Happiest Baby on the Block - Book Review

“The happiest Baby on the Block” is the national Best seller book authored by Dr. Harvey Karp, M.D. Dr. Karp is an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine. With his rich experience of over 30 years, he has taught thousands of parents his secrets for making children happy. Published by Bantam in June 2002, it was copy righted in 2002 by “The Happiest Baby, Inc.”  The international standard book number of “The happiest Baby on the Block” is ISBN 978-0-553-38146-7 and is priced at $15. The book is aimed at the new ways to calm crying of the newborn and help it sleep longer.

This book has been written in a conversational style. Dr. Karp with his expertise in child development, child’s health and environment and knowledge on breast feeding, has tried to incorporate these information to the new parents, working moms and the like so that they need not have to be frustrated when their new born acts cranky and also enjoy the presence of the angel- the greatest gift. It has been found helpful by many a pediatricians across America and new parents. It has lots of cartoon like drawings and parent’s testimonials. The whole book has been talking about 4 basic principles – The Missing 4^th Trimester, The Calming Reflex, The 5 S’s and The Cuddle Cure which soothes the baby and puts it to longer hours of sleep.

The Missing 4^th Trimester: The new born having been in the womb for 3 trimesters, quite safe and secure, faces a lot of difficulty in adjusting to the new world and here Dr. Karp teaches the parent how to recreate the womb like atmosphere even outside the womb for 3 months, which he calls as the 4^th trimester. After which it establishes relations by its heavenly smiles and glows of its eyes. Starts cooing for its needs.

The Calming Reflex: The babies are born with an “off switch” of calming so that it works like an automatic reset switch to stop crying in the first few months of life.

The 5 S’s: Dr. Karp has extensively discussed about the following 5 S’s and also detailed as to How and Why and supplemented with drawings.

1.      Swaddling: The calming effect starts by stopping the Moro reflex like hand jerking, flailing etc. It makes the baby feel the warmth of the mother’s womb and feels secured.

2.      Side/Stomach Position: Laying the baby on their side or placing them in arms on their stomach while making them to sleep, prevents them from feeling that they are falling.

3.      Shushing: Sssssshing stimulates the sound of the womb which the baby is very familiar and the baby psychologically relaxes and it has to be done as loud as the baby cries so that the baby calms down and relaxes easily.

4.      Swinging: Supporting the baby’s head and neck and wiggling its head with fast, tiny movements, relaxes the baby.  Once it is relaxed, can be switched to slower swinging motions.

5.      Sucking: The pacifier works amazing and soothes the baby. It can be weaned after 3 months.

The Cuddle Cure: Here he has explained about how to combine the 5 S’s to calm even a colicky baby. The effect of massage therapy, the touch effect, the environment while massaging has been very clearly explained. In fact he has nicely managed to integrate the ancient knowledge with the modern outlook.

While Appendix – A details about when to call the Doctor? Appendix – B details about Top 10 survival tips to parents.

Even though the book is having very practical, proven guidance to the parents, there are lot of repetitions, fillers, parent’s testimonials, avoidable drawings which arrests the reader’s interest and makes them either skim through or do not read at all situation. This may end up with losing essential information. There could have been a more matured presentation, keeping in mind the brevity and the capsuled way of presentation needed for the present day fast world where every one finds shortage of time. But for this, the book is a must read for new parents with the kind of nuclear families we are witnessing wherein there is no ancient knowledge transfer.

*****

Teachers Role in Their Students Lives

     For a child, home is the first school which is its first world when everything new. So, parents model the child and see their mirrors in the child. The next exposure is the school. The teachers are the building blocks of the character, ideologies and the personalities of the child. Teacher is like a God to children. They even deny their parent's correction, if for some reason teacher has taught wrong. So, a teacher can influence the child with their looks, body language, knowledge about the subject, thier delivery which wraps her/his attitude, beliefs and values.

