How do children live with abuse trauma?

How do children live with abuse trauma?

When you read reports of children traumatised by abuse â€" physical, mental, sexual â€" do you wonder how they cope with it? I know I do.

A report from Safe Horizon, an American victim assistance group, is tough reading.

Children who are abused or neglected are 59% more likely to be arrested as teenagers than those who weren’t victimised.

One in three are more likely to be arrested as adults and the same number to commit a violent crime.

They’re also candidates for teenage pregnancy and to go on to abuse their own children so anything we can do to help them deal with their trauma is vital.

The report outlines a new way of relieving stress and damage so that a child can heal and grow up normally. It’s a brief but effective intervention.

It’s not just for abused or neglected children, it includes their carers who may be just as traumatised when they discover how children have been treated.

The study is called The Child and Fa mily Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI) and involved 108 children aged 7-18 and their carers. They were randomly assigned to four sessions of CFTSI or to conventional support for children’s trauma. Traditional counselling can be prolonged and unstructured and not involve the child’s carer.

This programme starts with a session with the care giver, then one with the child, then two sessions with them together.

Before and after tests judge the effectiveness of the intervention.

A child’s reaction to abuse is to blame themselves, to believe they deserved it, to be terrified of people around them and to shrink from contact with anyone, even their families.

They may experience nightmares and flashbacks re-enacting the trauma.

After three months of CFTSI both children and adults were much less likely to be suffering sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, tantrums and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

Once the treatment is compl ete, the children were 65% less likely to have developed full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Yale University professor in charge of the programme says treated children have a 54% lowering in trauma symptoms and their carers benefited nearly as much.

Most children don’t have words to describe their reactions and feelings.

Their behaviours are their only way of expressing them. The intervention gives children the recognition and understanding they badly need, and provides solace to their carers.

Most of all CFTSI gives children hope and confidence and makes a real difference to their lives, even after the worst kind of abuse.

Bust the myth: Beer causes beer bellies

Calories cause beer bellies - and not just from booze

 

Not all beer drinkers have beer bellies and some teetotallers have large ones.

It’s not necessarily beer but too many calories that can turn your trim waistline into a belly that protrudes over your pants.

Any kind of calories whether they’re from alcohol, sugary beverages or oversized portions of food can increase belly fat.

A typical beer has 150 calories â€" and if you down several in one sitting, you can end up with calorie overload.

And don’t forget calories you wash down with those beers. So to keep yourself trim opt for light beers with 100 calories or fewer. and limit the number of drinks per day.

Know your body: Haemoglobin

This oxygen-carrying pigment is found in red blood cells. Haemoglobin binds with oxygen to form oxyhaemoglobin, a compound that gives oxygenated blood its bright red colour. There are 350 million haemoglobin molecules in the average blood cell, and each can carry four molecules of oxygen, so it’s a really efficient way of carrying oxygen around the body.

Structure: Haemoglobin is a large molecule made in the bone marrow from two components, haem and globin.

Function: The principal function of haemoglobin is to combine with and transport oxygen from the lungs and deliver it to all body tissues, where it’s required to provide energy for the chemical reactions of living cells. When oxyhaemoglobin reaches the body’s oxygen-hungry tissues, it then releases its oxygen.

What is plication?

A surgical procedure in which tucks are made in the walls of a hollow organ and then stitched to decrease the organ’s size. One type of plication is used to treat hiatus hernia and acid reflux.

The fundus (upper part) of the stomach is folded up around the lower end of the oesophagus to create a valve to prevent reflux of gastric acid from the stomach into the oesophagus.