The "Snacking Child" and its social network: some insights from an italian survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The hypothesis underlying this work is that the social network of a child might have an impact on the alimentary behaviors, in particular for what concerns snack consumption patterns.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>1215 Italian children 6-10 ys old were interviewed using a CATI facility in January 2010. 608 "snackers" and 607 "no-snackers" were identified. Information regarding family composition, child and relatives BMI, mother perception of child weight, child, father and mother physical activity, TV watching, social network, leisure time habits and dietary habits of peers, were collected. Association of variables with the status of snacker was investigated using a multivariable logistic regression model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Snackers children seem to be part of more numerous social network (1.40 friends vs 1.14, p = 0.042) where the majority of peers are also eating snacks, this percentage being significantly higher (89.5 vs 76.3, p < 0.001) than in the "no-snacker" group. The snacking group is identified by the fact that it tends to practice at least 4 hours per week of physical activity (OR: 1.36, CI: 1.03-1.9). No evidence of an association between snacking consumption and overweight status has been shown by our study.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The snacking child has more active peer-to-peer social relationships, mostly related with sport activities. However, spending leisure time in sportive activities implies being part of a social environment which is definitely a positive one from the point of view of obesity control, and indeed, no increase of overweight/obesity is seen in relation to snack consumption.</p

Retrospective study on Romanian foreign bodies injuries in children.

BACKGROUND: Foreign bodies (FB) injuries are an issue that has been recognized and investigated since many years; despite that, the impact of this subject in literature and research is still small. Such kind of injuries identifies all incidents due to ingestion, inhalation, insertion and aspiration of an object into the aero digestive tract. FBs injuries located in the upper airways can be a very serious event, sometimes resulting in fatal outcome. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on FB injuries in the aerodigestive tract in paediatric patients 1-17 years old, recorded from the ENT Department of the M. S. Curie Hospital in Bucharest. RESULTS: 455 cases were reported from the M. S. Curie Hospital, ENT Department. Prevalence in female patients is higher than the males (225 males and 230 females). Mean age observed was 4.12 years. The distribution of injuries according to the retrieval location showed a higher prevalence in the nose (44.62% of cases), with a higher occurrence in females (50.74%) followed by the digestive system (24.28% of cases) were the distribution between males and females is equal. The highest prevalence was represented by nuts and seed (23.96%), followed by marble and coins (respectively 12.75% and 12.53%). CONCLUSIONS: As generally described in scientific literature, injuries usually concerned toddlers and preschoolers, while school-aged children less often place foreign objects in their noses. Our results confirm the fact that when passive preventive strategies are not practical, active strategies that promote behaviour change are necessary. Active strategies require that a caregiver changes his or her behaviour each time the child begins an activity that has the potential to cause injury. Education is critical to these active strategies and plays a complementary role to environmental changes and legal mandates

Nuts and seed: a natural yet dangerous foreign body.

