Sleep Training – A Difficult Task for Parents

 

Sleep training by allowing babies to cry is growing in use, and it appears that infants can be trained to sleep through the night at an early age. Allowing a baby to cry for more than an hour may be necessary for sleep training, but most babies do not cry that long.  It does not negatively affect children’s long-term mental and physical health. 

If parents do not intervene when an infant cries at night, sleep training may be accomplished in as little as three days. Even though some pediatricians recommend that sleep training be tried at 4 to 6 months, many of them are finding both with patients and their own children that 2 months works well. If parents make checks, they should be quick with no lights or consoling.  Most of the time crying declines within a week, but sleep training may be harder on parents than the babies.

Studies have shown that parents who are quicker to respond to a crying infant are more likely to have children who are unable to sleep through the night.  Some parents prefer a very gentle approach, while others wish they had followed the advice regarding sleep training.  Both children and parents need to sleep.

Eating Spicy Food

Many people like to eat spicy food. Not all chilies are of equal heat, not even the same color and species of chili raised in a given state.  The heat is partially determined by the soil in which the chili plant is grown.  Smaller peppers are generally hotter than larger varieties. Capsaicin is the molecule responsible for the heat in chili and foods flavored with them.  Other spices, such as mustard and horseradish, also contain capsaicin.  Capsaicin may have some health benefits, including pain relief to the skin.

Spicy heat as well as thermal heat is registered through receptors on the tongue nerve cells.  The receptor transmits the hot signal to the brain.  The gastrointestinal tract may feel the heat of a spicy dish, but while they may feel like they are burning, your mouth and stomach actually are not.  Water will not quench the heat as milk will, because pepper oils contain the spicy components and do not dissolve well in water.  A regular diet of spicy food keeps the burn away by inhibiting transmission of pain signals.

Wear gloves when cutting chilies or wash your hands with warm soap and water to wash the oil off of your hands.  You may experience swelling and pain in and around your eyes if you touch your eyes after handling hot peppers