Tag: World Health Organization

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Health Problems & Solutions

Few Health Questions and Answers

 

Q: Regarding weaning food. Many varieties are available in the market. What do you recommend I start with?

Weaning can begin with simple preparations like powdered rice cooked in water and milk with a little sugar .

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A: Weaning should not be started till at least the 120th day. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends breastfeeding exclusively for six months. Homemade preparations are superior to the packaged, ready-to-eat premixes available in the market. You could begin with powdered rice cooked in water and milk with a little sugar and no salt. The consistency should be like that of breast milk. Start with one feed, gradually increasing the number after a week or so.

Careful dosage :
Q: How is the dosage of medicine for children calculated? My mother says I can give my daughter, aged seven, half a tablet of the usual adult medicines.

A: Dosage of medicine for children has to be carefully calculated based on the body weight; it is not a matter of giving one tablet to an older child and half to a smaller one!

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In case of Paracetamol, the dosage is 10-15 mg/kg/dose every 4-6 hours. For many antibiotics, it is 20 or 40 mg/kg/day while for others it is 8 mg/kg/dose. Consult a paediatrician who will weigh the child and assign the dosage appropriately. Do not self-medicate.

Unlatching baby
Q: My baby sucks so hard at my breast that I am unable to pull his mouth loose when needed. Please advise....click & see

A: Pulling yourself backwards or trying to pry the child loose will not work. Instead, insert your little finger into the corner of his mouth to reduce the suction effect. His mouth can then be pried loose.

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Master check-up
Q: I am a 50-year-old woman. I want to have a master health check-up. What tests should I ask for?

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A: You need the following tests in addition to the regular ones offered as part of the check-up

Get your weight and height measured to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI). This should be between 25 and 27. A high BMI indicates obesity and places you at risk for diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, osteoporosis and cancer

Blood tests to screen for diabetes, cholesterol and triglycerides

A bone densitometry if you are post menopausal

A pap smear for cervical cancer

Breast evaluation by mammogram and monthly self-examination

Dental check-up

Eye check-up

The normal values are usually noted on the side. If any of your results are not in the normal range, please follow it up with the concerned consultant. If the follow-up of check-up is not done adequately, your money is wasted.

Facial hair
Q: I am a 23-year-old woman. My problem is that I have a moustache. I think it was there earlier but of late it has become very noticeable. My mother says I should leave it alone. However, I feel self-conscious. What should I do?

A: Please check with an endocrinologist/dermatologist/gynaecologist if you have other associated symptoms like menstrual irregularities or more-than-normal hair on your arms and legs. In the meanwhile, you can always go to a beauty parlour and have the hair on your upper lip removed by threading or waxing. Hair-removing creams can cause allergies. Also, please avoid shaving.

Foul odor
Q: I have terrible body odor in summer. Please help.

A: Perspiration is odourless. The smell arises due to the action of skin bacteria on the sweat. To avoid this .

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Wear cotton clothes which will allow the sweat to evaporate and not trap it inside

Bathe twice a day with Neko soap. The bacterial cell wall is destroyed by this soap

Do not apply the soap directly. Use a loofa or wash rag

Avoid talcum powder

Use a deodorant stick or spray.

Nagging cough
Q: I have diabetes and hypertension. Both are well controlled with diet and medication. I have a terrible hacking cough though. I have seen several doctors but to no avail   all they have done is take X-rays and prescribe antibiotics. I do not have fever or sputum so I don’t think I need these antibiotics.

A: Some anti-hypertensive medications cause cough. You can try adding Vitamin C 500 mg at night to your current medication. Also, you can take a cough suppressant like codeine linctus. Avoid exposure to allergens such as incense sticks, cigarette smoke and mosquito repellents (mats, coils as well as liquids). Take steam inhalation twice a day.

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Tummy trouble
Q: My stomach sticks out, making me look very ugly. Will a tummy trimmer work?

