Pediatrics •

Supporting Young Transgender Children Has A Beneficial Effect

February 29, 2016 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

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Letting transgender kids live openly can be an incredibly affirming process, study shows.

New study shows that supporting young transgender children has a beneficial effect on their mental health. When young transgender children are allowed to live openly as the gender they identify with and they get heaps of parental support, they fare much better psychologically.

We know that some children have a gender identity that is different from their sex assigned at birth, and many have interests and hobbies that may align with the other gender. Some children, however, do not identify with either gender. They may feel like they are somewhere in between or have no gender.

For some young children, expressing a wish to be or identifying as another gender may be temporary; for others, it is not. Only time can tell. Some children who are gender non-conforming in early childhood grow up to become transgender adults (persistently identifying with a gender that is different from their birth sex), and others do not.

Researchers suggest that gender is something we are born with; it can’t be changed by any interventions. It is critically important that children feel loved and accepted for who they are. On that note, a small study published in the journal Pediatrics has shown that young transgender children allowed to live openly as the gender they identify with seem no more anxious or depressed than other children.

The secret seems to be support and acceptance, the researchers report. The findings are reassuring after a series of reports that indicated transgender individuals in the United States often had high rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide.

The thinking has always been that kids who are not acting gender-stereotypically are basically destined to have mental health problems.

stated Kristina Olson of the University of Washington, who led the study.

Olson’s team studied 73 kids aged 3 to 12. Their parents were asked whether their children had experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety during the past week. They found the transgender kids averaged an anxiety score of 50.1 on a National Institutes of Health scale – almost the same as the national norm of 50.

Also, research has shown that transgender children whose parents pressure them to conform, when compared with accepting, supportive parents, have a four times higher suicide and drug abuse rate, twice the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and a five times greater chance of suffering depression.

Rates of anxiety among trans kids were ‘a smidge higher’ than national averages for children of the same age, but otherwise they matched national norms, declared Kristina Olson. She added that it’s the largest study to examine the psychological health of transgender youth who have socially transitioned.

However, the study certainly suggests that family support is linked to better mental health, although that idea wasn’t tested directly and Olson affirmed that the results don’t prove that is the explanation for the children’s well-being.

The findings are ‘truly stunning’, given previous studies showing high rates of mental health problems including suicidal behaviour in transgender children, as Dr. Ilana Sherer, a Dublin, California, pediatrician, wrote in a Pediatrics editorial.

Micah Heumann, an academic adviser at the University of Illinois’s Champaign campus, was among study participants. His 10-year-old child, Daniel, was born a girl and named Naima, but has identified as a boy ever since he knew about gender, Heumann declared.

In second grade, the family agreed to let Daniel legally change his name and at the boy’s request, his school agreed to go along with the change, even letting Daniel use the boy’s bathroom. Daniel was very well-adjusted, but still felt stress because he knew that not everyone was so accepting, Heumann added.

Heumann also declared that the family reacted to Daniel’s choice with mixed feelings, mourning the loss of a daughter but never wavering in love and support for Daniel.

Olson, the study author, said the results don’t apply to all transgender kids, especially those whose parents oppose their change in identity. Opponents of allowing these youngsters to adopt names, hairstyles, clothes and pronouns opposite their birth gender have argued that kids so young cannot possibly know their gender at such an early age.

All in all, the findings of this study sustain that letting these kids live openly as the gender they identify with can be an incredibly affirming process, showing the child that their identity is truly supported.

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Baby’s Fever Is Not A Sign Of Teething After All

February 20, 2016 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Baby’s fever is not a sign of teething after all.

Turns out baby’s fever is not a sign of teething after all. A recent study, published in the journal Pediatrics, reveals that high-grade fevers are not a sign of teething. Rather, it might be a sign of another illness, and parents and doctors shouldn’t just ignore it.

Throughout history, parents, as well as practitioners, have attributed a number of maladies to teething. It was, perhaps, an easy explanation for the ever-changing behavior of an infant and illnesses during children’s vulnerable early years.

For hundreds of years, medical professionals believed that teething caused the deaths of children. When Lucy Jefferson, President Thomas Jefferson’s sixth child, died at age in 1784 at age 2 1/2, a letter from the doctor declared that she ‘fell a Martyr to the Complicated evils of teething, Worms and Hooping Cough.’

On another note, the 1842 Registrar General’s report of England and Wales attributed 12% of all deaths of children younger than 4 to teething. The 1891 ‘In Cyclopedia of the Disease of Children,’ a respected medical text of the time, stated that children that have been strong and healthy up to the period of dentition often droop and die, while the delicate or sickly ones pass through it with apparent impunity.

