Month: April 2017

12 Household Cleaning Tricks Every Parent Should Know

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date April 17, 2017

When you’re a parent, you don’t have much time for cleaning.

To be fair, you also don’t have much time for cooking, sleeping, working, or crying silently in the shower, but you do all of those things anyway because you’re an expert at time management. You cut out unnecessary steps, find shortcuts, and do what you have to do to make the most of your time.

The next time you need to clean house, try a few of these essential homemaking hacks, and you just might have a few extra minutes to spare.

1. Need to get crayon stains off walls?

Ah, the classic parental cleaning challenge. Don’t worry, it’s actually not too difficult.

Simply apply mayonnaise—yes, mayonnaise—to the crayon marks, then let it sit in place for a few minutes. Wipe with a damp cloth, and the marks should disappear.

If that doesn’t work (or if you’re a vegan), you can also use WD-40. We’d recommend spot testing, however, as WD-40 can damage some types of paint.

2. Clean the oven overnight by making a baking soda paste.

This is an essential hack to have in your back pocket for when your kids help you bake. For some reason your oven inevitably ends up coated in batter and grease—which quickly turn to charred black gunk.

Mix baking soda and water in a spray bottle, spray liberally all over your filthy oven, then leave it overnight. Take a second spray bottle and fill it with vinegar and water; spray this on the baking soda paste to break it up. Wipe out your oven, and you’re done.

3. Get bad odors out of your kids’ shoes with this Reddit user’s recipe.

Redditor steveq76 recommends a mixture of 70 percent rice, 15 percent salt, and 15 percent baking soda. Fill old socks with the mixture, then place them in damp, smelly shoes, allowing them to sit overnight.

The baking soda is a base, so it neutralizes the acids that cause smells, and the rice and salt soak up odor-causing agents.

4. Blast the carpet stains from your kid’s spilled juice.

Kids drink Kool-Aid and grape juice and any number of brightly covered fluids, and they do it over the carpet. Eventually you’re going to need some industrial-strength stain remover.

Or do you? Parents all over the internet are claiming that a simple two-ingredient hack can remove the toughest stains your 4-year-old can throw at you.

All you need are two common household ingredients: hydrogen peroxide and lemon essential oil. Combine one part hydrogen peroxide to two parts water. Then add five drops of lemon oil.

Shake to mix, fill a spray bottle and soak the stained carpet. You can’t really use too much of this stuff. Let it work its magic for a few minutes, then hit the stain with a scrub brush. Finish by blotting with a dry rag.

You might have to repeat this whole process a few times, but trust us. It will work. Now if we could only get the kids to keep their beverages in the kitchen!

5. Use a lint roller to clean up after craft time.

Lint rollers are wonderful for picking up every last speck of glitter. Say goodbye to those annoying little sparkles that you keep glimpsing out of the corner of your eye.

If you don’t have a lint roller handy, duct tape can work reasonably well, but you’ll probably want to hit the area with a hand vacuum before rolling out the tape.

6. Toothpaste can get permanent marker off a hardwood floor.

Simply apply, then rub using circular movements to work the marker out of the floor. Wipe with a damp cloth to finish up.

Toothpaste is actually a remarkably versatile cleaner. It has enough grit to cut through stains, so it’s also a good choice for whitening the rubber on tennis shoes, getting caked-on soap off sinks, and handling other simple tasks that require a bit of elbow grease. Just be sure to spot test it before using it on any fabrics—many toothpastes have whitening ingredients that don’t play well with clothes.

7. Clean up chewed-on Lego bricks in the washing machine.

Moms of junior architects tend to spend a lot of time stepping on Legos in bare feet, then fighting to contain a stream of language that no kid should hear.

While you have your own struggles with Lego blocks, though, have you ever stopped to consider how dirty those things must be? Add to that the fact that Legos will almost inevitably end up in your kid’s mouth at some point, and you’ll understand why we insist on thoroughly cleaning our kids’ Legos every few weeks.

Fortunately, this task couldn’t be simpler. All you need is a mesh laundry bag. Fill it with your kid’s filthiest Legos and wash them in soap and laundry detergent.

You won’t believe the racket this task will make, but trust us, it’s worth it. Don’t worry about the washing machine; it might get pretty loud, but it can handle a bag of Legos.

When you’re done, spread the Legos out on a towel to dry and give them back to your little builders, germ-free!

For even more hacks to clean your kids’ toys, check out the video below!

8. Let your dishwasher do the scrubbing when you need to clean baby toys.

As soon as babies start to crawl, they start collecting germs. Then they play with their toys, and the next thing you know their favorite plastic race car has become its own little germ factory.

It’s a good idea to disinfect your child’s toys every so often. For help, turn to your old pal the dishwasher.

Note that not every toy is a good candidate for dishwasher disinfecting. Don’t include stuffed animals or wooden toys. Definitely don’t include electronic toys or anything with a battery.

For most big plastic baby toys, though, this is the easiest clean-up in the world. Fill both racks as full as you dare. Then add your detergent and set your machine on its gentlest cycle.

Pro tip: Turn off the hot dry cycle. We learned that one the hard way, with a melted pony and tears.

9. Clean pee stains out of your mattress with hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap.

Every kid has accidents. Bedwetting is no big deal—as long as you have a quick, easy, and effective way to clean up the mattress.

Well, here’s a cleaning trick that will get rid of stains and odors alike. Even better, you probably have everything you need in your pantry already.

Start by mixing 8 ounces of hydrogen peroxide with 3 tablespoons of baking soda. We like to mix directly in the spray bottle we’ll use for application. Finish the pee-destroying potion with a generous dollop of liquid dishwashing soap.

We like to scent the concoction with a drop of lavender oil; it helps with the odor, and it helps us relax! Substitute your kid’s favorite essential oil if desired.

Once you have your secret weapon mixed together, spray it generously on the pee stains. Don’t be shy. Really soak that mattress.

Let the mixture dry on the mattress for a full hour, then vacuum up the residue. That’s all it takes!

10. Pick up small toys with a dust pan.

This is a helpful hack if you’ve got company coming over and your kid has dragged out every Lego, Lincoln Log, and doll accessory in existence.

Simply wedge the dustpan under the toys and scoop. Make sure it’s a clean dustpan (duh).

11. White chalk gets out grease stains.

We have no idea why this works, but it does. White chalk seems to soak up grease.

Rub it over the stain, then let it sit overnight. Marvel at your kids’ grease-free clothes (although you’ll probably only have a few minutes before they stain them again).

12. Stop your kid from getting too much soap when washing up.

Want to stop running through bottles of liquid soap? Put a rubber band around the base of the pump.

Your child won’t be able to pump it all the way, and they’ll get the perfect amount of soap.

Tags 50020486, hemingway, parenting

Lifestyle

30 Outfit Mistakes That Will Make You Look Messy

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date April 14, 2017

When you absolutely need to look your best, you have to pay attention to the little things.
It’s always the little things—not dramatic changes—that really make all the difference. No matter your body type, profession, personal taste, or preference, it is possible to look and feel good without having to change your entire style, much less who you are at your core.

With that said, certain types of faux pas can be especially damaging. Avoid becoming a victim to these sneaky saboteurs by following these tips.

