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on Oct 24th, 2015 and filed under AAP suggests Pediatricians to screen children for food insecurity – Dispatch Times
According to the AAP statement, in 2013 one-fifth of all United States children lived in households that were food insecure.
For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending that pediatricians screen all children for food insecurity.
Field trials showed that asking children these two questions was almost as effective as the 18-question Household Food Security Survey used by the US Department of Agriculture (which administers the food stamp program) and other government agencies to determine food insecurity. Their overall health is poorer and they also are more likely to lack iron, which helps make red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body, the statement said.
So-called food insecurity also has been linked to behavioral and emotional problems from preschool through adolescence.
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. As per review of numerous risk factors, children who live in such households are more at risk of getting frequently sick, exude slow illness recovery periods and require more hospital admission.
Few pediatricians research childhood hunger, said Chilton, a principal investigator of Children’s HealthWatch, a national network tracking the impact of public assistance programs on pediatric health. In a press release from the group, she declared, “That’s why pediatricians are taking a comprehensive approach, connecting families to resources and advocating to keep federal nutrition programs like WIC and SNAP strong”.
The two statements are, “Within the past 12 months we anxious whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more”, and “Within the past 12 months, the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more”.
“Twenty years ago we knew food insecurity existed and we thought it was unpleasant, but not bad”, Schwarzenberg said.
Across-the-board screening may encourage anxious parents to step forward, experts said. “They can let them know it’s not just them, and this is a common situation”, Fram said.
The questionnaire also may take the guesswork out of trying to identify children forced to skip meals or go to bed famished.
“I don’t think you can look at someone and say who is food insecure”, she told the Guardian.
A new round of cuts targeting what little remains of the social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable families will come between now and December 11, the next deadline for adoption of a federal budget resolution.
Although 60% of all food-insecure families have incomes below the income eligibility cutoff for many child nutrition programs, 30% of food-insecure households have incomes above this level, confirming that food insecurity is not always linked to poverty. “That’s what is happening in homes in America right now”.
Thompson hoped universal screenings for hunger “would 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’s embarrassing as a parent”.
“Some never expected to need that kind of help”, Dr. Schwarzenberg told the Guardian.
The new policy also urges pediatricians to use their influence beyond their offices.
“It is important for pediatricians to be aware of the fact that food insecurity can occur in any population”, said Sarah Jane Schwarzenberg, M.D., FAAP, a lead author of the statement and a member of the AAP Committee on Nutrition.