However, as medical care improved, it became increasingly clear that there were other reasons behind infant mortality, and teething was more annoyance than a sickness.

Now, every modern parent has been once through this. Somewhere between 2 and 12 months, the baby’s teeth make their grand, grumpy entrance.

Some babies are fussier than usual when they are teething. This may be because of soreness and swelling in the gums before a tooth comes through. Also, babies may bite on their fingers or toys to help relieve the pressure in their gums. They may also refuse to eat and drink because their mouths hurt.

Another symptom is fever, as one of the oft-cited symptoms of teething, not always by doctors, more often by parents sharing advice. a new analysis of the actual symptoms of teething shows that fever probably isn’t one of them. In other words: If the kid is teething and has a fever, chances are they’re also sick.

If a child has a really high fever, or is in significant discomfort, or won’t eat or drink anything for days, that’s a red flag for concern.

declared Dr. Paul Casamassimo, director of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Pediatric Oral Health and Research and Policy Center.

However, the analysis didn’t completely dismiss a parent’s intuition. It found the most common symptoms of teething were swollen gums, drooling and crankiness. Symptoms shouldn’t last for more than three to five days, Casamassimo added, but he did acknowledge that it can feel much longer.

Thus, he stated that parents should always monitor their child, closely checking for other symptoms. ‘Symptoms are not a chronic thing. They come and go, and the job of the parent is to comfort the child, and keep their finger on the pulse of their child. Is the child eating? Staying hydrated?‘, the doctor added.

The study showed that teething can lead to a rise in body temperature still below 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Teething is also associated with decreased appetite, sleeping problems, diarrhea, rash and vomiting.

The question that still remains is: How to manage teething? There are a lot of old beliefs and advice here, too.

Dr. Paul Casamassimo strongly believes that a cold piece of cloth and some teething toys can ease child’s discomfort. But if it still didn’t work, parents can use infant pain reliever.

However, Casamassimo stated that parents just need to be careful about using pain reliever as it can cause tooth decay. Moreover, he pointed out that parents should stay away from topical anesthetics that contain benzocaine and lidocaine.

All in all, while it can be a trying time, the process of teething is normal. Of course, every kid is going to have it in slightly different ways, but parents should definitely pay close attention to the symptoms. If things get out of hand, the experts’ advice is to immediately call a doctor.

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Study Reveals, The Use Of E-Cigs Rising Among Teens

December 15, 2014 By Jason Leathers 1 Comment

Why do teens smoke e-cigarettes? Is it safe to say that they are more health cognizant than their flammable cigarette ancestors? Or else, are they more defiant and risk taking than their conventional smoking companions?

In any case, e-cigarettes are rapidly developing in fame and use among youngsters.

“The predominance of electronic cigarette use in this populace was significantly higher than rates reported from past studies carried out in 2011 to 2012,” as per a team of specialists who considered 1,941 ninth and tenth grade students in Hawaii. The study is published in the current issue of Pediatrics.

The specialists start to figure out if teens who use e-cigarettes captivate uniquely in contrast to customary smokers or non-smokers in other risk taking practices like drinking or marijuana. They found that dual smokers — the individuals who smoked both e-cigarettes and customary cigarettes — are more inclined to take risks.

“Individuals who utilized just e-cigarettes did not score high on variables, for example, defiance, sensation seeking, and peer smoker affiliations contrasted and dual smokers,” said by study authors, headed by Thomas A. Wills, Phd, University of Hawaii Cancer Center. “The dual smokers evidently symbolize individuals who are inclined to problem behavior.”

As anyone might expect, non-smokers symbolized the least hazard while e-cigarette smokers or just conventional cigarettes fell someplace in the center.

The electronic cigarette industry is making an exhaustive job of showcasing their item as 96% of secondary school students utter full consciousness of e-cigarettes. The rate of utilization (17%) among this age group far surpasses ignitable just use (3%).

Teens in Hawaii see more tobacco advertisements than in different parts of the United States, maybe to adjust for a much higher sales tax on the item. The researchers propose that the high rates of e-cigarette smokers among this group may likewise be helped by their guardians.

“Reports from school directors propose that a few parents see e-cigarettes as alluring and purchase them for teenagers,” said the researchers. “Heads observe this when they take e-cigarettes from students, parents’ complaint and ask them back.”

Conventional cigarette users did not accept e-cigarettes to be any healthier. These teens “are more susceptible to the impacts of nicotine, reflected in their high score on smoking hopes, and maybe they are less socially involved in peer gatherings,” say the analysts.

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