Sticks age. How to Choose the Perfect Hockey Stick Size: A Comprehensive Guide

How to determine the right hockey stick length for your height. What factors influence hockey stick flex selection. Which hockey stick material is best for different player types. How to measure a hockey stick correctly for optimal performance.

The Importance of Proper Hockey Stick Sizing

Selecting the right hockey stick size is crucial for any player’s performance on the ice. A properly sized stick enhances stick handling, passing, and shooting abilities while reducing the risk of breakage. Conversely, an ill-fitting stick can hinder a player’s skills and potentially lead to equipment failure during crucial moments in the game.

Hockey sticks come in four main sizes: youth, junior, intermediate, and senior. Each size category corresponds to different age groups and player heights, ensuring that players of all levels can find a stick that suits their needs.

Age and Size Correlation for Hockey Sticks

• Youth sticks: Typically used by players ages 4-8
• Junior sticks: Suitable for players ages 7-12
• Intermediate sticks: Ideal for players ages 10-15 and some adult female players
• Senior sticks: Used by players ages 14 and up, including most adult players

How to Measure a Hockey Stick for Proper Length

Determining the correct hockey stick length is a straightforward process that can significantly impact a player’s performance. To measure a hockey stick accurately, follow these steps:

1. Have the player stand without skates
2. Place the toe of the stick on the ground between the player’s feet
3. Position the stick vertically against the player’s body
4. The end of the stick should reach the player’s nose

If the player is wearing skates, the stick should come up to their chin. This general rule of thumb provides a good starting point for most players, but personal preference may lead to slight variations in stick length.

Adjusting Hockey Stick Length

What if the hockey stick is not the perfect length? There are two main options for adjusting stick length:

• If the stick is too long: Mark the correct spot and cut the handle accordingly
• If the stick is too short: Insert an end plug at the top of the shaft to extend its length

End plugs can be particularly useful for rescuing a stick that has been cut too short or for accommodating a player’s growth spurt without purchasing a new stick.

Choosing the Right Hockey Stick Material

Hockey sticks are made from various materials, each offering unique characteristics that cater to different player types and skill levels. The main materials used in hockey stick construction include:

• Wood
• Wood and fiberglass composite
• Carbon and fiberglass composite
• Graphite
• Kevlar

To determine which material is best suited for a player, consider the following questions:

1. Will the stick be used for off-ice practice or street hockey?
2. Is the player new to hockey?
3. Is this the player’s first stick?
4. Is the player returning to hockey after a long break?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, a slightly heavier stick may be beneficial. Heavier sticks provide a better feel for the puck, which can boost confidence in stick handling, passing, and shooting, especially for beginners or those practicing off-ice.

Wood vs. Composite Hockey Sticks

Wood sticks are generally heavier than composite sticks and offer several advantages for certain players:

• Ideal for casual street hockey players
• Perfect for beginners trying the sport for the first time
• Usually less expensive than composite sticks
• Provide excellent puck feel

Composite sticks, on the other hand, offer advanced performance features:

• Lighter weight for faster stick handling
• Greater torque for powerful shots
• Higher durability
• Improved energy transfer for higher velocity shots and passes

In recent years, manufacturers have made significant improvements to the feel of composite stick blades, making the transition from wood to composite sticks easier for players.

Understanding Hockey Stick Flex and Its Impact on Performance

Hockey stick flex refers to the stick’s ability to bend when force is applied. The right flex is crucial for optimal passing and shooting performance. A stick’s flex is typically represented by a number, with higher numbers indicating stiffer sticks.

How is Hockey Stick Flex Measured?

Most manufacturers use a standardized method to measure stick flex:

1. The stick is suspended between two support points 48 inches apart
2. Weight is applied to the center point between the supports
3. The flex number represents the amount of weight (in pounds) required to bend the stick 1 inch

For example, an 85 flex stick requires 85 pounds of force to bend 1 inch when suspended as described above.

Selecting the Right Flex for Your Playing Style

Choosing the appropriate flex depends on several factors:

• Player’s weight and strength
• Playing style (e.g., defensive vs. offensive)
• Personal preference

A general rule of thumb is to choose a flex that allows the player to bend the shaft slightly when taking a wrist shot or slap shot. This ensures optimal energy transfer and shot accuracy.

The Role of Kick Point in Hockey Stick Performance

The kick point of a hockey stick refers to the area where the stick flexes the most during a shot. Understanding kick points can help players choose a stick that complements their shooting style.

Types of Kick Points

• Low kick point: Flex occurs near the blade, ideal for quick release shots
• Mid kick point: Flex occurs in the middle of the shaft, suitable for all-around play
• High kick point: Flex occurs near the top of the shaft, great for powerful slap shots

Players should experiment with different kick points to find the one that best suits their playing style and shot preferences.

Customizing Your Hockey Stick for Optimal Performance

Beyond selecting the right size, material, and flex, players can further customize their hockey sticks to enhance performance and comfort.

Blade Pattern and Curve

The blade pattern refers to the shape and curve of the stick’s blade. Different patterns can affect puck control, shot accuracy, and passing ability. Common blade patterns include:

• Open face: Helps lift the puck for top-shelf shots
• Closed face: Provides better puck control and accuracy for wrist shots
• Toe curve: Enhances puck handling and quick releases
• Mid curve: Offers a balance between control and shot power
• Heel curve: Ideal for powerful slap shots and long passes

Players should experiment with different blade patterns to find the one that complements their playing style and position on the ice.

Grip vs. Non-Grip Sticks

Hockey sticks are available with or without a grip coating on the shaft. The choice between grip and non-grip sticks is largely a matter of personal preference:

• Grip sticks: Provide better control and prevent the stick from slipping in gloved hands
• Non-grip sticks: Allow for easier repositioning of hands during play

Some players prefer grip sticks for their top hand and non-grip for their bottom hand, achieving a balance between control and maneuverability.

Maintaining Your Hockey Stick for Longevity and Performance

Proper care and maintenance of your hockey stick can extend its lifespan and ensure consistent performance on the ice. Here are some tips for keeping your stick in top condition:

1. Store your stick in a cool, dry place to prevent warping or damage to the materials
2. Use stick tape to protect the blade and enhance puck control
3. Regularly inspect your stick for signs of wear or damage
4. Replace the tape on your blade and grip as needed
5. Avoid using your stick for anything other than playing hockey to prevent unnecessary wear

By following these maintenance practices, you can ensure that your carefully chosen hockey stick remains a reliable tool for your on-ice performance.

Adapting Your Hockey Stick Choice as You Grow and Improve

As players develop their skills and physical attributes, their hockey stick needs may change. It’s important to reassess your stick choice periodically, especially during growth spurts or significant improvements in playing ability.

Signs It’s Time to Reevaluate Your Hockey Stick

• Difficulty controlling the puck or making accurate passes
• Decreased shot power or accuracy
• Feeling that the stick is too short or too long
• Noticeable changes in playing style or position
• Increased frequency of broken sticks

Regularly evaluating your hockey stick’s performance can help you identify when it’s time to make changes, ensuring that your equipment continues to support your development as a player.

Choosing the right hockey stick involves considering various factors, including length, material, flex, and personal preferences. By understanding these elements and how they impact your game, you can select a stick that enhances your performance on the ice. Remember that finding the perfect stick may require some experimentation, so don’t be afraid to try different options until you find the one that feels just right. With the right hockey stick in your hands, you’ll be well-equipped to improve your skills and enjoy the game to its fullest.

How to Size a Hockey Stick

HOCKEY STICK SIZING

The right hockey stick size and flex are integral to your game. If a stick is too small for you or not stiff enough, it could break easily. On the other hand, a stick that is too big or too stiff can hinder stick handling, passing, and shooting. Navigating these problems can be especially tricky when choosing and buying hockey sticks for kids. But whether you’re buying for a youth, intermediate, junior, or senior player, there are a few important things to consider, beginning with determining the correct hockey stick length.

1. HOW TO DETERMINE THE PROPER HOCKEY STICK LENGTH

The hockey stick length is generally the easiest variable to determine, and it is imperative for a player’s success in the game. Sticks usually come in four sizes: senior, intermediate, junior, and youth. Each descending size is shorter and normally offers a smaller shaft circumference and a softer flex. Senior sticks are usually used by players ages 14 to adult; intermediate sticks by players ages 10-15 and by some adult female players; junior sticks by ages 7-12; and youth sticks by players ages 4-8.

Knowing how to measure a hockey stick will ensure you easily find the right length. Have the player stand without skates, and then place the toe of the stick on the ground between the player’s feet, positioning the stick vertically against the body. The general rule for the proper hockey stick length is that the end of the stick should come to about the nose. If the player’s skates are on, the stick should come up to the chin. Please note that this is a general rule of thumb for hockey stick height and can change with personal preference.

If the stick is too long, simply make a mark at the correct place and cut the handle of the stick accordingly. If the stick is too short, extend its length by inserting an end plug at the top of the shaft. An end plug can is handy for rescuing a stick if a player cut it too short, or prolonging the life of a stick if the player has experienced a growth spurt.

2. HOW TO CHOOSE WHICH HOCKEY STICK MATERIAL IS BEST FOR YOU

Sticks are composed of a variety of materials including: wood, wood and fiberglass, carbon and fiberglass, graphite, and Kevlar.

To help decide which stick is best, ask these questions:

• Is the stick for playing on a non-ice surface, like for practicing in the garage or playing street hockey?
• Is the player new to the game?
• Is this the player’s first stick?
• Is the player coming back to playing after a long break from the game?

If the answer is yes to any of the above questions, the player is likely to benefit from a slightly heavier stick, which will provide a better feel for the puck. The additional weight will help the shot during off-ice practice and give the player more confidence when stick handling, passing, or shooting on the ice.

Wood sticks are generally heavier than composites. They are perfect for the casual street hockey player or for those trying the sport for the first time. They also tend to be less expensive than lighter weight counterparts.

One-piece composite hockey sticks are made of carbon fiber, fiberglass, graphite, Kevlar, resin, or other materials or combinations of materials. These sticks are designed to provide a higher level of performance with less weight and greater torque. As a general rule, the higher-quality materials will result in a lighter, more durable, and often more costly stick. These high-end, lightweight sticks transfer energy faster to deliver higher velocity shots and passes. Although heavier sticks still provide the best feel for the puck, in recent years manufacturers have dramatically improved the feel in the blades of composite sticks, making the transition from wood to composite sticks easier.

3. DETERMINING HOCKEY STICK FLEX

The first thing many players do when fitting a new hockey stick is bend it. Why? Because they are testing out the “flex” or flexibility of the stick.A good hockey stick fit allows the player to bend the shaft a little without much effort. Most players prefer flexible and lightweight shafts that allow for optimal passing and shooting. A too-stiff stick shaft decreases shot accuracy and puck speed, and it does not provide a good feel for the puck.

Most stick manufacturers offer a variety of flexes. The higher the flex number, the stiffer the stick. Regardless of a player’s age, the correct flex should allow them to bend the shaft when they take a wrist shot or slap shot.

Different manufacturers have different systems for measuring flex ratings, but most conform to this method: the flex is a measure of the amount of weight required to bend a stick 1 inch when suspended between two support points that are 48 inches apart. For example, an 85 flex stick requires 85 pounds to be applied at the center point between two support points to flex the stick 1 inch. The lower the flex, the more elastic the stick, and the higher the flex, the stiffer the stick. The taller and heavier a player is, the higher the flex the player will need. In practice, a good way to estimate the flex a player needs is to divide their weight in pounds by 2.

Flex can be broken down into four categories of hockey stick sizes: youth, junior, intermediate, and senior. Youth sticks typically feature a 20-40 flex. Junior features a flex in the 35-50 range. Intermediate flex ranges between 55 and 70. Senior sticks have the widest range of flex, from 65 to 105.

Please note that flex will change slightly if the stick must be cut down to fit the size of the player. Although it is not an exact science, the common rule of thumb is that each inch cut off the shaft increases the stiffness by 10 percent.

4. HOCKEY STICK GRIP

During a stick fitting, it’s important to get a hockey stick with the right grip, or a smooth stick if preferred. Hockey sticks can have either a smooth surface (non-grip) or a textured, sticky surface (grip). The smooth surface of a non-grip stick allows the bottom hand to easily move up and down the shaft for stick handling, passing, and shooting. However, during a game it is possible for the gloves to become slick with sweat, sliding on a non-grip surface and hindering a player’s performance. If that is the case, a stick with grip might be the better option for the player. Some grips cover the entire stick, while other grips are featured only on the main area of the shaft where the player’s hands are located. The grip can also be a coating or it could be incorporated in the texture of the stick. You can even fashion a grip yourself from hockey tape. The main purpose of grip is to provide increased control if the player’s gloves are wet. If the gloves are not wet, grip may make it more difficult for the player to move his/her bottom hand. Ultimately, the choice of grip or non-grip comes down to personal preference.

5. WHAT IS THE KICK POINT ON A HOCKEY STICK?

Kick point is the place on the stick flexes when you pass and shoot. It is one of the more overlooked variables when a player evaluates the hockey stick fit. Is the player a defenseman with a booming slap shot from the point? A mid-kick point is probably the best. And what about someone who’s more of an agile playmaker—who stickhandles, makes tape-to-tape passes, and takes wrist shots and snap shots over slap shots? This player needs a lower kick point for a quicker release.

