European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 12, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday july 12, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 health & science news adult diets wrong for babies expert says new York a some Well meaning parents Are inadvertently stunting the growth of babies by feeding them Low fat Low cholesterol diets like those recommended Tor adults a paediatric expert says. Even by Banning snacks Between meals parents can withhold from infants and toddlers the calories they need 19 grow normally said or. Fima Lifshitz associate director 9f the Depan ment of paediatrics at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset . In the past year the Hospital has treated seven Chil Dren Between the Ages of about 6 months and 2 years whose slow growth came from misguided diets imposed by their parents he said. Even Good recommendations when taken to a extreme could result in bad consequences he said. Paediatric and nutrition experts said that special restrictions on fat and cholesterol Are not recommended for healthy children below the age of 2. Lifshitz said the parents of the seven children had experienced problems with High cholesterol and obesity. High cholesterol Levels in the blood Are associate with heightened risk of heart attacks. In one Case parents watered Down the child s for Mula. Parents also served their children skim milk and lean meat and were very careful not to allow the children to get extra snacks he said. But about a third of a child s Normal intake of Cal medical briefs Young kids in big families have lower test scores from press dispatches each additional child Lowers the intellectual level of a family which helps explain a 17-year decline in College Entrance test scores and the recent upturn in those scores a psychologist intellectual environment is diluted with each birth says or. Robert b. Zajonc of the University of Michigan. As a result on average a first child is Likely to score highest on various intelligence and achievement tests and each successive child will do less s theory suggests that while older Chil Dren take on some of the role of parents for family s younger children they Lack the knowl Edge and experience of the real parents. As result the younger children Are exposed to a less intellectually stimulating upbringing. Tests of intellectual ability depend heavily on verbal ability Zajonc said in announcing his find Ings. Adults contribute a Large vocabulary to the Pool and babies contribute the average child taking the sat in 1963 Wasa second child and the average in 1980 was the third child. During that Points out the average sat score dropped from 490 to 445 out of a possible 800.in 1962, the trend toward larger families re versed. As children born after 1962 began Totake sats in the Early 1980s, sat scores began to nudge Back up Zajonc found. Health Agency finds signs of Large increase in herpes Atlanta a the number of genital Erpe cases in the United states May be is tunes than two decades ago. Based on the number Isle asking their doctors about the disease Vale physicians were consulted about Geni Tal Herles an estimated 450,570 times in 1984. Up ftim29,560 in 1966. The National centers for disease control in Atlanta data from the National disease and the . Do not show the number of Actu Al Leniul herpes cases or the total number of doctors visits not included Are visits to Public health clinics or other physicians. Bui lie figures probably reflect a True in Creata the umber of cases of this sex Auy transmitted disease the Atlanta Torf Agency said in its weekly report Genius i infection remains a major Public health est Moo 20 minion Ameri Carrh Avereen afflicted by genital herpes a viral Facson which can cause of sores that May disappear and reappear at irregular intervals. Ones comes from snacks he said and if they Don t get that they won t make it As far As appropriate growth and they need extra snacks More caloric intake. Along As the diet is Well balanced Over 24 hours or a month that s what s important not just one snack that was not considered appropriate he said. Lifshitz said some parents decided on their own to impose the diets but others w re following physicians advice. It s not the parents making up the diets but maybe enforcing the dietary recommendations for adults in babies he said. Dietary recommendations from the american heart association for controlling fat and cholesterol Are Good for Young adults and adults not for heart association s nutrition guidelines for Chil Dren state that they do not apply to children younger than 2 years said or. Peter Kwiterovich a professor of paediatrics at Johns Hopkins University school of Medicine and co author of the guidelines. No recommendation has been made for younger children because we did t feel there was sufficient data in the literature to justify such a recommendation he said a diet Low in cholesterol and Satu rated fat can still provide needed calories. Or. Laurence Finberg chairman of the nutrition committee