Z Hello, dear visitors of the Orthodox website “Family and Faith”!
We have repeatedly touched upon the issue of the need to abstain from fasting food during fasting days and for children in articles and questions and answers from priests.
However, the opinion of priest Alexy Grachev, who before serving in the priesthood was a practicing pediatrician, expressively emphasizes the position of the Church, sanctifying many important aspects healthy baby food.
Starting from the question: why are there so many sick children now? - the doctor-priest gives necessary advice, using which we can raise spiritually and physically healthy children!
FASTING is also necessary for children
Priest Alexy Grachev
U We, parents, often have one desire: to give the child as much as possible at the table, and we will not rest until we feed him to satiety. Like, the more a child eats, the healthier he is.
Meanwhile, in life it happens just the opposite.
Why are there so many sick children now? Why, for example, are there so many diseases in children? gastrointestinal tract? Because we left the traditional way of life, including nutrition.
Our ancestors were raised in Orthodoxy, which sanctified their entire lives. And their children were much healthier than our children today.
Recently, the concept of storage diseases has become quite widespread in medicine. These diseases begin in childhood. Often, without knowing it, we overfeed our children. And many diseases arise due to the inability of the child’s body to cope with the amount of substances that enter it.
Body, given to a person By God, it is amazingly harmoniously arranged. It refuses what it does not need and feels the need for what it lacks. And when we try to force children to eat as well as possible, it does not benefit them.
Each person has his own constitutional and metabolic characteristics, and within this metabolism there is multi-story system even smaller units of exchange of its various elements. Protein metabolism, carbohydrate, fat...
In Orthodoxy, we have more fasting days a year than fasting days. And fasting has a variety of beneficial effects on our lives. It is useful for both the soul and the body, both for adults and children.
So we should not be afraid that our children refuse certain types of food, we should not be afraid that they will become weak and lose health if they start fasting. On the contrary, numerous observations suggest that:
children who fast feel much better, even from a purely physical health, and get sick less than children who do not know what fasting is. Moreover, there are examples of how sick children, having started fasting, gradually regained health.
One child, for example, had a severe form of diathesis since childhood, which later developed into chronic asthmatic bronchitis and persistent allergies. The family began to go to church, fast, the child - along with everyone else. And all allergy symptoms quickly went away.
In Orthodox families, mothers know how to cook amazingly tasty and varied Lenten food: beans with onions, pies with cabbage, mushrooms, fruit rice porridge, gingerbread... you'll lick your fingers!
Life shows that these fears are unfounded. Children who fast from an early age on all fast days of the year are usually stronger physically, they are better able to resist not only infectious diseases - there are such observations - but they can also bear a much greater amount of mental stress. Although they are tired at the end of the day, after studying at school, playing music, after sections, clubs, home lessons, nevertheless, this load is not excessive for them, but fits within the norm for a particular child’s body. Children who do not fast are, as a rule, more flabby, with an excess amount of fat, they have a less perfect immune system, the psyche of such children is more labile, unstable, they are whiny or hot-tempered, and have difficulty withstanding nervous overload.
Of course, everything must be done with reasoning, gradually accustoming children to fasting. When choosing a fasting measure, an individual approach to each child is required. If the child is sick, then the fast is weakened.
Another thing is that some compassionate grandmothers or mothers are ready to register all their children as physically infirm - they have not yet reached their full strength! Or even everyone modern people: they say, the water is not the same now, and the air, and all the food... All the children are now sick with something, where else should they fast?
But the fact of the matter is that it is not a plentiful meat and dairy diet that gives a person strength and health, but the Lord. Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). First of all, a person is strengthened by the grace of God, and to accept it requires purification of the soul. Purification of the soul is achieved through prayer and fasting, participation in the sacraments of the Holy Orthodox Church.
We know that plant foods do not weaken a person. Monks do not eat meat at all, but they sometimes live up to a hundred years and work all their lives.
Fasting as such cannot be canceled for anyone. It can only be weakened, depending on the state of health of the person. It is not without reason that in our Orthodox Charter there are different stages of fasting: fasting with vegetable oil, fasting without vegetable oil, post with fish...