6. HOCKEY STICK BLADE PATTERNS

A different hockey stick blade curve—also called its pattern—is used for different skill sets, and is one of the easiest stick fit variables to see. Please view our blade pattern guide to see the different specs and pattern names for different curves from various manufacturers. Stick pattern is almost entirely a matter of player preference, with the location of the curve in the blade moving toward the toe for players who favor wrist shots and handling the puck. Defensive players and those who favor big slap shots tend to prefer the blade curve toward the heel.

7. BLADE LIE

The blade lie of a hockey stick is a classification of the angle that the stick shaft would take when the bottom of the blade is sitting flat on the ice. When fitting a new stick, players tend to choose based on the blade pattern—including the hockey stick lie—they prefer. Normally, stick lies range from 4.0 to 6.0 in half increments. Most sticks have a 4.5, 5. 0 or 5.5 lie. The more upright the stick, the higher the lie number.

Whether you’re determining what size hockey stick to use, or deciding on a flex, blade pattern, or lie, knowing how to measure the stick and all its variables will help you understand how to choose the best hockey stick for each player.

Old Age Sticks | Encyclopedia.com

e. e. cummings 1958

Author Biography

Poem Summary

Themes

Style

Historical Context

Critical Overview

Criticism

Sources

For Further Study

Published in the collection 95 Poems, “old age sticks” exemplifies many of the unique typographic “quirks” typical of cummings’s verse, including absence of capital letters, irregular use of parentheses, and the use of the ampersand sign as a contraction for “and.” While these surface qualities are characteristic, cummings’s poetry also displays more complex poetic structures and qualities. “Old age sticks,” for example, which is made up of five four-line stanzas conforming to a set syllabic pattern (3-2-1-2), speaks to cummings’s broader interest in poetic form. It also offers an example of how cummings used enjambment to focus his readers’ attention on individual words—and in some cases word fragments. The poem also showcases the poet’s skill with thematic scope and tension. Using personification to introduce the subjects of the poem, “old age” and “youth,” cummings manages in forty syllables to encapsulate the inevitable process of aging and the human response to that process. While “old age” warns youth to slow down, not to be in such a rush to become an adult, “youth” dismisses the warning and speeds on its chosen path, heading toward old age and death. Ultimately, the poem communicates very succinctly this conflict from difference in perception.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1894, cummings spent his childhood in that city, where his father,

Edward Cummings, was a sociology professor at Harvard and a Unitarian clergyman. From an early age cummings showed a strong interest in poetry and art, which was encouraged by his mother Rebecca. Cummings attended Harvard University from 1911 to 1915 and joined the editorial board of the Harvard Monthly, a college literary magazine. While in college he became fascinated by avantgarde art, modernism, and cubism, and he began incorporating elements of these styles into his own poetry and paintings. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1915 and a master’s the following year. His first published poems appeared in the anthology Eight Harvard Poets in 1917. These eight pieces feature the experimental verse forms and the lower-case personal pronoun “i” that were to become his trademark. The copyeditor of the book, however, mistook cummings’s intentions as typographical errors and made “corrections.” During World War I cummings volunteered for the French-based Norton-Harjes Ambulance Service. As a result of his disregard of regulations and his attempts to outwit the wartime censors in his letters home, cummings spent four months in an internment camp in Normandy on suspicion of treason. Although he found his detention amusing and even enjoyable, his father made use of his contacts in government to secure his son’s release. Cummings returned to New York and pursued painting but was drafted in 1918. He spent about a year at Camp Danvers, Massachusetts, during which time he wrote prolifically. Beginning around this time, cummings, with the knowledge and approval of his friend Schofield Thayer, had an affair with Schofield’s wife Elaine. Cummings’s daughter Nancy was born in 1919, but she was given Thayer’s name. Cummings and Elaine Thayer married in 1924, at which time cummings legally adopted Nancy. During the 1920s and 1930s he traveled widely in Europe, alternately living in Paris and New York, and developing parallel careers as a poet and a painter. He published his first poetry collection, Tulips and Chimneys, in 1923. Politically liberal with leftist leanings, cummings visited the Soviet Union in 1931 to learn about that government’s system of art subsidies. He was very disillusioned, however, by the regimentation and lack of personal and artistic freedom he encountered there. As a result, he abandoned his liberal views and became deeply conservative on social and political issues. Cummings continued to write steadily throughout the 1940s and 1950s, reaching his greatest popularity during this period and winning a number of honors, including the Shelley Memorial Award for poetry in 1944, the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard for the academic year 1952-53, and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1958. Despite such successes, however, he never achieved a steady income. Cummings continued to give poetry readings to college audiences across the United States until his death in 1962.

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

Line 1

This first line exemplifies cummings’s use of abrupt enjambment to create fragmentary or partial thoughts that, while part of a larger phrase or idea, also stand alone. In this case, if one were reading quickly it would be easy read or hear “old age stinks” by accident. The misreading would hint at a disdain for old age. In this manner the line sets the tone of the poem. The broken line also interrupts a larger phrase, leaving the careful reader asking what “old age” sticks—or with what or how. It also obscures the grammar of the sentence, so that “sticks” might appear to be a noun rather than a verb and “old age” might appear to be an adjective rather than a noun.

Line 2

This line is a bit baffling. By breaking lines this way, cummings makes his reader pay attention to the individual words he uses, inviting a consideration of their various associations. Here, through a process of random association, the words “up” and “keep” are easily contracted into “upkeep.” One might also think of “keeping up,” as in to “keep up” with the times, with other people, or with life. Ultimately, these associations all build toward the tension of the poem’s overall theme: in some sense the poem comments on both “upkeep” (maintenance) and “keeping up” (competition).

Lines 3-4

These lines bring a partial conclusion to the thought begun in line 1. All of the syntactic clues provided in the preceding lines suddenly add up to something. The reader learns that “old age sticks up ‘keep off’ signs.” Consequently, these four lines also portray “old age” as forbidding, trying to limit individual actions and deem what is acceptable. Note that the speaker of the poem speaks of “old age” as if it were a person: through this personification the speaker makes clear that he is not simply saying that “old people” do these things, but that age does these things. Thus, the focus of the poem is the abstract idea of “age” and “aging.”

Lines 5-8

The focus of the poem shifts momentarily to “youth,” also personified. “Youth” and “old age” are set in direct opposition to one another: “old age” plants warnings, and “youth” yanks them up. The lines imply that “youth” refuses to abide by “old age”’s edicts.

Media Adaptations

• A cassette titled e. e. cummings Reads, in which cummings reads from his dramatic and poetic works, was released by Caedmon in 1956.
• A two-cassette set titled e. e. cummings Reads His Collected Poetry, 1943-58 is available from Caedmon.

Line 9

This line finishes the thought begun in line 8. In this manner the thought is enjambed from stanza 2 to stanza 3. The reader begins to see that “old age” wants “youth” to “back off,” to “not trespass” on “old age”’s territory. It’s not clear, however, exactly what territory this is that “old age” is trying to protect. Note again the typographic irregularity or uniqueness of this line. Cummings uses parentheses to break up the word “trespass” into “Tres) & (pas).” He also drops the second “s” off the word “pass,” effectively drawing more attention to it through these oddities. The reader is likely to realize that, had the poet left the “s” on, then the parentheses would contain the word “pass.” It is possible that this actually draws attention to the word “pass,” which may suggest a larger theme that the poem is developing.

Line 10

In this line, the nature of the conflict between “old age” and “youth” becomes much more clear. “Youth laughs” suggests that “youth” feels in no way threatened by “old age.” Rather, it would seem “old age” somehow seems threatened by “youth.”

Lines 11-12

Technically speaking, this is an example of a “mixed” sentence construction, which means that the subject of the sentence is not apparent. On the one hand we might read this as a quote in which “youth” commands “old age” to “sing.” On the other hand, the poem makes more sense when we read this in terms of what follows and read “old age / scolds” “youth.” Or we might take this to
mean that “old age” is commanding “youth” to “sing”: “‘Sing,’ old age scolds.” Such ambiguity is common to modern poetry and should be looked upon less as a problem than as an “opening” that allows many meanings to coexist.

Lines 13-16

In these lines, “old age” again tries to dictate what “youth” will do, but notice that by breaking words apart, the poem takes on an almost pathetic tone. Each break creates a pause suggestive of an inability to speak, which in its turn suggests an overwhelming emotion.

Lines 17-20

This last stanza brings the poem to its conclusion. “Old age” has been trying to keep youth from “gr/owing old.” The reason, implicitly, is that if “youth” grows old, if “youth” trespasses into “old age”’s territory, then there is nowhere left for “old age” to go, other than death. At the same time, however, it would seem “old age” has not so much been trying to “command” or dictate what “youth” can do, but rather to warn “youth.” In a sense, “old age” appears less self-serving than helpful. The irony is that youth’s trespass and rebellion, its desire to mature and grow, are speeding it on toward the same fate as “old age.” It is this cycle of aging, as well as the social cycle of distrust between generations, that the poem gradually reveals in form as well as content.

Cycle of Life

One of the themes most common to the poetry of e. e. cummings is the natural process of life cycles. “Old age sticks” explores the aging process and the relationship of young and old by enacting a debate between “old age” and “youth.” We can paraphrase the debate this way: old age puts up signs that say “Keep Off,” but youth tears them down. In response, old age yells “No trespassing,” but youth just laughs. Old age shouts “Stop,” but youth continues. Reducing the poem in this way leaves out much of what makes it work as a poem, but it does help to clarify its essential debate structure.

Reduced in this fashion, old age appears as a force of restriction and repression, shouting a string of negatives: “No,” “Forbid/den,” “Stop,” “Must/n’t,” “Don’t.” Youth appears as a liberating and disruptive force, pulling down the signs, interrupting old age, and laughing. By enclosing or “confining” in parentheses the sections relating to old age, cummings emphasizes its repressive quality. Conversely, by placing the passages about youth outside the parentheses, cummings stresses its free or expressive quality.

The poem does not simply present a battle of “good” youth versus “bad” old age, however. Cummings complicates matters by showing the interdependency of the two sides. Graphically, old age and youth are intertwined on the page. Moreover, by the end of the poem youth is “growing old,” is itself turning into old age. In addition, the breaking of the word “growing” between two lines leaves youth “owing old”—youth is indebted to old age. A cycle is established in which youth ages, owing a debt to its elders and becoming “old age” to the next generation. Cummings employs several devices to underscore this continuity. The first and last words of the poem are “old,” suggesting that it ends where it begins and begins where it ends. Also, the last thing associated with old age is the ampersand and closing parenthesis—“&)”—in the fifth stanza. The ampersand is a symbol for “and.” And what? The business associated with old age seems unfinished, cut off. In the first stanza, however, the first thing we see associated with youth is “)&,” the mirror image of the closing of old age. Where old age ends, youth begins. Except for the ampersands and parentheses, old age dominates the first stanza and youth controls the last. Finally, the parenthesis in the fourth line of the first stanza, after “signs,” is a closing parenthesis; but we have not seen an opening one. This suggests that what is being concluded at the start of this poem began earlier, before the beginning of the poem—when the old age of this poem was youth to a previous generation.

What appears at first to be a battle between youth and old age in “old age sticks,” ends up as a dialectic, a synthesis of seeming opposites in a continuous cycle of life.

Language & Meaning

Word play and unusual spatial arrangement of words and symbols are two of cummings’s most significant contributions to modern poetry. Cummings drew and painted from an early age, and his poems often reflect his interest in visual representation of the world. Like a visual artist, he bent, broke, twisted, and reshaped the material of his poetic craft—language.

In “old age sticks” cummings flouts the conventions of language in various ways. He uses enjambment—the
spilling over of one line onto the next—to create multiple meanings, as in “youth goes/right on/gr/owing old.” He capitalizes words contrary to the standard rules, as in this poem, where he uses capitals to emphasize each word in old age’s string of negative commands: “Keep / Off,” “No / Tres … pas/sing,” “Forbid/den Stop / Must/n’t Don’t.” Parentheses are normally used to enclose supplemental or somewhat extraneous information that is not essential to the primary meaning of the sentence; in “old age sticks,” however, cummings uses parentheses to separate the passages relating to old age from those about youth. Both sets of information are essential to the meaning of the poem. Cummings also places or spaces words in highly unconventional ways, as when youth “interrupts” old age: “No / Tres)& (pas) / youth laughs / (sing.”

The presence of all these devices might be disorienting for a reader unused to such oddities, so cummings provides some aids to understanding the poem—he creates his own “rules. ” For example, each of the five stanzas contains eight syllables arranged in four lines: 3-2-1-2. This arrangement gives the poem structure and a degree of predictability. Cummings consistently uses the ampersand (&) rather than the word “and.” Also, as we have seen, he is absolutely regular in the way he uses parentheses and capitals.

All the devices cummings employs add meaning to the poem, so that it conveys more than just the dictionary definitions of its words. In “old age sticks,” the words carry their usual meanings, but they also carry additional significance. The poem is about more than simply a battle between youth and old age. The interdependence of youth and old age and the theme of the cycle of life are entirely conveyed through cummings’ poetic devices. The words themselves say nothing about these subjects. Through the skillful selection, arrangement, and application of words, symbols, and techniques, Cummings is able to make “old age sticks” mean more than it says.