1. Leaving Bits of Lint and Animal Fur on Your Clothes

People notice details, and a single piece of lint can stand out, especially if it doesn’t match your clothing.

Rather than color-coordinating your lint, we’d recommend getting rid of it entirely. Lint rollers are amazing, but if you don’t have one handy, some tape will do just fine.
If you’ve got animals, you should have several lint rollers and put them where you can find them easily. Keep one in your car, one in your bag, and one in the bathroom.
There’s nothing worse than running late for a job interview only to realize that your shirt looks like you rolled around on the carpet.

2. See-through Fabrics

To be clear: thin, gauzy skirts can be a great addition to your wardrobe. Do yourself a favor, though, and make sure that they don’t go totally transparent when you end up backlit.
Some fabrics will do their best to trick you. They look totally opaque in the dim light of morning. By the time you’re headed out for lunch, though, the light shines right through them, treating all of your coworkers to a glimpse of what’s underneath.
If you’re totally in love with a thin skirt, be sure to wear leggings underneath. You want to preserve a little mystery.

3. Wearing Clothes With Tiny Rips, Frays, and Other Minor Damage

These types of issues sneak up on you. You’ll wear the same jeans every day, and you won’t notice as they start to fray. Or you’ll ignore the missing button on your favorite shirt simply because you’ve worn it so many times.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, and that includes clothes. Small rips, holes, frays, and tears can go from a minor flaw to a deal breaker when it comes to clothing.
A tailor may be able to help you with hems and holes. Cute patches can conceal minor tears and rips. Consider donating any clothes that are still wearable. Although it may be hard to let go, just think of the new items you can replace these with.

4. Not Breaking out the Iron

We get it. You’re busy. It’s difficult to fit in that ironing time when you’ve got so much going on. But your wardrobe, and possibly even your image, won’t be taken seriously if you look like you just grabbed your shirt from the bottom of the hamper.
HealthyWay
Preventing wrinkles can save you precious time with a little bit of effort. Read the care tag on your clothing to learn how to wash it best: The water and dryer temperatures you use could have a huge effect on the condition of your clothing. Also, hang your clothes up immediately after they are dry.
If you’re against ironing, you can use the dryer to your advantage in the fight against wrinkles. Wrap the garment around an ice cube, then throw them in the dryer. The ice dissolves and turns into steam, thereby creating the perfect anti-wrinkle environment.

But sometimes, wrinkles are inevitable. Got a big trip coming up and don’t feel like packing your iron? Learn a wrinkle-free packing method instead.

5. Rolling up Your Sleeves Incorrectly

When the seasons change, you might find yourself rolling up your sleeves to stay cool. It’s actually quite a fashionable look, provided that you take the time to do a double-roll.

That technique uses two simple folds, leaving your cuffs looking clean and precise. The “classic” method leaves you looking like you’re not concerned with your appearance, and it’s sloppy, to say the least.

6. Too Many Accessories

Accessories are essential to your look. A single necklace can make a great statement piece, for instance, or a scarf can pull your entire outfit together. The ideal accessory will be eye catching and (this is important) appropriate for the occasion.

Where you’ll get into trouble is if you start piling on the gaudy accessories to cover up a simple outfit.
Don’t worry about being too plain; that’s a much better option than going overboard and risking looking tacky.

7. Worn-out Clothing

Looking to make a bad impression? An easy way to do this is by wearing a shirt that was white in a former life. It’s inevitable that the whitest of whites start to discolor, and once they do, it’s time to either put them in the discard pile or do something about them.
Prevent your whites from becoming former versions of themselves by making whites a separate load. Mixing them with colors can cause them to become dingy and gray.

8. Wearing Hair Ties as Bracelets

You’re not a teenager anymore (well, actually, we don’t know—you might be, in which case, disregard that sentence). While you’ve been wearing hair ties on your wrists for years, it’s never really been okay.

Hair tie bracelets look tacky, and they’re simply not necessary. Keep a few hair ties in your car, your bag, and anywhere else you might need them.

9. Pants That Are Too Long

There are many things in life that would classify as being a drag, but your pants shouldn’t be one of them. Hem lines that flirt with the floor are just fine, but you’ve gone too far when they make contact. Along with carrying around dirt and other grime, long pants can become damaged from their trip..

Prevent this fashion faux pas by visiting the tailor. Bring the shoes you like to wear with them the most along so the tailor has an idea of how much to remove.

10. Wearing Athletic Shoes in Non-athletic Situations

Sure, your tennis shoes are comfortable, but unless you’re on a tennis court, they look out of place. Athletic shoes stick out like a sore thumb and can make you look like a teenager (and not in a good way).

Guys make this mistake more often than women, in our experience, but we’ve all done it on occasion.

11. While We’re at It: Not Cleaning Your Shoes

You wouldn’t leave the house in mud-covered clothing, so why would you walk outside with dirty shoes? A pair of less-than-clean kicks can ruin your outfit faster than you can click your heels together.
A quick swipe when you walk through the door can prevent buildup on heels and boots, but your sneakers are often a different story. Their material can make stains difficult to erase. Fortunately, you can usually rid shoes of unsightly marks by tossing them in the washer.

According to USAToday.com, you’ll need to sprinkle the insides of each sneaker with 3 tablespoons of baking soda, and leave them overnight. Shake the soda out in the morning.
Remove the laces from your sneakers and place them in a pillowcase to stop them from getting tangled in the wash. Wipe as much dirt and debris from your shoes as you can with a scrubbing brush, then toss the laces and the shoes in the washer. Protect your shoes, and your washer, by throwing four to six towels in, as well. This will keep your shoes protected and stop them from banging against the washer.
Use liquid detergent and wash the shoes in a cold, delicate cycle. Allow the shoes to air-dry once they are clean. Avoid putting them in the dryer, as its heat can damage your sneakers.

12. Wearing Clothes That Don’t Fit Correctly

Nothing can kill your style quite as quickly as an oversized shirt or too-tight pants. Even if the clothes feel comfortable, if they don’t fit, don’t wear them.
However, falling in love with a piece of clothing that doesn’t exactly fit is a common tragedy. You can likely fix it, however, by taking the garment to a tailor.

Do remember that different clothing manufacturers size their garments quite differently. If you’re a size 2 at one store, you might be a size 6 somewhere else, so trust the fit, not the tag. Always take the time to try on clothes before you buy them.

13. That Applies to the Shoes, Too

Shoes that are too large or too tight create an interesting effect, and not in a good way. Oversized shoes make you look like you’ve got a bit role in the upcoming IT remake, whereas small shoes can make your feet look like they’re planning a prison break.

Again, try shoes on before you buy them, and if you’re not sure if you’re wearing the right size, get a second opinion before you head somewhere important.

14. Wearing White Clothing That Isn’t White Anymore

Alas, even the whitest whites will eventually start to turn a pale yellow color. The good news is that you can usually restore your whites with a simple bleach bath, and if you’ve got an aversion to bleach, baking soda or hydrogen peroxide can work wonders.

Whatever you use to whiten your clothes, use it consistently. A t-shirt with a vaguely straw-colored hue doesn’t have the same look as a crisp white top.

