California students getting fitter with age?

PALO ALTO, California — According to multiple 2015 data sets now available on Kidsdata.org, California students are showing improved fitness outcomes as they age.

First, more students are able to meet physical fitness standards as they rise between 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. In 2015, 26 percent of the state’s 5th graders met all fitness standards, compared with 33 percent of 7th graders and 38 percent of 9th graders. The upward trend was consistent across all races and ethnicities.

Second, younger students showed higher rates of obesity compared with older students. In 2015, 40 percent of 5th graders were overweight or obese, compared with 39 percent of 7th graders and 36 percent of 9th graders.

Overweight and obese children are at higher risk for a range of health problems, including heart disease, stroke, asthma and some types of cancer; they also are more likely to stay overweight or obese as adults.

In addition, children with obesity are at increased risk for joint and bone problems, sleep apnea and social and emotional difficulties, such as stigmatization and low self-esteem.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children and adolescents participate in moderate-to-vigorous exercise at least 60 minutes every day. However, according to a 2014 report (PDF), only about one quarter of youth nationwide get the recommended amount of exercise.

According to experts, policy options that could improve children’s physical activity include ensuring that all schools meet state physical education requirements, making school recreational facilities available for use outside of school hours, and encouraging child care and after-school programs to incorporate physical activity opportunities.

Additional recommendations that would reduce childhood obesity include providing access to affordable healthful foods and beverages, and reducing access to high-calorie and sugar-sweetened drinks and foods.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Be cautious with antibiotics for kids: US pediatrics committee

NEW YORK - Pediatricians should carefully evaluate kids with ear infections, runny noses and sore throats before giving them antibiotics, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases said Monday.

Antibiotics will only help shorten kids' sickness if their symptoms are caused by bacteria and not by a virus, it noted.

Still, studies show many children and adults are given the drugs for coughs and colds caused by viruses. That increases the risk of antibiotic resistance, without doing patients any good.

"People tend to not recognize how big of a problem this is," Dr. Theoklis Zaoutis said.

He is a member of the AAP committee and an infectious diseases specialist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2 million Americans get infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year and 23,000 die as a result. Any antibiotic use—appropriate or not—contributes to the risk of resistance.

Antibiotics can also come with side effects like diarrhea and rashes, which account for more than 150,000 doctor visits among kids each year. And they occasionally cause severe allergic reactions.

Symptoms of bacterial and viral respiratory infections can overlap, the committee said. So pediatricians should use strict criteria to decide when antibiotics are warranted.

For ear infections, toddlers who have severe pain and infections in both ears are most likely to benefit from the drugs, the AAP said. But in most cases, symptoms will go away on their own - so a wait-and-see approach is an option for older kids who are not in a lot of pain.

Antibiotics for runny noses and coughs should be used when symptoms are severe, have been around for a long time or are getting worse. When kids have a sore throat, pediatricians should test only those who have certain symptoms—such as swollen lymph nodes or tonsils and a fever—for strep throat.

When antibiotics are justified, the committee recommended doctors prescribe amoxicillin or amoxicillin together with clavulanate to kids with ear infections and sinusitis.

The combination, in particular, causes diarrhea or other stomach problems among one-quarter to half of patients, Dr. Jeffrey Linder said.

"If you're going to take something that has that high a rate of adverse event, you should be pretty darn sure it's going to help you," he told Reuters Health. Linder, from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, has studied antibiotic prescribing but wasn't involved in the new research.

For strep throat, amoxicillin or penicillin is the best bet, the committee wrote Monday in Pediatrics, the journal of the AAP.

Newer, so-called broad-spectrum antibiotics are more likely to cause resistance.

"You want to use the antibiotic that has the narrowest spectrum, meaning it will kill the germs that are causing the infections but not have collateral damage on all the other bacteria within our bodies," Zaoutis told Reuters Health.

Linder said one thing doctors may need to work on is telling parents when they don't need to come to the office. For colds and other viruses—even those that last a long time—there's not much doctors can do except tell people to wait it out.

"We still have a lot, a lot of visits in healthcare for these acute respiratory infections and it's not clear to me that we as doctors are really helping patients, and we're wasting people's time and money," Linder said.

Parents can also play a role in making sure their kids don't get antibiotics unnecessarily, Zaoutis said.

"Talk to the doctor and say, ‘Do I really need that antibiotic? What are the risks and benefits of my child taking an antibiotic?'," he advised. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com