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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1953-04-09, Page 3YoChild's Health And Care By STELLA McKAY Since epidemics of influenza are breaking out all over On- tario, mothers are natuitally anx- ious about their children. How can I protect my family from it? What can 1 do if we do get it? Is it a serious type of 'flu? are some of the questions we've been asked. The name 'flu is often loosely used by .anyone who has a bad, head cold along with fever, cough and bodily aches and pains. How- ever, the onset of true 'flu is' much more sudden and much more violent in its actions. The child's temperature shoots to 103 or more degrees F., and every bone in his body seems to ache and exhaustion follows the least effort. A dry persistent cough usually appears early in the ill- ness and the child complains of •extreme soreness hi his chest from coughing so much. Fortunately, today's" 'fiu epi- demics seem to be of a mild type, but even so, great care should be taken to prevent sec- ondary invaders, such as pneu- monia and ear infections. Luck- ily for us, the wonder drugs, sul- pha, penicillin, aureornycin and other antibiotics, which were so tragically lacking in the severe 'flu epidemics in 1918-19, usually - prevent any serious develop- ments. If your child complains of feel- ing chilly and says his bones are sore and his head aches, 'put him to bed, keep him warm, take his temperature and call your doc- tor. During the fever stage, espe- cially, if tiredness is severe, do not allow your child out of bed, not even to go to the bathroom. Your doctor will order medicines and treatment. It is usually safe to give aspirin to help reduce the fever and to relieve the •aches and pains. Half an aspirin tab- let, may be given, every 4 hours but not oftener, to a child from 2 to 5 years. Older children may have a whole aspirin tablet, every 4 hours. A tiny bit of baking soda in a glass of water, given along with the aspirin, will keep the child's stomach from be- ing upset. Aspirin for small children should be crushed to a powder and mixed with sieved fruit or dissolved in water and sugar. Your doctor will tell you about diet. Offer your child food but don't force him to eat • it. However, he should be offered fruit drinks, ginger ale and water freqently as it is important for him to get plenty of fluids. • If your wee patient's pyjamas and bed linen become damp from perspiration, they should be changed. Sponging a child, with lukewarm water will help bring down his fever and make -him more comfortable. Wash small areas at a time and keep the rest of him covered to prevent chill- ing. If your child shows signs of 'lificulty breathing or complains of earache, call your doctor as 'flu complications should not be neglected. Here are some every - day things parents can do to ward off colds and 'flu infections. 1. 'Flu and the • common cold are highly infectious. Keep any- one with a cold or sore thoat away from your children, if pos- sible; it could be 'flu. 2. Its every mother's respon- sibility to see that her family gets good nourishing meals, every day, and a good nights sleep each night. 3. Canadian children should be given cod liver oil or some type of vitamin D, every day, during the winter months when sunlight is scarce. 4. Youngsters should be dress- ed to suit the weather outdoors and not be too warmly dressed while playing indoors. Wet or sweating feet are likely to be- come chilled and allow an infec- tion to get a head start, 5. Avoid having your home overheated but no child should endure a draft from wide-open windows. Likewise open win- dows in a sleeping room during winter weather are unnecessary and may be danger- ous, To allow your child's bed- room to drop below 60 requires bed clothing that is too heavy. This tires a child and causes rest- less sleep. 6. Have air in the home moist, if possible. If the air in your home is dry, the nasal passages and bronchial tubes are obliged to give up large amounts of mu- branes lining the nose moist. Dry membranes cannot function prop- erly. 7. If you haven't an humidi- fying system connected to your furnace, you should try other methods of evaporation. House plants and pans of water in the rooms will help increase the hu- midity. Let your kettle boil for about five minutes, morning and evening, each day. However, if you can gradually accustom your family to having your home about 68 degrees in the daytime and around 65 at night,•you won't need to worry about the humid- ity. It is always well to' remember that your child's emotions can and do effect his susceptibility to infections. A happy child is usually a healthy child. The love and security you give him are also