15. Not Taking Care of Your Nails

A manicure can turn nails from cute to cringe-worthy in a matter of minutes and all it takes is a single chip in the polish. Although keeping a perfect manicure for more than a week or two is just about impossible, you can increase its lifespan by following these simple steps.
First, apply an even and thin base coat. Allow the layer to completely dry, which usually takes at least two minutes, before you put on another coat. Use a gel-finish top coat or an at-home LED lamp to help your nails dry.
If you want a professional manicure, ask them to skip the top coat and apply the gel finishing coat when you get home.

16. Carrying a Massive Bag

Sure, it’s great to have a bag that can carry your laptop, makeup kit, car keys, and body cream while still leaving enough room for a full-grown chihuahua, but a big bag can easily throw off the rest of your outfit. After all, a bag is an accessory.

Opt for a smaller bag for job interviews and other important events (if you carry a bag at all—a briefcase might be more appropriate). And make sure that your bag’s in good condition. As with other elements of your look, you’ll need to call in a ringer when your bag falls into disrepair.

17. Missing a Belt Loop (and Other Minor Mistakes)

Pay attention to the little things. You can have a perfectly put together outfit, only to sabotage yourself by missing a belt loop or leaving a visible zipper.

We’re not saying that every inch of your outfit has to be absolutely perfect, but do a quick ocular pat down of yourself before you leave the house; if you don’t have a decent-sized mirror, now’s the time to get one. Make sure that you’re not making any obvious mistakes.

18. Making Too Many Adjustments to Your Outfit

On the other hand, once you leave the house, try to stop worrying. Don’t constantly pick at your clothes or mess with your sleeves; guys, leave the tie alone. Fidgeting with your clothing is a sure way to look messy, even if there’s nothing actually wrong with your look.

If you really can’t stop fidgeting, recognize that you’re a little stressed out. Take a moment to collect yourself, squeeze a tennis ball, or do whatever else you have to do to stop picking your outfit apart.

19. Clothes That Are Pilling

It happens to the best of ‘em. A few times into wearing, you notice that certain spots on your garment are a little rougher than others. The next thing you know, a bunch of tiny little balls join the party and take up space on those rough patches, which are most likely in the armpit or thigh areas. These clothing-crashers are called pills and are formed when fabric rubs together.
Blended fabrics are usually the most susceptible to becoming pilling victims, says Good Housekeeping magazine. Fiber blends that contain three or more fabrics have a higher incidence of pilling, especially those that contain both natural and synthetic fibers.

To prevent damage, turn your garment inside out before washing. Doing so prevents the fabric from rubbing against other clothes in the wash, stopping the pills before they wreak havoc.
The gold standard for pill-prone garments is hand-washing. Placing your washer on the gentle or delicate setting is second best. Air-drying your clothing can also help to keep it safe. Once everything is washed and dried, store or hang your garments inside out.

20. Not Getting Your Favorite Pair of Shoes Repaired

We get it; you love your shoes, even if the soles are fading away and the leather is scuffed. The good news is that a talented cobbler can perform those much-needed repairs, restoring your favorite kicks to their former glory.

The bad news is that the longer you wait, the more you’ll pay—and the worse you’ll look. If you’re going to keep that old pair of shoes, take care of them.

21. For Guys: Unkempt Facial Hair

The beard is back, folks. Facial hair hasn’t been this fashionable since the Old West. With a great beard comes great responsibility, though, and too many of us are forgetting that beard maintenance takes work. A neat, masculine face-mane is one thing. Grizzly Adams is another.

To keep from looking sloppy, make sure that you keep your beard neat and trimmed. That means shaving your neck, and probably your cheeks as well. There should be clear lines demarcating “beard” and “non-beard.” Otherwise, you’re not just Brooklyn hip. You’re mountain-man messy.

22. For Women: Visible Bra Straps

There’s a war going down in our culture today, and internet comments threads are the battlefields. That war is over the appropriateness of visible bra straps.
“Adult women wear bras, and people should deal with it,” say the pro-bra-strap ladies who just don’t care.

“Bra straps are never, ever appropriate in a professional setting,” say the human resource managers.
Given the controversy, it’s safest to keep your straps covered up. You might not look like you’re making a point; you might just look like you got dressed in the dark. This is not to take a side in the debate. We’re just saying that the smart money is always on covering undergarments. The same goes for your high-waisted thong, by the way. These clips work great, or go with a strapless bra.

23. Wearing Oversized Clothes to Hide Your Figure

Oversized clothing is “in” right now, but don’t play into the trend just to hide your figure when you’re feeling bloated or self conscious. Tuck in those oversized tops or add a belt; make sure that your figure’s visible.

You rock, and there’s no reason to sink into your clothing. If you want to go a few sizes up, have a plan and make an effort to balance your outfit’s proportions.

24. Excessively Long Sleeves

Long sleeves can easily make you look like a little kid. Unfortunately, your favorite shirt might flatter the rest of your figure perfectly; if you’ve got short arms, we feel your pain.

If you don’t want to roll up, go ahead and give your tailor a call—and if you don’t have a tailor, get one. For a few bucks, you can get a perfectly crafted look, provided that you’re on a tailor’s good side, and you’ll never go back to straight off-the-rack clothes again. That applies for both men and women (and guys, having a tailor will instantly put you way ahead of your competition).

25. Going Really Retro (Without Any Sort of Twist)

We’re fine with retro looks, to be absolutely clear. You just need to have some sort of a modern update, or you’ll end up looking like you got stranded in a 1980s (or earlier!) department store.

Modern accessories can provide a great, easy update. Your shoes and bottoms can also be modernized to complement a vintage top. Just take it easy on the nostalgic items, and you’ll be fine; otherwise, you’ll look like you didn’t spend enough time thinking this through.

26. Taking the Term “Boyfriend Blazer” Too Literally

There are some great boyfriend blazers in the boutiques these days, but you can’t literally lift a boyfriend’s jacket and expect to look chic. What the designers call a “boyfriend blazer” is actually cut to strike a very feminine figure. Blazers designed for men, meanwhile, will make you look like David Byrne during his big-suit era.

No matter how romantic you think it is to snuggle in your boyfriend’s clothes, doing so likely gives you a sloppy appearance. If you like the idea of donning garments that have that boyfriend-type style, look for boyfriend-cut clothes. Despite the name, this type of clothing is cut for feminine figures, and looks amazing.

27. Showing up With Wet Hair

Nothing says “I overslept” like going out with wet hair. You get a pass if it’s raining, but otherwise, put that blow dryer to work. You want your look to be complete before you show up at an important work function or, God forbid, a hot date.

Wet hair sends the message that you were rushing to get out of the house, which suggests general sloppiness. We get it, though—you totally were rushing out of the house.

28. Leggings as Pants

This fashion faux pas has taken the nation by storm. We blame the rise of the yoga pant.

Leggings can be a key ingredient in a super cute outfit, but don’t mistake them for fully formed bottoms in themselves. Throw on a short skirt or wear a dress if your shirt is belly-grazing; the key is to keep your backside from hitting people in the face. That’s just sloppy (even if it’s incredibly comfortable).

