Knocking Children's heads has health implications

Parents and teachers have been warned that the practice of knocking the heads of children as punishment could lead to the children becoming epileptic later in life.
Dr Albert K. Akpalu of the Department of Medicine at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital gave the warning when he spoke on the theme, “General Emergency Care”, at a symposium organised by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in Accra yesterday.
He said results from various researches conducted on rats and mice had shown that when children were knocked on the head, they could, after a “later period”, develop epilepsy.
He, therefore, advised parents to desist from the practice and urged doctors to also help reduce or change the stigmatisation associated with epilepsy.
He said universal belief systems seemed to indicate that seizures were contagious and could spread through saliva, urine and faeces.
Dr Akpalu said others also believed that psychological and physical disability could lead to epilepsy but pointed out that those beliefs were all false because there were real symptoms of epilepsy.
Some of the symptoms, he indicated, were panic attacks, aggressive outbursts, hysterical seizures, movement disorders, migraine and sleeping disorders.
Professor Gladys Amponsah, the Chairperson for the event and member of the GMA, said whatever the cause of convulsion, there was the need to prevent brain damage, which was often the effect of epileptic seizures.
The symposium, she said, was to educate participants and health practitioners to help improve patient management in hospitals.
“It is important to educate health professionals on new or best practices in the profession as time goes on,” she stated, and urged all the participants to take particular interest in the presentations and discussions.