Your Best Bet for Having Healthy Children
Planning for your Pregnancy
Pregnancy seems like it should be an easy business. After all, our mothers and grandmothers and all their female kinfolk had babies! But, when we look more closely at maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, it becomes clear that having babies can be a risky business.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adverse birth outcomes are a persistent problem in our country. Maternal and child health outcomes, such as maternal and infant deaths, preterm birth, and low birth weight babies, are used as indicators of the overall health status of our population. Unfortunately, less than optimal pregnancy outcomes result in major health problems and development disabilities.
Preconception health ~ or being as healthy as possible before and planning for your pregnancy ~ can improve the odds of having a healthy baby. Things that you can do before you get pregnant are:
- See your doctor and talk about your plans to become pregnant. While there, check on your immunization status for rubella and Hepatitis B, possible medication issues, such as hypothyroidism management and diabetes, and other health concerns that you may have
- Start taking a Folic Acid supplement, which is part of the vitamin B complex, to help prevent Neural Tube Defects
- Stop drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes
- Eat healthy foods and exercise frequently
For more information about preconception health, visit these websites:
Pregnancy Gateway
Preconception Questions and Answers
Preconception
Preventing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Too often, women are unaware that they are pregnant until a month or two after conception and they continue to consume alcohol. Unfortunately, alcohol is a teratogen or a substance known to cause birth defects. Prenatal exposure to alcohol is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation or intellectual disabilities.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a life-long birth defect caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Damage to the developing child can occur in varying degrees, with FAS being the most severe. Children born with FAS typically appear with clear evidence of anatomical abnormality, but for some, the diagnosis of FAS may not be possible until the child is eight months or older. In addition to the major signs detailed below, many children with FAS may be born with heart and kidney defects, problems with bones and joints, and other physical defects. The most common characteristics used to diagnosis FAS include:
- Growth retardation: Children with FAS are typically very small at birth and usually remain so throughout life.
- Facial abnormalities: Children with FAS typically present with 1) small, widely spaced eyes, 2) a smooth philtrum (that is, no groove between the nose and upper lip) and 3) a thin upper lip.
- Central Nervous System Abnormalities: Children with FAS typically present with signs of intellectual disabilities or cognitive difficulties, developmental delays, hyperactivity, perceptual problems, poor coordination, and learning difficulties
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) refers to a continuum of disabilities that may occur as a consequence of prenatal exposure. FASDs can easily be prevented by women not consuming any alcohol during pregnancy.
For more information, visit:
CDC
NOFAS
SAMSHSA FASD CENTER
National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
New Jersey residents can get information about treatment services and FASD diagnostic information by clicking on the links below:
Three Important Childhood Health Issues
Childhood Immunizations
One of the greatest advances in protecting the health of our children is the availability of immunizations. In times past, contagious diseases were the major causes of infant and child death and disabilities. Today, the number of children who die or acquire a disability due to a contagious disease has been drastically reduced. Some diseases, such as small pox and polio, have reached or are close to being eradicated in the United States.
Parents have expressed concern about infants being immunized very early in their lives as well as being concerned about possible neurological effects. These concerns and questions can be answered by visiting the websites below. In addition, the current recommended schedule for immunizations is available at the sites:
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and Other Environmental Toxins
Many parents believe that their children are no longer in danger of being exposed to lead or that only poor children who reside in the inner cities are at risk. This belief is based on the fact that lead has been removed from house paint and gasoline, the two greatest sources of lead contamination in our environment. Unfortunately, many of our children remain at risk of lead poisoning. Lead is a heavy metal that causes neurological damage in children. This toxic metal is still added to non-house paints and, until Congress enacted a law in August, 2008 to prevent it, lead was used in paints on toys and added to many other common household objects with which children come in contact.
