Children- Health and Insurance News

Children- Health and Insurance

 A developing child needs all the essential nutrients to nurture their evolving bodies. Their perception on healthy and balanced lifestyle develops sooner that you might anticipate.  Raising a child is no menial task; it involves a lot of headaches, stress and frustrations. Your actions and perceptions about health directly influence your child as they develop and grow.

Stress can greatly affect your child, especially during the conception stage; ounces and ounces of hormones are released by the body to naturally combat stress and maintain homeostasis, when the mother feels stressed, the baby is stressed as well so it is just as vital to live as stress free as possible to inhibit the unnecessary release of these hormones; one empirical finding on baby born from severely stressed mothers are inconsolable babies and constant mood swings during adulthood.

To alleviate stress, the mother can take short trips to the park or somewhere that is breezy and cool. Unknown to many, trees and lush greeneries provide a good haven for stress reduction. It is also good to avoid crowded environments as such environments are usually humid and increases the mother’s core temperature which is not good for the fetus. There are also meditations audio and video manuals that can help the mother learn meditation techniques to keep stress away. These are just some tips a mother can take to keep stress away.

The mental and physiological development of a child or baby heavily depends on the nutritional intake they have. Every parent should at least undergo research or a basic mother’s class on the importance of providing your child adequate nutrition. Vegetables and fruits are essential for the development of your child’s mental capacity. Breast milk, as they say is always the best for babies as this contains essential amino acids and antibodies that help combat illnesses and strengthen your baby’s bodily defences. Creating a safe and enjoyable eating environment for your child ensures that they develop a healthy perception about food; making meals not only a gastronomic experience but as well as quality family time.

Every aspect of your child’s development should be given significance to in ensuring your child grows up to be a healthy member of society; religious affiliation aside, parents must guide their kids to develop a strong foundation on faith because faith is one of the factors that influence a child’s view on things, people and the world as a whole. Motivate your child to read the bible if you’re a Christian, read parables to them; stories of kindness and compassion for they will bring this with them as they grow older. It does not matter whatever religion your family practices as long as your child develops a sense of spirituality because every religion’s main mission is to instill kindness and love in our hearts.

Your child’s actions reflect from what they see from you. Remember that mimicking traits and behaviour is one of the basic instincts a child acquires during their rapid growth years. It cannot be stressed enough the value of being their “role models”. What they see today is what they would become as adults and in the society. If they grow up in a tensed family, nagger parents constantly screaming at each other and a drunkard father; chances are they will grow up to be exactly like their parents. But if they see and feel unconditional love and compassion in the family, these traits they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Children who grew up well-bred and educated tend to be the respectable and respecting ones, they value relationships and conscious on time and how short life is.

The world we are living in is a tumultuous world. Pathogens and viral epidemics are everywhere; accidents have become more and more common and pollutants have been a staple in almost all major urban cities. Ensuring that your child’s future is well prepared is necessary.

Health Insurance for Children has become a common trend these days and is readily accessible for families in all levels of the social strata. In some governments, those that are prompt to recognize the value of the growing youth, subsidize children’s insurance plans. But then again, this is only possible in modernized countries able to afford the growing costs of medical care; it is an unfortunate circumstance that in the US alone, more than 8 million children grow up without adequate insurance. That’s eight million uninsured children in the United States of America, a superpower nation. The number of uninsured or sometimes unimmunized children is staggering in some third-world countries.

Government everywhere are scrambling to figure out a way to deliver health insurance to children that can be accessible and affordable for everybody. Parents are encouraged to check with their local government units on how this can be possible. Depending on your social status and family income, there are governments that provide basic health insurance for children targeted to kids who come from underprivileged families. It is essential that your kids have their health covered by at least one insurance plan. If you can afford to buy an insurance policy for your kid, it is critical to get that health plan for your child NOW.

All parents only wish for their child to grow up healthy and develop to their maximum and become productive and responsible members of society. All this will not be possible if the child’s growth is hindered by an underlying medical condition or his future impaired by a medical emergency wherein things could have been different if a health insurance policy was in effect.

