The next night, if the scenario is repeated, the child will cry a little less, and the night after that even less until, in a short space of time, he stops altogether. The problem will be cured as soon as the child is convinced that his parents will not pay any attention in the middle of the night. The next morning the child should be praised for the fact that the parents did not have to attend to him during the night. Again, to allow the child to cry for a couple of nights and then give in just makes the problem more difficult to deal with the next time.

*162\90\8*

Our thinking is so much a part of us, we don’t pay any attention to the process. Without realising it our thoughts create, dictate and control our life. All of us know the endless silent conversations, the chattering thoughts and the continual negative cycles of thinking. They roll along, carrying us with them. Yet it need not be like this. We can step in and take the power back by learning to control them. We don’t have to be dictated by them. We can dictate to them. The ‘what ifs’ and the self absorption are part of the control we all use. Although we need to let go of them, we can also learn from them. We are creating the fear by the way we think. The ‘what ifs’ and the continual monitoring of our symptoms don’t protect us or provide us with an ‘early warning system’, because they create the very symptoms we are trying to protect ourselves from.

We never take time to examine our thoughts. We don’t even realise we can. We never watch the internal world of our thoughts as it spins this way and that. We react to our thoughts without realising they are actually separate fleeting moments in time. We don’t see this separateness. Instead, we believe we have no power over the continual progression of these thoughts, and the feelings caused by them. We don’t see how our feelings can change within seconds of a change in our thought pattern. We can be calm one minute and anxious the next. Not seeing the progression from one thought to another and thus not seeing the progression from one feeling to another, makes it appear our anxiety and attacks are beyond our control. They aren’t.

Our thoughts create the fear, which creates its own symptoms. The symptoms create the ‘what ifs’, which creates further symptoms. It is not so much the original stress which perpetuates the disorder, as the stress of the disorder itself. We need to be able to see how we create this stress by the fear of what we are thinking.

We need to be in control of ourselves and our environment, yet the only thing we do not control is our thinking. We need to change this by letting go of the overall need to be in control, and control our thinking.

*76\94\8*

     1.1 feel my child is not getting enough sleep. He is irritable during the day and shows subtle

signs of lack of sleep.

     2. My child wakes too early or goes to sleep too late.

     3. Sleep seems frightening to my child.

     4. My child wakes during the middle of the night.

     5. I wonder if my child is eating too much or too frequently.

     6. Bedtime is unpleasant for my child. She goes to bed angry, sad, over-stimulated, or

frightened.

     7. I believe an undesirable pattern may be developing.

     8. My child needs me at times that seem unreasonable to me. I fear he may be overly

dependent on me.

     9. Bedtime is unpleasant. I dread it.

    10. I usually feel deprived of sleep. I crave a night of undisturbed sleep.

    11. I need to go to bed sooner than I would like in order to accommodate an early riser or a non-sleeper.    

    12. My fatigue or anger is affecting my relationship with my child, his siblings, or my partner.

    13. The current situation feels out of control.

    14. I find myself asking, “Is my child the only one acting like this?”

    15. My child continually disturbs the rest of the family.

Some of these statements reflect the child’s behavior. Others reflect the family’s response. If you agreed with three or more, there is definitely a problem within the family system. This checklist is only a guideline. A child may show only one area of difficulty that turns the family upside down. Go back to the definition of a sleep problem. If you experience it as a problem, then it is a problem worth working on.

*5\97\8*

If you need to pass urine often in large amounts, you are producing too much urine. Possible causes include kidney failure, sugar diabetes (perhaps due to corticosteroids), diabetes insipides and too much calcium in the blood. Diabetes insipides is a condition where you pass large amounts of very weak urine. It can follow attempts to destroy the pituitary gland — see page 295.

Your doctor should quickly be able to find out why you are passing urine too often by testing your urine and blood.

I’ll just explain a bit more here about one of the possible causes. Too much calcium in the blood is a complication of cancer which we have not discussed in detail so far. If this is the reason for you passing a lot of urine often, you are likely to have other symptoms as well— nausea, unusual thirst, a metallic taste in the mouth, constipation, muscle weakness, drowsiness and confusion.

*199/40/1*

What John of Arderne, regarded as the first English surgeon, said in the 14th century is still applicable today.

Haemorrhoids are varicose veins in the anus. They are common, but rarely seen before the age of 30 except in pregnant women.

There are many factors associated with their cause. The condition is common in families, as are varicose veins of the legs. Some hereditary weakness of the veins is also believed to play a part.

Chronic constipation and the subsequent straining at stool may be the most important factor.

Developed nations’ highly processed diet, which is low in vegetable fibre, is believed to be associated with an increased risk, not only of developing piles, but also several other conditions, including cancer of the bowel, diverticulitis, appendicitis and varicose veins.