Fasting is a matter of our conscience, a matter of our love for God, a desire to unite at least a little with Him in His suffering for us sinners. We accept it by faith, remembering that the Lord Himself fasted for forty days in the desert before going out to His public ministry. And at the end of Lent the devil approached Him, offering to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3).
The devil tries to instill thoughts against fasting in all people, because fasting is the most important weapon against him: This race is driven out only by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21) - it is said in the Gospel. Therefore, when deciding on the amount of fasting for a child, you need to pray to God that His holy will be in this, and consult with a priest. As they say, those who want, look for ways, and those who don’t want, look for reasons.
May God grant us all to find the path to fasting - for ourselves and for the whole family, for this is the path shown to us by our Creator Himself, the giver of all good things.
The vaccination business is about 200 years old, and it arose in dramatic circumstances. Infectious diseases were main reason death of people. Periodically, the planet was shaken by epidemics. The best minds of humanity tried to explain the nature of infectious diseases and prevent them. In the 19th century this problem was brilliantly solved. Plague, cholera, typhus, anthrax, smallpox disappeared with the introduction of quarantine, disinfection, construction of water pipelines and water purification systems, sewer systems and health education of the population. It is difficult to say what role vaccination played in this. An unbiased reader has little faith in the fact that smallpox was defeated by vaccinations, and other infections were so frightened that they went away on their own.
Today infectious diseases occupy a very modest place in the list of causes of death. But the hopes of our ancestors that victory over infections would give a person the opportunity to live happily ever after did not come true. Other diseases plague humanity and mercilessly shorten the lives of individuals. Cardiovascular, oncological, autoimmune diseases, AIDS (reached 4th place in the USA), diabetes(in the USA in 7th place). And here is a new WHO forecast: in 20-30 years, severe allergy attacks will top the list of all causes of sudden death.
All this means that in the 21st century humanity has taken first place. new problem. This is an immunity problem. After all, the immune system is also responsible for oncological diseases, which rejects the resulting defective cells, including cancerous ones.
So, a new round of dramatic human history. Let us, in imitation of our ancestors, solve the main problem - how to protect and cherish, from what to protect our delicate immunity. This is what the whole place and everyone needs to think about independently: how to protect the immune system of our children so that our family continues, how to save our lives from a new plague, from a new insidious scourge?
Where are you, the best minds of humanity? Alas, minds... are thinking about something completely different. They are stuck between the last century and the century before last, they are still fighting with microbes, and in the absence of plague and cholera - with tiny, safe and harmless microbes and microbes, which in their birth did not harm humanity in any noticeable way. The best medical minds are busy trying to protect the unfortunate population of the planet from rubella, chickenpox, mumps, measles, and flu - so busy and so preoccupied that they have no time to face the new reality. This reality is before the eyes of any medical director and is called the “List of Causes of Death.” Everything would not be so scary if this fight against microbes was carried out outside human body! Alas... Top medical minds are fighting infections in the territory of our bodies, testing the limits of our immunity’s patience more and more often.
New and new vaccines are produced by certain concerns and introduced into our vaccination calendars, as if the problem of immunity does not exist at all. An infant under one year of age is infected 9 times with weakened but live viruses and bacteria or killed but antigenically active ones. After a year, a little less often, but with the same persistence.
The statistics of childhood leukemia, childhood diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and bronchial asthma are growing. Terrible, incurable diseases that were unheard of in young people twenty years ago are becoming younger - parkinsonism, multiple sclerosis and many others. All these diseases differ from measles and rubella in that they inevitably lead to premature death, sharply undermine the quality of life, require difficult and expensive treatment, which does not lead to recovery, but only maintains the existence of the body.
Fewer and fewer healthy children are being born in the country. Instead of rejoicing in the healthy few and cherishing the rest, we mercilessly infect both at a very tender age for the sake of someone’s ambitions - to defeat such and such a disease on the planet by such and such a year. We are trying to displace the harmless rubella and measles, but instead HIV, the SARS virus, and bird flu appear.
Not every pediatrician has the happiness of observing the development of children who have not had a single vaccination. Until the age of 16, they suffer no more than two or three childhood infections, moreover, easily and without complications. They rarely get sick and have no chronic diseases, hardy to physical activity and are successful in learning and creativity. I’m not afraid to say that they are recognizable on the street, especially the kids - they have a fresh look, a healthy glow, and no signs of allergies on their faces. The arguments of their parents are different - “they suffered with the eldest, they decided not to vaccinate the second,” “they read the literature,” and even “we ourselves are doctors (biologists, livestock breeders ...).” I’ve never heard the opposite: “we suffered from infections in the eldest, we diligently vaccinate the younger ones”!
