If your children have food allergies, the holidays can be challenging, especially when you are visiting family and friends or attending holiday parties at other people’s homes. You are no alone; millions of children have a variety of allergies. Keeping your children safe during the holidays is of course your top priority. Follow the advice below to keep your children protected from food allergens to ensure that you have a fantastic holiday season.
Tell Guests and Hosts
The best thing that you can do is to be proactive. Tell your guests and the hosts of your parties about the allergies that your children have. This way your guests will not bring food to your home that your children are allergic to, and your hosts can take allergies into consideration when preparing their holiday menu. Don’t feel bad at all by telling others in advance about allergies, it will ensure that you are comfortable and that your children are also comfortable. You may even consider offering menu help or to bring things yourself. This way the process is easy and not inconvenient for any party involved.
Plan in Advance
If you are truly concerned about allergies, bring your own food to the parties you attend with your children. Or, you can feed your kids before you get to a party in the event that there is not food that they can eat. Also consider keeping snacks in your car or bag for your children if they are hungry and have limited options where you are visiting.
Participate in School Party Planning
The best way to make sure that your kids have fun at their school parties without the worry of allergies is to plan them. Offer to join the committee and to plan the menus so that the food offered is great and allergy free. Take into consideration common allergies of children as well as specific allergies that you know about. You could even take planning one step further and ask all of the parents about allergies before planning the menu- parents will appreciate your efforts as anyone who has a child with allergies is also going to have concerns.
No matter which allergies your children have, you can make sure that their holiday season is fantastic and allergen free. Be proactive, plan in advance and participate in school and other party planning to ensure that there are great holiday foods that your kids can enjoy.

Fast food is so easy!  All you do is drive through, take it home and put it on the tables. Unfortunately, fast food is bad for your health - and more importantly, for your kids’ health.

Fast food restaurants keep adding so called ‘healthy items’ to their menus, but most people won’t order the apple slices instead of the fries, or the juice box instead of the soda.  If you let your kids eat too much fast food, they won’t even want to eat these healthy foods at home.

The danger of fast food isn’t just spoiling your children’s taste buds. The sugar and fat in fast food can be dangerous to your child’s health. There is a dangerous trend in this country towards childhood obesity. The foods you put in front of your child make a difference.

Trans fat is slowly being eliminated from restaurants due to repeated warnings, but saturated fat is still widely used and can cause severe health problems as well. If you eat out a lot, start asking to see the nutritional information and notice how much fat the foods contain and what kind.

Often one meal at a fast food restaurant will have nearly enough calories to meet the day’s total requirements, and will have even more sodium, fat and sugar content than most people should eat. For kids, this can be very bad indeed.

Children who are still growing need a balanced diet to help their bones and muscles develop properly. Fast food fills the stomach and makes them sluggish, so they don’t want to exercise. It also makes them less likely to want to eat other foods - fast food can become almost addictive for the blood sugar rush that accompanies eating it.

Obesity in children, if caught early is easier to reverse if a firm rule of no fast food is made and followed. You may have to be creative to find foods that will make them happy, but after a while they will grow accustomed to the naturally sweet taste of an apple, and be able to enjoy regular food again.

Once in a while junk food won’t hurt you, but it’s not a good habit to make. Consider saving fast food for very special occasions, and finding other ways to make food that tastes good and goes on the table quick!

You find a lot of stuff on mom blogs about personal stuff! We feel like sharing, and sometimes we admit things because we think our experiences will help others. Well, I have a confession!

I bite my nails. It’s a nervous habit. I have gotten a lot better; now I mainly do it when I am reading a very suspenseful book, or watching a scary movie. I don’t usually notice I am doing it until the tips of my fingers start to hurt! Then I ma mad at myself for biting them down so far, and I put nail polish al over my nails so I won’t put my fingers in my mouth.

What is bad now, is my daughter is biting her nails! I think she learned it from me. I am very upset about it - how do I get her to stop?

Fortunately she has mostly stopped and seems like she only bites them in the car on long drives. I got her a little electronic game to play in the car that uses both hands, and now she is too busy playing to even think about her nails!

I decided to look up nail biting on the internet, and see if I could find some advice. There were a lot of options, like putting socks on her hands, or dipping her fingers in hot sauce. Neither of those seemed like a good idea to me.

I decided to check the mom blogs, and found a great tip right away, on an old blog from a year and a half ago. I tried it with my daughter and it worked!  I just told her when she stopped biting her nails, I would take her to the nail salon and she could have her nails painted professionally.

She stopped biting her nails right away, and a month later they were long and beautiful! She had them painted right before picture day, and was so proud. That was a great tip!

I still haven’t stopped biting mine. I don’t care about polish, so I guess I have to think of a different prize for me!

I don’t usually get a flu shot… and I always get the flu! So I don’t know if maybe the flu shot could help me. My immune system isn’t the greatest, so maybe I could use a little help.

