Television therefore has a pervasive effect on the lives of children. Whether this turns out to be positive or negative is largely under the control of parents. Unfortunately in Australia, with a few exceptions, little interest has been shown in the promise and potential of television for children. Here are some of the problems associated with children watching television:

Violence There is a well established association between aggression and the violence seen on television. Children have difficulty differentiating television from reality; they accept that what they see on television is the norm. They learn that solving problems through violence and aggression is acceptable.

Stereotypes Television frequently reinforces prejudices by its stereotypical portrayal of different cultural or racial groups, of women, and of particular socioeconomic groups.

Obesity There is a strong link between the amount of television watched and obesity. Children who watch a lot of television are less active and snack more while watching. Many of the advertisements during children’s shows in particular promote ‘junk’ foods, sugary cereals and other unhealthy food.

Effects of advertising Many of the advertisements screened during children’s viewing time are to do with junk food, violent toys, sweets, and other products that are often not in a child’s best interests.

There are other bad effects of television: children who watch an excessive amount of television tend to do less well at school; there is evidence that when television shows youth suicide, either in a news item or a program, there is a heightened risk of an increase in youth suicide, because of imitation among adolescents.

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The Kinsey reports on male (1948) and female (1953) sexual behavior remain the most complete and reliable references on human sexuality. There has never been and likely will never be another work like them.

Kinsey’s background was in the study of insects. He spent more than twenty years classifying tiny gall wasps. He was a taxonomist who valued size and distribution of sample. He classified more than four million insects throughout the United States and Mexico. If Ellis thought in terms of process, Kinsey thought in terms of classification, or categories. The perspective on sex was changing. We thought now not only about what we did, but where we “fit” compared to other people and new sexual categories.

In the male study, he identified six categories of sexual behavior—”outlets,” he called them—that related to factors that influenced oudet. The energy orientation of the first perspective is clearly present, and “energy-outlet style” was the focus. The six categories were masturbation, nocturnal emission, heterosexual petting, heterosexual intercourse, homosexual behavior, and sex with animals or other species. A second-perspective vocabulary was evolving. Words such as “leaping” and “devouring” were replaced with “petting,” “mounting,” and the “seeking of outlets.” In some ways, animal sexual behavior became the model for human sex. If animals did it, then we ought to be able to do it. The focus changed from the romantic to the rural.

How are you doing in your category-four behavior? We had started to think in a partialistic, not holistic, fashion about sex. Kinsey studied orgasms as his exclusive measure of a completed sexual experience. Orgasms provided a category; either you had one or you didn’t, so it could be classified. The second perspective brought with it an “all or none” orientation to sexual expression, a less romantic view, a Sergeant Friday ism of “just the facts, ma’am.”

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The pubic louse is usually, but not exclusively, spread by sexual contact. These lice inhabit the hair in the pubic area, but in hairy men may extend to the hair on the abdomen or thighs. Occasionally, these lice are seen in the eyebrows.

The hepatitis  virus has been shown to be spread by sexual contact. Hepatitis A or infectious hepatitis is usually spread by contamination by faeces as the virus is shed through the bowel. The  virus has a longer incubation and may also be spread by contamination with blood. This can occur in hospital workers and by drug addicts using the same needle.

Recently it has been shown that infectious mononucleosis or glandular fever can be spread by sexual contact.

While it is possible for any of the sexually transmitted diseases to be acquired by contact other than sexual, this is unusual. Certainly the old belief of infection from toilet seats is no longer believed.

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Simple myopia does not give rise to headaches.

Presbyopia results from the weakening of the ability to focus the lens.

This starts in the earliest years, but usually doesn’t give rise to any symptoms until the forties.

Then it tends to get worse as the person continues to age.

In presbyopia, increasing the amount of light available may make it easier to see.

A person with presbyopia who requires different glasses for distance and near-vision can either have these prescriptions made up separately — in which case he will have to change his glasses each time he wants to read.

Or he can have bifocal glasses which have an upper part for distance and a lower part for near-vision.

In astigmatism the cornea has irregularities and does not form a smooth rounded part of a sphere.

It is common in mild degrees but usually does not give rise to trouble.

In more severe cases, it is likely to interfere with distant and near-vision.

Astigmatism is usually easily corrected by the wearing of glasses.

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The modern operation to deliver a child has been called caesarean section because of this.

Until recently, a caesarean childbirth was a rare last-ditch event.

In America the rate has increased three or four times over the past 10 years and now one baby in eight is born this way. At a large Australian hospital caring for mothers and babies, the rate is only half that.

Medical consumers — pregnant women and their husbands — are demanding a return to more “natural” methods of childbirth. Why then, are the suppliers of the service — the medical profession — making it more scientific and involved?

In obstetrics, there are two patients — the mother and the baby. In the past, the greater emphasis was placed on the mother’s welfare and the baby had to take second place. Now that modern medicine has reduced the risks to the mother, the concern is increasingly for the health and welfare of the child.

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The normal shape of the pupil is circular. It should lie in the centre of the iris (perhaps somewhat disposed towards the nasal side), and appear neither too large nor too small under ordinary conditions of lighting. The normal diameter is 3-4 mm. On the whole, relatively larger pupils are found in small children, while in adults the size of the pupil progressively diminishes as old age advances.

