“Here is a seven - a poker, she has one leg” - this is a poem of the famous children's poet Samuel Yakovlevich Marshak. But this word has two meanings - household and medical.
Let's understand what a poker is in the sense of an instrument and a disease.
Poker at home
As a household tool, the poker is a long metal stick bent at the end in the shape of the letter “G”. It should be refractory, since its main purpose is to turn coal in a stove, barbecue or any other place where firewood is used.
Manufacturers make a convenient handle for a modern poker, so that a person using this tool does not burn his hand on a hot rod.
You can make a poker yourself if you have a suitable metal of the desired shape. Steel reinforcement is usually used to make a poker suitable for the furnace.
Poker as a disease in newborns
Another meaning of the word "poker" is the ingrowth of hairs on the body of a newborn. The longer they grow under the skin, the more clearly they take on the shape of a poker, where the name comes from. It is called “bristle” in another way, as our grandmothers said.
In folk medicine, there are many recipes for removing this scourge. Our ancestors used recipes with honey, butter, breast milk and even dough to get rid of the bristles. But is it worth it to expose the baby to such tests?
Modern medicine does not use these terms and does not recognize such a disease. The pediatricians explain the presence of such a “bristle” in the baby by the fact that such a poker is just a gentle fluff on the body of a newborn, which rolled up and formed a similar crust. Doctors advise washing the baby more often and moisturizing the skin with baby oil.
What both pediatricians and our grandmothers agree on is that it is absolutely impossible to pull out these hairs or try to remove them with rough methods. Indeed, newborns have very delicate and sensitive skin, which is easily damaged.
Whether to use alternative methods when removing such a crust on the child’s body or still listen to the advice of doctors, is for each mother to decide for herself. But do not forget that medical science has devoted many centuries to the study of the human body and the treatment of diseases, and to use the accumulated knowledge is so simple in our country. You just need to see a doctor.
Instead of output
So, in the Russian language the word "poker" is used in two cases:
- This is a metal rod for tedding coals in a furnace or barbecue.
- This is the colloquial name for rolled hairs on the body of a newborn baby.