Health

Child Temperament As Health Challenge

Published

13 years ago

August 8, 2012

Parenting is one of the toughest jobs around. Guiding children in today’s world takes a lot of physical and emotional energy. Children are born with their natural style of interacting with or reacting to people, places and things.

In the late 1950s, temperament research began with the world of Alexander Thomas, Stella Chess, and associates. The New York longitudinal study identified nine temperament characteristics or traits. The researchers found that these nine traits were present at birth and continued to influence development in important ways throughout life. By observing a child’s responses to everyday situations, the researchers could assess these temperaments.

Since the 1950s, many scientific studies of temperament have shown that children’s health and development are influenced by temperament. Children are much more challenging to deal with than others starting at birth. The realisation that many behavioural tendencies are inborn and not the result of bad parenting is perhaps one of the most important insights parents gain from learning more about temperament.

Temperament Traits

The examination of a child’s temperament generally occurs when the child’s behaviour is difficult. Clinicians use a series of interviews, observation, and questionnaires that measure the nine temperament traits using a spectrum (scale) from mild to intense responses or reactions. By understanding temperament, the parents can work with the child rather than trying to change his or her inborn traits. The nine temperament traits are given below:

Activity: Is the child always moving and doing something or does he or she have a more relaxed style?

Rhytimicity: Is the child regular in his or her eating and sleeping habits or somewhat haphazard?

Approach/withdrawal: Does he or she never meet a stranger or tend to shy away from new people or things?

Adaptability: Can the child adjust to changes in routines or plans easily or does he or she resist transitions? Intensity: Does he or she react strongly to situations, either positive or negative, or does he or she react calmly and quietly?

Mood: Does the child often express a negative outlook or is he or she generally a positive person? Does his or her mood shift frequently or is he or she usually even-tempered?

Persistence and attention span: Does the child give up as soon as a problem arises with a task or does he or she keep on trying? Can he she stick with an activity a long time or does his or her mind tend to wander? Distractibility: Is the child easily distracted from what he or she is doing or can he or she shut out external distractions and stay with the current activity? Sensory threshold: Is he or she bothered by external stimuli such as loud noises, bright light, or food textures or does he or she tend to ignore them?

These nine traits combine to form three basic types of temperaments. This is because approximately 65 per cent of children fit one of three patterns. 40 per cent of children are generally regarded as easy or flexible, 10 per cent are regarded as difficult, active, or feisty, and the final 15 per cent are regarded as slow to warm up or cautious. The other 35 per cent of children are combination of these patterns. By understanding these patterns, parents can tailor their parenting approach in such areas as expectations, encouragement and discipline to suit the child’s needs.

Easy or flexible children are generally calm, happy, regular in sleeping and eating habits, adaptable, and not easily upset. Because of their easy style, parents, need to set aside special time to talk about the child’s frustrations and hurts because he or she won’t demand or ask for it. This international communication will be necessary to strengthen your relationship and find out what your child is thinking and feeling.

Difficult, active, or feisty children are often fussy, have irregular feeding and sleeping habit, fearful of new people and situations, easily upset by noise and commotion, high strung, and intense in their reactions. Providing areas for vigorous play to work off stored up energy and frustrations with some freedom of choice allow these children to be successful. Preparing these children for activity changes and using redirection will help these children’s transition (move or change) from one place to another.

Slow to warm up or cautious children are relatively inactive and fussy, tend to withdraw or to react negatively to new situations, but their reactions gradually becomes more positive with continuous exposure. Sticking to a routine and your word, along with allowing ample time to establish relationships in new situations, are necessary to allow independence to unfold.

Most children have some level of intensity on several temperament traits, but one dimension will usually dominate. The child’s abilities to develop and behave in acceptable ways are greatly determined by the adults in their lives trying to identify, recognise, and respond to his or her unique temperament.

Miss Obe-Nwako is a student of Rivers State University of Science & Technology, Port Harcourt.

Obe-Nwaka Obele Kayiobari

Health

‘How Micro RNA Research Won Nobel Prize’

Published

12 months ago

October 9, 2024

The Tide

Two United States scientists who unraveled the human micro RNA have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the coveted prize for their work on microRNA as their discoveries help explain how complex life emerged on earth and how the human body is made up of a wide variety of different tissues.
MicroRNAs influence how genes – the instructions for life – are controlled inside organisms, including humans.
Every cell in the human body contains the same raw genetic information, locked in our DNA.
However, despite starting with the identical genetic information, the cells of the human body are wildly different in form and function.
The electrical impulses of nerve cells are distinct from the rhythmic beating of heart cells. The metabolic powerhouse that is a liver cell is distinct to a kidney cell, which filters urea out of the blood.
The light-sensing abilities of cells in the retina are different in skillset to white blood cells that produce antibodies to fight infection.
So much variety can arise from the same starting material because of gene expression.
The US scientists were the first to discover microRNAs and how they exerted control on how genes are expressed differently in different tissues.
The medicine and physiology prize winners are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
They said: “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.
“It is now known that the human genome codes for over 1,000 microRNAs.”

