Breast feeding has been the most natural response of a mother to satisfy the emotional and nutritional needs of her infant. That this can even serve as a natural barrier to infections and even save us money is perhaps not thought of. The effectiveness of the breast milk has long been established for reducing diarrhea, pneumonia, improved child nutrition and development along with its potential as Eco-friendly.
Breastfeeding benefits all sectors of society economically, ecologically and socially. However, over the last decades, women's self confidence in their capacity to nourish their infants has been undermined by many factors, including the power of the infant formula industry and a lack of social support. The major reasons for decline in breast feeding practices in India (50.9% by 3 months) are 1.rapid urbanization. 2. commercial pressure by marketing companies giving false messages. 3. lack of self confidence in mothers & dislike for breast feeding with the fair of loosing charm and beauty. 4. Practical problems of working mothers. 5.Most important improper technique and positioning while breast feeding leading to cracked nipples, engorgement of breasts and thus lactational failure a common problem faced by young mothers.
6. Delayed initiation of first feed leading to failure of lactation reflex.
7. Starting bottle or pacifiers along with breast feeding thus confusing the baby while sucking.
These and many other factors lead to failure to initiate breast feeding and an excuse for the mother to say I don�t have enough milk which is absolutely a myth because nature has been kind enough to provide milk to all the mammals to feed their young ones even to multiple ones at a time.
Benefits of breast feeding:-
There are many positive reasons for women to breastfeed their babies: breast milk is the best and most nutritious food, protecting them from illness and ensuring healthy physical and psychological development. For mothers, breastfeeding provides several health benefits such as reduction in the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, with the decrease in breastfeeding over the past several years one could daily hear the bad news of breast cancer in very young ladies attributed to hormonal imbalance led by stopping breast feeding their babies, a protective mechanism provided by nature. Breast feeding also helps in diminishing post-partum bleeding and iron deficiency anemia, and a natural means of spacing children by delaying ovulation. Breastfeeding also empowers women by increasing their self-confidence in their capacity to nourish and protect as well as nurture their babies and by decreasing their dependence on commercial products.
Millions of babies fall ill every year because they are not breastfed. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 1.5 million infant deaths could be avoided every year if all babies were breastfed. It has been observed that infants under 2 months of age are nearly six times more likely to die if not breastfed.
A study from Ghana on 10947 breastfed babies concluded that we could save 22 %( 2.5 lakh) neonates from death if breastfeeding was initiated within one hour of birth.
In Botswana in 2005/06, infant formula feeding was given to all the babies with the aim to prevent transmission of HIV infection fro their mothers suffering from AIDS. This led to increase in diarrheal disease in these children with the increase in national under five mortality by 18%.also hospital admissions increased by 50%. Breast milk being free of contamination, adulteration and available at desired temperature has been proven best anti-infective. This property is being attributed to certain immunoglobins, compliments, macrophages, lysozymes present in breast milk particularly during first few days (colostrum).

Incidence of atherosclerosis and various related heart ailments are on lower side in people, those who are exclusively breast fed in childhood .breast fed babies have also proven highly intelligent than artificially fed babies .

