DRUG ABUSE IN THE YOUTHS

When @Jidedurowoju told me to write something about #DrugAbuse, what came to my mind was the number of youths I had managed or treated for drug abuse. I didn't want to write stories about my patients, so, I was at loss for what to write.

 My friend, @AuntyAyo pounced on me and gave me a bashing for not writing in a long while. I told her to write a story on #DrugAbuseinTheYouth. She said No, but that she would give me the framework of what to write. It's the idea she gave me that brought about the story that I am telling today. I hope it touches one or two people.

Special thanks to @Jide and @AuntyAyo for the inspiration.

"Today, the award of the best graduating pupil goes to Master Dele Taiwo. Not only has he won all the prizes in his class, he has also been a very well behaved boy. I wish we had award for behavior", said the head teacher. "Please, join me in welcoming Dele to the podium as we all stand up and give him a round of applause."

As Dele stepped forward the tenth time to collect his award, his parents held themselves as their hearts swelled up with pride. Their son, only their son got all the prizes. Dele was a model child. He was always the best in all his classes. He even got the best results in the Common Entrance Examination. He had already gotten admission into one the best Unity Schools in Nigeria. They were all excited as preparations were going on for his resumption at the boarding school.

Was Dele happy? Yes he was. If someone were to 'ride a horse in his belly right now, it would be a smooth ride'. He was now a Secondary school student. He said to himself, " I am no longer a pupil, I am a student. I will soon be away to school where I can do my own thing just like an adult. Infact, I can not wait."

Weeks gave way into months. The long vacation was over. It was time to go to school. The whole family went with him. Mom couldn't help but shed some tears when leaving. Dele however couldn't be bothered as he raced back to his hostel beaming with smiles. His joy was cut short when a senior student called him aside and collected his fine wristwatch. Tears welled in his eyes and he ran to his dorm, climbed the bunk and curled up in bed. He missed home already.

"What is this one doing here, ehn? How can you be sleeping in the afternoon when there is so much work to be done," yelled the dorm prefect. "Oya, I,m closing my eyes now, before I open it again, you must have 'vamoosed.'" Reluctantly, Dele got up from bed, picked a broom and joined the other junior boys to clean the hostel.

"Ajebo, oo ti mo meme! Na school you dey now o,you better wise up", said one of the boys. "See him crying like a girl", another one chuckled and the other boys started making fun of him. He hated this school already. How would he tell his parents that he no longer wanted to stay. Maybe if he pretended to be ill, he might be sent back home.

"A kobo for your thoughts bro, my name is Yemi. I'm in JS 3. Don't mind all these yeye boys. You should have seen them on their first day here. They looked lost. Don't worry about them. I will take care of you." It was very nice to finally get someone to watch out for one in this big hostile school, Dele thought. "My name is Dele. Thank you very much."

The duo soon became friends. They walked to the dinning area and classes together. They met under the mango tree every evening. Yemi tutored Dele on the Rules of Engagement in the school and hostel especially concerning seniors and teachers. The school was beginning to be good after all.

One day, after class, Dele decided to check on Yemi at the JS3 block. When he got to Yemi's class, there was no one there. As he turned to leave, he heard some murmurings behind the class. He decided to peep from the window. What he saw made him shout "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa". That drew the attention of the boys behind the class and they dragged Dele into their midst. His friend was the ringleader. He told Dele point blank, "since you have seen us, you have become one of us." He said,"this is cigarette, this is Igbo, take your pick. This is what makes us brilliant in class. This is what makes the seniors to exempt us from work. Now that you have joined us, you don become big boy niyen."

To cut a long story short, that was how Dele started taking drugs of abuse. By the time he got to Senior class, he couldn't reason well if he didn't smoke weed. He later added other 'over the counter drugs' like cough syrup, Tramadol. Whenever he couldn't afford to buy the drugs, he would sneak into the Teachers' Staff room to steal glues and gums. He was a real mess. His grades were dropping. He was beginning to see double. Recently, he started seeing his late grandmother talking to him every time. In fact, right now she just told him to start picking papers in the gutter and also to drink the gutter water. What would he do, he had to obey his grandmother nah, if it were someone else, he would have raked very well. The gutter was tempting o, maybe he should even sleep inside. But Grandma no talk that one o.