And speaking of livestock breeders. In Expert magazine, I read a huge article about Igor Babaev, a prosperous businessman, supplier of pork to the Cherkizovsky meat processing plant. Those whose opinions about vaccinations are absolutely unbiased, and therefore interesting to us. It turns out that at the beginning of his career he went broke while reviving multi-storey Soviet pig farms. If it was impossible to comply with strict sanitary and epidemiological regulations on such giants, he had to “vaccinate the pigs to the ears,” as a result of which their meat became TASTELESS! Dear reader! I will not impose my conclusions on this matter; I invite you to think about it at your leisure.
“...Being a merciful Samaritan for the patient from the gospel parable is the duty of every medical worker.”
From “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church”
Reflecting on the significance of medical activity from a Christian point of view, we turn to the Gospel and see many examples of the healing of sick people by the Physician of souls and bodies - Jesus Christ. The Gospel also tells about the miracles of the Lord’s resurrection of children and youths (the daughter of Jairus, the son of a widow...). The Savior’s love for children, His words: “Be like children” (Matthew 18:3) is a spiritual guideline for any Orthodox pediatrician.
Saints with special care for sick children
In the lives of many holy healers we find examples of helping children. Among the heavenly patrons of doctors, such as the Apostle Luke, Saints Cosmas and Damian and many others, Orthodox pediatricians also venerate saints of God who have special care for sick children. Among them are the holy healer Panteleimon and the Monk Stylian of Paphlagon.
The great martyr healer Pateleimon lived in Nicodemus in 200-300. He entered a pagan school, then studied the art of medicine with a famous doctor. The Christian priest Ermolai, noticing the young man, began to talk to him about Christ. Panteleimon accepted with all his heart the words of Yermolai that there is no other healer like Jesus Christ, and that just calling on the name of the Lord can heal a person. One day, Panteleimon, fervently praying to the Savior, resurrected a child bitten by a snake. After this, he was baptized in the name of the Lord. Panteleimon dedicated his life to the suffering, sick, poor and poor. He treated everyone who came to him free of charge, visited Christian prisoners with whom the prisons were overcrowded, and treated them for their wounds. Word of the healer spread throughout the city. This aroused the envy of other doctors, and they reported to the emperor that Panteleimon was a Christian. The healer refused to sacrifice to idols, for which he was tortured and died a martyr.
Saint Stylian
Having visited Greek soil, you will come across many temples dedicated to St. Stylian the Paphlagonian.
On the icon, Saint Stylian is always depicted with a child in his arms (or with several babies).
Even during his lifetime, women came to Saint Stylian with a request to pray for the granting of long-awaited children to them, and mothers also brought their children to the saint’s cave so that he would bless and heal them. From that time until the present day, Saint Stylian has been considered the patron saint of children; they pray to him for the safe birth and good upbringing of their children.
Born in the city of Adrianople in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, in the 5th century. He was blessed from his mother’s womb, and the older he became, the more, by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit settled in him. WITH childhood he showed a rare desire for a holy life.
Having reached adulthood, he distributed his property to the poor. And when nothing remained of his father’s inheritance, filled with relief and joy, he said: “I threw off the heavy anchor that kept me tied to the desires of my fallen body. From now on, the path to true life is open to me.”
After this, the saint took monastic vows in one of the Asia Minor monasteries. Thanks to severe asceticism, he acquired the virtues of non-covetousness, purity and obedience. He had no property left; he lived in simplicity and poverty. Submitting his will to the elder, he successfully fought temptations from the demon, the world and the flesh.
Then, wanting to come even closer to perfection, he said goodbye to his brothers and retired to the deserted desert, where he settled in a cave. He spent days and nights in prayer and praise to God. He spent many years of ascetic life in the desert before the Lord decided to show people this “lamp of light.” Over time, rumors about the holiness of the hermit spread throughout the area and many people, with faith and piety, reached out to his cave.
