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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2001)
Siletz Community “Cha-may weeya " Medicine Talk Health Clinic Baby Safety Checklist In the Bedroom / / / Put your baby to sleep on her back or side in a crib with a firm, flat mattress and no soft bedding underneath her. Follow this advice to reduce the risk of suffocation and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). To prevent suffocation, never put babies to sleep on adult beds. Make sure your baby’s crib is sturdy and has no loose or missing hardware. This will prevent babies from suffocating or strangling by becoming trapped between broken crib parts. Never place your baby’s crib or furniture near a window blind or curtain cords. This will prevent babies from strangling on the loop of the cord. To prevent falls, keep children away from windows. In the Bathroom Z Z Z Keep medicines and cleaning products in containers with safety caps and locked away from children. This will prevent children from being poisoned. Always check bath water temperature with your wrist or elbow before putting your baby in to bathe. This will prevent bums to a baby’s delicate skin. Never, ever, leave your child alone in the bathtub or near any water. This will prevent children from drowning. In addition, keep children away from all standing water, including water in toilets, five-gallon buckets, and pools. In the Kitchen Don’t leave your baby alone in a highchair; always use all safety straps. This will prevent injuries and deaths from the baby climbing out, falling, or sliding under the tray. Be sure to use safety straps in strollers and baby swings. Z Use your stove’s back burners. Keep pot handles turned to the back of the stove. This will prevent deaths and injuries from burns. In addition, keep children away from tablecloths so they can’t pull hot foods or liquids down on themselves. Z Lock household cleaning products, knives, matches, and plastic bags away from children. This will prevent poisonings, bleeding injuries, bums, and suffocation. Z In Other Living Areas V Z Z Install smoke detectors on each floor of your home, especially near sleeping areas; change the batteries each year. This will prevent deaths and injuries from fires. Use safety gates to block stairways and safety plugs to cover electrical outlets. This will prevent injuries from falls and electric shocks. Keep all small objects, including tiny toys and balloons, away from young children. This will prevent choking and possible death. Resource: http://www.parenthub.com/parenting/safety/baby.htm Baby and Child Safety Guide. Alcohol, con’t from page 12 woman consumes, the more the liver’s fat content increases. A fatty liver can lead to alcoholic hepatitis. In turn, inflammation of the liver leaves scarring. The scarred liver prevents elimination of impurities in the blood. This causes cirrhosis of the liver. Forty percent of all patients with cirrhosis are women between ages 15 and 34. Alcohol affects a woman’s hormonal balance. A woman drinker is apt to drink heavier during her menstrual (moon) cycle. She becomes more intoxicated than usual during this time. During the premenstrual phase, studies have shown the absorption rate is significantly faster than in other phases of the menstrual cycle. Therefore, during premenstrual a woman gets drunk faster. A woman who takes birth control pills stays drunk longer, even though she is not drinking more than she usually does. Alcohol may increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 50 percent. Scientists do not know why. Alcohol affects women differently than men, causing women to have a higher risk of dying once health problems arise. Women and men vary in their amounts of body fat and water. The difference of women having more fat and lower amounts of water is that alcohol is not fat-soluble. Therefore, a woman and a man of equal size, both drinking the same amounts of alcohol, will have different blood alcohol levels. The equivalent doses are more damaging to women. Women develop health problems at a lower level of alcohol consumption than men do. If you think you can drink successfully and you are a woman, think again. The physical evidence proves that a woman’s health is likely to deteriorate at a faster rate than a man’s is. The woman’s body is not made to process heavy amounts of alcohol. Small amounts of drinking eventually lead to physical dependency, consequently breaking down the organs in a female’s body and causing the possibility of death. 1. Ipi^na, Teresa, Ed. Red Voices for American Indian Women and Families Sacramento: Volume III, No. 9 2. IpFna, Teresa, Ed. Red Voices for American Indian Women and Families Women s Alcoholism Center, San Francisco 13
