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NUTRITION FOR PRESCHOOL AND SCHOOL CHILDREN: FOOD SELECTION AND HABITS

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:01:11 +0000

The Four Food Groups provide the basis for planning the diet for young children. The following list indicates the range in the amounts that are ordinarily eaten.

2 to 3 cups vitamin D milk

3 to 4 per week eggs

1 to 4 tablespoons chopped meat, poultry, and fish; some cottage cheese or peanut butter may be substituted

1/3 to 2/3 cup citrus fruit juice; or whole orange; or twice as much tomato juice

1/4 to 1/2 cup fruits such as applesauce, peeled apple, apricots, banana pears, peaches, prunes, etc.

1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked vegetable; select dark green leafy or deep yellow vegetable at least every other day

1 serving raw vegetables: carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, rutabagas

2 to 4 tablespoons white or sweet potatoes

1/3 to 2/3 cup enriched or whole-grain cereal

1 to 3 slices enriched or whole-grain bread

Few foods need to be omitted entirely from the diet of children, but some discretion in food selection is necessary. The appetite is ordinarily a good guide, but parents have a responsibility to provide a choice of foods within the framework of the Four Food Groups. When the child is permitted to eat freely from sweets and other empty-calorie foods, he will not obtain sufficient nutrients.

Young children prefer plain, blandly flavored foods that are only lightly seasoned. Mixtures, as in casseroles, are well accepted only as the child becomes older. Some foods that require chewing are essential, but meats that are not chopped or ground may be tough for the preschool child. Lukewarm, rather than hot, foods are preferred. Vegetables arc least well liked of all food groups. Strongly flavored vegetables may not be accepted until late school years; some children never learn to like them.

Children sometimes go on food jags; that is, they will eat only certain foods—for example, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. Usually these diversions of appetite do not last too long if the parents make no particular point of them. If milk is refused as a beverage, it can be given in puddings, or will be accepted if it is occasionally flavored or even colored with vegetable color! American cheese is a good substitute.

Children require snacks to provide for their relatively high energy needs and to avoid excessive hunger at mealtimes. The snacks should be selected largely from the Four Food Groups: fruits and fruit juices; milk; cheese cubes; crackers and peanut butter; raw vegetables; small sandwiches.

By the time a child is ready for school his food likes have increased, but he faces other problems relative to maintaining good nutrition. Mornings in many homes are too often rushed, so that breakfast is a hurried meal or may be skipped entirely. A child who is ill at ease at school may eat poorly at lunch. A short lunch period may be upsetting to the slow eater. Children or this age, who are extremely active may become unduly tired before meals.

Observation of the following points will encourage good food habits.

1. Serve meals in a pleasant place and a calm unhurried atmosphere.

2. Provide meals that are colorful, varied in texture and flavor, and attractively served.

3. Don’t serve the same food over and over again even if it is a favorite. Even well-liked foods can become tiresome.

4. Provide eating utensils and dishes that are easy for the child to hold and to use. Many vegetables, fruits, meats, and bread may be served as finger foods.

5. Allow sufficient time for meals; breakfast need not be hurried if children are awakened early enough.

6. Don’t let the child become too tired before meals. Plan for adequate rest and early bedtime.

7. Plan for snacks as carefully as the meal. Snacks can provide good nutrition. They should not be eaten so close to meals that the appetite is spoiled for the meal.

8. Remember that appetite decreases as the rate of growth slows down during the second, third, and fourth years of life. The toddler may refuse certain foods at this time in trying to assert his independence; don’t make too much of this.

*90/234/5*

GENERAL HEALTH

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE AIROLA DIET: VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:59:56 +0000

Vegetables are extremely important sources of minerals, enzymes and vitamins. Most green vegetables also contain complete proteins of highest quality; in fact often of better biological value than proteins of animal sources – proteins of potatoes and green leafy vegetables are complete proteins of highest biological value.

Most vegetables should be eaten raw in form of raw salads. Some vegetables, such as potatoes, yams, squashes or green beans can also be cooked, baked or steamed.

Generous use of garlic, onions and numerous herbs and natural spices will improve your health and turn dull vegetable dishes into gourmet food.

Food is your best medicine – and vegetables (herbs) are your best medicinal foods.

Like vegetables, fruits are excellent sources of minerals, vitamins and enzymes. Fruits are a cleansing food. They are easily digested and exert a cleansing effect on the blood and the digestive tract.

In addition to all available fresh fruits, in season, the Airola Diet can include dry fruits, particularly when fresh fruits are not available. Unsulfured, organically grown raisins, prunes, dried apricots and figs are available from health food stores.

Fruits are best eaten for breakfast in the morning or as a snack between meals. Roughly, each food group should supply the bulk of one of the three meals: Fruits for breakfast, seeds, nuts or cereal for lunch, and vegetables for dinner; although this order can be interchanged, of course.

