Newswise — As students gear up for a new school year, parents are busy gathering backpacks, pencils, notebooks, and all the other essential supplies. An item often left off the back to school checklist is wellness checks.
Hackensack Meridian Children's Health physicians, experts in various back-to-school health topics, are available to provide guidance and support. These topics include, but are not limited to:
- Back To School Physicals & Paperwork - It is important for your child to have a yearly physical to make sure they are healthy. This can be done at the start of the school year or around your child’s birthday. Having a physical before the start of school can be important for children who keep medication at the school nurse to allow time for all medication plan paperwork, like an asthma action plan for example to be completed, prescriptions to be filled and dropped off at the school.
- Vaccinations Up To Date- In most instances, NJ schools require students to be up to date on their childhood vaccinations. A check up with a pediatrician will allow parents to verify a child is up to date on vaccinations and receive any required vaccines. Additionally, parents can discuss with their child’s doctor whether additional vaccinations including the flu shot, Covid immunizations and boosters, and HPV vaccines are recommended. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends COVID vaccination for everyone 6 months and older. Children should get fully immunized as soon as they are eligible.
- Student Mental Health Issues - From returning to school after summer break, navigating the changes of a new school, starting school for the first time or getting back into the routine of school can cause anxiety. 1.9% of U.S. adolescents aged 13-18 have an anxiety disorder, with females being more likely than males to be affected. The Teen National Health Interview Survey from 2021 to 2022 found that 21% of adolescents aged 12-17 reported experiencing anxiety symptoms in the past two weeks, with female adolescents being more than twice as likely as males to report anxiety.
Recognizing signs of depression in students is also incredibly important for parents and teachers. In 2022, 16% of US teens aged 12–17, or more than 4 million, had at least one major depressive episode. Additionally, 11.5% of US high school students, or more than 2.7 million, experienced major depressive disorder with severe impairment. However, only 3 in 5 teens with depression received mental health treatment.
- Sports Physicals - Many youth sports require students to have a sports physical before getting clearance to play. Sudden cardiac arrests, including the recent incident with Lebron James’ son, Bronny James and NFL player Damar Hamlin, underscore the importance of a through sports physical. Doctors run tests to ensure players' cardiac, pulmonary function are ready for the rigors of their athletic training. This is important because studies show injuries like commotio cordis or cardiac arrest are far more common in youth sports, than professional athletics. The national commotio cordis registry found the mean age of reported cases is 15 years old. Experts believe children have a thinner chest wall, making them more susceptible to commotio cordis especially when playing sports like baseball, softball or hockey. A sports physical is also an opportunity to discuss any sports related injuries, and injury prevention.
- Sports Concussions Prevention and Warning Signs
Concussion is one of the most common injuries to the brain, affecting about two million children and teens every year. Most concussions in kids and teens happen while playing sports. The risk is highest for cheerleaders and kids who play football, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and field hockey.
- Sleep & Impact on Education
Going back to school means early wake up calls to catch the bus. It should also mean an earlier bedtime to ensure children get enough sleep. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children ages 3-5 years get 10 to 13 hours of sleep including naps, children ages 6-12 years old get 9-12 hours of sleep and children 13-18 years get 8-10 hours of sleep.
With the change in routine, it is best to start adapting your child’s sleep routine prior to the first day of school. Practice good sleep habits such as making the bedroom a screen time free zone at bedtime.
Poor sleep can lead to poor outcomes in the classroom. Children and adolescents who do not get enough sleep have a higher risk for many health problems, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, poor mental health, and injuries. They are also more likely to have attention and behavior problems leading to less learning in the classroom. In some instances of an ADHD diagnosis may actually be a sleep disorder.
- Sleep and Cell Phones, Computers and Television- Going back to school means early wake up calls to catch the bus. It should also mean an earlier bedtime to ensure children get enough sleep. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children ages 3-5 years get 10 to 13 hours of sleep including naps, children ages 6-12 years old get 9-12 hours of sleep and children 13-18 years get 8-10 hours of sleep.
With the change in routine, it is best to start adapting your child’s sleep routine prior to the first day of school. Practice good sleep habits such as making the bedroom a screen time free zone at bedtime. Blue light from cell phones, televisions and computers can disrupt sleep. Back to school is a good time to create a media plan designed to balance screen time with sleep, exercise and other healthy activities. Help your children choose high-quality programs or games and help them discern the difference from online sites that promote false information, negative body image or bullying.
Bullying and distraction are some of the reasons many schools are moving to ban cell phone use within school.
- Backpack Weight - When shopping for kids backpacks lightweight is better. Doctors say a child should not be carrying more than 20% of their body weight in their backpack. Check the weight of your child’s backpack with their books on the bathroom scale. Students should plan to take more trips to their locker rather than carry these heavy weights for extended time. It helps to use a backpack with thick and padded shoulder straps, and a waist belt if possible.
- Eye Exams - The American Optometric Association recommends yearly eye exams for children. Vision can play a significant role in children’s learning. The American Optometric Association says the following factors affect children’s reading and learning: visual acuity, or the ability to see clearly in the distance like a chalkboard or intermediate distance like a computer screen and up close for reading a book. Eye focusing a varying distances, eye tracking, eye teaming, eye-hand coordination and visual perception are all also important portions of vision and learning. Because vision may change frequently during the school years, children should receive an eye examination every year, or more frequently if specific problems or risk factors exist, or if recommended by an optometrist. Unfortunately, parents and educators often incorrectly assume that if a child passes a school screening, there is no vision problem. The most common vision problem in school-age children is blurry vision or refractive error caused by nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism resulting in blurry vision. However, a child who can see clearly and has 20/20 vision can still have a vision problem relating to eye focusing, eye tracking and eye coordination.
Contact us for Experts in these and other back to school health stories.
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