Forming habits

How do we change when making a conscious significant decision is difficult?
The answer really lies in what works for you.

Developing a habit maybe the inflection point for meaningful change. Think about the New Year’s resolution that many people try yearly.
They hit the gym or change up their eating plan aggressively, only to fade away from the behavior because of the difficulty in maintaining such a draconian change.
How about changing slowly, through habit forming behaviors? For example, for me, writing takes effort. When I first started this newsletter 9 years ago, the passages were short pithy statements that took very little time to compose. I was not overwhelmed with the task so I pushed on. They did, however, come out weekly and on time.

As time passed the process became a habit that I felt the need to perform. The writing process became easier and the desire to write more detail and tackle tougher topics filled me.
I think that this is the primer for anything. Do you want to become a runner? Start today. Run 1/4 of a mile. Every other day run a little farther. Not much, but definitely farther. Don’t miss the run unless you are truly ill. Within a few months, you will likely be running 1-2 miles every other day. You are now a runner!
Habits are the key to change.

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BB guns and non-lethal projectile firearms

Over a 26-year period Dr. Jones and colleagues looked at the injuries related to non-powder and non-lethal firearms in more than 360,000 patient emergency visits.

“From 1990 to 2016, the number and rate of nonpowder firearm injuries decreased by 47.8% and 54.5%, respectively. Most injuries occurred among 6- to 12-year-olds (47.4%) and 13- to 17-year-olds (47%). Boys accounted for 87.1% of injured children, the most common diagnosis was foreign body (46.3%), and 7.1% of children were admitted. BB guns accounted for 80.8% of injuries, followed by pellet guns (15.5%), paintball guns (3%), and airsoft guns (0.6%). The rate of eye injuries increased by 30.3% during the study period. Eye injuries accounted for 14.8% of all injuries and the most common diagnoses were corneal abrasion (35.1%), hyphema (12.5%), globe rupture (10.4%), and foreign body (8.6%).” (Jones et. al. 2019)

This is a pretty simple analysis of risk. Boys without eye protection are our target audience for change. Therefore, if your children use these forms of firearms, insist that they wear high quality eye protection.

Dr. M

Dr. Chris Magryta is a physician at Salisbury Pediatric Associates. Contact him at newsletter@salisburypediatrics.com