      Our face is our mind's index. Our culture, ethnicity and family values would have shaped us. Thus in all our behavior, attitude and believes are based on this and we emit the same. Thus, it is the onus of the teacher to be open for learning constantly, know every child's background, economically, physically, physiologically and ethnically to influence positively and aid in positive growth. Be impartial to any one culture or belief. An angry teacher though hard working and best in knowledge cannot expect the results which a mediocre teacher filled with love, care and compassion and  a philosophy in mind that they are the agents for bringing difference in the child. A reflective teacher always reflects on what went fine and what needs more attention, how to accomplish, compare versus peers like colleagues and teachers of other institutions. Every child is a very precious asset to their parents and parents send their children with loads of confidence and expectations that their child is well groomed and their children excel them. How a bitter pill when coated with sugar is popped up with all smiles, a teacher with good attitudes, believes and values can shape any child, any topic positively which gives a lot of pleasure and satisfaction to them too. While it is the responsibility of the parents to take care of their kids (which is numbered), a teacher takes care of innumerable students and helps in bringing societal changes.

      My father was a primary school head master and words are insufficient to express his love and dedication for his students. His students even after decades and being in high posts as IAS officers etc, the moment they see my father, will get down from their car and touch my father's feet to take his blessings.

      Similarly a negative attitude also can influence negatively and in the process the whole bunch of children become bad. 

Discipline Vs Punishment

       My father being an effective teacher, reared us with good practices. He ensured that all his children are highly effective. We in turn replicated those which we experienced with some more learning from our environment and nurtured our children in a friendly way to suit the changing scenario, making them good disciplinarians without their knowledge, making them know the consequences of any bad or unacceptable behavior. This made us not to undergo any stress with regard to children upbringing and not even the problems of teenage.

      When I heard from my instructor that the root for discipline is disciple that is one who follows. It was an extra dimension for my thinking. Really great info. When parents walk the talk, they are modelling and hand-holding children how to manage the life, when happy and also when unhappy. So according to me, the parents and in schools teachers should reflect on themselves and find out as to how they could manage their kids. A mindful act definitely contributes a lot to the society as these children bring laurels to the parents and the school. Discipline makes the children to have self-control, self-motivate, learn from experiences, develop responsibility, self-esteem and self-assertion. Allow the child to burn the hand is a famous dictum which makes the child to develop itself from its experiences. No child is good or bad by birth. It is the nurturing and the environment which makes it good or bad. My classmate in my schooling days had such great wonderful memory and used to excel every where but probably lack of parental attention ended up him being a high school drop out and with  a minuscule job. Disciplining is a positive way of rearing a child.

      Some parents are very happy using their high tone (verbal), spank or physical punishments thinking that their children will be under their control. This unwanted strictness may end up with an inferiority complex about the child itself or hatred about the parents may start. But when a child is too crazy or cranky, probably conditioning with penalties may help the child to correct itself. Not all children can learn from their mistakes. It needs some conditioning. But sometime rewarding is used a way of teaching the child which may end up with a demanding situation for the child to do its own work. Spare the rod and spoil the child is a famous adage which clearly says that punishment spoils a child.

      Children always never do whatever the parents ask them to do, they do whatever the parents do. So, discipline yourself and discipline your child is what I believe in.

How To Improve Memory - Jim Kwik's Ten Keys:

It was an amazing experience to go through the video on 10 Keys to improve memory by Jim Kwik. In fact, he had a brain injury in his childhood, he says. Despite that, taking life as a challenge and focusing on what he wanted, he has become a great brain trainer.
According to him, improving memory is simple, he calls it by  name: FAST;

F -- for  Forget
       Forget all unwanted things. Focus on only what you want. By forgetting unwanted, there is more space in the brain and memorizing becomes easy. The time will be well spent on you on wanted things alone. There can be planning and prioritization. it is congestion free traffic.

A -- for Active
        Stay active. By staying active. There is constant engagement of the brain and brain optimization happens.

S -- for State
       State is the mood, the emotions you are into. The body responses have a direct bearing on the mood. Good mood, good thinking, energetic body and negative thinking relates to all negativity. There is no 100% good or bad. One has to strive hard to overcome negative emotions for clarity in thinking.

T --  for Taking Notes
        There is something called as short term memory and long term memory. Whatever we hear, 80% of it will be lost within 24-48 hrs. Taking notes help in keeping the information for longer terms and will have an access as and when needed referring to notes.

Knowledge is power, but learning is super power. It is the ability to learn that changes lives.

