Taking Care of Our Feet, Detox Baby Foot Pain Massage

Filed Under Avoiding Accidents | November 8th, 2008

Human feet have it much tougher than feet belonging to four-footed animals. Just two human feet must support the weight of the entire body. And both feet must be in good working order for a human to be able to walk or run. A four-footed animal manages to get along even if one of his feet is out of
commission for a while.

Mothers often think that something is wrong with their child’s feet when actually they are perfectly normal. But it doesn’t do any harm for them to think so, because it leads them to take their child to a special doctor, called an orthopedist, for an examination. And it is a good thing for a child to have his feet examined once in a while.


Here a flat foot and a foot with an abnormally high arch (pes cavus) are compared to a normal foot. Flat feet are extremely common in children. Pes cavus is the opposite of flat feet, and doesn’t become noticeable until the child reaches seven or eight years of age.

There are several abnormal conditions of the feet with which a child can be born. Here are a few of them:

1. Flatfoot. This is the most common condition affecting a child’s feet. It means that the normal arch of the foot is not strong and, as a result, the whole undersurface of the foot touches the floor when the child is standing. (See the diagram.)

Flatfoot usually results from weak muscles and ligaments in the foot, but it may also be caused by spasm of foot muscles, or by faulty development of some of the bones of the feet.
Wearing the wrong kind of shoes won’t give a child flatfoot, but it may make a case of mild flatfoot get worse.

There are things that can be done to help flatfoot:

A. With bare feet, try to pick up marbles from a carpeted floor with your toes. (See the diagram.) Hold the marble with your toes and place it in a bowl.

B. Stand several inches away from a wall and gently push back and forth from the wall while keeping your soles and heels flat on the floor.

C. Flatfoot can also be helped by wearing arch supports inside the shoes, or by getting special shoes advised by the orthopedist.

D. Children with flatfoot may have no pain at all, or their feet and legs may hurt from the condition. Whether E. such children have pain or not, they should be encouraged to run and play like other children. Exercise helps flatfoot, as it will strengthen weak muscles and ligaments.

2. Pes cavus. This condition is the opposite of flatfoot. In other words, the arches are too high. Pes cavus doesn’t usually become noticeable until the child reaches seven to eight years of age. Then calluses (hard, thickened skin) will develop on the soles of the feet and the toes will appear to be pushed backwards over the top of the foot. Also, the heel bones look larger than normal.

Pes cavus is not nearly so common as flatfoot. It is treated by stretching the tight tissues of the sole of the feet and by wearing special shoes that have a leather bar across the sole just where the toes join the main part of the foot.

In a few cases, it is necessary to operate upon a foot with pes cavus, and this usually controls the condition.

3. Pigeon toes. In this condition, the front of the feet turn inward and the child walks with the heels of the feet turned out. Some children with pigeon toes have something wrong with the bones of their legs or hips. If the hips don’t fit into their sockets properly, an operation to correct the condition will have to be done. When the bone condition is corrected, pigeon toes disappear. However, most youngsters with pigeon toes have no serious bone condition and all that is necessary is a pair of special orthopedic shoes. These shoes will make the child walk with his feet pointing straight out.

Flat feet may be improved by the proper exercises. One exercise involves picking up marbles from the floor with the toes and placing them in a bowl.

Years ago, parents used to have their pigeon-toed children wear their right shoe on their left foot, and their left shoe on their right foot. This forced them to keep their feet straight. Try it, and see how funny it feels.

Most children enjoy running around barefoot, both indoors and out. It is perfectly all right to go barefoot, except under these conditions:

1. Don’t go barefoot indoors if there are wooden floors from which you can get splinters in your feet.

2. Don’t go barefoot indoors when the house is cold. This may make you catch a cold.

3. Don’t go barefoot outside in places where you might step on broken glass or nails, or get splinters in your feet.

4. Don’t go barefoot in places where animals soil the ground. Animal droppings may contain germs or parasites (tiny worms that can be seen only under a microscope) that can get into
your body through the soles of your feet and cause disease.

5. Don’t run barefoot on very hot streets. You may burn your soles.

Ingrown toenails are most easily avoided if children are taught to cut the nail on the big toe straight across so it does not grow into the skin groove.

Here are some more things children should know about taking good care of their precious feet.

1. If shoes feel too tight, you have probably outgrown them. Let your parents know, and stop wearing shoes that no longer fit.

2. If you are getting irritation of the skin of your heels, it may mean your shoes are too big for you. That’s easy to correct by inserting a pad inside the heel of the shoes.

