Components of child health

Now we can clearly see that the problem of child health is a problem of general cultural, social, and not narrowly medical. And the basis of children's health is, first of all, the appropriate cultural attitudes that express attitude towards parenthood and childhood.

In the introduction, we gave the basic principles relating to the perinatal period and based on the orientation towards proactive prevention. The real realization of these principles is possible on the basis of an approach that we call conscious parenthood, which is an alternative to the usual unconscious adherence to generally accepted cliches.

The reduction of the processes of pregnancy, birth and early infancy to purely medical phenomena has at least three cultural consequences, logically arising from one another, which ultimately determine today's unconscious attitude to these periods of human life:

1) allincreasing alienation of parents from their children, starting from the period of bearing the child. This alienation naturally arises when the mother and the child are regarded as passive objects of a certain intervention performed in their own interests, which paralyzes parents' activity towards their children, weakens their responsibility and the sense of their own competence as parents;

2) no parenthood as a social institution. Instead, there are a number of institutions that impose their will on parents, dictating the conditions for the bearing and birth of a child, as well as the conditions for its existence in early infancy, in fact without the provision of freedom of choice;

3) the lack of a scientific approach to parenting in all its spheres( beginning with the conception of the child) as a complex socio-cultural phenomenon that largely determines the creative and spiritual potential of society. Accordingly, there is no holistic view of the child, especially in infancy.

The concept of conscious parenting aims to overcome this alienation and thereby to affirm parenthood as a social institution whose existence is a necessary condition for a healthy society. The approach to pregnancy, childbirth and infancy must be holistic, that is, ecological, taking into account all aspects of the human being. Parents should become the main actors in the whole process of procreation and upbringing.

First of all, this assumes that parents should have freedom of choice in their actions, which implies knowledge of various alternatives and all possible outcomes of a choice. In addition, parents must take responsibility for their choices, which involves assessing their abilities and understanding that they themselves are the creators of their lives and their parents' happiness. The foundation of human health is, first of all, ecological thinking, from which flows the whole image of his life, the way he interacts with the world around him and realizes himself in this world. Fundamentals of environmental consciousness should be laid in the early stages of life, so these stages - pregnancy, childbirth and early infancy - require an ecological approach. The ecological approach implies the multidimensionality of the human being, starting from the intrauterine life, and, accordingly, the multifaceted nature of its natural needs( which can not be reduced to purely physiological, even in the embryo and fetus).Satisfaction of all these needs is a necessary condition for the formation of a person harmoniously interacting with the world.

The basis of the ecological approach is the orientation to the natural course of natural processes. In nature itself, the mechanisms that ensure optimal conditions for the normal and healthy development of the child are laid. Following natural natural patterns, we can satisfy all the vital needs of the child, thereby forming the needs of a higher order.

In this sense, today's medical approach is anti-ecological, as it disrupts the course of natural processes. From the point of view of today's medical practice, nature has done a lot of mistakes, which should be eliminated. Nature did not envisage the mechanism of separation of mother and child after childbirth( and vice versa, during pregnancy and during childbirth awakens mother instincts in a woman);Has not placed in the mother's breast enough food for the first days of the life of the baby and does not start producing juice in it from a month old;did not provide for a sterile and thermo-comfortable environment for the baby and mother and many other things. The modern scientific approach does not rely on the nature that allowed such essential imperfections, even in cases of normal physiological births and a healthy child. Virtually none of the births take place without the use of medication and technological intervention. With the child, a lot of procedures are carried out, also designed to correct the mistakes of the nature that gives birth to the baby in the original lubrication, without sodium sulfacyl in the eyes and not in a tight bag that binds his movements. During the first year of life, further correction of imperfections - sterility, thermal comfort, strict regime, vaccinations, etc.

What can be the consequences of the violation of natural processes? The answer is easy to guess, if we take into account that in natural natural processes of life of living organisms the prerequisites for their evolution, their development are laid. Moving farther and farther from the natural conditions of existence, we depart from those conditions that accompanied the emergence of Homo sapiens, which we consider ourselves to be.