 Epilogue

Dele's parents were summoned and he was taken to a psychiatric hospital where he is currently receiving treatment. 

Thanks for reading this peace. Part 2 will come shortly by God's grace. I will try to explain #DrugAbuse. I have to read now. See you on this page again soon. Thank you.

Let's Talk About Adolescent Health 2

Today, during my tutorial class, my colleagues nearly gave me a knock on my head because I have not written the follow up part of adolescent health. Don't take sides with them ooooo as they were the reason behind my not writing all this while because they have been distracting me with all these tutorials. 😀😀😜😜. 

Please DO NOT believe a word of what I just wrote. On the contrary, they encouraged me to write again today. When I said in my last post that I hope I would not be away again for three months, little did I know that it was going to come to pass. Hehehehe. I don become prophetess.😇😏😏🙈🙈🙈

In the last post, the focus was on a young girl who thought she was ready for adult life and eventually missed her period (or have you found it for her in the last three months that I was away?😗). As a physician, I would say pregnancy is the least of her problems. There are worse things that can happen to someone having unprotected sex and those are the things I will broach in this episode.

INTRODUCTION

Adolescents are children between the ages 10 to 19. Early teen from age 10-14 and late teen from age 15-19. They are important us in public health for the following reasons.

1. They form a large part of our population (about 15%) 

2. The choices they make during this period will affect their adult life and so determine their productivity.

3. They of special interest globally.

Generally, behavioral patterns established during these developmental periods help determine young people's current health status and their risk for developing chronic diseases in adulthood.

Although adolescence and young adulthood are generally healthy times of life, several important public health and social problems either peak or start during these years. Examples include:

• Homicide
• Armed robbery/ gangsters
• Rape
• Motor vehicle crashes, including those caused by drinking and driving
• Substance use and abuse
• Smoking
• Sexually transmitted infections, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• Teen and unplanned pregnancies
• Homelessness e.g street children

Because they are in developmental transition, adolescents and young adults are particularly sensitive to environmental factors. Addressing the positive development of young people facilitates their adoption of healthy behaviors and helps to ensure a healthy and productive future adult population.

Why Is Adolescent Health Important?

Adolescence is a critical transitional period that includes the biological changes of puberty and the need to negotiate key developmental tasks. At this stage of development, the adolescent feels on top of the world. He thinks he knows it all. They call their parents "old school". I remember us saying to our uncle some years ago that "big boys no dey wear pants, an boxers". I also remember my brother telling our uncle that he should iron his trousers without crease as big boys trousers does not have "gator". Now my brother wears the razor sharp gator on his suits. Imagine that! But then years ago, he knew it all!!!

It is important for our youths to navigate this milestone as hitch free as possible. Health outcomes for adolescents and young adults are grounded in their social environments and are frequently mediated by their behaviors. Behaviors of young people are influenced at the individual, peer, family, school, community, and societal levels. It is also worthy of note that the leading causes of illness and death among adolescents and young adults are largely preventable. 

Family

Yoruba people say that "he who wants to catch a monkey must behave like one". If a parents understands his child and the adolescent phase, he will be able to navigate it smoothly with that child. 

• Communication is key. Adolescents who communicate well with their parents are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.
• Parents who provide supervision and are involved with their adolescents' activities are promoting a safe environment in which to explore opportunities.
• The children of families living in poverty are more likely to have health conditions and poorer health status, as well as less access to and utilization of health care.

School

• Who are the teachers your children are exposed to? Is he a pedophile or one who allows them play on his phone in school? Thereby distracting them from school work? Does he show them pictures and videos with adult contents?
• Who are your children's friends? Are they well mannered? Do you know them and their parents?
• What type of environment does the school have? Is the compound porous? What is their course content?

