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Syringes Beat Spoons for Children’s Medicine

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Parents should avoid using household teaspoons to give children medicine as sizes can vary widely, leading to both under- and overdoses, a study warns…….click & see

US and Greek researchers looked at teaspoons in 25 households and found that the largest was three times the size of the smallest.

They also found that when asked to use 5ml medicine spoons, people poured in varying quantities.

To avoid dosage differences, the team urged parents to use syringes.

The study in the International Journal of Clinical Practice looked at more than 70 teaspoons collected from 25 homes in Greece.

Low risk

The team from the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Athens suggested that a parent using the largest domestic teaspoon would be giving their child nearly three times as much medicine as the smallest.

Most households in the study had between one and three different teaspoons, but two women had six.

“We not only found wide variations between households, we also found considerable differences within households,” said Professor Matthew Falagas, the lead author.

In addition, when they asked five people to measure out medicine in a calibrated 5ml spoon, they found that only one gave the correct dose.

Syringes are increasingly given out with over-the-counter medicines such as child paracetamol and ibuprofen.

The risks of harm occurring as a result of parents giving too much of these products in a single dose is thought to be very small indeed.

A spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said: “In the UK medicines for children are sold with a spoon, or sometimes a syringe that allows parents and carers to measure and accurate dose.

“People collecting NHS prescription medicines for children will be supplied with either a spoon or syringe to allow an accurate dose to be given.

“Pharmacists would always recommend that parents and carers only use spoons or syringes which are designed for the administration of medicines if they are giving liquid medicines to children.”

Source : BBC NEWS:July.14.2010

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Featured

Blue Zones: Places on Earth Where People Live Longest

If you are looking for a Fountain of Youth, forget pills and diet supplements. Adventurer Dan Buettner has visited four spots on the globe where people live into their 90s and 100s and outlines how they add years of good life in his book, ‘The Blue Zones.’

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The answer, Buettner says, includes smaller food portions, an active lifestyle and moderate drinking. “If someone tells you they have a pill or hormone (that extends life), you’re about to lose money,” Buettner says.

Buettner identifies four hotspots of longevity: the mountainous Barbagia region of Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy; the Japanese island of Okinawa; a community of Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California, 60 miles east of Los Angeles; and the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, in Central America.

The term ‘Blue Zones’ takes its name from the blue ink Belgian demographer Michel Poulain used to circle an area of long-living Sardinians on a map.

What Buettner found in his seven years of research and travel were common denominators among the vigorous super-elderly – close family relationships, a sense of purpose, healthy eating habits. He distills them into what he calls the Power Nine.

“Picking half a dozen things off of this al a carte menu, and sticking to it, is probably worth eight to 10 (extra) years for the average American,” says Buettner, a tall 48-year-old who hopes to live until at least 100.

Buettner turned to probing the secrets of the longest-living cultures after leading three long-distance bicycle expeditions – from the tip of North America to the tip of South America; across the United States, Europe and the Soviet Union; and across Africa – in the 1980s and 1990s. He also used the internet to take classrooms on interactive quests to solve everything from the collapse of ancient Mayan civilization to human origins in Africa.

Buettner made his first expedition to Okinawa in 2000 and eventually wrote a National Geographic cover story, ‘The Secrets of Long Life,’ in November 2005.

Living long – even forever – is a human desire throughout history, says Robert Butler, president and CEO of the International Longevity Center- USA in New York. But Butler says he’s skeptical of claims of places of long-living people. “There’s always been these rumors but they’ve always turned out to be inaccurate,” said Butler.

Sources: The Times Of India

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Positive thinking

Exploring Our Readiness

In-Between Times
It could be argued that life is more about the time spent waiting for something to happen than it is about something happening. What this means is that the big events in our lives are preceded by many days and nights of dreaming, planning, organizing, and waiting. The times of waiting in between the big events actually constitute the majority of our lives. These in-between times are anything but uneventful. In fact, they are rich with possibility and filled with opportunities for reflection and preparation. Like a pregnant woman awaiting the birth of her child, we have a finite period of time in which to prepare internally and externally for the upcoming event that will define a new chapter in our lives.

When we find ourselves in an in-between time, we often can’t help but feel impatient for the impending event. We just want to get to the future and have the new baby, the new job, or the new house. And yet, there is a reason a pregnancy takes nine months to fulfill itself. Nature provides the expectant parents with this time so that they can prepare the nest. This preparation plays out on many levels. Materially, a space must be created in the home and resources must be set aside for the baby’s future; psychologically, a shift must occur in which the psyches of both parents agree to be responsible for a new life in the world; and emotionally, the heart must open wider to embrace and fulfill a new love.

Whenever you find yourself in such a time of waiting, you might want spend time exploring your material, psychological, and emotional readiness. For example, if you are preparing to move to a new city, you could make a list of things you’d like to do in the city you will be leaving behind, and go to your favorite places and spend time with old friends. This way, you will remain fully engaged in the present as you await your future, savoring the in-between time as a vital experience in itself.

Source:Daily Om

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Featured

Six Parenting Myths

Here are six parenting myths condensed from the book by John Rosemond entitled “The Six Point Plan For Raising Happy Healthy Children.”

1. Children should come first. Parents in today’s society coddle their children and place children even ahead of their marriage and literally spoil them rather than let the children have free time to play and be creative and simply be children.

2. The family is a democracy. He feels that the family is not a democracy and that ultimately the parent must be the boss and make decisions. He feels it is ok to say “because I say so”, or “because I’m the parent and making decisions is my responsibility.”

3. Housework is for parents only. He feels that all children should have chores around the house from the time they are three years old and by eighteen should be able to run a home.

4. Frustration is bad for children. He feels that children need a regular dose of vitamin “n” or the word “no” in response to requests for every thing material that American children have come to expect.

5. The more toys kids have the better. Children with the most toys tend to be the most bored children and lose appreciation for most toys. Parents feel their kids need the latest toys for their self esteem but actually they would be much better off playing with rocks, pine cones, boxes and paper bags and using their imagination.

6. My kids don’t watch too much TV. The average American preschool child watches 28 hours of TV a week which does many harmful things to them including inhibiting their imagination, curiosity, motivation, reasoning and attention span. Perhaps the apparent high increase in school related problems and Attention Deficit Disorder may be partly connected to this heavy TV input in our young children’s lives in our society today.

In summary, Mr. Rosemond feels that common sense approach to be refreshing. To reemphasize a few points: parents can best help their children by giving them time, not toys; by controlling T.V.; and by teaching them responsibility through chores.

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