Alpha Nutrition Health Education Series 

The Book of Children

Introduction

by  Stephen J. Gislason MD

The Book of Children has three sections:

Section 1
Child Psychology

Section 2
A Philosophical Approach to Parenting

Section 3
Solving Children's' Health Problems

Table of Contents

Children's' Center

List of Publications

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An infant is richly endowed with all of life’s tendencies and resembles humans that have gone before. Humans all tend to do similar things and have similar thoughts, but there is a range of mental abilities. The range of mental ability is sufficiently great that humans of limited mental ability live different lives with different understanding than humans with greater mental abilities. Since humans are social animals and live in groups that function best when there is a diversity of mental abilities and skills, the range of abilities in any given population may be stable over time and tolerance for differences has survival value. The newborn human brain is ready to function in specific ways with a set of innate programs. These innate programs come on-line sequentially, controlled by a master program in DNA that establishes the blueprint for the hardware growth in the brain and probably directs modifications to brain structure and function through the entire life of the individual. Dawkins stated:

“No one factor, genetic, or environmental, can be considered as the single 'cause' of any part of a baby…But a difference between one baby and another, for example a difference in length of a leg, might easily be traced to one or a few simple antecedent differences, either in environment or in genes. It is differences that matter in the competitive struggle to survive; and it is genetically-controlled differences that matter.” [i] The infrastructure for the child’s future personality, intelligence and ability to interact with other humans is determined by the construction of the brain in utero. The DNA determined growth is most conspicuous in early life as the functions of major brain modules emerge in sequence and distinct episodes dominate the learning experience.  Brain development in utero involves prodigious proliferation and growth of neurons complete with lottery-like variations in growth and connectivity. Identical twins have the same genes but do not develop identical minds. They are more similar to each other than to other siblings, but differences are inevitable. While the genes specify the overall deck of brain cards, environmental conditions, nutrition, random events and learning all shuffle the deck as the brain grows.

 When a baby is born, the family and local community begin to teach the emerging being what is going on here and now. They provide the local language, costumes, customs beliefs and the local science and technology. All adult humans have a technology to teach. While the local culture has an obvious impact on the appearance and behavior of emerging adults, the constant features of the human mind are pervasive and persistent.  Both good and bad tendencies are innate properties that have useful functions, were not invented by modern society and are not going to change until the design of the brain changes. The dialogue between good and bad in human affairs is constant, predictable and universal.

To enjoy life humans need to feel appreciated, safe and secure. Basic happiness is achieved by securing access to adequate food, water and shelter and by winning the approval of the local group and gaining entitlement to whatever safety and security the local group can achieve. The most enduring happiness is achieved by becoming a good person who enjoys the world as it is and by doing no harm.  Unhappiness is inevitable because humans are critical, competitive, are often unsuccessful in achieving their basic goals. Some humans are destructive to themselves and others. Humans have a sense of destiny, predetermination or fate. Karma refers to a continuous mesh of causes and effects. Karma may be viewed as a natural law that causes each person to accumulate bundles of tendencies and deeds, good and bad that influence their status after birth. 

The best of modern scientific thinking appreciates karma as the great network of cause and effect without giving it a proper name – often called the “laws of physics” and the “laws of nature.” An infant is born with Karma – a set of antecedent conditions and innate tendencies that will help to determine the experience, identity and behavior of the child.

We now attribute about half of the child’s karma to his or her genes and the innate tendencies programmed by the genes into brain structure and function. Another large chunk of karma comes from the physical environment in which a child develops. Genes and the physical environment interact to produce individuals who share common properties and who have unique differences. Social Karma is learned from behavior and teaching of parents, siblings, schools, peer groups and the social environment that surrounds child.  Young humans copy the speech and behavior of those they live and play with. Young humans learn how the local group does things today. All groups follow ancient tendencies but inflect these tendencies with their own costumes, rules, customs, language and technology. The term “culture” describes the local beliefs and expressions of social life which are inflections of ancient tendencies. The surface appearance of local inflections is often so distinctive that the underlying common human tendencies may be obscured.  Differences in language, costumes and customs create distinctive societies that appear to the casual observer to be unrelated. Constant features of the human experiences underlie the apparent differences and are considered to be innate.

Children are exposed to health problems from their environment and their food supply. Some problems, such as air pollution, contaminated water, insufficient food and malnutrition, are painfully obvious in third world countries but also occur closer to home because of poverty, ignorance, and neglect. Other food problems are less obvious and may not be recognized; these include major, pervasive biological disturbances from inappropriate food choices, food excesses, nutrient deficiencies, food allergy, and chemical toxicity from food additives and contaminants. During the first year of life, the infant diet is the most powerful determinant of the growth and development of the child and food allergy is the most common health problem. Many studies show that breast-feeding is best and that the feeding of solid foods is best delayed to 6 months or longer to reduce the incidence of food allergy. Food allergy is common in infancy.