The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Helping children cope with stress

Stress is physical, mental and emotional reactions you experience as the result of changes in your life. Stress is part and parcel of common life events, but it can have a powerful effect on your child’s well-being, just as it does for adults. School phobia, peer pressure and family problems are just a few of the factors that can cause your child to experience stress. How he copes with his feelings now can set the pattern for a lifetime.

Immediate physical reactions to stress are universal:

- Breathing rate increases

- Heart rate increases to move blood to the muscles and brain

- Blood pressure and perspiration increases

- Pupils dilate

- Digestion slows.

By helping your child learn to reduce his anxiety level, you’ll be teaching him how to combat many of the potentially harmful effects of stress — headache, high blood pressure, backache later in life.

Personality traits that make adults susceptible to heart disease appear in children as young as nursery school age. These traits may include a low capacity for tolerating stress and frustration, and a tendency to create internal anxiety.

Children must have some sense of childhood. This means creating a balance between work and play. Your child should also be flexible enough to ‘shift gears’ from play-time on weekends to school work on Monday morning. Too much rigidity, extreme fearfulness every Sunday night, for instance- may be a sign that your child needs help.

General recommendations:

Your child’s natural temperament to some extent determines how rigid or flexible he is, whether he’s persistent, stubborn, striving or easygoing. And though you cannot change every aspect of his behaviour, you can work with child to help him allay anxiety and have more fun.

* Encourage your child to play with friends, read and engage in other activities that provide pleasure for their own sake.

* Encourage your child to express his fears, no matter how silly they may seem to him.

* If he’s anxious about doing well in school, review the difficult skills or lessons with him.

* Set a good example by making play and relaxation a priority in your life. Let your child know your value this time as much as time spent working if parents have some problem, consult your psychologist.

Dr Anil Dheer

38 Hero Cycles workers donate blood
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 19
For the welfare of thalassaemic patients, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital organised today a blood donation camp in association with Hero Cycles Ltd, Ludhiana. About 38 employees of Hero Cycles donated blood.

The camp was organised under the supervision of Dr Amarjit Kaur, Reader and In charge, Department of Transfusion Medicine, DMCH, and Dr Praveen Sobti, in charge Thalassaemia Unit and Reader, Department of Paediatrics, DMCH. The team comprising Dr Rohit Mehra, Senior Resident of DMCH, collected blood.

“Our major concern is to arrange adequate units of blood for thalassaemic children as their number is increasing by the day. At present, 140 patients are getting treatment in the special thalassaemia unit of DMCH and approximately 140 to 160 units of blood are required every month to carry out blood transfusion. Their lives entirely depend upon the availability of blood. This can only be made possible if people, specially youngsters, come forward for blood donation ,” said Dr Sobti.

“Punjab is one of the worst affected states with regard to thalassaemia. Three per cent to 15 per cent of Punjab population has a thalassaemic trait, but unfortunately people are not aware of the disease.

The most painful fact is that many of these patients die because of unavailability of blood, as they require one or two units of blood after every 15 to 20 days throughout their life. DMCH has also appealed to masses to donate blood for the thalassaemic children, said Dr Sobti.

‘Re-certification of doctors need of hour’
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 19
The physicians in the city have hailed the new guidelines of the Association of Physicians of India (API) in pursuance of the directives of the Medical Council of India (MCI), making it mandatory for the doctors to have at least 150 credit hours of academic activity for five consecutive years. This will pave the way for re-certification of doctors from time to time.

According to Dr G.S. Wander, Director, Hero Heart Centre and an executive member of the API, a clinician has to update himself and keep abreast of the latest information so as to improve the quality of care rendered by him to his patients. He pointed out in developed countries the accreditation system had been already initiated to implement updated healthcare. Certain minimum credit hours had to be acquired by a clinician to retain his registration and his right of practice.

However, there is no such system of “re-certification” in India. He suggested that this concept needed to be made mandatory by the regulatory authority like Medical Council of India. But lack of infrastructure, manpower needs and the need to pass legislative orders to acquire such an authority may take some time.

Dr Wander said that the Indian College of Physicians (ICP), the academic wing of the API, had decided to take the lead in this direction. Every member should consider it necessary to update himself voluntarily and participate in this exercise. The API has drawn out a comprehensive programme for its members over a period of five years which will enable them to reorient and update themselves.

However, some doctors had been seeking that the concept should be made uniformly applicable across the country. Dr Gurinder Singh Grewal of the SAS Grewal Medicsan Hospital pointed out so far it had been adopted by the API only which had a limited number of members from the medical fraternity. There are other associations which should also adopt the concept and it should be made mandatory for each doctor to update himself or herself about the latest developments in the field of medical sciences.

Charanjit Ahluwalia XI win by 78 runs
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, June 19
Prof F.C. Chopra XI continued with its dismal performance as they lost their fourth match against Charanjit Singh Ahluwalia XI by 78 runs and made an exit from the tournament in the VIIth Chaman Lal Malhotra Cricket Cup Meet (u-15) being organised by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association at the Arya College for Boys ground here today. With this victory, Charanjit Singh XI after four wins and one abandoned tie (washed away) kept their hopes alive to make it to the final of this meet slated to be held on Sunday whereas Prof F C Chopra XI failed to register even one win and were out of contention.

Charanjit Singh Ahluwalia XI won the toss and opted to bat. In their quota of 30 overs, Charanjit Singh Ahluwalia XI, with the help of notable contribution by Atul Kohli (65) and Gagandeep Dhand (67), made 189 for the loss of three wickets.

The target of 190 runs turned out to be an uphill task for the Prof F.C. Chopra XI as they could muster only 111 runs in 15 overs.

Brief scores: Charanjit Singh Ahluwalia XI- 189 for 3 in 30 overs (Atul Kohli 65, Gagandeep Dhand 67, Romy Brar 15, Puneet 14, Tarun 12 n.o; Vishwajit 1 for 31, Vineet 1 for 21, Nipun Makkar 1 for 32); Prof F.C. Chopra XI- 111 all out in 15 overs ( Geetansh 56 n.o, Sushyant Kohli 18; Tarun Bawa 1 for 15, Deepak 2 for 20, Gagandeep Dhand 1 for 16 and Jashanpreet Sidhu 2 for 1).