A: Spot reduction of the stomach alone is not possible unless you opt for liposuction. You need to go on a diet, exercise and reduce weight overall. In the process, you can also tone up your stomach with crunches or a trimmer.

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Answered by :Dr Gita Mathai ,paediatrician with a family practice at Vellore.India

Published in the Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

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Healthy Tips

Heart Disease Risk Factor Is Depression

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The power of your mind over your heart.
In one of the strongest indications of the power of the mind to influence the body, a growing collection of evidence finds that people who are depressed have a significantly higher risk of developing heart disease…..click & see

In a study of almost 3,000 men and 5,000 women, depressed men were 70 percent more likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who weren’t depressed. While depressed women were just 12 percent more likely to develop heart disease overall, those who were severely depressed were 78 percent more likely. In fact, a 1998 study found that women who are depressed have a risk of dying from heart disease equal to that of women who smoke or who have high blood pressure.

The link works the other way around, too: While about 1 in 20 American adults experience major depression in a given year, that number jumps to about one in three among those who have survived a heart attack.

The more severe the depression, the more dangerous it is to your health. But some studies suggest that even mild depression, including feelings of hopelessness experienced over many years, may damage the heart. Other studies suggest depression may affect how well heart disease medications work.

Researchers aren’t sure what the connection between depression and heart disease is, but theories abound. One is that people who are depressed tend not to take very good care of themselves. They’re more likely to eat high-fat, high-calorie “comfort” foods, less likely to exercise, and more likely to smoke. But beyond lifestyle, there is probably also a physiological link between depression and heart disease. Recent studies found that people with severe depression tended to have a deficiency of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. People who are depressed also often have chronically elevated levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol. These keep the body primed for fight or flight, raising blood pressure and prompting the heart to beat faster, all of which put additional stress on coronary arteries and interfere with the body’s natural healing mechanisms.

A whole branch of medicine is devoted to the complex links between mental health, the nervous system, the hormone system, and the immune system. Called psychoneuroimmunology, this science is gradually sorting out how the mind-body connection affects our vulnerability to, or defense against, heart disease.

Overall, an estimated 10 percent of American adults experience some form of depression every year. Although available therapies can alleviate symptoms in more than 80 percent of people treated, less than half of those with depression get the help they need.

Quick Tips:

Get regular, moderate exercise. A 1999 study conducted at the Duke University School of Medicine found that exercising 30 minutes a day, three days a week, was just as beneficial in treating depression as medication alone.

Increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids (from food and fish-oil supplements).

Take B vitamins, which are beneficial in preventing depression.

Eat a diet rich in complex carbohydrates. These foods help increase serotonin levels, a brain chemical that relieves a form of depression called seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

From : Cut Your Cholesterol

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Ailmemts & Remedies

Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever is an illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi. Common worldwide, it is transmitted by ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person. The bacteria then multiply in the blood stream of the infected person and are absorbed into the digestive tract and eliminated with the waste.

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Typhoid fever is also called enteric fever. It happens due to the involvement of the intestines and may become very serious if treatment is not provided to the patient at the right time. Typhoid fever has a tendency to relapse the patient. It is sometimes accompanied by hoarse cough and constipation or diarrhoea. Typhoid fever is mainly transmitted by ingestion of food or contaminated water from an infected person. Typhoid fever is still common in many developing countries like india, where it affects about 21.5 million persons each year.

Who gets typhoid fever?
Anyone can get typhoid fever if they drink water or eat food contaminated with the S. typhi bacteria. Travelers visiting developing countries are at greatest risk for getting typhoid fever. Typhoid fever is still common in the developing world, where it affects about 12.5 million persons each year. Only about 400 cases occur each year in the United States.

