Stopping child diarrhea.

Below is a method to overcome diarrhea. It came to me from a friend through my email. Since Emeritus Professor Wong Hock Boon who passed away on 28 December 2008 was one of the most prominent pediatrician in Singapore and the method comes from him, it certainly deserves our attention. Furthermore, he was well recognised internationally as an outstanding pediatrician.

However, I wish to inform that Professor Wong was a pediatrician and had treated children and babies with diarrhea. There was no mention of the treatment for adults although I believe there should be no harm as in diarrhea for adults, re-hydration is the most important step in countering the problem and rice water certainly contains lots of liquids.

In 1980, Professor Wong was awarded the Guinness Award for Scientific Achievement, and in 1985 the “most outstanding pediatrician Asia” award from APPSEAR (Association of Pediatric Societies of the South East Asian Region).

Emeritus Professor Wong has tackle childhood malnutrition and infantile diarrhoeal diseases vigorously through the promotion of breastfeeding, aiming to improve the health status of children in the region.

The use of rice-water for oral re-hydration in the management of acute gastroenteritis was pioneered by Professor Wong, and this led to a new and highly cost-effective approach to diarrhea diseases in the developing world.

Although re-hydration is the most immediate and vital aspect of the management of diarrhea, the giving of energy in some form of food is necessary. Many people think it is necessary to starve children with diarrhoea and merely give them water. This is dangerous as starving can start off malnutrition, or worsen it, by weakening the affected child's immunity.

Professor Wong Hock Boon has been using rice water to rehydrate babies for several years. If the babies are bottle-fed, rice water is given exclusively for the first 24 hours of treatment while breastfeeding can continue as normal. Professor Wong have found that many babies who have not responded to other rehydration solutions respond well to rice water. If diarrhea starts again with the re-introduction of milk, extra rice water is given with additional rice porridge. Older babies are sometimes given only rice porridge.

According to research, starch-like sugars tend to draw less fluid out of the body and into the gut compared with a similar amount of simple sugar such as glucose. Some babies with diarrhea can digest starch more easily than simple sugars.

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QUICKEST WAY TO STOP CHILD DIARRHEA
by: A Singaporean
When someone gets diarrhea, sometimes the solution is so easy, we wonder why anyone has to suffer.

Of all the ingredients here, the most potent is Rice, but not in the usual form we eat it in, and neither would rice porridge work too well.

The secret is in rice water.

Mother boiled some rice in lots of water and went to their hotel with two 1.5L bottles of rice water. To my surprise, it worked, and they were even able to go out for dinner the next day. Both were exclaiming how the rice water did the trick of making them well again.

I was discussing this some years back with Kim Ng, the ex-matron of KK Hospital. She said, yes, that is what Professor Wong Hock Boon, the notable pediatrician teaches. I was shocked and made some comment how could he? It was common knowledge so what had he to do with it?

Many months later, I regretted laughing at it. Dr Christina Shanta Emmanuel, who is the CEO of which group I have forgotten, either National Health Group or Polyclinics, regarded me seriously when I brought up the topic like it was good fun. She said that Prof Wong Hock Boon had presented a paper on it at some conference after he had done clinical trials.

Then his results were published in the Lancet, the Medical Journal all doctors read. In fact, said Shanta, he was credited for saving the lives of 2 million African babies by this method.

I am impressed.

It is rice water and not rice, that does the trick. I have found it effective again and again.

THE EXACT RECIPE

You take a handful of rice and boil it in a large saucepan with lots of water.
Like three or four large glasses. Then you cool that and drink the water.
If you are in a hurry to relieve the ailing person, take the saucepan off the fire and dunk it in a frying pan or basin of cool water with ice cubes if necessary. This gives the patient a chance to drink the rice water sooner and cure himself or herself sooner.

When drinking the rice water, make sure there is lots of it. You have to tell the patient that enough water must go in to line your guts from throat to other end, all 10 to 12 metres of it. If you take rice, it stays in the stomach.
If you take broth, some of it may go into the small intestine.
But if you take rice water, it will carry rice grains to every inch of your small and large intestine to the end where the problem is.