29. Day-old Eye Makeup

It can be tempting to leave yesterday’s mascara and eyeliner on rather than going through the arduous process of removing and re-applying. Don’t give into temptation; people can totally tell, and you’re really not saving that much time in the long run.

On day two, mascara gets clumpy. Old eyeliner fades unevenly, leaving you looking like a Picasso painting. There’s only one way to keep your eye-makeup game going strong, and that’s to clean and re-apply daily. Sorry to break the bad news.

30. Smudges on Your Glasses

A cute pair of frames is great, but you’ll spoil the effect if you let lenses get smudged and greasy.

Keep a microfiber cloth handy at all times, and be sure to rub down your glasses before an important encounter. You definitely want to look your best if you’re getting close enough for someone to see your glasses in such detail.

Tags 50033666, balance, Commerce, hemingway

Motherhood

8 Things You Need To Know About IVF Before Using It

Post author By Megan Senseney
Post date April 13, 2017

Infertility can be a devastating experience, but there are many couples who find a solution in various reproductive technologies. In vitro fertilization is a popular method that’s widely touted, but does it work as well as everyone thinks it does?

It is estimated that around 6.1 million couples of childbearing age experience difficulties with infertility. Although there are many couples who, unfortunately, never find the solution to their infertility problems, there are some who end up successfully conceiving.

For some it’s because they’re able to manage an existing condition that was affecting their fertility, whereas others may choose to sync up intercourse to ovulation or take certain medications. For others, however, the solution may be in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure that involves implanting an embryo in a woman’s uterus. If you’re considering IVF to grow your family, here are some facts you’ll want to know.

What are your odds?

It’s important to note that IVF isn’t actually as successful as many believe. The Society for Assisted Reproduction reported in 2012 that a mere 35.9 percent of all IVF cycles done that year actually ended with a pregnancy, and only 29.4 percent of IVF cycles actually ended with the birth of a live child.

Unfortunately, this is because there are many different factors that can affect the success of the procedure, such as the mother’s age and whether the embryos used were fresh or previously frozen.

It can be risky.

For a father, the IVF process is physically easy—all they have to do is provide the sperm sample. For the mother, however, the process can be a bit more difficult, both emotionally and physically. Women who undergo the procedure are required to take hormones that suppress their natural menstrual cycle in addition to medication that boosts their egg production.

The medications can come with their own sets of side effects, such as headaches and hot flashes, and an overload of hormones can even lead to a condition known as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). This occurs when too many eggs develop within the ovaries, and in the most severe cases, the condition can lead to extreme ovary growth, along with a fluid imbalance that causes fluid to collect in the abdomen or lungs.

IVF also comes with an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy, which means that the embryo attaches outside of the womb, in the fallopian tubes.

The risk for postpartum depression increases.

Postpartum depression is an incredibly common issue among new mothers, and it has many causes. Not only are there a number of hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy and after giving birth, but the challenges of being a new parent cause some women to become so overwhelmingly stressed that they fall into a deep depression.

You might think that all new mothers have an equal chance of developing postpartum depression, but that’s actually not true. A 2015 study conducted in Denmark showed that women who gave birth after conceiving via some type of assisted reproduction treatment—IVF being one of them—were five times as likely to eventually develop postpartum depression as women who didn’t give birth after undergoing treatment.

It’s definitely a surprise to hear, and the researchers who were part of the study could hardly believe it either.

You could easily end up with twins.

There are many different factors that can increase a woman’s risk of conceiving twins—being an older mother, previous pregnancies, a family history of twins—and undergoing IVF treatment is one of them. During the process of IVF treatment, a woman’s eggs are retrieved and then mixed with sperm in the hopes that an embryo will form.

Doctors often put multiple embryos in the woman’s uterus at once so there is a greater chance of one implanting itself, but that also means that more than one can attach and continue developing.

This technique is changing, however. One study recently found that implanting two embryos during IVF treatment instead of just one can actually reduce a woman’s chance of having a successful pregnancy by 27 percent.

Grab the TUMS.

We all know that pregnancy can wreak all kinds of havoc in your body, from hormone-driven mood swings to hair loss and weird cravings, but there’s one strange after effect you may never have thought of: acid reflux.

One study showed that women who successfully gave birth after undergoing IVF treatment were actually three times more likely than other new mothers to develop gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which is essentially long-term heartburn.
During the study, 13 percent of women who gave birth via IVF eventually developed GERD within one year of giving birth, whereas only 4.5 percent of women who gave birth without fertility treatments went on to develop the condition.

It is thought that this is because medications used during the IVF process can weaken the esophageal sphincter, which is the muscle between the stomach and esophagus that is supposed to prevent stomach acid from backing up into the throat.

You can make healthier eggs.

You might think that you just have to hope you have quality eggs when undergoing IVF treatment, but there are actually many steps women can take to actively increase the quality of their eggs. Not only that, but it can also affect how your embryo develops and your pregnancy itself.

Women who are trying to conceive, whether through IVF or the good old-fashioned way, should cut out all adult beverages at least three months before they begin the procedure, which can help create better quality eggs and embryos. They should also try to consume a diet that’s fairly low in sugar but high in proteins and vegetables.

Also, when trying to get pregnant, make sure you reserve as much of your mental, physical, and emotional energy as you can. It’s not the time to be spending long nights working or planning a stressful event.

Sometimes you can’t use your eggs.

The information we have about pregnancy has changed a lot over the years, but there is one thing that remains true—as you age, the number of healthy eggs you have dips, and your chance of becoming pregnant slims. That’s not to say that an older woman trying to conceive doesn’t have a chance at all, but age can make it more difficult to get an egg that’ll survive the journey.

Fortunately, it is entirely possible for an older woman with healthy eggs to give birth successfully with or without reproductive treatment.

Doctors are able to determine how healthy a woman’s eggs are by performing a pelvic ultrasound and can also tell from a simple blood test. They may recommend that a patient with a low egg count or weak ovaries consider other forms of reproductive therapy before trying to go through IVF treatment.

It’ll cost you.

If you’re at all interested in IVF, we’re sure you already know just how expensive the treatment can be. Generally, it can cost somewhere between $10,000 to $20,000, but that’s really just a base price. Depending on your individual circumstances, you may need to add on additional treatments or go through other tests as part of the process, and those are things that might not be standard—meaning there are going to be extra charges.

Fortunately, the amount of coverage insurance companies offer for these types of treatments has gotten much better over the years, and there are now 15 states that require mandatory coverage for fertility-related treatments. If you’re not lucky enough to live in one of these states, however, you may eventually find yourself trying to find that cash to cover what your insurance company won’t.

Tags 50020171, body, hemingway

Motherhood

Experts Reveal 7 Car Seat Safety Tips That Might Surprise Even The Most Seasoned Parent

Post author By Lisa Douglas
Post date April 13, 2017

Car accidents are the leading cause of death of children in the United States. Every 33 seconds a child under the age of 13 is involved in a car crash. It’s important to note that most of these deaths are preventable.

A study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that in one year, more than 618,000 children rode in cars without the use of a child safety or booster seat, and of the children ages 12 years and younger who died in a crash in 2014, 34 percent were not buckled up.