3. If you are developing a corn on one of your toes, it probably means you need a wider-sized shoe. Let your parents know.

4. Toenails, especially the big toenail, should always be cut straight across, not down in the corners. (See the diagram.) This will avoid ingrown toenails and other infections around the nails.

5. Feet must be washed thoroughly every day. Dirty feet may contain germs that can get into the body and cause sickness.

6. Toes get frostbitten very easily. Therefore, in cold weather, make sure to wear warm socks and heavy shoes.

Taking Care Our Hands, Arthritis Symptoms in Hands Surgery Treatment

Filed Under Avoiding Accidents | November 8th, 2008

Except for our eyes, our hands are probably our most valuable possession. We use our hands for so many different things it’s almost impossible to think how we could manage without them. As an experiment, try not using your hands for an hour and see how handicapped you feel. Have your mother or dad wrap both your hands in napkins and tie them so you can’t use them for a while. You’ll see.

People who study nature tell us that one of the greatest reasons man has developed more skills than the apes is that man can touch all his other fingers with his thumb, and the apes can’t. This means that man can grasp things and use his hands much better than the apes. Try writing without bringing your thumb over to your index finger. Try throwing a football without bringing your thumb around to your other fingers. Try sewing a hem on a dress without bringing your thumb toward your other fingers. Or, try buttoning your coat without using your thumb.

We are also told that primitive man made tools and weapons with which to hunt because he could use his hands better than any other animal. It is strange, isn’t it, that even though the apes are so highly developed, they never made tools or weapons or clothes to protect themselves from bad weather.

Now that we realize how precious our hands and fingers are, doesn’t it make sense for us to take good care of them? One would think so, but it is surprising how careless some children are! They take all kinds of risks with their hands and fingers. And some children never stop to think how bad it could be if they seriously injured even one finger.

We never realize how valuable each and every finger is until we hurt one of them. Our hands are very precious possessions and we should never put them in places where they can get hurt.

Here are some good rules everyone, including grown-ups, should follow in the care of their fingers and hands:

1. Hands get dirtier than any other part of the body and should therefore be washed frequently.

2. Dirt collects quickly beneath fingernails and looks terrible if left there. Everyone should clean his fingernails whenever they are dirty.

3. Loose skin around the nails is called a hangnail. Don’t pull or bite a hangnail, as it may lead to a nasty infection. Hangnails should be cut carefully with a scissors.

4. Fingernails should not be cut far down in the corners as this may lead to an infection.

5. Sooner or later everyone gets a splinter in a finger, often beneath the nail. Splinters should be removed as soon as possible in order to avoid an infection. It is always best to have a grown-up remove a splinter so that it doesn’t break off, leaving some of it behind. Deep splinters should be removed by a doctor.

6. We don’t know why children like to stick their fingers into the necks of bottles, but they do. This is a foolish thing for them to do as the finger may become stuck. When this happens, it might be necessary to go to a hospital and have the situation brought under control by a surgeon. This can be painful, so don’t put your fingers into bottlenecks or other tight places.

7. Curiosity is great. It teaches us many things we would not otherwise know. But never be so curious that you put your fingers into machinery that you don’t fully understand.

Many children have suffered serious injuries to their fingers and hands by sticking them into washing machines, washer-dryers, blenders, lawn mowers, and other appliances. Let your mother or dad fix these machines if they get out of order. Don’t you try to do it yourself!

8. Many homes have work rooms with electric saws and drills and lathes. These are wonderful instruments, and when children grow up, they will benefit a lot by knowing how to use them. But young children, and even children below the teen ages, should not tinker with electric tools unless one of their parents is there and gives permission for them to do so. Unhappily, many a child has had a serious hand or finger injury while trying to operate these tools.

9. Knives are valuable tools, too, but they must not be used as playthings. Throwing knives or fooling around with them can lead to bad cuts. More over, children should get instructions from their parents about how to use sharp knives before they try to cut with them. They should also learn how to open and close a penknife so as to avoid cuts to their hands and fingers.

10. Many children like to sew at an early age, and this is good for them to do. However, it is important that they learn to avoid sticking themselves with sharp needles. And they should also be taught how to use a thimble properly so that they don’t injure their fingers while sewing.

