Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Wife's smoking inflames dad-to-be Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 16:20:05 EST Message-ID: Lines: 71 \SE E;LIFE;WAY OF LIFE;OUR CHILDREN;Q&A \SS (WS) \HD Wife's smoking inflames dad-to-be \BY Dr. Willard Abraham \CR COPLEY NEWS SERVICE Q: My wife is driving me out of my mind. Although that's nothing new in this house, her latest stubbornness is the worst because it can affect someone in addition to me. She is pregnant with our first child and continues to insist that her smoking won't hurt the baby. I don't see how that's possible. She won't listen to me and refuses to ask her doctor about it. I'm frustrated, and I don't know what to do. I need your help desperately. A: The best I can do is share with you a direct recent passage from a reputable source, the American Academy of Pediatrics. It was in a release based on an article in the academy's publication, Pediatrics: "Numerous health consequences of children's prenatal and passive exposure to maternal cigarette smoking have been demonstrated, including increased rates of low birth weight, infant mortality, respiratory infections, otitis media (inflammation of the ear), asthma, bronchial reactivity and asthma symptoms among children with asthma, and diminished lung size and impaired pulmonary function; most recently one study has found increased rates of lung cancer later in life for individuals passively exposed to cigarette smoke in the households in which they grew up as children." If sharing this information with her does no good, consider making an appointment with her physician with this information in hand. I hope she will go with you, but if not, go anyway and seek his support in this threatening situation. Q: Mathematics is a hard subject for our 10-year-old daughter, and I wonder whether that's true for all girls. Her attitude about the entire topic is negative, which is exactly how I felt about it when I was her age. If there is any way that I or her teacher could get her to do better and maybe even like it a little bit, we'd appreciate your suggestions. A: All girls are not negative about mathematics. Some like it as much as boys do, and - you may not believe this - some like it more than many boys do. Parental attitudes toward math and low expectations are sometimes the reasons for the attitude your daughter seems to have. "Square One TV," a daily program on Public Broadcasting Service stations, aims to help children 8 to 12 years old actually have fun with math. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Intel Corporation Foundation and others, this program uses math jokes, problems that build on kids' interests and vocabulary and thought processes at their level. A brochure titled "Yes You Can! (A Parent's Guide to Math Help for Kids)" relates to the "Square One TV" effort. Your local PBS station can tell you when that program is scheduled and from whom the brochure is available for parents. Letters may be sent to: Dr. Willard Abraham, Our Children, PO Box 572, Scottsdale, Ariz. 85252. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM