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Published: August 20, 2008 08:04 pm
HEALTH MATTERS: City looking to make pools more accessible
By Jan Chait
Special to the Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
If you’ve been asking for accessible city pools, it looks as if your pleas will be answered: City Parks and Recreation Dept. folks are working on getting you in — and out — of the water as early as next summer.
“We’re looking into either a ramp or something else” for pools at Deming and Sheridan parks, says Micah Gallion, recreation department director. “We need to make both facilities accessible. We’ve talked to the mayor and this is something he’s behind.”
Right now, Gallion is looking into prices and alternatives: Ramps? Lifts? Something else? “It’s very important, but it’s also costly,” she says.
I’m one who would like to be able to get out of a pool. It’s easy enough to get into a pool — you just jump. And it’s great to be able to move around pain-free. The problem comes when I’m faced with a ladder as the only way out. Many people who are older, who have arthritis, or who are pregnant also find themselves hesitating to jump into a pool when the only way out is a ladder.
• • •
You’ve read the headlines about Hoosiers being fat and you’re ready to make some lifestyle changes. Can you still eat at buffets? Well … maybe. Diabetes blogger David Mendosa covered just that topic in an interview with obesity expert Victor J. Stevens, Ph.D., and came up with some suggestions. (You can read the entire article at tinyurl.com/64wvkp.)
Unfortunately for you if you like buffets, the first suggestion is to avoid them altogether. Another option is to tell a friend you’re only going to go through the buffet line once. Then sit next to that friend.
That second situation didn’t work for Mendosa, by the way.
His friend talked him into going through twice: once for samples and a second time for regular-sized portions of his faves.
Another suggestion is to go through once just to eyeball the food, then a second time to grab servings of the things that looked good to you.
I think the biggest problem with buffets is the mindset: “I paid for this food and, by golly, I’m going to get my money’s worth — and more!”
Maybe it is best to just stay away. Or just don’t make a regular habit of going.
III• • •
I have a little friend named Ryan who did not like to spend time on his tummy when he was an infant. Since he was as yet unable to roll over, that was just tough: He spent time on his tummy. At the time, I figured it was good for him in terms of preparation for crawling.
Now it turns out that too little tummy time may be a cause of delayed motor development.
More than 80 percent of 409 physical, occupational, and speech therapists surveyed said they had seen an increased delay in early motor development and said a lack of “tummy time” during waking hours was the main reason for the delay.
“We have seen first-hand what the lack of tummy time can mean for a baby: developmental, cognitive, and organizational skills delays, eye-tracking problems, and behavioral issues, to name just some complications,” Judy Towne Jennings, spokeswoman for the American Physical Therapy Association, was quoted as saying.
“New parents are told of the importance of babies sleeping on their backs to avoid [Sudden Infant Death Syndrome], but they are not always informed about the importance of tummy time.”
If you go to tinyurl.com/6eknkj, you can download “Tummy Time Tools,” a guide to techniques for increasing your infant’s amount of tummy time. The guide notes that tummy time:
• Promotes muscle development in the neck and shoulders;
• Helps prevent tight neck muscles and the development of flat areas on the back of baby’s head; and
• Helps build the muscles needed to roll, sit and crawl.
Experts note that delayed early motor development could also be caused by a higher survival rate of preemies, more multiple births (due to crowding in the uterus) and increased survival rates of children with cardiac, neurological, and genetic disorders.
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