11. The kitchen is a great place to help in the cooking or cleaning up. But you have to be pretty careful in the kitchen if you want to avoid injuries:

A. Always use a potholder when taking a pot off the stove.
B. Always make sure you know how to light a stove or oven before trying to do it yourself.
C. Never wear loose, tong-sleeved clothing when working near the stove.
D. Never try to lift a pot or platter with hot food that might be too heavy for you to handle.

12. When you turn on the faucets to wash your hands, always turn on the cold water first, and always turn off the hot water first when you are finished washing.

13. Matches are not toys. Don’t play with them. You might burn your fingers, or even start a serious fire.

14. More children get finger and hand injuries from slamming doors than from anything else. Car doors, doors in your home, revolving doors, all can catch fingers if used improperly. Most doors have knobs which should always be used in opening and closing the door. People should push a revolVing door by the bar that is provided for the purpose. They should keep their fingers away from the edges of a revolving door.

Children should remember that they have two hands and that they must be careful about both of them. While slamming a car door with one hand, a child must watch out that the other hand is not caught when someone is closing the other door.

15. A good many cuts happen when opening soda bottles or pulling the tabs on cans carelessly. If these tops seem to be on very tight, it is a much better idea to let a grown-up open it for you.

16. Children who help out washing dishes should be sure to rinse all the soap or detergent off their hands, and then they should be sure to dry their hands thoroughly when they are finished. Cracking of the skin can lead to painful hands if they fail to do so.

17. Everyone should wear gloves when out in the cold. Chapped hands are not only ugly, but they can hurt quite a lot, too. Also, frostbite can result if a child fails to wear gloves when out in the cold.

18. Children frequently skin their knuckles while playing or roughhousing. If this happens, the skinned area should be cleaned with soap and water and then covered with a Band-aid. Skinned knuckles usually take a long time to heal, but they’ll take longer if they get infected or aren’t protected by a Band-aid.

Remember, some day you may be earning your living with your hands, so take especially good care of them while you are young.

Taking Care Our Teeth, Tooth Whitening, Grinding, Implants and Bleeching

Filed Under Avoiding Accidents | November 7th, 2008

In the first set of teeth that a child grows, there are twenty teeth, sometimes called “baby teeth.” These first teeth must be taken good care of, even though they will eventually come out and will be replaced by thirty-two permanent, or second teeth. If we neglect our first teeth and develop cavities and infections in them, our second teeth may not develop properly, Also, infected baby teeth can damage our general health. In some cases, infection from a tooth, or from the gums surrounding a tooth, can get into the blood and cause an infection elsewhere in the body.

Most boys and girls learn to brush their teeth by the time they are three to four years old. And their parents usually take them to see a dentist twice a year for a check-up, even when nothing seems to be wrong with the teeth.

During the dental check-up, the dentist looks to see that the teeth are growing in straight, that there are no holes—most people call holes cavities— in the teeth, that there is no infection surrounding the teeth, and that the gums are healthy. If the teeth are growing in crooked or the teeth of the upper jaw don’t meet the teeth of the lower jaw the way they should, the dentist may recommend treatment for the condition. If there is a cavity in a tooth, the dentist will fill it in with silver or some other substance. And if there is an infection around a tooth or in the gums, the dentist will suggest special medicines to clear it up.

There are many reasons why young people may have cavities or other things wrong with the teeth. Here are some of them:

1. Cavities may develop because bacteria in the mouth eat into the hard substance called calcium, which makes up a good part of the outer part of a tooth.

2. Eating too much candy and drinking too many sweet sodas are thought to cause cavities in the teeth.

Loss of a tooth frequently throws the remaining teeth out of alignment and leads to malocclusion. This means that the upper and lower teeth don’t mesh and come together evenly. To correct this condition, dentists often place a “retainer” in the empty space.

3. Insufficient fluorine in the drinking water is thought by most dentists to lead to cavities. Most towns and cities now add fluorine to the water in their reservoirs if it is necessary. As a result, cavities from too little fluorine don’t happen as often as they used to years ago.

4. A child who has an improper diet, with too little calcium and iron and vitamins, is more likely to get cavities than a child who eats properly and drinks a lot of milk. Remember, milk has plenty of calcium, and meats and fruits and vegetables have plenty of iron and vitamins in them.

5. Children who don’t brush their teeth regularly are much more apt to develop cavities and mouth infections.

6. If the upper and lower teeth don’t come together properly, a child has greater chances of getting cavities.

7. If a boy or girl is in poor health because of some illness that has lasted for a long time, he or she may develop more than the usual number of cavities and mouth infections.