Symptoms:
Typhoid fever is usually recognized by the sudden onset of sustained fever.
During typhoid fever you may also suffer from severe headaches.
Nausea is an another symptom for typhoid fever.
Some times Stomach Pain is also accounted.
Sometimes the person also suffers from severe loss of appetite.
Typhoid fever accompanied by insomnia and feverishness, particularly at night.
In the beginning the temperature of the body is slightly high in morning, then it gradually becomes normal in the afternoon and then again rises in the evening. The temperature of sustained fever may go up to as high as 103° to 104° F (39° to 40° C ).
They may also feel weak, or have gastroenteritis, headache, diarrhea and anorexia (loss of appetite). In some cases, patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots.

Classically, untreated typhoid fever course is divided in 4 weeks. In the first week, there is a slowly rising temperature with relative bradycardia, malaise, headache and cough. Epistaxis is seen in a quarter of cases and abdominal pain is also possible. There is leukopenia with eosinopenia and relative lymphocytosis, a positive diazo reaction and blood cultures are positive for Salmonella typhi or paratyphi. The classic Widal test is negative in the first week.

In the second week of the infection, the patient lies prostrated with high fever in plateau around 40ºC and bradycardia (Sphygmo-thermic dissociation), classically with a dicrotic pulse wave. Delirium is frequent, frequently calm, but sometimes agitated and this delirium gave to typhoid the nickname of “nervous fever”. Rose spots appear in lower chest and abdomen in around 1/3 patients. There are rhonchi in lung bases. The abdomen is distended and painful in the right lower quadrant where borborygmi can be felt. Diarrhea can occur in this stage: six to eight stools in a day, green with a characteristic smell, comparable to pea-soup. Howewer, constipation is also frequent. The spleen and liver are enlarged and tender and there is elevation of transaminases . The widal reaction is strongly positive with antiO and antiH antibodies. Blood cultures are sometimes still positive in this stage. In the third week of the typhoid fever a number of complications can occur:

Intestinal haemorrhage due to bleeding in the congested Peyer patches; that can be very serious but generally does not lead to death.
Intestinal perforation in distal ileon: this is a very serious complication that is frequently fatal. It may occur without alarming symptoms until septicaemia or diffuse peritonitis sets in.
Toxic myocarditis with collapse
Encephalitis
Metastatic abscesses, cholecystitis, endocarditis and osteitis
The fever is still very high and oscillates very little around the day. Dehydration ensues and the patient is delirious (typhoid state). By the end of third week defervescence commences that prolongs itself in the fourth week.

The ways typhoid fever spreads:
Typhoid fever appears to have affected thousands of human beings from last so many years, but the cause of the illness is a poisonous and interruptive bacterium called Salmonella typhi . Typhoid fever mainly spreads when people eat food or drink water which is already been infected with Salmonella typhi. This bacteria lives only in humans. Persons with typhoid fever carry the bacteria in their bloodstream and intestinal tract. Therefore, typhoid fever is more common in unhygienic areas of the world where hand washing is less frequent and water is likely to be contaminated with germs. It also spreads through direct contact with a person who is already infected with this disease.

A different pathogen, Salmonella paratyphi , causes paratyphoid fever. Although they’re related, these aren’t the same bacteria responsible for salmonellosis, another serious intestinal infection.

After treatment, some people who recover from typhoid fever, even then continue to harbor the bacteria in their intestinal tract or gallbladder, for some years. These people are called chronic carriers, usually shed the bacteria in their feces and are capable of infecting others, although they no longer have signs or symptoms of the disease themselves.

Diagnosis:
The only way to know for sure if an illness is typhoid fever is to have samples of stool or blood tested for the presence of S. Typhi.

Diagnosis is made by blood, bone marrow or stool cultures and with the Widal test (demonstration of salmonella antibodies against antigens O-somatic and H-flagellar). In epidemics and less wealthy countries, after excluding malaria, dysentery or pneumonia, a therapeutic trial with chloramphenicol is generally undertaken while awaiting the results of Widal test and blood cultures.

Treatment:
Typhoid fever in most cases is not fatal. However, in some cases it is. Antibiotics, such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin, have been commonly used to treat typhoid fever in developed countries. Prompt treatment of the disease with antibiotics reduces the case-fatality rate to approximately 1%.

