Health News and Information

Simple measures will usually work and the rash will improve or disappear in a few days. A good course of action will include:

Frequent nappy changes. This keeps the area dry and gives the skin a chance to heal. You may have to check every hour or so to see if the nappy is wet or soiled. If it is, change it immediately.

Let the baby’s bottom ‘air’. Expose your baby’s bottom to the air, for as long as possible each day. Even during naps, you can leave the baby lying on an open nappy or a towel. Fasten nappies loosely, so that air can circulate freely. Cleanse the skin gently using luke warm water and a mild soap. Always rinse thoroughly and pat dry gently with a towel. Disposable wipes usually have alcohol in them which will sting the already raw areas. Cleansing with running water is preferable at all times, not only for the baby’s sake, but also for the planet’s sake! Use an appropriate protective cream after each nappy change. These can be purchased from the chemist without a prescription, but it is a good idea to check with your doctor or maternal and child health nurse. Do not use cortisone creams or doctor may prescribe particular creams or ointments.

Rinse nappies thoroughly after they are washed, to remove soaps. Bleach is most effective in killing bacteria, but make sure the nappies are rinsed. Make sure the nappies are quite dry before using them again.

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The umbilicus (also known as the navel or belly button) in newborn babies requires special care in the first 2-3 weeks after birth. The umbilical cord itself, which is cut at birth, connects the baby inside the womb to the placenta, and so is not needed after birth. The remaining stump forms the umbilicus, which can easily become infected up until the time that it shrivels and drops off, at around 2 weeks. Frequently clean the base of the cord where it joins the abdomen, by gently lifting the cord and swabbing the area using a cotton bud soaked in rubbing alcohol. This can be done morning and night. If possible do not cover the area with the top of the nappy; this will help it dry out quicker. Do not put any creams, ointments or powders around the umbilicus.

You may notice a small amount of bleeding around the stump of the umbilicus. This is normal and can be stopped by applying firm pressure to the area with a piece of sterile gauze. As your baby grows continue to clean his umbilicus after baths to ensure it remains free from lint.

When to see your doctor

• if you notice an area of redness around the umbilicus, or a discharge (especially if greenish in colour);

• if the cord has not dropped off after 2 weeks;

• if your baby has an unexplained fever and is generally unwell;

• if you notice a swelling or bulge around the area of the umbilicus;

• if you have any questions or concerns about the appearance of your baby’s umbilicus, or about how to take care of it.

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Belief systems are as important, perhaps more important, to sexuality as any other area of life. Developing a shared belief system is central to super marital sex. This is why marriage offers a unique opportunity for intimacy, for it provides the time and opportunity for spiritual growth through life changes.

I ask my couples to find a belief system that they can share actively, either by going to a church, synagogue, or other place of worship or doing volunteer work or other activities that make the belief system come to life. While therapists seldom discuss such issues with their patients, I find this one of the most if not the most productive area for improving intimacy.

This sig has been one of the most rewarding and one of the most difficult for the couples. “I have been a noninvolved Catholic all of my life. I don’t know what I can do about it now,” said one husband.

“I’m a cultural Jew,” answered his wife. “I don’t believe in institutional religion.”

I asked this couple to talk things over together for a while, perhaps on their walk. To achieve super marital sex, you need a commonly acted open belief system, a transitional life philosophy that binds you together beyond problem-solving and day-to-day living and loving. Talk to a rabbi, a priest, or clergyperson you can both relate to. Do not neglect this part of your relationship. Retrace together the origins of your “life philosophies.” These philosophies are related to the couples’ love maps.

To help with this, I suggest a once-a-day mutual prayer during which both partners sit or kneel silently and listen together, receive together a sense of connection, a sense of oneness. It is nonpeti-tionary because it is not a way of asking for something, but a way of tuning in to the connection between the relationship and the universe. It allows for a quiet, steady time together that may help in the development of a strong mutual belief system, even if the religious backgrounds of the spouses are very different.

A recent study by Patricia Weenolsen of Seattle University suggests that we are constantly re-creating the relationship between our inner selves and our outer world. She discovered that people fell into four categories regarding this issue. One group focused on the idea of a supreme being and cosmic purpose. A second stressed a cosmic purpose of transcendence, a spiritual view of life not associated with a deity. A third group ascribed the meaning of life to an individual goal for living, such as making a certain amount of money. A fourth group focused on individual goals of a more general nature, such as being happy or loving. I have used this framework to help some of the reluctant couples begin their discussions about “the meaning of life.” In the order of the examples of Weenolsen’s categories, are you cosmic-specific, cosmic-general, individual-specific, or individual-general in your view of the purpose of life?

“It was so awkward at first, but after a while, it was almost magic, almost mystical. We could feel it together,” reported one wife. “It wasn’t like religion, or just a ritual. It was ours. I guess we were both cosmic-general and didn’t know it.”

The husband reported, “I thought it was really proselytizing at first. I thought you were selling the church, passing the plate. But it turned out to be something very special to us. We don’t really have a common belief system like you said, but we are closer. That quiet time is special. There is no other word for it, just special.”

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Look. He’s scanning. He stands with his back to the bar, sort of leaning on it like that. He uses his glass like a type of sight on the barrel of a rifle, except that he is holding it just below his belt. Guess what type of rifle he has in mind? He’ll just scan back and forth until he gets a return glance.