The words of the Gospel sunk deep into the soul of Saint Stylian: “ Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven"(Matthew 18:1-4). The Lord gave him the grace of protecting children. Mothers from nearby towns and villages and from afar brought him their sick children, and the saint healed them. Having reached the cave, the mothers fell on their knees before the saint, praised God and prayed for their child. Saint Stylian took him in his arms, with tears he asked God for healing, and the Lord granted it. In addition, through the prayers of the saint, barren women became mothers of many children. Saint Stylian reposed in the Lord at a very old age.
The veneration of St. Stylian spread widely beyond the borders of his native region and remains strong especially in the Churches of the Greek tradition. In Rus' his name remained little known. As in the years of his earthly life, he is especially resorted to in prayers for the healing of children and deliverance from infertility. On the icons the saint is depicted holding a swaddled baby in his arms. Children's doctors consider the monk one of their heavenly patrons. Memory of St. Styliana - December 9, new style.
The formation of pediatrics
Among those reading these lines, there is not a person who has not at least once visited a pediatrician - a children's doctor. Today it is one of the most common medical specialties. But “healing a child”—this is how the word “pediatrics” is translated from Greek—became a separate medical discipline not so long ago.
Just two centuries ago, doctors didn’t really think about the fact that a child is a completely different organism from an adult.
Note that for adults at the end of the 18th century - early XIX centuries, there were not enough doctors in Russia. Children were born in most cases with the help of midwives, and if they were treated, then by healers. Let us remember the stories of Chekhov, Leskov, Veresaev - it was considered almost the norm to ignore medical care sick children. It is no wonder that the mortality rate among them was enormous.
In 1761, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, excited by the current state of affairs, wrote a letter to the dignitary Count Shuvalov, his patron and friend, in which he cited the following statistics: “... of the half a million born a year, half will die in three years.” M.V. Lomonosov called for immediate action to correct the horrific situation: “Everyone requires knowledge of how to treat gentle diseases..., choose good books about the art of midwifery and, using the best one as a basis, compose instructions in Russian... To cure other children diseases, based on the great physician Hoffmann, who wrote an instruction on the cure of infant diseases..., combining it with the above-described book on the art of midwifery, while not forgetting that our grandmothers and healers generally use it usefully. This book should be printed in sufficient quantities and sold throughout the state, to all churches, so that priests and literate people, by reading, can know themselves and use instruction for others.”
Of course, Lomonosov, as a scientist, sees a way out, first of all, in the dissemination of knowledge and, what is noteworthy, he considers the Church to be the main ally in this.
After all, the sufferer most often came there with his adversities and troubles.
It is interesting that among the first doctors who turned to pediatric issues, there were many people from clergy families. The first among them is Professor Nestor Maksimovich Maksimovich (1744-1812). The future scientist's patronymic and his surname differed only in emphasis.
Therefore, having become famous person in the scientific world, in order to eliminate any misunderstandings, he added a peculiar explanation to his surname - Ambodik. In Latin it means "say twice." Nestor Maksimovich was from the Poltava region, the son of the rector of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Gadyatsky regiment. In 1768 he graduated from the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, and for some time studied legal issues, but was drawn to medicine. At the age of 25, he began to learn its basics in St. Petersburg, and soon went to get acquainted with the medical profession in Germany. He returned as a doctor of medicine and began teaching obstetrics at the St. Petersburg midwifery school. For the first time, he devoted part of the course to pediatric issues. These were actually the first lectures on obstetrics given in Russian. For this purpose, the first Russian obstetrician professor Maksimovich-Ambodik created a special dictionary of medical terminology in Russian. In his lectures on pediatrics, he spoke not only about diseases, but also touched upon issues of their prevention, taught children to develop endurance, cultivate philanthropy in them, and categorically opposed corporal punishment. The scientist outlined his basic knowledge and thoughts in the book “The Art of Weaving or the Science of Womanhood” (1784-1786), where he devoted one of the parts to pediatrics. Here he described the diseases early age and methods of their treatment, spoke about the methods of caring for the child.
“A child is a creature that grows and develops only according to its inherent laws. A child is not a smaller copy of an adult,” this is how Stepan Fomich Khotovitsky (1794-1885) began his lectures on pediatrics. Any reference publication - be it the Brockhaus and Efron encyclopedia or the Great Soviet - among other regalia and merits, lists him as a Privy Councilor, Honored Professor of the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy and translator of many medical works from English and German.
