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DIET FOR HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:17:36 +0000

Evening primrose oil is by no means the first or the only treatment for hyperactive children. The first thing to do is to change their diet. Ninety-four per cent of hyperactive children are helped by diet.

The most successful nutritional approach to hyperactivity in children is the Feingold diet, so named after the late Dr Ben Feingold, the American doctor who invented it. The HACSG recommend a diet based on Dr Feingold’s but with a greater restriction on additives.

The key things to take out of the child’s diet are artificial colourings, flavorings and preservatives, and naturally-occurring salicylates found in such seemingly innocent foods as apples, oranges, peaches, strawberries, grapes, cherries, almonds and cucumbers. Salicylates in drugs such as aspirin are also excluded.

Salicylates are known to block the formation of prostaglandins. Hyperactive children might be deficient in PGE1, which helps control the immune system, and has an influence on such things as asthma, behaviour, and thirst (via the kidneys). Low levels of PGE1 can be corrected by taking evening primrose oil.

Hyperactive children are also very often sensitive to chemicals such as those in glue, felt-tip pens, aerosol cleaning fluids and so on.

Parents are advised to give their child only fresh foods and to avoid anything with ‘E’ additives, plus anything containing salicylates. If the child’s behaviour is obviously made worse by certain chemicals, then it also means switching to other things which do the same job, such as using wax crayons instead of felt-tip pens.

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BED WETTING AND HOME REMEDIES

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:16:00 +0000

Doctors have a very small part to play in the management of children’s bed wetting. The antidepressant group of drugs has been utilized heavily in the past; however bed wetting returns when these drugs are stopped. Considering their side effects the use of long term antidepressants in childhood bed wetting is a form medical barbarism. Doctors still prescribe antidepressants such as Imipramine in the short term. Imipramine can provide protection for a child spending a weekend with friends or perhaps a week away on a school holiday camp.

Home remedies

Rubber blankets with electrical alarm systems combined with a behaviour modification program designed by child psychologists stand the best chance of breaking a child’s night time bed wetting habit. Initial medical assessment is not out of order. Before employing a child psychologist it is important to exclude any medical condition as a cause of the bed wetting. For parents very disturbed by an older child’s bed wetting habit the rule of thumb is that six per cent of children at six years of age still wet the bed at night.

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CHANGING RESIDENCE: RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:27:15 +0000

A retirement community is a self-contained complex for people over a certain age. However, this description says nothing about the variety that exists among the estimated 2,300 that have sprung up in every corner of America since the end of World War II. They are popular. About a million people are currently choosing the retirement community life.

A retirement community may be an entire new town or subdivision. Or it can be a high-rise building. It may be in the middle of a forest or be a converted landmark in the center of town. It may range in size from a small mobile-home park to Sun City, Arizona, with its 45,000 residents. A variety of housing designs and arrangements are available as well as a variety of agreements regarding financial and living commitments. Some communities offer a full range of recreational and educational activities – golf, tennis, indoor and outdoor pools, classes, a clubhouse. Others provide varying levels of personal and medical care. Or a retirement community may be nothing more than a housing development restricted to people past a certain age. There are even retirement communities with no age restrictions at all.

For instance, the Greens at Leisure World, in Silver Spring, Maryland, is typical of a large recreation-oriented retirement complex. A variety of activities is available – a pool, tennis courts, golfing, exercise and card rooms, lectures, and classes and groups of different types. While the additional cost is very small, most of these amenities are not included in the monthly maintenance residents pay. Homes here are relatively expensive, making the Greens primarily for upper-middle-class people (one spouse must be over fifty). Unlike its more isolated counterparts in Florida or Arizona, this retirement community is close to Washington, D.C. It has single-family homes, apartments, and semidetached units.

The Greens provides no paid-for medical care or meals (though there is a medical building near the grounds). Goodwin House, in Alexandria, Virginia, and Otterbein Home, in Lebanon, Ohio, typify housing for people who want to live in a place that includes more personal services and health care.

At Goodwin House (a single building) residents buy their apartments and then pay a substantial monthly fee. Their payment includes meals, personal and nursing care, and maid service, plus educational and recreational activities. At Otterbein Home the facilities are spread out more and differentiated by what are called levels of care. There are three types of independent housing – duplex apartments, cottages, and low-rise apartment buildings. In addition there are three levels of health care – personal, intermediate, and skilled (the last two are classifications of nursing-home care). Contracts involve an entrance fee and monthly payments, with a resident either paying for everything in a lump sum at entrance and each month or paying extra when more medical or nursing care is needed. Goodwin House and Otterbein Home exemplify the most innovative type of retirement community – the continuing-care or life-care community.

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GENERAL HEALTH

CHANGING RESIDENCE WITH AGING: EFFECTS OF MOVING ON HEALTH

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:25:23 +0000

After moving to a nursing home, many people deteriorate mentally and physically. But some improve. People are likely to do well after entering a nursing home under two conditions: if the place they move to is a step up from their life outside, and if their personalities fit the requirements of nursing-home life.

