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What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to have them killed in such numbers for a cause that is ignoble?
Though controversial child advocate Benjamin Spock was speaking against war, his sentiment still resonates for doctors today who must battle all of the preventable and unnecessary attacks on the health of our kids. These children, damaged for “ignoble” reasons, grow into adults already tainted with chronic
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disease, obesity, substance abuse, propensity to violence and mental illness.
Most obvious, of course, of the ignoble causes are the violence and neglect that are becoming more and more prevalent in American homes. Too many of our children are beaten, burned, confined, humiliated or left to fend for themselves by the very people who have the most responsibility to care for them.
Many of the ignoble causes are the result of parents who choose their convenience and comfort over the best interests of their children. Mothers may buy formula rather than breastfeeding, perceiving it to be time-consuming and “unsophisticated.” Fathers may fill their homes with secondhand smoke, making their addiction more important than their children. Families may neglect prenatal care, well-baby visits and immunizations.
Around the table (or, more often, in the car or in front of the TV) adults regularly choose foods that set up their kids for a lifetime of bad eating habits, foods that may taste great but are calorie- and fat-laden and nutritionally empty. It’s easier than changing Mom or Dad’s role modeling or food preferences, or taking the time and energy to provide a balanced menu and enforce good eating habits. Ditto for exercise: It requires discipline and example by parents to keep kids moving.
As youngsters begin to transform into teens, assuming more and more responsibility for their own health, they may be damaged from other ignoble causes: alcohol consumption, drug abuse, smoking, violence, inappropriate sexual activity and reckless driving. Their ability to make good choices will depend on three major factors. First, what do they know about making good health choices? Second, what habits have been instilled in them to make the right choices? Third, how healthy is their self-esteem so that they will want goodness for themselves?
As osteopathic physicians, we are on the front line in the war against the ignoble causes that attack our nation’s children. We are caregivers, undoubtedly, but our most important role may be as educators of parents and children about health, as watchdogs for the factors that negatively impact health, and most sadly, sometimes as the only positive advocate a child may have.
At MSUCOM, we continue our commitment to our nation’s children. In this issue of Communiqué we’ll share some of the efforts under way to help kids and their parents create a healthy legacy for generations to come. Please join us!
William D. Strampel, D.O.
Dean
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