The role of Stepan Fomich Khotovitsky in the development of pediatrics in Russia is noted, and he is called one of its founders. Khotovitsky comes from a priest's family, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, from which he graduated brilliantly.
He continued his education in Germany and England, then at his alma mater he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science, and nine years later he became the head of the department of obstetrics, women's and children's diseases. He starts reading first full course— 36 lectures — on pediatrics. Then he wrote his famous work “Pediatrika” (1847) - the first manual on childhood diseases in Russia. On behalf of the Holy Synod, Khotovitsky compiled the textbook “Folk Medical Instructions for Theological Schools,” which was published ten times (1844-1863).
The first children's hospitals
So, by the first third of the 19th century, a separate medical discipline had already been defined in science. The need to create children's hospitals is more than obvious, because qualified specialists are trained for them. And the event does not take long to arrive:
in 1834, a hospital was opened in St. Petersburg “for small children exposed to various clingy and other diseases characteristic of their age.” It was built, like all subsequent children's hospitals, with charitable donations.
The greatest contribution was made by the famous Ural breeders the Demidovs. The 110-bed hospital admitted children from 3 to 14 years old around the clock. Preference was given to patients from poor families. They were treated free of charge and on priority.
In Moscow, a similar hospital will open only in a few years. On December 5, 1842, Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, illuminates the city’s first children’s hospital on Malaya Bronnaya Street. It was created at the expense of benefactors through the labors and concerns of the mayor, Prince Golitsyn. In the center of the hospital on the third floor there was a house church; it was consecrated in memory of the prince’s wife Tatyana Vasilievna, known for her merciful deeds.
The well-equipped hospital immediately becomes a university clinical base. True, in 1883, after another fire, it was closed, leaving only outpatient treatment for patients. But by that time other children’s hospitals had already opened in Moscow.
In the seventies, finally, pediatrics ceased to be integral part gynecology and becomes a completely independent branch of medicine. In 1865, Professor Vasily Markovich Florinsky (1834-1899) organized the Department of Childhood Diseases at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy. Vasily Markovich Florinsky was the son of a priest and himself graduated from the Perm Theological Seminary, and ended his earthly journey as a trustee of the West Siberian educational district, care last days his life was connected with the opening of a university in Tomsk.
150 years ago in 1861, the formation of the Department of Childhood Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine of the Moscow Imperial University began under the leadership of Nikolai Alekseevich Tolsky (1832-1891). Nikolai Alekseevich's surname comes from the Tolgsky monastery near Yaroslavl, where his grandfather served as a deacon. In 1866, a clinic was opened at the department. Then it was located on Rozhdestvenka Street. Later, in 1870-1874. N.A. Tolsky was the chief physician of the Children's Hospital on Malaya Bronnaya. On his initiative, the famous Moscow merchant Mikhail Alekseevich Khludov gave money for the construction of a children's hospital on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street, 19.
Unfortunately, Nikolai Alekseevich Tolsky died three months before the opening of the hospital. Another famous Moscow pediatrician, Nil Fedorovich Filatov (1847-1902), was appointed its director in 1891. Internal layout the building fully met the sanitary and hygienic requirements, as well as the needs of medical and pedagogical processes. His appearance was admirable. And although for a certain time the sign “Children’s Hospital named after M. A. Khludov” hung on this building, the hospital was under construction and, already at the opening, was transferred by the widow of the late M. A. Khludov in accordance with his will to Moscow University for the teaching of childhood diseases. In fact, the hospital became the new university clinic for children's diseases.
Currently it is the University Children's Clinical Hospital of the First Moscow State Medical University named after. I. M. Sechenov. This year she turns 120 years old.
One does not have to wait long for special departments of pediatrics in other scientific centers: in the 1880s. pediatric doctors are trained at the universities of Kazan, Kharkov, Kyiv, Tartu, and Odessa. The number of hospitals is also growing, although they appear mainly in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and they are being built in such a way that their medical buildings are still in operation.
