Small doses of education can make a big difference for parents with sick children

10-20-2010

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske/Los Angeles Times

Spanish-speaking parents filled the cafeteria at Moffett Elementary School in Lennox earlier this month to watch Lorena Marin, a parent coordinator and literacy coach, demonstrate how to use a digital thermometer and liquid-medicine dispenser. "What do you do when your child is choking?" Marin asked the crowd of about 50, some toting babies. Get them to hold their arms up or look at a bird in the sky, parents said. Marin pointed to a section in a simply worded medical reference book that each had received that morning as part of the program. The book explained in Spanish about choking hazards and resuscitation. During the last decade, UCLA health experts have helped Head Start coordinators train 45,000 low-income families in 39 states to use basic tools including reference books, digital thermometers and liquid medical dispensers to treat their children and avoid unnecessary visits to doctor's offices and emergency rooms. Now they are expanding to include training sessions at school districts.(more...)

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Small doses of education can make a big difference for parents with sick children

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