powerful weapons against 'flu and other diseases. NEXT WEEK: "Chat With New Moth- ers" and "Johnny Won't Play With Other Children." Readers are invited to post their problems to Stella McKay c/o this news- paper. U DAY SCllOOL LESSON Bp Rev R. BarcLap Warren B A.. B. D. Paul's Conversion At Damascus Acts 22: 3-16 Memory .Selections: I count all things but loss icor the excellen- cy of the knowledge of Christ Jesus niy Lord. Philippians 3:8. With this lesson we begin a series on the life .and letters of Paul. Logically, the study' begins with the story of Paul's conver- sion. This educated young man was at first bitterly opposed to those who were followers of the teachings of Jesus. He watched over the garments of those who stoned the saintly Stephen. Per- haps it was then that his con- science began to prick him. When going to Damascus to ar- rest other Jews who had taken up with the new teaching Saul, as he was then called, was con- fronted by Jesus. (See '1 Cor. 15:8). That vision of Jesus chan- ged his life. He yielded himself to Him. Humbly he asked, "What shall I do, Lord?" From then on he was an obedient follower of Jesus Christ, his Lord. Not everyone is so bitter against the way of Christ as Saul was. Neither does Jesus appear to all as he did to Saul. But the fact is that by nature we are rebels against God. There must come the time of self -surrender to Jesus Christ. We must be born again, Then we will go forth to serve. Our ministry may be small compared with Paul's but nevertheless it is important. Dear Reader: Have you met Jesus Christ and surrendered your all to Hiin? If you haven't, begin to read your Bible and pray. Turn from your sins in Model Meets Model—A not -so -plain model makes the acquain- tance of a model at the National Hobby Industry show. Dorothy Johnson,. model, learns about the miniature planes from Lew Mahieu. He has 14 international model -plane records to his credit, hopes to recapture with the above plane, honors lost to Russian model -makers. lis easy to see Miss Johnson is im- pressed by the plane. Double Take—Ten-year-old_.:#wins, Bill Cornelison, at left, and Don, at right, show off their twiin heifers. The calves, named Alpha and Beta, hove prize -wining parents. simple faith to Jesus Christ, -With the help of His Spirit you can. Only when we find deliver- ance from sin through faith in Jesus Christ do we find harmony and peace and joy. Life then has purpose for we have found a worthy goal. Surrender now. March—At The Turn It can't be loiig now. A warm February raised hope in our hearts for an early spring, hope which March chilled in a hurry. But the .chill can't last too much longer, not with the sun where it is, lighting the east windows once more in the mornings and setting almost west again. • The wild and growing. things havebegun to respond: Robins which came north in flocks ten days ago are still here. They can, and occasionally do, back -track; but this time they are staying, finding shelter in the brushy valleys and the pines of the hills, waiting it out. On sunny ;morn- ings, even when the temperature has been at the freezing mark and below, they have chittered and even essayed a few songs. The songs were tentative, but unmistakably robin songs, hope- ful if not exultant, A few chipmunks have been out and aro md, scurrying along • the stone walls and even pausing iii the sun. An occasional wood- chuck has been seen, hungrily - looking for food after a long sleep, not in the best of spirits but certainly doing more than gazing at his shadow. No wood- chuck is at his predatory best in March, any year. The spring bulbs which thrust up green shoots into February's warmth have relaxed a bit, and some of them have been frost - nipped; but daffodils, even in the face • of icy nights, have gone right ahead with their budding. They are ready to spread their color as soon as two or three hos- pitable days come along, end-to- end. We almost always expect too much of March. We yearn for spring. But with March half over, spring is inevitably not far ahead. — From The New York Times. Medical. Hint Migraine in the Chest. A pain in the chest may not signal heart trouble. Instead, it may be a form of migraine. In a recent study of several hundred patients with migraine headaches, a large proportion were found to have palpitations, racing pulses and chest pains too. In some, the chest pains were much like those of angina. Yet migraine, rather than heart trouble, was the cause. .The study showed, too, that the., chest pains may occur simultaneously with a typical migraine aieadache or without any head pain. EEN HUM Gordon Sn�i lti Lots of Variety One of the fine things about gardening is the wide range of special interests. Anyone can soon