Artificially fed babies have to bear extra financial burden for purchasing milk, bottle, fuel etc., which amounts to almost Rs 1500-2000/month, which is beyond the capacity of average middle class family, which compels them to over dilute the milk, thus leading to malnutrition. at the national level almost Rs 15000-20000 crores (estimated cost of marketed milk)can be saved by breast feeding approximately 22 million babies born per year.
Perhaps the least known of all the advantages of breastfeeding are the ecological benefits. Breast milk is a natural and renewable resource which is often overlooked. Breastfeeding protects the environment by reducing the demands made on it and eliminates sources of waste and pollution. Artificial baby milks and processed baby foods are non-renewable products which create ecological damage at every stage of their production, distribution and use.
Breastfeeding is unique - it causes no pollution and is the best example of how humanity can sustain itself through provision of the first and most complete food for human life. It is vital to increase our efforts to support, protect and promote breastfeeding. All sectors of society need to learn about the advantages of breastfeeding and how to support the natural rights of mothers to breastfeed and babies to be breastfed. All women should have access to information and support in order to be able to make truly informed choices about these natural rights.
The breastfeeding culture is culture of peace, balance and harmony. It involves trusteeship and global responsibility towards our young, and seeks accountability from governments and various spiritual traditions to support families in nurturing children. Almost all great world religions recognize breastfeeding as a essential nurturing the young and respect women's role in doing so.
Processing artificial baby milks wastes energy
Baby milk consists of a mixture of factory-processed substances which may be then added to cow's milk and converted into powder at high temperatures. This wastes a lot of electrical energy. This energy usually comes from hydro-electric or nuclear power plants that are expensive and cause a lot of damage to the environment. Breast milk is naturally produced. A mother's normal low-cost diet is transformed into a natural, invaluable and specialized food for her baby! This is the most energy efficient food production system ever known!
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Breast milk needs no extra-packaging
The packaging of manufactured baby milk wastes tin plate, paper and plastic. Bottles, teats and other feeding equipment use plastic, rubber, silicon and glass. To bottle feed all US babies, the 550 million tins sold each year, stacked end to end would circle the earth one and a half times. In 1987, 4.5 million feeding bottles were sold in Pakistan alone. These feeding bottles stacked end to end would reach the top of Mount Everest.
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Disposal methods pollute air, land and groundwater
The packages used for baby foods, along with feeding bottles, teats and pacifiers, are commonly thrown away after use. Normally these are not biodegradable. Plastic feeding bottles, teats and pacifiers take 200 to 450 years to break down when disposed in landfills. Glass feeding bottles take an undetermined amount of time to break down. Landfill and incineration are the most common disposal methods. Landfill sites can pollute groundwater, and there is a shortage of suitable sites in some countries. Incineration releases pollutants into the air: if plastic bottles are burned, the fumes may contain dioxin and other toxic substances. The beauty of breast milk is that one need not worry about disposal and it is immediately available without any need for packaging and preparation. Breastfeeding is waste free.
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Transportation pollutes and wastes fuel
The fresh cows' milk, grains and additives used in making baby food travel long distances even before processing, and additional long distances on the way to central, then regional warehouses, and finally, retail outlets. Many countries import baby food and feeding bottles from the other side of the world. This means a great waste of fuel and contributes to air pollution everywhere. Breast milk does not have to be shipped around the world; every mother has a ready supply wherever she goes...
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Preparation - more waste
A 3 month old bottle-fed baby needs a liter of water per day to mix with the formula powder. Another two liters are needed to sterilize the bottles and teats. If the water is boiled over a wood fire, more than 73 kg of wood are needed to prepare a year's feeds. In many parts of the world, water and fuel are so scarce that few mothers have the luxury of keeping the bottles and teats clean and of using only boiled, cooled water to make up the feeds. Breast milk is ready to use at the right temperature, does not need to be sterilized and causes no pollution.
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Processed baby milks maybe contaminated
Baby milk is an industrially manufactured food which undergoes multiple processing, additions and alterations as it is converted from cows' milk plus additives to a can full of powder. No wonder that it has proved vulnerable from danger to contamination by harmful bacteria like E. Sakazakii and Salmonella, radio-activity, chemicals, foreign bodies and insect pests. Furthermore, the water mixed with the powder poses another danger of contamination, while problems have also arisen from teats breaking during use. Breast milk is a living substance. Each woman's milk is individually tailored for her own baby. What's more, her milk changes constantly - both during a feed and day by day - to meet her baby's evolving needs. When a mother is exposed to pathogens in the environment, she produces antibodies to combat them. The mother's antibodies are then passed on to her baby via her breast milk.
The dangers of Donations
Many violations of the code have been observed in emergencies with the donations of breast milk substitutes. During earthquake in Indonesia 2006, distribution of donated formula to children under 2 years led to increased prevalence of diarrheal disease to 25%, compared to 12% in breastfed babies.
Similarly in 2005 tsunami in Pondicherry, the occurrence of diarrhea was three times more among children who were fed with free breast milk substitutes than in those who were not fed with the same. These figures clearly show the misuse of these donations.

IMS Act and breast feeding:
To encourage and promote breast feeding various organizations like BPNI,IBFAN etc have been playing a commendable job by providing training people including health personnel ,highlighting benefits and objectives of breast feeding through printed and electronic media and interacting with various government officials for strict implementation of IMS (infant milk substitution act)1992 and amended in 2003 through the act of parliament and as per this act it is illegal:
1. To promote infant milk substitutes and feeding bottles intentionally /unintentionally on pretext of distribution of educational material
2. To make advertisement or exhibition of these products.
3. To sponsor any health official or related to child welfare to any tour, conferences etc.
4. To provide gifts or monitory benefit.
5. To distribute literature which directly or indirectly helps in promotion of their products and thus undermining breastfeeding?
DR.NIYAZ AHMAD BUCH
PROFESSOR (pediatrics).
SKIMS MEDICAL COLLEGE
SRINAGAR.
National trainer for infant and young child feeding
Niyaz_buch@yahoo.co.in

EFFECTS OF NUTRITION ON BEHAVIOR AND MENTAL PERORMANCE

Nutrition can affect behavior and emotional adjustment. However, to demonstrate a clear-cut relationship between nutrition on the one hand and behavior and emotional adjustment on the other is extremely difficult since nutrition is only one of a number of factors affecting the expression of interaction of the individual and his environment. Nevertheless, the effects of under-nutrition or malnutrition be discernible in situations which are complicated by poor physical environment and emotional stresses and strains. Periods of severe under-feeding provide evidence.

