• Choose water and low-fat milk consumption over juice and soda.

Stratton emphasized that parental involvement is a powerful tool to keep children healthy.

“The solution is to get involved with their child as far as what the child is eating and to act as a role model,” he said. “Most obese adolescents are more likely to be obese as adults.”

Dr. Stanley Handshy, in family practice in Tahlequah, spoke about ways to deal with childhood asthma.

“The first one is to make sure their vaccinations are updated,” he said. “The second one is to absolutely quit smoking even though that’s extremely difficult; and a lot of really good parents are badly addicted to the nicotine.”

Handshy said that, even if parents don’t smoke around children, the second-hand nicotine from the smoker’s skin and clothing and from the smoker exhaling has a substantial effect on the children.

“In fact, at least one study showed that to decrease the effect of the parents’ smoking on the children, they had to shower and change clothes before they came into the house,” he said. “So, even though they try, as long as they smoke, they’re still affecting their children.”

Parents need to make sure a child with asthma gets flu shots, Handshy said.

“Also, if they have a lot of allergy problems, a good allergist can usually do wonders with improving that,” he said. “And if they have persistent problems with the asthma, sit down with their health care provider, because there is a ‘step-wise’ treatment system for asthma that has become commonplace nationwide.”

Handshy said the most common mistake with asthma is overuse of a rescue nebulizer, which can create a situation where suddenly the child is severely ill and in the emergency room.

“What you don’t want to do is have a situation where a child just keeps taking more and more of their rescue nebulizer and doesn’t have a different plan if they’re having to use those frequently,” he said. “The intent is good because if a little bit helps, then a little more helps, and they keep increasing the amount until they get in trouble, rather than adding some other therapy along with it.”

Reach Keith Purtell at 918-684-2925 or Click Here to Send Email