become an expert along certain lines of his own choosing. Some people like to concentrate on rock gardens, others on win- dow boxes, or an extra fine lawn of, say bent grass. Others go in for rare dwarf plants or special borders of various distinctive colors. Still others accept the challenge of shaded quarters and with tuberous begonias and other plants that actually prefer to keep away from the sun, they make a brilliant showing. The seed catalogues will help in choosing plants for any of these special purposes and, of course, for the more advanced there are all sorts of other literature. It gives one quite a thrill to be pointed as "That's the person on our street or in our town that grows the best of this or that." At the Back For screenings, fences, veg- etable gardens, walks and other places there is a wide assortment of quickly growing annual flow- ers, These plants will reach two to ten feet high in a few weeks and will make just as good a screen or background as perman- ent shrubs and hedges. In most Canadian seed catalogues along with the date of flowering, hard- iness and other factors, will be listed the mature heights and usually some indication of the speed these flowers grow. In the tall category are cosmos, holly- hocks, giant zinnias and mari- golds, spider plants, ornamental sunflowers and many others. Planted well apart and in good soil these will form a blossoming background for the regular flow- ers and will hide practical bits of the• backyard we do not wish every passerby to see. For the same purpose one can also use annual climbing things like nas- turtiums, sweet peas, scarlet run- ner beans, morning glories, an- nual hops, etc. Moving Transplanting is one of the most important and commonest jobs in gardening. Even the tiniest •flower or vegetable plants. sometimes have for be moved, to give them room to develop. When.. small practically anything can be moved if .a few simple rules ere followed. The main thing is to. keep the roots undisturbed, to keep away from the air and to cover quickly and firmly with fine moist soil. Watering during and immediately after transplant- ing, unless the ground is very moist is essential and also if pos- sible a little shade for the first few hours or a day or two. With big things like trees and shrub- bery, it is also advisable to tie firmly to a stake to prevent the wind loosening. Where feasible and there are only a few things t� move, one should do the job in the cool of the evening and preferably when there is no wind. Above all it is most ireportant to cover the roots well and press the soil firmly around them. To speed growth and lessen the shock of moving sprinkle a little chemical fertilizer around but not actual]y touching the roots. Why we Cultivate Destroying weeds is only one of the reasons for cultivation. ' The big gain is the improvement in the texture of the soil. Cultiva- tion lets in air, breaks up the soil, makes it more open, or as the experts say., more friable. Porous, loose soil will absorb and hold more moisture and will dry out much more slowly in dry weather. Earlier Maturity On the market are certain hro- mone sprays, which will make things like tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc., fruit faster and earlier and also very substantial- ly reduce the number of seeds. So often in our climate the first blooms fail to set fruit or do so only in a limited way. That's where these special sprays come in handy but they niust be used according to directions. They are fine for some plants but deadly to others. MERRY MENAGERIE "It's a -dirty trick, but we've got A* spring this trap with some-) thing", UCH' WE KN UT CANCE IN 20 YEARS, TECHNIQUE HAS IMPROVED BUT METHODS OF FIGHTING IT ARE UNCHANGED By Richard Kleiner NEA Staff Correspondent NEW YORK—(NEA)—Cancer is normal cells gone berserk. With- out any reason that science has yet discovered, honest, hard- working cells suddenly change into evil organisms, 'seemingly bent on the destruction of the animal in which they live. Un- checked, they accomplish that destruction. While science is attempting to find something that will do that checking, the present consensus is that the best way to beat cancer• • is . to recognize it early. Here is how cancer operates, as closely as science can paint the tragic picture at the moment. There is always an orderly re- placement of cells going on in the body. Old cells wear out — as when you peel after a sunburn— and new ones are manufactured to replace then, If you are in- jured, this function is stepped up automatically, but, after the in- jury is healed, it slows down again. In cancer, this stepped up pro- duction becomes the rule. It starts in some part of the body. Cells are turned out faster