“Old age sticks” is written in free verse, which means it follows no set pattern of rhyme or meter. The poem does have, however, a set syllabic construction. Each stanza is made up of four lines: each first line has three syllables; each second, two syllables; each third, one syllable; each fourth, two

Topics for Further Study

• Write a simple, honest statement about the different attitudes of young and old people. Put your statement into a poetic form like cummings’s poem, breaking words onto different lines and even different stanzas. The result should be a poem that makes readers stop and wonder about your basic truth, instead of accepting it too easily without thought.
• What does the first line tell you about the theme of the poem? What does the last line tell you? Do you think word manipulation is an effective tool for getting these ideas across?

syllables. Ultimately the pattern is circular and repeating. This structure suggests a reflection of the poem’s content, which demonstrates how “old age” is replaced by a “youth” that becomes an “old age” that is replaced by a younger “youth” and so on. When form and content mirror each other in such a manner, the result is sometimes termed organic composition. Cummings also uses enjambment—sentences that run over line endings—to reinforce his meanings. For example, in the first line of the poem, cummings breaks the line mid-thought, leaving the reader in suspense for the completion of the thought. We are left with the question: “old age sticks what?” Enjambment also compels readers to try to make meaning of fragmented or disjointed thoughts, with the effect that readers try to process associative meanings—the various connotations of the individual words. When this technique is well employed, such associations contribute to the overall meaning of the poem.

Finally, another noteworthy poetic device in “old age sticks” is its use of personification. Both “old age” and “youth,” essentially abstract ideas, are personified in the poem, which is to say that they are given human qualities. In effect this allows the poem to speak not only about the abstract ideas of “youth” and “old age” but also to the particulars of human experience in response to aging.

There is a common, stereotypical view of America in the 1950s as complacent, conformist, and staunchly anticommunist. The decade saw the rise of television, tract housing, and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Senate hearings on the supposed infiltration of the United States by communists. In the years following World War II, two world powers emerged as “superpowers,” both possessing nuclear weapons: the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet domination and control of eastern European countries behind an “iron curtain” led to widespread fear among Americans. This was the birth of the Cold War, an atmosphere of hostility and aggression between the West (America and its allies) and the East (the Soviet Union and its allies), similar to that of wartime but without outright military conflict.

The two superpowers never directly confronted each other in battle, but their support of opposing sides in conflicts around the world gave a global scale to their antagonism. The decade of the 1950s opened with the Korean War—in which communist forces in the north of the country tried to overtake the republican south—and it ended with Fidel Castro’s communist revolution in Cuba. The decade also witnessed the start of the “space race” when, in 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite. The U.S. responded with its own satellite the following year. The whole world, it seemed, was too small a battlefield for the Cold War; outer space itself was disputed territory.

In the common view of the 1950s, the period is characterized by the tension and suspicion of the Cold War. In such threatening conditions, absolute obedience was required of Americans if their country were to prevail. Dissent, protest, and nonconformity seemed disloyal, “un-American.” This is the stereotypical view of the 1950s. While it contains elements of truth, the reality was much more complicated. The period was one of significant political, social, and cultural change. The references we have made to the development of nuclear power, the space program, and television point to some of the technological and scientific advances of the time. In medicine, a vaccine for polio was developed, as was the model of the DNA molecule. The decade also saw the rise of the civil rights movement. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional; the following year, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others staged the Montgomery bus boycott, bringing about the desegregation of the public transportation in that city. In 1956 buses throughout America were desegregated as a result of a Supreme Court ruling. In the arts, abstract expressionism rejected literal representation in painting; the be-bop style evolved in jazz, stressing spontaneity and improvisation; and the Beat writers championed freedom and the stream-of-consciousness mode of writing. Of course, rock and roll—by definition an expression of rebellion—was born in the 1950s.

It was during this time of surface conformity masking an underlying ferment that “old age sticks” was published. 95 poems, the collection containing “old age sticks,” was released in 1958, when cummings was sixty-four. At that age, cummings would seem a likely representative of an older, conservative generation at odds with the forces of change. And, at first glance, “old age sticks” does seem to depict an unresolved and unresolvable opposition between generations, between representatives of orderly stability and disorderly change. But on closer inspection we can see that the poem blurs the distinctions between the two groups and provides a complex view of life as a cycle in which there is continuity but also constant change. In this way “old age sticks” seems an apt expression of the times in which it was written.

“Old age sticks” displays many of the poetic innovations that distinguish cummings’s verse, including the absence of capital letters, abrupt enjambment, and irregular use of punctuation. Since so much of this defies the rules typical of poetry before the twentieth century, critics have searched for some source and meaning for cummings’s inventiveness. The relationship of cummings’s unique visual arrangements of words on the page to his work as a painter has provided scholars with a good deal of useful evidence. In his book e. e. cummings: An Introduction to the Poetry, Rushworth Kidder comments, “poetry and visual art grew, in cummings’ mind, from one root; and while their outermost branches are distinct enough, there are many places closer to the trunk where it is hard to know which impulse accounts for a piece of work.” Playing with spelling, grammar, line-breaks, punctuation, and rhyme allowed cummings many levels of ambiguity, many subtleties of meaning in a seemingly simple verse. Milton Cohen writes of such

Compare & Contrast

• 1958: Moroccan women gain the right to choose their own husbands. The government in the capital, Rabat, restricts polygamy in the country.

  Today: In Egypt, after a long debate between Islamic fundamentalists and human rights activists, a national ban is passed protecting women from female circumcision.

• 1958: The first Grammy Award is given to the Italian song “Volare,” but the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is criticized for favoring older, more conservative, middle-of-the-road artists over youth-oriented performers.

  Today: The 1997 Grammy Award for Best Album goes to Beck Hansen’s Odelay! An eclectic blend of styles from the past and unique lyrics, Beck’s distinctive sound appeals to a young audience.

• 1958: The Earth’s radiation shield of ozone is first tested in an effort to discover what effects have been caused by nuclear weapons testing and high-altitude military and commercial flights. Ozone is an unstable form of oxygen that blocks the Earth from ultraviolet radiation, the cause of human skin cancer. By the 1970s, the ozone layer begins to shrink as a million tons of freon are released into the atmosphere, mostly from aerosol cans.

  Today: Environmentalists suggest that the ozone layer is being depleted. Medical experts suggest that fair-skinned people wear sun-block protectants whenever they are outdoors.

• 1958: Fidel Castro, 32, rides the wake of dictator Fulgencio Bastista’s abdication of Cuba’s leadership. Castro and his Marxist forces overtake the capital Havana on January 3 of the following year, beginning their regime, which he insists is not “communist. ”

  1997: Castro’s “humanistic revolution” is considered a failure. Freedom of religion is returned to the country that receives a visit from Pope John Paul II.

ambiguities in his article “e. e. cummings’ Sleight of Hand: Perceptual Ambiguity in His Early Poetry, Painting and Career” for University of Hartford Studies in Literature. He suggests that, while these ambiguities are often regarded as “structural,” they are actually essentially “perceptual.” He explains that “they control the speed and manner in which a line is perceived.” Cohen argues further that, “Typically, the reader perceives a thematic motif and expects its progression, only to have an ambiguous swing word lead to quite a different meaning. Momentarily thrown off by the unexpected turn, the reader must accommodate the new idea, either by reconciling it with the original, or by maintaining both in suspension.” According to this critic, then, cummings’s poetry not only ties meaning to form, but the form even compels the reader to perceive more than one potential meaning at once.

Sean Robisch

Sean Robisch holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Purdue University and has taught composition and literature for eight years. In the following essay, Robisch explores the possible interpretations of “old age sticks,” by analyzing its unconventional language and syntax.

E. E. cummings is one of the best poets by whom to decide what in the world we mean when we say, “That is a poem.” He was able to alter a common notion of poetry—that its fundamental element is the word—by making poetry’s fundamental element the mark. One letter may act as the keyhole through which we might see a whole Cummings poem. A semicolon no longer merely serves the grammatical function of separating independent

What Do I Read Next?

• Two articles treat the importance of painting to cummings. First, Rushworth Kidder’s “cummings and Cubism: The Influence of the Visual Arts on cummings’ Early Poetry,” in Journal of Modern Literature 7 (April 1979): 255-91, is the best treatment of the relationship between his poetry and his painting, with many illustrations. Kidder’s “e. e. cummings: Painter,” in the Harvard Library Bulletin 23 (April 1975): 117-38, is a critical study of cummings’s whole career as a painter, with black-and-white illustrations.
• Also by Kidder, e. e. cummings: An Introduction to the Poetry, 1979, provides accessible criticism for a first-time student of cummings.

clauses or the elements of a list. It may instead be the leg of a grasshopper, a bird on a wire, or a semicolon that has chosen, as if on its own, to break its chains and show up when it is not welcome. This redefinition of the fundamental element of poetry is only part of cummings’s genius, but an important part, because with it he forged the poetry by which he is widely known, though often misrepresented.

Cummings was not the first to employ letters, punctuation, and spacing to create drama in a poem—Mina Loy was a famous predecessor—but he was probably the best. Today’s fashion of using punctuation marks in e-mail to horizontally indicate a smile [ 🙂 ], or a wink [ 😉 ], might be the subconscious offspring of cummings’s influence. In the absence of vocal communication, the marks on the page (or screen) substitute for what we gain in the speaker’s presence. This is the eternal dilemma of reading, the question of how we are to “hear” the (absent) author who wrote the words. The only way to consider many of cummings’s poems is visually, because to read one of them aloud, we would have to adopt some technique of representation. The comedian Victor Borga, when reading stories aloud during his performance, would make sounds to represent the punctuation marks, such as a “pop” noise to indicate a period. This presentation may create a funny way to hear a story, but whenever we “hear” the marks, we get the reader’s idea of how they might sound, rather than using our imaginations to account for what the marks on the page do. Few if any readers, though they might hear the words they read, invent sounds in their minds for the punctuation marks. We simply take the instruction (a period means the sentence is over) and continue on in the conventional methods of reading, often oblivious to the effect that a pair of parentheses or an ellipsis might have on us. In this way, cummings is “fun” to read, because his poems often invite a kind of decoding different from what we do with poetry we more easily recognize.

During the era of modernism a phenomenon known as “high modernism” developed, made famous by such poems as T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” in which lines from several languages, obscure literary and artistic references, and cultural critiques of complex political issues would appear throughout a usually long poem composed of several “movements,” like an orchestral arrangement. Many critics considered a poet to be growing in sophistication according to his or her command of these conventions. In other words, while the modern poets and critics from the 1910s to the 1950s often called for stylistic experimentation and challenges to the old notions of rhyme schemes and standard meters, they often wanted only a certain kind of experimentation. Cummings experimented in a manner that he had developed from earlier poets to become almost exclusively his own, and the critics of his work were sharply divided as to whether or not this was sufficient to make him a great poet.

His supporters, such as Marianne Moore and Allen Tate, saw in his work not only ingenious manipulations of sentences and words, but subtle commentary on his major subjects: love, spring, song, and childhood, which his poems celebrated; as well as war, blind loyalty, and sloganeering, which his poems regularly ridiculed. His detractors, such as R. P. Blackmur and John Crowe Ransom, saw cummings as sappy, too simplistic in his view of the complex issues of the world. To these critics, his love seemed too Pollyanna, his spring too easily victorious, and his depiction of childhood too idyllic to really address life with the complexity that great poetry demanded. As a result, cummings was considered a popular “college poet,” someone enjoyed early in one’s education, then disregarded after the alphabetic code had been broken like a cereal
box toy and more sophisticated matters of literature taken up. Critics who adopted this view sometimes even poked fun of cummings, making up their own versions of oddly spaced, heavily punctuated, fragmentary poems that imitated his.

Cummings was not simply modern because he snapped some conventions, nor was he modernly simple because he missed the point that romantic love is often a painful experience. His achievements are built mostly on which conventions he chose to violate. His poetic style and view of the world combined in poems that were many years ahead of his critics. His lines come surprisingly, and they work language into something hard to describe. This is why one often has to approach cummings on the page rather than reading him aloud. The critic Norman Friedman has said, “Even when we know we like cummings, we lack the appropriate language for explaining why.”

Cummings did not shy away from the tough topics of poetry. “Old age sticks” is a fine example of this fact. In keeping with his paradoxical technique of both calling attention to himself and showing humility by signing his name in the lower case, cummings often employed the lower case in his poems as well. He did so for the disconcerting effects that are produced on form and content by the omission of capital letters. This also makes us feel that we’ve walked into the middle of something, that beginnings and endings are arbitrary, and that punctuation and capitalization are somehow inadequate to control something so overwhelming as time. If we read “old age sticks” as a treatment of aging, then the mythic connection of life and time is the heart of the poem, and hardly a trivial topic.

When we look at the table of contents for 95 Poems, the book in which “old age sticks” appears, we see the first line next to a number. Cummings did not title his poems, so the first line serves as an implicit title, because we lack the means of writing a table of contents any other way. The numbers (this poem is #57) are just as arbitrary. There is an order to the poems, but the numbers merely tell us when we have a new one, so that when we turn the page we know we aren’t reading the next section of the same poem. Cummings loved this kind of restriction in book reading, because it enabled him to point out to us just how linear our world of “calendars and clocks” (as he called it) really is. The first line as it appears in a table of contents, “old age sticks,” implies either that we are about to read

“Critics … sometimes even poked fun of cummings, making up their own versions of oddly spaced, heavily punctuated, fragmentary poems that imitated his.”

a poem about sticks—which is partly true if we consider the word a noun that refers to sticks that hold up signs—or that (taking “sticks” as a verb) old age “sticks to” something or someone, that it “sticks around,” that it exists forever. The time paradox dissolves (temporarily) when we turn the corner to the second line. Old age, now personified, is “sticking up” some signs. And here a new theme of the poem surfaces.

