CPRMom

Summer is quickly coming and while our prequel to summer temps in NH is over this is a good time to get ready for the heat of summer and keeping ourselves and our kids safe in higher temps. Heat emergencies are when our bodies get overheated. This probably happens to a lot of us quite frequently in the warmer months. The trick is to recognize the symptoms and take action before a true emergency develops. There are two types of heat emergencies; heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat exhaustion is when we move beyond just feeling overheated. We begin to feel flushed, hot and very sweaty. Kids will begin to look very hot with reddish and sweaty skin. We begin to feel very weak, lethargic and sometimes irritable. Our kids may seem sleepy or develop upset stomachs. To treat this we need quick but gentle cooling. Move to a shady and cool area. Fan yourself or your child. Placing a towel or scarf soaked in cool water on your neck, shoulders or head can also cool you down. The tric...

Okay, so we're all getting excited at home for the NH Start! Heartwalk in Manchester on May 17th. Unfortunately we seem to be running into some snags on the fundraising aspect of the walk. I know times are tight, so I thought I'd throw out a few things that the American Heart Association does with your fundraising dollars. Research on the effectiveness of CPR and how we teach it. Has it been a few years since you've taken a CPR course? Did you know we know do 30 compressions rather than 15? Have you heard of the new guidelines on "Hands Only CPR"? Public Awareness of Heart Health Do you know your risks for Heart Attack or Stroke? You can find out at Go Red for Women or the American Heart Association website . Research on Heart Health and Risks So it doesn't need to be much, every little bit helps! http://heartwalk.kintera.org/newhampshire/gailklanchesser

This morning my husband was showing me a brochure and a video of a new table saw. He's a Firefighter and has been slowly renovating our house. So when he saw a video of a safer table saw at our local woodworking store yesterday he was really excited about it. We've all heard the sad and horrible stories of accidents involving power tools, especially saws. However this company has patented a new technology that stops and retracts the blade when it senses skin. I have no idea how this works, but I understand the general principal and I think it is amazing. Disclaimer - I do not have this saw and I have not personally seen this saw. I am expressing my opinion solely on the brochure and video on their website . However if the folks at SawStop, www.sawstop.com, want to lend us one to review my husband would be thrilled and I'd be excited to see some movement on our home improvement projects. The website states: SawStop saws detect contact with skin . The blade carries a s...

When you're getting ready for a new baby's arrival it can seem overwhelming sometimes all the things that we need! Even more overwhelming is the selection of things when we go to shops specializing in baby gear. I remember when I was expecting my first child going to large baby stores with my mom in the Boston area. The selections and choices were overwhelming! Even your local baby gear store can have more strollers or crib bedding to choose from than you could have previously thought! One item that there can be a lot of choices on are First Aid kits. Baby gear stores sell them, your local department stores also sell them. There are number of brands and choices - so what is the right kit for a home with a new baby? I'm not able to recommend or endorse any one kit at this time, but I can share with you what to look for and what to be cautious of. Most kits have most of these basic staples: *Absorbent compress *Adhesive bandage (aka band-aids) *Adhesive tape *Antibiotice oint...

Several weeks ago I got an interesting email about one of my nutrition posts. I meant to really jump in and reply and well, life got in the way. I think most of the folks who read my blog are similar to me in that we fit a lot of things in our lives, family, work, volunteering, etc. and sometimes we just get really busy. His email was very enthusiastic and I have to say I felt really excited that someone had taken the time to really read my blog and not just comment, but to actually email me. Which is where the name of this post comes from, I felt he really had a passion for pork. No big surprise, the link he provided me with goes to the Pork Board. No, this is not about government spending - despite the title! But Pork as in, "The Other White Meat". The big emphasis was on a study in last month’s British Journal of Nutrition that revealed that eating a calorie-restricted diet with additional protein at breakfast, including Canadian bacon and eggs, led to increased fee...

By now most of us are familiar with the privacy practices at our doctor's office. It seems almost annually we have to sign the disclosure stating we are familiar with it. But what does that all mean and what is HIPAA that law that these privacy practices are based on? In a really summarized version, HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Title I protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. Title II (aka the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions) requires the establishment of national standards for electronic healthcare transactions, and identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. It basically helps people keep their information private. HIPAA applies to medical information as well as financial and payment information. Wikipedia has a good definition of the privacy rules http://is.gd/sbsp. Why am I writing about HIPPA today? Because I keep getting medical faxes...

Like most parents I try not to rely on TV as an electronic babysitter. But a few times a week I really relied upon the Disney Channel's Little Einsteins at 8am to keep my youngest 2 children occupied while I did some quick housework. Recently Disney changed their line up and added a new show, Special Agent Oso. Disney describes the show as "Playhouse Disney is proud to introduce the newest animated series, Special Agent Oso ! Special Agent Oso teaches kids fundamental skills such as mailing a letter, brushing your teeth or flying a kite. He reminds kids that they can complete these tasks using 3 special steps.". The show pronounces it as 'oh-so' ... i.e. he is 'oh-so' good at... Now I think my son's pronunciation and verbal skills are pretty good. We've been through speech therapy with one of his older sisters so I'm pretty confident in his verbal skills. He's watched the show 3-4 times and well, he is not pronouncing the characters na...

This year the kids and I again will be participating in the NH Heartwalk to raise funds and awareness of the dangers of heart disease and stroke. Did you know the number one cause of death of men and women in the United States is Sudden Cardiac Arrest? The number three cause of death for adults in the U.S. is Stroke. By raising awareness of heart healthy living we can hopefully lower these numbers. By raising money for the American Heart Association we can hopefully save lives each year. I've never been good at being pushy or asking people for donations, so my fundraising goals are low. However you can prove me wrong and make a donation to push me past my goal. Just visit my fundraising page at http://is.gd/rDyx . We had to miss last years walk, but this year the kids are really looking forward to it. This year the Seacoast Heartwalk is merging with the Central NH Heartwalk to be just the NH Heartwalk. We'll be walking someplace new for a great cause. We hope you can he...

Wednesday April 8th was National Start! Walking Day. Did you get out and walk? What is National Start! Walking Day? It's a great way to support the American Heart Association and to promote physical activity. Spring is here, depending upon where you live the weather is getting warmer (was downright chilly up here today) and the simple act of taking a short walk several times a week is a first step in getting active. Regular physical activity is just one part of following a heart healthy lifestyle and is something that most of us can do. So make a great Start! Try to fit a little walking into your day!

There are so many diet plans out there that it can be overwhelming to figure out what diet is the best to follow. When I decided that I needed to lose weight and get back into shape I made a mental list of what would help me to follow a plan and what would actually work for me. I have 4 kids and a spouse with a busy work schedule. I can't cook one meal for me and one for everyone else. So any diet changes I made needed to fit into my regular meal routine. Eating together as a family is important to us and my meals need to be healthy and filling for everyone. I chose Weight Watchers. Why? Two main reasons: First the support aspect. Going to weigh in at a meeting every week makes me accountable to someone other than me. I feel so motivated after a meeting, even if I did gain weight that week. Second was the meal plan. When I joined it was the Flex Plan, now it is a new program that is very similar - the Momentum Plan. What I like is that I still plan my daily meals. I am...