How does it work? Even Prof Wong Hock Boon doesn't know. Read the article by going to this site:
http://rehydrate.org/dd/dd06.htm#page2

It is good to pass on the news to everyone you know because the complaint is so common and people suffer unnecessarily. You would be doing your friends a great favour to relieve them of their misery when the occasion arises.

Appreciate the obstacles in our path.

About three weeks ago, up at the hill, some friends told me of an obstacle in the path of everyone. When I reached the spot where a huge fallen tree trunk blocked the route, I put one foot over it, sat momentarily on top before sliding down onto the other side.

As I reached the other side, a thought came to mind. Would it not be nice to leap over the tree trunk? Well, it was more than two years ago since the last time I vaulted over an obstacle more than four feet high. Nobody was around. It was as good a time as any to find out. If I could not make it, only Mother Nature was around to witness my embarrassment. So I clambered back over the trunk and moved a little distance away from it. I took a slow cautious run, put my hands onto the trunk, jumped with my two legs raised and side vaulted over the trunk. Wow! I did it. Well, why not turn it into an exercise. So I did. I vaulted the tree trunk ten times, each time clearing the obstacle with even greater confidence. It was not merely the confidence that brought me joy. It was the discovery at each successive vault that the body gets lighter with each jump. At the age of sixty-three years, that was a wonderful feeling, something no amount of money can buy.

I neither know nor understand how it came about. What I realised, only after the continuous vaulting, that I was so much lighter and springier in my steps. Well, it was such a long time ago that I felt this light. How it came about is beyond me. Besides that, I exercised my left arm, putting more weight on it as I side-vaulted to the right. In the process I had lifted my legs a little higher and that, if done every day should strengthen my abdominal muscles. So, it can be said that that obstacle presented by a big tree trunk benefitted me in more than one way.
Of course, I looked forward to more vaults over that wondrous trunk in the following days. Who knows what other benefits it could bring to my body and spirit?

And it was thinking of that tree trunk and the goodness it has bestowed me that I thought of the numerous obstacles that crop up from time to time in our lives. As I went through those that I could remember, I know they have helped improve me as I went along in life. First was the sickly child I was due to the sicknesses that seem to target my body at that young age. At Primary school level, I had some kind of arthritis which at one point caused me to be paralysed in the legs. (I have written about it in an earlier posting.) When I was ten years old sickness left me more dead than alive. According to my mother it was a miracle I survived the sickness. And due to my weakness and sicknesses such as those, I became interested in health, strength, nutrition and various aspects of sickness prevention. Thus, my healthy life is so good today because of those sicknesses that weakened me and in so doing awakened in me the awareness of the importance of good health.

However, it could have gone the other way too. It could have brought on more weaknesses from me. Yes, it could have resulted in me being a pampered child. You see, as a sick child I found the comforting concern from so many people. There were those who brought food and drinks. They would bring some kind of health beverage, made that in a cup and attended to me tenderly by spooning the drink into my mouth. So much attention was given me then. And for the first time, there was a teacher, my class-teacher came to visit me, gave me his attention and told me how much the other children missed me. He told me how much they wanted me to get well soon so that they could all see me. All that attention did get to me. For once in my life, I felt wanted and loved. Then, when I returned to school when my health improved, all those classmates came to welcome me back to school. I can still remember vividly the teacher’s smile at the sight of me. I basked in the attention everyone, especially the teacher, gave me. All my needs were always quickly attended to by the teacher. I began to feel like a special kid in class. It was ‘Ask and it shall be given.’
Fortunately, I somehow realised I was taking advantage of the situation. I do not fully remember how but I knew that I ought not to have people treat me like a weakling. With that realization I thought of how I could be stronger. Perhaps it was strong characters in films such as Hercules or Tarzan, but I certainly prefer to be like them than some kind of pampered weakling. I was lucky there for had I languished for too long in the concern of others for me I could not have learned the lessons my sickness taught me.