However, we can compensate for some consequences related to a departure from naturalness, and even at a higher qualitative level. For example, the lack of physical movements is compensated by exercises, and their effectiveness and health benefits may be greater than the monotonous and tedious work associated with obtaining food. The thermo-comfort conditions of our homes, leading to atrophy of the thermoregulation system, are compensated by hardening. The available methods of physical culture and tempering return the modern civilized person the factors of natural life without encroaching on his intellectual and spiritual development, but rather accompanying them. But how to compensate for the weakening of the maternal instinct due to separation of the mother and child after childbirth? How can we compensate for both the physiological and psychoemotional relationships between mother and child that are disturbed by the use of medicines, which are laid in the course of pregnancy and childbirth with the help of the finest hormonal mechanisms? How to compensate fear in the eyes of parents before a tiny helpless creature in their hands?

Replacement of a cave for a delivery room and a bonfire for an obstetric lamp is probably not one of the best achievements of mankind, if it gave rise to a very special type of woman, psychologically( and in many cases physically) not able to give birth to her child naturally if it gave birthtype of children who can not help but be ill.

When investigating this problem, M. Odan writes: "It is essential for understanding that the difficulties in childbirth are at the head of the diseases of civilization." In countries where they reach the third generation of medicated births, women are less able to produce themselves using their own hormones.of them lost this ability during their own birth. "And he gave it: "... there is a correlation between the birth of a baby girl and the way she will give birth to her own children."

Today, more and more talk about Rodova Trauma as a significant problem of our culture. We use this term with a capital letter to distinguish its content from the concept of birth trauma in the narrow medical sense. Birth trauma is a mental trauma caused by events and conditions of existence in the perinatal period. Therefore, it would be more correct to talk about the Trauma of the perinatal period.

Birth trauma is possible due to the effect of the imprinting mechanism, i.e. early imprinting, which is possible not only in a small child, but also in a fetus. Thanks to the phenomenon of imprinting, for example, during the initial contact of the mother and child immediately after birth, a strong psychoemotional bond is formed between them, the basis of their future relationships, the mother's ability to directly feel the baby's needs and feel his condition is "included".The child captures the world that has accepted it in the form of primary extrauterine sensations, and these sensations are the basis of his relationship with this world, the background on which his conscious attitude to the world will be built. Will it be maternal warmth or an aggressive environment in the form of rubber gloves flopping over the buttocks to squeeze out a loud scream, flushing the original grease, rough sucking off the mucus from the nose and mouth, painful stretching on the growth table, burning in the eyes of drops, immobilizing tight swaddlingetc.- all this is undoubtedly of great importance.

Each type of imprinting has its own critical time. That is why the contact of the child and mother is important in the very first minutes after birth."The hormones secreted by the mother and child during childbirth are not yet withdrawn at this first hour," writes M. Odan, "They are of primary importance for the attachment process. The mother and child still have a high level of endorphins. When we know that opiates(opium preparations) can create habits and dependent behaviors, it is easy to understand why this first hour after birth can play such an important role in the binding process. "A newly-born woman is in a particularly sensitive condition."And further: "This binding between the mother and the child is a significant episode in life, and later serves as a model for all other forms of attachment. .. All attachments, whether to humans, animals or to things, should not drift away from this first pattern"mother-child. "

It's a well-known fact that if a mammal's baby cub is divided with the mother right after birth, then after a short enough period of time, the mother may not recognize them and even eat. The human mother understands intellectually that it's" her child "In the initial division, what is called bonding is lost, that is, that subtle connection that allows the mother and child to be an indivisible whole, allowing the mother to understand the child's language and to feel it as herself

Thanks to the phenomenon of imprinting, unconscious structures that form the basis of personalcharacteristics that ultimately affect the world outlook and the creative potential of a person. The primary conditions of a child's life are a model of the world and life that he unconsciously assimilates.

