chatwithketch

Q: Good morning ma’am, please I have a question. I am a first time mum…just five weeks and my baby has been having this stomach problem. At first I thought it was a gas problem but I don’t think so. I complained to the doctor. After checking on him, he said the baby is fine since he passes out normal stool and eats well; that his muscles are still stretching and adjusting. Please I need to be cleared on this…and how long will it take for him to be fine because he is not comfortable and sometimes cries when the stomach turns? He doesn’t sleep well because of that. I was asked to give him Nospamin drops but there is no change. Please ma’am, help me to be clear and is there any remedy for this?

A: I’m glad you have been to see your baby’s doctor first. That’s always the first and best place to start. Like he said, the good news is that your baby makes stool and also farts (?) normally.

The stomach aches that babies have (colic) can be very distressing for a parent to watch but perhaps understanding what it’s about may be helpful. Colics usually start occurring in some children between 3 to 6 weeks of age and disappear between the 3rd to 4th month of life, without any treatment. So, your baby fits right into this age group.

Some modifications may help reduce their severity:

• Be sure to burp baby after each feed
  • Hold baby and gently rock her after a feed
  • Hold your baby upright during her feed
  • Check your diet: reduce caffeine-containing foods and sometimes, it may be the dairy in your diet that you baby is reacting to. Taking dairy off your diet for a week or two may lead to improvement in symptoms.

Remember to see your doctor where in doubt, especially if this continues past the time noted above.

Just a note about gripe water which a lot of people want to give their babies when they have this condition….honestly, the benefits are more in our imagination than in actual fact 😀

So, with or without gripe water, this colic shall pass

Have a great night, y’all

Q: Good day Doc
Please what’s the probable issue on a new born baby whose parent’s blood type are B+ and O- respectively and what can be done?

A: A situation like yours leads to a situation called Rhesus incompatibility. As a result of the difference in the Rhesus factors of you and wifey, if your wife gives birth to a baby that is Rhesus Positive, her body will recognise the baby as a foreign body and thus mobilise antibodies to fight your baby. However, in a first pregnancy, this may not be a problem as this can only happen when there is mixing of mum’s and baby’s blood. This would usually happen at the time of separation of the placenta during birth. So, before your wife’s body can mount an effective response to the ‘threat’, the baby has been delivered. However, these antibodies are now ready to, more efficiently, deal with another threat as soon as it presents itself, perhaps through another pregnancy.

During a second or subsequent pregnancy, these antibodies mount an attack on the cells of the baby to leading anaemia, jaundice, brain damage etc in a new baby.

However, this can be prevented by ensuring that wifey gets an injection, Rhogam within 72 hours of birth. this injection deceives the woman’s body into thinking it has already produced antibodies against the baby and thus, the body technically understand, it doesn’t have to do same. The particles of Rhogam cannot cross the placenta and so baby is safe.

For More on this topic please click on this:
https://chatwithdrketch.com/2014/09/07/daily-health-tips-my-hubby-is-rhesus-positive-and-i-am-rhesus-negative-is-my-baby-at-risk/

I hope y’all had a great day 😀 Happy celebrations to the muslims. Y’all didn’t sen me ram to eat! 😀

Be sure to catch our show this evening by 9.55pm Silverbird TV.

Have a good night, everyone 😀

The next couple of weeks, we will explore healthy eating using videos. And guess what, you get to win fabulous prizes if you get the answers right! Yep, loads of prizes to be won by the first 3 people who provide the right answers. This quiz is happening on a Sunday this time, but will subsequently happen every Saturday. So, get ready…..

Watch the video on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/healthylivingwithdrketch) and answer the following questions:
How does a balanced diet help your body fight disease?
What should you do when you find that you cannot eat right for whatever reason?
What kind of protein sources from animals are ideal?