Some children take excellent care of their teeth but get cavities anyway. We don’t know why this happens, but we do know that certain children just have better teeth than others. Besides, cavities aren’t terribly serious unless we neglect them. Actually, after a cavity has been filled, the tooth is as good as new again. Cavities don’t cause toothaches unless they grow big because we have neglected them, and a child who visits his dentist every few months won’t get into too much trouble.

Here are some good ways to have as few cavities as possible, and to avoid infection of the gums surrounding the teeth:

1. Have your doctor check your general health two or three times a year. A healthy child tends to have healthy teeth.

2. Always eat a good diet with plenty of green vegetables, fresh fruits, meat and fish, chicken and eggs, and, of course, three to four glasses of milk each day. In that way you’ll get all the vitamins and minerals you need to maintain strong, healthy teeth.

3. Brush your teeth after every meal. naturally, if you eat lunch in school, you may not be able to brush them there. But certainly, you can always brush your teeth after breakfast and before going to bed at night.

4. Don’t eat more candy or drink more soda than your parents allow. )One piece of candy and one soda a day ought to be enough.

5. If you have a toothache or your gums hurt, let your mom or dad know about it so they can make an appointment with your dentist.

6. See your dentist twice a year, even if your teeth and gums feel fine. By doing this, he may be able to give you hints on how to prevent infections or cavities.

Here are some other things children should know about their teeth:

1. If a first tooth has to be pulled, this will not hurt the second tooth that will come in. However, when a first tooth has been removed before it is ready to come out by itself, the dentist may put a device called a space-retainer in your mouth so that there will be room for he second tooth when it comes in. If an empty space between teeth is not kept open, the teeth on either side tend to drift toward one another. Then, there might not be enough room for the second tooth when it is ready to come in.

2. If a first tooth is broken—and this happens once in a while from a fall or accident—the dentist will file it down so hat the rough edges will not scrape or cut the lining of the cheek.

3. If a second tooth is chipped or broken, the dentist may file it down and put a cap over it. The cap looks exactly like a real tooth, and when the dentist is finished, no one is able to tell that there is a broken tooth beneath the cap. The cap stays there permanently, or until a new cap is made when the child has grown up.

4. If a child looses a permanent tooth, a space-retainer is placed in the empty space and is kept there until the child is old enough to have a permanent false tooth put in. And today, false teeth are made so well that no one can tell them from real teeth.

5. If the upper teeth don’t meet the lower teeth properly, special braces, wires, or plates are used to bring the teeth into proper line. This kind of dental work is called orthodontia. Orthodontia is usually done when a child reaches twelve years of age, or older. Once in a while, if the need is very great, orthodontia is started in a child as young as ten years of age.

It may take two or three, or sometimes more, years to correct teeth that are badly out of place. However, this kind of dental work is very worthwhile because it can get the teeth almost perfectly in line, where they should be. And orthodontia often improves the child’s appearance tremendously.

Orthodontia is not painful, although the wearing of braces and wires and plates in the mouth may be uncomfortable. And while wearing braces, a youngster may have to stop eating such things as gumdrops and caramels and chewing gum and other stuff that might get caught in the braces.

Taking Care Our Ears, Inner Adult Ear Infection Surgery

Filed Under Avoiding Accidents | November 7th, 2008

Many of us pay no attention at all to our ears and to our hearing. We take it for granted that we will hear well at all times and that our ears require no special care. This is certainly not true. Since the middle ear is connected to the nose and throat through a channel called the eustachian canal, it is simple for an infection to travel from the nose and throat to the ear. And when an ear becomes infected, there may be loss of hearing. Quite a few things can be done to protect our ears and our hearing. Here are some of the important ones:

1. Tell your parents if you don’t think you are hearing as well as your playmates or schoolmates. Many conditions that cause loss of hearing can be corrected if they are treated quickly.

2. Tell your parents whenever you have an earache. It may be a simple thing to overcome, or it may mean the beginning of an ear infection. The sooner an ear infection is treated, the greater are the chances that you will avoid damage to your hearing.

3. Don’t blow your nose too hard when you have a cold. This can spread the infection from the nose to the ears.

4. Don’t keep sniffling up mucus when you have a cold, as this, too, may cause the spread of an infection from the nose to the ears. Blow your nose gently instead of sniffling.

5. Tell your parents if you are collecting a lot of wax in your ears. It may be necessary to visit a doctor who will remove it for you.

6. Don’t stick anything into your ears; you may damage the eardrum. The smallest thing a child should put in his ears is his elbow. See if you can do that!