In 1872, a major industrialist, Baron Pavel Grigorievich von Derviz (his German ancestors settled in Russia during the time of Peter I) addressed a letter to the Moscow Governor-General, Prince Dolgoruky.
It says: “In Moscow, I carried out best years my social activities. Therefore, exclusively there, and with nothing other than the establishment of an exemplary children's hospital, I would like to honor the memory of all the older children I lost. I allocate a capital of 400 thousand rubles for this charitable cause.” It should be explained that the baron had big family, but he lost several children - they died in infancy, the eldest of them was called Vladimir.
Proposing to set up a hospital, Pavel Grigorievich set only three conditions: to name the hospital after St. Prince Vladimir, to provide 100 free beds for the poor, and to maintain the hospital in an exemplary manner. Four years later, not far from Sokolniki, in a large birch grove, a whole complex of 20 pavilions and buildings grew up. They had water heating, sewerage, ventilation, and the kitchens could be used for steam cooking. The hospital accepted children under 12 years old, all were treated free of charge, since the city took over the maintenance of the hospital. It had strong surgery, it never refused to admit any contagious patients, and specialists valued the hospital as an excellent clinical base for improvement.
Here, young specialists underwent internships under the guidance of senior doctors. In 1883, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity was consecrated on the territory of the complex. The hospital truly became an exemplary one - it was recognized as such at the World Exhibition in Paris and awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Brussels as the best hospital for children in Europe. The former Vladimir Children's Hospital is today called Rusakovskaya.
In 1885, another new hospital complex appeared in the center of Moscow - on Sadovo-Kudrinskaya. Here Prince A. A. Shcherbatov donated his estate for the treatment of young patients. He did this according to the will of his mother Sofia Stepanovna. The conditions of the donation were as follows: firstly, nothing except the hospital should be located in the house and no income from the house and land should be derived. Secondly, the hospital should be named Sophia in memory of the late princess, and the house church should be consecrated in the name of Saints Tatiana and Sophia in order to restore the dedication of the throne of the hospital on Malaya Bronnaya. Since by that time the hospital on Bronnaya, which had suffered a single fire, could no longer hospitalize patients, this new Sofia Hospital began to perform its functions.
And in the Church of St. Sophia, consecrated on its territory in 1897, the throne of the hospital on Bronnaya - St. Tatiana was restored (the temple was again transferred to the Church in 2010). The chief physician of the Sofia Hospital was one of the first Russian pediatricians, Doctor of Medicine Egor Arsenievich Pokrovsky (1838-1895). The son of a priest, he studied at Tverskoy religious school. He was not only a famous doctor, but also a teacher; his article “Bathing and baptizing a child in cold water" As a practicing doctor, Egor Arsenievich treated children of poor parents every day for free. Today the Sofia Hospital is known as Filatovskaya - in honor of the famous children's doctor Nil Fedorovich Filatov.
All this was already on the threshold of a new century, which brought many amazing scientific discoveries, including in the young branch of medicine - pediatrics.
Fragments of Alexey Grachev’s book “When Children Get Sick” are presented by MONIKI with the permission of the publishing house “Danilovsky Blavestnik”.
About the baptism of a child
If the baby is born healthy, then there are no strict rules when it is necessary to baptize him in the temple. But traditionally this “happens on his fortieth birthday.
Through baptism and confirmation, which must be carried out as early as possible, the beginning of a holy, grace-filled life is introduced into the child’s soul.
From the first days of a child’s life, parents should look at him as a deposit entrusted to them, for which they are responsible before God.
From the first days of the child’s illness there should be a prayer from the parents. It is important to give the child the Holy Mysteries of Christ in order to make a good start in his treatment. It is very good to submit a note of health at the church for the Liturgy.
It is good to order a prayer for the health of a sick baby - say, to the saint whose name he bears. Bring the water blessed at the prayer service home and give the child something to drink, as often as possible.
Holy water can be given to a patient not only on an empty stomach, but throughout the day. You can wash your child’s head, face, body with this water, and wipe his eyes. This is why water is consecrated in the temple - to heal us. Therefore, we will constantly take it from the temple, drink it, anoint it, sprinkle our home, clothes and things we use. There should always be Epiphany water in the house for such special occasions.
You can order a sorokoust for health - then the child will be commemorated in the temple for forty days.
