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No need to learn the hard way
It’s summertime, school’s out, and the living is easy! You know what that means: The school year is just around the corner. Not to take the wind out of your sails, but even in summer, you need to plan ahead.
If you have school-aged children – toddlers through college age – you should start now to gather all the information they’ll need for school enrollment. Read on for a list of the basics. |
Screenings
Children don’t need to see the doctor just when they’re sick. Regular visits to the pediatrician or your family doctor can prevent many issues, and the doctor is more likely to pick up on potential problems while it’s early enough to do something about them.
Babies usually have checkups scheduled before they even leave the hospital. After that, doctors want to see children at regularly scheduled intervals – every few months for small children, decreasing to once a year by the time they’re 5 years old. Children should begin regular dental checkups by age three.
Screening for preschool through middle-school children includes:
- Testing hearing and vision
- Measuring height and weight
- Checking blood pressure
- Discussing behavioral concerns – temper tantrums, aggressive behavior, day care or school issues
- Looking for developmental delays – delays in growth and motor skills – and testing for autism if the doctor thinks it’s possible your child is affected
The doctor also may screen for scoliosis, type 2 diabetes, blood lead, or tuberculosis if your child has risk factors for those problems.
And although they may think they’re grown – and even look like it – teenagers need regular checkups, too. Along with everything listed above, your child’s doctor also will screen for indicators of serious problems like depression, substance abuse – drugs, alcohol, or tobacco – inappropriate sexual activity, and other issues for which your child may be at risk.
Immunizations
A school physical, checkup, or even sports physical is the perfect opportunity to make sure your child or teen is up-to-date with all their immunizations. Most day care, preschools, and schools require a certificate of vaccine completion. Also most colleges and universities require students to provide a certificate of current vaccinations, including the vaccine for meningococcal disease, a fast-moving infection that can spread through a dorm at a terrifying rate, causing brain damage, organ failure, and death.
You may be concerned about the possible side effects of required vaccines. Be sure to talk with your child’s doctor about possible side effects before the vaccination, so you know what to watch for. You can also discuss other concerns you may have regarding vaccines in general. Don’t let your worries keep you from getting your child immunized, though – the risk of side effects is much less than the harm infectious diseases can cause! Also most vaccines given to infants and preschoolers are now thimerosal-free. Some vaccines are available in combinations, which means fewer needle sticks for your child.
Why it’s important
Unless you have a religious exemption or your child already has had a documented serious reaction to a specific vaccine, you’re legally responsible for making sure your child gets the required vaccinations. When you do, you’re protecting your child from serious illness – maybe even death – and you’re keeping life-threatening infections from spreading to others. Most of these diseases are rare now, because of the vaccines – and if we stop using vaccines, they can come back.
Before vaccines, children were often permanently disabled or died from the diseases we immunize them against. Here’s a quick summary of what you prevent by having your child vaccinated:
- Diphtheria causes a thick membrane to grow in airways or around the heart, leading to suffocation or heart failure.
- Tetanus (lockjaw) can come from a splinter, from the garden – from just about any outdoor or unsterilized indoor surface. It enters the body through a wound and causes high fever, muscle spasms and rigidity, and very often, death.
- Pertussis, or whooping cough, starts out like a bad cold, then develops into a respiratory infection with a hard, barking cough and great gobs of thick mucus. Children, especially infants and toddlers, can die from whooping cough.
- Measles isn’t just a rash and a mild fever. This nasty virus can have lasting effects, including loss of vision or hearing. And it can be fatal – 200 Americans die each year from complications of the measles.
- Mumps can have very mild symptoms in one person and very bad symptoms in the next. Long-term effects may include permanent deafness, meningitis, or permanent sterility in children middle-school aged and older.
- Rubella, or “German measles,” usually causes very mild symptoms in children, but when pregnant women are exposed, the virus can cause miscarriages and severe birth defects.
- Polio is a virus that can cause paralysis and even death. It’s almost completely been wiped out, but as long as there’s even one known outbreak, we still need to vaccinate. For many people who survived polio in the 1940s and 1950s, before the vaccine was available, the pain and paralysis are permanent.
- Chickenpox (varicella) is a virus easily spread from person to person through coughing and sneezing. It causes a blister-like rash on the body. Serious problems can occur like skin infections, brain swelling and pneumonia.
- Meningococcal Disease is caused by a germ spread from person to person by close contact. Symptoms may include fever, rash, headache, or stiff neck. Serious problems can include shock and brain inflammation.
- Hepatitis B is an illness spread through infected blood or other body fluids. It affects the liver, causing yellow eyes and skin, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, stomach ache, and pain in the joints. It also can lead to liver cancer.
Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) is a severe infection caused by bacteria. It's spread through coughing and sneezing causing symptoms such as skin, throat, and blood infections, brain infection (meningitis), pneumonia, and arthritis.
- Hepatitis A is a liver disease spread by putting objects contaminated with the virus in the mouth or by eating or drinking infected food or water. Symptoms may include yellow skin or eyes, fatigue, stomach ache, loss of appetite, and nausea.
- Pneumococcal Disease is caused by bacteria found in the back of the nose and throat. Symptoms can include fever and cough. Problems include pneumonia, brain infection, and ear infections.
- Rotavirus is a common cause of severe dehydrating, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever among infants and young children. It primarily is spread through contact with hands and contaminated surfaces.
- Human Papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer and genital warts. Its vaccine, recommended for females ages 9-26, is a three-dose series. It’s important to complete all three shots as recommended for highest effectiveness against the high-risk types of HPV. Watch for more information in upcoming issues.
For more information and an up to date schedule of immunizations recommended at each age, log on to www.cdc.gov and search for the disease to find out why the vaccine is necessary.
The bottom line
Protecting your child is important. Annual checkups can lead to treatment of problems before they become serious, and immunizations will protect your child against painful, miserable, even fatal diseases.
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