Health

WHO Begins Regulation On Antibiotic Waste

Published

1 year ago

September 4, 2024

The Tide

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has begun acting to curb effects of antibiotic pollution.
The new guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for antibiotic manufacturing sheds light on this important but neglected challenge ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) taking place on 26 September 2024.
The emergence and spread of AMR caused by antibiotic pollution could undermine the effectiveness of antibiotics globally, including the medicines produced at the manufacturing sites responsible for the pollution.
Despite high antibiotic pollution levels being widely documented, the issue is largely unregulated and quality assurance criteria typically do not address environmental emissions. In addition, once distributed, there is a lack of information provided to consumers on how to dispose of antibiotics when they are not used, for example, when they expire or when a course is finished but there is still antibiotic left over.
“Pharmaceutical waste from antibiotic manufacturing can facilitate the emergence of new drug-resistant bacteria, which can spread globally and threaten our health. Controlling pollution from antibiotic production contributes to keeping these life-saving medicines effective for everyone,” said Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for AMR ad interim.
Globally, there is a lack of accessible information on the environmental damage caused by manufacturing of medicines.

“The guidance provides an independent and impartial scientific basis for regulators, procurers, inspectors, and industry themselves to include robust antibiotic pollution control in their standards,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO. “Critically, the strong focus on transparency will equip buyers, investors and the general public to make decisions that account for manufacturers’ efforts to control antibiotic pollution.”

Health

Kebbi Harmonises Doctors’ Salaries To Curb Brain Drain

Published

1 year ago

September 4, 2024

The Tide

In a concerted effort to curb brain drain, the Kebbi State Government has harmonised medical doctors’ salaries to be at par with their colleagues in the federal government’s tertiary health facilities.
Kebbi State Commissioner for Health, Musa Inusa-Isma’il, disclosed this at the handing over of ambulances to the state-owned health facilities at the Ministry of Health in Birnin Kebbi yesterday.
Inusa Isma’il, according to a statement by Ahmed Idris, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, said the essence of the harmonisation was to retain the existing medical doctors and attract more to the services of the state.
According to him, the doctors across the state had already started enjoying the new salaries from August 2024.
He said the release of the vehicles was in fulfilment of Governor Nasir Idris’ promise to uplift health care services in the state.
“His Excellency said I should inform you, the beneficiaries of this gesture, that the vehicle should be strictly used for the intended purpose. It should not be used for anything else.
“If there is no referral case, each of the vehicles must be parked at the hospital by 6 pm. The governor said you should warn your drivers against reckless driving as well as violating the instructions.
“We should also do everything possible to reciprocate the gesture by working according to the terms and conditions attached,” he advised.
The benefiting health facilities included Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Birnin Kebbi; State Teaching Hospital, Kalgo; General Hospital, Argungu; General Hospital, Yauri; General Hospital, Zuru; and General Hospital, Bunza.

In his speech, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr Shehu Koko, recalled that the ambulances were handed over to the ministry last Friday by the governor for the onward handover to the benefiting hospitals.
He observed that the ambulances would go a long way in improving the referral system in the state, adding that delays in reaching the secondary and tertiary facilities would be eliminated.
The permanent secretary attributed the high rate of maternal mortality in the country to delays in getting to the health facilities for proper medical care.
“We believe with the provision of these ambulances, part of the gaps we have in our referral system will be addressed, whereby patients who require secondary healthcare could be easily transported to secondary and tertiary health centres, where they can get such help,” he said.
In a goodwill message, Commissioner for Information and Culture Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed expressed gratitude to the governor for the support he has given to the ministry to excel.
While advising the beneficiaries to use the vehicles judiciously, the commissioner advised that services and maintenance of the vehicles must be prompt to derive the maximum benefits from the vehicles.
The commissioner also highlighted some achievements recorded by the government in the last year, including beautification of the state capital, completion of a multimillion-naira ultramodern state secretariat, road construction, construction and renovation of classrooms and upgrading of some health facilities, among others.