than the body can use them, The unneeded cells just pile up, forming. a tumor. If this dread stock -?filing is on or near the surface of. the body, a lump is noticed. If it is deep in- side the body, the signs are hard- er to detect. At this early stage. the. growth is slow. But a point is reached when the cell production shifts into hi '1 gear. Cells multiply endlessly, ceaselessly. The pile increases. Bits of it break.of± and, in e proc- ess called metastasis, are carried to other parts of the body where they settle and grow and forin new tuniors. Tumors which do. . not metastasize are called "be- • nign"•tuanors, and are not cancer If these cancers are not located in or near a vital organ, the pa- tient may live for years. He may be completely unaware of his af- fliction, That is one of cancer's greatest dangers. Eventually, however, a growth will begin that pushes against, or grows in, a vital organ. Perhaps the windpipe is closed, perhaps "Cobalt Bomb" is new technique in the war against cancer. Here a patient is treated for head cancer by being "bombarded" with cobalt particles. a lung is overrun, perhaps the stomach or intestines become cancer -wrecked. Thus, these ac- cumulated cells eventually kill Cancer's death is slow and pain- ful, That is the course of a cancer. In America at least 225,000 people. will die of cancer in 1953. Hund- reds • of thousands of others will contract it. If the current rate' continues, one-quarter of these will be cured, the rest will die, * * Cancer will kill 15,500,000 Americans now living, Among these will be many children, for cancer attacks more children from 3 to 15 than any other disease. If it is detected and treated in its early stage, most cancers are curable. At that point, it is in only one spot and the growth is relatively slow. A surgeon can remove the entire pile of cancer- ous cells and, usually, that's the end of it, And that's why doctors harp on two themes -- annual physical check-ups and recognition of the early danger signs. The proof of the wisdom of that knowledge is the fact that doctors themselves have one of the lowest cancer mortality rates of any group. The American Cancer Society esti- mates that 70,000 people who died of cancer .last year could have survived had they gotten treat- ment soon enough. Later in the disease's course, there is still some hope. Cancer therapy uses three weapons— surgery, X-ray and radium. Basi• sally, these are the same meth- ods that have been used for 20 years. Techniques have been im- proved, but the methods them- selves are unchanged, x: u: K, • The new techniques save some lives. Surgeons, for example, can do more than ever today because of better anaesthetics, infection - preventing antibiet:cs and similar advances. They can remove a s lung or a stomach to get at a can- cer. But there are still many cancers that are inoperable. Radium and X-ray — and the new cobalt "bomb" at Montefiore Hospital -aim at destroying the cancer by bombarding it - with particles that halt its growth. They destroy nearby blood vessels, thus depriving the cancer cells of the food they need. But there are still many cancers that are too far advanced to respond to this treatment, or too near a vital . organ which night be damaged. If all treatment fails, science can at least snake a cancer pa- tient's suffering less intense, with new pain -killing drugs. Actually, there are hundreds of types of cancer. Leukemia and Hodgkin's Disease, which attack the bloodstream, are forms of cancer. Cancer can occur in the bones or on the skin. It can start in any part of the body where the cells divide, which means all cells except the lens and cornea of the eye. The commonest is cancer of the colon and rectum, * * a, What causes a cancer to start? Some causes are known—a fair person may get skin cancer by staying in the sun too long over a longe period of time. And peo- ple who paint radium dials on watches—arid point their brushes by licking them—may get cancer of the stomach from the radium they swallow. Constant irritation can cause cancer, such as a hp cancer which may attack long- time pine smokers. But the sun, the radium and the irritation are probably secondary causes. There is probably one common cause behind those and other cancers, It could be a physi- cal change in the nucleus of the cells. It could be something chemical. It could be a virus., It could be many things. There is some indication that cancer may be hereditary, and some indication that hormones -- the chemicals produced by gland. —have an influence. But • science simply has not found that basic cause --if there is one to be found, If they knew that. they'd be well on the way to finding a cure, (Next weds: Will cancer be eon. quered?i