The Delta Health Alliance

Self Confidence With Your Child by Karen Fox

carawaydesigns — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:50:26 +0000

Continuing this week to focus on children13 to 24 months. During this time, children will become interested in asserting independence. ”No” will become one of their favorite words. This is where your patience becomes so important. As your child is using words (like “no”) to express feelings, it is important to respond with clear and understandable statements. Also, expect fidgety. Children at this age cannot sit still for long. They would rather explore and test limits. This is all about the brain growing and developing and becoming more aware of surroundings. Support your child’s growing self confidence by allowing him or her to do things alone. The outfit she wears to school may not be what you would have picked , but she certainly will not be the first child to wear a cape to child care. The more we give the brain freedom to grow at this age, the more mature and well adapted your older child will be.

Diabetic Foot & Skin Care by Jay Cohen, MD

carawaydesigns — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:41:26 +0000

Why Worry?

Poor blood glucose (sugar) control increases risk for skin and foot infection. Nerve damage due to diabetes also makes you less likely to feel pain. If the foot or skin is injured, wounds may heal slowly. If the wound is not treated correctly, severe infection can lead to gangrene and amputation.

What Needs to Be Done?

Wash your feet and skin daily with nondrying soap.
Test the water with your elbow instead of your hand or foot to make sure that it is not too hot.
Pat yourself dry.
Use lotion on your feet and skin, but not between your toes. Lotion between the toes helps bacteria to grow.
Inspect your feet and skin daily.

Look for the following signs:

Red spots
Dry skin
Calluses
Flaking skin
Cuts
Ingrown nails
If you cannot see your entire foot, use a mirror, or have someone else look for you.
Call the doctor if you are concerned about any wound. If the problem is serious, you may need to see a podiatrist, who specializes in foot care, or a dermatologist, who treats skin problems.

To Prevent Foot Injuries:

Never go barefoot, even for a short distance.
Shop for shoes in the late afternoon, when your feet tend to be larger.
Always wear comfortable shoes that have been broken in slowly.
Wear flat shoes with good arch support and a wide toe base.
Rarely, if ever, wear high-heeled shoes.
Wear shoes made from leather with cotton socks.
Shake out your shoes before you put them on, to remove any object that may have gotten into them, such as a pebble or tack.
Cut toenails straight across, and file off rough edges. Have a podiatrist (foot doctor) or nurse trained in foot care do this if your nails are too thick to cut.
Only have the doctor treat corns, calluses, or ingrown toenails. Never treat them yourself.
Wear wool or cotton socks to keep your feet warm and dry. Throw away heating pads and hot water bottles. They could burn your feet and skin.
Each time you see the doctor, take off your shoes and socks. Most of all get your diabetes under good control. You may need help from your medical team with your meal plan, exercise, or diabetes medicine. All the foot and skin care in the world is worthless if you don’t manage your diabetes well.

Questions to Ask:

Do I inspect my feet daily for wounds or infection?
Do I wash and care for my feet and skin properly?
Does my doctor examine my feet each time I visit?
Do I choose the right shoes?
Is there anything that I can do to improve my diabetes control?

The above info is from: www.diabetesincontrol.com

Child Development by Karen Fox

carawaydesigns — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:45:00 +0000

Continuing our focus on child development, this week I’d like to talk about children who are 13 to 24 months old. Between the first and second birthdays, children will begin to use more words. It is at this crucial time that language centers in the brain begin to develop and the neural paths connecting the brain and nervous system grow stronger. Your child will be able to do harder tasks and to understand more complex ideas. For this age group, curiosity is king — will a cup bounce like a ball, for example. Another sign of your child developing thinking skills during this period is an interest in making tools …..like standing on a box to reach toys on a high shelf. What can you do to help? Make your home safe to explore. Help your child explore how things work by stacking cups, building with blocks and banging your pots and pans together! Most of all talk to them and encourage them.

Thanks,

Karen Fox

More on Child Development

carawaydesigns — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:51:43 +0000

Babies thrive on routine. When your infant can come to rely on regular nap times, cuddling, diaper changes, feedings, and playtime, his or her level of self control and feelings of security begin to develop. Both self control and feeling secure ultimately lead to confidence and self assurance, characteristics which contribute strongly to a successful adult. But they are really created during this first year, in large part based on how much routine your baby comes to expect. To encourage these feelings, always remain calm during tantrums and crying. This is just a developmental stage and does not mean your baby is spoiled or mad. That is their only way to communicate hunger or pain or dirty diaper or boredom. Newborn brains begin to develop not only self control but self confidence if they are loved and made safe. Talk to your baby every day and explain how loved and adored he or she is. The limbic structure, which is the part of the brain the controls emotions and long term memory, develops during this period of life, so self confidence and self control are so Important right now. In the meantime, remember touch is the most important sensor in a baby’s life. Even before the sense of smell develops, the baby’s envioronment is created by touch. Don’t be rough. Cuddle the baby in your arms, warmth is important at this stage of touch development. Touch your baby’s skin. This sense of touch helps the brain develop more rapidly.

