Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

greater risk) and girls halved between1971 and 1991. But even in relation tothese statistics there are socio-economicclass differences, as we report later.Improvements in medical skills also meanan increase in the survival rates of childrenborn with special needs compared with afew decades ago. While their survival rateshould be met with joy, the extra cost ofsupport and other implications for theirfamilies, siblings, children themselves andtheir communities (both local andnational) must also be acknowledged.As we pointed out in chapter 1,childrenwho inherit medical conditions ordisabilities can demonstrate resilience anddevelop strengths which they use toinform society and support youngerchildren in similar situations (Mason 1992).Yet for some children, a kaleidoscope ofproblems in their families, their homeenvironments and related to their ownbirth weight, appears to link with theirdisplaying developmental delays andbehaviour problems (Feldman et al 2000).In other areas of childre n’s lives dire ct lyre l ated to health, such as nutri t i o n ,Gra h a m’s (1984) re s e a rch showed thatfood is assoc i ated with affe ction and love,and that both children and adults usefood as measures of co m m i t m e nt. If thefoods used to this end are not thosewhich provide the best diet, it can be hardfor those invo lved to change this pat te rnof eat i n g. Neve rt h e l e s s, the Jo s e p hRow nt ree funded study Food Pro j e cts andHow they Wo rk ( Mc Glone et al 1999) hasi n d i cated that access to cheap, n u t ri t i o n a lfood helps towa rds improving purc h a s i n gand eating pat te rn s. The Gove rn m e nt’sp rovision of vouchers should help in thisre s pe ct. This is espe c i a l ly impo rt a ntbe cause re ce nt surveys of the diets ofc h i l d ren aged be tween birth and five haves h own the inadequacy of babies’ a n dyoung childre n’s fruit int a ke, and thatthose in low income groups we re 50 pe rce nt less like ly to eat fruit and ve g e t a b l e sthan those in the higher income gro u p s(BMA 1999 ). Fu rt h e r, vitamin D co nt ri b u te sto building strong teeth and bones andits lack is implicated in ri c ke t s. Howeve r,re s e a rch by Lawson and Thomas (1999)i n d i cates that there are co n ce rns abo u tAsian (Ba n g l a d e s h i , Indian or Pa kistani ino rigin) childre n , in their study two ye a ro l d s, whose levels of vitamin D we rebe l ow the level thought nece s s a ry top reve nt such phys i cal pro b l e m s.The British Medical Association (BMA 1999)report on a 16 year study by the MedicalResearch Council. They state that nutritionhas a proven effect on cognitivedevelopment and that this effect wasparticularly pronounced in boys.In addition they review a meta-analysis ofresearch on the effects of eating breakfaston cognitive functioning, concluding thatthe omission of breakfast seems to alterbrain function.Being born pre-termIn a study of 36 three year old children,of whom 18 had been born pre-term,Walker (1989) found the pre-term grouphad more problems, such as sleep related127