We talk about healthy oils: Olive oils, canola oils etc. But really, even these contain pure fat with about 120 calories in each tablespoonful of olive oil, be it light or extra light. To put this in context, consider how much time it takes to burn off 100 calories at the gym and the relative ease with which a tablespoon of oil goes onto our food. In the Johnny Walker chapter, we talk about walking 10,000 steps per day. If you do those 10,000 steps in a day, you burn between 300 to 400 calories per day and less if you walk mainly flat surfaces! And yet, with one spoon of oil, more than a quarter of all that ‘amazing hard work’ has gone down the drain! SO remember your screams of ‘oh no! 10,000!’ and compare that with the calories burnt and then how much you gained by just adding a drop more oil. If this doesn’t convince you to go easy on the oils, I don’t know what else will!

If you come from the Yoruba tribe (please be sure not to tell them I said this :|), then traditionally, cooking involves ladles and ladles of oils like palm oil (which has a high content of saturated fats associated with high cholesterol levels). I remember the first time I was exposed to stew from the Yoruba race, it had so much oil that I couldn’t see the tomatoes! Being a ‘kobo kobo’ girl who was born into a race where we live a diet of vegetables (in as raw a state as possible) and little oil, that was a culture shock and I never quite got used to it (Please don’t let my in-laws know that all that time I pretended to love those stews, I was actually just suffering through them ;)). It was almost as great a culture shock as learning to kneel down to greet. I developed waist pain the first time we travelled to the village what with all that kneeling which my ‘okoro ‘knees were not used to Again I digress!

If you want to learn more of my diet prescriptions while picking up tips on pregnancy, immunizations, diapering, preventing childhood infections, feeding children right etc, get details from the book, Just For The Health Of It.

This book also makes an excellent gift for baby showers, bridal showers, new parents, people who wish to lose weight and to everyone who desires to embrace healthy living in all aspects.

You can get a copy via the shop now link on our facebook page. Or you can get it through:
1) Laterna Books online shop with nationwide delivery. Just click on this link:https://www.laternabooks.com/laterna_product_details.php…

2) Another option for those in Lagos is Laterna Bookshop on 13, Oko-Awo Close, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Street,. Victoria Island.

3) If you’re outside the country, please visit Amazon through this linkhttp://www.amazon.com/Just-Health-Ketch-Pregnancy-Parenting/dp/9789398026/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426246647&sr=1-1&keywords=just+for+the+health+of+it+with+dr+ketch+olalere+nkechi

For those in Abuja and environs, please call 07030739403 or pick it up at No 5 Bricks Market, Dawaki 11 Market, Dawaki extension.

For those in Awka, please call 08189944090.

Remember that this book is a great gift for anyone who wishes to live and eat healthy, lose weight, get ready for pregnancy and parenting. Buy copies for bridal showers, baby showers, Christmas gifts etc. It’s a gift that keeps on giving

Q: Please Doc, can a breastfeeding mum take lemon juice as a weight loss support? Please notify me when posted

A: Thanks for writing in and you really need to forgive me, but your question gave me a good laugh!

I wish weight loss was just a simple matter of lemons 😀 That would be great. Sweetheart, you do not need lemons to lose weight. It’s a simple formula: exercise and diet!

Now, if you don’t have a gym where you stay, there are millions of ways to get your exercise.

At home
• Do not send people to run all your errands. Go do them yourself. Go and pick up the cup, get the water you want etc
• Get up during commercial breaks and dance to the music of the commercials
• Start a pillow fight with your children, if you have, friends or significant other
• Arm wrestle with anyone who wants to take you on.
• Take a walk when you get home.
• Get up whenever you get a phone call and jog on the spot or just walk around.

While commuting (going to or from work)
• If you use a bus, stop at least a bus stop from your normal bus stop and walk the rest of the distance. This also goes for you if you’ve got a driver/chauffeur. Be sure the environment is safe in both instances.
• If you drive, pack a farther distance away from your normal spot at work and walk the rest of the distance to walk.