of the american Academy of paediatrics said parents can be Overly zealous in meeting dietary goals such As percentage of calories from fat. A lot of people if you Tell them 30 percent is what you re aiming for they la try to aim for 20 percent a goal that is for children virtually impossible to Doand still get enough calories in he said. Linda Van Horn assistant professor of preventive Medicine and Community health at Northwestern University medical school said that As far As dietary restrictions go below the age of 2, children should be pretty much left alone Ana provided with the Type of nutrients necessary to maintain and enhance their growth and Only after age 2 should parents Start introducing prudent measures for developing Long term eating patterns she said. Most children younger than 2 require whole milk breast milk or formula rather than skim milk she said and Between meal snacks Are not necessarily unhealthy because children Are limited in How much food they can accommodate at one sitting. The problems in the seven children she said arc Good example of a Good thing gone awry in the hands of people who Don t recognize the important nutritional requirements for growth and development in those Early closer look of common heartburn suggests it con be very serious new York up an estimated 70 percent of people who enter emergency rooms convinced that they Are having a heart attack leave with the reassurance it was Only a Case of heartburn. In a Way heartburn is very trivial said or. Ray Goyal a professor of Medicine at Harvard University. But we Are learning that in a complicated Way it can be very serious. Heartburn is a symptom not a disease. The symptom May be a passing pain but the cause May indicate heartburn has been of interest because its symptoms Are so close to that of a heart attack said Kirt Vener a program director at the National institutes of health who monitors research into the condition. Now we Are finding links Between heartburn and actual heart problems cancer and digestive millions of people occasionally suffer heartburn which is characterized by a constricted feeling in the Chest that can be extremely painful. An estimated 20 percent of All americans suffer heartburn regularly and most of them Are Over age 40, Goyal said. Pregnant women have a High incidence of heartburn As do people who Are overweight. Heartburn also called Gastro esophageal Reflux occurs when partially digested food from the stomach travels Back through the oesophagus doctors say. While the stomach has a lining that protects i against the acid used for digestion the oesophagus does not. When acidic food reaches its lining the result Spain constriction and even bleeding. Most heartburn occurs when the sphincter muscle inthe oesophagus weakens doctors said. The muscle which allows food to pass into the stomach while pre venting its return up the oesophagus sometimes Mal functions after a heavy meal. Obese people and pregnant women suffer from heartburn when their increased weight puts More pres sure on the sphincter muscle than it can tolerate. For most the occasional flare ups of the condition Are not dangerous doctors stressed. But research has shown that repeated episodes of heartburn erode the lining of the oesophagus which is replaced with a scar tissue that appears to be prone to cancer. Eventually the esophageal lining will change As the acid acts on it Goyal said. This change is associated with a High incidence of ulcers and other research has shown that the constriction of the oesophagus during an attack of heartburn May also constrict nearby blood vessels leading to the heart. In afew rare cases doctors believe an attack of heartburn has turned into a Bona fide heart attack. Heartburn actually can cause cardiac arrest Goyal said. It is not common but we Are understand ing it chronic cases of heartburn daily episodes suffered by some people As their sphincter slowly loses its resiliency can cause severe bleeding As Well As pain. How the human heart works to m Iran Tody Boot flow we Iho ngh a fwd do a min Wood Iran m knit my to m m Bun a Xit b no of Nim mood id m Tody m to in Oor mood u the acidic food regurgitates into the lungs causing myriad of problems Goyal said. The pain is so agonizing that Many chronic sufferers sleep sitting up to prevent the food in their stomachs from backtracking doctors said. Most cases Are treated with antacid drugs that neutralize the acidity of the stomach s contents. But approximately 40,000 sufferers a year undergo Complex surgical procedure in which the oesophagus and stomach Are reconstructed and strengthened using Muscles from the Abdomen. Another surgical procedure in which a Silicon col Lar is placed around the sphincter gained Federal food and drug administration approval in 1979 and has been successfully performed on about 27,000 victims of frequent heartburn. The More we look at heartburn the More we real ize we probably need More research Vener said. By and Large it s not a significant health problem but it Isa significant problem to