It cannot be stressed enough the significance of health insurance. It saves lives. It also saves families, especially low income families that hassle and anxiety associated over medical checks, medication requirements of the child and hospitalization bills. A health insurance policy is very crucial during medical emergencies where the life of your child hangs in the balance. Consider a health policy for your child now because you will never know when you might need it.

Children are naturally hyperactive. They are curious about everything around them and love to explore their surrounding making them prone to bruising themselves, scraping their knees and contusions here and there. Not taking lightly the possibility of them acquiring common diseases as well, such as common colds and flu. This will make trips to the doctor a routine which, without adequate health insurance will incur significant amount of money, don’t let the bills accumulate for hospital and healthcare bills accumulate quick. This is where health insurance for kids comes in handy.

Many insurance firms offer several specialized health insurance packages for children with specific policies for children with varying needs. Some of them can even be added to your existing family insurance plan if you have any at a cost the fraction of hospital bills. Most of these policies offer a lesser pay/co-pay, making trips to the doctor or hospital fiscally bearable.

Your child’s policy should cover at least the following:

Medical Prescriptions – as your child explores their environment, they need a strong immune system that will protect them from the pathogens ever present in the environment. Medications prescribed by their paediatricians/physicians are relatively expensive but when you have this as part of your child’s insurance policy, it will significantly decrease the cost that you will have had to pay.

Dental/Oral Care Plan – children are generally sweet lovers, they choose the foods that look sumptuous according to colour; primarily sweets, candies and treats are colourful but harmful for their teeth without proper care. Aside from that, developing children needs double the amount of fluoride than adults do. That is why they require more dental checks than adults do. These trips to the dentist, especially cases that require further treatments cost a lot, and I mean expensive. Ensuring your child’s dental care is fully covered by their insurance policy is a must.

Optometry / Eye Care – ensure that your kid’s eyesight are protected by having regular visits to the optometrist to test for visual impairments that your child may have, the earlier it is detected the greater the chance of correction. Usually healthcare plans for children does not usually cover Eye Care, but there are emerging insurance providers that include this in their policy at a higher cost, make sure that this is included in the policy because the additional cost of the insurance is just a fraction of the amount you will have to pay if your child is to have serious visual problems.

Hospitalization – more often than not, children will require trips to the doctor that will need further tests that will require them to stay in the hospital briefly. These brief stays in the hospital will cost more than you anticipate, so make sure that this is fully covered in their insurance plan and read the fine print on the amount the insurers will shoulder in case your child goes into hospital. Neonatal care is usually not covered in these plans, see if you require it and put it as an add-on to the policy. Usually children below 18 years old are eligible for this.

Raising a child is a tremendous task. Ensuring they grow up to their best potential is paramount to every responsible parent. Smart parents know that getting a complete health insurance plan for their children is essential; it is a menial task that will have a big impact on your child’s future.

From emaciated models walking on the runway to celebrities barely leaving any skin covered in magazines and billboards constantly bombard your children with these images that project being skinny and eating unhealthily is right, as the optimum standard of beauty and finesse. These negative images that inundate your child on a daily basis may compel your child to hate their bodies deeming it unacceptable and lowers their self esteem, leading them to develop unhealthy eating practices, the primary factor in the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. It is therefore crucial that parents educate and support their child consciously develop a healthy body image. There are several measures parents can take to ensure that their children grow up confident of themselves and not be influence by the standards of beauty the media is trying to portray.

