Tag Archives: Child health

Child health, Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Public Health, Society

4th Annual Parental Alienation Awareness Day

Nearly everyone knows a couple who has divorced and used a child against the other parent. But not many people know there’s a name for such behavior–and fewer still know it is a particularly damaging form of child abuse.

The 4th Annual Parental Alienation Awareness Day on April 25, 2009 is set as a day for families around the Globe to help raise awareness about this rampant global issue. Many countries, states, provinces, and cities have already proclaimed April 25 to be Parental Alienation Awareness Day, and many educational and family events are set to take place in cities in North America, Europe, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Parental Alienation is defined as a set of behaviors exhibited by a parent or an adult the child trusts, that puts the child in a very damaging loyalty bind between the people they love. These behaviors can be as mild as the occasional badmouthing of a parent, but in extreme cases may lead to parental Abductions and even Parental Homicide.

Research shows that children exposed to Parental Alienation may suffer a lifetime of low self esteem, and depression as well as substance abuse, anxiety, and difficulty trusting anyone or forming lasting relationships.

“A pattern of alienation usually begins without any malicious or conscious intent to harm the relationship between the other parent and the children,” explained Sarvy Emo, Founder of Parental Alienation Awareness Day. “Parents are often unaware of how subtle behaviors and comments can put children in a loyalty bind that is not only harmful to their emotional and mental health, but may affect their relationship with the targeted parent.”

“… the hurt, the anger, the shame and the pain would never go away. I could numb it and put it in the back of my mind but it never went away. It comes out in how I am as a mother, a spouse, a friend. In the decisions I’ve made, in almost everything I do.” Says an adult who experienced Parental Alienation as a child.

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization urges family members, and the people that surround a child’s life to watch for the children perceiving one parent as causing the other parent’s financial problems, showing a sudden negative change in attitude around one parent or being uncharacteristically belligerent around a parent or other authority figure.

To learn more about PA and Parental Alienation Awareness Day, visit paawarenessday.com

To learn more about Parental Alienation and Hostile Aggressive Parenting, visit www.paawareness.org

Via EPR Network
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Child health, Doctors, Healthcare, Hospitals, Medical Tourism, Surgeons, Surgery

More Parents Travelling For Child Surgery

Traveling out of state or country for medical treatment, commonly referred to as medical tourism, is now catching on with parents seeking specialized surgeries for their children. 

In the last few years, parents f r o m around the world have flocked to the United States for specialized pediatric surgeries. And American parents have sought help in countries with nationalized healthcare or more affordable surgeries, such as India. But as with all surgical procedures and practices, experts are advising caution. 

Dr. Armen Ketchedjian, author of the book Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery, says that any parent looking for the best care for their child should place quality first, and that any decision made about surgery should be done with the advice and counsel of the child’s pediatrician. 

“Selecting a surgeon for a child can be a difficult process for parents,” says Dr. Ketch, as the author is known to his patients. “It’s a frightening thing to be told that your child needs surgery, and parents are sometimes slow to trust doctors to operate. So caution is a natural and advisable strategy.”

Hospitals like Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, have adapted to the trend and deal with families f r o m around the world—200 f r o m Italy alone—who travel there to take advantage of the hospital’s specialized surgeries to restore vision in premature babies. 

For American parents, the journey often leads them to areas with American-trained doctors working for lower wages. “Unfortunately, the healthcare companies sometimes insist on very strict criteria for approving a surgery,” says Dr. Ketch. “It has changed the way pediatric surgeons practice medicine.”

Dr. Ketch hopes that his book will contribute to better parent education about pediatric surgery in general and recommends that parents who are considering traveling to see specialists keep the following guidelines in mind:

* Look for a surgeon who has training in the kind of surgery your child needs

* Find out in advance what type of facility your child will have to be in for the procedure

* If you have a choice between a medical center that specializes in pediatrics and one that does not, choose the one that specializes in pediatrics

* Look for a surgeon who has extensive experience

These tips and more are part of Dr. Ketch’s efforts to give parents some insight into the world of pediatric surgery. He says hopes that more parents will take advantage of resources like his to learn about their options before making a final decision about where to take their child for surgery. 

Will It Hurt? helps educate parents about pediatric surgery. It is an easy-to-read resource that will give parents, children and families the help and reassurance they need to make surgical experiences as stress-free as possible.

Listed in The Guide to America’s Top Anesthesiologists by the Consumer Research Council of America, Dr. Ketch trained at Cornell Medical Center, with a fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a pain management elective at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has also worked to help develop new techniques in ambulatory anesthesia, taught medical students and residents, and cared for more than 10,000 patients.

Dr. Ketch is also the author of the children’s book Golden Apples (winner of the 2008 Reviewer’s Choice Award), a beautifully illustrated book that aims to help educate children about the dangers of drug abuse. 

For more information, contact the author directly at support@dr.ketch.com.

