Children's Health Notes
Economy Stressing You Out?
Your Children May Be Feeling It, Too
Raising children can be especially difficult when you have concerns about not having enough money to take care of your family. You may become anxious or depressed, making it even more difficult to take care of your own health and your children’s health.
The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests the following tip
s to help you and your family cope during tough economic times:
Take care of yourself. Remember that children depend on the adults around them to feel secure. If you are worried or upset, your children will be too. Even very young children can tell when something is wrong.
Limit TV and other media time. When children overhear news coverage or adults talking about America’s money problems, like job cuts and families losing their homes, they may become worried, especially because they don’t really understand what is happening.
Choose your words carefully. Comments like “We just lost your college savings,” “I might lose my job,” or “We can’t afford that!” can be very upsetting to children. In times of uncertainty, try to focus on what you do know and offer reassuring words. For example, “We have enough money to pay for food and our house, but we may need to spend less on eating out.”
Be sensitive to each child’s needs. It’s important to talk at each child’s level. What and how much information you share depends on the age and developmental level of your children. In general, older children will want, and will benefit from, more detailed information. Younger children will benefit from simple and brief information. But for all children, start with asking them what they may already have heard or offer a simple explanation at first. Then ask your children if they have any more questions.
Plan family meetings. Family meetings are a very effective way for families to encourage healthy communication. It can be a time when family members learn how to get along with each other better. Parents can also use the time to share family values and cultural beliefs.
Talk with your child’s doctor if necessary. Watch your children for changes in their behavior, mood, friendships, or school performance and let your pediatrician know if you think your children are showing signs of stress.
Teens More Likely to Smoke if Parents Do 
If parents smoke, chances are their adolescents will pick up the habit, too. A recent study looked at 564 adolescents enrolled in the New England Family Study. The authors found a direct link between parental smoking and smoking by adolescents.
The factors affecting teen smoking were parents who were active, regular smokers, and parents who smoked around their children before age 13. Also, fathers who smoke are more likely to influence teen boys than girls.
Take Charge of Your Family’s Health Records
Think your family’s health records are all easily retrievable at your doctor’s office? That’s wishful thinking. In truth, paperwork from every doctor visit, every lab test, every hospital stay and every prescription refill — the essential information that can keep you healthy and in some cases can avert a major medical mistake — is scattered in cabinets and computers across the country. Although various proposals to overhaul the healthcare system would create a standard, electronic database of medical records, such a system is still decades in the making.
A patient with a splintered health record is at greater risk of drug interactions or overdoses. For patients with chronic conditions, an incomplete record can make it more difficult to detect the gradual signs that the condition is growing worse or is no longer responding to treatment. Without a complete health record for reference, physicians may order duplicate and unnecessary tests that could delay care. And patients may face costly roadblocks with insurance coverage and payment without complete records at the ready.
There’s no “master” file where all of this personal health information comes together and travels with you and your family —unless you create that file yourself. To get started, first ask yourself: “What are my goals?”
° Are you simply trying to keep the basic facts in one place to help you fill out forms in the waiting room?
° Do you need to keep detailed records of your medication and therapy to treat a chronic condition?
° Are you undergoing treatment for a complicated condition that will require extensive documentation for your insurance company?
Experts agree on a few basic items that every organized health record should have:
° Names and phone numbers of your healthcare providers° Your insurance identification, policy number and phone number
° Emergency contact numbers
° A complete list of your medications
° Any allergies
° A list of your most recent surgeries or hospitalizations
A personal health record also can include immunization records, lab results, X-ray films, and notes from doctor’s visits.
Patients have a right to obtain copies of all personal medical information from their providers, but it’s not an automatic thing. You have to ask for it. In most cases, you can ask the receptionist at a doctor’s office to make copies of your records or lab results.Personal note: As a mother, I can think of another advantage of putting all this info, for each family member, into one place: It’s less that I have to carry around in my brain. These days, it’s full enough.
Kathy Sena is a freelance journalist specializing in health and parenting issues and is the mother of an 11-year-old son. She writes for Family Circle, Woman’s Day, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications.
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