The child must wear a pectoral cross. It’s good if the children get used to it: we never take off the cross.
After the child recovers, it is necessary, of course,
thank the Lord. And the children in the family will begin to understand that the Lord allowed them to get sick and allowed them to recover, and in all this there is the great mercy of God.
Children and fasting
In Orthodoxy, we have more fasting days a year than fasting days. And fasting has a variety of beneficial effects on our lives. It is useful for both the soul and the body, both for adults and children. So we should not be afraid that our children refuse certain types of food, we should not be afraid that they will become weak and lose health if they start fasting. On the contrary, numerous observations indicate that children who fast feel much better, even from the point of view of purely physical health, and get sick less than children who do not know what fasting is. Moreover, there are examples of how sick children, having started fasting, gradually regained health.
Of course, everything must be done with reason, gradually accustoming children to fasting. When choosing a measure of fasting, an individual approach to each child is required.
mi_espejo in Pediatric neurologist about vaccinationsNadezhda Emelyanova, pediatric neurologist, Moscow: I worked as a pediatrician in a kindergarten and vaccinated children. At the institute, they literally explained to us how the immune system works, and now it’s strange to me why I was satisfied with these “explanations.” If professors of immunology are perplexed about the complexity of immunity, discovering more and more new mechanisms in its functioning, admitting that they know very little about immunity, that vaccines are dangerous, then why did everything seem clear and simple to me?!
And now, when I hear from pediatricians that vaccines “train” the immune system, that they protect against infectious diseases that vaccines are safe, I feel sad and worried, because the price for such poor “explainers” is children's health and children's lives. When the downside of vaccination was revealed to me, which is not advertised or presented at the institute, I became scared and ashamed. It’s scary because I finally understood what I had done to my own child, I understood where the “legs” of his sores come from and what such “concern” for his health entails.
And it’s a shame - because I, being a doctor, bearing responsibility for the health of the children entrusted to me, was so thoughtless and easy about vaccination, and yet, according to Mr. Onishchenko (the country’s chief sanitary doctor), it is a “serious immunobiological operation.”
Here my fellow pediatricians can reproach me: “It is clear that vaccination is not a game of tricks, an individual approach is needed!” It's all about the DEGREE of awareness of the depth of the problem. I, too, very strictly selected children for vaccination - a mandatory examination, thermometry, anamnesis (and so that no one in the family was sick or sneezed!), when necessary - tests, in a word, everything that can be done in a clinic... But it is necessary admit that these minimum data (and in a clinic setting they are the maximum) do not say ANYTHING about the state of immunity and health in general in a particular child. And there is no need to be deceived and deceive parents - even a detailed immunogram and consultation with an immunologist won't protect a child from the side effects of vaccines, they will not provide a guarantee that the vaccination will not provoke a serious autoimmune disease, that it will not disrupt the delicate mechanisms of self-regulation and that the child will not develop diabetes, bronchial asthma, blood cancer or other incurable disease.
If parents really understood what kind of roulette they were playing, then many would think about it... I understood and thought about it.
Now almost impossible make a diagnosis of “Post-vaccination complication”. The doctor who did this signs his own death sentence, so no one makes such diagnoses to avoid trouble. Therefore, WE DO NOT KNOW how many children actually suffered from vaccination, and we think that very few (one in a million) will “carry through” this time too...
I saw a six-month-old child who experienced clinical death on the third day after vaccination. They revived him, but he will be an idiot because his cerebral cortex is dead. NONE of the doctors “remembered” that three days before clinical death he was vaccinated DTP.
We have a lot of conversations about the so-called concept of informed consent for medical intervention, in particular for vaccination. In fact, this is an empty phrase.
A parent, wishing to vaccinate his child, should know that:
1. According to Russian legislation, HE HAS THE RIGHT to refuse vaccination (for any reasons, including religious ones) and this refusal will not entail ANY consequences in the form of non-admission to kindergarten, school, institute. And those citizens who create obstacles for such parents must deal with the prosecutor’s office.
2. The parent should know that vaccines are not medicines, they are dangerous and grossly interfere with the immune system; should know what they consist of, how they are tested and what complications of vaccination exist. Therefore, the parent must give WRITTEN consent to the vaccination and AFTER he has read and understood that vaccines contain merthiolate, foreign DNA, that vaccination can cause diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and cause death.