Neighborhoods

The neighborhood a child grows in is very important. Adolescents growing up in distressed neighborhoods will likely pick up a gun and rob. When I went to Lagos last February for update course in LUTH, I was lodged in a hotel in the heart of a distressed neighborhood. From my hotel window, I watch drama tire. There was always an excuse for a fight. No be ordinary fight o, dem go break bottle and tear cloth. No be small thing. They always seemed so angry and aggressive. They are at risk for a variety of negative outcomes, including poor physical and mental health, delinquency, and risky sexual behavior

Media Exposure

The media now is not helping matters. Adolescents who are exposed to media portrayals of violence, sexual content, smoking, and drinking are at risk for adopting these behaviors. Social media has also made things worse. We have heard of innocent girls murdered by Facebook lovers. Parents have to be very vigilant and educate their children on these things.

We can go on and on without exhausting the list but I think one major thing that parents of this generation cannot afford to do is not properly educating their children on sex, adulthood etc. Our parents got away with it because we didn't have the kind of exposure that these children have now. Now is not the era of lying to children or just saying that you would get pregnant by just going near a boy. Now is the time for the truth! Talk to your kids before someone teaches them the wrong things.

Let's talk about Adolescent health

  The good thing about being a public health physician ( wink) is that everything around me is of public health importance.

I want to appreciate my family, friends and readers for their encouragement. It's been awhile that I posted anything on this blog. They kept pestering me to write. Not that I didn't want to, but I have so much on my plate and writing seemed secondary. I hope that after today, I won't be gone again for the next three months. *Smiles* 

As usual let's relax with this story which is purely a figment of my imagination.

My name is Adex. I am 16 years old. As the first born of my family with five younger siblings, I was raised to be independent. My parents are very hardworking and they spend more time at work than at home. I am practically raising my siblings. What can I not do? I cook and clean. I bathe my younger ones and get them ready for school on time. I wash and iron. In short, I am better than many wives. There is simply nothing I cannot do!

Need I tell you that I am a very beautiful girl. All my curves are in the right places. With full breasts, tiny waist and a Beyoncé yansh, I could turn tens of men into puppets. Nearly all the boys in my class want to be my friend while you could palmate the enmity between me and the girls. Omo! The girls hate me no be small. Mesef I no kuku send them.

Recently, our Maths teacher (oops my bad! I'm in SS2 in the community school), blocked me behind the kiosk where I had gone to take a chilled drink. He professed his undying love for me and promised to get me a nice bracelet if I agreed to date him. I laughed hehehehehe, this man no even sabi hin own level sha! Me Adex peperenpe. Iru e simi, o kere.

What is wrong with these men sef, I f I start to count ehn, how many of these teachers have asked me out including the youth corpers, I just hope it won't be tomorrow before I finish. I tried talking to my mom about these things but as she's usually so tired after work, I decided not to disturb her with my petty matters. Shebi all the advice wey I need dey Internet. I go just ask Aunty Tina on her blog.

Actually I have not given you the main gist. Gangangangan ( action film sound track). On my way home from school the other day, I met this handsome guy.(see as my heart do ki as I wan tell you about him )

He wanted to buy recharge card but he couldn't speak Yoruba. Fortunately for him, I walked past him and he asked me if I could help him interprete to the woman.  He was so handsome that it took me about about 30 seconds to fully grasp what he said. I fell in love with him instantly. You know how M&B describes those heroes in the novels. I mean the guys who would eventually be the main guy ehn? Exactly! After his purchase, he introduced himself as Felix and that he was a banker. 🙈 Oh My Gosh. This guy is so cleeeaannn. English rolled of his tongue as if he was the son of Queen Elizabeth. Bobo yi ti mu mi ju. Kilode!

Let me fast forward the gist jare. After exchanging numbers, we graduated from being friends to the next level. Noooo! Don't get me wrong o, I know what you are thinking. We have not done anything yet o. Only smooching and kissing🙊❤️. We have not done the "de-main de-main". Though he's asking me for it. I love him enough to want to give him my whole self, spirit, soul and body. But Kai, Walahi I'm scared of getting pregnant. Anyway let me go online and talk to Aunty Tina. I will just increase my age and skip some specifics.

