Kids with Chronic Conditions

More kids are being diagnosed with chronic conditions. This article basically says you should take your kids to the doctor more often. It doesn't say why kids have more chronic conditions. Is it toxins in the environment? Parents with bad eating habits? I could go on and on with the possibilities. The last line of this article says boys with obese mothers are more likely to have a chronic condition. Why is that? Isn't that strange. Boys are also more likely to have autism and a plethora of other illnesses. Of course, I have three boys so I pay attention to these things. Has anyone noticed more kids having chronic conditions?

FROM NBC: Chronic health conditions like obesity, asthma, and ongoing physical and mental challenges are described as affecting a child's ability to do things other children their age can do or requires ongoing treatment by a physician lasting more than a year. A new study shows while chronic conditions are increasing for u.s. children, over time many of these conditions improve and often go away.

Jakob Martinson, now two, was diagnosed with a weak airway shortly after birth. Today his chronic condition still requires a trach tube to help his breathing. Lauren Martinson - Jakob's Mother: "When we first brought him home we had to have a video shown to anyone who had any contact with him that would watch him, at all, so they could learn what to expect from a trach, to learn how to suction him, how to take care of him." Jakob is not alone. The numbers of children and their families who deal with physical and behavioral chronic conditions nationwide are increasing.

Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston: "We found that obesity was especially prevalent, asthma is prevalent as well, learning behavior disorders are also prevalent other chronic conditions that were included in the study are increasing in rates as well." Dr. Jeanne Van Cleave from mass general hospital for children, in Boston and Co-authors studied three nationally representative groups of children, age two through eight from 1988 to 2006. each group was followed for up to six years. Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston: "Children we studied in the late 80's had rates of chronic conditions over the course of childhood of about 30 percent and this has increased to about 50 percent in the recent years."

Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston "The most surprising thing was that half of the chronic conditions in our study population eventually resolved, we didn't think that we would find that because of our notion of chronic conditions being somewhat more permanent than what we saw in the study." Lauren Martinson - Jakob's Mother "For chronic conditions there's always a light at the end of the road."

Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston "It really speaks to the need for children to have ongoing care especially with a primary care physician's office, where a lot of these conditions are detected and treated."

Researchers say that being a boy and also having an obese mother were associated with children having a chronic condition.

The study appears in this week's JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen
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Cats prevent kids from getting asthma?

I know the title of this blog sounds unrealistic, but a new study shows otherwise. Here's the information from ABC:

Are cats good at preventing asthma? That's the finding of a group of scientists studying childhood allergies in houses with and without cats. Cats may be affectionate pets, but, for many of us, cat dander causes trouble of the sneezy, wheezy kind. Now, allergy researcher Matt Perzanowski has good news: Cats may actually be protecting some kids from getting sick.

Perzanowski said, "Being allergic to a cat is a strong risk factor for having asthma. Children who grow up with a cat are less likely to develop asthma." Perzanowski discovered this result as part of his research into the swiftly rising number of asthma cases across the globe. The disease has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., and is especially prevalent in low income urban neighborhoods. " Perzanowski said, "Asthma prevalence now is between one in four, and one in three kids, so you know, a really large percentage of kids develop asthma and asthma symptoms early in life. "

As they wrote in the Journal 'Allergy and Clinical Immunology,' Perzanowski and colleagues at Columbia University's mailman school of public health studied a group of children living in New York City, measuring allergen levels in each home and comparing it with kids' allergy and asthma history. They found that by age five, kids who grew up around high levels of cat allergens were far less likely to show symptoms.

I am allergic to cats and we did not have a cat growing up. (I am not saying that proves something, but it does fit with the story.)

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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