The pupil should not show any undue variation in width, and the movements of contraction and dilation should affect both pupils symmetrically.

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Forceful ejection of the contents of the stomach

Home care

-     Solid foods, milk, or aspirin tablets aggravate vomiting and should not be given.

-     Have the child sip ice water, carbonated beverages, tea with sugar, flavored gelatin water, commercial mineral or electrolyte mixtures, or apple juice.

-    If you do not know why the child is vomiting, consult the doctor. Note if abdominal pain, fever, or headache accompany the vomiting.

Precautions

-         Prolonged or severe vomiting can cause dehydration, which can be very serious in infants.

-     If vomiting and diarrhea occur at the same time, control the vomiting first.

-        Abdominal pain, whether it is accompanied by vomiting or not, may indicate appendicitis.

-    Some phenothiazine drugs that are given to control vomiting in adults can have serious side effects in children and should not be given.

-    If the child is on medication, vomiting may hinder the action of the medication.

Vomiting is a common occurrence during childhood. In most instances it is merely a nuisance, but at times it can hinder the work of medications, cause the child to lose so much fluid that dehydration (loss of body fluids) occurs, or indicate a problem that requires medical attention.

Most infants spit up and occasionally vomit. If this vomiting does not hinder weight gain, it is neither harmful nor abnormal. Excessive vomiting, however, may indicate an intolerance of formula, milk, or some foods. Frequent forceful vomiting during an infant’s first two months suggests an obstruction at the end of the stomach (pylorospasm or pyloric stenosis).

In children, a viral infection of the digestive tract (gastroenteritis or intestinal flu) or an infectious disease elsewhere in the body can cause vomiting. Less common causes are abnormalities of the brain (concussion, migraine, meningitis, encephalitis, tumours); poisoning; appendicitis; severe emotional distress; jaundice; foreign bodies in the digestive tract; abdominal injuries; and motion sickness.

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Go to bed and sweat it out. Rest completely. This is the best cure for the immediate symptoms and a preventive against complications. If your temperature goes over 102°F get someone to sponge you with tepid water and favour cooling drinks rather than hot ones.

Large doses of vitamin Ñ (see above) are also indicated, as is vitamin A. Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that a folate (one of the  vitamins) deficiency hindered white blood cells multiplying and was associated with an increased susceptibility to infections generally. Vitamin E also plays a vital role in combating infections.

The role of zinc in the functioning of the immune system is now well documented. Even marginal reductions in zinc levels in the body produce quite serious damage to the immune system and it is reckoned that many, if not most, westerners are short of zinc as a result of modern food processing.

Most people do not feel like eating much when they have a cold or ‘flu but this does not matter as long as the liquids and vitamin supplements are kept up.

Work done by Dr Szent-Gyorgyi, the Nobel laureate who first isolated vitamin C, suggests that wheat germ potentiates the effects of vitamin C. In a series of very complex experiments he found that it was the trace element manganese in the wheat-germ that triggered this reaction. He maintains that any plant food will improve the activity of vitamin Ñ in the body but that ideally an ounce or two of wheat germ per day is needed. This could be of special interest to heavy drinkers, smokers, diabetics and those who take a lot of aspirin because all these people need more vitamin Ñ than average.

Other general preventive measures include:

•     Stop smoking. Smoke irritates the lining of the respiratory system with provable ill-effects. Smokers provably have more colds than do non-smokers and also have more sinusitis. Air pollution from many sources destroys vitamin A so it makes sense not to smoke for this reason alone.

•     Nitrates and nitrites in foods (especially cured meats, processed and canned meats, frankfurters, salami and sausages) have adverse effects on vitamin A metabolism and so are best avoided or eaten only rarely.

•     With central heating and air conditioning, most homes and buildings today are dry, and this predisposes to colds and flu.

A study done in Canadian kindergartens and nursery schools found that those without humidifiers had 40 per cent higher absenteeism than those with them. The workers also found that the staff of un-humidified hospitals had 10-15 per cent more sickness absenteeism for colds and ‘flu than did staff at a humidified hospital.

Domestic humidifiers are not expensive and are well worth buying. An interesting study in a Welsh cheese factory found that those working in a cold, damp room had half the colds of those working in the rest of the factory.

•     Research has not proved a link between getting cold or getting wet and suffering from colds and ‘flu.

•     Undoubtedly, people who are happy and eating well are less likely to suffer from these (and indeed other) infections than are the unhappy or depressed. There is now a considerable body of research proving that stress and unhappiness depress the body’s immune systems.

•      One bout of a cold gives immunity for only a few days, so keep away from others who have a cold if you can, or you could go through it all again. This is particularly important in the elderly and in those whose resistance to infection is poor.

•     If you have more than three or four colds per year you should see your doctor because you may have an underlying condition that makes you more susceptible to infections. Most likely your faulty diet, low in vitamins Ñ and D and zinc, is to blame.

•     Flu vaccination is not a widely used preventive and is usually only given to those who are at special risk such as doctors, nurses, firemen and policemen and women. Some experts think that the elderly should be vaccinated because they can become so ill with ‘flu. If you have a severe chest condition such as asthma, bronchitis or emphysema ‘flu can be a much more serious illness. Talk to your doctor about vaccination.

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