Why should your period be a “secret” you feel you have to hide?
Today is World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
I’ve always wondered about people who snigger behind their hands whenever they see a girl/lady with period stains. There is nothing funny about periods. It’s neither a crime nor a shame. It’s just normal. The same way breathing is normal.
Let’s normalize talking about periods and ensure every girl child has access to menstrual hygiene products.
Q: Please what drugs can be used to cure nasal polyps in adults and children?
A: A nasal polyp is a painless small growth in the nostrils with a stalk protruding from a surface. Though harmless, they can keep growing and block the nose if left untreated. Patients typically use the terms ‘stuffy nose’, ‘blocked nose’ or nasal congestion to describe this condition because of the obstruction (blockage) to the flow of air, in and out of the nose. It is not clear what causes this but it is thought that having asthma, allergy to air-borne fungi and a drug reaction to aspirin could predispose one to it.
It is important to distinguish this from allergies.
Stuffy nose is the same description that patients with allergy use to describe their situation. In this condition, an individual’s immune system reacts in an exaggerated manner to certain foods or to pollen leading to nasal congestion due to swelling of nasal tissues (tissues in the nose) and blood vessels with excess fluid. This ailment tends to run in families and so history of people with same condition or asthma etc in that family is not uncommon.
To differentiate both, your doctor will look inside your nose. He/she should be able to see polyps in the nostrils where they exist. Treatment of nasal polyps include the use of steroid nasal sprays or drops to shrink the polyps. This can be upgraded to steroid tablets if the polyps are too big or fail to respond to nasal sprays and drops.
Surgery is an option after ten weeks and there is no relief. The only caveat here is that nasal polyps tend to recur. Please see your doctor immediately if you experience difficulty breathing, sudden worsening of symptoms or swelling around the eyes etc
In the meantime, to prevent nasal polyps or reduce recurrence, do the following:
Try drinking a lot of water
Use saline sprays instead of the nasal decongestants, if you’ve been indulging in the latter
Use a humidifier which loosens the mucous. Turning on the hot water shower and inhaling the steam is another great idea.
Avoid irritants of the nose like smoke
Manage allergies and asthma. For more on asthma, please click on https://chatwithdrketch.com/…/daily-health-tips-can…/
Practice good hygiene by washing your hands often. This will protect against infections that can lead to swelling of nasal tissues and blood vessels with excess fluid inflammation in the nasal passages and sinuses.
All these measures will help reduce the nasal congestion.
Q: Good evening doctor. Please I want to ask, can a breastfeeding (exclusive) mother take emergency contraceptive ?
A: Well, a breastfeeding mother should definitely not be taking any medication without speaking to her doctor. That’s for sure! 😀 This is because drugs that you take will also end up in breast milk. Most times, the concentration of these drugs in breast milk is so small that it hardly causes any problems in the baby but in some instances, the drug could get very concentrated in breast milk, putting the baby at risk. So, all drug choices, be they contraceptives or otherwise, must pass through your doctor.
A very common question I get asked is if breastfeeding mums can get pregnant. The answer is yes. If you’re exclusively breastfeeding, feeding your baby on demand (every 4 hours), you’re within 6 months of your baby’s birth and your menstrual period has not returned after the birth of your baby, you stand a better chance of not getting pregnant during this period. However, this is not a reliable method.
Birth control pills can help prevent pregnancy at this time. Pills that contain estrogen can lead to reduction in breast milk supply (and yes, combination pills contain estrogen). So, it’s a good idea to avoid such pills at this time. Pills that contain only progestin (like the minipill or progestin-only emergency contraceptive pills) are better options, as they do not affect breast milk supply. It’s usually taken at the same time daily. It’s best to start this discussion before you have your baby or immediately after so that your doctor can advise as to when you should start taking the pills, if at all.
Barrier contraceptives like condoms, diaphragms etc can also serve the purpose of preventing pregnancy at this time.
There are, of course, other methods of birth control available eg Intra Uterine Device (IUD), implants, patches etc also exist and you may want to discuss these other options with your doctor as you conclude breastfeeding.
Have a great evening 😀
Q: Hello my great doc! I know that beans is good for the body but I’m scared eating of beans because anytime I eat beans my belly troubles me for 3 days. I do go to toilet just to gas air & I cannot eat anything to my fill. What is d cause & what can I do or take? Thanks a lot
A: Hi dear, thanks for writing in. Feeling gassy or bloated after eating beans is a problem that some people have to deal with.
Bloating is usually caused by the twin factors of what you have eaten and how you chose to eat it.