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 Perfect! I got what I want. She says I can give him what he wants since I love him but that we should use condom if we don't want to get pregnant. I then called Felix to tell him that Wow! I am ready now but I want us to use condom. He said if that is what I want, I should get the condoms myself. By now I'm feeling so high. I'm on top of the world, I sang DBanj's song. Hey o, hey o. 

I wore my finest pair of jeans with a nice top. Feeling like an adult, I entered the pharmacy to get some CDs (you know what I mean😜). As I was about to ask the salesgirl for a pack, I turned to the sound of a familiar voice who just entered the shop. You wouldn't believe who it was 😩 , our next door neighbor. Gangangangan! If you see how I turned ehn, its not funny at all. I quickly found my way out of the premises into my love's car. I guess we will just do it that way. After all once cannot lead to pregnancy. We then went home and had a really nice time.

It's now three months after. I am still basking in the glory of my love with Felix. The only thing is that I don't know what happened to my menses. I have not seen it for the past two months and it has never been this irregular. Only God knows. Maybe the menses just wants to restart or reboot itself. Let me just wait and see............

Hi guys. It's me now o. Here's where I draw the curtains for today. Hopefully soon, I'll write about sex education to children and other stuffs. I will appreciate your inputs on this. Thanks. Have a wonderful night. Ciao.

TEETHING IN CHILDREN PART TWO

Hello my folks. How una dey? How ya side? Se o n bubble. I am good too. Thanks so much for your responses. 

INTRODUCTION

Last time, I wrote about the errors some moms make when their children are cutting their teeth. It is only fair that I write about what to really expect during teething phase in children. A lot of "experienced" mothers, or grandmothers will disagree with me but it doesn't make them right and that is why I will explain this inevitable phase in children.

Teething is a natural phase. It occurs averagely between age six (6) months to one (1) year? It could be earlier or later. Tooth is a body appendage just like nails and hair. I have never seen one person who complained of headache while growing hair or someone vomiting while nails are growing! Or have you guys seen one?

If my hair and nails example is too far fetched, can you cast your mind back to when you changed teeth from milk teeth to permanent teeth, was your body hot? Were you vomiting or passing watery stool? Were you coughing? I am very sure your answers would be No. It's. Almost the same in babies when cutting teeth.

SYMPTOMS OF TEETHING 

There are however some symptoms associated with teething which are as follows:

      - excessive salivation

      - redness of the gum

      - hotness of the gum

      - swelling of the gum

      - refusal of foods

      - putting things in the mouth or biting

Few babies have low grade fever.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT TEETHING

There are however some symptoms which some mothers associate with teething. These are fever, vomiting, diarrhoea etc. These are due to two (2) reasons:

   1. The immunity that the child got from the mother is waning off at this time which is around age six months. The baby, when exposed to germs or mosquitoes at this point in time come down with illness. This is not a bad thing as it helps build the baby's immune system. It is only bad when it is not managed well.

  2.  The baby at this stage is at the oral stage of development and so puts anything and everything into his mouth which literally means he is eating germs. This makes him sick.

If your child has fever, diarrhoea and /or vomiting, start Oral Rehydration Salts immediately, tepid sponge and run to the hospital. Don't wait till the child is limp. We have lost many children due to such negligence. It is not a teething problem, it is an infection and it can kill.

MANAGEMENT OF TEETHING SYMPTOMS 

If your child has the teething symptoms above, get a teether, wash it, place it in the fridge for it to cool and then give your baby to chew on it, so that it can cool the gum and reduce the swelling. You can see a dentist or a doctor if need be. Other things you can do is to make your house and your baby's hands to be as clean as possible so that he has a lesser chance of eating dirt/ germs.

I stand on my feet to say you don't need teething powder or gripe water or whatever you are thinking of right now. Teething, I repeat is a natural thing.