Now we see a struggle between old age—which is rule-making, sign-posting, and controlling—and youth—which is destructive and obstinate. And on this field cummings employs his play with word and mark to make a more subtle point. The first stanza ends with a closed parenthesis that has no opened half. Here’s a cummings puzzle. The mark could indicate that we’re in the middle of a parenthetical insertion into some other discussion, maybe an argument that’s been going on since before the poem began. It could be a mark designed to serve some other function than what a parenthesis normally does; if so, what? Maybe it functions, in accordance with the “old age” point of view, as a barrier of some kind, an obstacle. Or it could be simply replacing a period, since a period would indicate the end of something (i.e., the end of a “period”), and we can’t have that in a poem that plays with time. We might come up with a number of ways to see the parenthesis, and just as we decide which one to choose, cummings replaces the word “and” with the ampersand, a kind of trademark of his and a reminder of what cannot be represented by sound, but only inside our heads in the translation of a visual cue. As a result, we have to find a way to accommodate the odd use of punctuation and the replacement of a word by a symbol, at the same time.

So the struggle continues with the posting of “signs,” cues we read and are allowed to re-read with different meanings, which takes away the power of a sign telling us what to do. For instance, the “No Trespassing” sign that spans the second and third stanzas has something else written into it. By dividing “Trespass” and using the ampersand to both connect and separate the two parts of the word, we find that old age is educated and is admonishing youth in French as well as in English. “No,” the signposter says, then “Tres” (very) and “pas” (the negative, or “not”). So the sign also says, “No Very Not.” But youth doesn’t pay attention; it laughs at the strictness of old age, after yanking down the “Keep Off” signs, and while old age is “singing” negatives, youth does what it wants … or so it thinks. This is where cummings delivers to us the complex emotional substance of the poem. “Goes on” implies the passage of time, and while youth thinks it is just going on about its business, the poet tells us that in fact the business of youth is to grow old. The passage of that time, which seems slow to youth but is all too quick for old age (which might be singing all those “stop” phrases against time itself), is indicated by the line break before the last line. Space in a cummings poem has much to do with time, and the physical act of growing, which youth might think of as a matter of space and height, is also a temporal matter, so he stretches it, lets it linger momentarily at the end of “gr” until the point is brought home. The last word of the poem is also the first, implying a cycle, the youth becoming the old age that will admonish the next youth.

In this way, cummings provides us with a game of serious stakes. He wasn’t merely playing when he wrote. His education and experiences were extensive, and his process of revision painstaking. Cummings would often explore, as mathematical permutations, the possible arrangements of the letters in a poem in order to test their effects. He drew inspiration for space and division from the great Cubist painters, and took up painting in order to use the white page as a place for shapes to do new work. When he deletes something, he calls us to see what would be there. When he trades one mark for another, he invites us to consider whether the trade was worth the effort. And when he asks us if we understand what a poem is, cummings may be asking if we are supposed to follow the rules of poetry and spit out easy definitions, or become poets ourselves and try to learn, both because of the rules and in spite of them, what wonderful things poetry can do.

Source: Sean Robisch, in an essay for Poetry for Students, Gale, 1998.

Chris Semansky

Chris Semansky holds a Ph.D in English from Stony Brook University. His poems, stories, critical essays, and reviews appear regularly in literary journals. His collection of poetry, Death, But at a Good Price, received the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize for 1991 and was published by Story Line Press and the Nicholas Roerich Museum. In the following essay, Semansky explains how “old age sticks” “emphasizes the cyclical nature of time and the futility of our own attempts to stave off growing old. ”

A painter as well as a poet, e. e. cummings was as interested in how a poem looks on the page as in how it sounds or what it means. His poetry consistently draws our attention to the fact that writing, in its material form, basically exists as ink in the shape of letters. These letters are then combined into units, or words, and the words are organized into phrases or sentences which give them meaning. A relentless experimenter, cummings would play with how words and sentences are assembled and arranged on the page to create new ways of expressing meaning. In so doing, he would blur the boundaries between “reading” and “viewing,” forcing his readers to visualize language—to recognize that writing dramatically illustrates the suturing of the visual and verbal. He would break words apart, coin new words by altering parts of speech, and be deliberately ungrammatical with syntax and punctuation in order to achieve these desired effects. For cummings, such tactics were poetic devices, much the same way that line, color, and lighting are painterly devices. In “old age sticks” cummings employs many of these innovations to visually enact the subject of the poem.

Cummings’s use of typographic innovations is partially drawn from the ideas informing Cubist painting, a popular artistic movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. Artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques would analyze an image or object, break it down into its formal properties and then reconstruct it. For example, in Braques’ Man with a Guitar we see many straight lines, a very narrow range of color, and what looks like a figure sliced into geometric shapes. We learn nothing about the age, personality, or character of the “man” himself. Indeed, we can barely make out any such figure. Cubist poets such as cummings, Gertrude Stein, and Kenneth Rexroth tried to do in
verse what Cubist painters such as Picasso and Braques were doing on canvas. They would take the elements of an image or idea (or rather, the word or words which represented that image or idea), divide them into parts, then reorganize them. This new synthesis often claimed to represent, by enacting, the increasing fragmentation of the modern world and the alienation from it that human beings experienced.

“Old age sticks” illustrates this visual and poetic technique. Consisting of five stanzas, the poem utilizes unconventional punctuation, fractured words, and a voice that sounds closer to a child’s than an adult’s to emphasize the cyclical nature of time and the futility of our own attempts to stave off growing old.

The first stanza begins simply enough with a personification of old age, that is, the idea of old age is acting like a human being and putting up signs that say “Keep Off.” Cummings capitalizes the two-word warning just as he capitalizes the words “Forbid,” “Must,” “Stop,” “Don’t,” and “No,” to emphasize the seriousness of the speaker’s tone. Similarly, cummings uses parentheses to underscore conflict between the generations. Grammatically, parentheses are a typographical device used to enclose words which add information or identification (for example, these words). The body of the sentence, so to speak, exists outside of them. Thomas Dilworth notes in an article in Explicatior that “the activity of old age appears within the confines of parentheses, suggesting repression, [while] the activity of youth is unbounded by parentheses, suggesting refusal to accept restrictions.” The subject or theme of cummings’s poem, then, is the assumptions that we as readers hold about what old age and youth truly want.

Youth’s “unboundedness” erupts in the central stanza in the middle of old age’s cry not to trespass. Sandwiched between “Tres)&(pas)” and “(sing,” “youth laughs” underscores youth’s scornful response to old age’s admonition to stay away, (showing its disrespect by making old age wait to finish its warning, “No Tres/pas/sing”). By placing “sing” so close to “laughs” however, cummings also shows how youth’s energy is strong enough to appropriate old age’s language. This interruption typifies (perhaps “stereotypifies”) youth’s impatience and rebelliousness against its elders. Breaking the word “trespassing” into three units also allows cummings to pun, albeit in French: “tres pas” translates as “very not,” a typical Cummingsism.

“What we had thought was old age standing in opposition to youth we now see is old age siding with youth.”

Old age’s increasing insistence in the fourth stanza builds into an almost pathetic last attempt to warn off youth. The staccato rhythm resulting from the words, which are broken but not hyphenated, and the devolution into one-word bleats enacts old age’s further deterioration, showing its fall into a kind of monosyllabic babytalk. This burst of blunt emotion occurs frequently in cummings’s poetry, as he distrusted tedious explanations, preferring instead direct and simple expression of feeling.

The final stanza asks us to reevaluate the entire poem. What we had thought was old age standing in opposition to youth we now see is old age siding with youth. “This reevaluation,” says Dilworth, “makes of the restrictions and denials of youth a warning against “gr/owing old” and suggests that old age has been on the side of youth all along. ” Old age, however, is not warning youth not to become like it; it is warning youth not to think old. It is a hollow warning, of course, and therefore ironic. By this I mean that old age knows that youth will become just like it, regardless of its warnings. Cummings underscores this point by beginning and ending the poem with the same word—“old,” thereby drawing our attention to the cyclical nature of life itself.

The themes of aging and rebellion are common in cummings’s poetry. A romantic whose life was devoted to questioning the established typographic forms and traditions of poetry, cummings was nevertheless conventional in his subject matter, writing about love, nature, and aging in much of his poetry. Richard Ellman and Robert O’Clair have written in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry that cummings was proud of his individualism. “It is in fact the badge he wears as a self-styled misfit, one still capable of feeling love and lust in an unfeeling, mechanized world,” they wrote. “He is revolting against people in high places, in crowded cities, in ruts …”.

Cummings captures the futility of resisting time’s onslaught by dramatizing the interaction between youth and old age. He does this in “old age sticks” by emphasizing process over product. Rather than showing us an image of an old person or a young person he concentrates on presenting the desires and behaviors of each generation (presented as abstractions) and putting them into (apparent) conflict. That we pay more attention to the way cummings presented his idea than the idea itself makes sense. “If a poet is anybody,” cummings said in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, “he is somebody to whom things made matter very little—somebody who is obsessed by Making.”

As a poet of spontaneity and childlike wonder, cummings often explored optimistic themes in his poetry such as love and courtship, the processes of nature, and the celebration of simply being alive. In this way his poems are perhaps more accurately seen as belonging to the tradition of Romantic poetry, which prized the expression of an individual’s intense emotion and the celebration of the natural world, its rhythms and processes. It is his use of language, however, his treatment of it as a corporeal thing, that marks cummings as an innovator, as a truly modern poet. While critics have praised modern masters such as Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost for their use of verbal ambiguity, myth, metaphysical wit, and a tragic vision of the modern world, they have not quite known what language to use to write about cummings, whose playfulness and often childlike vision of the world contrast the serious and solemn proclamations of his contemporaries. Cummings cannot be considered part of any school or movement. An iconoclast in poetry and in life, he opposed conformist attitudes and behavior. “Most-people,” he wrote, “have less in common with ourselves than the squarerootminusone. You and I are human beings, mostpeople are snobs.” Cummings echoes the apparent contradiction of this statement in “old age sticks,” as he would initially have us believe that old age and youth are in opposition to each other when, in fact, their destinies are similar: both are fated to play out the desires of the generational roles assigned them. They cannot act otherwise.

Source: Chris Semansky, in an essay for Poetry for Students, Gale, 1998.

Rushworth M. Kidder

In the following excerpt, Kidder disproves some common fallacies about e. e. cummings, revaluates some criticism of his poetry, and provides “general rules for paraphrasing” his poems.

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

“Cummings wrote—it will not do to mince words—some bad poetry. Moreover, he occasionally published it.… He seemed unwilling to consider the wastebasket his ally.”

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

Source: Introduction to e. e. cummings: An Introduction to the Poetry, Columbia University Press, 1979, pp. 1-15.

Cohen, Milton E., “e. e. cummings’ Sleight of Hand: Perceptual Ambiguity in His Early Poetry, Painting and Career” in University of Hartford Studies in Literature, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1983, pp. 33-46.

cummings, e. e., 95 Poems, New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1958.

cummings, e. e., Poems: 1923-1954, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1968.

Dilworth, Thomas, “e. e. cummings’ ‘old age sticks,’” The Explicator, Vol. 54, No. 1, 1995, pp. 32-3.

Fairley, Irene R., e. e. cummings and Ungrammar, New York: Watermill Publishers, 1975.

Friedman, Norman, ed., e. e. cummings: A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972.

Friedman, Norman, e. e. cummings: The Art of His Poetry, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1960.

Friedman, Norman, “e. e. cummings and His Critics,” Criticism, Vol. 6, 1964, pp. 114-33.

Kennedy, Richard S., e. e. cummings Revisited, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994.

Kidder, Rushworth, “Cummings and Cubism: The Influence of the Visual Arts on Cummings’ Early Poetry,” Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 7, April, 1979, pp. 255-91.

Kidder, Rushworth, e. e. cummings: An Introduction to the Poetry, Columbia University Press, 1979.

Lane, Gary, I Am: A Study of e. e. cummings’ Poems, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1976.

Norman, Charles, e. e. cummings the Magic-Maker, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1958.

O’Clair, Robert, and Richard Ellmann, eds., The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, New York: Norton, 1988.

Dendinger, Lloyd N., ed., e. e. cummings: The Critical Reception, New York: Burt Franklin & Co., 1981.

Chronological compilation of the reviews that appeared following the publication of each of Cummings’s collections.

Friedman, Norman, (Re)Valuing Cummings: Further Essays on the Poet, 1962-93, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996.

Follows themes and modes of expression as they develop chronologically in cummings’s poetry.

Kennedy, Richard S. , Dreams in the Mirror, New York: Liveright Publishing Company, 1980.

An extensive biography of cummings.

Who Is Sean “Sticks” Larkin?

Sad Girl Quarantine has officially arrived as Lana Del Rey cryptically announced her newfound singledom.

Previously, the Norman Fucking Rockwell singer was linked to a cop, but he’s not your everyday officer; he’s Sean “Sticks” Larkin, a reality TV star from the Emmy Award–winning documentary series Live PD on A&E. They were first seen together during a Central Park date in September.

Del Rey addressed the alleged fledgling romance during an interview with the Los Angeles Times in October 2019. “I didn’t know we were being photographed,” she said of the pap photos. “I would’ve worn something different.”

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When asked if she was nervous about the public’s reaction to her decision to date a cop (this is, after all, an era of rising protests against police brutality and mass incarceration), Del Rey defended Larkin. “Well, the thing is, he’s a good cop,” she said of the man who proudly goes by the nickname “Sticks.” “He gets it. He sees both sides of things.”

Read on to learn more about Larkin and their breakup.

