Follow-Up to Lead Screening

New recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that if screening indicates a lead level of five micrograms per deciliter or more, the child should be referred to a health professional. 41 Lead has negative outcomes on a variety of things, including:

 Attention (easily distracted, challenges with sustained attention, hyperactivity)

 executive functions (problems with planning, impulse control, flexible thinking, etc.)

 visual-spatial skills (problems related to visual perception, memory, organization, and reasoning with visually presented information)

 social behavior (aggression, disruptive behavior, poor self-regulation)

 speech and language (problems with phonological and sentence processing and spoken word recognition)

 fine and gross motor skills (unsteadiness, clumsiness, and problems with coordination, visual-motor control, and dexterity)

Depending on the effects of lead poisoning, early care and education programs can implement intervention services to support the child. Other treatments include:

 Nutrition counseling

 Iron supplements

 Medication to remove the lead from the blood

 Follow-up testing of the child’s blood

 Referral for developmental testing43