Your health blog !

With today’s busy schedules, it can be hard making sure children start the day with a good breakfast and eat a balanced lunch. Flexibility and creativity can help parents and children find acceptable, nutritional solutions.

If you are frustrated with your child’s eating habits, nagging probably won’t help. Instead, parents should do some problem solving with their children, like getting up a few minutes early to have time for breakfast or considering different food options.

Breakfast, so named for “breaking the fast” since the previous night’s dinner and sleep, is still a meal that should not be missed. As research has shown, lack of food can lead to fatigue, restlessness, irritability, hunger and distraction, all factors that can detrimentally affect a child’s school performance.

Yet breakfast doesn’t need to be fancy. A bowl of cereal with milk and a glass of juice is an acceptable breakfast for children. If time is a problem, children may also take a portable snack, such as fresh fruit or whole grain crackers with peanut butter or cheese, with them to eat on the way to school.

As for lunch, packing a child’s meal does not necessarily mean it will be eaten. If a child is not going to purchase a school lunch, specialists recommends children have some say in what they eat and help prepare their own lunches once they are old enough. The more a child helps preparing a lunch, even it only means rinsing off fruit or vegetables, the more he or she will want to eat it.

Meals don’t need to include traditional foods. Lunch doesn’t have to be a sandwich — it can be crackers and cheese, a bagel or a slice of pizza. Parents should provide several healthy choices for lunch and let children put together their own combinations.

If a sandwich is not appealing to your kids, try cold pasta or dinner leftovers like chicken. For dessert, offer fruit or lower-fat cookie choices such as graham crackers, fig bars, ginger snaps and animal crackers.

While letting your child select and help prepare meals is important, the best way to ensure your children develop healthy eating habits is to set a good example yourself. By eating nutritious foods, including fruits and vegetables, instead of fat-laden fast food products or sweets, parents can help model appropriate eating behaviors that children can carry with them into adulthood.

# Keep lawn, vacant lots and easement areas mowed to prevent grasses from blooming and pollinating.

# When mowing grass, wear an aseptic mask to filter out airborne pollen particles and mold spores.

# Following outdoor activity, take a quick shower to rinse pollen off of the skin and out of the hair.

# Keep car windows closed, car A/C on recirculate

# Keep windows at home closed, replace A/C filters

# Stay indoors during peak pollen periods

# Make “non-allergic” landscaping decisions

# Acquire a HEPA-type air filtration system

Summer is nearly upon us, and that means baseball, beaches, barbecues — and bee stings. To be sure, the warm season is time to beware of the Hymenoptera sting, that prickly zap inflicted by bees, as well as wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, and some other flying insects. But while the ache and swelling of a sting might spoil an outing for most of us, people who are allergic to insect venom live with a serious — even deadly — threat.

For the average person, a bee sting causes temporary skin inflammation, which can be treated with hydrocortisone cream and a cold compress; if the stinger remains in the skin, it should be scraped away (avoid trying to pluck out a stinger with tweezers, which can squeeze more venom into the wound).

However, those allergic to bee or wasp poison develop a hypersensitivity after the first sting. The immune system reacts to subsequent stings with a massive production of antibodies. Although antibodies are needed to fight off foreign proteins that invade the body — such as bacteria or viruses — the allergic reaction to insect venom is excessive and dangerous. Once you develop those antibodies, you’ll react every time, says Bierman. And with each following sting, the reactions tend to get worse.

In a typical case, the victim will break out in hives, often within minutes of the sting. If left untreated, the symptoms get scarier; the victim might experience anaphylactic shock, which causes a dramatic drop in blood pressure, swollen throat, and difficulty breathing. “Death is always a possibility,” says Bierman, stressing that anyone who experiences these symptoms following an insect sting should report to an emergency room immediately.

Doctors treat the sting victim with adrenaline, intramuscularly and at the site of the sting, which slows the absorption of venom. Patients are sent home with emergency kits which include a syringe preloaded with adrenaline. Because many people are uneasy about giving themselves shots, Bierman favors an EpiPen, a spring-driven device that works with a simple tap against the thigh.

For the most serious cases of venom allergy, immunotherapy is used to build up the patient’s resistance to the poison. By giving the sufferer small doses of the venom over a period of time, the patient’s immune system can become desensitized, reducing the risk of strong allergic reactions. Immunotherapy is an effective treatment, but it takes several years of gradually increased dosing to have its full effect.

Unfortunately, no amount of bug spray will scare away a determined bee or wasp. Bug sprays repel biting insects such as mosquitos, but have little effect on stinging pests, says Bierman. But whether you’re allergic or not, he adds, there’s still plenty you can do to keep from getting stung.

* Avoid wearing bright colors — stinging insects, especially bees, might mistake you for a flower. Perfume can attract their interest, too. If you insist on wearing flowers in your hair, consider yourself warned.
* Food left out in the open attracts stinging insects, too. Keep garbage areas tidy. Children who spill watermelon or other summer foods on their clothes should be changed into clean togs before being allowed to play outside.
* Wear shoes when outdoors (in case you step on an insect, or even a nest).
* If you’re with someone who gets stung, get away. After they strike, bees and yellow jackets give off a chemical that angers other stinging insects, as far as a block away.

Your rash may have been caused by one or more fragrance materials coming into contact with your skin.These materials are used in almost every product that produces a characteristic scent or which covers an unpleasant smell. A perfume may contain 10 – 300 different compounds, so identifying the exact fragrance to which you are allergic may be extremely difficult.

What is in fragrances?

1. Natural compounds from plants, trees, blossoms, fruit, seeds, bark, roots, resins
2. Synthetic products
3. Animal products (sometimes)

Possible sources of fragrances depending on site of rash
Head, Face & Neck:
Behind the ears: perfume
Face: perfume, shaving creams, soaps, aftershave
Streaky rash: eau de cologne
Face, eyelids:
Airborne musk ambrette in burned incense.
Hands:
Kitchen spices, perfumes, eau de cologne, cosmetics, skin care products, soaps, cleansers, shampoos, hair care products, antiperspirants, facial & eye make – up, lip cosmetics, shaving creams, suntan lotions, bath additives, baby care products. Fragrances are also used in toothpaste, mouthwashes, dental floss, household detergents, polishes, waxes, nappies, facial tissues, toilet paper, toilet waters, fabric softeners.
Industrial exposure:
Cutting fluids, electroplating fluids, paints, rubber, plastics, insecticides, additives in air conditioning, natural fragrances (e.g. cinnamon, clove, vanilla, cardamom) are found in many flavoured foods; e.g. soft drinks, liqueurs, cakes, pastries, sweets, chewing gum, cough syrup, ice-cream, sauces, soups, tobacco.