Abstract RATIONALE AND AIM: This paper has the object to present the impact of nuts' and seeds' injuries withdrawing data from the Susy Safe registry, highlighting that as for other foreign bodies the main item efficiently and substantially susceptible to changes to decrease the accidents' rates is the education of adults and children, that can be shared with parents both from pediatricians and general practitioners. Indeed labeling and age related warnings have also a fundamental relevance in prevention. METHODS: The present study draws its data from the Susy Safe registry. Details on injuries are entered in the Susy Safe Web-registry through a standardized case report form, that includes information regarding: children age and gender, features of the object, circumstances of injury (presence of parents and activity) and hospitalization's details (lasting, complications and removal details). Cases are prospectively collected using the Susy Safe system from 06/2005; moreover, also information regarding past consecutive cases available in each centre adhering to the project have been entered in the Susy Safe registry. RESULTS: Nuts and seeds are one of the most common food item retrieved in foreign bodies injuries in children. In Susy Safe registry they represent the 38% in food group, and almost the 10% in general cases. Trachea, bronchi and lungs were the main location of FB's retrieval, showing an incidence of 68%. Hospitalization occurred in 83% of cases, showing the major frequency for foreign bodies located in trachea. This location was also the principal site of complications, with a frequency of 68%. There were no significant associations between these outcomes and the age class of the children. The most common complications seen (22.4%) was bronchitis, followed by pneumonia (19.7%). Adult presence was recorded as positive in 71.2% of cases, showing an association (p value 0.009) between the adult supervision and the hospitalization outcome. On the contrary there was a non significant association between adult presence and the occurrence of complications. In 80.7% of cases, the incident happened while the child was eating. Among those cases, 88.6% interested trachea, lungs and bronchi. CONCLUSIONS: Food-related aspiration injuries are common events for young children, particularly under 4 years of age, and may lead to severe complication. There is a need to study in more depth specific characteristics of foreign bodies associated with increased hazard, such as size, shape, hardness or firmness, lubricity, pliability and elasticity, in order to better identify risky foods, and more precisely described the pathogenetic pathway. Parents are not adequately conscious and aware toward this risk; therefore, the number and severity of the injuries could be reduced by educating parents and children. Information about food safety should be included in all visits to pediatricians in order to make parents able to understand, select, and identify key characteristics of hazardous foods and better control the hazard level of various foods. Finally, preventive measures including warning labels on high-risk foods could be implemented

Foreign bodies injuries in children: analysis of Thailand data.

Objectives: Suffocation due to foreign bodies (FB) is a leading cause of death in children aged 0-3 and it is common also in older ages, up to 14 years old. Based on the RPA report the estimated number of incidents per year in children aged 0-14 is in European Union (EU) of approximately 50,000, 10% of which are fatal. The need of an improvement of knowledge led to the development of the pan European study ESFBI (European Survey on Foreign Bodies Injuries) that collected data on FB injuries in the aerodigestive tract in paediatric patients from 19 European Hospitals (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Swiss, Turkey and United Kingdom). Recognizing that the rapid management is one of the main goals in the presence of such injury the aim of this paper is to confront data coming from 4 ESFBI case series with a Thailand's case series, in order to broaden the knowledge on FBs injuries characteristics, knowing that features like shape, dimension, consistency are fundamental in determine the consequences that might occur. Methods: Data coming from the Siriraj Hospital, Thailand from June 2006 to 2010 were collected and compared with 4 case series chosen amongst the ESFBI study cases (Finland, Slovenia, Sweden and Turkey). Results: 172 cases were collected from the Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The chosen ESFBI members were Finland, Sweden, Slovenia and Turkey, with a sample numerosity respectively of 307, 235, 104 and 196 cases. All countries showed a male prevalence higher than the female one, and injuries occurred most frequently in children younger than 3 years old. The most frequent retrieval location was the digestive system (oesophagus) in Thailand data (97 cases, 56.40% of cases), whilst European cases involved more frequently the nose in Slovenia (58.65%), Finland (37.79% of cases) and Sweden (54.47%). In Turkey's case series, the highest prevalence of cases interested the airways. In Thailand and Finland case series, the main FB's type were represented by bones (respectively 66 case, 38.37% and 48 cases, 15.64%), whilst pearl, ball and marble were the most frequent FB both in Slovenia (16, 15.38%) and Sweden (83, 35.32%). Turkey case series had nuts, seeds and grain as most prevalent FB (126, 64.29%). Conclusions: The nature of foreign bodies varies from country to country and is dependent on diverse cultural, social, religious and economic factors that include parental attitudes, eating habits, availability and types of potentially threatening objects, and prevention strategies. The need to study in more depth specific characteristics of foreign bodies associated with increased hazard, such as nature, size, shape, hardness or firmness, lubricity, pliability and elasticity, in order to better identify risky foods and to describe more precisely the pathogenetic pathway is therefore a necessity

Foreign Bodies in the Oesophagus: The Experience of the Buenos Aires Paediatric ORL Clinic.