When untreated, typhoid fever persists for three weeks to a month. Death occurs in between 10% and 30% of untreated cases. Vaccines for typhoid fever are available and are advised for persons traveling in regions where the disease is common (especially Asia, Africa and Latin America). Typhim Vi is an intramuscular killed-bacteria vaccination and Vivotif is an oral live bacteria vaccination, both of which protect against typhoid fever. Neither vaccine is 100% effective against typhoid fever and neither protects against unrelated typhus.
Resistance:
Resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and streptomycin is now common, and these agents have not been used as first line treatment now for almost 20 years. Typhoid that is resistant to these agents is known as multidrug-resistant typhoid (MDR typhoid).

Ciprofloxacin resistance is an increasing problem, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many centres are therefore moving away from using ciprofloxacin as first line for treating suspected typhoid originating in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand or Vietnam. For these patients, the recommended first line treatment is ceftriaxone.

There is a separate problem with laboratory testing for reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin: current recommendations are that isolates should be tested simultaneously against ciprofloxacin (CIP) and against nalidixic acid (NAL), and that isolates that are sensitive to both CIP and NAL should be reported as “sensitive to ciprofloxacin”, but that isolates testing sensitive to CIP but not to NAL should be reported as “reduced sensitivity to ciprofloxacin”. However, an analysis of 271 isolates showed that around 18% of isolates with a reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (MIC 0.125–1.0 mg/l) would not be picked up by this method. It not certain how this problem can be solved, because most laboratories around the world (including the West) are dependent disc testing and cannot test for MICs.

Ayurvedic Treatment for Typhoid fever
Given below course you may follow for general treatment of typhoid fever, it depends on subjective or objective symptoms of the patient.

In first week: You may take 125 mg each of Muktashukti Bhasma and Mrigshringa Bhasma, at least three times daily which should be mixed with honey. A decoction of 12 gm of Khub Kalan and 10 gm of dried grapes with one litre of water, boiled down to about one-third, can be given along with the above medicines.

In second week: You may take a dose of Muktashukti Bhasma (10-12mg) & a dose of Kasturibhairava Rasa (120-125mg) with honey thrice daily. You may also take a mixture of Saubhagya Vati (240 mg) and Jwararyabhra (120 mg) three times in a day with juice of fresh ginger.

In third week: Mix 120 mg of Pravala Bhasma and 120 mg of Vasantmalati Ras with atleast 120 mg Amritsattva, to be taken with honey at least two times in a day. After at least three hours of serving the above medication give a dose of 240 mg of Powder of Pippali & also 240 mg of sarvajwaralauha with honey atleast two times in a day.

That is first, second & third, second should be taken alternatively.

In fourth week:You may take a mixture of Navayasa Choorna (Powder) – 2.5 mg & Vasantmalati Ras 125 mg & Sitopladi Choorna – 1.5 gm (Two Doses) to be taken with honey at least two times in a day. After meals, take a liquid compound prepared from- 10ml of Amritarishta & 5ml of Vishmushtayasava with 10ml of Lauhasava (one dose to be taken for each with equal quantity of water after lunch & dinner meals).

If whole body is massaged with oil, preferably Mahalakhshadi Tail daily, it will provide much desired relief to the patient and also help in quicker recovery. Some people suggest massage with olive oil or Johnson’s Body oil but, then, it is simply a matter of individual response and suitability, availability and choice.

Preventions:
Now vaccines for typhoid fever are also available, but these vaccines are not effective so much and are just partially effective and are usually reserved for people who may be exposed to the disease or are traveling to areas where typhoid fever is endemic. No vaccine has been discovered till date for paratyphoid fever.

It is always adviced to follow the Tips (Specially in Typhoid prune area)

Avoid foods and drinks that you may think may be contaminated. Also avoid eating things that have been kept in the open for long time.

Most important thing – Get vaccinated against typhoid fever.

