philat98

You might be right Pulaski.

I've noticed most outdoor manual workers around here do everything with a cigarette in the mouth. Even at our local petrol station the man often smokes while serving fuel.

Life expectancy must be a bit reduced among these people.

Lorna at Vicenza

Generally Italians baby their kids more than we do and for a lot longer than we do which might explain a little why some of them are so wimpy about things.I remember my first meeting with Chloe's teachers at scuola maternal who told me that she was very good at going to the loo by herself, feeding herself, dressing herself etc and I said, "well don't they all at this age? That's normal."Not here. Then I started looking around me and realised how many kids were turning up at school with dummies or even baby milk bottles and couldn't get their own arms into their own jackets because mummy or nonna was still doing absolutely everything for them. Ever seen an Italian chase a kid around a restaurant with a spoonful of food begging the child to come and eat something and everything has to be tepid or at room temperature.

philat98

Yes I've noticed in the local supermarket some infants that look about school age sitting in prams with dummies.

Your explanation accounts for it Lorna.

Pica

What happened to the Montessori approach that encourages independence?

Pica

All the weeny ones I've seen around here are spot on. Chatty, confident and dead cute. In the 5 years we've been here I've not seen a dummy in any child's mouth over the age of 6 months! And they walk, no pushchairs.

modicasa

Pulaski, thats because it would be classed as a heart attack, or a cardio problem, but it is disticntily possible to die from an ice cold drink if you have preexisting condition, even more so if the drink is carbonated. Its like 'dying from a broken heart' or a 'chill on the kidney' isnt really what its called, but a populist reason. Some people may know all the medical names and conditions, but in a largely illiterate population until the last war, its hardly surpriising that symptoms are still bundled under general heading ssuch a congestione, cervicale etc -

highlander1

I know one's cannot generalise ,but daughter of italian friend , a doctor, living at the moment in the UK, 2 kids.
The younger one had nappy till he was 3 1/2, now 4 started school , uses a dummy to go to sleep, and goes on try touching mother's breast all of the time .

37100

Nor round here, but in the UK I have seen mums waiting at the school gates with a pushchair because junior is too tired to walk home. Another thing I see a lot in the UK, but not here is kids with a sippy cup.

Lorna at Vicenza

 And they don't even have 15 kilos of school books on their backs in the UK. 

sunnysider

I have definitely seen a child with a dummy - way way beyond the age about which I'd expect it in Britain. The Italians I was with didn't seem to find it odd. In truth I find it somewhat creepy. Does anyone have any explanation for this habit (for I do think it is real) of extended dummy use? What do the parents think it is achieving?

sunnysider

But modicasa, Pulaski's comment seems entirely logical for me - ie - basically if it was a real phenomenon, folks in other parts of the world would rank it as important, or at least notable, as well. Surely?

I well remember once searching the entire planet's web (well a sample of course) for information on this peril and the only thing I found was from Argentina? And what do we know about Argentina? A fair few folk of Italian descent perhaps.

And surely the cause of death for many hit by "congestione", is, er drowning?

I can well believe that, statistically, a fair few Italians die shortly after drinking an iced drink.

But:

How many die every year shortly after:

@ eating a bit of pasta
@ returning from the toilet
@ Having a coffee
@ Exchanging a grumpy word with their spouse
@ Watching Carlo Conti
@ Watching a football match, live or on TV
@ Doing the washing up
@ Drinking a glass of tepid water
@ Reading a book
@ Applying sun tan cream
@ Adjusting their speedos

?

Pulaski

So highly localized then, like heavy legs are in France.

Patty

The famous Cervicale will be back now its autumn. Thats another localised malady A friend of mine in the UK was laughing when I tried to explain about it. So this week she e mailed me and said she has searched English medical explanations but she could only find it in Italian Her e mail title summed it all up for me .....'cervicale my ass'

oh forgot to say - we were in St Malo in July. We saw a couple walking towards us with a child of about 5 in a pushchair. We looked at each other and said ...whats the bet they're italian. They were.

sunnysider

Is that a new particularly virulent variant?

Pulaski

This BBC article struggles to define "cervicale", but does discuss an interesting range of other maladies waiting to smite unprepared Italians though.