Properly securing your child in a car is one of the most important things that you can do to keep your child safe. But you need to choose the right car seat and install it correctly. A ton of information is available on this topic, but it can get really overwhelming and confusing. Below we explain the most important safety tips for choosing and using car seats properly.

Keep kids facing backward.

Experts agree that the backward-facing position of an infant car seat is the absolute safest place for a child to sit. An article in Injury Prevention showed that 1- to 2-year-olds were five times safer in side-impact crashes when facing backward instead of forward.

They tend to suffer fewer leg injuries and don’t feel the effects of a crash on their brains and necks as much because their heads are cradled and immobilized. For this reason, pediatricians recommend that all children continue to ride in a rear-facing seat to the highest weight and height allowed for use in a rear-facing seat.

Typically that’s until age 2 or if the child reaches 50 pounds and their head is an inch below the top of the car seat. The longer your child can be in the rear-facing position, the safer they’ll be.

Keep car seat straps well positioned.

What good is a car seat if your kid can fly around in it? The straps on your child’s car seat must be fitted and adjusted correctly because the straps are what is keeping them from moving and becoming injured. They need to be snug (regardless of how much your child protests) and adjusted to your child’s personal measurements.

Be sure to remove bulky clothing like sweatshirts and jackets; these bunch up and make the fit improper. And kids can maneuver in and out of straps by moving their jackets around. You can always put that jacket on them backwards to keep them warm—after they are buckled in safely. It’s also important to make sure there are no twists or kinks in the harness.

Specifications for rear-facing car seats include the shoulder straps being level with (or right below) a kid’s shoulders. In a forward-facing car seat it should be the opposite; the harness should be level with or slightly above the shoulders.

Keep them safe when they’re facing forward.

The change from a rear-facing to a forward-facing seat is a big jump. It’s also a scary jump, because the forward-facing position is considered less safe for your little one’s spine and brain.

Enter the tether! The tether is a system that comes with all forward-facing car seats and is what anchors the car seat to the car. The tether basically saves a kid’s head in the event of a crash by decreasing how far a child’s head can move by 4 to 6 inches. This can mean the difference between an uninjured child and serious or even fatal injuries.

In order for the tether system to work, though, it must be used correctly. Statistics show that only 30 percent of forward-facing children in the U.S. are tethered, and of those children, only 59 percent are tethered correctly. Be sure to follow both the car seat manufacturer’s and your car’s directions to the letter.

Keep your kid in the center.

Most parents put car seats in the side rear passenger seat because it’s easiest to buckle car seats and get kids in and out from there. But studies show that children who are newborn to 3 years old are 43 percent safer sitting in the center rear seat than on the side—especially in the event of a side-impact crash.

When the difference was further compared to the risk on the side of the accident, it was found that the percentage was closer to a 54 percent reduced risk of injury. Why is the center position the safest? During an accident, the person in the center has the most distance from the collision zone and is more insulated in that area.
As a side note, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends that all children under the age of 13 ride in that area of the car—car seat or not.

Time the booster seat right.

Experts agree that the graduation to a more advanced car seat should be delayed as long as possible in order to keep a child safe. But studies show that parents prematurely rush their growing children into booster seats because they’re lighter, easier to use, and less of a hassle to get kids in and out of.

The safety rules for a booster seat are that the child must be at least 4 years old, weigh 40 pounds, and be able to sit with a seat belt properly. Experts say that most kids are actually ready a little later, at age 6. The goal of the booster seat is to support the child and keep the belt properly positioned in the event of a crash.

How can you tell if your kid is ready to ditch the booster? The seat belt should fit the exact same when using it and not using it, which most people don’t realize is usually around 10 to 12 years old.

Keep everyone buckled up.

Keeping adults and kids over the age of 12 buckled up in the car not only keeps them safe, but it keeps others safe as well. Studies show that the effects of not buckling up can be very dangerous to others riding in the car, because unsecured humans essentially become torpedoes.

In the event of a crash, an adult rider can be thrown around the car and seriously injure other passengers, particularly very small ones. Research shows that if an adult rides in the back without a buckle, the other people in the car are three times more likely to die in a crash.

When a car crashes, anything that’s not buckled down—people, pets, objects—goes flying until it hits something that stops its momentum or it is ejected from the car. Think you can hold yourself up or down? Studies (and physics) show that you can’t. Multiply your weight times the speed of the car and you’ll get your actual weight in a crash.

Have a pro check your seat.

Worried that you haven’t installed your car seat correctly? You’re probably right! Studies show that 72 to 84 percent of car seats are improperly installed. More alarmingly, 96 percent of parents believed that their seats were up to code.

This is why it’s critically important to have a child passenger safety technician check the safety of your car seat and also teach you how to do it on your own. It usually takes takes only 20 to 30 minutes, and the information is priceless.

The best way to find a certified child passenger safety technician is to log on to either one of the following websites and enter your zip code to find a technician or station near you.
The National Child Passenger Safety Certification Program has a comprehensive car seat guide and will help you find a car seat tech.
The federal government’s SaferCar.gov has everything you need to know about keeping your littles safe while on the move.

Firefighters and police officers aren’t necessarily properly trained to check your car seat, so be sure to ask if they are certified technicians.

Tags 50020081, hemingway, parenting

Motherhood

Mom Gets $16 Million After Nurses Did This During Delivery

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date April 12, 2017

Caroline Malatesta is a mother of four who lives in Alabama.
For her fourth child, she had a very specific birth plan in place. She wanted a natural birth—a departure for Malatesta, who had epidurals and episiotomies while delivering her three other children.

The mother decided she wanted to give birth in a more natural way; she wanted to forgo the medicine and avoid laying on her back. Her birth plan was unconventional by modern standards, so she chose to have the baby at Brookwood Health Center, which explicitly advertised that they would follow any birth plan.
“They were using phrases like ‘personalized birth plan,’ ‘it’s about that birthing plan…whatever you want out of your birthing plan,'” Malatesta wrote later.
“No other hospital in town so much as mentioned such progressive concepts (and it should be noted that assisted out-of-hospital births aren’t legal here in Alabama).”
The Brookwood facility offered “autonomy,” according to advertisements, and even had birthing tubs on hand to accommodate mothers’ wishes. Malatesta spoke to the doctors at the medical facility who assured her that they would do everything possible to meet her needs. It seemed like the perfect place to bring a new child into the world.

“This all came at a time when more of my friends around the country were beginning to have babies, and I was beginning to realize just how differently birth was handled elsewhere,” Malatesta wrote.
“Before then, I didn’t know there were options. I was hearing of friends being allowed to move around during labor, use the restroom, drink water, avoid stirrups, and birth in different positions. I always had been confined to the bed with a bedpan or catheter, only allowed to eat ice chips, and on my back in stirrups for delivery.”

“I always was prepped from the waist down with surgical cloths and washed with antiseptic prior to delivery. I just figured that’s how childbirth was done everywhere. Lots of these friends had natural births and talked about them positively. They didn’t have routine interventions and their recoveries seemed faster.”
She made up her mind: She’d switch hospitals and give birth in a more natural way.

“I carefully made a birth plan based on best medical research, approved by my doctor,” Malatesta wrote. “I was ready!”

But when the time came to deliver the baby, Malatesta says the experience was a nightmare.