He works on two different cop shows.

Sergeant Larkin–who says he works full time in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s police department–is an analyst on A&E’s Live PD and the host of A&E’s PD Cam.

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He’s really into CrossFit.

In his Instagram bio, he even writes “Part time crossfitter.” A cursory scroll through his account reveals about as many shirtless selfies and pull-up videos that you’d imagine a self-labelled “crossfitter” would post.

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He’s working on a book.

Sergeant Larkin announced on Twitter last month that he’s putting out a book with Dan Abrams, the host at Live PD.

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He’s a dad.

Yes, “Sticks” is also a father. He has a 22-year-old daughter and a son in his teens. (Can you even imagine Lana Del Rey as your stepmom?)

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Lana and “Sticks” are officially Instagram official.

Del Rey shared the snap of her and her new beau on Instagram, in which she leans playfully against him while he has his CrossFit-toned arm wrapped around her. She smiles as he kisses the top of her head.

“??,” Del Rey captioned the flick.

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Lana and Sean make their red-carpet debut at the 2020 Grammys.

Del Rey, who was nominated in two categories, brought “Sticks” along as her Grammys date. They weren’t afraid to show PDA on the red carpet either.

Steve GranitzGetty Images

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Del Rey gushed over how happy she is with her relationship. After the ET host said that she noticed Del Rey and Larkin holding hands on the red carpet, the singer responded, “Yeah, I am happy.”

The night before, Del Rey also took Larkin with her to the Pre-Grammy Gala and Grammy Salute to Industry Icons. They made for a fabulous couple together on the red carpet.

Axelle/Bauer-GriffinGetty Images

Lana posts a cryptic message on Instagram.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Del Rey seems to be self-quarantining like most of us. Posting a screenshot of her voice memos on her phone, one file read, “Grenadine quarantine 2,” while another was labeled, “If this is the end …I want a boyfriend.” In other words, she and Sticks are donezo.

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Sean admits their relationship is over.

In an interview with The New York Times, Larkin revealed that he and the pop star are no longer together.

“Right now, we’re just friends,” he said. “We still talk and whatnot, we just have busy schedules right now.”

Of their relationship, though, he added that things were “very low key” and that it was ultimately “enjoyable, for sure.”

“When we were in Tulsa we hung out with my law enforcement friends and their spouses. We all Super Bowl partied together, dinners and things like that,” he continued. “Normal things couples do with their friends.”

His children, however, were understandably starstruck. He divulged, “They were kind of blown away.”

Chelsey Sanchez
Associate Social Media and News Editor
Chelsey Sanchez is the Associate Social Media and News Editor for Harper’s BAZAAR, where she covers politics, social movements, and pop culture.

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All you need to know about puppy chew sticks as first-time dog parents

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From articles ranging from common dog myths about puppy chewing sticks to the incredible benefits of puppy chewing sticks, the Internet has it all. If you are a first-time dog parent, scouring through these articles can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Stress no more because we are going to give you the 411 on all you need to know about healthy puppy chewing sticks. 

Why You Need Puppy Chewing Sticks

If your puppy is anywhere between 6 weeks and 6 months old, stocking up on puppy chewing sticks will not be your lifesaver but also your little ones. This critical time during their early development is usually when puppies start teething. Teething is when your puppy slowly starts losing his/her puppy teeth and when adult teeth start coming in. This is also the period where your puppy feels the most discomfort and pain. To ease their discomfort, they turn to their natural instinct to chew. They start chewing your hand, ankles, your furniture, and basically anything they can sink their teeth into. Obviously, these are unsafe which is why investing in puppy teething sticks is essential during early development.

Moreover, regardless of whether you are working from home or the office, it’s impossible to have your eyes on the puppy at all times and get all your work done. This is where puppy eating sticks come in handy. When you’re making lunch, doing laundry, cleaning, or busy with a zoom call, you can give your little one puppy eating sticks to keep them occupied and in one place where you can monitor them. 

Health Benefits of Puppy Eating Sticks

Just as humans, puppies need proper dental care to maintain oral health. Veterinarians recommend that you brush your puppy’s teeth at least 3 times a week. This may sound excessive but brushing 3 times a week prevents plaque and tartar buildup. 

Every time your puppy eats, food particles get stuck between their teeth. When these food particles mix with saliva, they start forming plaque. Plaque can be prevented and removed by regular brushing. When the plaque is left untreated, it can result in tartar buildup which will require professional assistance, and in some cases, may require administration of anesthesia. Severe tartar buildup can result in dental diseases which can then lead to other health risks.

Even if you get into a routine of brushing your puppy’s teeth 3x a week, there may still be plaque buildup. Because plaque can form within 24 hours of eating. The best way to avoid these oral problems is by giving your little one dental sticks specifically made for puppies. You see, puppy eating sticks provide many oral benefits including:

Improving Gum and Teeth Health

When your puppy chews on puppy dental sticks, the constant scraping of the teeth and gum against the hard surface helps remove any plaque and tartar buildup. After you brush your puppy’s teeth, give him/her puppy dental sticks to ensure there is no plaque and tartar buildup in between dental cleaning sessions. 

Promoting Fresh Breath

It’s not unusual for puppy breath to smell slightly unpleasant. However, if they have bacteria buildup, or plaque and tartar buildup, their breath will often have a foul odor which can be a sign of dental disease. The first thing you should do is check with your vet to rule out any possibilities of dental diseases. If your puppy’s dental health is perfectly fine, puppy dental sticks can help reduce bad breath and freshen breath so you can enjoy the endless puppy smooches. 

How to Pick Safe Puppy Chewing Sticks

If you took to the internet to decide whether to buy puppy chewing sticks, you’re bound to have come across plenty of articles that advise against it. Most of these articles contain common misconceptions to scare first-time dog parents. But like everything else, there isn’t a hard “yes” or “no” to whether puppy chewing sticks are safe. It’s a bit more complex because not all puppy teething sticks are unsafe. So here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing safe puppy chewing sticks.

Avoid Hard Bones, Rawhides, and Bully Sticks

These popular dental sticks are extremely unsafe for puppies for plenty of reasons. The first being that rawhides, bully sticks, and hard bones contain animal by-products that should not be consumed by puppies or even adult dogs. Second, they have an extremely hard surface. If your puppy is an aggressive chewer or is teething, he/she is putting full pressure on the dental chew. When your puppy is exerting all his power onto the hard surface, it can result in broken teeth or swollen gums. 

Moreover, these are not edible dental sticks. So you run into the problem of your puppy swallowing a chunk of rawhide, bully stick, or hard bone. These hard chews, when they come in contact with water or saliva, are known to expand so they can result in choking, or worse, get stuck in the stomach. 

Choose Puppy Eating Sticks That are All-Natural

Most manufactured puppy eating sticks are heavily processed. When they go through heavy processing, all the natural nutrients are sucked away. At the end of the processing, manufacturers go back and add “nutrients” which are preservatives and chemicals that are actually toxic and harmful to your puppy’s health. There have been many recalls on these puppy dental sticks because of how unsafe they are. In fact, these puppy eating sticks have been linked to cancer and other serious health risks. 

Safe Dental Sticks for Puppies

So far, we have covered the benefits, and precautions you may need to take when choosing puppy chewing sticks. We still have one question left to answer, “Which puppy chewing sticks should you actually buy?” We have an answer for you. Here are a couple of safe dental sticks that aid your puppy’s nutrition.

Dogsee Chew’s Long-Lasting Dental Sticks for Puppies

These dental sticks are the perfect match for puppies. Dogsee Chew’s Hard Bars are handcrafted in the Himalayas with 100% natural cow and yak cheese. These puppy dental sticks don’t contain any preservatives, chemicals, or harmful ingredients. Unlike other commercial puppy chewing sticks, Dogsee Chew’s puppy dental sticks are human-grade, meaning they are made with high-quality ingredients that are safe for both puppy and human consumption. If you have ever caught yourself wondering what puppy teething treats tasted like, now’s your chance to give it a taste. 

Because these long-lasting puppy chewing sticks are made using cow and yak cheese, they have the optimal hardness and texture to remove plaque and tartar buildup. With these long-lasting treats, you will never have to worry about broken teeth, swollen gums, or choking. They instantly melt in your puppy’s mouth! 

But wait, there’s more! Dogsee Chew also has Turmeric Hard Bars for Puppies which are dental sticks infused with Turmeric. Turmeric is a superfood that contains powerful antioxidants and nutrients and provides various health benefits. These long-lasting turmeric dental chews, therefore, not only improve oral health but also joint health and help alleviate pain and inflammation.

Naturally, as first-time dog parents, you might feel overwhelmed and cautious when choosing puppy food and treats. After all, your puppy’s health is the most important priority. Now that you understand the ins and outs of puppy chewing treats, you can make puppy treat shopping more enjoyable while aiding your puppy’s overall development with healthy puppy treats!

When Can Babies Eat Celery? -First Foods for Baby

When can babies eat celery?

Celery and other raw, hard vegetables are common choking hazards and must be modified to be safe for babies starting solids. Cooked and finely sliced, however, may be introduced as soon as your baby is ready for solids, which is generally around six months of age.

Zuri, 10 months, explores a raw celery stick like a teether. Note: Raw vegetables are a choking hazard but can be great for furthering oral motor skills. See our Choking section for more detail and for how to minimize the choking risk.Hawii, 12 months, eats raw celery sticks.Max, 13 months, eats cooked celery slivers with beef.

Is celery healthy for babies?

Not really. While celery contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds that benefit our gut and immune systems, the vegetable doesn’t offer the nutrition density that babies require in their early stages of development. Celery does pack a punch of vitamin K (for blood health) and offers some vitamin A and folate, which are certainly beneficial, but it’s unlikely your baby will eat enough of the vegetable to reap those benefits. And did you know that one medium stalk of celery has as much sodium as one Ritz cracker? Celery is a natural source of sodium, which can be harmful to babies in excess.

Is celery a common choking hazard for babies?

Yes. You won’t find celery on top choking hazard lists for babies, but as with any raw vegetable, it can certainly pose a risk. When serving celery to babies, be sure to slice it in half moons and cook it until soft.

For more information, visit our section on gagging and choking and familiarize yourself with common choking hazards.

Is celery a common allergen?

No. Allergies to celery are rare, though it may trigger reactions in people with Oral Allergy Syndrome, a food-related allergy also known as “food pollen syndrome” that causes reactions to foods with similar protein structures to pollen.

How do you prepare celery for babies with baby-led weaning?

Every baby develops on their own timeline. The preparation suggestions below are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional, one-on-one advice from your pediatric medical or health professional, nutritionist or dietitian, or expert in pediatric feeding and eating. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen here.

6 to 12 months old: Cut a stalk of celery on the bias into half-moon slivers, then sauté in unsalted butter until soft. From there you can incorporate into other foods (such as stuffing) to make it easier for your baby to consume. If you’d like to offer a raw celery stick purely for oral motor skills development, you may, just know that raw veggies like celery increase the risk of choking.

12 to 18 months old: Serve cooked or raw celery that has been sliced into half-moon slivers. Celery is great for fork practice too!

18 to 24 months old: At this age your child may be ready for celery sticks. Cut into thin matchsticks to aid chewing and so pieces are not too big to swallow. When serving raw vegetables (or any food, really), make sure your child is sitting and not running around and watch closely. Blanching the celery in hot water to soften the stalks slightly will reduce the risk.

For more information on how to cut food for babies, visit our page on Food Sizes & Shapes.

Babies enjoy choice just like we do. When introducing a new food, try serving it two ways. Every child is different, and certain textures and shapes will appeal to your baby more than others.

Receive weekly tips on starting solids and how to prevent picky eating.

Recipe: Celery Two Ways with Lamb

Ingredients

• Celery root
• Celery stalks
• Onion or shallot
• Ground lamb (or any ground meat!)
• Butter, olive oil, or fat of your choice

Directions

1. Peel the tough skin from 1 medium-sized celery root (about the size of a softball) and rinse under cold water to wash away the dirt. Chop the root then add to a large sauce pan.
2. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then immediately turn down the heat to medium and gently simmer until the root is fully softened, about 20 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Use a fork or a potato masher to mash the celery root. Set aside.
3. While the celery root is cooking, wash 3 celery stalks, and cut off and set aside the ends and any leafy greens. (They can be tossed in the freezer to be used for future smoothies for yourself.)
4. Use a vegetable peeler to peel away any tough strings on the outside of the celery stalks, then use a sharp knife to chop the prepared stalks into fine half-moon pieces.
5. Finely chop 1 medium-sized onion (about the size of a baseball) or 2 shallots. Sauté the onion and celery in butter or the fat of your choice until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add 1 pound of ground lamb or the ground meat of your choice and cook until it is well done, about 15 minutes.
6. Scoop a dollop or two of mashed celery root in a bowl that suctions to the table, then add a heaping spoonful of the celery stalk-meat mixture on top. If your baby is younger than 12 months or needs greater assistance with eating, mix the celery stalk-meat mixture into the mashed celery root. Encourage self-feeding by pre-loading a spoon for your baby to pick up.

Flavor Pairings

Celery is a fascinating and unusually salty flavor for a vegetable, and tends to pair well with apple, carrots, fennel, onion, garlic, potato, walnut, tahini, plain yogurt, goat cheese, egg, beef, chicken, lamb and shellfish. And also grandma’s Thanksgiving stuffing!