The natural course of the perinatal period creates the child that "mental baggage", which allows him to live in peace also naturally, that is, in harmonious relations with him. Violation of natural processes leads to negative impressions, resulting in both serious psychological problems and problems with physical health. Here we can talk about the Family Trauma.

Similar to the Birth Injury, we can talk about the Injury of Infancy. Negative impressions are created by the negative experiences and thoughts of the mother regarding her child. Perceiving them, the infant "assimilates" the sense of danger of his condition, a feeling of helplessness.

In addition to physical health, the violation of the natural laws of development in the infant period, the dissatisfaction of the child's natural needs leads to a significant decrease in his creativity. Let us give an example. When unable to satisfy their vital needs, both the animal and the human form a passive-defensive type of behavior, which is characterized as a "refusal to search."Any negative imprint, which causes a child's stressful reaction, forms passive-defensive behavior. Such phenomena as separation from the mother, swaddling, feeding on the regime, fix the passive-defensive model of behavior. The search reflex inherent in the child fades. At the same time, "... search activity contributes to the adaptive development of the nervous system."And also: "The main component of behavior that determines the resistance of the body to a variety of harmful effects is search activity."Similar conclusions were made in the sixties by M.Selijman and A.Labori, who called this phenomenon "learned helplessness" and "suppression of action".

It is easy to see how strongly this phenomenon should be spread with modern principles of caring for the baby.

Of course, today a person can not return to the natural conditions of life like his distant ancestors. With reason, he can recreate them at a higher quality level. But there are things that, as we have seen, we can not compensate for anything. We can not "fix" nature, we can only follow its laws.

The animal follows its instincts. Human activity is conscious. The essence of the ecological approach is the conscious adherence to natural laws. Hence the main provisions of the concept of conscious parenthood, which includes the following aspects( summarized here):

1) conscious family planning and preparation for future parenting prior to conception of the child;

2) deliberate pregnancy, special preparation for childbirth, maximum use of pregnancy for positive impact on the child before his birth;

3) the conscious delivery of childbirth, proceeding from the fact that the process of the birth of a child is primarily an important family event. This approach implies the mother's activity in this process, the interested participation of other family members, the creation of maximum comfort for the woman and a favorable psychological atmosphere, the desire to give birth to the child in the most mild way;

4) a conscious approach to the infant, based on the fact that from the first seconds of extrauterine life it is a being with developed psyche and a multitude of needs( not only biological ones) that must be satisfied. The child is in all respects equal in rights with an adult.

The goal of the ecological approach to pregnancy, childbirth and infancy is the formation of ecological thinking, the elimination of the Family Injury, the Injuries of Infancy, and thus the inevitably emerging barrier between man and the world that leads to the specific way of life inherent in modern civilization: the replacement of unity with nature by contrasting, the strategy of personal, spiritual growth - a strategy of survival in an aggressive and unpredictable world.

Regarding the period of the first year of life, we distinguish four main aspects related to the health of the child, which will be further treated by us:

1) The psychological culture of interaction with the baby.

We deliberately put this aspect on the first place, because it is ultimately determinative. The child can not be considered in isolation from the psychological atmosphere in which he is. First of all, this is the psychological microclimate of the family, created by parents, their attitude towards the child, to each other, to relatives, and the relation of relatives to the child. The infant as a sponge absorbs this atmosphere into itself, reflecting it with its own state. The principle of "unity of the soul and body," perhaps, is never more evident, as in the first year of life. Therefore, the psychoemotional state of the child during the period of newborn and breastfeeding is crucial for his health.

2) General principles of care for the baby. This is a set of recommendations for the organization of "life" of the baby. Everything that we do with the child should contribute to its development. Today's standard approach is due to the appropriate attitude to the child as a creature that requires some special measures for its survival. Therefore, a large number of usually given recommendations are similar to recommendations for caring for the seriously ill. The life of the child should fit organically into the life of the family. Contrary to the established opinion about the first year of the baby as the most difficult time for parents, the experience confirms the fidelity of another often repeated wisdom: "small children are small problems, big children are big problems".

