Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog

Because of the operative mortality (about 1 percent), surgical treatment for obesity should be undertaken only for emergency medical reasons (e.g., hypertension, uncontrolled diabetes, severe arthritis), and when the person is at least 100 pounds over ideal weight. Only under circumstances such as these can the risk of surgery be justified, since the risk of operating would then be less than that of not losing a lot of weight almost immediately.

Dramatic weight loss after an operation that reduces the size of the stomach sometimes also severely disturbs the emotions. This side effect of the surgery, the American Journal of Gastroenterology (78:321) reports, is sometimes caused by deficiency of vitamins of the B group which, like other foods, are no longer so well absorbed following the operation. Nervous system and brain functions depend upon absorption of normal amounts of the vitamin B complex.

With this in mind, the Journal suggests, anyone rapidly losing weight, whether because of dieting or surgery, must take a vitamin supplement that includes the B complex. No megadoses, please!

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Symptoms: Drooling; fretfulness; sleeplessness; loss of appetite; pain or discomfort; chewing fingers or objects.

Home care:

Give the baby dry toast, teething biscuits, or a teething ring to bite on; this will help the teeth erupt.

To ease pain give aspirin or paracetamol, rub the gums with a cold object, or have the child bite on a cold object.

Distract the baby with activities.

Precautions

-    Do not be too quick to assume a baby’s symptoms are caused by teething; look for other causes.

-    Do not try to force-feed a child whose eating and drinking habits change during teething.

-    Diarrhea and constipation are not related to teething unless there has also been a significant change in the child’s diet.

-    Teething does not cause fever, cough, or discharge from the nose.

-    Drooling from teething may cause the face to become chapped, but any other rashes are due to other causes.

-    Overuse of teething ointments and solutions that contain local anesthetics can be harmful.

-    A baby may be fretful, wakeful at night, or unwilling to eat for many reasons other than teething.

A baby usually cuts 20 teeth during the first three years of life. All 20 are temporary (deciduous) and are partly formed within the gums at birth. The age and sequence of the eruption of the teeth varies from child to child. Usually, however, the lower central front teeth (incisors) are the first to break through the gums. This can occur before birth or as late as one year of age. The upper four central front teeth (incisors) and the lower side incisors on either side of the lower central front teeth usually follow. The four one-year molars appear next (in the gums inside the cheeks), then the four canines, (the cone-shaped pointed teeth on either side of the upper and lower front teeth), and finally the four two-year molars.

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