25 Awesome Popsicle Stick Crafts for Kids of All Ages

Bust boredom with these fun popsicle stick crafts for kids of all ages.  Popsicle sticks are also known as craft sticks if you don’t want to have to wash off the stick popsicle residue.  You can now buy craft sticks by the bag at a craft or DIY store.  That gives these crafts year-round appeal.Before kids even have a chance to say “I’m bored”, stock up on those popsicle sticks and present them with these 25 summertime popsicle stick crafts for kids of all ages starting with preschoolers.

Kids can make all sorts of fun crafts from flowers to the Fourth of July, the fun won’t end…and if they do say they’re bored we have a craft for that, too!

Make a Popsicle Stick Fish

This colorful angelfish is a fun way to start your summer popsicle stick crafts.  Buy colorful craft sticks or paint them yourself with this easy DIY activity.  <–I think even adults want to make this!  I can just imagine these hanging from the ceiling via thread and making the most colorful school of decorative fish!

Via Meaningful Mama

Build a Popsicle Stick Barn

Younger preschoolers may need a little help with this craft stick barn architecture.  This barn craft will give them hours of crafting followed by tons of active play.  Think about this popsicle stick creation as just being the first part of your DIY farm.  Grab other toys for even more playful fun with this craft.

Via Crayon Box Chronicles

Craft a Beach Sign

Planning to go to the beach this summer? Save those mementos with this beach placard.  This kids craft can be a memory box of the family vacation.  Customize this craft with your child’s name or the family name.  What a fun kid-made gift for a dear friend or relative.

Via Fave Crafts

DIY Popsicle Stick Bird Feeder

This adorable homemade bird feeder is easy to make and your kids will love sitting outside watching the birds eat.  You can purchase pre-painted craft sticks or paint them yourself to match your favorite bird hangout.  Just add some birdseed and you will attract a grateful bird crowd with this finished craft.

Via Mothering with Mindfulness

Create Craft Stick Bookmarks

Part of a summer reading program? Make these popsicle stick bookmark buddies to mark their progress along the way.  Craft a few extra pom pom bookmarks to give to friends.

Via Meaningful Mama

Bend Popsicle Sticks into Homemade Bracelets

Both kids and adults love making these bracelets.  They are so fun to make because you actually BEND the popsicle sticks to fit around your wrist.  They are surprisingly an easy, fun, and wearable craft.

Via Molly Moo Crafts

Make a Popsicle Stick Bug Collection

Summer and bugs go hand and hand. That’s what makes this bug craft such a blast.  You can make lady bugs, dragon flies and so many other creative DIY bugs.

Via Inna’s Creations

Build a Catapult Made Out of Popsicle Sticks

If you build it, they will fling it. That’s a guarantee with this awesome craft stick catapult.  Take a visit to your home’s recycling bin to upcycle what you find into a working catapult.  This is a kids craft that has hours of playtime afterward!

Via Kids Activities Blog

Craft a Magical Fairy Door

Shh! The fairies might be sleeping behind this magic fairy door.  This is one of my favorite kids crafts of all times because it can be added to your backyard garden and add a little magic to any outdoor space.

Via Danya Banya

Create a Popsicle Stick Flower Garden

Time to plant a garden made of popsicle sticks!  Each flower is uniquely yours with this super easy craft for all ages.  “Pick” your flowers to create a bouquet.  Raid your button box for even more fun.

Via Preschool Crafts for Kids

Make a Popsicle Stick American Flag

Your kids will love this patriotic flag craft.  It is an easy holiday craft that could be a child’s first flag.  Create multiple versions and use them as Fourth of July decorations.

Via Our Crafts N Things

Craft a Popsicle Stick Fence

Build a corral for playtime fun and keep all those farm animals in line.  Remember that DIY barn we made above?  This could help keep your animals from wandering into a neighbor’s barn.  We love kids crafts that double as toys to play with after the crafting is complete.

Via Powerful Mothering

Create a Handprint Garden

Handprint flowers are an awesome summer art project and will give you a lasting keepsake.  This craft is so simple and such a good keepsake that you can even get the youngest crafter involved.

Via Fun Handprint Art 

Build a Craft Stick Wind Mobile

This wind mobile looks complicated but it really isn’t. Plus, your kids will love watching it spin in the wind.  This simple DIY activity is perfect for both kids and adults.

Via Stories and Children

Paint a Paper Plate Watermelon

Yum! Your kids can make this watermelon fan craft, and then you can all enjoy some real watermelon as a reward.  We love paper plate crafts because paper plates always seem to be on hand – whether or not it is time for a picnic!  Add a popsicle stick and you have a fan that beats even the warmest summer day.

Via Craft Gawker

Craft Good Old Uncle Sam Out of Popsicle Sticks

Hello, Uncle Sam! Happy Birthday!  This craft is a perfect combination of red, white and blue.  No 4th of July celebration could be complete without this fun craft for the entire family.

Via Jumpstart

Build a Craft Stick Keepsake Box

Your kids will collect tons of treasures this summer. Make this keepsake box so they’ll have a place to store them!  The simplicity of this activity is part of its charm.

Via Powerful Mothering

Create the Craft Stick Sun

Now even if it’s raining, you’ll have a little sun.  Here is to crafts for kids that actually look like they were made by kids…and that is a good thing.

Via The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Craft a Popsicle Stick Garland

This star garland will look sweet on your patio as you spend time outside this Fourth of July.  Change up the colors for many other holidays — pastels for Easter, shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day and add some red for Christmas.  This holiday craft for kids can be adapted to nearly any holiday!

Via Planetpals

Create a Biplane from Craft Sticks

This awesome biplane is a craft your kids will want to show off to all their friends.  Grab a traditional clothes pin in addition to your craft sticks and decorate in many different ways.

Via The Pleasantest Thing

Build a Popsicle Stick Petting Zoo

Your kids can make their own petting zoo with popsicle sticks and play dough.  Oh so cute.  Again, starts out as a craft for nearly any age child and ends up in hours of play.

Via House of Baby Piranha

Weave with Popsicle Sticks

Weave fun into summer with this weaving loom craft.  Part art and part weaving craft, this is sure to please any age.

Via Buggy and Buddy

Create Craft Stick Lizards

Lizards run around all over the place in the summertime, and now you can have some inside, too!  These cute and colorful popsicle stick ideas smile back at you.

Via Easy Preschool Craft

Make Adorable Popsicle Stick Garden Gates

How adorable is this little garden gate flower craft? So adorable.  I like how unique and customized this craft for kids of all ages can be!

Via Art Craft Ideas

Craft the Ultimate Boredom Buster Using Craft Sticks

Still bored? Have your kids pick a stick out of these boredom buster jars and they’ll have plenty of ways to stay active.

Via While He Was Napping

Pin all these Popsicle Stick Craft Ideas for Later:

More Craft Ideas

More Popsicle Stick Ideas

Vaccination against CIB infection

What documents regulate vaccination against CIB infection in the Russian Federation?

1. Federal Law of September 17, 1998 N 157-FZ “On Immunoprophylaxis of Infectious Diseases” (as amended on August 7, 2000, January 10, 2003, August 22, December 29, 2004, June 30 2006, 18 Oct, 1 Dec 2007, 23 July, 25, 30 Dec 2008, 24 Nov 2010)

Article 9.National Vaccination Calendar – The National Vaccination Calendar includes preventive vaccinations against hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, mumps, haemophilus influenza and influenza.

2. Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of March 21, 2014 N 125n “On approval of the national calendar of preventive vaccinations and the calendar of preventive vaccinations for epidemic indications”

The course of routine vaccination against HIB infection begins at the age of 3 months.

Children who are not vaccinated against hemophilic infection in the first year of life can be vaccinated at an older age.

3. Methodical recommendations MR 3.3.1.0001-10 “Epidemiology and vaccine prevention of infection caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b” (approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor on March 31, 2010)

The modern understanding of the infection caused by the bacterium of the type Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and also called Hib infection, is presented.The epidemiological features of Hib infection are considered, data on the incidence of Hib infection in the Russian Federation and countries of the world are presented. Particular attention is paid to the problem of vaccine prevention of Hib infection. The characteristics of conjugated Hib vaccines are given, medical indications and contraindications for their use, possible side reactions, as well as the procedure for vaccination with these drugs are considered.

90,000 Cystitis in older women, signs of illness, treatment and prevention

Causes of cystitis in older women

The cause of cystitis in women after 40 years is a decrease in the immunity of the genitourinary system.This situation occurs due to a decrease in the production of hormones, as a result of which the production of collagen decreases, which maintains the elasticity of the bladder lining. Because of this, the organ becomes vulnerable to the aggressive effects of urine and pathogenic microflora. [27] The following factors commonly contribute to the onset of urinary tract infections [28]:

• incompetence of the epithelium of the urinary tract;
• reduction in the formation of urothelial mucus;

90,037 pelvic organ prolapse;

• violation of microcirculation;
• frequent hypothermia;
• physical inactivity;
• urolithiasis;
• abuse of drugs that change the microflora of the pelvic organs.

Inflammation of the bladder often occurs due to increased pollution in the urethra, which is facilitated by incontinence of urine, feces, and poor hygiene. Most often, in old age, cystitis develops due to E. coli. In some cases, the causative agents of the inflammatory process can be ureaplasma, enterococci, staphylococci, chlamydia. [27]

It is noteworthy that in 20% of patients microbial associations are observed, while the dominant bacteria can change.This situation is especially dangerous for elderly patients who prefer to self-medicate. In this case, there is a risk of chronic inflammation, and with chronic cystitis in older women, treatment will be longer. [27]

Often the cause of cystitis during menopause is a tendency to constipation. The overcrowded intestine presses on the walls of the bladder, which leads to a violation of microcirculation, a change in its location. Untimely and incomplete emptying of the bladder leads to the accumulation of toxic fluid, which gradually eats away at its inner surface.This is how, without the participation of infectious agents, some patients develop an interstitial form of cystitis. [28]

Symptoms of cystitis in older women

The symptomatology of the disease in old age is the same as in young patients. Typical signs of cystitis are [16, 27]:

• Frequent urge to empty the bladder during the day and at night;
• the appearance of minor blotches of blood in the urine;
• pulling pains in the lower abdomen;
• atypical discharge from the urethra;
• increase in body temperature to 37.2 ° C.

The appearance of itching and burning in the perineum, pubis is also one of the signs of an uncomplicated urinary tract infection. When one of the listed signs appears, it is necessary to undergo a full examination in order to make an accurate diagnosis and select drugs for the treatment of cystitis. The fact is that many diseases of the genitourinary system have symptoms similar to cystitis and treatment, if done incorrectly, there is a high risk of inflammation becoming chronic.[16]

How to prevent the development of cystitis?

Preventive measures do not guarantee the absence of relapses. But if some simple recommendations are followed, elderly patients can improve their quality of life and prolong the period of remission. [29]

With the onset of menopause, women should pay special attention to the health of the genitourinary system. First of all, you need to be examined by a gynecologist. The doctor will order the necessary tests to determine your estrogen levels.If necessary, the gynecologist will select drugs to maintain normal hormonal levels, strengthen the barrier membranes of the bladder, and enhance immunity. [29]

As part of the prevention of the development of cystitis in older women, special attention should also be paid to issues of personal hygiene. In older women, cystitis is often accompanied by urinary incontinence (especially after the age of 80), which occurs due to the prolapse of the pelvic organs. In this situation, one of the effective ways to prevent the development of urinary tract inflammation is to observe personal hygiene.[29]

In old age, in order to prevent the development of urinary tract infections, it is also necessary to adjust the diet. The daily menu should include protein foods, vegetable fats, slow carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins. But at the same time, salty, spicy, too fatty and fried foods should be excluded. Proper nutrition will help create an environment in the bladder that has high immune capacity. [29]

With age, many women are prone to physical inactivity, which does not have the best effect on the health of the genitourinary system.To strengthen immunity, improve metabolic processes and the general condition of the body, daily muscle loads are needed. [29]

Treatment of cystitis in women should be prescribed by a doctor. Regular visits to the urologist, therapist, gynecologist will help to timely detect the problem and select the necessary therapy. [29]

Phytolysin® in the treatment of cystitis in women

Herbal medicines are often involved in the complex treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections.One of them is the diuretic Fitolysin®. It comes in the form of a paste for the preparation of an oral suspension. In this form, the active components are better absorbed, delivered directly to the focus of inflammation. [2, 26]

This medicine for cystitis contains an extract of goldenrod, horsetail, knotweed, birch leaves, onion husks, as well as sage and mint oils, and other plant components [6, 26]. The natural diuretic Phytolysin® has several advantages:

• convenient and effective form of release [2];
• diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic action [6].

Fitolizin® paste is prescribed as part of the complex therapy of cystitis. It helps to eliminate urinary disorders, fight spasms and pain, and stop the inflammatory process [1]. The production of the medicinal product complies with GMP standards. [3]

90,000 Vaccinations Pentaxim

Vaccination according to the scheme

Primary vaccination is done by a course, the scheme of which involves three vaccine injections plus 1 revaccination.Immunization is carried out as follows: the introduction of 1 dose, after 45 days the introduction of 2 doses, after another 45 days – the introduction of 3 doses, and a year after that – the mandatory revaccination.

Vaccination is indicated for children from three months.

It is undesirable to violate the vaccination scheme, since the strength of the child’s immunity to the active substances of the vaccine may decrease. For children from 1 year of age and older, the administration of the Pentaxim vaccine with a hemophilic component is performed once, Prevention of polio, tetanus, pertussis and diphtheria in a child from 1 year of age and older is subsequently performed with the Pentaxim vaccine, but without the use of a hemophilic component.

