Q: Hello sir, have a sister who is 16 years that is bow-legged. Is there any drug she can take that doesn’t involves surgical attention that she can take?
A: Bow legs (genu varum) would usually occur in children when they are born becomes of the position they adopt in the uterus (physiological bowing). This, however, would usually resolve and disappear without any treatment by the time they are 3 years old. However, in very few instances they do not resolve. Two other conditions Blount’s disease and Rickets can lead to bow legs. In Blount’s disease, there is an abnormality in the upper part of the shin bone (tibia) and in Rickets, the body is unable to adequately absorb Vitamin D or there is a lack of Vitamin D, calcium and/or phosphorus in the food taken by the baby.
When people with bow legs stand with their feet together, their…
Q: Good evening ma’am. Please Doctor, can taking of COLD WATER prevent someone from conceiving? Thanks. God will continue to strengthen you in all your endeavors.
A: 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.
So, in simple language, ‘no. drinking cold water cannot prevent conception.’ And it cannot cause a problem for your baby when you’re pregnant. 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.
Here are a couple of other pregnancy myths and our take on them:
Advice 1
You must always have a safety pin on your person; otherwise evil people may steal the baby from your tummy.
Verdict: Fiction
I’m not sure how else to qualify this, except by saying it is beyond weird!
Advice 2
Do not let people cross your leg when you’re sitting down. If they do, your baby will look like them.
Verdict: Fiction
Seriously guys! This has no basis in reality and even in mythology. If you don’t like people crossing over your legs, that’s fine…but don’t get it twisted. It has nothing to do with how the baby looks.
Advice 3
Do not spend too much time or shout at people you don’t like or your baby will look like them.
Verdict: Fiction
Anything that gets you to stop screaming is a great idea. But let’s do it for the right reasons. Your baby’s looks are determined by genes and not your likes or dislikes
Advice 4
If you scream during labour for your first child, you will scream throughout all your other labours.
Verdict: Fiction
Honestly, if you’d like to give your lungs a work-out during labour, be my guest. Go for it. I really don’t see any problem in it…certainly no documented medical one. In my case, to make up for the two times I tried to keep it all in, as I’d mentioned, I screamed the whole neighbourhood down when I was having my last baby!
But then again, you really don’t need to scream. You can put to bed in a center where you can receive epidural anaesthesia so that the whole process is easypeasy, lemon squeezy
In Africa, we like to think that if we don’t have our babies the long, painful way, it makes us less of women. But that is not true. The woman who had her baby with anaesthesia and the woman who didn’t both have babies to show for their efforts and I assure you that in both cases, the maternal instincts are not affected.
Advice 5
‘If the doctors tell you that the best option for you is having your baby through Caesarian section, reject it. All the women in our families have had their babies ‘normally’; you can’t be an exception to that rule.’
Verdict: Fiction
Every woman’s story is different and so is their medical history. The history of your mum is not necessarily yours and so, judging what will happen to you at labour and delivery but what happened to your family before you, may be putting you in danger. In some instances, there may not even be a problem with the woman’s ability to deliver the baby, but because the labour is prolonged with the baby in distress, the doctor takes a decision to section the lady. Going against this advice (which is an option open to the woman as the doctor will not force his medical opinions on her) may endanger both mother and baby. So, please be guided.
Advice 6
If you eat a lot of snails, your baby will spit a lot when born!
Verdict: Fiction
The fact that the snail is slimy has nothing to do with whether baby drools or not. Remember also that if your baby starts drooling when he’s teething, it has nothing to do the snails you ate when pregnant but everything to do with the process he’s going through…bringing forth teeth!
Advice 7
A breast feeding mother cannot get pregnant.
Verdict: Fiction
This actually used to be used as a birth control method called the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM), because the hormones involved in lactation provide some protection against pregnancy-related hormones. However, we have seen again and again, women get pregnant while breastfeeding to know that this is not a reliable method of birth control!
Advice 8
A pregnant mother must not breastfeed.
Verdict: Fiction
Much as it would have been a great idea to be completely done with one baby before starting on another one, the breastfeeding does not affect the baby in the womb. So, do not deprive your born baby of his/her 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding
Advice 9
Pregnant women should not sleep on their backs as this may damage your baby’s eyes
Verdict: Fact and fiction
In the first trimester, if you’re used to sleeping on your back, you can continue. However, as you get into your second trimester, it is fact that pregnant women should not sleep on their backs especially close to term. However, the reason is not because of damage to baby’s eyes. It’s because the woman may feel dizzy as the growing uterus puts pressure on the vein that returns blood from the body making the woman feel dizzy on getting up and the baby may also not get enough nutrients from the placenta in that position Advice 10
If a pregnant woman drinks cold water, her baby may get pneumonia
Verdict: Fiction
Seriously?! It’s fictional enough the fact that we think that in real life, cold water drinking exposes us to pneumonia; but an unborn child….seriously?! This is as fictional as it gets. No basis in truth.
It is Saturday and the world’s preferred day for laundry. Before you start on yours, perhaps you should take a look at this video to make sure you are doing it just right 😀
Q: Good
day Doc I would like to know. What is the cause of blood always reading
positive to pregnancy but urine doesn’t test positive? Looking forward to your
response.
A: When
pregnancy tests are done, they usually test for the presence of the hormone, Human
Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG). The presence of this hormone signifies pregnancy
and its absence denotes no pregnancy.
Blood
pregnancy tests are typically very accurate.
