A sight in our garden!

Now that the nutmegs are almost ready for harvest, the fruits hang like this, split open! Most of them drop in the wind. It is therefore easy to gather. 

My parents planted them about fifty years back. Although we are left with about 20 of them out of the fifty they planted, they yield bountifully. 

I remember my parents choosing the nutmeg saplings because they have a long life span of yielding fruits. 

I received a request to be associated with a department in. aMedical College that is seriously involved in bringing lifestyle issues to patients to make wellness more holistic. I thought that is a lasting investment the department would offer for more than one generation. 

The greatest disorder I find in my interviews with parents is with regard to the sleep hygiene practices of children. During an interview with 25 parents who visited us in one week, 82 percent of parents make children sleep when the adults go to sleep, which sometimes was at 11 pm. Most children had only six or seven hours of sleep. 

I felt disturbed that parents do not think of the long term impact of inattention, irritability, loss of memory, fatigue, etc that set in with sleep debt in children.  

The wellness is not in the agenda of parents. They take care of children well but their casualness in letting children watch TV or use the mobile phones or let them sleep late. These are some of the parenting practices I feel disturbed about. 

Out of the 15 ICMR projects we did with medical students, nine were on issues related to sleep in children. 

Invest with long term plans for the wellness of children!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)