Spies et al described a child whom they had observed from 5-12 years of age. He was a white boy, the fourth child in a family of ten that had lived on a diet consisting chiefly of corn bread, biscuits, fat pork, sugar, occasionally turnip greens, corn, tomatoes and berries in season. Rarely did this child have any milk, eggs, meat, fish or cheese. At 5 years of age he was retarded in growth and showed clinical evidence of deficiencies in thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. His mother reported that he had �cracks� (symptom of riboflavin deficiency) at the corner of his mouth most of his life and frequently his tongue was red and sore (symptom of niacin deficiency). During the following three years his mother complained that he was fractious, and his teacher stated that he did not concentrate on his school work and poor grades and was quarrelsome. At 8 years and 9 months he was given a skimmed milk supplement which increased his intake of protein, calcium, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. No other changes were made in his life. During the first year, there was little change in his lip and tongue condition and disposition of his school grades. Following that year gradual improvement in lip and tongue symptoms was noted. His mother reported great improvement in his disposition. His teacher said that, he could concentrate better on his studies, his school grades had improved and his behavior was excellent. This relatively small improvement in his diet had contributed slowly to somewhat better living for this child even though it was insufficient to improve his growth rate in height and weight.

Children with Kwashiorkar, a severe type of protein malnutrition, have a characteristic behavior. These children are dull, apathetic, and miserable. They sit without moving, indifferent to their surroundings. They rarely cry or scream, just whimper. When they are cured, the behavioral change from �peevish mental apathy� to �impish humor and vitality� is striking.
Observations during real life situations of under-nutrition have been corroborated by the changes in behavior of the subjects of the Minnesota Study on Starvation. The progressive anatomic and bio-chemical changes which produced sensations, drives and limitations to physical functions rendered the man increasingly ineffective in their daily life. During the period of semi-starvation men who had been energetic, even-tempered, humorous, patient, tolerant, enthusiastic, ambitious and emotionally stable became tired, apathetic, irritable, lacking in self-discipline and self-control. They lost much of their ambition and former self-initiated spontaneous physical and mental activity. They moved cautiously, climbed stairs one step at a time and tended to be awkward, tripping over curbstones and bumping into objects. They lost interest in their appearance. They dressed carelessly and often neglected to shave, brush teeth and comb their hair. They became more concerned with themselves and less with others. It required too much effort to be sociable. Their interests narrowed. The educational program, which was to prepare them for foreign rehabilitation work, collapsed. Humor and high spirits were replaced by soberness and seriousness. Any residual humor was of a sarcastic nature. They had periods of depression and became discouraged in part because of their inability to sustain mental and physical effort. They were frustrated because of the difference between what they wished to do and what they could do. They found themselves buying things which were not useful at the time. They stopped having �dates.� All sex feelings and expression virtually disappeared. All the time they were being distracted by hunger. Sensations and showing great concern about and interest in food. When their food was increased during the rehabilitation period, their psychological recovery was somewhat faster than their physical improvement, although many months of unlimited diet passed before recovery was complete. Emotional stability and sociability were regained more rapidly than strength, endurance and sexual drive.

The sudden feeling of improvement however was temporary. Morale became low because many anticipated quick, complete recovery. As energy increased, they no longer were willing to accept conditions unquestionably and showed annoyance at restrictions. Many grew argumentative and negativistic. Humor, enthusiasm and sociability reappeared; irritability and nervousness diminished. The feeling of well-being increases the range of interest. The sense of group identity which had become strong during the semi-starvation period was dissipated as men began looking forward to making plans for their future. An interest in activity and sex increased. Their concern about food decreased after a period of insatiable appetite when they were first permitted to eat all they desired.

Intelligence: It has been shown that under-nutrition or malnutrition can affect mental activities or the way an individual uses his mental abilities. In the Minnesota study, according to both clinical judgment and quantitative tests, the men�s mental capacity did not change appreciably during either semi-starvation or rehabilitation. The subjective estimates of loss of intellectual ability may be attributed to physical disability and emotional factors.

Studies of the effect of thiamine supplements upon learning ability have given no assurance that adding thiamine to the diet of schoolage children will be followed by increased ability to learn. Evidence has been cited that underfeeding has a real effect upon the well-being of an individual, and is reflected in his behavior. It would be wise, therefore, to keep in mind the nutritional needs of children and to meet them wherever possible.