Baby Developmental Tips

carawaydesigns — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:01:13 +0000

This week the Blog is on infant development, and what parents and families can do to help babies develop mentally and socially. A baby can learn “cause and effect” during the first six months to a year, and this one basis skil is a key to developing thinking skills later on. When your baby drops your keys, he wants to see how you will respond. This is a learning mechanism. Pick them up and say, “I’m picking up my keys.” Play along, over and over, to encourage your baby to learn and explore. Don’t scream or berate your baby for dropping the keys. Know that he or she is trying to learn. Patience, developing a routine, and talking to your infant is what will make this work. Choose several activities like this, encourage your infant to take an action, and then you explain what happened. You’ll be surprised at the results down the road.

Early Child Development by Karen Fox

carawaydesigns — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:50:49 +0000

We hear so many times that child development and readiness for kindergarten and school are related to socio-economics. At Delta Health Alliance, we don’t think that this has to be the case. There is so much parents can do that is completely free to help a child develop and that has little to do with socio-economic standing. For the next four weeks, I am going to concentrate on what we can do as parents and as a community to nurture the next generation of Deltans. Nothing can replace the time parents give to their children early in their lives. Help is available to parents throughout the Delta, from a variety of sources. One of our goals is to help link parents with those resources. In the first year of life, an infant’s brain grows at a remarkable pace. By the time a baby is three, his brain will have reached 80 percent of its adult size, which is why the time from birth to three years old is so very important, and has an effect on the rest of the child’s life. Early brain development is largely shaped by a child’s environment. A baby’s brain is wired to learn at an incredibly fast pace – and parents, care givers, and extended families must be an active part of this development. There are simple daily habits that parents can do that cost nothing and that will make a huge difference. Each week, we will focus on a different stage of a child’s life. This week. We will focus on the first year of life. And that post will be on Wednesday.

Thanks,

Karen Fox

Delta Weight Loss

carawaydesigns — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:56:50 +0000

The Clinics we operate in Belzoni, Greenville, Greenwood, and Indianola all have registered dieticians on staff and ready to work with any eligible patient to help him or her lose weight. Our clinics also regularly sponsor Delta SlimDown classes, which have been a huge success. Congratulations go this week to Bernice Wells who won a prize for weight loss. She started the program to help control her diabetes but has found her overall health has continue to improve as she’s continued to lose weight. She has now lost a total of 64 lbs!!! As a result, she currently controls her diabetes with diet alone. No drugs. This is quite a feat! Congratulations Bernice!!! Check out one of our clinics today by visiting our website to get contact information.

Delta Health Alliance Clinics

carawaydesigns — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:29:03 +0000

Delta Health Alliance operates clinics for uninsured and underinsured patients in Greenville, Greenwood, Belzoni, and Indianola. These clinics also feature “patient navigators”, staff who work with individual patients to help them understand medications, treatment options, and responsibilities of the patient when they are not seeing a health care professional. We had one patient recently who came to a clinic and with an initial blood pressure of 190/110 an A1c test of 11.0 (>9.0 is considered very risky and very diabetic). The patient told our clinic staff that no one had ever told her that she needed insulin. The patient reported great difficulties with purchasing medications, so the patient navigator assisted her in applying for pharmaceutical assistance for her diabetes and blood pressure medicine. The patient was referred to the Dietician for intense dietary counseling, and was scheduled for weekly visits but was unable to come that often due to a lack of transportation. One of our community health workers was asigned to check on the patient and record blood presure and blood sugar readings. The patient was able to report to the clinic once every 3 weeks, and during these visits, the health worker assisted the patient in utilizing our web based education modules for reinforcement on diabetes and hypertensive education.

With all of this help, the patient’s A1c and blood pressure readings are coming down, but more important, the patient has learned that she can make a difference by actively self-managing her chronic condition and is now eager to report her blood sugar readings and ask any questions she has about insulin changes. Initially she would not participate in goal setting but just this week declared she wants her A1c to be 7.0 in 6 months. Small health care victories in the Delta.

Healthy Children by Karen Fox

carawaydesigns — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:33:21 +0000

Two of the biggest health care challenges in the Delta are preterm births (less than 37 weeks gestation) and low birth weight babies (less than 5.5 pounds). Both preterm birth and low birth weight greatly increase the risk of infant mortality and create other problems that get in the way of healthy children.

To overcome that challenge, the Delta Health Alliance has funded a home visitation program, where trained staff work with targeted women who are at risk of having a preterm birth or a low birth weight baby. Last year, we had over 2,000 home visits in three counties under this program. Of the group in the program, 90% are single moms, 80% are living below the poverty level, and 33% are teenage mothers. But our home visit families are becoming healthier! Here are our results from this past year: preterm births for moms in the program were 13%, much lower than the 22.7% for all similar moms in Mississippi. And the percentage of low birth weight babies among our program participants was only 8.3% compared to 16.4% for all African Americans in Mississippi. This is good news for everyone and shows what a well funded program can do.

Thanks,

Karen Fox

Home Visits Work by Karen Fox

carawaydesigns — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:36:27 +0000

One of the newest participants in our Home Visitation Program is determined to achieve new goals since she delivered her baby in December. When this participant enrolled in the program, she was very passive, quiet and needed more self esteem, but she knew enough about herself and what she wanted to do to seek help. Through the program, she is becoming more independent, assertive, and determined to improve her quality of life and that of her new child. With help from our program staff, she enrolled in classes to become a Medical Assistant, she earned her driver’s license, and she has also applied for more than 20 jobs. She is just one of many success stories here in the Mississippi Delta.

Thanks,

Karen Fox