7. Protect your ears whenever you can from extremely loud sounds. It has been found that damage to hearing can result from continued loud sounds. Did you know that musicians in bands that always play loudly can lose some of their hearing, and people who work in factories where the machinery constantly makes loud noises sometimes suffer loss of hearing?

Sound waves received by the external ear are transmitted through the ear canal and the middle ear to nerves in the inner ear, which send impulses to the brain. When the brain receives these impulses it translates them into words or sounds that we understand.

Some children lose a great deal of their ability to hear because of an infection that damages the bones in the middle ear. Others lose hearing because their nerve of hearing (the acoustic nerve) is damaged by disease. Such children should be taught lip reading. By watching other people’s lips as they speak, many unhearing people—children as well as adults— learn to “hear” with their eyes!

Classes in lip reading are given in special schools in almost every city in our country. The results of study in lip reading can be so remarkable that many people “hear through their eyes” almost as well as if their ears were perfectly healthy.

Unfortunately, children who are born without hearing cannot benefit from training in lip reading. Since they have never heard the sounds of talk in the first place, they cannot be taught what the lips are saying when they make their movements during speech.

Taking Care Our Eyes, Laser Eye Diseases Surgery Cost Treatment

Filed Under Avoiding Accidents | November 7th, 2008

Our eyes are so precious that we should always take good care of them. And even though they are pretty well protected by our eyelids and eyelashes, and by the bones of our skull that surround them, we must remember that our eyes are right on the surface of our bodies where they can be rather easily inflamed or injured.

There are a great many ways to make sure our eyes are kept in the best possible shape, and all boys and girls should follow these rules:

1. Wash your eyelids when you wash your face every morning and every during the day when you think they might be dirty. Keeping your eyelids clean will help to prevent the conjunctiva—the lining in front of the eyeball and under the eyelids—from getting inflamed or infected. It will also lessen your chance of getting inflamed eyelids (blepharitis).

2. Tell your mother or father whenever your eyes feel itchy. This may mean that you are getting conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the conjunctiva. Early treatment of this condition with special eyedrops or eye ointments will clear it up quickly in a couple of days.


A parent may syringe a child’s eye to remove a foreign body, but should not touch the eyeball. If syringing is unsuccessful, the child should be taken to a doctor.

3. Let your parents know whenever you get something in your eye that irritates you. Sometimes an eyelash drops into the eye, or a speck of dust or dirt flies in. Most such things can be easily washed out of the eye or wiped out by your mom or dad with a piece of moist cotton. However, if a speck of dirt or an eyelash doesn’t come out easily, a doctor can remove it without any trouble.

It is not a good idea to allow something to stay in your eye for more than an hour or so. Certainly, we should never go to sleep with something in our eyes. Do you know why? Well, if you leave it in overnight, or for more than a couple of hours, the conjunctiva may become all red and irritated. And, every once in a while, the conjunctiva may become infected. But more important, it will take the doctor much longer to remove the dirt or hair if it has been in too long. And, probably, he would make you wear a patch over your eye for a few days, and you wouldn’t like that too much, would you?

4. It is a bad idea to rub your eyes too hard at any time, but it is especially bad to rub them when your hands are dirty. When you rub your eyes, there is a great chance that some of the dirt from your fingers will get into the eyes and don’t forget, when you play outdoors, loads of germs may be on your hands and they would just love to get onto your eyelids where they can form a sty, or get into your eyes where they can give you conjunctivitis.

Do you know what a sty is? Well, it is a painful little pimple that forms on the edges of the eyelid. It sometimes hurts like the dickens for a few days until it bursts and the pus comes out.

Conjunctivitis is just as bad. Since certain types of conjunctivitis, like pinkeye, are very catching, you will have to stay home from school and won’t be able to play with your friends for a few days. Also, because conjunctivitis makes the eyes irritable and itchy, you won’t be able to watch television until they get better.

So, don’t rub your eyes with dirty fingers.

5. Never run and play with a pen or pencil, a stick, or any other sharp thing in your hand. You may slip and the sharp point may injure your eye. And even though you feel pretty sure of yourself, just think how often you do slip and fall each day. All kids do, and you are no exception.

It is just as important to remember not to poke or point anything sharp at another child. Even when you are only fooling, an accident might happen and you would feel terrible if you hurt the other child’s eye.