Use careful selection of food and drink while you are in a developing country. This will also help protect you from other illnesses such as cholera, dysentery and hepatitis A.
Only use clean water. Buy it bottled or make sure it has been brought to a rolling boil for at least one minute before you drink it. Bottled carbonated water is safer than uncarbonated water.
Ask for drinks without ice unless the ice is made from bottled or boiled water.
Only eat foods that have been thoroughly cooked.
Avoid raw vegetables and fruits that cannot be peeled.
When you eat raw fruits or vegetables that can be peeled, wash your hands with soap, then peel them yourself. Do not eat the peelings.
Avoid foods and beverages from street vendors. Many travelers get sick from food bought from street vendors.
Remember:
Even if your symptoms go away without treatment, you may still be carrying the S. typhi bacteria, and your illness could return and be passed to other people.
If you work at a job where you handle food or care for small children, you should not go back to work until a doctor has determined that you no longer carry any S.typhi bacteria.
Even if you are vaccinated, you should carefully select your food and drink, especially when visiting areas where typhoid fever is common.

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.

Help taken from :Ayurvedic-medicines.com , en.wikipedia.org and http://health.utah.gov/epi/fact_sheets/typhoid.html

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Pediatric

Nourishing Your Newborn

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Learn how to give your little one a healthy start with these tips on proper nutrition.

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The Basics
Proper early nutrition is important. The eating patterns established in infancy determine how well a baby grows and also influence lifelong food habits and attitudes.

New parents probably worry more about feeding their baby than any other aspect of early child care. What if I can’t breast-feed? How do I know if the baby is getting enough? Too much? Should I give the baby vitamins? When do I start solid food? Parents quickly learn that almost everyone is eager to answer such questions — grandparents, neighbors — even strangers in the supermarket. As might be expected, however, much of the advice is conflicting and adds to a parent’s feelings of confusion and uncertainty. So let’s begin with a few anxiety busters:

Get to know your baby. No two infants are alike. Some enter the world ravenously hungry and demand to be fed every hour or two. Others seem to prefer sleeping, and may even need to be awakened to eat.

Try to relax. It’s natural for new parents to feel nervous and apprehensive, but raising a baby should be a joyful experience.

Trust your own judgment and common sense. If a baby is growing and developing at a normal pace, he’s getting enough to eat.

Keep food in its proper perspective. It provides the essential energy and nourishment infants need to grow and develop. But food should not be a substitute for a reassuring hug or used as a bribe or reward for good behavior. Even an infant quickly learns how to use food as a manipulative tool, which can set the stage for later eating problems.

In the Beginning, They Are What You Eat
Good infant nutrition actually begins before birth, because what the mother eats during pregnancy goes a long way toward determining her baby’s initial nutritional health. A well-nourished mother provides plenty of nutrients her baby can use for proper growth and development in the uterus, as well as to store for later use. Skimping on food to avoid gaining excessive weight while pregnant can produce a low-birth-weight baby who has special nutritional needs or serious medical problems. An anemic woman is likely to have a baby with low iron reserves. A woman who does not consume adequate folate may have a baby with serious neurological problems. High doses of vitamin A before and during early pregnancy can cause birth defects. All pregnant women are strongly advised to have regular prenatal checkups and to eat a varied and balanced diet.

Breast Milk — Babies‘ First Food
Physicians are in agreement that breast milk provides the best and most complete food to achieve optimal health, growth, and development for full-term infants. In fact, the recommendation of the World Health Organization is that a full-term, healthy infant should be exclusively breast-fed up to 6 months of age (premature and low-birth-weight babies may need specialized formula and breast milk). An adequate alternative to breast milk is commercial infant formula, which provides comparable nutrition but lacks some of the unique benefits of breast milk.

