NFL Roundtable on Youth Sports Safety

Jun 14, 2013 by christaallard

 

Earlier this week, three of our bloggers were delighted to represent CTWorkingMoms.com at the NFL Roundtable on Youth Sports Safety for the second year in a row. While last year’s event focused primarily on concussions and football, this year’s panel was expanded to include other sports popular with youth as well as additional topics related to youth sports.

Concussions were still a hot button topic among the panelists, and rightly so; if you want to take a look at the prevalence of concussions in our youth beyond boys and football, check out this video about a girls soccer team from Pennsylvania (I promise it’s worth watching all 8 minutes 39 seconds and will change your perception of what concussion is and looks like). Appropriately, it seemed, the panel was moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth of NorthShore University HealthSystem, a Head Injury Consultant and Neuropsychologist. But this year the roundtable also looked more comprehensively at other safety concerns around youth and sports and the wellbeing of our kids while participating in sports activities.  Read more...

Need to Know: Planning for Kindergarten with a Food Allergy

Apr 5, 2013 by Melanie

Earlier this week, Jen blogged about her apprehension toward her son starting kindergarten—a whole eighteen months from now—due to his severe allergy to peanuts, which can trigger a life-threatening condition known as anaphylaxis.  For the uninitiated, an anaphylactic reaction is a true emergency that requires immediate action to save a child’s life, due to its interference with breathing, circulatory and other functions.  Avoiding contact with the allergen in the first place is obviously the best way to manage a life-threatening allergy, but in the case of small children with food allergies, it’s not that simple.  You not only need to restrict certain foods at home and monitor what your child eats closely, but you must also be mindful of the total environment in which your child spends his day.  For the most sensitive of allergies, even a trace amount of the allergen will be enough to set off a reaction.  My cousin went into anaphylaxis on a childhood vacation, where the plain cheesecake served to him had been sliced with the same knife that was used for the raspberry walnut cheesecake.  It’s that serious.

Needless to say, it’s understandable that anxiety can set in at the thought of sending your child off to school for the first time with a life-threatening food allergy.  As Jen described, a large part of what makes this so scary is that everything is new.  Since I deal with the public schools all the time and I have some experience with kids with food allergies in this context, I thought I would offer an outline of how to prepare for starting school with a food allergy.  Read more...

A Toxic Chemical Victory!

Aug 16, 2012 by Michelle

Excellent news! Johnson & Johnson has now committed to removing a wide host of known toxic chemicals from their products by 2015. Earlier this year the company committed to removing these unhealthy and dangerous chemicals from baby products, but they now have plans to move past that original promise to include all of their personal care products. This is huge, like really, really huge. I can’t recall seeing another large company voluntarily take a stand like this. Go thank them on their facebook page because when companies do good, they should know we appreciate it!  Read more...

Summer Safety Tip: Hot Car Dangers

Jul 5, 2012 by Melanie

Summer is in full swing, and as usual life is crazy!  Parents of small children:  does your summer mean wacky schedule changes for your family due to vacations, doctor visits, summer camp, etc.?  If so, you may want to make note of this particular summer-time danger:  little kids left in hot cars.

Sadly, I could link to quite a number of articles and news reports discussing this deadly phenomenon.  But I will leave you to do the research on your own if you want the stories; they are absolutely heartbreaking.  What happens is something like this:  a well-meaning parent goes on “auto-pilot” and drives straight to work, instead of to the daycare or other destination for the child, while the baby or toddler falls asleep in the carseat.  Due to the quiet, the parent parks the car and goes in to work for the day, forgetting about the morning drop-off and the dozing child altogether.  The temperature inside a car parked in the summer heat, even for only 5-10 minutes, and even with the windows cracked, can quickly rise to dangerous levels, with disastrous results.  Read more...

Wisdom Wednesday

Jun 20, 2012 by bernhardsonbunch

“BE CAREFUL!”: Why this phrase may cause more harm than good

Years ago, before I had kids, in a magical time when my hair was always freshly highlighted and flat ironed and pureed foods sullied no part of my wardrobe, I was on the receiving end of some valuable wisdom from a preschool teacher while on recess duty.

A first grade student was running through the school’s metal playscape, playing tag with his friend. He was running at top speed while looking backwards at the kid who was “It” when he came within millimeters of flying off the side of a platform, a solid 4 feet up in the air. I was about to instinctively shout “BE CAREFUL!” as he almost ran right off the side, but the preschool teacher put her hand up and quietly said to me, “WAIT!”. Fortunately, I did. He narrowly missed the fall, correcting himself using some mid-air, course-changing move I’ve only seen Wile E. Coyote manage over a cliff, and jumped down. She calmly walked over to him and said, “You almost ran off that step. Look forward when you’re running.”  Read more...