STUDENT ANALYZING COURTSHIP TAPE

The first step in bonding is to send a message of availability through words or body language. We all do this every day of our lives, even if we are very happily bonded. We seem to be keeping in practice by sending at least mini-messages to test our “bondability.” It is our mammalian background that predisposes us to this proception.

The body language of proception involves positioning, showing skin (even just a wrist), leaning toward one another, brief touches, “accidental” bumping, leaning on one another, talking closely to one another’s heads because of sometimes nonexistent noise, and other “body dances.” Unfortunately, we tend to abandon these bonding body dances as our marriages age. I teach the couples to “bond-dance” to recapture some of the body dance that helped make the bond in the first place. We come to feel as we behave, so if we behave ‘ ‘bondingly,” we may learn to rediscover our bonding feelings.

We send “hot flashes” during our day. We pass one another, exchange a glance, and seem to send the message, “I could possibly relate to you. I will never talk to you, but I think we could do something together.” Our eyes meet, brief fantasies may occur, and we may think about this anonymous encounter again later. These encounters may take place on an elevator, walking down the hall at work, or even at a traffic light, but they happen and happen often. “Warm flashes” occur when you have lunch with someone, talk with someone over a period of time at a party, work with someone as a colleague, or spend a little time with someone. Glances are exchanged again, and conversations may include double-meaning messages that test the bonding state of each person. These interactions may be just a form of “bonding play,” but again we all do this, establish brief, mini-bonds with many people, perhaps as a way of meeting the bonding needs unmet in our primary relationship.

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Senility may place such a strain on family members, that death, when it comes for the elderly person afflicted is welcomed as a blessed relief.

The dementia associated with senility is one of the greatest problems in our modern society. It affects almost one in six of those over 65.

Some cases are due to hardening of the arteries of the brain. This causes impaired circulation and death of some brain cells.

More than half the cases are due to Alzheimer’s disease. In the past, this disorder was thought to be the main cause of pre-senile dementia coming on in the late forties to sixties, but it is now regarded as the commonest cause of senility in the elderly as well.

The cause is unknown.

In the early stage, the sufferers usually preserve normal personality but can’t seem to learn anything new and recent memory fails. Depression is common.

Eventually, they lose touch with reality, become childish in behavior and speech and may lose control of their bladder and bowels.

Nursing these elderly people at home becomes a great problem for the children.

Nursing homes may be available but not always within the financial reach of many people. Most government or church-run hospitals usually have long waiting lists and some will take these elderly people for a short time while the family takes a holiday.

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Scattered among these enzyme-producing cells of the pancreas are small islands of different cells — the islets of Langerhans.

These contain two different cell types: alpha cells, which produce glucagon, a chemical which raises blood sugar levels by stimulating the liver to release glucose into the blood, and beta cells which produce insulin.

The tendency to develop diabetes appears to run in families and, if both parents are diabetic, their children run a risk as high as one in five. Incidence in the community varies from six to 13 per 1000. The variation depends on how the disease is classified.

Many people show what is called impaired glucose tolerance. They may have higher blood sugar levels than normal and, if given glucose, may not clear it from the blood as quickly as is normal. This condition is more common in the elderly.

Most of these people, whether young or old, do not go on to develop diabetes but, because they sometimes show sugar in the urine and blood tests may show increased glucose levels, they are often wrongly classified as diabetics.

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Pediculosis capitis (head lice) is common in children and may occur in adults. The louse lives only on the head and is passed from person to person but may also be transmitted by hats and towels. It spreads rapidly through schools and kindergartens and then through families.

The louse is only 2-3 mm in size and difficult to see. Its eggs or nits, attached to hairs, may be more easily seen.

Treatment of all children in the class and all family members is usually recommended. Benzyl benzoate lotion and gamma benzene hexacloride as a shampoo are effective and cosmetically acceptable. Malathion is also used.

The nits are firmly attached to the hairs and encircle them so that they need to be pulled along the length of the hair to remove them. Special fine nit combs are available to clear the nits from the hair. It is not necessary to shave the head or cut short the hair.

The pubic louse usually spreads through sexual contact but may be spread by infested clothing or towels.

Although confined mostly to the pubic hair, these lice may be found elsewhere in the hairs under the arms, on the abdomen or even in the eyebrows and eyelashes.

These lice are killed by the same chemicals which are used for head lice.

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Cancer in the lungs causes difficulty in breathing. The job of the lungs is to put oxygen into the blood and take waste gases such as carbon dioxide out. If part of the lung is destroyed, the rest of the lung has to work harder to do this. This means the patient needs to breath faster and gets puffed out easily on exertion. Breathing extra oxygen, especially at times of exertion, helps the lungs to get enough oxygen into the blood. Other symptoms may include a cough and wheezing. As with the liver, pain is not common. It only occurs if the cancer grows through or stretches the sensitive outer lining of the lung. This lining is called the pleura (it is what gets inflamed in pleurisy). Sometimes, breathlessness is due to fluid forming outside the lung. If this happens it is often possible to take the fluid off with a needle or tube through the skin. This can give very good but temporary relief as the fluid will form again unless the cancer that is producing it can be successfully treated. Breathing extra oxygen allows the damaged lung to get enough oxygen into the blood only up to a certain point. If too much of the lungs are destroyed, oxygen in the blood drops and carbon dioxide builds up, gradually causing drowsiness and loss of consciousness and death.

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