Dr. Nahida M.Mulla M.D.MACH
Principal,
A M Shaikh Homoeopathic Medical College, Nehru Nagar, BELGAUM

CHILD REARING PRACTICES

Different child rearing practices are found between social classes. Recent investigations suggest that more middle class, then lower class have adopted the permissive-democratic approach. Evidence of this greater adherence to the permissive democratic approach on the part of middle class parents can be seen in:
1. Greater evidence of warmth and affection in middle class home
2. Less authoritarianism and more open communications between parents and children
3. Greater tolerance for developmental immaturity and aggressiveness towards parents
4. Greater emphasis in fostering wholesome development and establishing good rapport than an obedience, respect and the physical aspect of care
5. Greater reliance on reasoning and inner controls in disciplining children than on physical punishment and ridicule.
6. Greater parental concern with and participation in their child�s interests.
Child Rearing Styles: are constellations of parenting behaviors that occur over a wide range of situations, thereby creating a pervasive and enduring child-rearing climate. In a landmark series of studies, Diana Baumrind gathered information on child rearing by watching parents interact with their preschoolers. Her findings, along with many others that extend her work, reveal three features that consistently differentiate an authoritative parenting style from less effective, authoritarian and permissive styles. They are:
1. Acceptance of the child and involvement in the child�s life to establish an emotional connection with the child
2. Control of the child to promote more mature behavior and
3. Anatomy granting to encourage self-reliance.
Authoritative Child Rearing: The authoritative style is the most successful approach to child rearing. Authoritative parents are high in acceptance and involvement � warm, responsive, attentive, patient and sensitive to their child�s needs. They establish an enjoyable, emotionally fulfilling parent-child relationship that draws the child into close connection and interaction.

At the same time, authoritative parents use adaptive control techniques. They make reasonable demands for maturity and consistently enforce those demands. In doing so, they place a premium on communication. They give reasons for their expectations and use disciplinary encounters as �teaching moments� to promote the child�s self-regulation of behavior.

Finally, authoritative parents engage in gradual, appropriate autonomy granting. They allow the child to make decisions in areas where he is ready to make choices. They also encourage the child to express his thoughts, feelings and desires. And when parent and child disagree, authoritative parents engage in joint decision making when possible. Their willingness to accommodate to the child�s perspective increases the chances that the child will listen to their perspective in situations where compliance is vital.

Throughout childhood and adolescence, authoritative parenting is linked to many aspects of competence. These include an upbeat mood, self-control, task-persistence and cooperativeness during the preschool years and at older ages, responsiveness to parents� views in social interaction and high self-esteem, social and moral maturity, achievement motivation and school performance.

Authoritarian Child Rearing: Parents who use an authoritarian style are low in acceptance and involvement. They appear cold and rejecting frequently degrading their child by mocking and putting her down. Although authoritarian parents focus heavily on control of their child�s behavior, they do so coercively by yelling, commanding and criticizing. �Do it because I say so!� is the attitude of these parents. If the child disobeys, authoritarian parents resort to force and punishment. In addition, authoritarian parents are low in autonomy granting. They make decision for their child and expect the child to accept their word in an unquestioning manner. If the child does not, authoritarian parents resort to force and punishment. The authoritarian style is clearly biased in favor of parent�s needs. Children�s self-expression and independence are suppressed. Research shows that children with authoritarian parents often are anxious and unhappy. Girls especially appear dependent, lacking in exploration and overwhelmed in the face of challenging tasks. When playing with peers, children reared in an authoritarian climate react with hostility when frustrated. Like their parents, they resort to force when they do not get their way. Boys especially show high rates of anger, defiance and aggression.

In adolescence, young people with authoritarian parents continue to be less well adjusted than those with authoritative parents. Nevertheless, because of authoritarian parents� concern with controlling their child�s behavior, teenagers experiencing this style do better in school and are less likely to engage in antisocial acts than are those with undemanding parents. i.e. parents who use the two styles we are about to discuss.

Permissive Child Rearing: The permissive style of child rearing is warm and accepting. But rather than being involved such parents are over indulging or inattentive. Permissive parents engage in little control of their children�s behavior. Most of time, they avoid making demands or imposing limits. And rather than engaging in effective autonomy granting, permissive parents allow children to make many of their own decisions at an age when they are not yet capable of doing so. They can eat meals and go to bed when they feel like it and watch as much television as they want. They do not have to learn good manners or do any household chores. Although some permissive parents truly believe that this approach is best, many others lack confidence in their ability to influence their child�s behavior.
Children of permissive parents have great difficulty controlling their impulses and are disobedient and rebellious when asked to do something. They are also overly demanding and dependent on adults and they show less persistence at tasks than do children of parents who exert more control.

