{"id":20816,"date":"2015-10-24T06:58:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/pediatricians-are-asked-to-join-fight-against\/"},"modified":"2015-10-24T06:58:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:58:27","slug":"pediatricians-are-asked-to-join-fight-against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/pediatricians-are-asked-to-join-fight-against\/","title":{"rendered":"Pediatricians Are Asked to Join Fight Against Childhood Hung"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Asia<\/figure>\n

{ {{The American Academy of Pediatrics on Friday urged pediatricians to screen all patients for food insecurity and to refer parents to appropriate agencies so children do not go hungry.}} }<\/p>\n

Sixteen million children live in homes where there is consistently not enough food, according to the Agriculture Department. Those children get sick more often, have poorer overall health and are hospitalized more frequently than peers who are adequately nourished.<\/p>\n

So-called food insecurity has also been linked to behavioral and emotional problems from preschool through adolescence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s high time,\u201d Mariana Chilton, the director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at Drexel University, said of the new policy. \u201cWe know food insecurity drives up health care costs, and is associated with more hospitalizations, and is related to poor childhood development and health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few pediatricians research childhood hunger, said Dr. Chilton, a principal investigator with Children\u2019s HealthWatch, a national network tracking the impact of public assistance programs on pediatric health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very difficult to get the broader pediatrician community to pay attention to food insecurity, and yet it\u2019s one of the most important vital signs of a child\u2019s health and well-being,\u201d Dr. Chilton said.<\/p>\n

The academy\u2019s new policy also encourages pediatricians to familiarize themselves with local food banks and federal nutrition programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about meeting families where they are, they are in schools and in doctors\u2019 offices,\u201d said Melissa Boteach, a vice president of the poverty-to-prosperity program at the Center for American Progress. \u201cHaving pediatricians connect them to resources they need could really have a big impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The academy said that pediatricians might identify hungry children with a screening tool that posed two questions to parents: whether, in the last year, they worried that their food would run out before they had money to buy more, and whether the groceries they bought lasted until they had more money available to buy more.<\/p>\n

The answers to these questions identify 97 percent of families that are insecure about food, said Erin R. Hager, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Maryland
\nSchool of Medicine who helped validate the tool.<\/p>\n

Across-the-board screening may encourage worried parents to step forward, experts said. \u201cA big barrier to accessing resources for families is they are scared and embarrassed to ask,\u201d said Maryah Fram, an associate professor of social work at the University of South Carolina who has researched food insecurity in children.<\/p>\n

Pediatricians can not only share information on resources, but also reassure parents. \u201cThey can let them know it\u2019s not just them, and this is a common situation,\u201d Ms. Fram said.<\/p>\n

The questionnaire may also take the guesswork out of trying to identify children forced to skip meals or go to bed famished.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think you can recognize food insecurity when you see it, or that people with food insecurity look poor,\u201d said Dr. Sarah J. Schwarzenberg, a lead author of the new policy statement and director of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who look just like you and me have food insecurity,\u201d she added. \u201cIncome is more unpredictable than it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unemployment, underemployment and poverty are all linked to food insecurity, the academy noted, helping make chronic hunger a problem for millions of families.<\/p>\n

Asia Thompson, a 22-year-old mother of two and a student at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa., never told her children\u2019s pediatrician that the family sometimes lacked food, even though she worried about it frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine having two children who are equally if not more hungry than you are, and only having one ration of food to split between three of you,\u201d Ms. Thompson said. \u201cThat\u2019s what is happening in homes in America right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Thompson said she hoped universal screenings for hunger \u201cwould take away the embarrassment of having to reach out yourself, because it does take a lot of courage to talk to your pediatrician about not being able to feed your kids. It\u2019s embarrassing as a parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food stamps have been \u201cincredibly helpful,\u201d she said, but they still run out early.
\nThe new policy also urges pediatricians to use their influence beyond their offices. \u201cIt\u2019s very important that pediatricians advocate for programs that provide food, particularly healthy food, for children,\u201d Dr. Schwarzenberg said.<\/p>\n

Assistance programs \u201care always under pressure to be cut, diminished or changed,\u201d she said. \u201cPediatricians know about children\u2019s health. They should be right up there saying you\u2019ve got to make them stronger and to keep them in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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