Routine vaccination

In Russia, the National Calendar of Preventive Vaccinations has been approved, according to which the Pentaxim vaccination is given to children three times – 1 dose at the age of 3, 4, 5 and 6 months, and revaccination is performed at the age of 18 months. By order of January 31, 2011, No. 51, the vaccination against hemophilus influenza is also included in this calendar.

Simultaneous administration of the drug. Pentaxim with other vaccines

It is allowed to vaccinate Pentaxim for children at the same time as any other vaccines from the Russian calendar of preventive vaccinations – on the same day, but in different parts of the body.An exception is BCG vaccination.

On the ability to develop immunity (immunogenicity), the use of Pentaxim vaccination together with other vaccines has no effect. The number of adverse reactions does not increase, the tolerance of vaccinations does not become worse.

The introduction of several vaccines on day 1 does not exert an excessive load on immunity.

You can use the Pentaxim vaccination at any stage of the vaccination course (completion, continuation), even if it was started with other vaccinations against hemophilus influenzae, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria.Moreover, all vaccines for prophylactic vaccinations specified in the Russian calendar are interchangeable.

Adverse reactions

Pentaxim vaccination can cause general and local reactions.

Common reactions to vaccination in most cases are fever, subfebrile (up to 10% of children) or febrile (very rarely – up to 1% of children). Even less often, complications are more severe (less than 1%), manifested by compaction at the injection site, headache, irritability, itching, sleep disturbance, lymphadenopathy.

Local reactions are not common (up to 10% of children), of which soreness, swelling, redness at the injection site are most often manifested.

Contraindications

If you are going to vaccinate children with Pentaxim, you should take into account some contraindications:

• hypersensitivity (confirmed systemic reaction) to any of the constituents of the vaccine;
• exacerbation of chronic diseases, acute infectious diseases, an increase in body temperature due to illness – in any of these cases, the vaccine is transferred until complete recovery;
• Allergic reaction following previous vaccination against polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria and Haemophilus influenzae type b infection.

Additional information

Vaccination Pentaxim does not give immunity against pneumonia and meningitis of other etiology, as well as against infections caused by other types of Haemophilus influenzae.

Vaccines with Pentaxim can only be made to completely healthy children; before vaccination, it is imperative to undergo an examination by a pediatrician in order to assess the child’s health and exclude infectious diseases. You cannot use the Pentaxim vaccine if the child has contraindications from the nervous system confirmed by a neurologist.

Liquid cytology. Examination of scraping of the cervix and cervical canal (Pap test)

Cytological examination using a special method of staining the material, which allows with high sensitivity to identify atypical cells in a smear and diagnose early precancerous changes in the epithelium and cervical cancer.

Synonyms Russian

Pap smear, Pap test, smear for oncocytology.

Synonyms English

Pap smear, Papanicolaou Smear; Cervical Smear; Cervical Oncocytology.

Research method

Liquid cytology method.

Which biomaterial can be used for research?

Mixed smear from the cervical canal and the surface of the cervix.

General information about the study

Cervical cancer (CC) ranks third in prevalence among all malignant tumors in women (after breast cancer and colon cancer). The incidence of invasive cervical cancer worldwide is 15-25 per 100,000 women.Cervical neoplasms occur mainly in middle-aged women (35-55 years old), are rarely diagnosed under the age of 20, and in 20% of cases are detected over the age of 65 years.

The 5-year survival rate for localized (local, in situ) cervical cancer is 88%, while the survival rate for advanced cancer does not exceed 13%.

Risk factors for developing cervical cancer include human papillomavirus infection (oncogenic serotypes HPV 16, HPV 18, HPV 31, HPV 33, HPV 45, etc.), smoking, chlamydial or herpes infection, chronic inflammatory gynecological diseases, long-term use of contraceptives, cases of cervical cancer in the family, early onset of sexual activity, frequent change of sexual partners, insufficient intake of vitamins A and C, immunodeficiency and HIV infection …

According to international recommendations, all women should be screened (pre-symptomatic examination) for cervical cancer 3 years after the onset of sexual activity, but no later than 21 years.From the age of 30, patients who have 3 consecutive negative cervical smear results can be screened every 2-3 years. Women with risk factors (human papillomavirus infection, immunodeficiency states) should continue to be screened annually. Women 65 years or older with 3 or more normal cervical smear results in the past 10 years may not be eligible for screening. Those who have had cervical cancer, have a papilloma virus infection or a weakened immune system, it is advisable to continue screening.Women who have undergone removal of the uterus and cervix may not have this test if the operation was not performed because of cancer or precancerous condition of the cervix. Those who had surgery only on the uterus, without removing the cervix, should continue to participate in the screening.

Liquid cytology – an innovative method of cytological research, ideal for diagnosing neoplasms of the mucous membrane of the canal and the vaginal part of the uterine cervix; it is used when a patient suspects cancer or dysplasia.Thanks to it, cancer can be detected at the earliest stages of development.

After taking a smear for oncocytology, the biomaterial is placed in a liquid medium. With the help of a special centrifuge, cells (cytopreparations) are “washed”, which are concentrated in one place and form an even layer. In this case, the conclusion of a cytologist will be more accurate and informative than in conventional cytology, when the material taken for research is immediately applied to a medical glass for analysis.

The advantage of the PAP test is the high definition of the cell image.When using this technology, the resulting material is mixed with a special solution that mechanically separates the epithelial cells from contamination. As a result, the number of false negative results is significantly reduced.

Cytological examination of material from the cervix and cervical canal, stained by the Papanicolaou method in compliance with the test method and conditions of preparation for analysis, allows with high sensitivity and reliability to identify atypical cells in the material, precancerous conditions (dysplasia, intraepithelial neoplasia of the cervix).Most often, a biomaterial obtained with a special cytobrush from two points (epithelium of the endocervix and exocervix) is examined. Material from the transformation zone should get into the smear, since about 90% of neoplastic conditions come from the junction zone of the squamous and cylindrical epithelium and only 10% from the cylindrical. This study can also reveal signs of infection, pathology of the endocervix and endometrium.

Screening and early diagnosis of precancerous conditions and early stages of cervical cancer allow timely effective treatment and prevent dangerous consequences.

What is the research used for?

• Screening and diagnosis of precancerous diseases of the cervix.
• Screening and diagnosis of cervical cancer.

When is the study scheduled?

• For periodic examination of girls and women 3 years after the onset of sexual activity, but not later than 21 years (it is recommended to take the analysis annually and at least every 3 years).
• Every 2 to 3 years from age 30 to 65 years with three consecutive negative results.
• Annually if you have human papillomavirus (HPV), if your immune system is weakened as a result of transplantation, chemotherapy, or prolonged use of steroid hormones.

What do the results mean?

Based on Bethesda classification “ The 2001 Bethesda System terminology ”

1. Amount of material

• Material complete (adequate) – a good quality smear containing a sufficient number of the corresponding cell types is considered a complete material.
• The material is insufficiently complete (insufficiently adequate) – there are no endocervical cells and / or metaplastic cells in the material, squamous epithelial cells are in sufficient quantity, or the cellular composition is poor.
• The material is defective (inadequate) – it is impossible to judge the presence or absence of pathological changes in the cervix by the material.

2. Interpretation of results:

• Negative Pap test – epithelial cells are within normal limits, cytogram corresponds to age, normal.
• Benign changes – the presence of non-tumor cells, signs of inflammation (increased number of leukocytes), infection (a significant number of cocci, rods). It is possible to detect infectious agents (indicating the pathogen), for example Trichomonas, yeast.
• Changes in squamous epithelial cells (require increased attention, additional examination and if precancer or cancer is detected, treatment):

• atypical squamous epithelial cells of unclear significance;
• atypical squamous epithelial cells that do not exclude HSIL;
• squamous intraepithelial lesion;
• Low degree of squamous intraepithelial lesion;
• high degree of squamous intraepithelial lesion;
• Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of the 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree;
• carcinoma in situ;
• squamous cell carcinoma is invasive cancer.

• Changes in glandular cells (require increased attention, additional examination and if precancer or cancer is detected, treatment):

• atypical glandular cells;
• atypical glandular cells, similar to neoplastic;
• adenocarcinoma.

If minimal changes or atypical cells of unclear significance are detected, it is recommended to conduct an examination for oncogenic serotypes of the human papillomavirus.

What can influence the result?

In girls under 20, false positive results are possible due to the presence of changes in the epithelium against the background of transient hormonal disorders.

Download an example of the result

Important notes

• In acute infection, it is desirable to obtain material for the purpose of examination and identification of the etiological agent; after treatment, but not earlier than 2 months later, cytological control is required.
• There is a possibility of a negative test result with changes in the epithelium in the cervix, therefore it is important to regularly re-examine and, if the material is not taken correctly, repeat the test.

Also recommended

• Cytological examination of smears (scrapings) from the surface of the cervix (external uterine pharynx) and cervical canal for atypia
• Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA)
• Human Papillomavirus of high carcinogenic risk (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 types), DNA without type determination [PCR] (urogenital smear, rectal smear, biopsy)

Who orders the study?

Gynecologist, oncologist.

Literature

• Apgar BS, Zoschnick L, Wright TC (November 2003). “The 2001 Bethesda System terminology”. Am Fam Physician 68 (10): 1992-8.PMID 14655809.
• Arbyn M. et al. (2010). “European Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Cancer Screening. Second Edition — Summary Document”. Annals of Oncology 21 (3): 448-458.
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “ACOG Committee Opinion No. 483: Primary and Preventive Care: Periodic Assessments,” 2011, Obstet Gynecol, 2011, 117 (4): 1008-15.PubMed 21422880.

90,000 Intestinal infection in children

Intestinal infection in children – a group of infectious diseases of various etiologies occurring with a predominant lesion of the digestive tract, toxic reaction and dehydration of the body.

In children, intestinal infection is manifested by fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea. Diagnosis of intestinal infection in children is based on clinical and laboratory data (history, symptoms, excretion of the pathogen in feces, detection of specific antibodies in the blood).With intestinal infection in children, antimicrobial drugs, bacteriophages, enterosorbents are prescribed; during the period of treatment, it is important to adhere to a diet and conduct rehydration.

Intestinal infection in children – acute bacterial and viral infectious diseases accompanied by intestinal syndrome, intoxication and dehydration. In the structure of infectious morbidity in pediatric intestinal infections in children occupy the second place after ARVI. The susceptibility to intestinal infection in children is 2.5-3 times higher than in adults.About half of cases of intestinal infection in children occur at an early age (up to 3 years). Intestinal infection in a young child is more severe, may be accompanied by malnutrition, the development of dysbiosis and enzymatic insufficiency, and a decrease in immunity. Frequent recurrence of episodes of infection causes impairment of the physical and neuropsychic development of children.

Causes of intestinal infection in children

The range of pathogens of intestinal infections in children is extremely wide.The most common pathogens are gram-negative enterobacteria (Shigella, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia, Yersinia) and opportunistic flora (Klebsiella, Clostridia, Proteus, Staphylococcus, etc.). In addition, there are intestinal infections caused by viral pathogens (rotaviruses, enteroviruses, adenoviruses), protozoa (lamblia, amoebas, coccidia), fungi. The common properties of all pathogens that determine the development of clinical manifestations are enteropathogenicity, the ability to synthesize endo- and exotoxins.

Infection of children with intestinal infections occurs through the fecal-oral mechanism through alimentary (through food), water, contact and household routes (through dishes, dirty hands, toys, household items, etc.). In weakened children with low immunological reactivity, endogenous infection with opportunistic bacteria is possible. The source of OCI can be a carrier, a patient with an erased or manifest form of the disease, pets. In the development of intestinal infection in children, an important role is played by the violation of the rules for the preparation and storage of food, the admission to children’s kitchens of persons carrying infection, patients with tonsillitis, furunculosis, streptoderma, etc.

Sporadic cases of intestinal infection in children are most often recorded, although group and even epidemic outbreaks are possible with the food or water route of infection. The rise in the incidence of some intestinal infections in children has a seasonal dependence: for example, dysentery occurs more often in summer and autumn, rotavirus infection in winter.

The prevalence of intestinal infections among children is due to epidemiological features (high prevalence and contagiousness of pathogens, their high resistance to environmental factors), anatomical and physiological features of the child’s digestive system (low acidity of gastric juice), imperfection of protective mechanisms (low concentration of IgA).The incidence of acute intestinal infection in children is facilitated by the disruption of the normal intestinal microbiota, non-observance of the rules of personal hygiene, and poor sanitary and hygienic living conditions.

Classification of intestinal infection in children

According to the clinical and etiological principle, among the intestinal infections most often recorded in the pediatric population, there are shigellosis (dysentery), salmonellosis, coli infection (escherichiosis), yersiniosis, campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis, rotavirus infection, staphylococcal infection and other intestinal infections.

According to the severity and characteristics of the symptoms, the course of intestinal infection in children can be typical (mild, moderate, severe) and atypical (erased, hypertoxic). The severity of the clinic is assessed by the degree of gastrointestinal tract damage, dehydration and intoxication.

The nature of local manifestations in intestinal infection in children depends on the lesion of one or another part of the gastrointestinal tract, and therefore gastritis, enteritis, colitis, gastroenteritis, gastroenterocolitis, enterocolitis are distinguished.In addition to localized forms, in infants and weakened children, generalized forms of infection can develop with the spread of the pathogen outside the digestive tract.

During the course of intestinal infection in children, acute (up to 1.5 months), protracted (over 1.5 months) and chronic (over 5-6 months) phases are distinguished.