In adolescence, parent indulgence continues to be related to poor self-control. Permissively reared teenagers do less well academically, are more defiant of authority figures and display more antisocial behavior than do teenagers whose parents communicate clear standards for behavior.

Uninvolved Child Rearing: The uninvolved style combines low acceptance and involvement with little control and general indifference to issue of autonomy. Uninvolved parents� child rearing barely exceeds the minimum effort required to feed and clothe the child. Often these parents are emotionally detached and depressed and so overwhelmed by the many stresses in their lives that they have no time and energy to spare for children. As a result, they may respond to the child�s demands for easily accessible objects, but any parenting strategies that involve long-term goals, such as establishing and enforcing rules, about homework and social behavior, listening to child�s point of view, and providing guidance on appropriate choices are weak and fleeting. At its extreme, uninvolved parenting is a form of child maltreatment called neglect. It is likely to characterize depressed parents with many stresses in their lives, such as marital conflict, little or no social support and poverty. Especially when it begins early, it disrupts virtually all aspects of development, including attachment, cognition, play and emotional and social skills.

Even when parental disengagement is less extreme, it is linked to adjustment problems. Adolescents whose parents rarely interact with them, take little interest in their life at school and do not monitor their whereabouts show poor emotional self-regulation, low academic self-esteem and social performance and frequent anti-social behavior.

Dr. Nahida M.Mulla M.D.MACH
Principal,
A M Shaikh Homoeopathic Medical College, Nehru Nagar, BELGAUM

It is an OPD procedure.
For details Also visit my website www.irtreatments.com

INTRODUCTION

The obstruction of fallopian tube in its proximal portion has been a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma since its recognition more than 50 years ago. Development of fluoroscopically guided fallopian tube catheterization over last decade has improved the evaluation of this condition with better visualization of distal fallopian tube. A procedure that relieves proximal tubal obstruction whatever the cause with minimal trauma to the tube would clearly be an advantage. There are commercially available fallopian tube catheterization sets. These are costly and cumbersome to use. Modified technique as used by us is easier to use, less traumatic and decreases procedure and fluoroscopy time.
METHOD
Women with unilateral or bilateral proximal tube obstruction by HSG or laparoscopy are candidates for this procedure .The procedure is performed 3 to 7 days after menstrual period. Fluoroscopic fallopian tube recanalisation is done under Digital fluoroscopy. The premedication is done with Injection Buscopan 20mg intravenously. Patient is placed in lithotomy position. Part cleaned with betadine. The cervix is held with volsellum forceps. A catheter is introduced into the uterus under direct vision over a 0.035� guide wire. Once inside the uterus the tip is guided to the diseased cornu of the uterus. A small amount of contrast is used to confirm the position. A 3F catheter is passed through tubal ostium. Microguide wire 0.018� (Terumo) guide wire is passed into the fallopian tube. On successful recanalisation contrast is injected through the microcatheter. Free peritoneal spill is seen in the peritoneum in successful cases. Cases where after 10 minutes of attempt the tube is not recanalised, the procedure is regarded as failure. Patient is allowed to rest in the department for an hour after which patients were allowed to go home. Oral analgesics were given in case of abdominal pain.
Success is 76.2 % and failure is 23.8%. Pregnancy is seen in 24 %.

Special Children Of Punjab
Dear Doctors and friends,
Carin Smit, a neuro-nutritional therapist out of So. Africa, has written and forwarded this report, urgently asking for our support.
MICRO TRACE MINERALS has agreed to test about 300 children free of charge. Via hair mineral analysis, we will check the nutritional and toxic status of these children in Punjab. The next step will be to detoxify these children. It is assumed that nutritional deficiencies and intoxications (mercury etc) play a role in the health of these special children, and we are aware that a detoxification program cannot, and should not be started unless nutritional needs are somewhat met. Therefore, detoxification will not take place unless the nutritional status of these children has been improved.
Carin Smit has received a small donation of some protein powder, which is desperately needed to support these children, but is only enough for a dozen children at best.
VITMIN LABORATORIES of Germany, the nutritional company of my daughter Yvette Busch, has offered to provide nutritional supplements sufficient for the majority of children. We are about to send protein and nutritional supplements to start the program. We have cases of protein powders, vitamin and mineral supplements, probiotics etc, worth several thousand Euros, waiting for shipping.
Punjab is a state in Northern India, bordering Kashmir. It is difficult to reach. Few shipping companies deliver to Punjab, and costs for shipping and crating are high. Help us and the Children of Punjab with a donation that allows this project to become reality.
How to donate? Contact us and pledge your help. Every cent, dollar or Euro will help. Anything will be of benefit and we assure you that your kindness supports the children of Punjab.
Most sincerely,
Eleonore Blaurock-Busch PhD
Yvette Busch and Team
PS: I AM SENDING THIS TO EVERYONE ON MY MAILING LIST, BECAUSE I DEEPLY BELIEVE THAT THE POVERTY AND ILL HEALTH OF CHILDREN CONCERNS US ALL.