*388/71/1*

There has been an increasing tendency for doctors to induce labor.

Associated with this has been a progression in childbirth technology, so that the strength of the contractions of the womb can be controlled by drugs and the progress of the baby closely monitored.

Those parents who see induced labor as too technological, and a complication of what should be a natural and shared family experience, have been increasingly vocal in demanding that their viewpoints be heard and considered.

Medical proponents of the management of labor argue that the method allows the whole medical team to be available to deal with any problems which may arise, whereas spontaneous natural labor may occur at night, on weekends or holidays when the full medical team is not available.

In a British Medical Journal review of reports from several centres, it was found that there can be different interpretations and different results from various groups in matters of usage and observation of natural or induced labor. And so the debate continues.

*135/71/1*

Suggested foods include most of the sports drinks on the market (which replace water and electrolyte losses too), or low amylose rice (Calrose rice), breads and breakfast cereals with a high G.I. such as cornflakes and rice bubbles. Potatoes cooked without fat are a good choice too, but their high satiety means it is hard to eat lots of them. Soft drinks have an intermediate G.L, so they won’t be ideal but they won’t do any harm either.

Females weighing about 50 kilograms should aim to eat 50 grams of carbohydrate. Males weighing about 75 kilograms should aim to eat 75 grams of carbohydrate.

If you want to keep up the pace from one training session to another, day after day, you will benefit by learning to select high G.L foods. The trouble is that many people, even coaches and sports medicine practitioners, have got it all wrong when it comes to selecting sources of fast-release carbohydrate. The information in this chapter gives you the most up-to-date information and the key to better performance and faster recovery. Go for it!

Recovery formula. Aim to ingest about I gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight each 2 hours after exercise. If you weigh between 50 and 75 kilograms, you need 50 to 75 grams of carbohydrate for each 2 hours after exercise.

*115\42\4*

Asian women are known for their small hips, waist-to-hip ratios used as a measure of risk in Caucasians, therefore, are generally not relevant for these women because they give measures more characteristic of a man. Other fat measures such as skinfolds or machine measures may be more relevant here, and particularly when comparing between racial groups. Normative values for body rat, therefore, need to take account of racial differences, but to date this has not been done.

The deposition of fat may also differ amongst racial groups. Chinese and Indians, for example, appear to put additional fat on the waist first before then filling out all over. Island races like Sa moans and Tongans are big people and are prone to developing significant obesity, but that fat is stored more evenly over the body. Aboriginal Australians have naturally lean limbs and small hips but also a high tendency for fat gain from eating ‘Western-style’ foods. This appears to manifest more in the form of abdominal obesity rather than the overall obesity more common of Polynesians and Melanesians.

*179\186\4*

Body weight is the most important component of total energy expenditure, mainly because of the association between resting metabolic rate and fat free mass (FFM). Because bigger people have more total body mass and therefore also FFM, total energy expenditure will be greater. On the other hand, even the lightest female measured at rest in a metabolic chamber over a 24-hour period will expend at least 1200kcals, suggesting that a minimum dietary intake of 1200kcals is necessary for normal daily functioning.

Doubly labelled water. A more recent technique for energy expenditure measurement, which is likely to become more common in the future, is the doubly labelled mater technique. This was first used with humans in the early 1980s and involves loading a person with water which has been labelled with two stable isotopes, deuterium and a form of oxygen, and then measuring the differential elimination of these from the body through the urine. From this information, scientists can calculate the rate of use of oxygen and production of carbon dioxide over the period measured to a high degree of accuracy. The method is simple, safe and non-intrusive. At present its main limitation is the expense of the labelled water and the mass spectrometer needed to analyse the output.

*40\186\4*

The most important and earliest symptom is vomiting. This often commences about the 14th day of life, and becomes worse. It frequently occurs about half an hour after a feed. Because the food is not being absorbed by the system, baby is always hungry, but fails to thrive. As time progresses, vomiting may become projectile—it comes out with force and vigour—not merely dribbling down the side of the face, which is the common form of baby vomiting (as with burping). Later on, appetite is lost, as serious changes commence internally. The bowel actions tend to become loose and green in colour. As baby loses weight and fails to thrive, symptoms continue unabated. Between two and five per cent develop jaundice. The baby may become dehydrated, and the stomach may become distended.

Treatment

Any symptoms like these need prompt investigation by the doctor. Often the cause is readily diagnosed, sometimes from an X-ray of the bowel.

Treatment is by surgery. The risks are low and the results are usually strikingly good. The baby soon starts to eat normally, can now digest food, starts to thrive, looks better, and rapidly becomes a normal infant. Long-term the results are also excellent. In short, the beneficial effects are usually dramatic.

*61\87\2*