A18
SEPT. 21, 2012
RANCHO SANTA FE NEWS
Protecting kids from the flu To Your Health By the physicians and staff at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas
For most adults, the influenza virus means a week or so of fever, sore throat, cough, headache, and body aches. But for children, the flu can have much more serious consequences, such as ear infections, dehydration, pneumonia, or death. Severe complications from the flu send an average of 20,000 children under age 5 to the hospital for care in the United States annually. Moreover, during the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic of 2009, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reported more than 340 deaths in children from ages 6 months to 19 years. Fortunately, parents can take steps to help protect
their children against the flu virus. The most important preventive measure is getting an annual seasonal flu vaccine.This vaccine increases protection against three strains of the flu virus that are expected to be most prevalent each year. Because the vaccine changes from year to year, children should get a flu shot annually, ideally before November. Most children 6 months or older should be vaccinated (check with a physician first if a child is allergic to eggs).Vaccination is especially important for children younger than age 5 and/or those who have chronic health problems such as asthma or diabetes, which can increase the risk of flu complications. People who live or work with young children should be vaccinated as well. It’s also important to limit children’s exposure to the virus. Infants and young children should be kept away from those showing signs of illness. Family travel can increase the risk of exposure, especially on airplanes. Even if just a few people on the plane are ill, the closed environment can trap viruses and spread them around to everyone on board. Crowded airports and train stations may present similar situations. If avoiding sick people or crowds isn’t possible, try to keep infants’ faces lightly covered to prevent possible airborne exposure to the virus.
Children should wash their hands frequently and keep their hands away from their faces to minimize the transfer of germs. Sick children should be kept home until they are well, and all children should learn to cover their coughs by coughing or sneezing into a tissue, which should immediately be discarded. If a tissue isn’t available, teach children to cough into their elbows, not their hands. Healthy children are less susceptible to catching the flu virus and less likely to develop complications if they do get sick. Good nutrition, exercise and plenty of rest can help build resistance. Among infants, breastfeeding can pass immune antibodies from mother to baby, thus increasing their defense against illness. Children who do get influenza should get plenty of rest and fluids. Keep an eye on their breathing; humidified air is easier on the lungs and keeps mucus thinner, so that the child can clear their lungs easier. Age appropriate over-the-counter medications can help with symptoms. Parents who are unsure about the severity of a child’s flu should call a physician.
“Health Watch” is brought to you by the physicians and staff at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. For more information or for physician referral, call 1-800-SCRIPPS or visit www.scripps.org.
Glimpsing ‘life in the moment’ CHRIS AHRENS Sea Notes I was just starting my morning beach walk, hands already filthy from picking up the discards of slobs who use our beaches as dumps and ashtrays, when I ran into my longtime friend, Scott Bass. Bass was out promoting his upcoming Board Room International Surfboard Show, riding the wires of coffee and adrenaline when he stopped to speak. Our conversation quickly turned philosophical and we began contemplating the relative merits of living in the moment. “I haven’t lived in the moment for weeks,” confessed Bass, nearly apologetically. I thought I was living in the moment, but soon realized that my mind kept drifting back to home. It was a no-big-deal moment — nobody was hooting from the channel, dropping in or popping champagne corks. It was just a flat and dreary mid morning in Cardiff, speaking to a friend before parting company. As I continued walking south, I contemplated my life as a surfer, opposed to my life on land. In the water I was younger and freer than ever on land. But there was something else about surfing, something about catching a wave of consequence. I was reminded of a short