For what you have eaten, easy culprits are rich, fatty foods, beans, dairy (especially in lactose intolerant people), high fibre foods (if lots of water is not taken afterwards) etc.
How can how you eat cause you a problem?
If you tend to over-eat or rush your food (eat it very fast or like a friend of mine would say, ‘inhale’ it 
), then you are a target for bloating. The reason is that you eat so fast that you don’t give enough time for signals to travel to your brain from the stomach confirming that you are full. By the time that signal arrives, you are all stuffed up and bloated to boot! Note that it may take up to 20 minutes for those signals that confirm fullness to get to the brain…sounds like a long journey 
Other causes of bloating are swallowed air (which can happen when we eat too fast or drink too fast) and smoking.
Prevention?
This is really simple: Reduce portion sizes, limit your intake of fats, eat slowly, quit smoking and limit your intake of foods that cause this, if all else fails.
If your bloating is caused by swallowed air, avoid carbonated drinks (most soft drinks fall into this category), don’t drink with straws (at least on a regular basis) avoid chewing chord…oh, sorry! I meant to say, avoid chewing gum and stay off your candies that you suck so hard and suck in quite a bit of air too!
Remember that if this ‘gassiness’ continues ‘regularly, you should see your doctor to be sure this is not the symptom of something else.
So, when you attend that party today, go easy on the food. Take a small serving and eat slooowly
Before motherhood, sleep was simple.
Then suddenly, I became a new mum and discover that tiny humans have VERY strong opinions about staying awake at 2am 
Sometimes I just wished I could explain nicely: ‘My darling, mummy loves you dearly…but mummy also needs sleep.’
The exhaustion that comes with caring for a newborn is real – especially with nighttime feeds, crying, diaper changes, and trying to figure out what exactly the baby wants this time 
Over time, I learned that sleep as a new mother has to become intentional.
A few things that may help, if you’re also a first time mum trying to figure it out:
Keep lights dim during nighttime feeds. Bright lights wake both you and baby fully, making it harder to fall asleep again.
Sleep when the baby sleeps. Yes, everyone says this, but honestly, it helps. The dishes and emails can wait sometimes.
Create a comfortable sleep environment. Good pillows and a comfortable mattress are not luxuries for exhausted mothers
Wind down early. A calmer evening routine can help you settle into sleep more easily.
Try relaxing bedtime routines. Warm baths and calming scents, including quiet moments may help your body relax.
And most importantly: Please give yourself grace. You are not failing because you are tired. You are human. And motherhood is hard work 
Pip: chatwithketch is out here answering the questions new parents are too exhausted to Google at three in the morning, and honestly, that's a public service.
Mara: It is. Today's episode covers newborn feeding and jaundice, body odour in children and the pressure on mothers to do everything, fibroids and reproductive health, and what persistent bad breath might actually be telling you.
Pip: Let's start with the newborn questions — the ones that hit in the first hour of a baby's life.
Mara: The central question here is whether a baby is in danger if breastfeeding doesn't happen immediately — and the answer is more reassuring than most new mothers expect.
Pip: The post sets it up directly: "Your baby doesn't need more than a few teaspoonfuls of colostrums (which your breast already has and baby gets as he suckles) in the first few days."
Mara: So the upshot is that the body is already prepared — colostrum is there before full milk arrives, and it carries immunity-building substances. The real job is just getting the baby to the breast often.
Pip: And the seventy-two-hour mark is the practical checkpoint — if milk hasn't come in by then, that's when you loop in a doctor.
Mara: The post on newborn jaundice fits right alongside this. More frequent feeding is one of the recommended responses there too, because it helps the baby clear excess bilirubin faster.
Pip: Two different problems, same first line of action — feed the baby. That's a tidy through-line.
Mara: From here, the questions get a little older — school-age, not newborn.
Mara: The question driving this segment is whether a five-year-old having smelly armpits is normal — and what a parent should actually do about it.
Pip: The post is clear on the biology: "Most people don't know but sweat on its own is virtually odourless. But when bacteria that live naturally on your skin mix with sweat, they multiply quickly and become smelly."
Mara: What this means in practice is that hygiene habits — twice-daily showers, deodorant, changing undergarments at every bath — are the real intervention, not alarm.
Pip: Teaching a five-year-old to use deodorant feels like a milestone nobody puts on the fridge, but apparently it belongs there.
Mara: The piece on motherhood connects here. It's a personal reflection on chasing the supermum ideal — exclusive breastfeeding, career, homemaking, all at once — and the cost of refusing to ask for help. The line that lands is direct: "You do not have to destroy yourself to be a good mother."