I know when I was working as a chef in a fancy retirement center, all of the residents got flu shots, and the staff, too. They wouldn‘t give me one because I had just found out I was pregnant. When I saw my doctor, he was mad, and said I should have gotten one, but by that time it was too late. I had the flu!

I was trying to decide if my kids should get a flu shot. I guess I am scared it might make them sick - that doesn‘t make sense, but I am still a worrier. They don‘t get the flu like I do! I read in one blog for moms. They say that sometimes the flu shot will accidentally give you the flu, but my doctor said not so.

By the time I made up my mind, it was too late! The flu shots were all gone. My kids didn‘t get the flu anyway - but I did!

I think next year I might try to get the flu shot and see if helps me stay healthier. Then I can decide if it is the right thing for my kids. I know old people and kids are more at risk for complications from flu, so the doctors really advise to give the shot. If it really works, I guess it makes sense!

Teaching children hygiene is so easy! All you have to do is start early on, and they will form good habits when they are still small. When it comes to your kids’ health, hygiene is the first line of defense against sickness. Moms and dads who follow through with their kids’ hygiene can be sure they are setting their children on the right path.

1.  Start young. Brush your baby’s gums at bath time, and later when they start to get their teeth add flossing to the list.

2.  Make sure you help them wash their hands after going to the bathroom. You can do this even when they are in diapers, by washing theirs when  you wash yours - wet wipes are an easy way to do this!  When they learn to walk you can have them throw their own wrapped up diaper in the pail, and then wash their hands.

3.  Toilet training can be messy. Again, wet wipes can make all the difference. Remember little girls have to wipe front to back to keep from getting infections, and little boys need to wash up too!

4.  Boys should learn to clean up after themselves in the bathroom. A little boy who leaves a mess for mom to clean up grows into a man who lets his wife clean up!!! A container of Lysol wipes works just fine for ‘misses’, and then he can wash his hands.

5.  Make sure you have a place for toothbrushes that keeps them clean and allows them to dry. Teach your kids to rinse ALL the toothpaste out after they brush! Boil the toothbrushes once a week to foil bacteria, and replace once every three months.

6.  CLOSE the toilet lid. Smells are particulate, which means when you smell something nasty, you are breathing in tiny pieces of it, and getting it in your mouth, too. I’m sure I don’t have to go into detail!

7.  Bath time doesn’t have to take an hour, but it does need to be every day in the summer just to get the sweat and grime off. Otherwise a nasty skin rash can ensue! A quickie shower will usually do if there is a line for the bathroom, and girls with long hair can wear a shower cap if their hair doesn‘t need washing. Liquid dispensers to hold soap, shampoo and conditioner can make sure there is no excuse to cut corners, and color coded loofahs and towels for each child can speed things up.

8.  When they get old enough for gym and the locker room, it can get ugly. Make sure clean socks are available - twice a day if necessary - and try to have several pairs of shoes for each child so they can switch off. This will cut down on athletes’ foot! Also invest in shower shoes - you have no idea what is on those floors.

9.  Puberty can be rough. As they get older, make sure you have mild deodorants, acne treatments and shaving accessories available. They may need some soothing stuff the first few times for shaving bumps! Girls of course need ‘female stuff’ - and make sure you teach them how to dispose of trash properly when the time comes. Lay in Midol, too!

10.  Last but not least (and I know none of you want to think about this yet) part of good hygiene is safe sex. We all hope our kids will wait until they are thirty, but it is irresponsible not to have ‘the talk’ at some point - and to stress the importance of protecting their health!

If you teach your kids about hygiene starting when they are toddlers, they will be healthier and safer as they grow!

Everyone remembers Linus from the Charlie Brown comics, and his blanket that went with him everywhere. The idea of a security baby blanket has been looked down on, as has thumb sucking and other forms of self comfort.

I don’t think a kid’s blanket or stuffed animal or whatever makes them happy is a bad thing!  I know my little boy has a stuffed cloth lion and a furry stuffed dog name Mr. Sniffles that he loves to sleep with. If I put them in his bed, he falls right to sleep. If he can’t find them, he gets upset, and cries. What harm does it do for him to have his ‘lovey’s’?

Of course, you want to be careful with a blanket in the crib for a very tiny baby. That’s why I like the animal approach. All of my babies have had stuffed animals that they snuggled up with every night, and I really think that is part of the reason they slept so well from a young age - it gave them a sense of security!

Sure enough, I was doing some work for a baby sleep coach in California, and she said the same thing - teaching a baby to sleep with a ‘lovey’ actually gives them a sense of security, and if they wake up in the night and have the familiar object in the bed with them, they will just snuggle back down and go back to sleep instead of crying for you to get up.

I was right! I knew I was, anyway, but it was nice to have an expert back me up!

It is hard to write about abortion. It is one of the most controversial subjects there can possibly be, and you can get in a bad fight with even a good friend about it! This year it is in the news because it is a hot topic whenever we are having elections.

There are so many reasons a person might have strong feelings, and it is important to remember that you don’t always know all the reasons why they feel that way.