Following are the Ten Keys:

1. Good Diet
2. Killing ANTs ( All Negative Thoughts)
3. Exercise
4. Brain Nutrients
5. Positive Peers
6. Clean Environment
7. Sleep
8. Brain Protection
9. New Learning
10. Stress Management

With the following activity, you can remember the 10 keys. Practice the same on a regular basis to improve the memory:

Visualize going in car and entering a Parking Lot. Look around and visualize good fruits and vegetables (Good Diet) all around. After parking, crossing the Bridge. while crossing, kill ants (all negative thoughts) and entering the elevator (imagine different exercises) which leads to the Hallway ( wherein lot of brain nutrients are available in big big jars). From there go to Closet  to keep the jacket ( visualize being with the positive peers) and walking a little bit further see the receptionist who arranges and keeps the area neat and tidy (Clean Environment) and behind her is a fish tank. Imagine fish sleeping. (Sleep). From there reach the class room door. Visualize wearing a helmet to avoid getting your head bang (brain protection). Enter the class, see the White board  through which you learn a lot (new learning) and visualize at the corner a Bonsai Tree (Stress management)

Thus the 10 locations can be related  to remember the 10 Keys of improving your memory:

                10 Locations                          10 Keys

1.        Parking Lot                             Good Diet
2.        Bridge                                     Killing ANTs
3.        Elevator                                   Exercise
4.        Hallway                                   Brain Nutrients
5.        Closet                                     Positive Peers
6.        Receptionist                            Clean Environment
7.        Fish Tank                                Sleep
8.        Class Room Door                    Brain Protection
9.        White Board                            New Learning
10.         Bonsai Tree                            Stress Management

Relating  these 10 locations to 10 keys, not  only improves the power of visualization and imagination, but also helps focus on the 10 keys of improving the memory, which is a vital part of your existence.

       

Cancer Care with Complementary Treatment

The human body is a complex organism with the ability to heal itself- if only we listen to it and respond to it properly with right kind of nourishment and care. The body chemistry with numerous different departments, some work in unison and some work independently, work round the clock, 24/7, 365 days an year and  incessantly from womb to tomb. There is no overhauling externally like our cars or watches for any repair mechanism/maintenance. Body knows only one language – Use me or loose me.

To achieve anything in life, we want to be healthy in this world. To be healthy we need to have good physical, mental,spiritual and social health. Some of the famous quotes in this regard are:

     Dharmaartha Kama Mokshaanaam, Arogyam Mulamuttamam – Caraka Samhita 

·    Sarira Maadhyam Khalu Dharma Sadhanam 

·    Health is lost, everything is lost. 

·    A wise man should consider that health is the greatest wealth of human beings –   Hippocrates

So whatever you want to do in this world, you need to keep a healthy body. 

Definition of Health and Disease:

·      Health is a level of metabolic efficiency of the human system. According to World Health organisation- Health is a state of complete Physical, Mental and Social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. 

Disease is defined as a Pathological condition of a part, organ or system  of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect or environmental stress and charecterised by  an identifiable group of signs or symptoms. The body is not at ease is the message.

Quality of Life: The present lifestyle which is combination of fast food with sedentary way of life and unexplainable undefinable greed to hoard materialistic possessions is causing lot of disharmony with nature and also creating lot of stress leading to loads of psychosomatic diseases. There is no time to appreciate the physical, mental,intellectual or even emotional richness we are endowed with. With the growing technology, newer scientific inventions in the field of Modern Medical Science, though our life expectancy has increased, the Quality of life is dwindling as we live on medicines and tubes with oxygen and manage the diseases with symptomatic treatment and are not curing the cause of the diseases.  Instead of treating the patient, the disease is treated. The fear of dreadful diseases itself is reducing the courage in the patients. There is an urgent need of transition from disease-centric treatment regimen to patient-centric treatment which involves more humane approach and not to adopt one-size-fit-all approach.

Suppression Process: A healthy person with his wrong way of lifestyle and stress, keeps on drifting from health to acute diseases which are cleaning mechanisms of the body. At this juncture, if free hand is given to nature to cure the acute diseases, the body is rid of toxemia. But with constant suppression of acute diseases( No pill without an ill) and continuance of the same bad life style, he further impairs the system and drifts to chronic diseases and continuing his journey, he ends up with destructive diseases and Cancer is one such destructive disease wherein the immunity would have been taken over by the disease and to come back he has to track back the same path which is very tedious. Thus cancer takes a lot of time to build up, slowly marching and compromising the innate fighting mechanism of the body. When the person's immune system is strong, the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors. The diagnosis of cancer indicates multiple nutritional deficiencies which could be due to environmental, nutritional and lifestyle factors.

