Good or doctors! Finally they stand up to this fact and educate people. Maybe there is hope. I do not have kids so I only speak from what I either read or hear by other parents which may or may not be very accurate.
It tears my heart out to see kids in daycare. I known most people need two incomes to live, that's the reality. It's not only in urban areas, we live in the city limits, but there are cows across the street from me. My mother worked and it was a mess. I went to live with my father and he was a hairdresser, also never home. I was alone a lot and it had a profound effect on me. I was devastatingly lonely as a child growing up. Fortunately I came through, but not without this awful disease I contracted. I am glad there was no AIDS when I was into drugs.
Around here they are finally suggesting that if you work with other people and you have a streaming cold, stay home, don't spread it around. I think the bosses have found a worker away for two days is better than everyone finally having to be away for a couple of days!
When I lived in Japan because their transportation is so crowded it was common to see people with a gauze face mask on their faces so they would not spread a cold. It made excellent sense and because it was common, nobody thought it odd looking.
Texting is great, I text with my baby grandson. He's at High School near my place and likes to come through, pick up some supper and then I drop him off to the stupidmarket where he works.
He will text me sometime in the day so I know he is going to appear (he doesn't always know his work schedule ahead of time) and I can respond and he can read it between classes, whereas a 'phone call might be highly undesirable.
Ah yes, we texting grannies and great-grannies who are way behind the times !
It's no different here, our hospitals are dangerous places, it's one of the reasons I am delaying my knee surgery as long as humanly possible. A friend who had her knee replaced, and replaced a second time, got numerous infections. She was a nurse and in the end insisted that any doctor or nurse who was going to touch her had to wash their hands where she could see them do it. She feels latex gloves are partly to blame, those wearing them feel safe and are not necessarily scrupulous where the patients are concerned.
I think paediatricians face an uphill slog. There has been more than enough publicity about how antibiotics do not speed the passing of juvenile ear infections, nor do they relieve the pain, ergo they should not pump kids full of antibiotics for three or four years needlessly.
The other day a friend was complaining about the doctor not giving her grandchild anything for an ear infection (she had taken her) and when I said they don't do that now, and why, her eyes just glazed over and she said "Well would you want to see your grandchild left to suffer in pain ? A little two year old ?" Her reaction had been to go and visit a Walk In Clinic where of course, she received an antibiotic.
I have watched (covertly) other people washing their hands and they seldom do between the fingers and often not even the backs of their hands. They do have some substance they can use which will, under black light or something, show where the skin has not really been washed.
A recent report showed many did not even wash their hands before leaving the washroom and also that the majority of those were men. You would think their mommies would have made it clear to them why it might be even more important for them !
I sound somewhat fanatical but really I am not, I believe in good handwashing with soap and water and after that I take my chances with the germs I encounter.
But this is an appropriate use and I can see that. I don't ike kids sitting around texting and IMing all day when there are other things going on. Hae you seen that Visa commercial where the kids are plugged in all day until they get to the really remote outskirts of nowhere? Unfortunately, it's way too true.
Yes, we've known for quite a while that overuse of antibiotics is BAD, but I think it's taken a while for pediatricians, especially, to figure out how to stand up to parents demanding that they do *something* when the kid's sick. And while it's true that it is inconvenient for some parents to have sick kids at home (and much more difficult than inconvenient for some parents), that's only one part of the equation. The huge focus on attendance means that it is a big problem to have a kid out sick. Many schools require doctor notes after only a few days out of school, and sometimes continuing verification from the doctor that the kid is *still* too sick to come home (have to arrange and pay for possibly multiple doctor visits). No parent likes to see their kid suffering. The days of not having to make up every single homework assignment missed seem to be long gone. It's not surprising that parents want their kids "fixed" when they're sick, but it's a big task educating them why antibiotics aren't always the right answer. It hasn't helped that it isn't always easy or cost-effective to test to see for sure whether something is viral or bacterial, so it's often a judgment call that seems mysterious to many parents. If Johnny got antibiotics last time he had similar symptoms and they fixed him right up, why not this time? What's the difference? And we all know that most doctors don't have a lot of time built into their schedules to allow them to educate the parents on all the whys and wherefores of antibiotics (not to mention time to spend arguing with the parent who is convinced that antibiotics are the answer). So, anyway, it's not surprising to me that it's taken a while before pediatricians have made good progress on cutting down on antibiotic use, and I don't think it's all the fault of parents who can't be bothered to stay home with a sick kid.
Absolutely this is a huge issue. And part of the problem is that sometimes the problem *is* bacterial, and the antibiotics make a huge difference in very short order. We all know that intermittent rewards make behaviors highly persistent. I've never been one to want the kids on antibiotics if I could help it, but that means there have been times when we guessed wrong and it was bacterial and the kid was in pain much longer than need be because we were dragging our feet on antibiotics that turned out to be necessary and effective in the end. That's kind of a crummy feeling too. That's not to excuse the behavior of pushy parents, nor of physicians who ought to know better and ought to be safeguarding our public health. And really, our medical system has encouraged the notion that we can make all kids perfect, cure all ills, remove all pain, at which point the idea that it's acceptable for a child to endure some pain is naturally going to be anathema to some parents.
And some classrooms request wipes rather than hand sanitizer, but the hand sanitizer is smaller (less storage space required), cheaper, and generates less waste.
I think it helps, especially in the early months/years, but you still go through the early childhood germfest at some point or other. One of the things they now know is that toddlers and preschoolers are positively virulent. A toddler sheds *way* more virus than an older kid or adult. That's one of the reasons they now recommend flu shots for toddlers. Keep them out of the mix and you've removed one of the most potent vectors. Add the fact that toddlers and preschoolers have no sense of hygiene and sooner or later even your healthy, breastfed kids with a great immune systems are going to go through that immune system building phase where they bring everything home to share with their families. Another reason I think school age kid get sick is that they're stressed. For a number of reasons, school is more of a pressure cooker now and kids end up more stressed which depresses their immune systems and they're more likely to fall prey to whatever's going around, even if they're quite healthy under normal circumstances.