A
positive result on blood pregnancy test, as I already noted above, could mean
that you’re pregnant. If you’re not, then the false positive result could be
due to medications like fertility medicines or some meds used for the treatment
of seizures
It is also possible that one was
pregnant at the time of the previous blood pregnancy test and miscarried soon
after. This type of early pregnancy is referred to as a chemical
pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy, a situation
in which a pregnancy implants outside of the womb (uterus), could also result in
high hCG levels. It is usually discovered in the first couple of weeks of
pregnancy (it would have been discovered by the 8th week of pregnancy). The
patient would usually come into hospital with complaints of light abdominal bleeding,
abdominal pain or cramps, extreme dizziness from the bleeding. If the tube
ruptures (bursts), patient could faint from profuse bleeding into the abdomen.
When a miscarriage
happens, the hCG in the body does not disappear overnight. It would usually
take about four to six weeks after miscarriage for the hCG levels to return to
normal. So, this could also be responsible for the positive pregnancy test you
had.
Rising hCG levels could also be due to two conditions known as
choriocarcinoma (in which a cancer forms in the ‘placenta’ tissues) or a molar
pregnancy (in which a fertilized egg turns into a mass of cysts instead of a
normal pregnancy).
So, your best option now is to see your doctor for a detailed
history, examination and investigation. S/he will advise on next steps.
Q: Hello Dr. Thanks for the selfless job you are doing. I need your help urgently. My son(4yrs) for the past 3wks has been having nasal Congestion, I have used nasal drip but to no avail. What should I do? It disturbs me a lot.
A: I’ve been asked this question several times and in different ways. But ‘why is my nose blocked all through the year?’ is the common thread that runs through all the questions. ‘Stuffy nose’, ‘blocked nose’ or nasal congestion are different names used to describe this condition. In the simplest of terms, this condition refers to a situation when there is an obstruction (blockage) to the flow of air, in and out of the nose. This may be due to swelling of nasal tissues (tissues in the nose) and blood vessels with excess fluid. Some causes include: Common cold. We are all familiar with this common cause of nasal congestion This causes blockage of the sinus, which results in nasal congestion. Allergies in which an individual’s immune system reacts in an exaggerated manner to certain foods or to pollen is a cause of nasal congestion. This ailment tends to run in families and so history of people with same condition or asthma etc in that family is not uncommon. A nasal septum (the wall between the nostrils) that is crooked or bent to one side may cause nasal congestion. This ‘deformity’ may be from birth, due to injury or occur as a process of growth. Excessive use of nasal decongestants can also lead to this as after the decongestant is stopped, there is rebound nasal congestion. And so, one ends up with the same situation they were trying to solve from the beginning! So, if you must, do not use your nasal decongestants for more than three days Sinusitis is an inflammation of the sinuses (air cavities) that line the nose. When these air cavities (which are supposed to be filled by air) become filled with fluid as a result of blockage, bacteria, fungi and viruses can thrive in this environment and cause infection. Pus-like nasal discharge, facial pain and persistence of symptoms for more than a week, maybe suggestive of this. Other conditions include: • Cold weather
Foreign body in the nose
Presence of tumour or polyp (a small growth with a stalk protruding from a surface)
Medications for high blood pressure
Spicy foods (remember how you start sniffling once you start on a hot dish?)
Stress etc
There’s a pretty long list of causes, but your doctor will attempt to narrow down to what the probable cause for you is. In the meantime, Ø try drinking a lot of water Ø Use saline sprays instead of the nasal decongestants, if you’ve been indulging in this Ø Use a humidifier which loosens the mucous. Turning on the hot water shower and inhaling the steam is another great idea. Ø Avoid irritants of the nose like smoke All these measures will help reduce the nasal congestion.
Q: Hi Dr Ketch, Please, let me know what is responsible for flow of brownish breast milk, occasionally mixed with blood? What step should be taken to control it if need be.
A: Brownish breast milk usually signifies broken down products of blood in breast milk and the occasional appearance of ‘frank’ blood in the case above, appears to confirm that this may be the case. The appearance of frank or altered blood in breast milk is not necessarily a serious issue but where in doubt, as usual, please see your doctor.
What would be the cause(s) of blood in breast milk?
• Growth of milk making cells: This is likely to cause blood in milk in the first few days of birth but usually does not persist beyond a week. • Cracked nipples: This may occur due to difficulties with baby latching in to the nipple, a blocked nipple…
Q: Good Morning Dr.
My problem and concerns are as follow
1) I’m a diabetic and eating right/losing weight is a major,major downfall 4 me.
2) I also have R/A causing my knees 2 ache on a daily basis which prevents me from doing a lot of normal life things.
3) Have developed Neuropathy from the diabetes and this is so painful.
So you see I have a lot of health issues. Where/What/When do I start to make a difference and begin to do something to if not get rid of, at least begin to live with all of these issues.
A: Thanks a lot for writing in and hey! It’s not as bad as it all seems. First, you’re alive. Then you do know that you have some issues that have to be dealt with and finally, you’re willing to put in the work. So, you’re halfway to victory…
Q: I usually suffer severe cramps all over my body muscles at night. I wake up, stand and stretch in vain. The pain is usually so intense that I feel like crying loudly like a baby. Doc, what is the cause of these cramps? Is there any type of food or drink to avoid? What medicine should I take to remedy them?
A: Cramps can be extremely painful…I know, I had quite a lot in my first pregnancy 😀 They are involuntary contractions of muscles which happen suddenly. Involuntary means that you can’t control them…you’re minding your business and then they just show up 😀
If you’re a sports enthusiast, you probably have experienced this after prolonged periods of exercise. You’ve also, probably, experienced this after sitting still for a long time or for women, during pregnancy. These cramps may generally be due to dehydration, deficiency of certain minerals like…
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