Baba Farid Center For Special Children
Harindra Nagar Faridkot (Punjab)


Some years ago I met a mother of a profoundly autistic boy, called Ankit Sharma in Gaberone, Botswana, where she and her husband lived and worked. At the time we provided a unique therapy intervention to Ankit, then 8 years old, called Auditory Integration Training. The treatment is an electronically modulated music intervention, which stimulated the entire auditory system, but also provides a strong impact on the brainstem, midbrain and cerebral cortices, providing overall sensory integration and it also changes the neuro-immunological status of the brain.
Ankit was greatly helped at the time, but because no other metabolic interventions followed his first exposure to AIT (Auditory Integration Training), he again deteriorated and his autism became more and more entrenched.
Savita heard about Dr. Pritpal Singh & Dr vipan kumar in Faridkot, Punjab in G-News whilst she was still in Botswana. Her father lives in Himachal, one of the other states of India. She brought her now teenage son to Punjab for treatment. He attended therapy in Batinda and in Faridkot and it was during her stay here in Punjab that she wrote to me and told me that Ankit had improved greatly under the Neuro-Therapy treatment of Dr. Singh.
She asked me if I would be interested in sharing some of my work with this doctor and his staff and upon my positive reply I received a phone call early in January 2008 from Dr. Pritpal Singh to come over and visit his Center and assist with the special children they serve.
Many months of collaboration followed. Over the months I became more and more convinced that this community of therapists is very poor and that they serve families who are not able to provide for their children according to Western standards.

Eventually the day came when we arrived in Punjab. A colleague and friend, Mrs. Vera Dirr, an NCRT and NCM therapist as well as teacher of Cerebral Palsied and learning disabled children in South Africa, accompanied me to Faridkot.
Our arrival here was met with much excitement and from the outset I realized that the needs were much greater than we could ever have hoped to meet. The families who have children in the center are devastated by the degree of disability which afflicts their sons and daughters. Many of the families have seen miracles happen � sometimes within days to weeks of bringing their children to the Baba Farid Center for Special Children.
The Center�s director is a young man, called Dr. Pritpal Singh. He is energetic, a visionary and a deeply committed therapist of young children. Dr. Pritpal Singh is a Doctor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences. He started this work about 6 years ago and has worked for 12 hours per day for the past 6 years, 7 days a week training up young men who have since qualified as Neuro-therapists in 4 Centers in which there are currently more than 300 children receiving daily Neuro-Therapy.

In addition to the 300 + children served in this way, there are more than a 100 on a waiting list. This is by far not the number of children whose plight is dire in the state of Punjab, as many are currently turned away as there just aren't enough Neuro-Therapists to work with them at this time. Just this morning parents again arrived at the Center hoping to receive help for their children, but had to be turned away, as the waiting list needs to be supplied with therapists, before any new families can be enrolled � this means that there is an urgent need to train up more therapists, but limited resources prohibit training of a new intake of intern Neuro-Therapists. These young men aren�t trained up over-night � the full training to certification takes up to three years to complete.

I was in awe from day one about the constant stream of children who arrive here from early morning (7am) till late evening (some as late as 9pm), who come for help. The Center offers this unique kind of yogic intervention, based on a combination of neuro-stimulation which is the result of stimulation of internal body organs through direct and indirect pressure. The pressure provides better blood flow to organs, thus the metabolism of these organs increases and more hormones, enzymes, chemicals are secreted/produced, which supply the body with better nutrition. Better nutrition for the entire body, results in better nutrition for the brain. Direct stimulation of the spinal cord, peripheral and central nervous system, also brings about better enervation and yielding astounding results.

To date more than 62 children are fully recovered - the majority of these came to the center severely spastic, blind, deaf, with contracted limbs, crossed legs, unable to speak, feed themselves, with no bowel or bladder control and some profoundly autistic. Yet now, after a relatively short time in therapy (15 minutes every 2nd day), they have gained normal bodily functions, are able to walk, talk, can see, hear, feed themselves and are integrated in mainstream schooling!