Although breast-feeding for 6 months may not be possible for every mother, a baby can benefit from any amount of breast milk — even a few feedings. Colostrum, the breast fluid that is secreted for the first few days after birth, is higher in protein and lower in sugar and fat than later breast milk. It has a laxative effect that activates the baby’s bowels. Colostrum is also rich in antibodies, which increase the baby’s resistance to infection. Hormones released in response to the baby’s suckling increase the flow of breast milk, and within a few days women produce enough mature milk for their infants. Mature breast milk is easy to digest and provides just about all the nutrients a baby normally needs for the first 4 to 6 months. This milk has two parts — the beginning of the feed is foremilk, which is high in sugar and water and a real thirst quencher for the baby. As the baby continues to feed, the breast decreases in size and the milk becomes a fat and calorie-rich milk, known as hindmilk.

A breast-fed baby can remain on breast milk exclusively until the introduction of age-appropriate foods at 4 to 6 months of life. In addition, a daily supplement of vitamin D (400 IU) is recommended in the United States and Canada for breast-fed babies and should be continued until an adequate amount of vitamin D is consumed through diet. Beginning at 4 to 6 months of age, these babies usually require additional iron, which is typically provided by an iron-fortified cereal. Fluoride supplementation may be required for some infants after 6 months. Babies of vegan mothers may require a B12 supplement.

How to Tell If Your Baby Is Getting Enough
Many new nursing mothers often worry that their babies are not getting enough to eat. Mothers should answer the following questions:

1. How many wet diapers and stools does my baby have each day?

2. Is my baby growing?

3. Does my baby appear hungry?

A baby who has regular stools and produces six or more wet diapers a day is most likely getting plenty of food. Although this varies, breast-fed babies generally nurse every 2 to 4 hours for the first month or so. Experts promote “on demand” feeding; in other words, babies should be fed whenever they are hungry for the first 4 or 5 months. Some babies may be sleepy or disinterested in food; a baby who is not feeding at least six to eight times a day may need to be stimulated to consume more.

Growth is an important indicator of whether or not a baby is getting enough to eat. Remember, however, that babies tend to grow in spurts. During a growth spurt, an infant will want to nurse more often and longer than usual, which may empty the reserve of breast milk. This will signal the mother’s body to increase milk production. But the mother should not be concerned if, a week or two later, her baby is less interested in eating.

Finally, hungry babies send out plenty of signals that they are hungry. Common cues are fussing, crying, and irritability as well as a variety of lip and tongue movements — such as lip smacking and fists in mouths.

Bottle-Feeding
Although more than half of all North American women breast-feed for at least the first few weeks, many mothers elect to bottle-feed. They should be assured that commercial formulas provide all the essential nutrients and, when used according to the manufacturers’ instructions, babies thrive on them. Choosing an iron-fortified formula is recommended. Babies under one year of age should not be given regular cow’s milk because it is difficult for them to digest and may provoke an allergic reaction. The cow’s milk in most infant formulas is modified to make it easier to digest. Despite this precaution, some babies may require a soy or rice formula.

Generally, bottle-fed babies consume more than breast-fed infants do; they may gain weight more rapidly, although the breast-fed babies will eventually catch up with them. On average, most babies double their birth weight in 4 to 5 months, and triple it by the time of their first birthday.

Bottle-feeding requires more work than nursing; bottles, nipples, and other equipment must be sterilized. Some formulas are premixed; others are concentrated or powdered, and must be mixed with sterile water. Formula mixed in advance should be refrigerated, but not longer than 24 hours; after that, it should be discarded. Any formula that is left in the baby’s bottle after a feeding should be discarded; if not, there is a possibility of its being contaminated by microorganisms entering through the nipple opening.

Introducing Foods
There is no specific age at which to start solid foods, but for most babies, 4 to 6 months is about right. Starting too early can be harmful because the digestive system may not be able to handle solid foods yet; also, the early introduction of solid foods may increase the risk of developing food allergies. An infant who is thriving solely on breast milk can generally wait until he is 5 or 6 months old; after that, nursing alone may not provide adequate calories and the nutrients that a baby needs for normal growth.

