Mother's op book helps ill children

Helen Sadler wrote Monkey Has An Operation for her daughter

Now, almost six years later, the character forms part of a schools education pack aimed at teaching youngsters about situations they might encounter in hospitals, at the doctors and even in life.

It is also educates pupils about the National Health Service and encourages them to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Mrs Sadler was told at her 20 week scan, in April 2007, that the baby she was carrying had a condition that resulted in lung cysts being formed and that her child would need major surgery at 18 months old.

But, as she began to prepare Josephine for the operation at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Brighton, Helen found there were no books to explain to her daughter what was happening.

"When we went in for the pre-operative appointment it was all pretty traumatic and quite terrifying," she said.

"The hospital had some really good photographs that talked you through the journey but we were not allowed to take them away.

"It was all very quick and you could not take anything on board and children are terrified just as much as parents are."

So, she decided to draw a character of a soft toy Monkey and created a story of him going into hospital for an operation.

How do children cope with trauma?

There is a strong immediate psychological risk to Zeena of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and this could manifest itself in a number of ways, according to Ms Citron.

Recurrent flashbacks, reliving the incident in her mind like a film, sleeplessness and bed-wetting are among symptoms seen in children suffering from PTSD.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteIt will take years and years of trained professionals helping her”

End QuoteEmma CitronConsultant clinical psychologist Ms Citron also said that, later in life, children who have witnessed violent events can also underachieve academically and feel they live in a "different sphere or world" from everyone else.

She may struggle in friendships and, Ms Citron said, traumatised children have tended to report later on that people do not understand them.

The loss of her parents, and the realisation of the significance of this as she grows older, will also complicate her trauma.

"It will take years and years of trained professionals helping her. She's at a very formative age where she's very dependent on her loved ones for her care and personality," she said, adding that having family members near to her will be crucial to her recovery and care.

"Even for a young baby, to go through such an awful thing traumatises them. With any developed concept of mortality, as they grow up, more and more, they realise all the loss as they piece it together," Ms Citron said.

Ultimately every child's experience of an atrocity is different, Ms Citron said, and very personal.

Zeena's ability to cope will depend on a number of factors, including her resilience and her genetic disposition.

"As she grows up it would be very much down to her own resilient personality, her genes, whether her family were or weren't copers - all of that has a part to play for how the future pans out for a child."

US of Austerity: What $570 Billion Cuts Will Do to Our Water, Air, the Jobless, Children, the Elderly, and the Poor

By Andt Kroll
The debt ceiling deal hammered out by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders and passed in the House on Monday afternoon makes deep, painful, and lasting cuts throughout the federal government's budget. What's on the chopping block? The numbers tell the tale.

The Obama-GOP plan cuts $917 billion in government spending over the next decade. Nearly $570 billion of that would come from what's called "nondefense discretionary spending." That's budget-speak for the pile of money the government invests in the nation's safety and future-education and job training, air traffic control, health research, border security, physical infrastructure, environmental and consumer protection, child care, nutrition, law enforcement, and more.

The White House's plan would slash this type of spending nearly in half, from about 3.3 percent of America's GDP to as low as 1.7 percent, the lowest in nearly half a century, says Ethan Pollack, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Pollack's calculations suggest the cuts in Obama's plan are almost as deep as those in Rep. Paul Ryan's slash-and-burn budget, which shrunk non-defense discretionary spending down to just 1.5 percent of GDP. The president has claimed that the debt deal will allow America to continue making "job-creating investments in things like education and research." But on crucial public investment, Obama's and Ryan's plans are next-door neighbors. "There's no way to square this plan with the president's 'Winning the Future' agenda,"Pollack says. "That agenda ends."

Harmful Effects of Energy Drinks on Children, Adolescents and Young Adults

By AngelicaMD
Energy drinks may increase energy and alertness but they have no therapeutic effects. Find out more about the harmful effects they have on children, adolescents and young adults.

Why Energy Drinks Are Popular Among the Young

Marketed as energy enhancers, young adults and children take energy drinks before doing athletic activities, working on projects or just studying for exams. These popular, often carbonated beverages contain caffeine and many other substances like tea extracts, ginseng, taurine and yohimbine that boost one's energy levels. They are able to stay awake and active, perhaps believing that their strength, endurance and memory are improved.

Some take these drinks in place of high calorie meals to avoid weight gain and suppress appetite. Since these drinks are loaded with sugar some prefer diet energy drinks which may contain fewer calories but have caffeine and other substances as well. Still others may use these products to overcome fatigue, stress and tension.

Various studies have found that about 30-50% of children as young as 5 years old, adolescents and young adults consume energy enhancing beverages in various amounts, with a few drinking these habitually.