It is scientifically unacceptable to hear someone make a statement that a happening has been a miracle in the making, but the recovery rates in these children bespeaks super-natural intervention. It is not the norm that severely disabled children, especially those damaged by severe hypoxia at birth or have sustained damage from neuro-toxins, show such recoveries. I have personally seen the MRI�s of the children and the damage is real. Occipital, parietal, deep white matter damage, mid-brain and cerebellar damage abound in these children. Yet, within a relatively short period of time, Dr. Pritpal Singh and his team of Neuro-Therapists apply their therapy and within days the parents start seeing a lessening of spasticity, normalization of squints, correction of severe bowel issues, and improvement in eye contact. Before long, the children start making their first struggling attempts at muscular movements with their hands and then attempts to sit and stand follow.

At last, the first giddy attempts at walking emerge and then they start straightening out. As these processes emerge from deeply injured brains, the children start communicating. At first there are just glances that meet your eyes, then they fix their stare and soon they smile and attempt to babble or the first poorly formed words are uttered. For a parent who was told that his or her son or daughter would never sit, stand, walk, talk or be independent, no-one can dismiss the miracle of the first �Mama� or �Baba� and then the speech-mechanisms start stream-lining, to produce clearer and more complete sentences.

The autistic child who is hyperactive, aggressive to self and others, and the Down�s Syndrome boy or girl who cannot communicate because he or she has a tongue too large for his / her oral cavity or who has huge motor planning problems and who sits or lies locked away, begin to crack smiles and open themselves up to touch and communication; the frenetic behaviours that so often characterize autistics, start diminishing. We met a little girl here with Down Syndrome. She was said to be completely autistic and unable to communicate with people. The day we arrived she still clung to her granny in shy withdrawal, but as the days passed we saw this little girl as active, normal and communicative. Noor has become totally normal and she is well-able to mainstream with regards to schooling. Neuro-Therapy has changed her little life!

SOME CHILDREN DON�T RECOVER
We are desperate for this Center to obtain further help as their work is so deserving. Despite the success stories I have enumerated above, Dr. Pritpal Singh acknowledges that there is a small group of children whom they see with whom progress is less than satisfactory - these children still can't show the same recovery rates as the others I mentioned above. He called me in to investigate the causes for their slow or poor progress.
It is my humble opinion that heavy metal toxicity plays a key role in the non-recovery of these children. India, but more specifically, Punjab, where the Baba Farid Center for Special Children is located, is a toxic place. The streets are dusty and dirty. There appears to be no refuse removal. Cattle drift in and out of traffic and make their homes on the rubbish heaps, where they rummage for food and eat all manner of plastic and refuse articles. These ultimately kill them � it is a slow, agonizing and desperately cruel death! The majority of the side roads are mere dirt tracks, the poverty is tangible. The children of the poor are sold into a life condemned to slavery and children as young as 5 and 6 become servants and collectors of rubbish (garbage), as they have huge bags strapped to their heads, and they fill these bags with refuse, which is most likely



Semi-valuable for re-cycling. [Re-cycling is certainly NOT a priority in India!]. Children and their families live far below the breadline and mal-nutrition seems to be the norm rather than the exception. I have been shocked every time when I enquire about the age of a child and am told that the child is at least 3 � 5 years older than what I would have imagined. Their statures are small, their arms thin and wiry, their faces emaciated and their feet and legs bony and weak. The mal-nutrition is palpable and therefore the disease- and infection-ratio must, of necessity, be higher in this country.
In addition to this there is the horror of the intense vaccination schedule for Indian children, combined with the fact that the Indian Pharmacopoiea mandates that even single shot vaccines be laced with Thimerosal, which makes for very interesting and sad case histories. Other factors compound the ravaging effects of Mercury in young bodies: the majority of the children who attend the center are either Cerebral Palsied due to hypoxia at birth (local hospitals in towns and villages in India don't have ANY Pediatric ICU or incubation services and so brain injury due to Hypoxia is very high amongst Indian children - even in the cities).

Progressive brain injury is inevitable when one considers the hectic vaccine loading (28 - 32 vaccines by 9 months), for more than 15 diseases, which has left many devastated especially after the 9-month MMR. Those who haven't become autistic are more severely impacted and become brain injured, with resulting cerebral palsy, mental retardation or life-threatening epilepsy. One such boy at the Center is Nirmal, who currently has status-epilepticus and has not stopped having seizures since I came here 14 days ago. His little sister, aged 7 when she died, also passed away of a similar condition some time ago. Doctors across the state of Punjab and in Delhi have sent the mother home, saying that they can't do ANYTHING more for Nirmal and so she carries her racked and spastic son up and down daily to the Center. Here the men work on the boy, using water syringe therapy on his forehead and small parts of the Neuro-Therapy and these break the seizures for short periods daily, but inevitably the seizures return and contort his little body for hours on end.