At work
• Use the stairs and ditch the elevators
• Go and pick up your printouts…don’t send the office assistant to get it.
• Get up and walk around whenever you get a call
• Consider the idea of having a walking meeting with a colleague
• If you’re part of the Human Resource team, consider putting water dispensers on stair wells so that people have to walk up and down the stairs to get to them. Some music there would not go amiss too

Other times
Dancing, swimming, playing lawn tennis, volley ball and all the other games available that get you moving are great ways of exercising. And yes, this includes those video games that actually get you to get up and dance/move.

Remember that the recommendation is for 150 minutes of exercise/activity every week. And so with the above, there’s no more excuse. You can split this into 30 minutes, Monday to friday or one hour on three days of the week.

As for diet, this post answers it all. Take a look https://chatwithdrketch.com/2014/11/27/daily-health-tips-weight-loss-revisited/

Having said all these, diet affects our breast milk and by extension, baby.

Lemon and lemon water are beneficial to the digestive system as they have been found to reduce gas and bloating in both mother and baby. Ginger is also beneficial, as it has been found to improve lactation. Even though they may be beneficial to both mother and baby, it should be noted that these may interact with certain drugs and increase risk of gastrointestinal problems, stomach ulcers and allergic reactions like breathing difficulty, or swelling of the lips, tongue or face.

I would advise you talk with your doctor before commencing any of these or other herbal supplements, especially so if you are taking medications for other health conditions, or at risk of certain diseases.

These are foods to avoid or limit their consumption while breast feeding:

Caffeine in coffee (try decaffeinated and stick with 2 small tea cups), energy drinks, some soft drinks etc This makes the baby irritable and by extension, makes sleep difficult for the baby. Now, you don’t want that, do you?

Alcohol: This should be avoided at all costs.

Cigarette (yeah, yeah, I know it’s not food) should also be avoided as it reduces the production of breast milk.

If baby reacts to what the mother ate, efforts should be made to pinpoint what the mother ate before the incident started and then eliminating that from the diet to see if the diarrhea or allergy stops.

Make sure that you eat well: lots of fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates. Cut out the junk which will not help you achieve your weight loss goals and in addition have empty calories. And drink sufficient fluids daily.

Be careful before taking any drug as most find their way into your baby.

I hope this helps.

Have a good night, everyone 😀

Exposure to blue light at night, emitted by electronics and energy-efficient lightbulbs, harmful to your health.

Until the advent of artificial lighting, the sun was the major source of lighting, and people spent their evenings in (relative) darkness. Now, in much of the world, evenings are illuminated, and we take our easy access to all those lumens pretty much for granted.

Want to know more, click on this link:http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side

Q: Good evening ma’am. I trust your day was good? I need help from you about how to cure peptic ulcer. Also can I take soup made with tomatoes or avoid it totally? Thank you ma’am.

A: Thanks for writing in.

There are two conditions that may often be confused, one for the other: Peptic ulcer and Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).

Gastric acid is secreted normally in the stomach to help the process of digestion. Peptic ulcer is a sore in the stomach, esophagus or duodenum and occurs when there is either over-production of this gastric acid in the stomach or reduction in the quantity of mucous that protects the stomach from the acid. Infection with an organism, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been found to be a cause of peptic ulcer.

GERD, on the other hand occurs when stomach acid backtracks into the esophagus causing heart burn.

In the past, it was thought that spicy foods caused peptic ulcers. However, there’s no evidence to support this, though spicy foods can certainly make the symptoms of ulcer worse 😀 Smoking, stress and drinking alcohol are also likely to worsen the symptoms of peptic ulcer. Caffeinated and carbonated beverages may also be culprit.

Ulcers are also common in people who take certain pain relieving drugs known as Non- Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) like Ibuprofen.

People with peptic ulcer usually complain of abdominal pain or even sometimes, chest pain as the pain can be anywhere from the breast bone to the navel…giving room for a wide range of descriptions 😀 The pain is usually worse at night or when the stomach is empty.