Therefore, I began to bring to the attention of my parents the fact that there is a law “On Immunoprophylaxis”, which gives the right to refuse. Many parents were surprised because they did not know that vaccination is voluntary. They told me that they did not want to vaccinate the child (either in general, or with a specific vaccine) or wanted to postpone vaccination, but they were threatened that without vaccinations they would not be allowed into the kindergarten or given food in the dairy kitchen, and they agreed.
I started asking my parents if they knew about the composition of vaccines and the methods of their production. After all, before giving a child any medicine, everyone will look at its composition and possible side effects. It turns out that no one has ever seen the instructions for vaccines before vaccination. No one has seen the usual annotations, in which it is written in black and white what vaccines consist of and the official complications of vaccination (for example, death).
One day, the chief physician of a private medical center approached me and asked by what right I gave this information to my parents. I replied that my duty, first of all, is to observe the principle of “do no harm,” and a parent should know as much as possible in order to make an informed decision to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. The owner of this private center was also “concerned” and warned me that the center operates under the Ministry of Health program, so I should not give this information to my parents. The fact is that vaccination - also profitable business, a dose of the vaccine can be bought wholesale for a hundred rubles, and “injected” for a thousand. What businessman doesn't like quick profits?
They began to follow me, limited access to documentation, citing “medical confidentiality,” I became disgusted and left.
I came to the children's clinic to work as a neurologist, thinking that now I would not be associated with vaccination as I was, working as a pediatrician in the garden and in the center. I immediately warned the chief physician that I was wary of vaccination and considered it unacceptable to vaccinate weakened, premature children with obvious neurological problems.
The chief doctor agreed with me in many respects, said that he had always been against vaccination, that the famous pediatrician Dombrovskaya (his teacher) sharply criticized vaccinations... He said that he would gladly take me, but would re-educate me.
The everyday life of a neurologist has begun. Neurologists are very careful about vaccination, especially for children with problems nervous system. It is known that hidden or obvious pathology of the nervous system after vaccination can manifest itself in the form of convulsive readiness. That is, vaccination can provoke epilepsy (a described complication of vaccination). In difficult and doubtful cases, I began to give medical exemptions for a month or two from vaccination. Parents asked what to do with the pediatrician, he insists on vaccination. I said that YOU DECIDE, the pediatrician can only recommend vaccination. She said that there is a law “On Immunoprophylaxis”, on the basis of which a refusal to vaccinate can be issued so that the pediatrician “lags behind”.
Head the clinic warned: “Step on the throat of your own song.” Once at a consultation there was a particularly severe child at risk of cerebral palsy (in fact, he already had cerebral palsy, but he would be diagnosed with this after a year), I forbade him from vaccination, because against the background of it, cerebral palsy was rapidly progressing. They didn’t listen to me, then I told the head doctor that I abdicated responsibility for such patients. Well, what kind of games are they, really?! The neurologist, understanding the severity of the damage to the nervous system and the unfavorable prognosis, gives a medical advice, and the pediatrician brushes him off like an annoying fly and vaccinates him... In general, they failed to rehabilitate me and I was fired.
Pediatricians at the clinic spend five to ten minutes per appointment (to earn more under compulsory medical insurance), so the pediatrician is an assembly line worker and has no time to think. His main function is to vaccinate children, since other problems will be solved by specialized specialists, or he himself with the help of calpols, claritins, flemoxins. Before vaccination, the inspection is carried out “by eye”. After vaccination, the child’s condition is not monitored, so the pediatrician does not associate the deterioration in the child’s health with the recent vaccination.
Neurologists are not in the best position - those who think about the consequences of vaccination for a particular child give medical advice, but the issue of vaccination is decided by the pediatrician, from whom "they take off shavings for shortfalls" vaccinations. Therefore, the neurologist receives more bigger problem in the child’s health condition, but the decision about the next vaccination is again up to the pediatrician.
Only parents who understand that vaccination is “a complex immunobiological operation” can break this vicious circle and will not give permission to vaccinate their child if they believe that they need to wait or that vaccinations are harmful and they REFUSE to do them consciously. I have healthy unvaccinated children under my supervision - these are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT children...
