Child Health

Children's Rights

• Rights can be positive (welfare, legal) or negative (natural, liberty).
• Positive rights are established by social contracts and change with societal evolution.
• Examples include rights to information and appropriate healthcare.
• Negative rights are natural rights requiring others' actions not to infringe.
• Examples include freedom of movement, belief, and speech.
• Negative rights take precedence over positive rights.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Key Principles

• Decisions concerning children should prioritize their best interests.
• Children capable of forming views should express them freely.
• Children's views should be taken seriously, considering their age and maturity.

Prevention in the Early Years

• Public health interventions aim to prevent disease and maximize health throughout life, starting in early childhood.
• Evaluating such interventions is complicated by factors including time delays in observing outcomes, ethical considerations in randomized controlled trials, and difficulty in isolating the effects of a particular intervention from other variables.
• A strong evidence base for early interventions comes with respect to education, health and nutrition, socio-economic benefits, emotional and social support, and combined programs.

Health and Nutrition

• Low birth weight (LBW) is associated with higher infant mortality and long-term health risks (e.g., diabetes, heart disease) and is more common in lower socio-economic groups.
• Modifiable risk factors include poor maternal nutrition during pregnancy, and smoking during pregnancy.
• Breastfeeding can reduce the risk of infections, SIDS, obesity, and certain diseases in both mothers and children.

Socio-economic Benefits

• Families with young children are at increased risk of poverty and benefit dependency, often due to a lack of affordable childcare.
• Family support programs can address poverty, social isolation, and the lack of community resources.
• Evaluating the long-term effectiveness of support programs is challenging.
• Programs like Sure Start (UK) and Head Start (US) are examples of combined interventions focusing on multiple aspects of a child's development.

Family Nurse Partnership (FNP)

• The FNP is a preventive program with intensive home visiting, delivered by trained nurses, from early pregnancy until age two, in vulnerable families.
• Effective programs like FNP have shown significant positive outcomes in antenatal, parenting practices, social and health outcomes for mothers and children.

Family and Child Development

• Early child development (ECD) is a determinant of health, influencing lifelong outcomes.
• ECD is important to the physical, emotional and cognitive development of the child.
• There is a social gradient in early childhood development: worldwide, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or families with less material wealth often do less well in school and exhibit a range of other negative outcomes.
• ECD is strongly influenced by early years' environment, stimulation, and relationships.

Early Childhood Theory and Ecology

• Birth cohort studies are crucial to understand the impact of ECD across a lifetime.
• Sensitive periods of brain development exist, impacting lifelong outcomes.
• Events in early life can have cumulative 'pathway' effects.
• Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory describes interconnected systems affecting development (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem).

Population Health Approach to ECD

• A population health strategy aims to reduce risks across the entire population, aiming for positive shifts in health outcomes, rather than concentrating only on high-risk groups.
• Early childhood development (ECD) is a key public health concern.
• Population-level data is required to comprehensively evaluate the effects of intervention programs.

Measuring Early Development (The Early Development Instrument (EDI):

• The EDI is a comprehensive tool applied to measure cognitive development in children.
• It is a population-level measure that examines developmental maturity at the time of entry into school.

Top 10 Countries with highest under-5-death figures

• India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Ethiopia, Angola, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Kenya had the highest absolute number of under-five deaths reported (2013 data).

Child Mortality

• Child mortality is a significant global health issue, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries.
• The majority of child deaths occur within the first five years of life.
• Preventable diseases are major causes of child mortality.
• Progress has been observed in reducing child mortality rates in recent decades, often differing by country/region.

Accident Prevention

• Injury prevention is focused on education, engineering (safety measures), and enforcement.
• Socioeconomic disparities can increase the risk of injury for children.
• Locations like home, transport, and school are common places for accidental injuries to occur.

Non-Accidental Injury (NAI)

• Non-accidental injury (NAI) is the deliberate infliction of harm to a child.
• Risk factors for NAI include parental abuse or neglect history, family dysfunction, societal issues, and child characteristics.
• There are particular signs or symptoms to watch for concerning severe injuries.

Adoption & Fostering

• Adoption aims to meet the child's needs, not the adopting parents' demands.
• Adoption procedures require parental consent and multiple assessments.
• Fostering is a caring arrangement, unlike adoption, not permanent.
• Foster care types vary, including short-term, respite, and care for children awaiting adoption or returns.

Emotional Abuse & Neglect

• Emotional abuse consistently harms a child's emotional development.
• Neglect encompasses failing to meet a child's physical or psychological basic needs.
• Presentations range from inadequate care to lack of access to medical treatment or resources.
• Many factors can influence these issues including parent mental health, family history, environment, and social context.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

• FGM is a harmful practice that results in the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs.
• It is a violation of human rights and has severe health consequences.
• Prevalence varies across different geographical regions.
• Cultural and socio-economic factors are often intertwined in the perpetuation of FGM.

Immunization

• Immunization is a safe, effective method of protecting individuals against infectious diseases.
• Vaccines are biological preparations that stimulate the body's immune response.
• Different types of vaccines exist (live attenuated, killed, toxoids, subunit), each with benefits and drawbacks.
• Adverse events are documented but usually mild and short-lasting.

Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI)

• EPI is a global program aiming to achieve full immunization coverage in all regions.
• Vaccine schedule recommendations and usage vary across countries depending on disease prevalence.
• Cold chains are essential in maintaining vaccine efficacy by ensuring safe and proper storage.

Explore the key concepts of children's rights, differentiating between positive and negative rights. This quiz also emphasizes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the importance of considering children's views in decision-making. Test your understanding of early childhood health prevention strategies and their impacts.