Just Diagnosed with a Visually Impaired Child

Written by Patty Hone


Finding out that your child is blind, partially blind, or has low vision can be a scary experience. Some disorders will be discovered at birth, ifrepparttar vision impairment has observable characteristics such as cataracts or congenital glaucoma, but many go undetected untilrepparttar 115139 child doesn't meet certain visual milestones. Parents may start to notice that their child does not seem to make eye contact or track bright high contrast items. Children with profound vision loss will often have nystagmus. Nystagmus is an observable condition whererepparttar 115140 eyes tend to shift back and forth rapidly, givingrepparttar 115141 appearance of jiggling eyes. There are a few children that are born with normal vision and develop vision loss due to accidents, brain tumors, or severe illnesses. Generally if your child is not meeting typical vision milestones by around three or four months your pediatrician will refer your child to an ophthalmologist. Proper diagnosis cannot be made without a thorough exam from an ophthalmologist.

Visual Acuity

Visual Acuity may not be determined until your child is older. When doing an exam on an infant, ophthalmologists often use visual acuity cards. Basically these are large posters of black and white lines. Infants see high contrast, black and white itemsrepparttar 115142 best. The cards will start off with very thick black lines and each card will have gradually thinner black lines. The thickerrepparttar 115143 line,repparttar 115144 easier it is for an infant to see. By observing how your infant tracks these cards, your ophthalmologist can determine more about your infant's visual acuity.

Dealing withrepparttar 115145 shock

There is no easy way to deal with finding out your child is blind or has a significant vision issue. Usuallyrepparttar 115146 diagnosis comes as a shock. Even if you are aware that there is a problem, actually hearingrepparttar 115147 words that your child may be blind or partially blind is emotionally crushing. Talking to others parents going throughrepparttar 115148 same thing will help some. Educating yourself onrepparttar 115149 subject matter will also help. Not knowing what to expect is one ofrepparttar 115150 most difficult aspects of having a vision impaired child. With most conditions your ophthalmologist can't give you a perfect idea of how well your child will be able to see inrepparttar 115151 future. Once your child starts being able to communicate well, you will have a better idea ofrepparttar 115152 severity of your child's condition.

KEYS TO A GREAT DIET

Written by Suzanne MacDonald


Are you confused about how to lose weightrepparttar healthy way? Have you tried allrepparttar 115138 fad diets onrepparttar 115139 market and still are frustrated about weight loss? Do you know just how much protein is enough? Are you confused about carbs? Are you wondering whyrepparttar 115140 weight won’t stay off? Just what is a healthy diet?

There are many aspects to a healthy weight loss program, and to help you sift through faddish information, here are two keys you should know. You need to know your body’s protein requirements and know your resting metabolic rate. These two points are a sensible place to start when you are looking for a program that will help you loserepparttar 115141 weight and keep it off, forever!

Just why is protein so important? Protein helps you to build and maintain lean muscle. Apart from creating a pleasing body shape and providing your body with strength, lean muscle burns calories and helps to keep your metabolic rate up. If you do not have enough protein in your diet, you will compromise your body’s lean muscle tissue and not build your best personal shape. Another wonderful aspect of protein is that it signals torepparttar 115142 brain a feeling of fullness. This in turn, controls your appetite, making weight loss easier!

How much protein do you need for healthy weight loss? To know this you need to find out your personal lean body mass. Your lean body mass isrepparttar 115143 weight of everything exceptrepparttar 115144 weight of your fat, muscles, bones, organs and fluids. A weight loss professional may be able to measure lean body mass. However withoutrepparttar 115145 equipment for a precise readingrepparttar 115146 general rule for healthy weight loss is 1 gram of protein for every pound of lean body mass. If you weigh 100 pounds, then your maximum level of protein would be 100 grams.

Usually when we think of protein, we think of red meat, chicken, turkey, fish and cheese. However, if you tried to eat allrepparttar 115147 protein your body required by eating meats (and many cheeses), you would be consuming too many calories. Protein in these forms often comes with additional fat and that means unwanted calories. This would work counter to your weight loss goals so we should go carefully with these forms of protein.

There are other ways to obtain your body’s proteins needs with fewer fat calories. Soy protein isrepparttar 115148 highest quality plant protein available. It is a great source forrepparttar 115149 amino acids your body needs as well asrepparttar 115150 antioxidants that help maintain healthy cells. Soy protein does not haverepparttar 115151 high fat calories, and is long acting and slowly metabolized (helping you to keep feeling full). Some high-protein, low calorie drinks can help meet these protein needs as well as being an enjoyable food source.

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