Screen All Kids for Cholesterol, Depression and HIV, Pediatricians’ Group Says

The new American Association of Pediatrics guidelines cover a list of conditions and illnesses that children should receive tests for from birth to the age of 21, as recent studies have indicated many health concerns experienced in adulthood could have warning signs early in one’s life.

A screening for high cholesterol in children between the ages of 9 and 11 is now recommended, at least in part because of the high rate of obesity in young people.

A group of pediatricians suggested that kids must go through health screening for cholesterol, depression and HIV. For example, atherosclerosis, a fatty build up in the arteries that can lead to a stroke or heart attack, begins in the young.

A screening for dyslipidemia, or high blood cholesterol levels, has been added for patients between 9 and 11 years old. Medications like statins should be prescribed only in extreme cases.

To help reduce dental cavities, a recommendation has been added for fluoride varnish applications to be given in the doctor’s office, from 6 months through 5 years.

Also, newborns should be monitored through pulse oximetry, so as to detect congenital heart defects which require immediate treatment, before being discharged from hospital. And while just a smear-about the size of a grain of rice-of toothpaste should be used up to age 3, that amount should be increased to the size of a pea after a child’s third birthday. At 15 and 30 months, the doctors also said infants should be screened for risk of developing anemia. According to federal statistics 1 in 4 new HIV infections occurs in youth ages 13 to 24 years old and that about 60 percent of all youth with HIV do not know they are infected.

This type of screening could actually be beneficial for other family members as well, because once a kid is diagnosed with abnormally elevated cholesterol it’s likely that at least one of the parents also shares this ailment, notes Dr. Stephen Daniels, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado.

“If we catch depression symptoms early, we can intervene”, Simon said. “We know from national surveys that adolescents are having sex and are not good about having protection”, says Beers.

Depression screening has been added, with suggested screenings every year from ages 11 through 21, with suicide now a leading cause of death among adolescents.

“They don’t think long term”, he added. CRAFFT stands for auto, relax, forget, friends, and trouble.

Have you ever ridden in a vehicle driven by someone (including yourself) who was “high” or had been using alcohol or drug? The pediatric group now recommends screening kids for depression from age eleven through to age twenty-one.