Asthma and childhood

                In 1974, at the age of 6, I was diagnosed with severe asthma. The initial result was that I spent a good portion of first grade at home rather than in school. I had a friend who lived down the street who would get off the bus, come to my house, and pick up my completed work and drop off new assignments. At that time, the convenient portable inhalers and nebulizers were not available. Each asthma attack meant a rushed trip to the emergency room to spend time in an oxygen tent. The doctors were also unclear about what was triggering my attacks, so a great deal of time that year was spent eliminating certain foods from my diets, testing my reactions to things like extreme hot and cold, pets, and plants.  It was finally determined that my particular triggers were pet hair, pollen, bee stings, and extremely cold air. For years, my mother did everything she could to keep me inside and “safe” where she could watch me. This meant I wasn’t allowed to play any sports, go out in the snow, have a pet, or basically have a normal childhood. I was rarely allowed to visit the homes of classmates, because they might have a pet or something else that would make ne wheeze. I even spent recesses inside most of the time because of the fear of something triggering an attack. These severe restrictions made developing friendships difficult. I stopped getting invited places because I was so rarely allowed to go. My playmates were my siblings and the few kids who stuck by me.

                As I got older, the attacks became less frequent and less severe. This, combined with the availability of portable medications that I could administer myself meant that many of the restrictions on my life were lifted. By the time I reached junior high, I was allowed to join a swim team and enjoy outdoor activities. I tried out for softball, basketball, and cheerleading, but I never made the cut because I lacked the skills that I should have developed when I was younger. Since I lacked the skills for sports, I decided to pursue other activities. I joined the school chorus and youth folk group in my church. I began teaching the music program in my church’s religious education program as well. I joined the yearbook staff, and became the editor by my senior year.

                Yes, my condition played havoc with my development of gross motor and social skills, but I learned to adapt. In time, I caught up to my peers socially, although I tend to be clumsy and not coordinated enough for sporting games.

                Asthma continued to be a serious medical threat for children around the world. In fact, the threat seems to be getting worse in some areas, while others have taken steps to try and reduce the risk by working to reduce air pollution—a big factor in asthma.  In addition, the science community is realizing that they don’t understand how asthma works as well as they thought they did. They are realizing that standard practices intended to increase health worldwide may in fact be making the problem worse instead of better.

Health and Early Childhood Education

In today's society, families are faced with a host of health issues. Rising poverty rates have lead to increased numbers of children suffering from malnutrition. The AIDS epidemic has shown no sign of being eradicated. An unacceptable number of children die each year of SIDS (although, science has made progress in reducing this number). Families, afraid of vaccinating their children, leave their children exposed to a great number of diseases once thought to be extinct. Overuse of antibiotics has left thousands immune to them, allowing illness to go untreatable.

One issue which has had a great impact on my classroom this year is mental health issues, both in children, and how parents who are mentally ill affect their children. According to the website www.zerotothree.org, infant mental health is defined as "the healthy social and emotional development of a child from birth to 3 years". Unfortunately, many children are born into families which make this type of healthy development difficult, if not impossible.

I will give the example of a set of twins who joined my classroom in mid-March. They were referred by a child service agency, having been dismissed from their prior center. It soon became apparent why they had been removed. Their mother has a chemical imbalance, and their father is an alcoholic who, at the time, was incarcerated for the 4th time. Their mother is argumentative, refusing to follow center policies and verbally attacks the staff pretty much every time she enters the center. Since it is part of my job to see that policies are followed, she has taken a special dislike of me! She has little interest in her twins, nor their older sister. The family has been associated with the agency which brought them to us for the last two years, since the twins (aged 2) were found wandering around the neighborhood alone. At a meeting this week with their caseworker, I was informed that this is the longest the boys have lasted at ANY center (keep in mind they have been with me for only 2 months)!

