Although temperatures vary day-to-day, this summer is shaping up to be a hot one in Michigan. Doctors are warning parents to learn how to protect their kids, and how to talk to them about climate change.
It used to be that parents had to talk to their kids about things like ‘stranger danger,’ or ‘don’t take candy from a stranger,’ and ‘be sure to put on sunscreen.’ With climate change, parents are finding they have a lot more to teach their children. And it’s important. That’s because anxiety about climate change is common among children. It’s hard for them to understand all the implications.
Climate change effects are becoming more obvious in the form of sudden intense storms and more record-breaking temperatures, and sometimes those things leave kids more anxious.
For example, while it cannot be directly linked to climate change, there recently was a tornado that hit the town of Portage that caused several injuries.
Dr. Joseph Fakhoury is a pediatrician at Bronson Children’s Hospital. He treated a child who told him that during the tornado he was in the bathtub where he and his family took shelter. Suddenly, the bathtub was picked up and he was thrown to the ground.
“He's five. He doesn't fully understand exactly what that means. You know, understanding and seeing the fear that children may develop now, that just only heightens a lot of the level of anxiety and mental health challenges that we face already within that population,” Fakhoury said.
He said kids need to know that the family has a plan to protect itself in case of severe storms. Parents and caregivers need to explain in terms a young child can understand that even though things are changing, the adults in their life will do everything they can to keep them safe.
A lengthy report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency titled “Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the United States” illustrates the different ways that kids might be affected by climate disruption. It reviews everything from allergies to infectious diseases, to disasters like flooding.
Most importantly, it advises adults to talk to kids about heat exhaustion and bad air quality days, two of the most common issues.
Fakhoury says parents and caregivers need to better understand the physical needs of children because they react to things like heat differently than adults.
“With the heat rising, the way that child lung physiology, meaning how it handles the oxygen in the blood, works, is very different than in adults and it cannot tolerate that level of heat to the level that maybe an adult can for the same period of time.”
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Ari Bernstein is the Director of the National Center for Environmental Health and ATSDR.
He said if kids are playing outside on a hot day, they need to be reminded to drink water and they should take a break in the shade occasionally.
“It only takes a little bit of time of cooling off that can really make a difference. So if they're outside playing, having a great time, you're seeing some of those symptoms of getting overheated, give them some time off. Get them in the shade. Make sure they're drinking plenty of fluids.”
Dr. Bernstein says just remember these three things for kids: stay cool, stay hydrated, and, parents should know the symptoms of overheating, which are different than adults. If children are sweating a lot, or not sweating at all, or if their skin is hot, they could be overheated. Bernstein says adults have to step in.
Infants are especially at risk because they don’t sweat as much and don’t show clear signs of overheating.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, a four-month-old died in Arizona. She was with her family on a boat on a lake on a day that reached 120 degrees.
With the heat comes other challenges such as higher levels of ozone pollution. Last year Canadian wildfires caused enough smoke to blanket Michigan. Western fires have caused air pollution here more often in recent years.
“Air pollution impacts lung growth of children. It actually impacts lung growth of infants while they're still in the womb. There is data to show that air pollution definitely causes flare ups of existing lung conditions, like asthma and COPD,” said Dr. MeiLan Han, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan.
All three of the physicians we contacted said parents should check the air quality index for their location. The EPA’s Air Now is a popular website and app for phones.
Dr. Han says on days the air quality is bad, kids need to be protected.
“You want to keep the windows closed. You want to run your home air conditioning because there's usually a filter. Even when you're in the car, turn that car to recirculate, as opposed to bringing in 'fresh air' when we've got those really bad air pollution days.”
The bottom line is: kids are not little adults. Their bodies react differently.
The American Lung Association has information on that here.
Children also need reassurance about the disruptions caused by climate change. Talk to them. Let them know how you’re safeguarding them from some of the effects of climate change, even if that means they can’t always play outside on hot, sunny, summer days.
