海角破解版

About a year ago, at one years old, Eden Tobik was found to have a blood lead level of 19. Any amount of ; five is the threshold of concern.

Her mother, Casey Tobik, was devastated.

鈥淪hock, guilt, shame, fear, despair, terror, sets in,鈥� said Tobik. 鈥淎nd then you Google it and it gets even worse.鈥�

They didn鈥檛 have chipping paint, just an old house in Lakewood, Ohio, with friction surfaces causing lead dust that Eden must have ingested as she crawled around, like any normal toddler.

Eden鈥檚 parents took out a loan to make their home lead-safe and were told to give Eden healthy foods and a multivitamin, but other than that doctors had nothing else to offer her.

鈥淚t was very much a, 鈥楾his is it. Let鈥檚 just watch and wait and see what happens,鈥� which as a mom, is like the worst thing you can hear from a medical professional because you just feel helpless,鈥� said Tobik.

As Cleveland grapples with efforts to address lead in old housing stock, parents worry about the effect of the toxin on their children. But it鈥檚 possible the brain can compensate. One thing that might help? Reading. That鈥檚 the approach championed by MetroHealth pediatrician Dr. Robert Needlman.

Needlman said that he鈥檇 never tell a parent with a lead poisoned child that it鈥檚 hopeless. What he would say is this: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know in your individual case what that lead may or may not be doing. But what we do know is in every case, if you talk with your child and listen to your child and have conversations and read books together and learn together, your child will be smarter. And have more self-control. And behave better than if you don鈥檛 do that.鈥�

The key, said Needlman, is to remove the source of lead exposure and provide a nurturing environment where learning can happen. And he added, one-on-one conversations and interactions promote healthy, strong brain connections.

鈥淭hose kinds of conversations cause the brain to grow in positive ways and essentially combat the negative effects of lead,鈥� said Needlman.

While the cellular damage of lead is permanent, Needlman and other experts said the young brain is highly resilient and they believe it can compensate for the loss.

鈥淚f one part of it isn't working very well, other parts can take over. And also it鈥檚 growing. It鈥檚 not finished,鈥� he said.

Needlman said reading offers one of the best ways to help the brain bounce back from lead exposure, which is why he helped start the national program where doctors give books to patients and encourage reading.

Looking at pictures, naming objects, hearing and sounding out words, Needlman said, all fire up important connections in the brain.

No Perfect Research

Nothing makes University of Cincinnati researcher Kim Dietrich bristle more than inferring that kids with lead in their systems are a lost cause.

鈥淪o the idea, the concept, that children who are exposed to lead early on are a lost generation is completely fallacious,鈥� said Dietrich.

Dietrich was part of a that reviewed the scientific literature on ways to help lead exposed children. He thinks reading is an excellent strategy, given the decades of research that speak to the benefit of reading to children in general.

But Dietrich and others in the field, including Needlman, acknowledge that there isn鈥檛 perfect scientific data on its effectiveness yet. It also wouldn鈥檛 be ethical to do a perfect study 鈥� a researcher couldn鈥檛 ask some parents to not read to their lead-exposed children, just so they would have a control group.

Case Western Reserve University鈥檚 Rob Fischer is planning a new study to gather some data about programs that get books into the hands of children with lead exposure.

Fischer recently co-authored a that found high-quality preschool 鈥� which would have, in theory, a lot of reading and one-on-one attention 鈥� didn鈥檛 help lead-poisoned kids catch up to their peers. But there was nuance to their findings.

鈥淲e see in the evidence that there are lead exposed children who are on track to kindergarten, and are on track at third grade,鈥� said Fischer. 鈥淲hat's allowing them to overcome that adversity? It鈥檚 very possible that something like reading and parental engagement in the child鈥檚 life is the success factor that allows that to happen.鈥�

For Casey Tobik, reading is something she would have done anyway, but she鈥檚 encouraged by the messages of resiliency.

And at last count, Eden鈥檚 lead levels are down to 3.3.