Did you ever notice that athletes always protect their eyes against all possible chances of injury? Football players wear face masks attached to their helmets to help protect their eyes,and fencers, who use swords, always wear special eye masks.

Remember, too, when you roughhouse with a playmate or a brother or sister that you must be careful not to poke your fingers into their eyes. Did you ever accidentally poke your fingers into your own eye? If you did, you sharp point may injure your eye. And even though you feel pretty sure of yourself, just think how often you do slip and fall each day. All kids do, and you are no exception.

It is just as important to remember not to poke or point anything sharp at another child. Even when you are only fooling, an accident might happen and you would feel terrible if you hurt the other child’s eye.

Did you ever notice that athletes always protect their eyes against all possible chances of injury? Football players wear face masks attached to their helmets to help protect their eyes,and fencers, who use swords, always wear special eye masks.

Remember, too, when you roughhouse with a playmate or a brother or sister that you must be careful not to poke your fingers into their eyes. Did you ever accidentally poke your fingers into your own eye? If you did, you know how much it can hurt.

6. Let your parents know if you aren’t seeing as clearly as you usually do. You may need eyeglasses. You can be tested to see if you need glasses within a matter of a very short time by going to an eye doctor or optometrist.

7. Reading in a good light is important so you won’t strain your eyes. Some boys and girls are quite careless about this, and they will pick up a book or magazine and read it almost anywhere, without thinking about how good the light is. If you do strain your eyes, they get all red, and you may even get a headache. And it may take a couple of days for your eyes to feel good again. Here are a couple of things everyone should know about lighting:

A. The light should always be behind you and should come over your shoulder when you read. It will strain your eyes if you read while a bright light is glaring into your face. This is also true if you are reading outdoors. If you are, turn your back to the sun while reading.

B. Make sure the lights are bright enough in any room in which you are reading. The print on the page should be clear and easy to see without straining.

Rubbing your eyes, especially when your hands are dirty, may cause the conjunctiva, the membrane covering the front of the eyeball (left), to become irritated and red, or the glands under the eyelids to become infected and form a sty, (right).

8. The retina in the back of your eyes is very sensitive and can be damaged by staring too long into the sunlight. Children should never look for more than a few seconds directly into the bright sun, even if they are wearing sunglasses.

9. Everybody should wear sunglasses if they are going to be out in bright sunshine for long periods of time. It is especially important if you are lying on a sand beach, or sailing or taking a long ride in a boat on a bright day, or skiing, or playing in the snow on a sunshiny day.

Did you know that your eyes can get sunburned? Well, they can, and quite easily, too. When it happens, the conjunctiva becomes swollen and red, and the eyes hurt, become itchy, and the sight is kind of blurry. And so, all of us must protect our eyes from too much sun by wearing sunglasses.

Sunglasses should not be worn in dim light. They do no good at all unless the light is very strong. As a matter of fact, no one sees nearly as well with sunglasses when they are worn in the shade or in poor light.

10. Whenever you think anything is wrong with your eyes, tell your mom or dad about it right away. Don’t forget that it is simple to make an appointment with an eye doctor who will be able to tell very quickly what needs to be done to fix you up. And best of all, examination and treatment by an eye doctor won’t hurt. Even if you have something in your eye that he is going to remove, it won’t hurt. All he does is to put a drop or two of a special medicine in your eye, and all the pain disappears. You will feel nothing while he removes whatever it is that has gotten into your eye.

11. Anyone can strain his eyes by concentrating for too long a period of time on anything. Women who embroider for hours at a time may strain their eyes; men who repair watches and handle fine parts of the watch for hours at a time may strain their eyes; doctors who perform delicate operations all day may overtire their eyes; scientists who peer into a microscope all day long can strain their eyes; and children who watch television for hours at a time may strain their eyes.

Watching television will not cause eyestrain in children if they do not watch it excessively and if they sit at least six feet away from the screen.

Parents who insist that the television set be turned off aren’t mean. They know it isn’t good to stare and stare constantly into the bright light of a television set for too long. And most children do just that! Oh, an hour-long show won’t do any harm, but there are boys and girls who watch program after program, for an entire morning or afternoon or evening without stop. And if the program happens to be very interesting or exciting, they never take their eyes off the set.

There are even children who don’t want to eat their meals because they might miss part of a program; others gulp down their food in a few minutes so they can run back to their television set. These practices are not good for the eyes or the stomach. So be sensible, turn off the set when you are told to, and get up and walk around when the commercials are on. You’re not going to buy an automobile or a dishwasher right away, are you?