People with ulcers may vomit blood or pass out fresh or altered blood in stool. For the latter, the stool looks tarry black. Complications of peptic ulcers include internal bleeding, leakage of the acid into the abdominal cavity etc

Treatment is targeted at reduction in acid production, neutralization of acid, treatment of Helicobacter infection, promotion of healing or protection of stomach lining. Your doctor will determine the best option or combination(s) with your active participation, of course 😀

Thus, prevention is targeted at switching pain relieving drugs (if you have an ulcer, please stay away from NSAIDs, reducing your level of stress, stopping smoking and reducing your alcohol intake. Maintaining a healthy diet filled with loads of fruits and veggies which provide sufficient vitamins to aid healing, is also a good way to go. It is still not very clear how H. pylori infections spread but it is thought to be probably from person to person or from food and water. So, judicious and very frequent, hand washing will certainly help 😀

Does milk help? Well, temporarily but it quickly makes it worse. Milk coats the surface of the stomach, reducing the pain but then stimulates more acid production. Sounds like you can’t win, aye?! ;D

For GERD, there are also conditions like pregnancy and obesity that make this condition worse and there are also foods that encourage this. Examples of these ‘foods’ are fatty foods, alcohol, orange juice, chocolate and coffee, onions, tomatoes, peppermint and spicy foods.

So for the person in the question, I suggest you keep a food diary over a period of time and try to figure out the trigger foods. If you suspect tomatoes, try to confirm this by having a ‘tomato meal’ and watching for heart burn and an unpleasant taste at the back of the mouth. If this is not the issue, perhaps it’s a weight issue or even over-eating.

Treatment is targeted at the acid and healing the esophagus. Remember that occasional heart burn is not regarded a problem but if it happens frequently, like two or more times every week, then it becomes a problem and is now referred to as Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). So, drugs used can stop acid production, reduce acid production and cause healing of the esophagus or neutralize the effect of the acid.

Prevention involves trying to avoid your trigger foods (quite a number are actually healthy 😀 maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding heavy meals just before bedtime, try eating smaller meals and avoid tight clothes that may also put pressure on your abdomen.

So, see a doctor first to confirm the diagnosis….peptic ulcer or GERD and then he’ll advice on treatment.

Have a fabulous evening and remember…no heavy meals before bedtime 😀

A study tested how certain types of light affected migraine pain. In this research, some people said that green light eased their pain somewhat.

Source: Shining a light on migraine relief

Q: Does ice water has an effect in early pregnancy

A: This question has been asked again and again in different ways. Can my baby get pneumonia if I drink cold water in pregnancy? Can the baby become asthmatic etc? The answer to all of these is a resounding no. There are so many stories and taboos surrounding pregnancy that we need to address, really. Some pregnant women are practically banned from drinking cold water during pregnancy for this and other unclear reasons. There’s no medical basis for any of these stories. If you have a cold and you’re staying off cold water and filling up on warm fluids, I get it! 😀 However, if it’s for any of the ‘traditional reasons’ kindly ask for an explanation if you’re uncertain. Your doctor is always a great and useful resource. For more on pregnancy myths and what my professional opinion of them are, please click on these links:

https://chatwithdrketch.com/2015/06/14/our-take-on-some-pregnancy-myths/

Whenever I am pregnant, I not only drink cold water but actually take a lot of ice cubes because I can’t just seem to get cool enough! I’m constantly sweating and generally feeling hot! And I can tell you for a fact that none of my children were born asthmatic or with pneumonia! Having said that, as with everything else, moderation is key!

What you may notice though when you drink cold water is that baby moves around. This is, theoretically because the uterus/womb is close to the digestive tract such that the cold water in the digestive tract stimulates the baby to move. Women who feel concerned about their baby’s movements are sometimes asked to do this and check for baby’s movement.

I hope this helps.

Want to know more of healthy living and healthy eating? Catch the show on Silverbird TV 9.55pm on Mondays.

Have a good night