3) Physical culture from the first days of life - the basis for the development of the baby. From the physical activity of the child depends largely on his mental development. A new approach to the child requires the development and a new system of physical education. Usually proposed and recommended to parents of popular exercises do not take into account its need for movement and its capabilities and are more like a rehabilitation program after a serious illness. Below we will consider such components of the infant's physical culture as dynamic gymnastics, "baby yoga", water training and tempering.

4) Breastfeeding. In view of the importance of this issue and the abundance of problems associated with breastfeeding, we single out this aspect separately. The process of breastfeeding can not be regarded as a purely physiological act. This approach in itself generates many problems. The culture of breastfeeding is primarily a culture of communication between the mother and her baby, which is of great importance for both.

Together, these four aspects give rise to some system of parent-child relationships, the core of which is the ecological approach based on a conscious choice and own responsibility for their choice.

Although in the future we will talk about physical education, about the recommendations for the first year of life and about breastfeeding as some of the procedures performed by parents with children, one should keep in mind the danger of communicating the communication of parents and the child to a list of certain procedures. Everything should be natural and make a way of life common to the family. Any action of parents towards the child is a process of their communication, the process of sharing their psycho-emotional states.

Below we list some principles that must be taken into account when making a child with almost any action. This is especially important when hardening with strong procedures and with great physical exertion.

1) Accounting for the child's previous history. We need to consider how the pregnancy took place, whether at that time medications were taken, whether there were strong emotional stress, whether the mother exercised and tempered during pregnancy, how and where the baby was born, whether medicines were used during childbirth( stimulation of labor, anesthesia andetc.), how the baby spent the first days of life, how mentally traumatized it is, etc. Accounting for these factors is necessary to determine the regime of occupations and their intensity. Sometimes a child is so traumatized that the use of strong hardening procedures can only bring harm. Sometimes, on the contrary, one should deal with the child more intensively, for example, when he is "drunk" from medications administered to the mother during childbirth. Sometimes the stress received by the child in the maternity hospital, and often even in the prenatal state, which determines the depressive state of his psyche, can be "supplanted" by sharp sensations from strong hardening procedures and physical exertion, after which the child literally "wakes up to life."Physical exercises and hardening of the mother during pregnancy prepare the child for increased stress.

2) Accounting for the characteristics of mental development. If for an adult any action aimed at improving one's own health is a strong-willed act associated with the awareness of the need for certain activities, then for a small child these are only external influences, to which he can respond only reflexively. He can not yet realize their needs and usefulness. Therefore, thoughtlessness and mechanicality in hardening and physical exercises can cause negative reactions that can traumatize the child's psyche. It is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of his nervous system, which manifest themselves in the first days. Accordingly, reactions to these or other effects differ. Procedures of great strength can not be applied to overly excitable children, and if they are necessary, an important condition is contact with the mother and breast sucking. At the same time, small stresses on the background of positive emotions, created by exercises and hardening procedures, strengthen mental stability, teach children the ability to overcome stressful conditions.

3) Accounting for the physiological characteristics of the child. The child of the first year of life has some physiological characteristics, which we will mention, considering a particular recommendation. Here we note the following fact. A small child, especially a newborn, is usually associated with a weak, immature being. Often written about the imperfection of its various systems. However, if we look at what almost every child stands in the process of his birth and after it, we will have to change this point of view. Hardly an adult will be able to withstand proportionately the loads that a child experiences at birth. As for the period after birth, it is possible to carry out the following experiment: a healthy adult person can be tightly wrapped in several sheets and keep it so for three weeks, feeding him in a stationary state, only occasionally unfolding "to change diapers."What you need to have the will to keep in order your psyche. Physical health will inevitably be violated. It is difficult to say whether the average healthy person will stand such a test at all. If, in addition, we add isolation from the family, as for the newborn, as we saw above, it is of great importance. If an adult is fed with mixtures that are recommended for children, then by the end of the first day he will develop a digestive disorder. If you continue feeding, then there is an emetic reaction. Newborns and infants can survive all this. True, apparently, a great price.