One lady might think that because she was assaulted she shouldn’t be forced to have a baby, or maybe she has a bad health problem that means she could die. Maybe the baby has a condition that will kill it while it is being born, or leave it like a vegetable.

Another lady might not be able to have kids, and can’t even begin to understand how someone could have an abortion. She could have been raised to believe it is the most horrible crime because of her religion.

I have three kids. I planned out to have each one, and I got my tubes tied after the last one, because I have diabetes when I am pregnant and as I get older it is dangerous. If I got pregnant again, though, I don’t think I would have an abortion, but what if the doctor told me that I and my baby would both die for sure, and my other kids wouldn’t have a mom any more?

I can’t say what I would decide for sure. I hope I don’t have to decide something like that! I think that I would have to make that decision though, and no-body else, so I have to say that the woman does get to have the final choice.

It is very hard to say what is right and what is wrong, because maybe it is different for each person and situation. I can say hitting someone is wrong, but if a stranger was trying to drag one of my kids into a car, I would hit! So I think I would try to understand someone’s reasons before I would judge.

I never had lice when I was in school. It didn’t happened very often those days. Now it is a regular thing. Almost every school has a head lice problem. They are asking for volunteers to check it every week, but it can come back again and again. It is a not a big problem, but it IS very annoying.

Head lice can infest anyone, regardless of personal hygiene. If you child has lice you should treat him/her with lice-killing shampoo and get rid of the nits. You can also go to a special lice treatment centers and use the help of professionals. You have to be sure that you get rid of ALL of the nits, or the cycle continues.

Nits are head lice eggs. They are hard to see and are often mistaken for dandruff or droplets of hairspray. Nits are found firmly attached to the hair shaft. They are oval and usually yellow to white. Nits take about 1 week to hatch. It hatches into nymphs. Nymphs mature into adults about 7 days after hatching.

It is very difficult to prevent lice from spreading among children because they play together, hug, share hats, and other items. Frequently examining the scalps of your school-age children may help you discover and treat lice before they spread to the rest of your family. Avoiding prolonged close contact with a person who has lice will also reduce your risk.

I had always heard about jaundice, but I didn’t really get what it was all about until I had kids. I thought I would share my experience, so others won’t be alarmed if their baby has it!

Jaundice is a condition a lot of babies have at birth. It’s normally just caused by the liver not functioning fully yet, so a substance called bilirubin starts to build up. It can be noticed if the skin is a little yellow, or even the whites of the eyes in extreme cases.

My daughter had a very mild case of jaundice when she was born, so they just had me sit outside with her in the evening so she could get a little sun! The sunshine helped her body break down the bilirubin and naturally balance her out. When they checked her bilirubin levels a few days later she was fine!

My two sons had it also, and they told me that it is common with breastfed babies to see it early on before the milk comes in fully, but it almost always resolves itself. They check in a few days just in case, because there are conditions that Mom can have that will make the bilirubin levels in the baby get too high and not come down.

This can lead to cerebral palsy and other bad health conditions for the baby! Fortunately, since they check at birth and again a few days later, they can catch if there is a problem and give the baby a shot so they will be fine.

All of my babies were fine after a few days, so I was pretty glad! With last baby I had an emergency c-section because he was breech and got stuck, so I had to stay in the hospital longer. Since he wasn’t getting sun, they just put him under a special ultraviolet light so he would be able to get balanced out.

Hope this sets some new mom’s minds at rest!

My little girl was anemic when she was little. She was always tired, with no energy at all, and her face was always pale! Turns out, she was anemic. The top anemia causes are iron, calcium, B vitamin and folic acid deficiency, so the cure is pills, pills, pills, milk and broccoli.

You can imagine how that went over with a five year old. Pills? Gag. Milk? She didn’t like it (we used a powdered calcium supplement in her apple juice, but apparently it wasn’t sufficient). Broccoli? You HAD to be kidding. Granny had a better solution.

“Blackstrap molasses!” she declared. “It’s the best thing if they’re pale and sickly! Works on baby goats and baby calves - no reason it won’t work on a young ‘un!”

We were skeptical, but the signs of anemia kept getting worse so I started giving her a spoon of molasses morning and night. Not that sweet light brown stuff you put on pancakes, no sirree! This was the stuff that was as black and thick as melted tar, and tasted only marginally better.

My daughter grumped a little, but faced with the choice of three different pills and a tall glass of milk, or pinching her nose shut and swallowing hard twice a day, she gave in.

Wow! She had energy, her face brightened up and the circles under her eyes went away within a week! I told the doctor, and he said that it made sense that the blackstrap molasses cured her anemia. Causes of her condition were unknown, but the natural iron, calcium, B vitamins and folic acid in the twice a day teaspoonful sure solved it!

I recommend blackstrap molasses to ANYONE who has an anemic child. It turned my sad little five year old into a bouncing preschooler in no time! Looks like Granny knew best.

(Note - I have since seen found that many other people have had similar results for a whole host of ailments! We used Plantation brand unsulphered.)

Sarah p.