If we are impoverished, in very bad health, and live an isolated life, going to a nursing home is likely to boost our health and well-being. Being there is an improvement from the terror of trying to cope outside. Researchers find that people who are tough, assertive, and insensitive are also likely to do well in nursing homes because they have qualities that uniquely suit them for institutional living. Their talent for fighting gets them more of the limited resources available. Their harder-than-normal hearts help insulate them from the suffering around.

Luckily, the personality that equips us for success is very different in less harsh places. However, the criteria for judging whether we will do well are the same: Is the place you are going better or worse than the one you are coming from? Does your new home fit the kind of person you are?

For example, when gerontologist Frances Carp compared older people who had moved into a retirement residence – a high-rise building with a community center – with another group who had applied for the housing but stayed in their own homes, she discovered that, instead of being worse off, the people who moved were happier and healthier. Even though they were somewhat less involved with their families, they had more friends and were more active and involved in life than the non-movers.

One reason was that the retirement residence was indeed a better place than most of these low-income elderly were coming from. Not only was it physically more appealing, it offered a safer, socially richer life. But living in the residence was not good for everyone. Some people were unhappy after they moved. Introverts had particular trouble; they disliked the greater social pressure to get involved in their new home. Their preferred style of living – to keep to themselves – did not fit the togetherness ethic at the residence, so they felt alien uncomfortable, and unhappy after they moved. In other words, apart from whether it is better objectively, you must judge whether the place you are considering fits you emotionally.

In a 1985 follow-up to this study, Carp went back to the residence to find out what personality traits predict happiness in housing of this type. She found that people who were congenial, extraverted, and well adjusted were flourishing – content with themselves, popular with the staff and residents. So housing for older people is far from being all alike. The personal qualities that suit us for living in an unhappy place (a nursing home) and a happy one (this retirement residence) are totally opposite.

For the older people Carp studied, the move to the residence was a step up. Often there is no obvious difference in quality between retirement housing and what people can buy or rent outside. So, studies show that residents of retirement communities are on average as satisfied or happy as people who remain (or live) in traditional homes. There also is no evidence that living in a retirement community decreases health problems or health complaints. But people who live in retirement housing, particularly places that have many programs, do tend to be more active socially. They are more involved in groups and leisure activities than the average person their age.

So the studies show that you will not die sooner (or live longer) by moving to a retirement community; and even though you may emerge a bit from your cocoon, neither will you shed a lifetime of shyness and become a social butterfly. We take ourselves with us wherever we go. But since having the chance to live in this type of housing is such an interesting new opportunity that being older offers retirement communities deserve a closer look.

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GENERAL HEALTH

YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BONE AND JOINT DISORDERS: HIP, CONGENITAL DISLOCATION

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:23:43 +0000

Some babies are born with a dislocation, or lack of fit, between the top of the thigh bone (which is shaped like a ball) and the socket in the hip bone. This occurs in approximately 1 in 700 births, and is more common in girls by a ratio of 4:1. Usually only one hip is affected, but both hips are involved in 25% of cases.

Cause

There is no one cause of congenital dislocation of the hip (CDH). Genetic factors seem to play a part, as it is more common in girls than in boys, and especially in daughters of mothers who themselves had CDH as babies. The posture of the baby in the womb also seems important, so that it is more common in breech presentations (where the baby is born legs first instead of the usual head first).

Clinical features

Often there are no easily detectable signs of CDH in infancy. Sometimes the skin creases in the thighs are asymmetrical. Parents may notice when changing the nappy that one thigh is restricted in its movement, and cannot be laid all the way back on the table. Later, an abnormal position of the leg on the affected side may be noticed, and the leg itself may be shorter than the other due to dislocation. There may be a delay in walking, or the child may walk with a limp or with the pelvis tilted to one side.

During the doctor’s examination of a newborn baby, both hips are carefully checked for any signs of dislocation. Several tests are performed specifically to detect CDH or an unstable hip. On examination of your baby’s hip a faint click may be heard (‘clicky hips’), which may be due only to stretched ligaments and simply requires monitoring. If this click is accompanied by an abnormal movement of the hip, the diagnosis of congenital hip dislocation is likely.

Investigation

A very careful physical examination of both hips should be done in the first few-days of life, and repeated at 6 weeks of age. In experienced hands, this should detect most cases of CDH. Sometimes an X-ray of the hip may be helpful, and ultrasound is being increasingly used.