The first solid food must be easy to digest and unlikely to provoke an allergic reaction — infant rice cereal is a good choice. For the first few feedings, put a very small amount on the spoon, gently touch the baby’s lips to encourage him to open his mouth, and place the cereal at the back of the tongue. Don’t expect these feedings to go smoothly; a baby usually does a lot of spitting, sputtering, and protesting.

The baby should be hungry, but not ravenous. Some experts suggest starting the feeding with a few minutes of nursing or bottle-feeding, then offering a small amount of the moistened cereal — no more than a teaspoon or two — and finishing with the milk. After a few sessions, you can start with the cereal, then gradually increase the amount of solid foods as you reduce the amount of milk.

Beginning slowly, introducing only one or two new items a week. If you use home-cooked foods, make sure that they’re thoroughly pureed. In addition to rice cereal, try oatmeal and barley cereals; strained vegetables and fruits; and pureed chicken and beef. At about 5 months, fruit juice can be added to the diet, starting with apple juice. Hold off on orange juice and other citrus products for at least 6 months; these may provoke an allergic reaction. Other potentially allergenic foods should be delayed until the baby is 6 to 9 months old, or even later if there is a family history of allergies. Withdraw any food that provokes a rash, runny nose, unusual fussiness, diarrhea, or any other sign of a possible allergic reaction or food intolerance.

Self-Feeding
When they are about 7 or 8 months old, most babies have developed enough eye-hand coordination to pick up finger food and maneuver it into their mouths. The teeth are also beginning to come in at this age; giving a baby a teething biscuit, or cracker to chew on can ease gum soreness as well as provide practice in self-feeding. Other good starters are finger foods, which could include bite-size dry cereals, bananas, slices of apples and pears, peas, and cooked carrots, and small pieces of soft-cooked boiled or roasted chicken. The pieces should be large enough to hold but small enough so that they don’t lodge in the throat and cause choking.

As soon as the baby can sit in a high chair, he should be included at family meals and start eating many of the same foods, even though they may need mashing or cutting into small pieces. Give the child a spoon, but don’t be disappointed if he prefers using his hands. At this stage it’s more important for the baby to become integrated into family activities and master self-feeding than to learn proper table manners. These will come eventually, especially if the parents and older siblings set a good example.

Weaning
Giving up the breast or bottle is a major milestone in a baby’s development, but not one that should be rushed. When a woman stops nursing is largely a matter of personal preference. Some mothers wean their babies from the breast to a bottle after only a few weeks or months; others continue nursing for longer, even though the child is eating solid food. Similarly, some babies decide to give up their bottles themselves at 9 or 10 months; yet others will still want it — especially at nap or bedtime. If a baby under a year old drinks milk from a cup, it should still be a formula.

From : Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal

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Eating Longhorn beef

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Eating longhorn beef is good because of these heart healthy facts… “Lean beef is good for you – and the key word is lean. A heart patient can eat steak every meal if it is in the right proportions. Longhorn meat on the average, contains 10 percent less saturated fat than that of other cattle. That puts lean Longhorn beef on par with skinned boneless white meat of chicken and that fact may come as a surprise to many dieticians.” -Dr. Joseph Graham, Cardiovascular Surgeon at St. John’s Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, and a Longhorn breeder himself. “Red meat is really a treasure trove of nutrients, including protein, iron, vitamin B12, and more. One of the healthiest red meats is Longhorn beef, which is extremely low in fat.” -Cliff Sheats, certified clinical nutritionist, and nationally recognized author of Lean Bodies, Total Fitness. Beef is the number one source of protein, zinc and Vitamin B12, and the third best source of iron in the food supply. You’d have to eat almost 12 cans of tuna to get the equivalent amount of zinc in one 3 oz. serving of beef. It takes seven chicken breasts to equal the Vitamin B12 in one 3 oz. serving of beef. Beef is also a good source of selenium, providing 20-30% of the recommended daily allowance for men and women. Recent research has found that selenium may reduce the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer (such as prostate) as well as enhance the body’s ability to fight infections.

Source:/communitytalk.rd.com

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