We have discussed the 5 takeaways from RFK Jr.’s MAHA report on children’s health. The ‘Make Our Children Healthy Again’ report calls out ultraprocessed foods, vaccines, overprescribing of psychiatric medications, and fertility issues.
The study called “Make Our Children Healthy Again” criticizes highly processed foods, vaccines, giving too many mental drugs, and problems with fertility.
The Make American Health Again (MAHA) Commission, which is led by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has released a new study with suggestions on how to stop the rise in chronic diseases in children. Check the 5 takeaways from RFK Jr.’s MAHA report on children’s health in this article.
It’s a follow-up to a study that came out in May and named a number of “potential drivers” of kids’ bad health. Threats like gun crime (which is the main reason kids die in the U.S.) and not having enough food were left out.
The new “Make Our Children Healthy Again” road map from the MAHA Commission includes more than 120 projects meant to fight what Kennedy has called the “childhood chronic disease epidemic.”
These are the five goals that the study lists.
Reevaluate vaccines
Kennedy has been very interested in vaccines for a long time, both before and during his time as health secretary. There should be a new “vaccine framework,” according to the new MAHA study. This framework should include changing the current plan for childhood vaccines and looking into vaccine injuries.
The federal government has already done both of these things under Kennedy.
Even though doctors were very worried, Kennedy earlier this year proposed a new government policy that limited the COVID-19 vaccine advice to adults 65 and older and people who already had certain health problems.
No longer does the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggest the shots for kids who are healthy or women who are pregnant.
Kennedy and other health officials said that the move was “common sense.” They pointed out that there is no proof that healthy kids need the shot and that most other countries have stopped recommending it for kids. He didn’t offer a reason for no longer recommending it to pregnant women.
But pediatricians are most worried about the risk to kids younger than 2 years old, who are very likely to have major problems because of COVID-19.
When asked, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly said that all children ages 6 to 23 months should get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The group said in a statement that the administration’s “confusing actions restricting vaccine access” are making efforts to improve kids’ health worse, not better.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been keeping an eye on “adverse events” for a long time.
These are reports of possible side effects that may happen after someone gets a vaccine. Experts from the CDC say that major side effects “rarely caused by [a] vaccine” itself.
The CDC and FDA made it easier for people to get to the systems that store these reports in May.
Change what “ultra-processed” means
The study says that government dietary standards should be updated and a new definition for ultra-processed foods should be made because U.S. kids now get more than 60% of their daily calories from highly processed foods, which are known to cause chronic diseases.
A growing number of states have agreed to work together with businesses and schools to raise knowledge about healthy food options for kids and limit the amount of junk food that can be bought through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The study doesn’t talk about the recent big cuts to Medicaid and SNAP funds, which some researchers and the AAP have said will make it harder for people to get food and could hurt kids’ health.
The use of artificial food coloring is another target of a proposal that would amend regulations pertaining to “substances generally recognized as Safe” (or GRAS). Kennedy has raised the safety of artificial food colors on many occasions, and she is urging food manufacturers to stop using them by the year’s end.
Reduce your exposure to Fluoride and Pesticides in drinking water
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has prioritized fluoride and pesticide exposure in its policy update moves this year. One of the report’s stated goals is to “empower parents to make informed choices by increasing transparency and access to reliable health and nutrition information,” with a focus on these issues.
The report suggests that the current scientific literature on fluoride in water should be reevaluated. Also, that the CDC should revise its recommendations accordingly. The Food and Drug Administration has already moved to decertify children’s ingestible fluoride supplements.
For many years, the nation’s water supply has included fluoride due to the positive effects it has on dental health.
Many respected medical groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association, advocate for fluoridated water for public use.
Even though experts agree that fluoride is beneficial to human health, several municipalities in the United States have chosen to remove it from their public water systems. “
Research shows that when the levels of fluoride are optimal, there are no known risks” to most individuals, according to Athanasios Zavras, DDS, DMedSc. He is a dentist, professor, and chair of public health and community service at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston.
Zavras made this statement in an earlier interview with Everyday Health. There is, however, some emerging evidence linking prenatal fluoride exposure to lower IQs in children, although more studies are needed.
In contrast to the commission’s May study, which identified pesticides as a cause of childhood sickness, the latest report refrains from advocating for a prohibition of these and other agricultural chemicals. There should be more education on the federal pesticide review procedures instead.
In particular, it requests that various government bodies investigate the long-term impacts of pesticide exposure on human health in an effort to develop and adopt agricultural practices that “reduce the total amount of pesticides needed.”
Limit Children “Overmedication”
An “unsettling tendency of overprescribing pharmaceuticals to children, frequently prompted by biases in medical research,” is what the panel calls “overmedicalization.” As part of the new plan, a task force will be established to study current patterns in the identification and treatment of mental health issues in children.
The study warns that clinicians overprescribe stimulant drugs, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (a class of antidepressants) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), leading to “unnecessary treatments and long-term health risks” for children.
The MAHA panel has pledged to study these tendencies and revise the labeling of certain older generic drugs so that they “better reflect the latest science.”
The report “leaves a considerable amount of latitude in how each of the recommendations will be implemented,” and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) emphasized the need for direct involvement of psychiatric researchers, while also acknowledging the mental health crisis among children and adolescents in the U.S.
Raising Fertility Rates
A lifestyle-change-focused education campaign and grants to address “root causes of infertility” are among the measures proposed for “improving health and fertility” in the MAHA study.
Title X clinics, which receive federal funding for family planning and preventive health services, are the target of the report’s recommendations for the establishment of a “infertility training center” to teach staff on the proper diagnosis and treatment of infertility as well as the referral of patients to the right medical facilities.
The latest statistics from the CDC show that in 2024, the fertility rate in the United States hit a record low. Researchers have linked “societal, educational, and economic factors influencing when women begin childbearing” to the lengthier waiting times for women to have their first child, rather than a specific fertility issue, which is one of the contributing causes.
Fifteen percent of couples experience infertility, which is expected to rise to a higher proportion once women enter their mid-thirties.
Disclaimer: This is intended for educational and informational purposes only.
Conclusion
Potential measures to enhance American children’s health are presented in a recent report by RFK Jr.’s MAHA commission. The 5 takeaways from RFK Jr.’s MAHA report on children’s health are mentioned in this article.
Recommendations include dietary guideline upgrades, the development of a new vaccine system, and a search into the “overprescribing” of psychiatric medicines.
The report does not identify any particular measures intended to curb ultra-processed foods or pesticides, nor does it mention any other public health problems for children, either. as gun violence and food scarcity rise.
