. "They have the methodology and capacity through the Ministry of Education to do psychological testing to find out whether or not the kids do have a learning disorder." TEACH THEM TO RESOLVE CONFLICT Conflict resolution is another issue he says parents should address and reinforce with children in the home. "It needs to be reinforced by parents, in terms of we don't need to resolve conflict by picking up a rock, or following the crowd and getting a knife, and so on. I think it's important that parents get that across to children. If you look at the reason why kids between 10 and 15-16 [years of age] would come to the attention of us [doctors] it is primarily because of trauma, and trauma is a big issue," says the physician. FAINTING SPELLS According to the physician parents should also not take fainting spells lightly. "While most cases of fainting attacks are benign, perhaps as the result of any number of factors, nevertheless, if it happens in a child they should be evaluated by the health care service. For the most part, they're benign and non-life threatening, but there could be a sign of a significant disorder. They don't have to be rushed to the hospital immediately, but certainly, if your child faints in school, and there's no identifiable reason, take the child for an evaluation." Monday, September 7, 2009