Then there was the financial position of my family as I grew up. We were certainly far from being well-to-do and there were many things out of my reach at certain times in my life. That taught me the importance of money management, part of which I learned from those great teachers, Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie. I learned the importance of money, the necessity to save and the need to manage money well.

The above obstacles in my life have put me in good stead for the rest of my life. Therefore, it is no surprise that I am grateful for the lessons they brought.
With the lessons learnt, I had done my very best to ensure my children are in the best possible health and understand financial management . Of course, nothing is fool-proof but parents ought to understand that it is better to have the children prepared and understand the consequences of their actions rather than fumble in confusion should they encounter situations that may bring poor health or financial distress. There are many ways to teach them and like I have always said, the world is always available as our audio-visual aids with true stories to show and teach children about such obstacles so as to awaken their senses. Such true life happenings are invaluable to everyone.

Thus, obstacles are important lessons in life. Being conscious of that fact can help us avail ourselves of their invaluable lessons and prevent us falling into such pot-holes.

Sex and the children.

Yesterday, From the Staronline news I read about three primary school pupils caught by a lady teacher in the act of imitating sexual acts. It was after school hours and the doors of their classroom was closed. However, the teacher noticed that the ceiling fan was on. The pupils fled as the teacher entered the classroom to investigate. A report was made and a girl was sent by her parents for medical check-up to discover that there were old tears in her vagina.

From what has been reported, we can come to the conclusion that the girl involved had been active sexually, either with partners or in masturbation.

Are we to blame the young pupils for their obviously dangerous acts. Such act could lead to early pregnancy and other unfortunate or undesirable consequences which can affect the life and future of the girl concerned. When it comes to the boys, such act could affect their minds, their way of thinking towards women, sex and marriage. Are these children totally to be blamed for such an occurrence?

First, we know that children are curious and would imitate any action they see. As someone said, seventy percent of learning comes from what is observed, twenty percent from listening. So, children see, children want to try it out. What if adults are careless and allow children to see the sex act and hear the sounds of pleasure. The children would certainly want to 'experiment' by imitating the adults, regardless of where such adults are seen, be it the bedroom or the screen. In doing so, in their innocence, they will discover the pleasure of sex. Once it has been committed, they would want more. Can we blame them?

The truth of the matter is that we are all creatures of God, born like any of them, naked and at a certain age, the instinct for propagation comes alive naturally. The only difference humans and other creatures of God is a mind superior to other creatures. We have been given a mind that can think of improvement and ensuring that the human race will develop a system in which every aspect of life is taken care of. Thus, we develop a family system in which people have sex with responsibility, the responsibility of caring for the weak and dependent young whom they have brought into this world with their loving and sex until these youths can achieve their own independence. Humans develop laws to ensure the family system in our society grows progressively better. However, some humans may lose sight and appreciation for such a system, neglecting to instill in their children the need for discipline, respect and right attitudes towards the family and society, resulting in waywardness, disrespect and wrong thinking.

When the behaviour of children are at fault, it is most probably the adults who are to be blamed. Some adults somewhere have led them towards the wrong path. Children are bound to try out things in their curiosity and, more often than not, they get some thrill out of it; a thrill which would have them want to do whatever they have done again, be those things legal, illegal, right or wrong. It is for the adults to be ever vigilant, ready to pull them back from the edge of the cliff onto steady ground, to point out the dangers that a fall from that cliff could bring. In their youth and innocence, they might not see the line between right and wrong distinctly without the guidance of adults.

If more and more of the above case appear, it is time the parents and the children concerned be given a helping hands with counseling before it gets out of control and numbs the consciousness of people towards the effectiveness of our family system. The mind can change and the change can lead to moral decadence. Sometimes, humans are too slow to act and nip the problem in the bud.

Understand your child's innate intelligence.

We have often heard of people who change their occupations after they have graduated from a university.

