‘Food Insecurity’ found in 14 per cent American households

As per a report of the Department of Agriculture, more than 16 million kids live in homes where they do not find enough food.

The new policy statement also includes a list of federal resources for food-insecure families that paediatricians can recommend to patients, as well as the recommendation that doctors familiarize themselves with local resources like food pantries and summer and childcare feeding programs as well to help patients secure adequate meals.

“The health effects of hunger on children are pervasive and long-lasting, which is why our new policy urges pediatricians to take action in and outside of the clinic to conquer food insecurity and promote child health”, policy co-author Dr. Sarah Jane Schwarzenberg said in an AAP news release.

Stephen Cook, MD, MPH, of the Center for Community Health at University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY, called this a “welcome policy” and an important statement from the standpoint of where healthcare reform is going and looking at population health. Pediatricians and other primary care physicians can play a vital role in screening and identifying kids who are at risk for food insecurity and in connecting poor families with necessary community resources. “Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity are tied to adult cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes”. Food security is a term used by the USDA, which is defined as “all people in a household having enough food for an active, healthy life at all times”. It can impair their ability to concentrate or even perform well in school.

These children also have a tendency to get sick more often due to weaker immune systems, which causes them to have a harder time recovering.

The president of the AAP, Dr. Sandra Hassink, said that her fellow medical professionals had a social obligation to do everything possible to remedy the nutritional crisis.

Whether, over the last 12 months, the respondents were anxious that they would run out of food before money was available to buy more.

Dr. Schwarzenberg also explains that its not just being hungry that is hurting children but also the stress of not knowing if they are going to have enough to eat on any given day.

Food insecurity can negatively affect behavior and development and have a lifelong impact on health. Families who rely on SNAP – the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps – tend to eat about the same number of calories as higher-income Americans. While these publications contain helpful articles, a new study found a surprising number of advertisements appearing in the nation’s top magazines for parents showed images or products that contradicted health and safety recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

“Pediatricians can have this information at their fingertips” to share with their patients in need, Schwarzenberg says.

By asking the simple questions, the coalition is hoping to make it easier for families to get help.

Delaying the introduction of tackling until a certain age may reduce the risk of injury for ages when tackling is prohibited, but this could lead to even higher rates of injury when tackling is later introduced if players have their first tackling experiences when they are older, stronger and bigger, according to the AAP.