They do know that breastfeeding reduces the incidence of certain illnesses in early childhood, and breastfeeding rates are up a bit, but they're still pretty dismal overall. I doubt we'll see any radical improvement unless a whole lot of social changes happen and a whole lot changes about the medical system. Frankly, I think it's a wonder any babies get near WHO recommendations for breastfeeding in the US, given all the strikes against breastfeeding.
I don't think there's been a big drop in breast feeding. But, maybe. Breast feeding for infants - first 6 weeks - helps them with establishing humoral immunity. We have 2 basic immune system types - humoral and cell-mediated (T-lymphocytes). The humoral response is more "innate" in that the beta cells are there and ready for an instant response to an antigen. The memory for that bad cell thing is already present - being the immunity we're born with, or IIRC is passed thru the mother. The other type of immunity is the response we develop - as in why people allergic to bee stings for example (well, all humans have a basic reaction to the toxin) will have a worse than most reaction the first time they're stung, but the next time becomes a crisis. This is an allergic example, but the point is that the body has now encountered that toxin, learns it, and then when next encountered the T-lymphocytes start the big anti-body reaction. Similar thing with different infections, response to diseases which you generally only get once
- like say varicella (chicken pox).
Allergies are a whole thing, and I don't think that breast feeding really has to do with that. Allergies are essentially that your particular body instead of having a normal response to something sees it as a toxin. For some, that toxin producse hives, fever, etc - for some cases it is extreme enough to cause the full response of anaphylaxis. Allergies can lessen as people mature and the body develops a better handling, often childhood allergies will diminish. When women hit about their 30s allergies seem to peak - and then what you have is what you're stuck with for the most part. Personally, I have a ton of allergies - mostly to medications, some food, all the bee sting kind of things, and plant toxins. And, yes, I carry epi-pens around (infamously having had to keep them in several different offices at one time). But, I've never had enough food issues to deal with "allergy shots" . The immune response from the science POV is really interesting.
I agree about the school supplies. That's pretty shameful. But, teacher salaries in one place, like all salaries, don't directly compare with somewhere else. You have to normalize them economically to compare with any credibility - as in factoring in cost of living - which is more than just housing.
Yup - it's different all over. In this area I believe most of the jurisdictions also want you to earn a Masters, and of course the school system pays for it, and then salaries increase. In some areas, the teachers are reasonably well paid here. Not fabulous - but well. And administrators are truly well and reasonably paid. In the district the administration is way overpaid compared to the state of the schools and the teachers. But, there is an issue with teacher qualifications and how that is getting "fixed" .
I believe the breast is best so my three were breast fed. My daughters did the same almost automatically but I had to show them how as most nurses then had no training in how to latch the baby on etc.
It's far better now but the biggest contributor is that mothers in Canada receive a year off now for maternity leave so breast feeding makes much more sense, rather than feeding then having to try and change a maybe opinionated baby over to formula at six weeks. I don't know what maternity leave is given in the US so can't speak to that.
She's probably right about gloves to some extent. Though, now it's very rare to see latex - usually they are nitrile because so many people have latex allergies or sensitivity. The gloves like that are there to protect the health care worker from absorbing fluids. Current standards here in the US are not to wear them unless you're doing a procedure which involves something invasive (punctures) like an injection, open wound care, or body fluids from the patient (like people spewing). For clean procedures that really require aseptic technique, sterile gloves are used and that's a whole different ball of wax. Personally, I'm careful to wash all the time, and around here the hospitals have foam hand cleaner by the doors of all the rooms, and near sinks all over. So, it's getting in the habit of stripping off the gloves and then at least grabbing some foam even if you don't wash immediately.
Yes and no. Wonder if Pasteurization processes netted the family much?
To be honest, I wasn't thinking of that, more of how much he went through to get the doctors to wash their hands ! I should also add credit to Semmelweiss who basically cured post partum deaths by making doctors wash after examining corpses and before examining or touching women during delivery.
There was a *huge* drop after the development of infant formula, which was heavily promoted as better than breastmilk and more "scientific." Rates were horrible in the 60s, then rose during the "natural birth" movement to peak in the early 80s, dropped a bit, and then there's been a very, very slow rise in recent years. Rates are still pretty abysmal, though. Well under a quarter of babies get what is recommended by the WHO.
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Allergies are a whole thing, and I don't think that breast feeding really> has to do with that. Weeeeellllll...results are mixed on that front. Allergies are a pretty complicated interplay between heredity and environment, and breastfeeding can play a role. Studies have uncovered some clear links where breastfeeding played a role in the development (or lack thereof) of a particular allergy, but it's a much more mixed bag when it comes to evaluating whether there's an overall reduction in allergies (or atopic disease in general) in kids who were breastfed. They used to think there was a clear protective effect, but further research seems to suggest there may not be much, if any, across the board protective effect for allergies (except, perhaps, to the extent that exclusive breastfeeding may help avoid early introduction of foods before the immune system is ready to deal, setting up an allergic reaction that might not have happened if exposure were delayed).
Oh, don't get me started on that ;-) The information many women receive from healthcare providers on breastfeeding is shamefully inaccurate and outdated. Many who succeed at breastfeeding manage in spite of the information they receive, not because of it.
Heh. Women are lucky to get six weeks, and even that may not be paid. That's definitely a factor suppressing breastfeeding rates, as is a lack of breastfeeding friendly workplaces.
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