Between the live cables!

 

I stay amazed when I see birds protect themselves from getting electrocuted! Any contact with another cable while perched on one of them can make this happen! And yet they have mastered the art that the live cables are  the regular flight stations for some birds!

There is a way of living that is truly dangerous, but perhaps not perceived to be so!

Of late I have got started to look at the cholesterol and triglycerides levels of developmentally challenged children, who show a tendency towards overweight. I am alarmed at the way the early indications of a metabolic syndrome is observable biochemically even as early as two years! 

More so in children born preterm or with signs of Intra Uterine Growth Restriction or born to parents who are obese!

In my pursuit to get the families to think about changing life style practices, I encounter resistance! Who thinks about hypertension, cardiac stress or early onset of Diabetes when a child is just tow years. So I started looking at the fasting blood glucose levels to help parents to be even more objective. Parents of children whose blood sugar values seem to be more ready are often ready to think seriously about this matter. 

Some who bought a Glucometer come back  with values of fasting and post meal blood sugar values. That helps them to believe the risk at hand!

Another risk that I want to mitigate is the drop of oxygens saturation in children who are mouth breathers due to the enlargement of adenoid, tonsils or due to malocclusion of teeth. With pulse oximetry now possible, about ten parents are on this plan now, to take the pulse oximetry readings at bed time, when the child gets interrupted in sleep and while on different positions of body posture during sleep.  

I feel that risk assessment and prevention is part of good health care !

It is not an easy proposition to many parents. To get parents to wean away infants and toddlers  from watching phone or playing with it or viewing TV is a difficult task as most parents find it easy to engage children by this easy mode! They forget that the machine interface is no substitute for human interface which is essential for promoting language development, social skills, meaningful play, pre-school skills etc. 

Our children grow up amidst many risk factors!

To avoid talking about the difficulties of a child in the child's parents, when children can hear and feel adversely about themselves, is another stressful situation for me. I welcome parents first to talk about the needs of a child and inspite of suggesting that they do not speak about it once a child is welcome for clinical examination, most parents do not respect that contract.  To honour a child without making him or her feel guilty or offended is necessary to prepare him  to negotiate with change in behaviour! 

It has been a difficult journey for me! 

I suffer from the criticism from some quarters, of spending half an hour or more for a consultation and the out-patient service finishing rather late!

I have been torn between being brief and being wholistic in my approach!

I hope I would find a middle path and move forward!

I sense a calling from within to mitigate risks under which parents and children live ! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)