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YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BONE AND JOINT DISORDERS: FLAT FEET AND HEELS, PAINFUL

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:23:34 +0000

FLAT FEET

Babies often appear to have flat feet because the soles of their feet are filled with pads of thick fat. The fatter the baby, the flatter the feet look. Once babies start walking, this arches become more defined because the ligaments and muscles start more working more, and by the age of 3 years, the feet acquire their final shape. After this age, a child who has flat feet will wear down the heels of his shoes on the inner sides very quickly. The entire surface of the sole of the foot is in contact with the ground, and the arches are not visible. This occasionally causes the child pain, especially when playing sport. Children with flat feet do not need any treatment. In particular, there is no need for arches, supports or special shoes. If flat feet persist into adult life, arches may reduce the wear on shoes.

HEELS, PAINFUL

This condition is especially common in older children and young adolescents. Sometimes it is caused by a strain of the achilles tendon where it attaches to the bone of the heel. Pain is usually experienced after sport. Usually no treatment is necessary, because the condition improves with age and eventually disappears. Raising the heel of the shoe on the affected side sometimes helps. The child should be encouraged to continue playing sport.

The other cause of painful heels is a bony spur (calcaneal spur) on the back of the heel bone, which rubs against the bottom or back of the shoe. The overlying skin becomes reddened and bruised. Treatment consists of inserting a small pad in the shoe to protect the affected area. Occasionally surgery is needed to chip off the bony protrusion.

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YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BONE AND JOINT DISORDERS: GROWING PAINS

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:23:27 +0000

Growing pains are very common. It is said that 1 in 5 children suffers from them at some stage, especially during the early school years.

Cause

The cause of growing pains is uncertain. They are said to be related to exercise, but this is not always so, and in most cases there are no known precipitating events.

Clinical features

The child complains of aching or a burning sensation in the legs — in the thighs, calves, feet or joints. The pains can also occur, though far less commonly, in the arms or other parts of the body. They usually occur at night, and sometimes wake the child from sleep, but are also common in the daytime. They are rarely severe enough to interfere with daily activity. In most children, the pain or discomfort is transient, irregular and unpredictable — it tends to come and go. The natural history is for growing pains to get better over time.

Investigations

No investigations are usually necessary. Occasionally the doctor will order an X-ray or blood test to exclude other conditions, such as a fracture or inflammation.

Treatment

There is no specific treatment for growing pains. Massaging the affected area may help. Occasionally a mild analgesic is given to the child, but mostly all that is necessary is reassurance and the general measures described above. There is no need to restrict activity.

When to see your doctor

See your doctor if you suspect that there is something more serious going on — if the pains are very severe and persistent, if there is a limp, or an affected part is tender or feels hot.

Prevention

There is nothing that can be done to prevent growing pains.

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YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BONE AND JOINT DISORDERS: FRACTURES (BROKEN BONES)

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:23:20 +0000

There are several types of fracture commonly seen in children. These include: Greenstick fracture in which a bone is bent rather than broken. This is common in young children, whose bones are malleable.

Undisplaced fracture in which the break does not interfere with the alignment of the bone fragments, so that the two ends remain in contact with each other. Open fracture in which one end of the broken bone is exposed to the outside through the skin, and is thus susceptible to becoming infected.

Clinical features

The area around the fracture usually becomes swollen and sometimes there is an obvious deformity visible. The child may hold his arm or leg perfectly still because even the slightest movement increases the pain.

Investigations

The diagnosis of a fracture should always be confirmed by an X-ray.

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YOUR CHILD’S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT: TOOTHACHE

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:55:44 +0000

Toothache in children is almost always caused by dental caries. Often hot or cold foods will irritate a dental cavity. Have your child see a dentist as soon as possible. Temporary pain relief may be obtained by giving paracetamol according to directions, and occasionally by a warm compress applied to the jaw.

Teeth grinding

This is relatively common in children, often occurring at night during a child’s sleep. Sometimes it is due to stress or anxiety. In many cases grinding of teeth is the result of a temporary problem of alignment (malocclusion) between upper and lower teeth, during the period when the child is losing his milk teeth and acquiring his permanent teeth. The poor fit between the teeth may cause discomfort of the jaw which is relieved by grinding the teeth. In severe cases, the teeth may be damaged, with the enamel being worn down. If grinding of the teeth is severe or persistent, you should obtain advice from your dentist.

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VITAMINS – VITAMIN K

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:07:22 +0000

Vitamin Ê also is a fat-soluble vitamin, and it is used in the liver in the manufacture of prothrombin, an essential factor in the clotting of blood.

Vitamin Ê occurs in green vegetables, and also some of the bacteria which normally live in the bowel manufacture this vitamin which we absorb and use.

An excess of Vitamin Ê has not been shown to cause any serious side-effects.

Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, has occupied a lot of interest recently, not only for its effect in preventing the common cold but because of its actions generally in human nutrition.

Vitamin Ñ is widely distributed through many foodstuffs. The green vegetables, citrus fruits and potatoes contain considerable quantities.

This vitamin is necessary for the proper development of connective tissue in the body, especially the coverings of blood vessels.

Lack of ascorbic acid produces scurvy, with bleeding in the gums and other soft tissues, failure of wound-healing, and poor resistance to infection.

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