Pip: Which is also good hygiene advice, in its own way.
Mara: Reproductive health raises its own set of questions that need the same grounded information.
Pip: The tension in this segment is real: a newly married woman has just been told she has fibroids and wants to know whether food choices can shrink them.
Mara: The post leads with what matters most: "The first thing you need is information. Knowledge is power. With information, you know what you are dealing with, your options and then, you can take better decisions."
Pip: And the information that follows is genuinely useful — fibroids are classified by location, and only the sub-mucosal type, sitting inside the womb cavity, directly threatens implantation.
Mara: On diet specifically, the advice is to avoid alcohol, manage weight, and eat more vegetables. Not a cure, but a real modifier. Treatment options range from watchful waiting to myomectomy, which preserves the uterus for future pregnancy.
Pip: So the answer to "what can I eat" is honest — it's one lever among several, and the doctor conversation matters more than the meal plan.
Mara: Speaking of things that seem like one problem but turn out to be another — breath and blood sugar.
Mara: This segment asks why brushing isn't enough — and the answer is that bad breath sometimes has nothing to do with your mouth.
Pip: The post lists the usual culprits — tobacco, garlic, dry mouth, bacteria — and then pivots: "Bad breath is not ALWAYS just a mouth issue. Sometimes it may point to conditions like sinus infections, respiratory infections, diabetes, liver or kidney disease."
Mara: So persistent bad breath that doesn't respond to better oral hygiene is worth investigating, not just masking with mints.
Pip: Diabetes appearing on that list is a natural bridge to the second post here, which covers Diabetes Insipidus — a condition most people have never heard of.
Mara: Right. Unlike Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetes Insipidus has nothing to do with blood sugar. It's a water-regulation disorder caused by problems with ADH, the hormone that tells the kidneys to conserve water. Excessive thirst and urination are the hallmarks, and treatment depends entirely on which subtype is involved.
Pip: Same word, completely different disease. Worth knowing the difference.
Mara: What connects all of this is the same move — taking a frightening or confusing symptom and replacing panic with practical information.
Pip: Colostrum, bilirubin, fibroids, Diabetes Insipidus — next episode, we'll see what else needs demystifying.
Bad breath can be embarrassing, frustrating, and sometimes a sign that something else is going on.
The good news? Simple daily habits can make a BIG difference
Here are some quick tips for fresher breath:
Reduce or stop tobacco use – Smoking is one of the biggest causes of bad breath.
Watch what you eat – Foods like garlic and onions can temporarily affect your breath until your body fully processes them.
Drink water often – A dry mouth allows bacteria and food particles to build up, causing unpleasant smells.
Use the right oral care routine – Brush twice daily and floss regularly to remove food particles and bacteria hiding between teeth.
Visit your dentist regularly – Persistent bad breath may sometimes be caused by infections or dental problems.
And importantly – Bad breath is not ALWAYS just a mouth issue.
Sometimes it may point to conditions like:
Sinus infections
Respiratory infections
Diabetes
Liver or kidney disease
So please don’t ignore persistent symptoms.
Fresh breath starts with healthy habits
Q: Hey doctor, thanks so much for helping us young mothers. May God richly bless you..
What can be given to a new born baby like 30mins old baby crying and the mother’s breast milk has not started coming out????
A: Okay, I’m absolutely impressed that 30minutes after having your baby, you’re awake and energetic enough to think of feeding him! 😀 That’s really awesome and that establishes a bond with the baby immediately…
Feeding should, ideally, start within one hour of having your baby. So, you’re on to a great start. Your breast already has a stock of breast milk but it does take your baby sucking to make the breast milk ‘come out.’ So, the earlier you put the baby to the breast, the sooner proper breastfeeding can be established. Your baby will probably sleep away the first 24 hours or so, so it may be a challenge to put the baby to the breast. Try the best you can and make sure that your baby’s mouth covers the areola which is the dark coloured area of the nipple.
Some women who had their babies through Caesarian Section may also experience delays in breast feeding just like some other women. There’s no specific reason for this and the same advice of putting the baby to the breast often suffices. The more often you put your baby to the breast, the better your milk supply will be.
Just in case you’re worried that your baby will starve before full breast feeding is established, don’t be. Your baby doesn’t need more than a few teaspoonfuls of colostrums (which your breast already has and baby gets as he suckles) in the first few days. They contain a lot of substances that help build your baby’s immunity. If, however, by 72 hours you’re still not making breast milk, be sure to discuss with your doctor so that he can confirm that your baby is getting enough to eat. Before this time, don’t get tempted to offer glucose water or formula feeds if you plan to breast feed.