It is true that children who live in houses that were built before 1978, when lead in paint was banned, are at higher risk of being exposed to lead from paint dust and chips. There are some steps that parents can take to reduce the risks of exposure by:
- Washing your children’s hands often and thoroughly, especially before eating and sleeping
- Giving them foods that are high in calcium and iron, such as low-fat milk products, fresh vegetables and fruits, and legumes
- Running the water in the tap from hot to cold before drinking and cooking
- Keeping your children away from peeling paint
- Cleaning your house by using a wet mop and damp dusting
- Having your children play on grass rather than on dirt
- Taking your children’s shoes off before they come into the house
- Getting your children tested for lead at ages 9 months to one year and again at 2 years
Many children’s toys and other products have been recalled over the past year because they contain lead. To find out more about product recalls and to learn more about preventing lead poisoning, visit:
CSPC
CDC-Lead Poisoning
EPA-Lead Poisoning
HUD-Lead Poisoning
New Jersey residents should be sure to learn about state efforts to prevent lead poisoning and about programs that are available to help you make your home lead safe by visiting:
Lead Safe New Jersey
New Jersey Human Services
New Jersey State Family Health Services
While lead remains the greatest environmental threat to the integrity of developing neurological systems, children are exposed to a myriad of other chemicals and toxins that may result in poor developmental outcomes. The paradox is that the purpose of many of these toxicants is to make our lives easier and more comfortable. Our homes, both inside and out, are built and furnished with materials that are treated or have substances added to them to make them more durable and attractive. Necessities, including our food and clothing, are subjected to chemical exposures, both natural and synthetic, that may have harmful health effects. Common appliances, like washing machines and dishwashers, and modern conveniences such as dry cleaners, all require the use of environmentally toxic substances.
These toxins accumulate in fat, blood, organs, hair and nails. They pass easily through the body in amniotic fluid, breast milk, urine, feces, sweat and semen. As a result of these exposures, our health and that of generations to come is greatly threatened.
The list of such substances is extensive. Examples of chemicals, metals and toxins that are common in our daily lives include cadmium, mercury, cotinine (a metabolite of nicotine), phthalates (a chemical used in nail polish, soaps, shampoos as well as in soft plastic products including PVC pipes, flooring and iPods); pesticides and wood preservatives.
Toxic exposures result in poor developmental outcomes or illnesses, including asthma, in an equal opportunity fashion. However, differences in the expression of the outcomes may be attributed to age, e.g., children’s developing systems are far more sensitive to these toxins than adults, and in socioeconomic standing. Thus, children with lower socioeconomic status are often at far greater risk of being exposed to these harmful substances.
More information about environmental hazards is available at http://www.aamr.org/ , http://www.afhh.org/ and http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/opmrdd/health/
The Consumer Action Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys, which is available to the public at http://www.healthytoys.org, shows how commonly purchased children’s products rank in terms of containing lead, cadmium, arsenic and other harmful chemicals.
Childhood Injury Prevention
After their first year of life, unintentional injuries are the most common cause of death among children and are the most common way in which children acquire developmental disabilities. Yet, most injuries are not accidental ~ they are often predictable and are thus preventable. According to Safe Kids Worldwide, children are at significant risk of dying or becoming disabled due to unintentional injuries. Injury rates vary and are correlated to a child’s age, gender, race and socioeconomic status. Children ages 4 and younger are at greater risk and account for 49 percent of all unintentional injury deaths among children ages 14 and younger. Males, minorities and poor children are also at highest risk.
Poor children, in particular, are at great risk of dying or sustaining permanent disabilities due to unintentional injuries. Children from low-income families are twice as likely to die in a motor vehicle crash, four times more likely to drown and five times more likely to die in a fire. Low-income families are less likely to use safety devices due to lack of money, lack of transportation to obtain safety devices, lack of control over housing conditions or all of these. Racial disparities in unintentional injury rates appear to have a greater association with living in impoverished environments than with ethnicity. Strategies that reduce financial barriers to acquiring safety devices, increase education efforts and improve the safety of the environment are effective at reducing death and injury among populations at risk.
For more information and resources, visit:
National Safety Council
CDC-Violence Safety
New Jersey State-Human Services, Injury
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