Childhood Obesity Warrants Removal of Child to Foster Care

An Ohio mother has lost her 200-pound eight-year-old son to foster care, after failing to get his weight under control.

The controversy over childhood obesity has heated up after social workers removed an eight-year-old boy from his mother’s home due to her inability or inaction to reduce his obesity.

The child, from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, weighs in excess of 200 pounds. The average weight of a male child of that age should be in the neighbourhood of 55-60 pounds, with the high end tipping the scale at 78 pounds, according to growth charts from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Even accounting for the upper end of the spectrum, the child was more than 250 percent overweight.

Earlier this year I wrote an editorial on just this topic: Losing parental rights due to obesity. It was in response to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which suggested that severe sanctions should be imposed on parents in cases where their children are morbidly obese and there is an unwillingness to make dietary and lifestyle changes to address the issue. In essence, it calls this type of parenting “child abuse.”

This particular case is a good example of a morbidly obese child, where the mother did not take sufficient steps to reduce the weight, and county officials felt there was medical neglect. According to reports, the case was monitored for more than one year before social workers went to Juvenile Court to remove him from his mother’s care.

Childhood obesity can lead to a host of medical problems, both in youth and adulthood, most notably diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea. Currently the child only suffers from sleep apnea, which is remedied with a CPAP device (continuous positive airway pressure).

Given the age of the child, the only way for him to have gained this much weight was with food purchased and/or prepared by his mother. In many cases, the lack of education or funds can lead to obesity, as starches are usually significantly cheaper than proteins and fresh fruit and vegetables.

But the mother is a substitute teacher and clearly has an education. The child was under a doctor’s care, so lack of medical insurance or money to see a doctor was not the problem. There was clear incentive to help the child reduce weight, given the pressure and visits by social services, and yet it did not happen.

While there are surely facts about this case that have not been revealed, and we do not sit in judgment, this is a clear warning to parents about the consequences of their actions. Losing your child to the system due to an inability or unwillingness to control their obesity is a real threat.

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Posted in: HEALTH

Women Who Drink Coffee Lower Their Risk of Endometrial Cancer

Women who appreciate their morning cup of java have yet another reason to continue indulging: reduced risk of endometrial cancer.

Women who appreciate their morning cup of java have yet another reason to continue indulging. Harvard researchers have discovered that coffee consumption can cut the risk for developing endometrial cancer by as much as 25 percent. The details of the study were recently published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The study adds to the fast-mounting evidence that the health benefits of drinking coffee far outweigh the risks posed by downing the miraculous, golden nectar.

While too much coffee can lead to nervous jitters and heart palpatations for some, previous studies have shown the powers of the almighty coffee bean help protect against a growing number of maladies including brain tumors, multiple schlerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

In addition, research has shown that women who drink a moderate amount of coffee can expect to lower their chances of gout, depression, stroke, and certain types of breast cancer.

Endometrial cancer forms in the tissue that lines the uterus, where a fetus develops. The majority of endometrial cancers develop in the cells that make and release mucus and other fluids, known as adenocarcinomas. According to the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, an estimated 46,470 new cases of endometrial cancer will be diagnosed this year in the United States alone, with 8,120 women losing their lives to the disease.

For their study, Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed data on 67,470 women who were a part of the Nurses’ Health Study. Findings showed that over the 26-year study period, a total of 627 cases of endometrial cancer occurred among the study participants. However, women who consumed four or more cups of coffee daily were shown to have reduce their risk for developing the disease by 25 percent when compared to those who drank an average of less than one cup per day. Women who drank two to three cups of java a day had a seven percent reduction in risk.

The results remained true even for the few women in the study who preferred drinking decaffeinated coffee versus caffeinated, although the association was not quite as strong for those who consumed decaf.

This could be due to the small number of study participants who consumed the decafeinated version. No such health benefit was revealed for caffeinated tea drinkers during the study.

The reasoning behind the apparent disease-preventing properties of coffee is believed to be associated with how the substance alters the function of estrogen and insulin in the body, since both are linked to the risk of chronic disease.

While the study authors acknowledge that the best defense against endometrial cancer includes getting a sufficient amount of exercise and keeping body weight in check, they noted that drinking a moderate amount of coffee may provide a beneficial health boost. However, they warned that the addition of cream and sugar to coffee could go a long way to negate the positive effects.

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Posted in: HEALTH

Many Parents Request Delays in Vaccine Schedule

Recent studies have shown that more parents are delaying or skipping certain vaccines, typically citing safety concerns, such as a link between vaccines and autism.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than three quarters of pediatricians said they sometimes or often get asked by parents to use an "alternative" vaccination schedule that strays from national recommendations, according to a new survey of Washington State doctors.

And while almost all of them agreed with the current vaccination schedule for babies and young kids, and would follow it for their own child, most paediatricians were willing to give in to parents' wishes to delay vaccines for infections like chicken pox, hepatitis B and measles.

"I was a little surprised at the high level of pediatricians who reported having parental requests for (alternative schedules)," said Dr. Amanda Dempsey, who studies immunization and infectious diseases in kids at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but wasn't involved in the new study.

"This seems to indicate that this is an ever-increasing problem."

Recent studies have shown that more parents are delaying or skipping certain vaccines, typically citing safety concerns, such as a link between vaccines and autism -- a theory which scientists now agree holds no water.

Researchers worry that with an increasing number of kids unvaccinated or under-vaccinated, diseases like measles or whooping cough could spread through schools and communities, putting at risk even those who do get recommended vaccines on time.

For youngsters under six, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended vaccination schedule includes MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) shots, and vaccines to protect against whooping cough, chicken pox, hepatitis and seasonal flu, among others. (The full schedule is on the CDC website here: 1.usa.gov/k23A6d).

For the current study, researchers led by Dr. Aaron Wightman from the University of Washington in Seattle surveyed more than 200 pediatricians in their state about how often parents ask them for an alternative vaccination schedule -- and how likely they are to agree to one.

In the online questionnaires, 77 percent of the doctors said parents "frequently" or "sometimes" asked to skip or delay certain vaccines. And six out of ten said they were comfortable using an alternative schedule if parents asked for it.

Pediatricians were more likely to budge from the recommended schedule for certain vaccines over others -- for example, most said they would feel comfortable delaying hepatitis B or chicken pox vaccines, whereas fewer would consider straying from the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTap) recommendations.

That suggests doctors are more adamant about going through with vaccines that prevent potentially dangerous bacterial infections that hit infants and young kids, researchers wrote in their Pediatrics report on Monday.

Still, "it's kind of a slippery slope," Dempsey told Reuters Health. Delaying any vaccine "undermines the importance of the schedule in general."

Her own research has suggested that more than 10 percent of parents use an alternative vaccination schedule, and two percent refuse vaccines altogether (see Reuters Health story of October 3, 2011).

But there's no evidence that any alternative schedules are safe or effective, she emphasized. What's more, because no vaccine gives 100 percent protection, even kids who have been vaccinated are put at risk when many of their school or community peers skip or delay their vaccines, Dempsey added.

She said that pediatricians should talk to every parent and try to help them make the safest decision for their child -- but that may become increasingly difficult if the popularity of alternative vaccination schedules continues to grow.

The new study, Dempsey added, "suggests to me that it's possible that this may become more the norm in the future, as more and more pediatricians are being asked to do this."

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Posted in: HEALTH