I believe Nirmal has Hallervorden-Spatz Syndrome as he has an �eye of the tiger� ring of marked hypointensity involving his globus pallidus on a T2-weighted MR image. His situation is truly one of a life and death struggle, as the condition is said to be neuro-degenerative and his sister died with the same disease at age 7 some time ago. The problem with this syndrome is the deposition of iron as ferritin in the globus pallidus with the eventual destruction of the substantia nigra of the basal ganglia. I feel that chelation with chelators which cross the blood-brain-barrier might be helpful and wondered if this child�s life could not be saved if a strict chelation protocol were designed and applied. At the present time, his seizures are near life-threatening with extreme postural reflexes and rigidity. I tried to use supplements on Nirmal when I came here � not initially knowing what caused the extreme rigidity and seizure-like stiffening of his body. I started giving him Taurine (I didn�t have any GABA to give as this would have been another supplement of choice) and dispensed all the Foodscience sub-lingual DMG's I had access to. In addition to this I gave him Magnesium in mega-doses as he was extremely constipated. The first few days yielded few results, but by the end of meting out little amounts of Idebenone, DMG, Taurine, Omega 3 and Magnesium, he seemed to start stabilizing again and the seizure-like rigidity lessened. There are now days when he only fits 2 - 3 times per day. What his quality of life will be after this no-one can guess, but I feel giving him the little I had, had brought some change and trying to implement a chelation protocol which will cross the blood-brain-barrier might actually save his life from the life-threatening gliosis.

In desperation, before seeing his MRI results, I went ahead and ordered a set of supplements from Marion Ellison in SA for him, but the cost of sending these here plus the purchase costs came to R6000.00 (almost $1000!/ Euros 500!) and for this Center, and the family, whose monthly income is a mere Rs8000 ($200), this was a devastating amount!
The situation on the ground here is dire due to poverty with resulting mal-nutrition. The average parental income is less than $150.00 per month and the very poor ones may earn as little as $15 per month, which is hardly enough to keep body and soul together, not to speak of keeping these little ones healthy and kept in a live-changing therapy service!





The net result is that many die or will die. I can�t believe that there is an affluent �West� out there where people have cars, homes and comforts, fast-food outlets and ample medicine, opulence and high quality medical services, and here in India, in places like Punjab, the children have to die, because parents can�t even access incubators for the prematurely born babies or where talking about nutritional supplementation is like talking about life on Mars! For these families such help is �out of this world�, out of reach and beyond hope. Just today we struggled for over 5 hours just to find a courier company which would transport two serum and a few hair samples to Germany for analysis. The outcome was, after contacting the Post Office, several local courier companies and even DHL India�s National Customer Care services, that sending the biological samples internationally is an IMPOSSIBILITY! When I told the operators of the DHL service that it was a life-and-death matter for these children, I was told it would take up to 21 days just to open an international export account for biological samples and the cost of sending these samples will then be so astronomical, that it will put the entire project in jeopardy.

OTHER OBSTACLES
The ones who are fortunate enough to have heard about the Baba Farid Center for Special Children, and can manage to find transport to come over the miles to obtain help, may need ongoing financial support from Dr. Singh to pay for ricksaw and taxi services (nothing like what we know in the West!), to commute over the many miles to and from their towns and villages for the 15 minute treatment session per day. And yet, remarkably, these children, when treated, become better and better and the spasticity leaves their little wracked bodies and they manage to start healing up.

For the 20% of the children whom he has not been able to give hope and help due to toxicity issues beyond the scope of their therapy, he called for my help. I managed to procure free lab testing for all 300 children with Micro Trace Minerals (Dr. Eleanore Blaurock Busch) in Germany and she has kindly offered to set up a research project for this Center under my supervision to ensure that we carefully document our findings as I believe we might be observing a breakthrough in medical and natural sciences in this Center!

However, offering free lab services to us means nothing if we can�t get the samples to the lab in Germany and even if we could get someone willing to transport the urine for us, the project will still not be viable if the cost of sending these samples becomes exorbitant.
I trust this little vignette of the work and scope of the Baba Farid Center for Special Children will aid potential donors or individuals in power to make a meaningful contribution to the lives of children who can't speak for themselves and for parents who are not able to advocate for their children because their station in life discriminates against them.
With kind regards
Carin Smit � C/CMT
SYNAPSE AFRICA NEURO-NUTRITIONAL CLINIC
Posted By Dr vipan kumar