Q: My three-year-old daughter insists on wearing nail polish. If I don’t allow it she screams and throws a tantrum.

Nail polish can chip and flake off after application. The flakes can be accidentally ingested along with food. Nail polish contains a mixture of chemicals, colouring materials and other ingredients that can cause cancer and are toxic to the central nervous system. This is especially true of the inexpensive brands.

It is probably safer and better to stop the practice. Try to keep the polish where she cannot see it. If she does not see it and you do not use it, she may lose interest. In any case, most schools do not allow students to wear nail polish.

Hard areas

Q: I have hard areas on the sole of one of my feet. They do not pain, but the feel hard.

You probably have calluses. These are not infective. They form when there is repeated pressure on the foot. This may be because of your gait or defective footwear.

Change your footwear if it is worn out. Wear roomy shoes with soft soles. To get rid of the calluses, soak your feet in hot water with salt for 10 minutes. Then rub the hard areas with a pumice stone.

Milk Biscuits

Q: Can I wean my baby on to milk biscuits dipped in milk?

Milk biscuits and other ready-to-eat food contain chemicals, preservatives and transfats. These are unhealthy.

Babies should ideally be weaned after 180 days. If it is not possible for you to exclusively breast feed the baby till then, you can wean after 120 days. Babies should eat home cooked food -- cereals, boiled vegetables and fruits.

Delayed Periods

Q: My daughter has not started menstruating even though she is fourteen years old. All her class mates are now menstruating. I am worried.

You could take your daughter to a paediatrician to see if her development (height, weight and secondary sexual characters) are normal. They may want to check thyroid functions and do a scan as well.

If everything is normal, you can safely wait till she is eighteen years old.

Milk Teeth

Q: My son’s milk tooth has not fallen. A new tooth is coming up behind it crooked as there is no space. It also seems to be jamming this tooth.

You could show your son to a dentist. If the new tooth is really jamming the roots of the old tooth, it may need to be extracted.

Watered down

Q: My daughter is 6 months old and weighs 2.75 kg. She was 2.5 kg at birth. I give her milk with water, iron and vitamin drops and another tonic. It has not helped.

Ideally, your daughter should be double the birth weight at the end of the fifth month and triple at the end of the first year. Please consult a paediatrician to see if there is any medical reason for her failure to gain weight.

Weight gain comes with food, not tonics.

She needs to be introduced to solid food. Do not add water to the milk.

Numbness after caesarian

Q: I had a caesarian section several months ago. Now the area of skin below my scar is numb.

As the skin is cut during the surgery, the nerves may also get cut. This may cause the area to become numb. The nerves will slowly regenerate and you will recover.

Sweat stained

Q: My sweat is yellow and it stains my white clothes. Washing does not remove the stains. I found other people do not face this problem.

Waste from the body like urea is eliminated in sweat and urine. It has a yellow colour. Sweat containing urea can stain white clothes. It reacts with certain deodorants and detergents making the problem worse.

To prevent this:

Bathe twice a day.
Change your detergent.
Change your deodorant.
Presoak the clothes for 10-15 minutes in dilute vinegar (5 ml vinegar for 500 ml water).

This should make a difference.

Chocolate

Q: If I eat a chocolate slab, I feel giddy and want to lie down.

The chocolate may cause a momentary elevation of the blood sugar. As soon as the pancreas senses this, it secretes insulin. This may produce an initial precipitous fall in sugar levels. As the pancreas realizes this, it releases glucagon and the blood sugars become normal again. This could account for your symptoms.

Cigarettes

Q: I smoke only 2 cigarettes a day. Is that all right?

There is no “safe level” for tobacco use in any from. A single cigarette releases nicotine in levels too little to be picked up by tests. The bad news is that these low levels of nicotine and other chemicals are detected and picked up at the cellular level in the body. This produces minute but dangerous changes in the DNA. This remains imprinted in the cell memory. This is one of the reasons that inhaling second hand cigarette smoke is almost as dangerous as smoking.