Due to the mother's mental health issues (which she refuses to accept treatment for), the father's alcoholism and frequent incarceration, the level of poverty at which they live, and the basic neglect they are exposed to, the boys are suffering on many levels. Academically, they are behind. They cannot correctly identify any letters or number , cannot correctly hold a pencil, use scissors, or follow even the simplest of directions. Socially, they are also behind. They cannot interact with their peers or teachers appropriately, and they continually fight with each other, both by yelling at each other and by striking each other. They have shown up at school on one more than one occasion with cuts or bruises they said were caused by each other. We had to dismiss the TS worker assigned to them, as it quickly became apparent that one of the reasons they were fighting was to gain his attention. Unfortunately, they will celebrate their 5th birthday this summer, at which point state funding will no longer be available for them to continue to attend my class, and instead they will be placed into a kindergarten classroom they are not developmentally ready for. I have only 2 more months to work with them, and still meet the needs of the rest of my students. We have made progress, but we still have so much more to accomplish before they are ready to be immersed in a classroom of their peers and hold their own. These boys are lucky in that the school district they are entering is a good one, and they have a good chance of continuing to have teachers who can address their many needs.

According to the Convention on the Rights of Children, all children with disabilities have the same rights as all other children. Among those are the right to a developmentally appropriate education. According to my research, the view across the US as well as worldwide is pretty universal: early intervention is essential, and must be accessible and affordable, meaning that most services must be provided at little or no cost. But what do we do when the family refuses to follow the recommendations provided? Or when the children no longer qualify for services because they are too old? Or when the children aren't the only ones in need of services, but the parent(s) are as well? Or when the parents ARE the issue? Unfortunately, I do not have all the answers. I can only hope and pray that in time, someone will.

Birthing Experiences

As I begin my next class, I want to welcome my new followers, and wish my fellow classmates well in their next step of this journey!

This week's assignment was to describe a birthing experience .I chose to write about my own experiences, as I have been through this experience three times, and have four lovely children to show for it. Each time the experience was special, but different from the others.

When having my daughter, I was 19 years old and unmarried, giving birth in a Catholic hospital (the only game in town). I was treated horribly once the staff realized that I was not married (this was 27 years ago--public opinion has changed since then). They were rude to me, ignoring my questions and yelling at me for crying out in pain. They even went so far as to refuse to list the father's name on the birth certificate, even though he stayed with me for the birthing process.

A few years later, I gave birth to my twins (I was married by this point--to the same man who fathered my daughter). Same hospital, but the attitude of the staff had done a complete turnaround. They were friendly and supportive. Since one of the nurses graduated HS with my husband, she took extra-special care of me. I was in labor for 3 days (both kids wanted out at the same time and neither one was willing to move away from the birth canal. I literally had to SHOVE one of them out of the way to avoid a C-section). Because multiple births are high-risk, in conjunction with the fact that they were coming 3 weeks early AND I had been in an automobile accident during my first trimester, the delivery room was CROWDED! Delivery team. C-section team standing by, just in case. Two neo-natal teams. And a class of student doctors and nurses who just wanted to see twins born!

By the time I had my youngest, I was more experienced as to what to expect. The labor was shorter (a mere 8 hours), and the only people present were me and my husband, my doctor, and the nurse who had taken such good care of me when I was having my twins (Kudos Bonnie!!!)

In all 3 cases, I was extremely lucky. My children were born without the need for C-sections, and all were born with birth weights between 5 and 6.5 lbs. (on the low side, but within acceptable ranges. With the exception of a little jaundice in one twin, all were born healthy and able to come home with me right way. Each time, my hospital stay was only a few days. I was fortunate to have a large family close by who were willing to help in any and every way possible to allow me to recover and adapt to the changes in our home,

In reading about birthing in other parts of the world, I was shocked to realize how many births occur at home. While some choose this method, others are forced to deliver at home because they do not have access to a medical facility, or cannot afford to go to one. While I understand that "giving birth is one of the most natural things in the world" and "women have been giving birth for thousands of years", I also realize that things can and do go wrong. The presence of someone with knowledge of the experience can greatly reduce to possibility of a tragic and painful result. Although the number of infant deaths and deaths of women in childbirth are dropping, there are areas of the world where the numbers are still unacceptably high.

Each time I gave birth, I may not have been treated with courtesy, but at least I had people there who knew what to do should an emergency arise, Too many women in the world do not have that piece of mind!