Several factors can affect a child's health such as the environment, housing income, social class and employment.

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Child Health Learning Outcome 2                Claire Wright

Several factors can affect a child’s health such as the environment, housing income, social class and employment.

Poverty is one of the factors that affect’s a child’s health. The main cause of poverty is low wages or living on state benefits. People are more likely to be poor if they are unemployed, disabled, living in single parent families, members of minority cultured groups or elderly. It is believed by some that the poorer the family, the greater the health risk. This means children are deprived socially and the families are less likely to attend screenings, developmental checks and immunisation. This is not necessarily true however. For example, single parent families may have more money as they would have all their money for themselves and their child, and would not need to care for the other partner. People who are unemployed have more time for their children so can take them to the doctors for immunisations and screenings, and for dental check-ups. People who are working would not find this as easy because they need to fit in appointments around their work, so their children are not immunised leading to the child being more prone to illnesses. This means being unemployed or living in a single parent family does not mean you live in poverty.

The disadvantages associated with poverty, such as poor housing and overcrowding, have not been eliminated and social conditions have a negative effect on health today. Although the death rate has fallen over the last century, mortality rate among babies are higher in social class 5 than class 1 (class 1 being professional and class 5 being unskilled). A baby born into class 5 is twice as likely to die between the ages of 1 month and 1 year old, than babies in social class 5. A male child with unskilled parents in social class 1, compared to a male child in social class 5 is 7 times more likely to be killed by a road accident and 10 times more likely to die at 14 from an accident concerning fire, falling or drowning.

Living in crowed and damp conditions increase the risk of accidents and respiratory conditions. The crowded conditions lead to fighting within the family as there is no privacy at all. In the UK our water is well generated and we have few problems with water borne diseases such as cholera. However, there have been some cases where the water has been contaminated causing ill health. Occupations can be hazardous to your health as you may be more at risk to accidents and illnesses. Unemployment can cause mental and stress related problems due to poor income, poor diet and poor housing conditions.

According to Green (2002) vaccines can be live (active) or non-live (passive). As children are particularly vulnerable to contracting a disease, a programme of immunisation is recommended by health experts. Immunisation not only protects the immunised child from falling ill, it also helps to protect children with suppressed immune systems who may not be able to have all the vaccinations in the programme. Immunisation is only given with parental consent, and although technically there is no contra-indication for a child with a minor cough or cold receiving an immunisation, most people prefer their children to be free from illness at the time of immunisation being administrated. At birth a BCG vaccination is given if the baby is at risk of tuberculosis. Then when the child is 2, 3 and 4 months diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and Hib immunisations are given by injection. By 12-15 months the MMR jab is given by 1 injection and then at 3-5 years the diphtheria and tetanus booster is given and the polio immunisation is also given by mouth. After an immunisation a child should be observed for 48 hours after an immunisation and the carer should look for any signs of a reaction. This may show as a mild fever, irritability, soreness and redness and hard lumps. If these symptoms persist paracetamol can be given.

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Screening is the process of examining a whole population to determine who is showing signs of having a particular condition or disease and who may develop or be liable to a condition or disease. Screening in the UK is available for every child, with the consent of their parents. Screening is important because it enables early intervention where a problem is confirmed and keeps parents informed about their child’s progress or likely progress. Also it highlights the needs for specific areas of stimulation for a child to meet their potential and raise awareness for the future and allows informed ...

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