6 unsettling toddler habits (II)

Using a pacifier Many children use a pacifier to soothe and calm themselves well into their toddler and even preschool years. A pacifier might also serve as something experts call a transitional object — that is, something that relieves stress and helps your child adjust to new or challenging situations, like starting daycare or taking a long car ride. While there’s no need to banish the binky when your baby steps into toddlerhood, there are some good reasons to start coaxing him to give it up soon.
If your toddler seems prone to ear infections, for example, losing his pacifier might provide some relief. One study showed that children who did not use pacifiers had a 33 percent lower incidence of middle ear infections. If your toddler seems to be developing speech and language problems, a pacifier won’t help matters. That’s because sucking on a pacifier locks a child’s mouth in an unnatural position, making it more difficult for him to develop his tongue and lip muscles normally, says Patricia Hamaguchi, a speechlanguage pathologist from Cupertino, California.
If your child is just learning to speak, talking around a pacifier may also limit his opportunities to talk, distort his speech, and cause his tongue to unnaturally flatten at rest, says Hamaguchi. In some cases, using a pacifier frequently can cause the tongue to push forward between the teeth. This sets the stage for dental problems and the development of a “lisp” when producing the s and z sounds. For these reasons, Hamaguchi recommends limiting your toddler’s pacifier time as much as possible. At the very least, she says, be sure to use a newborn size, which is smaller and softer and less apt to impact your child’s speech. By 18 months, in her opinion, it’s best to lose the pacifier altogether. Bad words and potty talk in toddlers Your wonderfully curious toddler has acquired a new skill, one that’s different and therefore exciting.
Many times, a child’s first swear word will be the result of direct mimicry; maybe she heard you say it when another driver cut you off in traffic, and now she’s repeating it endlessly in the back seat. The best way to deal with this is to ignore it until your child loses interest. If she keeps it up, admit that you shouldn’t have said the bad word (a simple “oops” will do), and distract her with a song or story.
But she also may have developed potty mouth because of what she’s hearing out in the world. Maybe her best preschool buddy has just expanded his vocabulary and thought it fun to share a few choice words with your child, or perhaps she’s inadvertently caught a few episodes of a television series that uses crude language. -babycentre.com

Help yourself!
Get this Hepatitis is inflammation (swelling) of the liver which can lead to damage of the liver and death. Death because the liver is the ultimate refinery in the body. It cleans the blood and remove poisons from the blood which is then excreted in the stool. You can therefore imagine if the liver is sick and not able to purify the blood, all the poisons remain in the body and do harm to the individual. So many things can lead to hepatitis and liver damage. The commonest perhaps is alcohol but drugs and infection such as viral hepatitis can also do immense damage to the liver. Our focus is really on VIRAL HEPATITIS.
These viruses are named alphabetically as HEPATITIS A, HEPATITIS B, HEPATITIS C and HEPATITIS D. These viruses are pretty dangerous since they can cause death and severe sickness. Hepatitis A for instance is transmitted through eating food contaminated by stool from an infected person. The remaining viruses, Hepatitis B, C D and E are transmitted through blood and those who share bodily fluids. Unprotected sexual intercourse is therefore a good way of contracting viral hepatitis. The disease Signs and symptoms of acute hepatitis appear quickly. They include:
• flu-like symptoms
• fatigue
• dark urine
• pale stool
• abdominal pain
• loss of appetite
• unexplained weight loss
• yellow skin and eyes, which may be signs of jaundice
The symptoms and signs resemble those of Malaria. However, the yellow eyes often point to the liver as the culprit. So do not confuse your doctor by saying, ‘I have Malaria’. It might be hepatitis so let him/her investigate with blood tests and confirm it. Prevention Which leads me to suggest that protecting yourself and your loved ones from the infection is of high priority.
We have a conservative estimate of 20 million Nigerians suffering from viral hepatitis. The vast majority do not even know that they have the disease. Therefore protection from viral hepatitis is vitally important and a task that must be done. Help yourself to information as below: First and foremost, vaccinate babies and children so we can raise an army of children who are immune to the disease.
This immunity is lifelong and the vaccine protects them from contractig the disease. They can lead normal lives without fear of catching viral hepatitis. It also means they cannot transmit the disease to other people. Secondly, we must inform teenagers and young people with strong campaigns that educate them about the prevalence of viral hepatitis in Nigeria. We must implore them to be chaste if possible or use protection to prevent sexually transmitted infection. Therefore, they can grow up to be important members of the society. Finally, older people should be encouraged to know their status. Do you know your status? Are you positive or negative?
Get tested and know if you have been exposed to the virus before or not. Those who have not been exposed to the virus should then be offered a vaccination against the infection. For those who are positive, they are monitored and given support to protect them from suffering from liver cirrhosis and liver campaign. Treatment is still possible although the chances of eradicating the virus are slim with length of time following the exposure. However, even then monitoring is important to prevent liver diseases such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer
. The advocacy The Guild of Medical Directors (GMD), owners of private hospitals in Nigeria, has thrown its weight behind efforts aimed at eradicating viral hepatitis in our dear country. The GMD chose ‘Let us make Nigeria HEPATITIS free’ as the theme for its Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The Federal Ministry of Health and other professional organizations in Nigeria are also engaging the public. However, we desperately need your help in empowering everyone with information, advice and providing treatment guidelines. All hands must be on deck to share information and advice on this dreadful disease, silently ravaging our community. The Guild has drawn the battle lines and calling on all and sundry to standup, step out and focus on the eradication of a disease more prevalent and more devastating than HIV AIDS. Perhaps you will join us!

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