The ingestion of foreign bodies causing esophageal injuries is a common event, mostly in children's population. The aim of the present paper is to present foreign body (FB) ingestion cases observed in a five-year period at the Children's Hospital Gutierrez, Buenos Aires, Argentina and to compare the main findings with data coming from other well-known case series, already published in scientific literature. A prospective study on 320 of esophageal foreign body was carried out , with regard to age and sex distributions, type, dimensions and consistency, location, clinical presentation, removal and complications. In the majority of cases injuries happened while children were playing and in 85.3% adults were present. Children most frequently ingested coins (83.8% cases). Removal was performed in all cases under general anaesthesia, in 34 by esophageal forceps and in 286 cases by Magill hypopharyngeal forceps. Just one case showed complications, presenting esophageal perforation. The final results of this study show that injuries usually happen under adults' supervision and highlight that FBs involved in the incident belong to classes of objects not conceived for children's use and not suitable for their age. Therefore, educational strategies regarding safe behaviours have a key role in FB injuries prevention

Types of Food and Nutrient Intake in India: A Literature Review.

Nowadays India is undergoing an impressive economic growth accompanied by a very slow decline, almost stagnation, in malnutrition levels. In developing countries, studies on dietary patterns and their relationship with nutritional status are scarce. Over the years some nutritional studies have been performed to explore different types of food consumed in various Indian regions, among different social samples. The aim of the present paper is to review and describe trends in food and nutrition intake patterns in the different states of India. The review was carried out in PubMed, using the advanced research criteria: [food* OR ("meal pattern*") OR ("eating pattern*")] AND ("nutrient intake") AND India*. PubMed research gave back 84 results and out of these, 7 papers due to their focus on food intake and consumption levels in India have been included in this study. Food intake patterns showed that most of the Indians are vegetarians and that food items rich in micronutrients (pulses, other vegetables, fruits, nuts, oilseeds and animal foods) are generally consumed less frequently. Poor and monotonous cereals-based diet may promote inadequate nutrition intakes according to Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) standards

Types of food and nutrient intake in India : a literature review

Nowadays India is undergoing an impressive economic growth accompanied by a very slow decline, almost stagnation, in malnutrition levels. In developing countries, studies on dietary patterns and their relationship with nutritional status are scarce. Over the years some nutritional studies have been performed to explore different types of food consumed in various Indian regions, among different social samples. The aim of the present paper is to review and describe trends in food and nutrition intake patterns in the different states of India. The review was carried out in PubMed, using the advanced research criteria: [food* OR ("meal pattern*") OR ("eating pattern*")] AND ("nutrient intake") AND India*. PubMed research gave back 84 results and out of these, 7 papers due to their focus on food intake and consumption levels in India have been included in this study. Food intake patterns showed that most of the Indians are vegetarians and that food items rich in micronutrients (pulses, other vegetables, fruits, nuts, oilseeds and animal foods) are generally consumed less frequently. Poor and monotonous cereals-based diet may promote inadequate nutrition intakes according to Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) standards

Inhaled Foreign Bodies in Children: A Global Perspective on Their Epidemiological, Clinical, and Preventive Aspects

Summary. Context: While several articles describe clinical management of Foreign Bodies injuries in the upper air tract, little epidemiological evidence is available from injury databases. Objective: This article aims to understand the burden of airway FB injuries in high-, low-, and middle-income countries as emerging from scientific literature. Data Sources: One thousand six hundred ninety-nine published articles 1978–2008. Study Selection: A free text search on PubMed database ((foreign bodies) or (foreign body)) and ((aspiration) or (airways) or (tracheobronchial) or (nasal) or (inhalation) or (obstruction) or (choking) or (inhaled) or (aspirations) or (nose) or (throat) or (asphyxiation)) and ((children) or (child)). Data Extraction: Information on reported injuries according to country, time period, children sex and age, FB type, site of obstruction, symptoms, signs, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, delay at the diagnosis, complications, number of deaths. Results: Serious complications occur both in high-income and low-middle income countries in a considerable proportion of cases (10% and 20%, respectively). Similarly, death is not infrequent (5–7% of cases). Conclusions: Few countries have good systematic data collection and there’s a lack of sensibility in parents and clinicians in terms of acknowledge of the choking risk. On the contrary, international surveillance systems able to collect information in a standardized way need to be implemented