Dysentery in children

After a short incubation period (1-7 days), the temperature rises sharply (up to 39-40 ° C), weakness and weakness increase, appetite decreases, vomiting is possible.Against the background of fever, there is a headache, chills, sometimes – delirium, convulsions, loss of consciousness. Intestinal infection in children is accompanied by cramping abdominal pain localized in the left iliac region, symptoms of distal colitis (soreness and spasm of the sigmoid colon, tenesmus with rectal prolapse), symptoms of sphincteritis. The frequency of bowel movements can vary from 4-6 to 15-20 times per day. With dysentery, the stool is liquid, containing impurities of cloudy mucus and blood. In severe forms of dysentery, hemorrhagic syndrome may develop, up to intestinal bleeding.

In young children with intestinal infection, general intoxication prevails over colitis syndrome, hemodynamic, electrolyte and protein metabolism disorders occur more often. The most easily in children is intestinal infection caused by Shigella Zone; heavier – Shigella Flexner and Grigoriez-Shiga.

Salmonellosis in children

Most often (in 90% of cases), the gastrointestinal form of salmonellosis develops, proceeding according to the type of gastritis, gastroenteritis, gastroenterocolitis.Characterized by a subacute onset, febrile rise in temperature, weakness, vomiting, hepatosplenomegaly. Stool with salmonellosis is liquid, abundant, feces, the color of “swamp mud”, with admixtures of mucus and blood. Usually, this form of intestinal infection ends with recovery, however, in infants, death is possible due to severe intestinal toxicosis.

Influenza-like (respiratory) form of intestinal infection occurs in 4-5% of children. With this form, Salmonella is found in the inoculation of material from the pharynx.Its course is characterized by febrile temperature, headache, arthralgia and myalgia, symptoms of rhinitis, pharyngitis, conjunctivitis. From the side of the cardiovascular system, tachycardia and arterial hypotension are noted.

Typhus-like form of salmonellosis in children accounts for 2% of clinical cases. It proceeds with a long period of fever (up to 3-4 weeks), severe intoxication, dysfunction of the cardiovascular system (tachycardia, bradycardia).

The septic form of intestinal infection usually develops in children in the first months of life with an unfavorable premorbid background.It accounts for about 2-3% of cases of salmonellosis in children. The disease is extremely difficult, accompanied by septicemia or septicopyemia, violation of all types of metabolism, the development of severe complications (pneumonia, parenchymal hepatitis, otoantritis, meningitis, osteomyelitis).

Escherichiosis in children

This group of intestinal infections in children is extremely extensive and includes coli-infections caused by enteropathogenic, enterotoxigenic, enteroinvasive, enterohemorrhagic escherichias.

Intestinal infection in children caused by Escherichia occurs with subfebrile or febrile temperature, weakness, lethargy, decreased appetite, persistent vomiting or regurgitation, flatulence. Characterized by watery diarrhea (profuse, splashing yellow stools mixed with mucus), quickly leading to dehydration and the development of exsicosis. With escherichiosis caused by enterohemorrhagic escherichias, diarrhea is bloody.

As a result of dehydration, the child develops dry skin and mucous membranes, decreases tissue turgor and elasticity, sinks a large fontanelle and eyeballs, decreases urine output by the type of oliguria or anuria.

Rotavirus infection in children

Usually proceeds as acute gastroenteritis or enteritis. The incubation period lasts on average 1-3 days. All symptoms of intestinal infection in children develop within one day, while the lesion of the gastrointestinal tract is combined with catarrhal phenomena.

Respiratory syndrome is characterized by throat hyperemia, rhinitis, sore throat, coughing. Simultaneously with the defeat of the nasopharynx, signs of gastroenteritis develop: liquid (watery, foamy) stools with a frequency of bowel movements from 4-5 to 15 times a day, vomiting, temperature reaction, general intoxication.The duration of the course of intestinal infection in children is 4-7 days.

Staphylococcal intestinal infection in children

Distinguish between primary staphylococcal intestinal infection in children, associated with the consumption of food seeded with staphylococcus, and secondary, caused by the spread of the pathogen from other foci.

The course of intestinal infection in children is characterized by severe exicosis and toxicosis, vomiting, increased stool up to 10-15 times a day. The stool is loose, watery, greenish in color, with a slight admixture of mucus.With secondary staphylococcal infection in children, intestinal symptoms develop against the background of the leading disease: purulent otitis media, pneumonia, staphyloderma, tonsillitis, etc. In this case, the disease can take a long undulating course.

Diagnosis of intestinal infection in children

Based on the examination, epidemiological and clinical data, the pediatrician (pediatric infectious disease specialist) can only assume the likelihood of intestinal infection in children, however, etiological decoding is possible only on the basis of laboratory data.

The main role in confirming the diagnosis of intestinal infection in children is played by bacteriological examination of stool, which should be carried out as early as possible, before the initiation of etiotropic therapy. With a generalized form of intestinal infection in children, blood culture is performed for sterility, bacteriological examination of urine, cerebrospinal fluid.

Serological methods (RPHA, ELISA, RSK) are of a certain diagnostic value, which allow detecting the presence of Ab to the pathogen in the patient’s blood from the 5th day from the onset of the disease.The study of the coprogram allows you to clarify the localization of the process in the gastrointestinal tract.

In case of intestinal infection in children, it is required to exclude acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, lactase deficiency, biliary dyskinesia and other pathologies. For this purpose, consultations are held with a pediatric surgeon and a pediatric gastroenterologist.

Treatment of intestinal infection in children

Complex treatment of intestinal infections in children involves the organization of medical nutrition; oral rehydration, etiotropic, pathogenetic and symptomatic therapy.

The diet of children with intestinal infection requires a decrease in the amount of food, an increase in the frequency of feedings, the use of mixtures enriched with protective factors, the use of mashed, easily digestible food. An important component of the therapy of intestinal infections in children is oral rehydration with glucose-saline solutions, drinking plenty of fluids. It is carried out until the loss of fluid ceases. If oral nutrition and fluid intake are impossible, infusion therapy is prescribed: solutions of glucose, Ringer, albumin, etc. are injected intravenously.

Etiotropic therapy of intestinal infections in children is carried out with antibiotics and intestinal antiseptics (kanamycin, gentamicin, polymyxin, furazolidone, nalidixic acid), enterosorbents. The administration of specific bacteriophages and lactoglobulins (salmonella, dysentery, coliprotein, klebsiella, etc.), as well as immunoglobulins (anti-rotavirus, etc.) is shown. Pathogenetic therapy involves the appointment of enzymes, antihistamines; symptomatic treatment includes taking antipyretics, antispasmodics.During the period of convalescence, it is necessary to correct dysbiosis, take vitamins and adaptogens.

Prediction and prevention of intestinal infection in children

Early detection and adequate therapy ensure complete recovery from intestinal infections in children. Immunity after OCI is unstable. In severe forms of intestinal infection, children may develop hypovolemic shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome, pulmonary edema, acute renal failure, acute heart failure, and infectious toxic shock.

At the heart of the prevention of intestinal infections in children is the observance of sanitary and hygienic standards: proper storage and heat treatment of food, protection of water from pollution, isolation of patients, disinfection of toys and utensils in children’s institutions, instilling in children the skills of personal hygiene. When caring for a baby, the mother should not neglect the processing of the mammary glands before feeding, processing the nipples and bottles, washing hands after swaddling and washing the baby.

Children who have been in contact with a patient with intestinal infection are subject to bacteriological examination and observation for 7 days.

90,000 Cultural heritage of Ugra

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at org.springframework.core.convert.support.ConversionUtils.invokeConverter (ConversionUtils.java:40)
at org.springframework.core.convert.support.GenericConversionService.convert (GenericConversionService.java:135)
at org.springframework.beans.TypeConverterDelegate.convertIfNecessary (TypeConverterDelegate.java:199)
at org.springframework.beans.TypeConverterDelegate.convertIfNecessary (TypeConverterDelegate.java:104)
at org.springframework.beans.SimpleTypeConverter.convertIfNecessary (SimpleTypeConverter.java:47)
at org.springframework.validation.DataBinder.convertIfNecessary (DataBinder.java:526)
at org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.support.HandlerMethodInvoker.resolvePathVariable (HandlerMethodInvoker.java:602)
at org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.support.HandlerMethodInvoker.resolveHandlerArguments (HandlerMethodInvoker.java:289)
at org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.support.HandlerMethodInvoker.invokeHandlerMethod (HandlerMethodInvoker.java:163)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter.invokeHandlerMethod (AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter.java:414)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter.handle (AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter.java:402)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch (DispatcherServlet.java:771)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService (DispatcherServlet.java:716)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest (FrameworkServlet.java:647)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet (FrameworkServlet.java:552)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service (HttpServlet.java:624)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service (HttpServlet.java:731)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:303)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal (HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:71)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter (OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:241)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter (WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:241)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
at com.altsoft.kaisa_internet.kaisa_internet_core.util.RequestFilter.doFilter (RequestFilter.java:28)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:241)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter (ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke (StandardWrapperValve.java:220)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke (StandardContextValve.java:122)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke (AuthenticatorBase.java: 505)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke (StandardHostValve.java:170)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke (ErrorReportValve.java:103)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke (AccessLogValve.java:956)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke (StandardEngineValve.java:116)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service (CoyoteAdapter.java:423)
at org.apache.coyote.ajp.AjpProcessor.process (AjpProcessor.java:190)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol $ AbstractConnectionHandler.process (AbstractProtocol.java:625)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint $ SocketProcessor.run (JIoEndpoint.java:316)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor $ Worker.run (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread $ WrappingRunnable.run (TaskThread.java:61)
at java.lang.Thread.run (Thread.java:724)
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at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString (NumberFormatException.java:65)
at java.lang.Long.parseLong (Long.java:441)
at java.lang.Long.valueOf (Long.java:540)
at org.springframework.util.NumberUtils.parseNumber (NumberUtils.java:158)
at org.springframework.core.convert.support.StringToNumberConverterFactory $ StringToNumber.convert (StringToNumberConverterFactory.java:59)
at org.springframework.core.convert.support.StringToNumberConverterFactory $ StringToNumber.convert (StringToNumberConverterFactory.java: 1)
at org.springframework.core.convert.support.GenericConversionService $ ConverterFactoryAdapter.convert (GenericConversionService.java:420)
at org.springframework.core.convert.support.ConversionUtils.invokeConverter (ConversionUtils.java:37)
… 43 more

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A timely tetanus shot can be life-saving

In modern medicine, the most effective way to prevent most infectious diseases is vaccination, which helps the body to produce protective antibodies on its own.For example, a timely tetanus shot can be life-saving for both adults and children.

Tetanus is an infectious disease with an acute course and a predominant lesion of the nervous system. The causative agent of tetanus, Clostridium tetani, is a mobile gram-positive bacillus that can live in various environments (soil, salt or fresh water). It is most often found in places where the soil is moist and receives a lot of fertilizer.Tetanus rods live in the intestines of humans or pets all the time, but they cause disease. Only when they get into the ground, the sticks form spores that can live in it for several years. Infection occurs through direct contact of the microorganism with the damaged area of ​​the skin – the wound transmission route.

How does tetanus develop ? The incubation period for tetanus ranges from 5 to 14 days. Under anaerobic conditions in the wound, spores germinate and secrete exotoxin, which enters the central nervous system (spinal cord, medulla oblongata, reticular formation of the trunk) through neurogenic, hematogenous, lymphogenous pathways, causing paralysis of the intercalary neurons of the reflex arcs of the spinal cord and medulla oblongata.The impulses generated in motor neurons are delivered to the muscles continuously, causing tonic tension of the skeletal muscles. The sympathetic nervous system is affected: blood pressure rises, tachycardia, vasospasm, hemolysis appear.

The source of tetanus infection is herbivores, in which the vegetative form of the bacteria lives in the intestines without causing disease.

Sticks are released into the environment with the faeces of such animals.In this case, they most often remain in the soil. Depending on the conditions, bacteria can remain in a vegetative form with active growth and reproduction, or turn into spores. Clostridia enter the intestines of herbivores with the grass eaten by the animal. In the summertime or in countries with tropical or subtropical climates, Clostridia can actively multiply and develop in the soil if it is rich in organic matter and moisture. Infection of a person occurs by wound when soil or dust gets into the wound with clostridia or their spores.

Diagnosis of tetanus . The clinical picture of tetanus is quite specific for the diagnosis. Autopsy materials, dressings and sutures, washings from surgical instruments, dust, soil, air can be examined to identify the pathogen.

Isolation of the pathogen is usually possible from the site of infection (scraping or discharge at the site of skin damage). Sometimes there is a need for swabs from the nose and mucous membrane of the pharynx, vagina and uterus (with postpartum or post-abortion tetanus).Exploring the obtained biological material, produce the release of tetanus exotoxin and a biological test in mice.

Complications . Severe complications of tetanus with a high probability of death are asphyxia and cardiac arrest. In addition, tetanus can contribute to the occurrence of bone fractures, muscle ruptures, and compression deformities of the spinal column. A common complication of tetanus is pneumonia, coronary spasm and myocardial infarction can develop.During recovery, contractures, paralysis of the third, sixth and seventh pairs of cranial nerves are sometimes noted. In newborns, tetanus can be complicated by sepsis.

Forecast . The prognosis of tetanus depends on the form of the course, which is the heavier, the shorter the incubation period and the faster the development of clinical symptoms.