There was this man who studied to be a doctor and a surgeon but became a teacher instead. 'Stupid' could very well be the word in your mind as you read this. Perhaps, but then what is more important than happiness? it could be said to be mind-boggling should someone stop being a surgeon with nothing to fall back on or to work on/with. Now, this guy was not going to go 'hungry'. He has a job except that it is less lucrative. He is happier with his new job.

What could have caused this phenomenon? Well, it could have been the result of parents who have fixed their minds to what they want their children to be. Many parents I know of have to wish to see their children become doctor despite the fact that such children are not interested in that profession. The parents are interested, not for the growth of their children's innate intelligence but for the financial rewards such a profession can bring.

There was a time when parents sent their children to learn music and forced them to attend lessons despite protests from them. I have heard complaints from children who has insufficient intelligence in that area.

So, there is a need for parents, grandparents and guardians as well as educationists to understand that every child is unique in his/her own way. That is why parents must learn to look for the type of intelligence their child possess.

I have included educationist in my group of people who ought to be aware of children and their particular type of intelligence as there was a time;perhaps it is being in practice; when politicians get educationists to produce scientists who have no innate logical intelligence; when they put all bright students, even those who excel more in linguistic intelligence, in the science stream with the idea of producing scientists and doctors. The result has already been written in an earlier post. I have written about the child who ran away from his university to enter a college when he heard that his application to enter that college had been approved. The parents were flabbergasted at the move but the child was happy and relieved to find himself in the right place for his particular intelligence.

So it is time parents pay more attention to the innate intelligence of their child so that their child gets the opportunity to develope his innate intelligence potential to the full, so that he enjoys his work through being in the right profession or work.

In my next posting, I wish to discuss the various types of intellience children can possibly possess and help parents to recognise their precious children's potential. In my study of achieving the innate intelligence potential, I came across a name which is indeed inspiring for he found his born obstacle a motivation for him to realise his innate intelligence. From there he reached even greater heights in other spheres of life. And his story will follow the one on innate intelligence for there is a connection.

Is a doctor necessary?

Being over protective of their children can cause some parents to take their children to a doctor at the slightest sign of a cold or fever.

Cold is caused by a virus and there is no medicine which can cure a cold. What is usually given by the doctor is vitamin C and something to suppress the symptoms. If the cold is bad; too much sneezing and mucous emitting from the nose; the discomfort is too great; then see a doctor so that the child can be more comfortable. The cold goes away once the virus has completed its cycle in about a week. What a cold patient needs is warmth and a good rest.

When it comes to fever, it is a symptom indicating that the body is battling some foreign bodies, possibly bacteria. If it is mild, it is a sign that only a small battle is going on and the immune system can complete its job without much help. Not only that, by doing so, we give our immune system a chance to improve itself and be able to tackle the same problem better. When the battle is over, the fever subsides.

However, sometimes due to a weakened immune system, the fight is lost and a war has to be declared. The heat of the war is felt and the body temperature rises. When this happens, there is a need for outside reinforcement. Run to a doctor for help to cool the body as well as help fight the enemy bacteria with antibiotics.

As for our children, we should pay more attention to fever if it is obvious from the heat on the forehead and the body. If the temperature gets too high, it can affect the child’s brain.

Whenever, my children had fever, I would cool their foreheads and armpits very often with a wet cloth throughout the day and night. At such times I do not sleep.

I take fever so seriously because I have seen a number of children who suffered from epilepsy brought on by high fever. Such epilepsy cases have to take medicine constantly and epileptic attacks are so unpredictable, happening at the most inconvenient and embarrassing times and places. And since there is no known cure, it has to be endured for life, thus creating obstacles in the poor children’s lives. Prevention in such cases is certainly important.

Of course, where the sickness is something unknown to us, the doctor is the trained person to consult.

Look! Opportunities are everywhere!

Opportunities are always around. The opportunity to be a lawyer, a doctor, to be anything exists at all times.

