Common Cold - Part I

It is so common to experience the cold, then why it is irritating to experience common cold?

Usually in rainy or winter season it is easy to accept that children or even adults may have upper respiratory tract infection i.e. mild or moderate fever and running nose/ chocked nasal cavity, headaches and cough and throat pain etc.

Etiology of URI is mostly viral or many times bacterial and sometimes allergic or even psychological.

Nobody succumbs to any illness even as mild as URI unless there is some underlying cause like collection of ‘toxins’ (waste materials e.g. undigested food end-products) over a period of time. URI is also secondary to some physical and rarely psychological collection of such ‘wastes’.

During rainy season your taste buds are excited to taste oily, spicy, cheesy food and your digestive system is relatively sluggish. This state is explicitly described in Ayurvedic texts and most of the Indian grand parents know it by experience.

So if you are dumping such food items frequently in your tummy even when you are not feeling hungry, then mind you, such food needs extra energy to get digested within your digestive system.

In this course of time if at all your body faces a viral attack- where your immune system needs more energy, it faces acute lack of the same because the energy is already been used by digestive system in excess. Hence you succumb to URI.

Hence during URI consume easily digestible carbohydrates, proteins and less fat, less fibers, sufficient vitamins and minerals to ensure early recovery and no complications like lower respiratory tract infection.

This is a golden rule justifiable in many diseased conditions. We would share some more tips to recover form common cold in next part of the series.

Fathers Day Out

For centuries civilization has been harnessing family as a central pillar for social integrity. None the less within-family integrity is a challenging task and for this Father is a force to reckon with. With father around family dwells is a secure way. Children are happy and mother at ease. With great effort and dedication a father performs his duties. Today is a day to restore reverence to this fatherly figure in every family. 

 A dad is someone who

wants to catch you before you fall

but instead picks you up,

brushes you off,

and lets you try again. 

A dad is someone who

wants to keep you from making mistakes

but instead lets you find your own way,

even though his heart breaks in silence

 when you get hurt. 

A dad is someone who,

holds you when you cry,

scolds you when you break the rules,

shines with pride when you succeed, 

and has faith in you even when you fail...

Child Development and Communication Needs and Skills

Discussing the influences of media on children, it is critical to remember their age and developmental stage. Children’s cognitive, emotional, physical and social skills develop as they go through life. As they grow and mature, their needs, abilities, interests and challenges change. The child’s development has direct implications to the way she or he may be able to benefit from media. For example, the older children get, the longer their attention span grows. So while toddlers may be able to listen to a story for only a few minutes at a time, preschoolers may be more attentive and older children stay attuned for much longer. Similarly, while younger children may be able to comprehend very simple language and concrete images, older children are able to process more complicated linguistic and visual expressions.

Various psychological theories on human development are based on the concept of “stage”. The key to stage theories is the understanding of stages as unique periods of development, with each stage typified by its own special behavioral and cognitive characteristics. According to child development and psychological research, all individuals progress through the same stages in a fixed chronological order, although genetic and/or environmental factors can speed up or slow down the rate from one stage to another.

Stages are perceived to be both hierarchical and integrative. This means that more advanced stages are based on earlier ones and advancement results in a “reorganizing” of various skills. Furthermore, these stages are also perceived as universal: Though children grow up in very different cultures and environments and possess very different genetic maps, they seem to generally proceed through the same stages in the same order.

There are various stage theories that highlight cognitive, physical, emotional, social and moral child development. More current theories, based on new research in child development, demonstrate that children have better capabilities and understanding than was previously thought. The new research challenges the concept of stage and offers alternative ways of explaining developmental differences.

More specifically, it focuses not on the child’s deficit in comparison to other children and adults, but on the different ways children interact with their environments and how these interactions change over time. Greater emphasis is now put on the context in which children grow and develop both in the micro-environment of their home, as well as in the more macro-environments of the society and the culture around them. Those approaches revisit some of the basic premises of stage theories suggesting that child development might be more influenced by environmental circumstances and cultural differences than we previously understood. For example, some argue that we should pay attention to children’s developing spiritual needs as well as to other realms of life, including social justice, from the earliest years. Survival, growth and development are all interlinked: each depends on the other and demands that communication be as holistic and integrated as possible.

Finally, there has been tremendous growth in the area of neuroscience and brain research, giving us new information about everything from how the impact of environment affects the brain structure and holistic development of a newborn to how this same brain structure might affect the behavior and comprehension of messages in adolescents.

Enhance Your Immunity While Transformation of Season

Monsoon with its arrival brings refreshing feel and rejuvenating essence to every living thing. And, especially for human beings this season signifies happiness, cheer and enjoyment. A person tends to indulge in unhygienic habits during this season which can get them cold and cough.

Cough cold, flu and some water-borne diseases like cholera, gastroenteritis are recurrently observed health problems throughout rainy season.  But you can easily handle common rainy season problems efficiently with your habitual kitchen ingredients. A modest care can keep the monsoon scrape at bay.

Sustain personal hygiene 

• Wash your hands well with a medicated soap before and after having food. For regular hand wash, a mild sanitizer also aids the purpose. Then apply almond oil or baby cream. Application of Eucalyptus oil will also sanitize the skin.
• Wear clean and easy clothes. Cotton and Synthetic fabrics are favorable during monsoon.
•  For personal hygiene always keep a pair of garments with you while traveling.

Food and Nutrition

Nutrition plays a vital role in such times. Fruits and juices with vitamin C are more helpful. Sporuted pulses add to protein intake and by the way builds body's immune system. Adding dry ginger (sunth) to milk or tea is preferable. 

One must have good and adequate sleep and fair amount of exercise during this season. Monsoon is a wonderful season to cheerish in this part of the world when you tend to be healthy. 

Some Homeopathic medicines like Rhus Tox, Ruta, Pulsatilla, Carbo Veg, Nux Vomica etc serve very good purpose if you fall ill. But these medicines are to be taken under the guidance of a physician only.

Wish you a Happy Monsoon!!