Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

The body reaction to physical or emotional situation that affects normal balance in any way is termed stress.  Some describes it as a “pressure on the outside that causes pressure on the inside” (The Medicine Chest, 2006).

As a child, one stressor that I experienced was the feeling of unlovable.  This was a feeling I usually sensed from my mum since I was a young child.  I always got seriously beaten at the slightest opportunity, even for things not really my fault. There was a day that I was beaten until I developed cramps and could not move again, “die if you want to die”, she said as she continued beating.  This treatment continued throughout my developing years.

I was able to cope with it because in this part of the world, Yoruba – Nigeria, it is a taboo for children to look their parents in the face or talk back at them, though changing now.  I guess this helped me because all throughout I held on to the believe that my mum could not do better and it was for my good. It affected my studies greatly and I became sickly.  Once I was taken to hospital after check up, I was asked to wait outside, leaving my parents with the doctor and on the way home, mum was fuming and asked, “how can that be the cause? Even if it is I don’t want to talk about it”, and dad just said, “well, you’ve heard it all”. I did not know what it was. A child’s own parents often maltreats the child through abuse and neglect (Berger, 2009). However, recently, I was reminded of one of my statements then, I was said to have told my dad not to worry, “we would buy a new mummy for daddy”. How babyish! There was no resource used and no support obtained.

I would like to know more about Nigeria and the type of stressor that impact the development of the children.  I am choosing Nigeria because I am looking forward to establishing a pre-schooler educational outfit very soon and I would need every information that I can get about young children in Nigeria.  Hypertension, a notorious adult disease now takes on children as victims (Osobu-Asubiojo, 2011). Many stressors were highlighted for this but most  highlighted was Genetic, which means it runs  in the family; or excess in daily activities especially these days that children wakes up by 4 a.m. to get ready for school in order to beat the trafick jam and get back home by 8 p.m.  to complete their assignment, have dinner, shower if possible and go to bed; routine in daily activities, that is doing the same thing over and over; or change in life style and diet, taking too much of fast foods. In order to reduce this risk, there is need to educate parents and caregivers on the danger in eating fast foods and children not having enough rest.  Balanced diet including fruits and vegetables is essential.  Eating of food with low sugar, fat and salt was highly recommended. Regular day sleep was also suggested with a 30 minustes exercise at least thrice in a week. Alcohol should be strictly avoided.  At the national level, nothing is being done yet, but doctors advise is being given to parents and caregivers as necessary, however, it is not nationwide yet. I hope this will go round faster.

Reference

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Osobu-Asubiojo, O. (2011). Hypertension: Killer of Nigerian Kids. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from http://thenewsafrica.com/2011/04/25/hypertension-killer-of-nigerian-kids/

The Medicine Chest. (2006). Stress In Young Children. Retrieved February-March, 2006, from http://www.healthychild.net/TheMedicineChest.php?article_id=339

Child Development and Public Health

IMMUNIZATION

Immunization is meaningful to me because it prents deathand various diseases in children if taken as schedule.  Unfortunately, most parents do not get their children immunized accordingly and this leads to various preventable diseases like whooping cough, malaria, Hepatitis B, etc. in children and at times may lead to death.

In South Africa, immunization is given to children in order to prevent diseases.  However, in order to reduce the mortality rate of children under age five, South Africa has now introduce two more vaccines; Pneumococcus conjugate and Rotavirus, to the conutruy’s immunization programme. Pneumococcus conjugate vaccine is to protect against diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis etc, while the Rotavirus vaccine is to protect against diarrhoea among infants under five years.  The South Africa health department is working to have the vaccines available to the East this year and nationally by March next year.  It is estimated that the introduction f these vaccines will save the lives of about 14 children each day or more than 4,700 deaths per year from pneumococcal pneumonia and viral diarrhea.

With this information about the importance of immunization, once I start the educational outfit, I would include the immunization reminder on the newsletter every school term and also include it on the discussion list on every Parents/Teachers Forum (PTF).  

 

In Your Life and Around the World

The personal birthing experience I want to talk about is that of my first child.  It was the first birthing experience for me and it was highly spectacular.  There was a heavy noise early that morning from a blown transformer not far from my residence; I got up sharply from sleep and as I stood up the water broke.  After some hours I was at the hospital.  There was no contraction then I was given an injection to induce labour, then the doctor left.  The pain started with contractions at intervals.  I got to the hospital about 9.00am and at about 6.30pm the contractions had become severe and there was no doctor or nurse around.  I was in that pain all alone in the room till the doctor on ward-round came at about 7.30pm.  He asked who was detailed to stay with me, I said none.  I was examined and he brought a nurse with an instruction “stay with her” while he continued the ward round.  The nurse peeped outside to be sure the doctor was no longer around, turned to me and said “it’s not time yet, just stay”, and she left.  The doctor, understanding the system, came back after about 8 minutes to check on me, “where is the nurse?” he asked, “I don’t know”, I responded.  He went out to get another nurse.  This happened about three times before he finally came back to take the delivery himself.

The actual delivery was another episode because the baby was distressed having stayed longer than required.  The doctor then tried to use a ventouse (vacuum extractor) to pull the baby, but with head full of hair it did not work.  He changed to Forceps and had to do a large cut because by then, it was rather too late.  Finally, the baby was out, the doctor rushed to resuscitate the baby while the Intern doctors (supporting) attended to me.  This is in a nut shell, but it was a sordid experience, even after birth I carried the remnants of placenta for months with each day in pain as if in labour. 

I choose this example to highlight the essence of proper prenatal medication as this helped to sustain me and the baby throughout the ordeal and after (doctor confirmed).  The impact could make the victim run from birthing and might even loose the baby.  Some mothers might be hostile to the baby as if it was the baby’s fault which will definitely affect the child’s development.

In Nigeria generally, especially in the General Hospitals, that is, government hospitals, once pregnant, you must register for prenatal care, you would have appointment dates when there would be proper check up, register your complaints and drugs would be given with required injections.  On delivery date, which would have been confirmed during the previous prenatal appointment, be at the hospital with the necessary items for both mother and child.  Doctors would be around to attend to you and support as the birthing progresses.  However, if you do not register with any of the general hospitals and you had course to go there to resolve complications, the patient would either not be attended to amidst series of abusive words or left to bleed for several hours, after giving birth on the bench where seated, before being attended to, still with series of abusive words.  It was a bit different from the personal example provided because I registered there from the beginning, hence I was ushered into a room where I eventually put to bed.  The situation was still similar in that there was no sign of care at all, more so, the elderly doctors were aware this but nothing was being done.   The experience interfered with the bonding process because I was hospitalized for some a week in order to evacuate the remnants of the placenta.  Also, these other women left on the bench to bleed were left while the babies were carried inside.  I must submit that the health care workers, like the early childhood professionals, are supposed to be the custodian of adequate care.