Spotlight on Concussion

Spotlight on Concussion

Concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury where the brain moves back and fourth or side to side inside the skull.  This can happen from a head bump or body impact.  Numbers of reported and treated concussions have increased in the last decade mostly, researchers believe, because of an awareness and education campaign.  A concussion is an invisible injury, meaning it cannot be seen on MRI, CT or Xray.  Because of this, symptoms may be blamed on other reasons such as laziness or lack of sleep. 

Symptoms can appear right after an injury or they can take days to show up.

There may or may not be loss of consciousness. 

Below is a video link to a concussion

https://youtu.be/Sno_0Jd8GuA

Symptoms 

■ headache ■ nausea ■ lack of energy  ■ dizziness, light-headedness, or a loss of balance ■ blurred or double vision and sensitivity to light ■ increased sensitivity to sounds and or ringing in the ears ■ change in sleep patterns ■ difficulty concentrating  ■ trouble with learning and memory ■ problems with word-finding  ■ easily confused ■ slower in thinking, acting, reading, and speaking ■ easily distracted ■ trouble doing more than one thing at a time ■ lack of organization 

■ mood changes  ■ decreased motivation ■ easily overwhelmed ■ more impulsive ■ withdrawn and wanting to avoid social situations

Mental Stamina 

A concussion can have the greatest affect on mental stamina because the brain has to work harder while it is injured to complete tasks.  Every brain and injury is different, and symptoms can present differently on different days.

How long does it take to get better? 

Most people recover completely from a concussion in a matter of days or weeks, but symptoms can last much longer. Each child is different and recovery happens on their own timeline.

What Do I do if I Suspect My Child has as Concussion?

Contact your child's primary care physician for an evaluation.  Then, contact the school, and when your child's doctor deems it is safe to return to school,  the school will develop a plan based on your child's symptoms and doctor's orders for school participation. Work with your child's doctor on wether it is safe to participate in sports. At the upper grade levels work with the athletic trainer and the school nurse to determine when it is safe to participate in sports.

For more information:

Please visit The Concussion management program of NY state.

The Maine CDC

Heads UP to youth Sports training page

SPOTLIGHT ON PERTUSSIS

 Spotlight on Whooping Cough

Pertussis defined - Pertussis is also known as whooping cough and is caused by a bacteria called Bordetella Pertussis. This illness affects the respiratory tract (organs that help you breath) Pertussis can be very serious, especially in infants.

Spread of Pertussis - Pertussis is spread by breathing in the bacteria that causes the disease.  The germ leaves the infected person's mouth and nose while coughing and sneezing. It is mostly spread in the early days of illness.  Infected individuals are no longer contagious after 5 days of antibiotic treatment or about 21 days if no antibiotics are taken.

Symptoms - Symptoms appear between 5 and 21 days after exposure
1. The first signs of pertussis are similar to a cold (sneezing, runny nose, low-grade fever, and cough). After one or two weeks, the cough gets worse.
2. The cough occurs in sudden, uncontrollable clusters where one cough follows another without a break
3. Many children will make a high-pitched whooping noises when breathing in after a coughing episode. Whooping is less common in infants and adults.
4. After coughing, the person may throw up.
5. Between coughing spells, the person seems well, but over time coughing causes fatigue
6. Coughing spells become less frequent, but may continue for several weeks or months.

Prevention - Vaccination is the best way to prevent Pertussis.  Hand washing covering your cough with your elbow and staying home when unwell are also great ways to stay healthy.

What will happen if there is a case at Yarmouth Elementary School? - The school nurse, the school principal, and the superintendent will work closely with the Maine CDC for recommendations.  Seek your family doctor if your suspect you or your child are ill.  The Maine CDC does not currently recommend exclusion for unvaccinated children in the school setting. 

All information obtained from MaineCDC and more information can be found on the MaineCDC pertussis website

DO YOU, PREVENT THE FLU

Spotlight on Influenza

Flu Clinic Information:
Yarmouth Elementary School will have a flu vaccination clinic on October 9, 2019, during school hours for students.  Please fill out the vaccine screening and permission form completely for your child to receive the vaccination.  Insurance information is required to students to receive the vaccine.  Please review the linked vaccine information sheets, and contact Alison Thomson, School Nurse at 846-3391 with any questions or concerns.  

FluMist Information Sheet   Flu vaccine information sheet   Health Screening and Permission Form

Influenza Defined

Influenza is a virus that causes mild to severe illness. There are two main types of illness, influenza type A and influenza type B, which are responsible for the flu epidemic each year.  Influenza is a respiratory illness that mainly affects the nose and throat and sometimes the lungs

Symptoms 

Symptoms come on quickly and include 

• Fever* or feeling feverish/chills
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or body aches
• Headaches
• Fatigue (tiredness)
• Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults.

*It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever.

How is Flu Spread

According to the CDC 8% of the US population becomes ill from influenza each year with children under the age of 18 twice as likely to become sick as those over age 18.  The flu is spread by droplet transmission. Tiny drops leave infected individuals when they sneeze, cough, or talk and land in the eyes mouth or nose of others making them sick. Also, though less common droplets can be transferred from surfaces to hands to mouths or eyes.  

How to Stay Healthy

                                                                  CDC.gov (9/17/19)

1. Get the flu vaccine
     

• A 2017 study was the first of its kind to show that flu vaccination can significantly reduce a child’s risk of dying from influenza. (Study was publish in Pediatrics)
• Flu vaccination prevented an estimated 85,000 flu-related hospitalizations during the 2016-2017 season

2.  Avoid close contact with sick people if possible

3.  Stay home while you are sick. The CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone for 24 hours without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)

4. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. After using a tissue, throw it in the trash and wash your hands.

5. Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub

6. Do not touch your face                

Bike Safety

Bike Safety

 

Each year, bicycle-related deaths number about 900, and hospital emergency rooms treat more than 500,000 people for bicycle-related injuries. Children, ages 5 to 14, go to hospital emergency rooms more for injuries related to bicycles than with any other sport. Many of these injuries involve the head. If you do not wear a bicycle helmet, you are risking your life.

The State of Maine requires all persons under the age of 16 to wear a bicycle helmet when riding a bicycle in public ways.

• Wear a helmet that is made specifically for bicycling and approved by ASTM, CSA or Snell. Never substitute a hockey or baseball helmet for a bicycling helmet. A bicycling helmet is made to absorb a crash differently. It is designed to shatter on impact and soften the impact to your head.
• If you have been in an accident and your helmet has been hit, don't use it again. Once your helmet has been in an accident, small invisible cracks can weaken its shell and the foam can get crushed. Buy a new helmet!    

Having a helmet on will do little good if it does not fit properly.  Use the fit test below to ensure that the helmet used for your child fits properly to prevent injury. 

Helmet fit test

___ Level - The helmet should be level on the rider's head.

___ Rim barely visible - The front rim should be barely visible to the rider's eye

___ Y below the ear - The Y of the side straps should meet just below the ear

___ Snug strap - The chin strap should be snug against the chin so that when the rider opens their mouth very wide the helmet pulls down a little bit.

___ Skin moves a little - Move the helmet side to side and front to back, watching the skin around the rider's eyebrows. It should move slightly with the helmet. If it does not, the fit pads are probably too thin in front or back, or the helmet may even be too large.

___ Stabilizer snug - If there is a rear stabilizer, adjust it until it is snug under the bulge on the rear of the head.

___ Palm test - Have the rider put their palm on the front of the helmet and push up and back. If it moves more than an inch more fitting is required.

___ Shake test - Have the rider shake their head around. This can be fun. If the helmet dislodges, work on the strap adjustments.

___ Ask about comfort - Ask the rider if the helmet is comfortable and check to make sure there are no comfort issues that still need to be addressed.

___ Be ready to switch - Not all helmets fit all heads. Be prepared to use a different helmet if the one you are fitting just will not work for this rider.

https://helmets.org/checklist.htm 4/29/2019

Bicycles on the road should follow all traffic laws.  Bikes should signal when turning and slowing down, and riders should be in the correct lane on the road.  Bicycle riders should also follow all speed limit laws.  

For more information, visit this link

Strep Throat

When GAS Attacks: Not Your Typical Sore Throat

Strep throat is going around this winter/spring. Unlike most sore throats which are caused by viruses, strep throat is a bacterial infection, the culprit: Group A streptococcus, AKA GAS. A bacterial infection will not go away on its own unlike a viral infection. 

So when do we suspect bacterial strep instead of the more common viral infection?

Suspect strep if:
1. you have a sore throat that comes on quickly
2. severe pain with swallowing
3. fever
4. red and swollen tonsils possibly with white patches, and little red spots on the roof of your mouth

Suspect Viral infection if:
1. Sore throat comes on slowly with a COUGH or other cold symptoms
2. a runny nose
3. pink eye. 

Children are more likely to get strep than adults and suffer from its complications. Children with strep are more likely to have a headache, belly pain, or be queasy along with their sore throats. Young children can have a rash.

Strep Throat diagnosis is made in a doctor's office by a rapid strep test.  If there is a strong suggestion of strep and the rapid is negative, some doctors will send the sample for a culture which takes 2 days to result. Antibiotics are not used unless there is a positive on either test.  If the strep test is positive, the child should have 2 doses of antibiotics, and be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school.

Finish ALL of the antibiotics prescribed.  Stopping antibiotics early can lead to complications and resistant strains of bacteria. 

For more information visit the CDC's strep throat information site here:

CDC strep throat

Screen Time for Me Time

Screen Time for Me time

As a busy mother of children aged 6 and 8 and working full time, and, I find that my children spend WAY too much time on their electronic devices.  They each have a tablet and the family video game console and then in the evening they are ALWAYS asking, "Can we watch a family movie?" These devices can be life saving while trying to prepare a meal, or work on a project, or complete some extra work around the house.  Turns out, I am not alone.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation,The average child, aged 8-10 years old, spends about 6 hours with a recreational screen. And, kids ages 8-18 now spend, on average, a whopping 7.5 hours in front of a screen for entertainment each day, 4.5 of which are spent watching TV. Over a year, that adds up to 114 full days watching a screen for fun. That’s just the time they spend in front of a screen for entertainment. It doesn’t include the time they spend on the computer or tablet at school for educational purposes or at home for homework.

Turns out, all this screen time has real implications on children. 

 “Taken together, [studies show] internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control.”  --research authors summarizing neuro-imaging findings in internet and gaming addiction (Lin & Zhou et al, 2012) 

Basically, too much time on electronic devices actually changes the brains of children impacting the ability for executive function. 

Also, screen time is sedentary time, placing children at risk for a host of other health implications.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC 

What Can Be Done

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends setting consistent limits for children aged 6-18 on the amount of time and place they get to have screen time. The APA suggest parents involve children in coming up with screen time rules the family can stick to.

For example, 

1. Keep smartphones, tablets and TVs out of bedrooms, 

2. No electronics at the dinner table. 

3. Find other things to do as a family – cook a meal together, play a board game or take a walk around the neighborhood.
4. When engaging screens for family fun, find interactive alternatives.  For example, dance to music or solve mysteries together.

For additional recommendations and linked peer reviewed articles, check out this resource:
https://joe.org/joe/2016april/pdf/JOE_v54_2tt10.pdf

For more information see the CDC CDC screen time guidelines and the APA guidelines APA screen time guidelines