*90/103/5*

GENERAL HEALTH

CHILD’S HEALTH/INFECTIOUS DISEASES: SCARLET FEVER

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:21:18 +0000

Scarlet fever does not occur often nowadays, and is a much milder illness than it used to be, for reasons not well understood.

Cause

Scarlet fever is caused by a Streptococcus germ, spread by sneezing and coughing.

Clinical features

Symptoms of scarlet fever vary greatly between children. The commonest symptoms are a mildly sore throat, swollen, tender lymph glands in the neck, a mild fever, and a characteristic rash. The rash covers the whole body and consists of tiny red spots. The tongue may be bright red (strawberry tongue). Nowadays complications of scarlet fever are very rare, due to effective treatment with antibiotics. Rheumatic fever used to be a serious complication, but is rarely seen in association with scarlet fever now.

Treatment

Scarlet fever can be treated effectively with antibiotics of the penicillin group. (If your child is allergic to penicillin, other antibiotics can be used.)

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LEAVING YOUR CHILDREN SOMETHING TO LOVE BY: CHILDREN’S QUESTIONS ABOUR SEX

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:49:42 +0000

“Why would a woman let a man put his thing in her?”

When you grow up and can take care yourself and others, there times when a woman wants to love, to hold, and to kiss and touch a man, and a man wants to do the same thing. Sometimes, but not every time, the man and woman want to join together and have the penis inside the vagina. This is one of the most important things to do in all the world, and a baby can start to grow when the sperm goes with the egg. It is a way of loving, a very special grown-up way of sharing yourself with someone, so it should only happen when you are married and going to be together forever.

”How can a baby eat in there?”

The baby is inside something like a space capsule, and food and other things needed to live are brought in from the mother. There is a special capsule filter that only lets in what the baby needs to live. The baby grows in this capsule and gets food through a cord attached at her or his belly button. The mother and baby are a team and are living together making each other healthier.

“Why doesn’t the baby drown in the water in the sac?”

You are very smart. Yes, there is something like water made by the mother that the baby floats in inside the uterus. It keeps the baby from getting hurt and keeps the baby safe and healthy. The baby can’t drown because he or she does not breathe through the mouth until he or she comes out. It’s just like a person in space, with all the food and even their oxygen coming in through that special cord.

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YOUR MARITAL HEALTH/WIVES’ SEXUALITY: MS. MYTH – THE FEMALE-FANTASY MYTH

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:28:10 +0000

I hate those X-rated videotapes. They are disgusting. A bunch of naked bodies humping each other. I like the parts where you can see some feeling, but that almost never happens.

WIFE WITH HUSBAND PRESENT

I get turned on a lot with those tapes. I feel guilty, but I got one out to look at while he was at work and I masturbated. I know it’s filth, but some parts turn me on.

WIFE IN PRIVATE INTERVIEW

The early perspectives assumed that men looked and women felt. I did not find this assumption to be the case with the couples \ interviewed. Women were aroused by visual stimulation, and sometimes were quite specific in their report. “I love the turn in the shoulders by a man’s neck, sort of the neck and shoulder area. I love to sort of smooth out his suit coat or jacket by running both my hands out from that turn on both sides of his neck to his outer shoulders. I love to look at men in the theater from behind and look at their shoulders.” This wife’s report illustrates a strong visual reaction, and other examples were similar.

The individual love maps of men and women, not their gender, determine what stimuli will elicit a sexual response at any given time. If we tell women that they do not respond visually, then they are likely to report that they do not. If we ask open questions without gender bias, we get the same range of responses in husbands and wives.

Talk together about your reactions to erotica and you will discover that both of you are turned on and off to various visual cues. Asking whether or not a woman is turned on to X-rated material is like asking if someone is turned on to books. It depends! And remember, the sexual-response system is not a closed energy system with an on-and-off switch. It is a flowing, ever-changing system. We do not really get turned on or off, we respond to varying degrees.

When we free our relationship from the mechanical orientation of the early sex perspectives, we learn that we we always “on,” and in control of our response through our selection, sharing, and awareness of our love maps and the variables that determined it.

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THE DESEXUALIZATION OF THE AMERICAN MARRIAGE:THE DE-EROTICIZATION OF THE AMERICAN MARRIAGE

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:59:15 +0000

I suppose to you this will sound perverted. We have done almost everything together. We haven’t missed a posture. But we never seem to experience anything together. We sleep next to each other, but not with each other. Our sex life is like masturbating, like using each other to masturbate. You might say we are the founders of the term “completing the act.”

WIFE

Super Marital Sex Rule: Any part of the marriage that is ignored will disappear, and this rule is particularly true for sex. For most couples, the amount of enjoyment they derive from their sexual relationship corresponds with the amount of attention they pay to their sexual interaction. The sexual return from a marriage will usually match the intimacy investment. The following are ten areas in which the couples failed to invest appropriately or enough.

