Impact of poverty affecting children

POVERTY is having a devastating i mpact on children’s health, with parents diluting milk, skimping on food and youngsters living in damp, cold housing, paediatricians say.

A new report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), based on a survey of 250 paediatricians across the UK, found almost half think things are getting worse.

Just three doctors said the situation was improving for the children in their care.

Data shows that four million children — or three-in-10 — across the UK live in poverty after housing costs are taken into account. This is predicted to rise to five million by the end of the decade.

In the new report, more than three-infive doctors said food insecurity — including poor nutrition and inability to buy enough food — contributes “very much” to the ill health of children.

Doctors told how parents deprive themselves of food and rely on foodbanks, while others cannot afford clothes, toothbrushes or toothpaste. One paediatrician said: “I see patients with poor nutritional state from poverty or low income, with growth below ( what is) expected.”

More than twothirds of doctors said homelessness or poor housing contribute “very much” or “somewhat” to the ill health of children they work with. Just under a third said the inability to keep warm at home contributed “very much” to child ill health and a third that it contributes “somewhat”.

Others described mouldy, damp houses and families living in one room. Paediatricians also pointed to the impact on a child’s mental health, with “worry, stress and anxiety” meaning children have a “little part of their childhood taken away, a part of their day they will spend worrying instead of playing”.

One doctor said rates of self-harm in young people had gone up due to the “combination of the recession and continuing austerity measures”.

Alison Garnham, chief executive of CPAG, said: “Day in, day out, doctors see the damage rising poverty does to children’s health.

“Their disquiet comes through in the survey and should sound alarms. Low family incomes, inadequate housing and cuts to support services are jeopardising the health of our most vulnerable children. We can and must do better.”

Fiona Smith, from the Royal College of Nursing, said: “School nurses are coming across children who haven’t eaten in 24 hours.”

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Kids are hungry.