Child: care, health and development
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Previous studies have focused on children's views of sources of pain and only secondarily explored their views on pain-relief strategies. ⋯ Children across the three developmental age groups view themselves as active agents in pain relief. Although less than half of the children described specific behaviours they had taken, almost all children indicated their active role as the central figure in relation to use of objects or the actions of others.
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This paper describes the development of 'a best practice framework', following review of a sample of notes of children known to the Lifetime Service, where the child has a non-malignant life limiting condition, to improve child and family engagement in the planning process at the end of life. ⋯ This new framework has been well received by both parents and practitioners, and its use will be audited in the future.
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Child Care Health Dev · Jul 2008
Updated growth curves for Turkish children aged 15 days to 60 months.
Growth reference values are useful in paediatric health care as a health indicator. Secular changes in height for age values are also known to affect the timing of puberty and brain weight. Different populations may be at different stages of this secular trend. It is, therefore, necessary to periodically update the growth reference values for each population to identify these changes. The aim of this study was to update the growth reference values for Turkish infants and young children. ⋯ This study provides an enhanced instrument to evaluate the growth of Turkish infants and young children.
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Child Care Health Dev · Jul 2008
Parenting stress in mothers and fathers of a child with a hemiparesis: sources of stress, intervening factors and long-term expressions of stress.
In a substantial minority of children with a hemiparesis, motor impairments are accompanied by behavioural problems. This combination confronts parents with several persistent, frequently intense, sources of stress. At the same time, it is likely to reduce the effectiveness of psychosocial resources, such as feelings of competence, which would normally buffer the impact of the stressors. Aim To investigate the association between motor and behavioural problems in children with a hemiparesis and symptoms of stress in their parents, with particular attention to psychosocial factors which may mediate between the child's problems and parents' symptoms of stress. ⋯ Both parents of a child with a hemiparesis experience high levels of stress, which are strongly associated with feelings of incompetence and social isolation. This suggests that one focus of intervention should be the alleviation of parenting stress with particular attention to increasing perceived competence in the parenting role and reducing feelings of social isolation.
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Child Care Health Dev · May 2008
Parents of children with cystic fibrosis: how they hope, cope and despair.
Cystic fibrosis is a chronic, life-threatening illness. Coping, vicarious hope and vicarious despair are constructs that may explain why some children and parents adjust well to cystic fibrosis, while others adjust poorly. Vicarious hope refers to parent expectations that desirable things will occur in their child's future, whereas vicarious despair refers to parent expectations that undesirable things will occur in their child's future. The aims of this study were: (1) to examine parent coping strategies and associations with child and parent adjustment to cystic fibrosis; (2) to investigate the effects of vicarious hope and vicarious despair on coping, parent adjustment and child adjustment; and (3) to examine distinctions between coping, vicarious hope and vicarious despair. ⋯ Results indicate that vicarious hope and vicarious despair are distinct constructs from coping. Interventions directed at parent coping, vicarious hope and vicarious despair are implicated.