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OBSESSIONS – GENERAL INFORMATION

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:48:47 +0000

In obsessional-compulsive disorder, there may be recurrent ideas or images entering the mind, such as phrases, pictures and disagreeable ideas, often obscene.

There may be aggressive impulses to hit or injure someone, suicidal thoughts, a desire to swear in church or to take off one’s clothes.

With phobias, there may be extreme anxiety and an unreasonable fear of an object or a situation. These are regarded by the sufferer as groundless and irrational but he cannot control them.

Some phobias are clear-cut, and psychotherapy can often reveal the repressed anxiety that caused the fear of the phobic situation. The connection may be subtle but easy to recognise.

In other cases, there is no clear connection between what caused the repressed fear or anxiety and the resulting phobia.

In treating phobias, behavior modification and learning techniques may be required. Another method is desensitisation.

In this, the person is exposed, initially in thought, to the situation which he most fears. He starts by thinking of himself in that situation in a mild way, then mentally removes himself before the anxiety is severe. This goes on until he imagines himself in the worst possible situation, without anxiety.

Next, he is placed in the real situation, for a short time and removed as soon as he shows anxiety. Finally, he can be fully exposed and able to cope without anxiety.

Another technique is implosion, the reverse of the slow process of desensitisation.

Here the person is placed, at once, into the worst possible situation he can imagine. This creates extreme anxiety and it is believed the shock is so great that the anxiety disappears.

*514/71/1*

CLAUDICATION – CHANGING OUR DIET

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:02:41 +0000

A further operation is lumbar sympathectomy, which involves cutting the sympathetic nervous chain in the lower back. This chain controls the tone in the arterial wall. When the nerves are cut, the arteries permanently dilate and blood flow can increase. Sometimes both operations are combined.

The bypass operation is the same principle as in coronary bypass surgery, where atheroma blocks one of the coronary arteries and a vein is used to bypass the obstruction.

There is no doubt about the marvels of modern medicine, but how can we convince our patients to avoid the bad habits that lead to many of these problems?

Changing our diet and avoiding smoking would reduce the incidence of atheroma.

The diagnosis of intermittent claudication can be made on the history alone. When the doctor examines the legs, he may be unable to feel the pulses in the feet. This indicates obstruction to blood flow.

In the past, various drugs were used in an effort to dilate the narrowed arteries and improve the blood flow. Unfortunately, these have proved disappointing.

*258/71/1*

ANOREXIA NERVOSA – CONCLUSION

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:20:04 +0000

The more severe cases will require admission to hospital. They are perhaps better in a psychiatric ward or hospital rather than a general hospital. Most will respond to encouragement and supervision of meals rather than to forced feeding. However if the weight loss is extreme and the general physical condition is poor then intravenous feeding may be necessary.

Apart from the attention to the physical state, the emotional side of this disorder needs treatment. The girl herself may need intensive psychotherapy. Often the family, especially the parents, may also need counselling, and it may be better in these cases for parents to have a different therapist to the girl herself.

Anorexia nervosa rarely results in death now unless as a result of suicide, but associated depression is not unusual.

*5/71/1*

YOUR CANCER YOUR LIFE – RIGHT TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS (RIGHT TO CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE-EXAMPLE)

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:02:48 +0000

Let me give you an example. A doctor recommends a course of chemotherapy to a woman with extensive breast cancer, without offering any alternatives. For her, the alternatives in fact might include: a more or less intensive course of chemotherapy, use of different chemotherapy drugs; use of hormones; radiation treatment to the painful spots; no specific anti-cancer treatment at all; concentrating on controlling her pain with a suitable painkiller; prayer; a grape diet; or taking an overdose of her painkillers. To any one particular person, some of these will be attractive, others will be out of the question. To make the best decision, this woman needs to know the pros and cons of each alternative, and consider them in the light of her own particular life situation and beliefs. The best choice is not the same for everyone.

After getting all the information about these options, one young mother of three might decide to have intensive chemotherapy because she feels convinced that this has the best chance of prolonging her life. Another young mother of three might decide to have no chemotherapy at any stage because she has decided that, for her, the likely side effects are too great compared to the likely benefit. A third might decide to have the radiation treatment at this stage and the chemotherapy later when her symptoms come back. Each of these could be the best and most appropriate decision for each woman at that time.

As time goes by they may revise their decisions according to their own individual experiences. For example, after several months of chemotherapy, the first woman may decide the side effects she has experienced are too great to warrant continuing with it. The second woman might get to know a few other patients who have had successful chemotherapy and decide to try it herself. Again, these could be the best and most appropriate decisions for these women at that time.

*15/40/1*