However, that does not mean you can decide to be a doctor today, just open a clinic and become one.

That is because, to be a doctor, you have to earn a certicate to perform. The opportunity is there but you have to prepare yourself for it. Are you prepared for such an opportunity?

You are the one who decides what you want to be through your thoughts or someone else’s thoughts. You plan to be one. You have to prepare to be one. When you are prepared, you can grab hold of the opportunity as it presents itself.

Okay! You or your mother wants you to be a doctor. She prepares you in language proficiency; starts you with lots of talking to you in the language with the whole world as your audio visual aids. Then, as you grow older, she gives you the Lady Bird Reading Programme to improve your English. Next, she prepares you for the science stream with books and other materials that are suitable. As you grow older, if you agree with her, you study hard to ensure you get a place in the university to study medicine. Each year, those who are eligible because they have the best suitable results, find places in the universities. Of course, if at any time you change your mind, it has to be early enough to give you the chance to change to another stream of study.

Thus, if you are prepared and ready for whatever you want, opportunity is always there.

Tiger Woods was never handed the opportunity to be a golf champion. He planned for it by practicing golf. If he had never wanted to swing a golf club, he would not be where he is today. He went for competitions; competitions which emplaced him to be a golf champion. The opportunity has always been there and he reached for it with the right preparation.

I once taught the English Language to graduates who could not find jobs because the jobs or professions require a certain proficiency in English. Initially, they were not prepared for the opportunities offered them. By improving their English, the opportunities were within their reach.

One such student told me she found a job as an adventure guide. She was required to remove her head-covering cloth. Apparently, her boss believed that her attire did not impress anyone who needs an adventure-guide. However, as a Muslim, she refused to remove her head-covering which covers her hair totally. She told me that her boss was a Muslim too. She wondered why he could not understand the necessity for Muslim women to do that. She was told that she was not suitable for the job.

It was a delicate question as I was not a Muslim. I understood her boss’ view just as I understood hers. Her boss was thinking of hiring a person who looks capable of trekking the hills and jungles. With her shawl or ‘tudong’, she did not give tourists the confidence of going on an adventure trek with her as their guide.
I told her if she was not prepared to abandon her shawl, it was her right but that also implied that she was not prepared to have that Muslim man as her boss. She just was not prepared for that opportunity.

So, we have to be prepared in every way possible. You may be well qualified to teach English Language to others but unless you are willing to show your face and the movement of your mouth and lips, you cannot be a good English Language teacher.

To learn a language well, students must know how the words are pronounced. Correct pronunciation can better be obtained through not just hearing the sound but also through observing the movement of mouth and lips as well as the placement of the teeth and tongue. Thus, a teacher must be prepared to expose the face for students to observe while teaching a language.

So, despite the fact that the opportunity to be a language teacher is always present, if a teacher is not prepared to do the necessary to teach effectively, then the opportunity to teach will never be within reach.

Understanding this, we should realise we need not worry about opportunities. All we need is to prepare our children for whatever they want to become.

Give them language efficiency and all the necessary knowledge possible. Imbue them with the desire to improve themselves. All these can assist them to grab the opportunities they want.

Sleep your way to healthy growth.

In today's world, there is so much for the child to enjoy indoors. There is the television with its many channels of films, entertainment and numerous interesting advertisements. There is the computer and the numerous games our children can play. These games which enterprising people have created so ingeniously as to lead our children's interest on and on, day after day, forever and ever.Before long, our children are addicted. Sleep is no longer important. Addiction overcomes sleep.

When this happens, parents find difficulty getting their children away from the television or the computer. We get tired zombies early in the morning going through the process of preparing for school. Their minds too tired to concentrate, these children doze on their desks, forced every now and then to peer at the teacher and put on some pretense of studying, the body waiting for the time to go home for a much needed nap.After the nap, the cycle repeats itself and the growth and health of these children deteriorate. Of course, their studies deteriorates too!

Growth especially depends upon sleep. Sleep gives the body the opportunity to mend itself, to develop and strengthen. Without enough sleep, the body not only does not develop well; it weakens!