Nurses immediately put her in a hospital gown and forced her onto her back, contrary to her wishes; she’d wanted to walk around during her contractions, wearing her own clothes. When she tried to change positions, one nurse physically restrained her.

“She grabbed my left wrist and forced it out from under me,” Malatesta wrote. “I pulled back, but couldn’t escape her grip. She pulled my arm and rolled me over to my back. That is the moment I lost control over my birth.”
When Malatesta voiced her concerns or objections, she alleges that the nurses simply ignored her. She claims the nurses actually seemed annoyed that she would object to their instructions, despite the fact that she’d gone over a specific birth plan with her doctor.

Then, the situation somehow got worse; the baby began crowning, but the doctor wasn’t there. The nurses then began physically holding the baby in place, preventing Malatesta from pushing the baby out. This struggle lasted for six minutes until the doctor finally arrived.
The medical records showed Malatesta’s struggle.

“Unfortunately, the patient was not able to [behave] in a controlled manner,” the records read. “She was pretty much all over the bed.”
The baby’s head immediately came out and her son, Jack, was born a minute later. Fortunately, Jack was perfectly healthy, but Malatesta certainly doesn’t credit the medical staff in any way.

“As if birthing a baby isn’t hard enough, I gave birth while engaged in a physical struggle against the people I trusted to care for us,” she wrote.
“I kept asking, “Why? Why?” but the nurse wasn’t answering me. She ignored me, acting almost annoyed with me. As we went back and forth—me asking questions and telling her this was more painful for me, and her getting increasingly irritated—it became very clear that this wasn’t about health or safety. It was a power struggle.”

But unfortunately, Malatesta continued to suffer. She says that the ordeal left her permanently injured, suffering from a condition called pudendal neuralgia. The main symptom of this condition is permanent pain in the genitals, which she said ruined her family life.
About eight months after giving birth, she tried to work with the hospital for compensation for this painful condition.

“My obstetrician called it the worst injury he has seen in all his decades of practice,” she said. “It has turned our family life upside down. I was a stay-at-home mother of four children, ages five and under, at the time Jack was born, and what happened to me during his birth left me unable to care for them as needed. I endure debilitating pain on a near daily basis—pain much worse than labor.”
The hospital wasn’t interested in negotiating. In fact, they didn’t even provide the answers that Malatesta asked for.

“I grew up in a medical family,” she wrote in a piece published by Cosmopolitan. “My dad is a doctor; my granddad was a doctor. Litigation, medical malpractice—it’s not something we take lightly. When the nerve injury really revealed itself, I wasn’t planning to file a lawsuit. I just wanted answers.”
Soon, however, Malatesta was reconsidering that stance. She filed a lawsuit against the hospital, and two years after filing, she went to court.

Even during the lawsuit, Malatesta’s pain affected her; she wasn’t able to sit for more than a few hours a day, so she couldn’t spend much time in the courtroom.
But something incredible happened: Other women began to come forward with other stories of obstetric violence.
“I became acutely aware that this wasn’t just about me,” Malatesta wrote. “This became a cause for me, almost. To bring the truth out on behalf of so many other women. I was surprised how much it meant to these other women that I was filing a lawsuit.”

“Brookwood used the idea of natural birth as a way to lure in patients,” Malatesta wrote. “I say that without a doubt. They were not providing the services they advertised.”
“I think their marketing department got ahead of themselves because they knew that women wanted these services. Women want to make their own decisions. Hospitals are advertising that women can make these choices like it’s a privilege instead of a patient right. That’s insulting to women!”

While the jury’s decision will go a long way towards holding the perpetrators of obstetric violence accountable, Malatesta says that she’ll likely live with horrific pain for her entire life. She hopes that her struggle will help to prevent this type of scenario from playing out the same way in the future.

Tags 50033636, balance, hemingway

Motherhood

Mom Gets $16 Million After Nurses Did This To Her During Delivery

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date April 12, 2017

Caroline Malatesta is a mother of four who lives in Alabama.

For her fourth child, she had a very specific birth plan in place. She wanted a natural birth—a departure for Malatesta, who had epidurals and episiotomies while delivering her three other children.

“No other hospital in town so much as mentioned such progressive concepts (and it should be noted that assisted out-of-hospital births aren’t legal here in Alabama).”
The Brookwood facility offered “autonomy,” according to advertisements, and even had birthing tubs on hand to accommodate mothers’ wishes. Malatesta spoke to the doctors at the medical facility who assured her that they would do everything possible to meet her needs. It seemed like the perfect place to bring a new child into the world.

“I carefully made a birth plan based on best medical research, approved by my doctor,” Malatesta wrote. “I was ready!”

But when the time came to deliver the baby, Malatesta says the experience was a nightmare.

The suit, filed in 2014, took two years to litigate. A jury deliberated for nine hours, then returned a stunning verdict, awarding the Malatesta family $10 million in compensatory damages, $5 million in punitive damages for “reckless fraud,” and $1 million for loss of consortium.
“Brookwood used the idea of natural birth as a way to lure in patients,” Malatesta wrote. “I say that without a doubt. They were not providing the services they advertised.”

“I think their marketing department got ahead of themselves because they knew that women wanted these services. Women want to make their own decisions. Hospitals are advertising that women can make these choices like it’s a privilege instead of a patient right. That’s insulting to women!”
While the jury’s decision will go a long way towards holding the perpetrators of obstetric violence accountable, Malatesta says that she’ll likely live with horrific pain for her entire life. She hopes that her struggle will help to prevent this type of scenario from playing out the same way in the future.

Tags 50032066, hemingway, parenting

Nosh

8 Countries' School Lunches, Explored

Post author By Anna Cherry
Post date April 11, 2017

We’re all for Americans not screaming about their inherent superiority, but equally misguided are wide-eyed speculations that Not Americans do everything better, and if only we could do things their way, we might finally lead perfect lives full of bliss.

What it amounts to is the cultural equivalent of benevolent sexism, “myths of the noble poor generated by the middle class,” or Philip Larkin’s notion that the pill [link to birth control pill article] was the end-all, be-all of sexual liberation—that is, ideas that are appealing, but ultimately false. No people are perfect. No place is Utopia.

Still, the idealizing continues, all while glossing over certain facts that don’t fit the appropriate narratives. One recent example of this came a couple of years ago, when pictures that were supposed to depict school lunches from around the world went viral, setting social media alight with criticism for the United States’ comparatively blah fare. Of course, that wasn’t the whole story—it never is—so here are lunches from eight different countries, explored:

Greece

“Children in Greece have baked chicken with orzo, stuffed grape leaves, cucumber and tomato salad, yoghurt with pomegranate seeds and oranges,” gushes a 2015 Daily Mail article shared nearly 9,000 times, dramatically (how else?) titled, “The school lunches that shame America: Photos reveal just how meager US students’ meals are compared to even the most cash-strapped of nations.”

When I visited debt-riddled Greece in April 2012, there were marchers protesting austerity cuts, and a retired pharmacist, in a state of economic desperation, took his own life outside the Greek parliament in Athens.

