Children's Health Health Article

Definition

Children's health encompasses the physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being of children from infancy through adolescence.

Description

All children should have regular well-child check ups according to the schedule recommended by their physician or pediatrician. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises that children be seen for well-baby check ups at two weeks, two months, four months, six months, nine months, twelve months, fifteen months, and eighteen months. Well-child visits are recommended at ages two, three, four, five, six, eight, ten, and annually thereafter through age 21.

In addition, an immunization schedule should be followed to protect against disease and infection. As of 2001, the AAP and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended that the following childhood immunizations be administered by age two:

• Hepatitis B. Three doses.
• Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP). Four doses.
• H. influenzae type b (Hib). Four doses.
• Inactivated Polio. Three doses.
• Pneumococcal Conjugate. Three doses.
• Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR). One dose.
• Varicella (chickenpox). One dose.
• Hepatitis A. (In certain geographical areas and with certain high risk groups.)

Some immunizations may cause mild side effects, or more rarely, serious adverse reactions. However, the benefits of immunization greatly outweigh the incidence of health problems arising from them.

There are serious chronic diseases and health problems that are frequently diagnosed in childhood and cannot be vaccinated against. These include, but are not limited to, asthma, type I diabetes (juvenile diabetes), leukemia, hemophilia, and cystic fibrosis.

Mental health

Children who have difficulty in areas of language acquisition, cognitive development, and behavior control may be suffering from mental illness. Mental health problems that may afflict children include:

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). According to the AAP, 4–12% of school-aged children have ADHD, a condition characterized by poor impulse control and excessive motor activity.
• Learning disorders. Learning disabilities affect one in 10 school children.
• Depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. Affective, or mood, disorders can affect kids as well as adults.
• Eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder (BED) frequently occur in adolescent girls.
• Schizophrenia. A disorder characterized by bizarre thoughts and behaviors, paranoia, impaired sense of reality, and psychosis may be diagnosed in childhood.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Also called OCD, this anxiety disorder afflicts one in 200 children.
• Autism and pervasive developmental disorder. Severe developmental disabilities that cause a child to become withdrawn and unresponsive.
• Mental retardation. Children under age 18 with an IQ of 70 or below and impairments in adaptive functioning are considered mentally retarded.