WARREN ENTERPRISES, LLC and author Dr. Armen G. Ketchedjian chose Arbor Books, Inc. (www.ArborBooks.com) to design and promote Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery. Arbor Books is an internationally renowned, full-service book design, ghostwriting and marketing firm. 

(Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery by Dr. Ketch; ISBN: 0-9815373-0-8; $14.95; 172 pages; 5½” x 8 ½”; softcover with illustrations; WARREN ENTERPRISES, LLC).

Via EPR Network
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Child health, Doctors, Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Psychologist, Society

There Are Pearls In The Pain of Every Experience

Former Child Bride/Teenage Wife/Mother Realizes the American Dream: You Can Make It if You Try. Dr. Trevicia Williams’ stirring bounce back book, There Are Pearls In The Pain of Every Experience: Spiritual Truths about Life’s Experiences (ISBN: 0-9743519-0-3), cuts to the chase about her life as an African American teenager in an arranged marriage to a man of European descent in the United States. It’s about currents of faith, hard decisions and perseverance and ways to bounce back from near life shattering experiences.

Trends in the United States show Mississippi as the state with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies. However, Houston (Texas), the fourth most populous city in the U.S. is probably the last place one would expect to find a 13 year old African American girl facing discussions about an arranged marriage, and, at 14 years of age in an arranged marriage to a man of German descent 12 years her senior. That’s exactly where Dr. Trevicia Williams’ arranged marriage happened, and, at the age of 15 she became pregnant and gave birth to her daughter just before her sixteenth birthday.

How she survived an incredible start is in There Are Pearls In the Pain of Every Experience: Spiritual Truths about Life’s Experiences. It’s about being caught between childhood and forced adulthood, and having to make some very difficult choices: Taking high roads out of some very low places. Dr. Williams takes readers on a subtle journey between having to create a support system, being a child herself while being a responsible parent to her child. It’s about faith and adversity and Dr. Williams’ use of inner strengths. “I’m amazed when I hear the life stories of young women auditioning for shows like True Beauty and American Idol. Success requires an awareness of inner strengths and greatness, and, it is during the moment of decision that the course of life is determined, or, at the very least, the next experience” says Dr. Trevicia Williams.

About the Author
Dr. Trevicia Williams is a psychologist, trainer and speaker with over a decade of academic studies in human behavior. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston-Downtown, Master’s degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and Doctorate degree from Walden University. Dr. Williams’ passion for helping women optimize their potentials takes her into community based organizations speaking to girls and women about overcoming adversities. It also inspires her to travel across the U.S. with motivational, inspirational and educational conferences. Dr. Williams is a woman of titanium faith: Although Lakewood Church of Houston, Texas, Pastor Joel Osteen, is the church that she still calls her “home church,” she also enjoys worship at Northland Church, where Dr. Joel Hunter is the Senior Pastor, community in Orlando/Longwood, Florida.

Via EPR Network
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Allergies, Child health, Doctors, Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Pediatrics

The National Center for Health Statistics reported recently that the number of children diagnosed with food allergies has spiked eighteen percent in the last ten years

Dr. Armen Ketchedjian, author of the book Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery, explains that the best way for parents to keep track of their child’s changing health needs is to keep up with regular appointments with the pediatrician and to log any sudden changes in temperament or physical condition following a meal.

“Pediatricians use these regular visits as a way of establishing a baseline for your child’s state of health,” says Dr. Ketch, as he is called by his patients. “It’s important that parents show up to these appointments and notify the pediatrician of any unusual activity.”

Dr. Ketch added that laboratory tests can verify most allergies but that pediatricians are also a good resource because they are trained to notice any differences in physical health that should raise a red flag. Symptoms associated with an allergic reaction include:

-hives
-wheezing and other lower respiratory problems
-vomiting
-nausea
-stomach cramps

In his book, Dr. Ketch advises that most allergic reactions will express themselves in anywhere from the first minute following a meal to a few hours afterward. He recommends that parents set an appointment with their child’s pediatrician following these incidents, especially if the reaction was severe enough to warrant a hospital visit.

Will It Hurt? helps educate parents about pediatric surgery. It is an easy-to-read resource that will give you, your child and your family the help and reassurance you need to make the surgical experience as stress-free as possible.

Listed in The Guide to America’s Top Anesthesiologists by the Consumer Research Council of America, Dr. Ketch trained at Cornell Medical Center, with a fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a pain management elective at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has also worked to help develop new techniques in ambulatory anesthesia, taught medical students and residents, and cared for more than 10,000 patients.

Dr. Ketch is also the author of the children’s book Golden Apples (winner of the 2008 Reviewer’s Choice Award), a beautifully illustrated book that aims to help educate children about the dangers of drug abuse.

For more information, contact the author directly at support@dr.ketch.com.

WARREN ENTERPRISES, LLC and author Dr. Armen G. Ketchedjian chose Arbor Books, Inc. (www.ArborBooks.com) to design and promote Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery. Arbor Books is an internationally renowned, full-service book design, ghostwriting and marketing firm.

(Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery by Dr. Ketch; ISBN: 0-9815373-0-8; $14.95; 172 pages; 5½” x 8 ½”; soft cover book with illustrations; WARREN ENTERPRISES, LLC)

Via EPR Network
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Alternative medicine, Child health, Healthcare, Healthcare Solutions, Medicine, Society, Therapies

Continued testing in rural Southern Africa shows promiseful results for those with HIV/AIDS

AIDS Research Assistance Institute, a non-profit organization, has been monitoring hundreds of people with AIDS/HIV when they add the immunity boosting food supplement, ‘concentrated Flax Hull Lignans’ (FHL) to their diets. The results are better than expected and may hold a key for future researchers as they try to find solutions to the AIDS pandemic worldwide.

Boasting a 92% success rate, A.R.A.I. has been involved with rural Southern African grass roots organization leaders who have been giving FHL to people suffering from the AIDS/HIV virus. Typically when an HIV infected person adds 1.5 tsp of the FHL to their daily diet, their viral loads drop significantly (around 35% of them drop to non-detectable within the first 6 weeks!) and their CD-4 counts (measurement of immunity) raise in great numbers. A malnourished child will also typically start growing in height and weight once introducing the FHL into their diets. Many children have grown between 6-11 cm in a three month period!

Researchers can only speculate as to the exact function of the FHL that is causing the success. Many studies have been done in the U.S. by doctors that show lignans boost immunity. The FDA has reported that flax seed lignans have anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungus properties.* Tests have shown that FHL’s ORAC values (measurement of anti-oxidants) are very high. Kale, the super anti-oxidant dark leafy green vegetable, has an ORAC value of 1770, while FHL’s equivalent ORAC value is 19,600. FHL has typically been researched for it’s effects against cancer but now hundreds of people with AIDS/HIV are feeling better, going back to work, and are causing researchers to take a serious look at the possibilities of using a simple, all natural food supplement to help fight AIDS/HIV.

Via EPR Network
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Alternative medicine, Child health, Consultations, Healthcare, Healthcare Professionals, Medicine, Society, Surgeons, Surgery

A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery

Nearly 5 million children underwent surgery in the United States in 2008 and according to one prominent anesthesiologist, many of those surgeries were made more difficult by parents who refused to follow their doctor’s orders. Dr. Armen Ketchedjian, author of the book Will It Hurt? A Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery, says that parents often ignore doctors’ directions and requests for pre-surgery testing and preparation.

Considering the stakes, the reasons parents give for not complying with their doctor often seem, well, unreasonable: Scheduled tests may interfere with family vacation plans or because parents, in their own opinion, feel that the requested tests or diets aren’t important.

“I’ve seen parents who felt that the rules didn’t apply to them,” says Dr. Ketch, as he is known to his patients. “They assume that doctor’s will understand if certain tests are not done or if certain consultations are missed.”

Missed appointments and tests cause unnecessary delays in the preparation for surgery according to Dr. Ketch, who says that medical professionals order the tests for a reason.

“We in the medical profession are held to a higher standard and so we can’t take anything for granted,” says Dr. Ketch. “We need the fullest cooperation of parents to provide the best care possible.”

Will it Hurt? is a guide for parents whose children need surgery and a big part of the book’s message is the importance of the preparations that contribute to a successful surgery. Dr. Ketch says he believes that informed parents make the experience easy for everyone, including their child. And that can pay big dividends after the surgery.

According to Dr. Ketch, “Children who are less anxious need less anesthesia during surgery and less recovery time after the surgery. Parents can ensure their children are more relaxed by being informed and by not putting any undue stress on the process.”

Will It Hurt? helps educate parents about pediatric surgery. It is an easy to-read resource will give you, your child and your family the help and reassurance you need to make the surgical experience as stress-free as possible.

Listed in The Guide to America’s Top Anesthesiologists by the Consumer Research Council of America, Dr. Ketch trained at Cornell Medical Center, with a fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a pain management elective at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has also worked to help develop new techniques in ambulatory anesthesia, taught medical students and residents, and cared for more than 10,000 patients.

Dr. Ketch is also the author of the children’s book Golden Apples (winner of the 2008 Reviewer’s Choice Award), a beautifully illustrated book that aims to help educate children about the dangers of drug abuse.

For more information, contact the author directly at support@dr.ketch.com.

WARREN ENTERPRISES, LLC and author Dr. Armen G. Ketchedjian chose Arbor Books, Inc. (www.ArborBooks.com) to design and promote Will It Hurt? Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery. Arbor Books is an internationally renowned, full-service book design, ghostwriting and marketing firm. (Will It Hurt? Parent’s Practical Guide to Children’s Surgery by Dr. Ketch; ISBN: 0-9815373-0-8; $14.95; 172 pages; 5½” x 8 ½”; soft cover book with illustrations; WARREN ENTERPRISES, LLC)

 

Via EPR Network
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