Professor IA Arshavsky writes: "In pediatrics and biology, the organisms of early age periods are usually regarded as immature and imperfect in comparison with the maturity and perfection of adults. .. The physiology of the child from this point of view is assessed as the first steps towards the goal, which is the stateof an adult organism. .. Our studies have allowed us to conclude that in all age periods, beginning with the zygote, the organism is perfect and mature if its functions adaptively correspond to the calendar age and specific environment,with which he must interact. "

There are many examples in history that show the viability and adaptive capabilities of infants. During the plague epidemics, the dead mother and the surviving infant baby were repeatedly seen. During the earthquake in Mexico City in 1985, only six days later, 58 newborn children were recovered from the ruins of the maternity hospital. They were all alive.

The so-called "ethereal layer" around the human body, sensed by the most sensitive people, is 3-4 cm in a normal person, 10-12 cm in a strong "bioenergetic healer", a newly born child is felt at a distance of 20-30, and sometimesand 40 cm from the border of the body( in the position on the abdomen).

Thus, we should rather proceed from the notion that babies are very strong creatures possessing huge adaptive abilities. Only our fears and our unbelief in them and in ourselves make them weak.

And at the same time, you need to consider that these opportunities are not unlimited. This is often overlooked by parents trying to achieve some exceptional results( which rather they need, and not the child).You should always feel the line that can not be crossed.

4) Integrated approach. The complexity of the approach means that it is not possible to use only individual recommendations, which can not only do no good, but also harm. All the following recommendations should be considered only in a complex.

In modern care for a child, you can often see a picture that strikes its illogicality. A nurse comes to do a baby massage. The child, wrapped tight in diapers, is exfoliated, he is given a massage, and then again placed in diapers and immobilized. The absurdity of this is obvious. Massage under such conditions - no more than an additional to the "air baths" with a blood transfusion means that allows the child to survive. Also, cold procedures will not be effective if the child is unnecessarily wrapped up in walks. Proper breastfeeding and exercise are important when cold-tempered. Applying to the breast and a good emotional contact with the mother gives a sense of security and "normalcy" of what is happening, which is necessary for easily excitable children, preventing them from developing too violent reactions. The position of the child on the tummy contributes to the rapid recovery of forces after intense cold exposure( especially after outdoor exercises), calms the nervous system.

With proper handling of the baby, a close psychological contact is established between him and his parents, which is of great importance, as the parents feel the child's condition at the same time.

5) Parents are the main teachers of their children. Special training in physical culture, water training or tempering should be done by them. This is due to the selective response of the child to people: the most significant for him are the parents, especially the mother. In the hands of parents, he feels safer than in someone else's hands. During the training sessions can be conducted by an experienced instructor whose task is basically to eliminate the parents' fears and fears. The exception is "baby yoga", which should be carried out by experienced specialists.

6) Parents themselves must go through what they offer to children. This requirement is extremely necessary. The same selectivity of the child leads to the fact that the fears experienced by parents are perceived by them especially strongly. These fears are inevitable if the parents have not acquired their own experience and confidence in what they intend to do with the child. Fears( even deeply subconscious), caught by the baby, can lead to his illness. The best thing to do everything together with the child, especially at the initial stages. This applies to physical exercise, and diving in water, and hardening, as well as nutrition and other aspects of lifestyle.

7) A favorable psychological atmosphere. This requirement is also very important, as the baby catches the fear and anxiety of others, and this influence can sometimes turn out to be so strong that it will cause a whole chain of unfavorable consequences, called "evil eye" in the people. Therefore, in the classroom with children, only trained people should be present. Positive, benevolent attitude of others is a factor that not only compensates for possible negative emotions in someone, but also leads to the disappearance of fears and fears of the parents themselves.