Conventional Treatment: There have been much technological advancement in the treatment of cancer, but still it is one of the leading causes of death. While Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells, it also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in different parts of the body. Similarly the Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs. Thus the immune system of the patient goes further down and will be susceptible to infections and complications. There is a continuous built up of fear psychosis in the patient and he keeps revisiting the hospital with different ailments like metastasis, depression etc.

Integrated Treatment: Along with the conventional treatments, if complimentary treatments which are patient specific, are adopted, there is building up of immune functions physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and also patient will make a great come back with greater confidence in health and the treatment systems. Rather he will be thankful to cancer for having given an opportunity to him to understand the beauty of Greatest God given gift- this human machine and his approach to life will be totally positive. Like a lamp lighting another lamp, he will be instrumental in giving confidence to another patient.

Complimenting the treatment with 

• Naturopathy
• Yoga
• Acupressure
• Visualization
• Reiki
• Meditation
• Mantra Chanting
• Counseling
• Guided Imagery
• Mind over body techniques
• Relaxations
• Patient Education
• Support Group formation etc

patient’s immune system is strengthened and he will be able to survive the cancer and lead a happy, satisfied quality life and  replaces his fear with confidence,enjoys the care and love and starts a come back to health in his own way. 

A Word of Caution: Cancer is a destructive disease. So, neither the patient nor the complimentary medical practitioner should go for complimentary therapy alone as the encumbrance which is very huge and modern medical treatment will be a boon in targeting them and destroying them. However for the patient to build himself in all spheres of health, he needs a complimentary practitioner. So both conventional treatment and the complimentary treatment should go hand in hand keeping the wellness of the patient as the motto. 

God is really great in making me to contribute in my own humble way and I enjoy the immense love of my patients which I take as their blessings. I take this opportunity to dedicate this article to them.

The Art of Living Healthy

I always love to go to conferences on Yoga, Naturopathy and Meditation as it teaches an altogether new dimension of thinking to the life. Change is the law of nature. Though the basic principles remain the same, the wonderful way of presenting it in a new perspective is so nice.

Here is an example. It was told in a session that:

"Atma mera naam Hi ". Just a little bit of contemplating on this line makes us understand that-" Yes. As long as the soul resides in us ie. the physical body (The temple for the soul), we are recognised by some unique name, else the common nomenclature- "Body". So we have to keep ourselves clean inside out.

"Satya mera Karm Hi". As per Karmic theory, we live as per our karma. We need to strive hard to keep doing Good Karma. So it is our Karma balance which is the guiding factor in our life.

"Yog mera Dharm Hi". By Yoga means equanimity in life. Balancing materialistic life with spiritual life is yoga. The goal of yoga is to yoke the Self inside with the Super Self.

"OM mera Paramatma Hi" OM is made up of three letters-A,U and M which is the representation of the presidential diety. As all rivers ends up joining the sea, so all manifestations of God, different names, forms, animate, inanimate everything is contained in OM. Chanting of Om relaxes the whole body and calms down the mind. So chanting of OM gives very good health and vibrations in the environment.

Meditation dilutes the karma, returns the health and it is an excellent medication for all agitations inside and outside us. So let us learn the art of meditation and effortlessly stay healthy doing Good, thinking Good and acting Good.

Personality:

It was a discussion forum with Sri Narendra Bandhuji. It started like how many different types of persons with reference to the possessions we may have . Each one could put their imaginations to work and came out with wild guesses. Oh My God.It was very interesting.

Finally Naredraji was telling there are 4 kinds of people:

Danav (Demonic Personality): Who says " Yours is also mine and Mine is also mine"

Manav (Human beings) : Who says " Yours is yours and mine is mine"

Dev (Godly) : Who says "Yours is yours and mine is also yours"

Brahma (Super Self Personality): Who says "Yours, mine ,everything belongs to Him only"

Loads of imbalances felt as the Danav percentage dominates and Brahma percentage is too less. It is time for us to move on in the ladder of spirituality to improve our personality slowly towards Brahmatva to establish a Peaceful global atmosphere which is unfortunately is into pieces at present.