story in Surfer Magazine called “When Nothing Else Matters,” by a writer named Drew Kampion.The piece was first published in the mid 1970s and, to my recollection, Kampion describes taking off on a big west peak Sunset Beach wave. I haven’t read that article in more than 30 years, so please excuse me for not recalling the details perfectly. I do, however, recall the point of the piece — that when you’re committed to a big wave everything else vanishes. I have not ridden an adult wave in at least six months, the last one at Swami’s during a moderate north/west swell. I was sitting outside, tracking the wave’s rise and fall in the kelp while the usual suspects were caught inside. I paddled out to meet it, spun around and felt the floor falling out. One more stroke and the world would disappear in a liquid dream. Gone were the bills, the dental appointment, the ailing cat, the angry neighbor, the bald tires. My world was eight feet tall and many yards wide, but it didn’t stay that way for long. People paddled over, some smiling, some, no doubt, envious, some wideeyed, hoping to get over the set before it broke outside. The inside wall lined up like a cyclone fence, peeling at just the right speed to stay in front of its collapsing curl. Then, suddenly, that wave was no bigger than the splash a car tires makes when moving
through a puddle. What had just happened? A miracle, that’s what. A miracle that produced a healthy amnesia for a moment and transported me into a wonderful and familiar world. Realizing I had been lucky to ride such a wave alone, I paddled in, unzipped the top of my wetsuit and dried on the sand, watching others perform far better than I had on the rising swell. The fall day was cool, but not cold, the tourists were long gone, the beach swept clean of their discards. Standing in the silver light of the afternoon, I realized I had been allowed a glimpse of eternity. But I was soon driven from the garden and left to face the anxiety rats as they once again began to nibble away at my soul. I look forward to the next time that moments are counted as lifetimes and the world stands still, when water becomes wine, for a long fraction of an eternity. Chris Ahrens is a surfer and author of four books on surfing. Email him at cahrens@coastnewsgroup.com.
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Finding out that there’s a purpose in everything WAG YOUR TAIL Have an announcement or upcoming event you'd like to promote? You can bark, purr and chirp all about it here. PET CENTRAL is your portal for all pet-related community news, products, services, announcements, events and fun. Pet Central facilitates pet community interaction in The Coast News paper as well as on our website. Join in, share, and play along with us as we spotlight our critters and those organizations that support our petfriendly lifestyles.
JOE MORIS Baby Boomer Peace In a column I wrote on March 23rd of this year, I mentioned that my golf buddy Jim Sullivan’s wife Lisa was diagnosed with stage four cancer. She succumbed last week and is now in heaven. She’s OK, it’s always those left behind and the changes that occur in their lives with a friend or loved one’s passing. Jim said to me the other day that it’s God’s will that he
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is here and she is there. He said there is a purpose in everything. He said he is going to go enjoy the rest of his life and live it to its fullest. I thought that was really insightful and educational. At one point, Jim and Lisa were strumming along in life and the next day came change. Jim is 68. Lisa was 70. To me, those are young ages now since I'm approaching 63 around the November elections. We baby boomers are still young and lively. Our brains are still those vibrant and energetic minds of our teens but the body isn’t cooperating. We’re still young enough to go enjoy life to the fullest, just the way Jim is looking at it, but we have to just make the decision to do it. My ex, who could make a ton in her career as a nurse, is
chucking it all and heading for Costa Rica, a place loaded with Americans living the simple life. You know you can figure out a way to live in your paradise for six months out of the year. It can be done. Canadians descend upon all points south in the winter and stay for up to six months. If the Canadians can do it, so can you. My friends Don and Glenda worked up the cash to buy into a pretty nice boat down in La Paz along with a condo on the golf course.They pay for it all by renting out their furnished home in Carlsbad to those crazy Canadians. So they live down there on the golf course and their boat for however long they want. They love it. Until something changes in the way we pay for our insurance and medical care, a devastating or catastrophic
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illness will wipe you out financially unless you’re Donald Trump or a former congressperson or senator or president. They get the Cadillac service and money is no object. In Jim and Lisa’s case, she chose not to pursue chemo and radiation therapy coupled with a lot of expensive care.That was quite a sacrifice by Lisa for Jim and their diminished savings from the recession. If you get sick, the government picks up the full tab after you’re broke. So what the heck? Go semi-retire, get a place like I did in Puerto Vallarta (seventh safest tourist destination in the world). It’s an emerging Third World country, but PV is truly a new city since Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s “Night of the Iguana” was filmed there in the late ‘50s. The two built a home there as well. TURN TO BABY BOOMER ON A25
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