As food policy and children’s advocate Bettina Elias Siegel points out in a post titled “Why I’m Fed Up With Those Photos of ‘School Lunches Around the World'” that appears on her blog, The Lunch Tray: “According to a 2013 New York Times piece—notably entitled ‘More Children in Greece Are Going Hungry’—Greek schools actually ‘do not offer subsidized cafeteria lunches. Students bring their own food or buy items from a canteen. The cost has become insurmountable for some families with little or no income.’

“So I’m not sure who’s getting the lunch above, replete with fresh pomegranate seeds and just-picked citrus. But I do know that while Greek school kids were reportedly going hungry in 2013, over 20 million economically distressed kids in this country were being fed nutritious, federally subsidized meals every single school day.”

Spain

Indeed, when I taught English in a Madrid elementary school, students weren’t eating school lunches. They only had midday snacks (usually small things like cookies, juice, or fruit, but sometimes a more substantial bocadillo) brought from home that would tide them over until la comida, most Spaniards’ largest meal, which they’d have with family after the school day had finished.

But, according to the Daily Mail’s article: “Children in Spain start their meal with cold tomato soup, gazpacho, served with shrimp and brown rice. This is served with a seeded roll, peppers with red cabbage and half an orange for dessert.”

Really, Daily Mail? All of them? Are you sure about that? Last I checked, Spain was in a pretty deep economic crisis as well, which was exactly why people like me were being recruited there to teach English and help Spanish citizens become more marketable in other parts of the world. And in 2012, The Telegraph reported that Spanish parents were being charged a three-euro fee for sending their kids with packed lunches (a charge they deemed, understandably, “barbaric”).

But sure, who knows? Maybe five years later, all of the schoolchildren are being served shrimp for lunch on the government’s tab.

France

Is there anyone Americans love to romanticize more than the French? Specifically, we love to fetishize French women and then spin that fetish into a book, like Bringing up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting.

We love consuming French wisdom almost as much as French butter! Like, for example, that of internationally best-selling author Mireille Guiliano, who brought us “French Women Don’t Get Fat.” Unfortunately, these narratives can gloss over some of the more sinister implications of uniformly thin women and perfectly behaved little ones, such as women shamed into stricter eating habits and abusive parenting tactics.

But if there’s one stereotype that is difficult to argue—and whose merit seems unequivocally intact—it’s the superiority of French food, both in taste and quality. Although students may not be eating exactly what’s described in Daily Mail as the typical French school lunch (“a juicy steak and a hunk of brie”), they are almost certainly eating better than American students.

“French school meals are superior to ours–quelle suprise!,” writes Siegel. “According to [one] report, the amount spent on the food in French school meals can exceed two dollars—twice what American districts are left with after overhead.”

Then again, even French kids aren’t above the occasional lunch of chicken nuggets.

U.S.A.

Ah, dear, shamed Land of Liberty, home of freedom and fries. Our eating habits are the source of much derision from Americans and non-Americans alike, and with continued health concerns over increasing obesity despite our best efforts to stop putting on pounds, some concern is in order.

Perhaps, counterintuitively, our last hope is the fat acceptance movement, like the unexpected answer to a riddle? As Fran Hayden writes in The Independent, “Negativity begets negativity. …Fat acceptance does not encourage people to be unhealthy: fat acceptance gives people the opportunity to cast off those constant negative jibes. It offers a space where fat people are allowed to be comfortable with their bodies, and to work from there–whether that means maintaining the same shape or changing it.”

One thing is clear: The kidlets have not been pleased with former FLOTUS Michelle Obama’s efforts to put our country on the healthy track. As BuzzFeed News reports, “The USDA guidelines implemented over the last few years include limits on calories, fat, sugar, and sodium for all food and drinks sold during the school day for 100,000 schools across the country.”

The result? Some students went to social media to express their distaste, posting photos of their lunches with the hashtag #thanksMichelleObama.

Had a very #healthylunch today. The apple definitely made up for the “mystery mush” #ThanksMichelleObama pic.twitter.com/RWCnQRCxJK

— Hunter Whitney (@huntwhitney4) November 13, 2014

It was this phenomenon that provided the perfect frame for the Daily Mail and all the other outlets who recycled the narrative that American school lunches were exceptionally grim. But of course, not all American school lunches are drab and terrible. As with all the other countries, what’s served varies from school to school.

South Korea

The company responsible for the international-school-lunches photo essay that went viral is Sweetgreen, a chain of mostly East Coast health-food eateries. And as Mother Jones confirms, “those sumptuous photos don’t depict actual meals being served in actual schools—but, rather, staged shots that oversimplify a complex topic. As it turns out, Sweetgreen…produced the photos, but didn’t make that clear on its Tumblr.”

That said, it looks like their depiction of South Korea’s lunches was pretty spot on.
The produced lunch features milky fish soup, stir fried rice with tofu, broccoli, peppers, and kimchi.

Travel blogger Natasha Gabrielle wrote last year about her experiences with school lunches while teaching in South Korea. She tells the Huffington Post: “There are a few things about Korean school lunches that tend to stay the same—there is usually a soup and rice served with each meal. In addition to this, there is quite a variety with the types of foods that are served. In many Korean meals, banchan, or side dishes, are served. This may be kimchi, radishes, or a mixture of vegetables.”

Finland

You can sign me up for the Finnish model of school-lunch noms. Sweetgreen’s interpretation of their school lunch is bright and beautiful—a veggie-rich display including pea soup, carrots, beetroot salad, a crusty roll, and a crepe topped with berries—and seems to hit the mark.

Finland earned the No. 1 spot on Tabelog’s list of “Best 10 School Lunches From Around The World.” The article, published in 2016, says:

“According to regulation, school meals must be ‘tasty, colorful, and well-balanced.’ Serving portions are also specified, with vegetables covering ½ of each child’s plate, protein taking up one ¼ of the plate, and starch filling up the last ¼ of the plate. Meals are provided free of cost to all children, regardless of family income or status.”

One 2017 Food Republic article even raises the question of whether the country’s school lunches might be partially responsible for its students’ testing abilities, which are among the best in the world.

Brazil

Sweetgreen’s staged Brazilian lunch contains rice and black beans, baked plantain, pork with peppers and cilantro, green salad, and a seeded roll. While we’re not sure how close this gets to the majority of Brazilian lunches, the country does appear to have their school-lunch s*** together.

Apparently, Brazil’s school meal program is also serving to help the country’s small farmers. In 2009, a law was passed that required cities to spend at least 30 percent of their school meal budget on local farmers’ produce.

The country comes in at No. 7 on Tabelog’s “Best 10 School Lunches From Around The World” list. Tabelog reports:

“Meals are considered to be compulsory for all students, and lunch times are treated as part of the student’s curriculum. While meals are not usually complicated or fancy, they are generally healthy and well planned. Staples are largely composed of rice and beans, cooked in many different ways. Fresh vegetables are always served alongside. Meat is locally sourced, but not offered at every meal.”

United Kingdom

This might come as a surprise to those used to ingesting the stereotypes about flavorless, unimaginative, and pallid English food—or anyone who associates the U.K. with boiled potatoes and sausages—but the United Kingdom earned the No. 10 spot on Tabelog’s “Best 10 School Lunches From Around The World” list.

