WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO PREPARE YOUR CHILD FOR THE TRIP BACK TO THE CLASSROOM

BY SHARON SCALORA

Here today, gone tomorrow. So is the story of summer. Before long, the kids will be setting their alarm clocks, stuffing their backpacks, and dashing to catch the bus for school. If you’re one of those parents who put off all back-to-school preparations until after Labor Day, here are a few thoughts to mull over while you’re soaking up the last rays of the season.

Is your child’s body prepared for school?

Your child has probably spent the summer staying up until all hours and sleeping in. Getting enough sleep might not have been a concern during the lazy days of June and July, but now that fall is a whisper away, it’s time for youngsters to revert to school-year bedtime habits and reset their internal clocks, says John Vigorita, MD, a pediatrician at Overlook Hospital. “It’s a good idea to reestablish the routines of going to bed early and waking up early one to two weeks before school starts,” he says. “This will help a child develop a biorhythm that’s closer to what they have during school.”

Most children need at least nine hours of sleep each night and can develop concentration problems and become irritated and distracted if they don’t get it. In fact, a landmark study last year proved elementary and middle school aged children who stayed up late had more issues at school, as well as lower grades. Researchers found teachers rated students who got eight hours or less of sleep a night as having the most difficulty remembering older material, learning new lessons and completing
high-quality work.

To get on a back-to-school sleep schedule, the National Sleep Foundation offers these tips:

• Introduce gradual changes in the sleep schedule day-by-day at least one week before opening day. For example, have your child turn in 15 to 30 minutes earlier each night. This might be tougher for teens, whose fluctuating hormones encourage later sleep and wakeup times. One way to help them adjust their circadian clocks is to use light.
• Open the blinds immediately after waking up.
• Establish a regular bedtime and wakeup time by planning a daily agenda that includes basic sleep requirements and maintain these schedules on the weekends.
• Don’t forget to add 10 to 20 minutes to bedtime for falling asleep.
• Create a bedtime routine, regardless of the child’s age. Youngsters should have 15 to 30 minutes of calm, soothing activities prior to bed.
• Refrain from TV watching, talking on the phone, playing on the computer, exercising and consuming caffeine just prior to bedtime.
• Achieve a balanced schedule. Overloading children with too many structured activities can lead to stress and difficulty coping, which can lead to poor sleeping.

LESSONS IN BUS SAFETY
School bus transportation is safe. Actually, buses are safer than cars. Even so, last year around 26 students were killed and another 9,000 injured in accidents involving school buses. More often than not, these incidents didn’t occur in a crash, but as pupils enter and exit the bus.

“Before your child starts school, it’s a good practice to visit the bus stop and discuss safety,” says Dr. Vigorita.

When doing so, cover the following bases:

• Identify a safe place for your child to wait for the bus, away from the street and traffic. Line up on the sidewalk or behind the curb.
• Direct your child to stay away from the bus until it comes to a full stop and the door opens.
• Remind your child to take 10 giant steps away from the bus after exiting.
• Use the handrail to exit and enter the bus.
• Be aware of surrounding street traffic.
• Alert your child to never walk behind the bus and take 10 giant steps before crossing in front of the bus.

IS YOUR CHILD VACCINATED?
Health experts say immunizations are essential in promoting and enhancing the overall health, growth and development of children. Moreover, they believe it’s vital to continue to vaccinate children against preventable diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, mumps, measles, and meningitis, or they will return with a vengeance. After all, communicable diseases that were common and deadly years ago are still around today, but kept at bay through immunization.

“Infectious disease is the number one killer in the world and it always has been,” says Carolyn Giaccio, a public health nurse with the city of Summit. “Advances that have increased life expectancy, especially in children, have been antibiotics and vaccines. Children need to be immunized to prevent in school-age populations the
spread of serious communicable diseases — diseases that in the past have killed many children.”

Overall, childhood immunization rates are extremely high in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Every state requires certain immunizations before a child can attend preschool and kindergarten.

Five-year-olds entering kindergarten must have:

Five doses of DTP — diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (If they only have four, and one is after the fourth birthday, it will suffice);
Four doses of IPV — inactive polio virus ;
Two MMRs — measles, mumps, rubella (both need to be given after the first birthday and at least 30 days apart;
three series of hep B — hepatitis B (this is a recent requirement); and
Varivax — varicella vaccine for chicken pox (or proof that the child had the disease).

HANDLING BULLIES
Research shows that between 15 percent and 25 percent of US students are the victims of schoolyard bullying, and as many as 160,000 children may stay home from school on any given day because they’re afraid of being bullied. But Stuart Green, MSW, MA, director of behavioral science at Overlook Hospital, says the numbers are higher, and not just in older children.

Green argues bullying is much more prevalent and insidious than most believe. In fact, bullying is the number one issue of concern among school children, based on surveys and studies conducted over the last 30 years.

“Bullying affects every child in school,” says Green, the founder and director of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention. “In schools where the issue of bullying is not adequately addressed, children experience states of tension and fear; even if it’s not happening to them, they know it’s happening to others.

HOMEWORK
This is never a problem for the first few weeks. At the elementary school level, most teachers refrain from handing out lengthy assignments for the first few weeks. This helps acclimate children to the school environment. But once the end of the month rolls around, they will surely have their fair share of homework.

It is important to teach children the value of work done outside the classroom. The natural inclination is to refuse them privileges until they finish their homework. While this is effective in some ways, it does not necessarily teach proper study habits.

For example, if they plan to watch a show at 5 p.m. and get home from school at around 4 p.m., they will likely rush through assignments so they can finish and watch the show. This can be remedied by requiring them to spend a fixed amount of time on homework daily. An hour may seem reasonable, but an hour and a half is a better time frame. At the elementary stage, they probably will not have that much nightly homework. This is the time in which they will learn proper study habits.

Additional reporting by Joseph Pawlikowski

BACKPACK SAFETY TIPS

Now that it’s back-to-school time again, we will start to see the kids carrying around those huge and very heavy backpacks. Preventing chronic back pain in children is a major concern, but even when pain is not an issue, poor posture, changes in the contour of the spine and changes in the gait cycle while walking can lead to spine and joint problems later in life.

There are a few things that can be done to reduce the possibility of back pain in children as a result of their backpacks. First, the weight of the backpack should be less than 5-10% of the child’s total weight. A heavier backpack may cause a forward leaning posture which can increase pain. Second, how the child wears the backpack is very important in reducing the occurrence of pain. The backpack should hang no more than 4 inches below the waistline, be worn using both straps on the shoulders and have heavier books and objects stored farther away from the spine.

The type of backpack worn may also contribute to back pain. The straps should be wide, padded and adjustable to allow for a more even distribution of weight and the backpack should not be too large. A large backpack leaves plenty of room to store additional books and objects, which will increase the weight.

A study in Spine Journal found that the presence of back pain in children and adolescents was increased if a backpack was worn to school, and the occurrence of back pain was significantly increased with an increase in weight of the backpack. This is a significant issue considering that this may lead to problems later in life.

If you have any questions regarding proper backpack use, we will be happy to answer your questions.

Chris Trainor, DC and Amy Jabanoski, DC, Trainor Family Chiropractic, 1915-A Westfield Ave., Scotch Plains, NJ; 908-490-1667; www.TrainorFamilyChiropractic.com

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