Now just in case you wondered about pap with milk and whether this helps breast milk come in faster? Well, my answer is this. If you want to take your pap, please indulge…in sizeable portions. If it helps your breast milk come in, that’s fine. I guess if the pap is watery enough, it will help hydration and you certainly need to be well hydrated for breast feeding to happen without stress 😀
Have a good night 😀
Q: Please, Doctor, which food should I eat for fibroid to decrease?
I went to hospital/scan I was told I have intramural fibroid…and I got married 2weeks ago.. which food should I don’t and do eat for fibroid?
A: The first thing you need is information. Knowledge is power. With information, you know what you are dealing with, your options and then, you can take better decisions.
Fibroids develop from the muscle tissue of the uterus (womb). These growths can range in size from seedlings to big masses.
They are differentiated by the sites where they are found:
Inside the cavity of the womb (sub-mucosal),
Within the muscle of the uterus (intramural),
On the surface of the womb (sub-serosal).
Fibroids do not cause infertility per se, but sub-mucosal ones in the cavity of the womb, can take up the place where a baby would have implanted causing infertility. Fibroids can also distort the shape of the ovaries and fallopian tubes causing problems with conception.
Hormones are implicated in the development of fibroids as when women get to menopause with resultant decrease in the level of circulating hormones, estrogen and progesterone, the fibroids shrink.
Fibroids are more likely to occur in black women, people who take alcohol, people with a family history, obese people and those who eat a lot of red meat and little vegetables.
Symptoms of fibroids include heavy menstrual bleeding, prolonged menstrual bleeding, frequent urination as the mass presses on the bladder, feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder, pelvic pressure etc.
Pain can also result in fibroids when a fibroid has a stalk and gets twisted or when the fibroid grows so fast that it outgrows its blood supply lead to its ‘death’.
There are a couple of different methods for the treatment of fibroids but only your doctor can confirm which one is suitable to you.
If the fibroids are small and causing no problem (probably discovered incidentally), then your doctor will most likely not institute any treatment other than watchful waiting.
If one is around menopausal age and probably has finished having children, some drugs that mimic the effect of menopause are giving. These deprive the fibroids of nutrient supply and thus they shrink.
Other treatment modalities may involve using IUCDs which release hormones that reduce the severity if bleeding and pain medications. With technology advances, there are also non-invasive and minimally invasive procedures that can take care of fibroids. The final options are the tried and tested surgical procedures. One of the surgical procedures, myomectomy, involves removing the fibroids while preserving the healthy tissue of the uterus (womb).
You can still get pregnant after this surgical procedure. So, you may want to have a long chat with your doctor to determine what options are available in your location and what applies to you.
On what to eat or not eat, given that these are implicated in the development of fibroids, avoid alcohol, manage your weight and do not get obese, and eat more vegetables.
Q: Hello Dr….is it normal for a 5 years old child to have smelly armpits??
A: Thanks for writing in. Is this normal? Well, from around the age of 8 to 10 years, children begin to sweat a little more and of course with the sweat comes the possibility of body odour. In hot places, this process could start earlier. So, this is the time to teach him some hygiene lessons that will be helpful forever
He needs to take a shower twice a day or failing that, at least once a day. This helps wash away sweat as well as reduce the number of bacteria on his skin.
Most people don’t know but sweat on its own is virtually odourless. But when bacteria that live naturally on your skin mix with sweat, they multiply quickly and become smelly.
Teach him to towel off after a bath or shower. He needs to pay close attention to areas where he sweats a lot. Sweat causing bacteria love moist areas.
Get him a deodorant or anti-perspirant to use on his underarms twice a day, in the morning and the evening. Deodorants do not actually prevent sweating, but they mask the smell of bacteria on the skin. Now that he has underarm hair, he has to shave that and groin area hairs frequently as they trap sweat and encourage smells.
Change undergarments frequently. Honestly, panties and underpants should be changed whenever you take a bath. And please remember to wash the discarded ones when you change.
When sweating heavily or in very hot weather, he should change clothes frequently…and it’s important to wash those sweaty clothes before wearing them again! Fresh clothes help keep body odour down.
Teach him to change his socks too, especially if he tends to have foot odour. Deodorant powders or detergent based running shoe cleaners used in shoes are useful.
Be sure to reassure him that this is all part of growing up and as is usual with this process, he has new responsibilities that go with this stage
Have a good night, y’all
chatwithketch 