In no case should you brag and demonstrate the achievements of your child. This desire is understandable, but always remember what you are doing it for. The child does not need to be an exhibit.

And of course you need to remember that only the confidence and calmness of parents, their benevolence not only to the child, but to everyone around them, is the best protection for the baby.

8) Step-by-step and regularity. Despite the great possibilities of the child from the very first days, the starting point should be the skills and experience of the parents. The exception is those cases when the child needs help that parents can not provide themselves.

For example, immediately after birth, the baby has the ability to reflexively hold his breath for a long time when immersed in water. However, if parents do not have the skills to conduct aqua-training with their previous children, they should first learn how to freely manipulate the child in the water, and learn how to feel his breathing. With the gradual development of the program, parents lose fears and gain confidence. The same applies to dynamic gymnastics. An experienced instructor can perform fairly complex exercises with the child on the first day after his birth( which sometimes demonstrates to parents for eliminating fears and for understanding the baby's capabilities).However, this should not be done immediately by parents without the appropriate skill to freely manipulate the child's body. With a step-by-step approach, one gets the sensation of his joints, muscles, reaction to one or another exercise, and with this again comes a sense of certainty.

The need for regularity is obvious. However, one should strive to ensure that this regularity is not burdensome, but, if possible, natural. There is no need to build some timetables for gymnastics or swimming. Do it when you have time, and the kid is ready for it. Also learn to feel when he needs it.

Parents often tormented by the question: when to start? When to start gymnastics, swimming, tempering, etc.?This question may seem strange, since it reduces to the question: when to start being healthy? However, it is quite natural in the light of the scientific approach, which is usually presented in popular literature for parents. The exact dates of the beginning of air baths, cold procedures, physical exercises are called. And these terms are completely different. Almost all are one in one: no action with newborns. For the period of the newborn is taboo. For, according to the traditional approach, during this period it follows the child to observe and reveal pathologies and deviations in development. The period of newborn is the period of adaptation of the baby to new conditions of existence, and "common sense" based on fear for this tiny creature, suggests the position of passive observation.

Let us turn, however, to real scientific data. According to the research conducted by IA Arshavsky, who is the creator of age physiology, the whole cycle of individual existence can be divided into qualitatively different periods."With the concept of" period "it is suggested to relate the idea of ​​a delineated period of individual development, within which the characteristics of physiological dispensations are more or less unambiguous. .. Each age period is characterized by its specific features of physiological dispatches and, accordingly, its specific acts of behavior reflecting some form of interactionwith certain environmental conditions, typically represented at the appropriate age. .. The transition from one age-specificThe next stage is, as it were, a critical stage, or, if you like, a critical stage determined by narrow time boundaries, during which the activity of various systems of organs is transformed into new levels of lability, which ensure adaptation to essentially new environmental conditions with which it did not interactin the previous age periods ".

The period of the newborn is just such a critical period."What is called the period of newborns, we characterize as a turning point in individual development."

What is characteristic for the critical periods, and, consequently, for the period of the newborn?"In the event of some stressful forms of stimulation in the critical period, the intensity of which does not exceed the adaptive capacity in the relevant period, the body acquires the ability to subsequently resist not only the influence of the acting dilator, but also many other stressful environmental factors."

Stress reaction experienced at an early agein the relevant critical period, increases the nonspecific resistance of the organism to the action of various physical and mental effects in the subsequentlife. "

Let us explain that here we are talking about the so-called physiological stress leading to positive results. The same stresses that lead to the previously mentioned Trauma of the Perinatal Period refer to the so-called pathological stresses. Because of the importance of distinguishing these two types of stress in the future, we will dwell on this issue in detail.

Thus, it is obvious that just the period of the newborn and should not be missed, because it is in this period that we can achieve maximum effect.