Let’s Protect The Health Of Our Children | Social

Dr Betty Bankah, a Family Physician and Head of Adolescent Care Clinic, Greater Accra Regional Hospital, has called for the protection of the health of children.

She said children were the future and, therefore, their overall health was paramount.

Dr Bankah in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said protecting the health of children included ensuring holistic care of the entire human body to ensure that they lived a healthy life, emotionally, physically and psychologically.

She noted that parents enrolled their children in the best schools to land the best jobs in the future only for them to grow to be able to afford expensive medication for diseases that the parents helped in developing during childhood.

The Family Physicianunderscored the need to ensure a routine check-up for children to determine their health status and seek remedies and medication to ensure their general wellbeing.

‘‘Come to the hospital so we check all the parameters and make sure that they are on the right track, we check and make sure the heart, kidneys and everything is working fine. If there is any nutritional or physical advice, we need to give you, we give you all that so that they have better quality of life,’’ she said.

Dr Bankah advised parents and caregivers to feed children healthy foods as well as allow them to exercise their bodies.

‘‘You need to watch their diet, now children are given a lot of processed foods and saturated fat and have gone away from our local foods,’’ she noted.

Studies indicate that inadequate nutrient intake and related deficiencies influence economic under-development.

Anaemia alone is estimated to cause a reduction of approximately 2.5per cent in wages in Ghana (WorldBank, 2010).

The Family Physician said children were not allowed to play outside, instead, they were given phones and tablets to play with, which resulted in their lack of exercise.

Games such as ‘ampe’, ‘pilolo’, ‘chaskele’ and ‘counters ball,’ which allowed children to be active emotionally, mentally, and physically in class and at home should be encouraged.

Research shows that consistent use of electrical gadgets like mobile phones by children can cause drastic brain development, obesity, violence, and reduced interaction.

Source: GNA

 

 

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