With a weakened immune system, sickness charges in. One of the first indication of a weakened immune system is an attack of cold.

The powerful effect of sleep on our immune system and health can be observed through the quick recovery from cold merely through having sufficient sleep.

It is noted that the importance of sleep does not easily come to our senses. Knowledge and parents' role as models are the only way to get children to understand.

When my children were young, i put aside everything else to be with them at about 8.00pm. to read stories from the Ladybird Reading Programme and, later, other short stories. Usually by a little past 8.30, the lights would be out. I would lie down with them, communicate softly with them and then pat them to sleep. This part of the day is structured so as to assist the body to fall asleep at a certain time. They fall asleep easier because they do not nap in the afternoon or evening.

This worked for my children and they awaken to each new day fresh with sufficient replenished energy for another day of learning.

"Aarrrgh....! Look! I need it!" What?

You can only talk when there is some listening, right? Otherwise, you must be wrong somewhere in the head. You would not be striving hard for good grades in a certificate unless you know someone is going to look at it someday. We would not be choosing suitable, beautiful clothes if we do not want others to see us in them. We comb our hair in a certain fashion; we colour our lips strikingly red; we wear all kinds of jewellery and ornaments just to make ourselves attractive so that others will pay attention to us.

You have got it! We need attention! So does our children. Many of the tantrums children throw are messages to parents to heed them and their needs, one of which is attention.

I know a child who would throw a tantrum each time his younger brother took his toys to play. Since this elder son has a lot of toys to play with, why does he exhibit such a behavior? Actually, it is a message to the parents. He feels he has been neglected since the arrival of the younger child. Almost all attention has been given to the younger one. So, the only way to attract the parents to himself is to make some noise. The fact is each time he throws a tantrum, he does get attention although it is a negative type. This negative attention reinforces the action of throwing tantrums. Soon, such behavior becomes his habit. So, the parents claim it is his nature to be so bad tempered. This judgement on the part of the parents fixes the behavior and the child himself believes he is that type of person. Even his parents say so, so how can he change?

Sometimes pupils misbehave in the classroom and teachers think of a thousand and one reasons but seldom get the right answer to the problem.

Pupils are usually problematic because they are bored with the teaching or the work in the classroom. There are at least two reasons they could be bored.

One of them is that they are unable to follow the lesson due to their low proficiency level in the language medium. They cannot understand what the teacher is explaining. Even if it is in their mother tongue, the level is too high. Without being able to understand, how interested can the child be?
Imagine yourself being put into a Sanskrit class when your proficiency of that language is either low or zero! You would be merely hearing sounds that carry no meaning. Can you sit and listen quietly for forty minutes, an hour, a day, five days a week, about forty weeks a year without giving up? I can tell you this; it is torture! So, how can we blame the child for not paying attention?

In fact, when I taught English and my class consisted of students who had very low proficiency, I always told the senior English Language Officer and the Principal that I would not be following the syllabus. They were usually worried about what the Federal Inspectorates would say. I told them I would be responsible if there were any complains. I did not wish to follow a syllabus which would only bring frustration to my students and cause them to misbehave. I would go down to their level and from there help them to reach whatever level they were capable of. We must always teach from the known to the unknown.

Unless the above is done, the students in a weak class have no way out of the boredom. As frustration at not learning anything sets in, mischief or some kind of distraction created by them would be the only other way out. They have to create the mischief or die of boredom. The mischief is a method of drawing attention to their problem. And it works, in a negative manner, for them as the teacher gives them some attention in the process of scolding them.

Unfortunately, this kind of attention can never bring students and teachers together. It only leads to greater misunderstanding of the children’s needs and more antagonism between the two parties.

As we understand that mischief, tantrums or anger shown by children are ways to attract attention from adults, we ought to understand where they have been neglected and have the courage to fulfill their needs.

It is important to give our children positive attention. Such attention will bring us closer to our children.