grinner
06-03-2004, 11:23 AM
Ventilators used to keep obese city kids breathing
CRISIS: the growing number of 'fat camps' – like this one in England – mirrors rising obesity rates in our children
NEW WARNING: obese children run the risk of suffering breathing disorders which can seriously affect their health
CHILDREN in Glasgow are being sent home from hospital with ventilators because they are so overweight they stop breathing in their sleep.
Dr Jonathan Coutts, a chest consultant at Yorkhill Sick Kids' Hospital, today revealed he was having to send increasing numbers of dangerously obese youngsters to breathing specialists.
He said some even had to be connected overnight to ventilators in their homes until they lost weight.
The machines used are normally used in high dependency units to help seriously ill patients come off life-support systems.
But a number of Glasgow children are being connected to them at home every night to make sure their oxygen levels don't plummet to dangerous lows.
The young patients have to sleep wearing a mask connected to a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Pump (CPAP).
Without it, some children might stop breathing several times a night and, in extreme cases, could die.
Dr Coutts could not give exact details of the number of young patients involved.
But he said: "A number of children have to go onto CPAP to force their airways open and keep the level of oxygen in the blood stable."
Dr Coutts said breathing disorders could cause high blood pressure in the lungs, damaging the heart as it tried to pump blood through them.
And he warned of the effects of a condition called sleep disordered breathing.
He added: "We are increasingly seeing it in younger children and it can seriously affect their progress at school because they can't concentrate properly.
"They can become hyperactive, extremely obnoxious or badly behaved, simply because they are tired."
He said one warning sign was a child snoring loudly all the time at night.
Dr Coutts' warning comes as obesity in children across the UK reaches alarming levels.
Last week a report to MPs revealed a three-year-old girl in England died from heart failure because she was so overweight.
She should have weighed around 2st 4lb - but had reached 6st.
The MPs were also told of four children who needed ventilatory assistance at home for sleep apnoea and were "'choking on their own fat".
And the Commons Health Committee warned obese children could become the first generation to die before their parents.
Scottish Socialist Party health spokeswoman Carolyn Leckie, who has called for a ban on junk food advertising for children, said the scandal would increase the pressure to protect the young from unhealthy diets.
She said: "This just shows that the Scottish Executive has consistently failed to put in place radical plans to improve the diet of children.
"They keep saying the £174million it would cost to give free school meals could be better spent - but where better than in tackling conditions like this?"
The former midwife added: "Why do we still have fizzy drinks machines in schools when childhood obesity is at this level and causing this kind of harm?"
link (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/print/news/5027108.shtml)
CRISIS: the growing number of 'fat camps' – like this one in England – mirrors rising obesity rates in our children
NEW WARNING: obese children run the risk of suffering breathing disorders which can seriously affect their health
CHILDREN in Glasgow are being sent home from hospital with ventilators because they are so overweight they stop breathing in their sleep.
Dr Jonathan Coutts, a chest consultant at Yorkhill Sick Kids' Hospital, today revealed he was having to send increasing numbers of dangerously obese youngsters to breathing specialists.
He said some even had to be connected overnight to ventilators in their homes until they lost weight.
The machines used are normally used in high dependency units to help seriously ill patients come off life-support systems.
But a number of Glasgow children are being connected to them at home every night to make sure their oxygen levels don't plummet to dangerous lows.
The young patients have to sleep wearing a mask connected to a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Pump (CPAP).
Without it, some children might stop breathing several times a night and, in extreme cases, could die.
Dr Coutts could not give exact details of the number of young patients involved.
But he said: "A number of children have to go onto CPAP to force their airways open and keep the level of oxygen in the blood stable."
Dr Coutts said breathing disorders could cause high blood pressure in the lungs, damaging the heart as it tried to pump blood through them.
And he warned of the effects of a condition called sleep disordered breathing.
He added: "We are increasingly seeing it in younger children and it can seriously affect their progress at school because they can't concentrate properly.
"They can become hyperactive, extremely obnoxious or badly behaved, simply because they are tired."
He said one warning sign was a child snoring loudly all the time at night.
Dr Coutts' warning comes as obesity in children across the UK reaches alarming levels.
Last week a report to MPs revealed a three-year-old girl in England died from heart failure because she was so overweight.
She should have weighed around 2st 4lb - but had reached 6st.
The MPs were also told of four children who needed ventilatory assistance at home for sleep apnoea and were "'choking on their own fat".
And the Commons Health Committee warned obese children could become the first generation to die before their parents.
Scottish Socialist Party health spokeswoman Carolyn Leckie, who has called for a ban on junk food advertising for children, said the scandal would increase the pressure to protect the young from unhealthy diets.
She said: "This just shows that the Scottish Executive has consistently failed to put in place radical plans to improve the diet of children.
"They keep saying the £174million it would cost to give free school meals could be better spent - but where better than in tackling conditions like this?"
The former midwife added: "Why do we still have fizzy drinks machines in schools when childhood obesity is at this level and causing this kind of harm?"
link (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/print/news/5027108.shtml)