The following are responses I wrote as part of an article on children’s health care by Richie Bernardo in WalletHub, April 2014. The article includes wonderful state by state comparisons of a variety of indicators of children’s health.

What are the most important steps parents can take to help their children grow up healthy?
Unfortunately, parents tend to be blamed when their children grow up to have health problems, but most parents cannot control the economic and environmental factors that allow kids to grow up in good health.

I’d like to say: provide a healthy diet, make sure your kids get plenty of fresh air and exercise, keep them away from known pathogens. Yet it’s important to realize that many — perhaps even most — parents cannot afford a consistently healthy diet and/or are working too many hours in order to pay bills for them to have time to cook healthy meals everyday. Similarly, parents don’t control the levels of air pollution and water pollution that their kids are exposed to, and many parents raise children in neighborhoods in which there are no safe, green spaces for kids to play. And, given that most kids grow up in households where all adults need to work in order to get by, parents cannot avoid sending their kids to school when they are a bit sick.

I do think that most parents can restrict their kids’ access to the most nutritiously unsound foods (for example, sweet soft drinks, candy, processed meats) and can encourage kids to participate in gym and other school activities. I also think parents can and should make their voices heard in their communities and to politicians. If there is garbage on the streets in your neighborhood, bug the City to improve garbage pick-up. If nearby factories are shooting toxic chemicals into the environment, organize a protest.

Another piece of advice I’d give parents (and I am speaking as a mother of four as well as in my role as a sociology professor) is to help your kids find something that they love doing: drawing, singing, playing ball, doing math equations — whatever your kid likes. When we do things that we enjoy we feel better about ourselves and about the world, and that feeling leads us to want to make healthy choices. And something that nearly every American parent can and should do – vote, so that we can build policies that nurture kids’ health.

Solution appalachianmagazine.com cialis no prescription for erectile dysfunction: Men are thankful to constantly developing medical science that has given them several ways to overcome the issues and to live life happily again. Complications of women who have diabetes include higher risk for heart disease, lower survival sildenafil canada rates after heart attack, higher risk of blindness, and a higher risk of depression. Here generika levitra are few new techniques to build up massive muscle, which is really amazing. One of the original sources of bad blood supply of the penile. canadian pharmacy sildenafil Do you believe children are prescribed too much medication in the US today?
Yes. I am especially concerned about the over-prescription of psychiatric medication in order to control the behavior of kids. While some kids are in fact deeply troubled and need medication, we shouldn’t be drugging kids for being “too” active or “too” disobedient. I also am concerned about the over-use of over-the-counter medication for colds and coughs. Oftentimes, what kids (and adults) need is rest and soup, but television ads encourage us to purchase quick fixes for ailments both major and minor.

Do you think the government should ensure all children have health insurance coverage?
Yes, absolutely. It is devastating for parents not to be able to take their kids to the doctor, and untreated illnesses cause kids to fall behind in school and in overall physical, emotional and cognitive development.

In evaluating the best states for children’s healthcare, what are the top 5 indicators?
Since S-CHIP is a federal program, there is not a huge amount of difference between the states in children’s access to care. However, there are enormous differences among the states in adults’ access to care. In states that expanded Medicaid eligibility under the ACA, most adults now have healthcare coverage. In those states that did not expand Medicaid, the numbers of uninsured adults have remained higher.

While all parents do their best to raise healthy kids, parents who are struggling with their own poor health have the cards stacked against them. So, I’d say the number one indicator at this time in the U.S. is the overall rate of health care coverage for all people — children and adults. Other factors that I see as important include well-resourced school nurse programs, strong immunization programs, strong oral health care programs, strong vision and hearing screening and programs.