• Be your child’s role model – imagine this scenario, you are in front of a mirror consciously poking at your imperfections, your projection will instill in your child that bodily imperfections are nasty and your child will bring this thought as she gets older.
• Encourage acceptance – everybody is equal in the eyes of God, everybody was created equally upon His likeness, with this in mind encourage your child to accept whatever imperfections she has because that’s what makes life meaningful. Remind her that beauty is not only skin deep and that she does not need to look like the models to become loved and accepted, we are all unique and special in our own little way.
• Forgo with weighing scales – it’s unnecessary to weigh yourselves and will only add up to the stigma that being weightless equates to beauty and happiness.
• Educate your child about genetics and its relationship to weight – that there are people who are born naturally skinny and some are bone with bigger bone structures and that this is completely normal.
• Discuss Dieting versus Healthy Lifestyle – encourage her to live a healthy lifestyle and eat a balanced well-rounded diet rather than dieting and starving herself. As we all know,  an astounding 95 per cent of all dieting fads fail, it is vital that your child is aware of this making her less likely to do so.
• Use positive body messages – a hug. A cuddle. A kiss. A massage on your child’s weary body after school or play sends a message that they are accepted for whoever and whatever they are. It connotes a sense of acceptance that their bodies are lovable, which greatly impacts their mental perceptions about body image.
• Stand up for your child – in instances that you hear people comment negatively on your child’s weight or shape, stand up for them and assure them that they are loved because bullying leads to a disturbance in their perception of their body image until adulthood.
• Educate your child about junk foods and their harmful effects to the body – junk foods contain a high amount of trans fat that are harmful for your child, it does not only contribute to rapid weight gain but harmful to their blood vessels. Give an emphasis of the harmful effects these have to our bodies, the associated diseases junk foods may cause.

The Four Core Principles of the Convention provides:

1. The Principle of non-discrimination (Article 2) which prohibits the state or anyone to discriminate a child in any way, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
2. The devotion to the best interests of the child (Article 3.1) should be taken into primary consideration of the state, thus, every crucial decision that a government undertakes, the children’s welfare should always be a substantial factor.
3. The child’s right to life and survival and development (Article 6) shall be protected by the state to the maximum extent possible to ensure that each and every child has the opportunity to develop to their utmost potential.
4. To respect the views of the child (Article 12) states that any child capable of forming his or her own views has the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child and these views shall be given weight in accordance to the maturity level of the child in any judicial or administrative proceedings either directly or through a representative in accordance to the state’s protocols of law.

By adhering to undertake the principles specified by the convention, governments have committed themselves to the protection of the children’s rights and shall be held accountable for the commitment they’ve made before the international community.

During the 1870s, more than a century ago, the disturbing story of Mary Ellen changed how the world views children and their rights. Her life story prompted the US government to revise and give particular legal attention to children’s rights.

Mary Ellen was a child born to Irish immigrants. On the year she was born (1864) her father died in the brutal War of the Cold Harbour, Virginia. This left her mother the sole responsibility of caring for her. Unable to continue paying for her daughter’s care, Mary was turned over to New York City’s Department of Charities where a couple falsely claimed as her relations.

Over the next six years in the hands of the couple, she suffered unimaginable abuse and neglect. She was kept from going outside with no adequate clothing for the winter months and no comfortable bed for her to sleep. She was malnourished and was forced to work beyond her age and capacity. People around her tried to intervene, specially the Methodist caseworker, Etta Wheeler. But without adequate laws governing children, Etta fought a long and hard battle to save Mary until she sought out the help of Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in which she reasoned out that as children are part of the animal kingdom, Mary could therefore be protected under the same laws that govern animal mistreatment.

Mary’s story ended well as she was taken to a farm and raised among other children where she grew up and in a safe and child friendly haven. Mary’s case reverberated throughout the nation and resulted in the foundation of New York’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) in 1874.  Since then, the US and the rest of the world had become vigilant in amending and protecting the rights of children.

 The United Nations took a substantial step in adopting the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924 reaffirming it in 1934 stipulating a child’s right to “nutrition, survival, shelter, proper healthcare, humanitarian relief, protection from abuse and exploitation and the right to grow up in a safe environment that nurtures development; and in 1954 provided children “the right to identity, family, education and freedom from discrimination.” Although this was never legally binding, in 1979 the United Nations with representatives from around the world drafted the first Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which legally protects the rights of children. The CRC was ratified and became an international law in 1990.

 Only two countries remain that have yet to ratify the 1990 treaty after 20 years, Somalia, which committed to ratification after they establish a centralized government and the United states which, until today, the treaty is still waiting to be heard in the US Senate’s floor. The US in under pressure to ratify the treaty, according to Linda Spears, Vice President of Policy and Public Affairs at Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), “The United States is a leader in the world; if we don’t ratify, we are not assuming our responsibilities.”