Caring for Infants and Toddlers

Infants are children between the ages of 1 month and 12 months and are usually unable to “speak or speechless”. While Toddlers are children between 1 and 3 years and can walk unsteadily and have great cognitive, emotional and social development. As infants and toddlers are at a critical and vulnerable developmental stage, special care and attention should be given to them to enhance their proper growth and development. If you have a child, niece, nephew, grandchild etc. who is age 3 or younger, this article is meant for you. The information below will help you learn how to give your child a healthy start to life. 1. Breast feed new born babies and infants exclusively for 6 months, as required by the World Health Organization. There are...

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Constipation, its consequences, causes, solutions and use of laxatives

Constipation is the infrequent or difficulty in emptying the bowel due to stool remaining in the large intestine for long, consequently becoming hard and dry to pass out and/or muscle spasm. Constipation occurs in all age groups. The consequences of constipation may include; loss of appetite resulting in underweight individuals in most cases, discomfort, pain, bad flatulence and bad breaths. In the long term constipation can also lead to faecal impaction (pool of hard stools in the rectum), haemorrhoids (piles), and bowel incontinence (the leakage of liquid stools). These consequences, affect our quality of life and prevent us from becoming healthier us to enjoy life to the fullest. As the contributing factors of constipation include 1....

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Food Safety at home

Food is essential for life and a good and healthy food is very much important for a healthy living. The best and safest of foods is the one prepared and served hot at home. Unfortunately there might be actions and inactions concerning food preparation and storage at home that might make our foods less safe for consumption. Let’s look at four simple steps to food safety at home. Cleaning Keep the kitchen clean. At best the kitchen should be the cleanest place in the entire household. Wash and clean surfaces (kitchen counter and sink) after each use with hot soapy water. Wash hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and under running before handling food. Do well to wash in-between your fingers, back of your hand and nails. Wash fruits...

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Cancer: Q & A and useful tips to prevent or reduce its burden

Cancer, one of the leading causes of deaths (8.2 million deaths were related to cancer in 2012 alone) in the world, is a term used in referring to a group of diseases, which can affect any part of the body . There are about 100 types of cancers and among men, the popular ones are; lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and oesophagus while among women breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical are popular. (WHO, 2014) What are the risk factors? The risk factors include; 1. Unhealthy behaviour, which includes; smoking, unsafe use of alcohol, poor diets and physical inactivity. 2. Infections such as viral (e.g. Hepatitis B Virus, Human Papilloma Virus) and bacterium (e.g. Helicobacter pylori). 3. Environmental pollution such as air pollution...

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