Lest I forget, for the 'Bonababe' users, do not combine it with paracetamol. Many mothers do. Bonababe already contains paracetamol. So choose between the two if you must give an analgesic.

I will sign out now. Next time I will talk about care of our baby's teeth. I will also talk about some superstitious beliefs on teething.

Thanks and bye for now.

TEETHING IN CHILDREN

For a long while now, I have been thinking of writing about TEETHING. I did not, because I thought it was not of public health importance. Well, I changed my mind. The reason being that the things I have heard and seen in the last few weeks on teething is enough to make one cringe.

Here in Nigeria, so many symptoms are associated with teething. It's so bad that even the so called "educated" people believe all the old wives' tales that our mothers told us. Many families have lost their babies due to such beliefs. Some of our health workers too do not help matters. They propagate the old wives' ideas and many people are quick to believe them.

Below are some typical examples.

Story 1

A six month old baby, who was already sitting without support and was trying to crawl suddenly started to vomit. The child could not keep anything down as he vomited immediately after eating. Not long after, the baby started to pass foul smelling watery stool. It was terrible. The mother was disturbed. What could she do. This child had never been ill. This child was exclusively breastfed for six months. Haha, she just weaned him a week ago. As if that was not enough, she noticed he had started running fever. If only she knew what to do. Just then an elderly neighbour passing by, saw how distraught she was and asked her what the matter was. She then narrated the history of the illness to the mama. Mama was furious, "How could you not know what to do. It's Teeth that is worrying this child o. You have to give him Agbo jedi. Infact I have one at home. As a mother, you need to have these things in your house." Mama rushed home and brought back the concoction which she administered to the child expertly.

I am sure my doctor friends already know where the above story would end because it is what they experience every now and then.

Story 2

Margaret's baby was cute. She had a wide smile. She was very pretty and all the lovely baby gowns fitted her perfectly. In fact, no be small thing. At a little over five months, her pearly whites came out. The two teeth made her smile more beautiful. You would want to identify yourself with her, no doubt. At age six months, she was weaned into the family diet. Thereafter, as a caring mom, Margaret noticed that her teeth were not as white as before. Not only that, her tongue was thickly coated. She didn't like it one bit. She decided to ask her friend Biola, who already had three children what she should do.

She dressed up the next day and visited her friend. After exchanging pleasantries, she "consulted" Biola on the main purpose of her visit. "Hehehe, Maggi, you need to be sharp o. There are many methods of cleaning babies' teeth. You may use Your own Maclean for the teeth and potash to scrub the tongue. Another option is to use salt for the teeth and alum for the tongue". #lobatan. Margaret chose the second option as alum was better than potash in cleaning things, or so she thought.

Biola then, being an experienced mother for that matter insisted she helped her to clean the mouth while Maggi watched.

Pictures from Google.

I will be back shortly to discuss the care of the Teeth in children. Ciao.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It's going to be a great year. I can feel it already. I wish each and everyone of you a happy new year. How was Christmas. We don spend money well well abi. Hehehehe. Well, it's a good thing. At least we had money to spend and we were happy spending it on friends and family. Don't worry, you will soon replenish your reserves. 

 

It's been awhile that I wrote and my close friends ( thanks to you all) have been encouraging me to write again. Not that I don't want to, but I have been distracted by certain things lately. Apologies. Ko le daa na ni. E go better.

As a public health physician, social and preventive health is what I stand for. I prefer to prevent disease than to be curing it. One can only cure one person at a time, but you can prevent disease in so many more by attitudinal change, lifestyle modifications, etc.

Today, I'm just on my page to say hi to you. Hopefully we will have more to discuss this year. Before I sign out, I just want to know what the heck is wrong with guys when making love to their wives. I have written about sexual health and family life before and it's like I keep hearing from women how impatient their husbands are in bed. 

Men, you must know that you are different from women. Most women have to use lubricants before having sex which basically tells me only one thing. The woman is not ready for the act. She's just doing it for you to get it over and done with. This should not be so. This is the era of CHANGE. Lets have a change of character oooo.

Wishing you blessed year. Thanks and God bless.