How does it affect children?
The decline of the motor neuron network, and the increased demand placed upon remaining motor neurons by children’s growing bodies, results in a progressive loss of muscle control and movement. In severe cases, the weakness is so great that death results either in the womb or within the first two years of life. Even in milder forms, SMA has a devastating and deadly impact on children. Victims either never acquire, or progressively lose, the ability to walk, stand, sit and eventually move. Children suffer increasing bone deformities, spinal deformities and ultimately fatal respiratory complications. Repeated surgery is often required to prolong life, which may include procedures such as tracheotomies to assist in breathing and eating and spinal fusion to mitigate spinal damage. Children’s minds are unaffected, however, leaving their developing brains trapped in weakening bodies.
The decline of the motor neuron network, and the increased demand placed upon remaining motor neurons by childrens growing bodies, results in a progressive loss of muscle control and movement. In severe cases, the weakness is so great that death results either in the womb or within the first two years of life. Even in milder forms, SMA has a devastating and deadly impact on children. Victims either never acquire, or progressively lose, the ability to walk, stand, sit and eventually move. Children suffer increasing bone deformities, spinal deformities and ultimately fatal respiratory complications. Repeated surgery is often required to prolong life, which may include procedures such as tracheotomies to assist in breathing and eating and spinal fusion to mitigate spinal damage. Children’s minds are unaffected, however, leaving their developing brains trapped in weakening bodies.
Divorce is often hard on children. Most children, with love and guidance, survive a divorce. But, what about one or both parents beginning to date again after the divorce? Child psycholgy and child development advocates have written numerous articles regarding this issue. Author and mother, Marion Winik, shares some very frank and open thoughts about single parent moms entering the dating scene again. Dating Do’s and Don’ts For Parents For five years, I was a single mother with two boys. And even though I was lucky enough to have a steady guy (a single dad) in the picture, questions came up all the time. Was it okay for all of us to sleep over at one of our houses? Should we take vacations together? When this relationship ended and another one began a few months later, I was in uncharted waters again. Based on these experiences and the advice of JoAnn Magdoff, a psychotherapist in private practice in New York, I came up with ten rules for single moms. If you’re dating—or want to be but
AIDS creates a vicious cycle of death and loss of innocence, quality of life, and health. Especially in Africa and South Asia, the virus is spreading at an alarming rate, disintegrating families and leaving children to fend for themselves. According to the United Nation’s 2004 report on the AIDS epidemic, 39.4 million people are living with AIDS worldwide, 17.6 million of them women and 2.2 million of them children under age 15. In 2004, 3.1 million people died from causes related to AIDS. When children are orphaned by AIDS, they lose financial support from their parents as well as moral or financial support from their community. Many AIDS orphans are forced to live on their own because nobody from the community will help them out of fear of catching the disease that killed their parents. These children are guilty by association, regardless if they are infected with AIDS or not. Children whose parents have died from AIDS are more likely to become involved in commercial sex than other c