Sweetgreen doesn’t offer their version of U.K. school-lunch fare, but Daily Mail offers up a picture of a kid holding a tray “sadly lacking in fresh vegetables, featuring a baked potato, sausage and beans from a tin, and a half corn on the cob with a melon slice to follow.”

But that may be an unfair representation. According to Tabelog:

“The push for healthier school lunch in the UK really began in earnest after celebrity chef Jamie Oliver decided to create a television program he called Jamie’s School Dinners. At the time most food served in UK school was deep fried and rather unhealthy. Items such as pizza, chicken nuggets, and deep fried chips were common. The TV show brought the issue to the forefront of the public mind, and families began to push for healthier options. The push continues, and schools are working hard to provide their students with high quality meals.”

Nutty as it sounds, maybe what Americans need to remedy their fraught relationship with food is another reality television show. But that’s probably not the answer.

Tags 50020186, fuel, hemingway

Healthy Relationships Wellbeing

Here's How The Pill Might Be Affecting Your Romantic Life

Post author By Anna Cherry
Post date April 10, 2017

What you know, you don’t really know. It’s a central plotline in many horror movies, psychological thrillers, and The Matrix: The identity of someone you’re close to—or your own identity—suddenly changes or is revealed to have been an illusion all along.

Imagine thinking you’ve found the person you want to spend your life with, only to stop swallowing an aspirin-sized collection of hormones at noon every day and bam! he’s a dud. Almost worse than Rosemary’s Baby, right?

That’s probably not an accurate representation of what happens when most women get off oral contraception, but there are a number of studies suggesting that being on birth control pills, or going off of them, can affect women’s preferences in love—and that’s kind of disturbing. Read on to learn eight ways the pill may be affecting your romantic life:

1. Going off the pill may make you less attracted to your beau.

It’s bizarre to think that going off the pill could change the way you feel about your honey bear, but that’s exactly what one 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found. The study followed 118 couples who’d met while the women were taking oral contraceptives, and the results showed that women’s attraction often changed once she got off the pill.

Here’s the superficial kicker: This was determined largely by how conventionally attractive the dude was.

As the Florida State grad student and lead author on the study, Michelle Russell, tells Time: “Women who choose a partner when they’re on hormonal contraceptives and then stop taking them will prioritize their husband’s attractiveness more than they would if they were still on it. The effect that it would have on her marital satisfaction would carry more weight.”

But why? One possibility, according to Russell, is fluctuating estrogen levels.

2. Going off the pill may cause you to crave an alpha male.

You’ve never really been into those frat-bro, slightly-funky-smelling, ostentatiously carnivorous types who frequent your gym. But suddenly you’re off the pill and you can’t stop a certain inner-growly feeling when they grunt and drop their weights from too high like the lunkheads that they are. Even as your brain thinks they’re ridiculous, your lady region has been ignited. What on earth is going on?

According to Oakland University psychologist Lisa Welling, going off the pill may give you a strong hankering to bed an alpha male that you haven’t experienced before, because women are often attracted to uber-masculine guys during peak fertility, which, of course, isn’t experienced when taking hormonal contraceptives.

“Some really interesting research has found that women’s mate preferences change across their menstrual cycles,” Welling tells Shape. “This suggests that the hormonal contraceptive pill may alter, at least to a small extent, what traits women find appealing in a partner.”

3. Being on the pill may affect your ability to sniff out Mr. Right.

Ever heard of genetic dating sites, the ones that supposedly help you match with your perfect partner by studying your spit? It’s basically an attempt to get down to a science what women have been doing intuitively since they’ve been reproducing: sniffing out compatible mates.

As Melinda Wenner writes for Scientific American< /em>: “Hidden in a man’s smell are clues about his major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, which play an important role in immune system surveillance.

“Studies suggest that females prefer the scent of males whose MHC genes differ from their own, a preference that has probably evolved because it helps offspring survive: Couples with different MHC genes are less likely to be related to each other than couples with similar genes are, and their children are born with more varied MHC profiles and thus more robust immune systems.”

iStock

Okay, cool. Now, here’s the creepy (?) part: Although when you’re off the pill, you may be more likely to sniff out someone who’s genetically dissimilar with complementary immunities, according to several studies, when you’re on the pill you may prefer men who have familiar immunity genes. Yikes!

All of this said, you shouldn’t go dumping all your pills just yet; the research is inconclusive because of so many mixed results.

4. Yo-yo consumption of the pill may lower your relationship satisfaction.

Yo-yo dieting. Yo-yo dating. Yo-yo master. It seems that almost as a rule, putting “yo-yo” as a descriptor before anything makes that thing less impressive and maybe even kind of negative. And hormonal contraception is no exception.

iStock

This is pretty much common sense, but taking your body through a hormonal roller coaster by going on and off the pill is not a very good idea.

We aren’t doctors, but it doesn’t seem like your emotional state or your physiology would fare well with such ups and down. According to one 2014 study published in Psychological Science, it’s not a great plan for your romantic relationship either.

iStock

As Charlotte Alter writes in Time: “[The] study of 365 couples…found that women who went on or off the pill during a relationship were less sexually satisfied than women who were consistently on the pill or who had never been on it.”

5. Being on the pill may squash your, ahem…drive.

The complex cocktail of hormones, emotions, and attitudes that make you want to get freaky can be hard to pin down, whether these things are shaped by Mother Nature or artificially by the birth control pill.

iStock

“The pill’s relationship with sexual desire is complex,” Vanessa Marin points out in Lifehacker. “It’s also, unfortunately, one of the least-researched aspects of potential side effects.” (We’d love to see a side-by-side comparison of the money spent researching erectile dysfunction.)

iStock

In addition to the possible hormonal changes that could create a decrease in desire, the pill can affect a woman’s ability to produce natural lubricant. In addition to potentially making the act “uncomfortable or even painful,” since “[s]ome women associate getting wet with being turned on…dryness can be interpreted as a psychological signal that she’s not aroused.”

6. Being on the pill may increase your drive.

On the other hand, being on the pill offers some degree of assurance about one particularly important outcome—namely not getting pregnant—that can provide many women with a psychological security conducive to lovin’.

iStock

In addition, birth control pills can allow you to skip periods. If you’re not into romantic interludes during your period, or if your significant other isn’t into “riding the crimson tide” (eye roll), skipping menstruation can mean more viable days for getting it on.

Also, if you take the pill to lessen your amount of cramping, you’d probably agree that you’re more willing to seek out frisky times when you don’t feel like your insides are being slowly crumpled and twisted like a Stretch Armstrong doll.

iStock

Finally, some women take the pill for taming acne, specifically hormonal breakouts. When your face is clear, your confidence is higher, which may lead to more amorous feelings and activities. Ooh la la!

7. Being on the pill may make you more jealous.

So, what if your college relationship was sort of defined by a gnawing jealousy that eventually turned the union into a toxic landfill that inspired you to stay single for the next decade or so? Was it all because you were a fresh-faced 19-year-old in your first serious relationship? Maybe not! It could have been influenced, at least in part, by your birth control.

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The green-eyed monster comes out with the highest-estrogen birth control pills, according to the findings of the University of Stirling’s Dr. Craig Roberts, who partnered with Dutch psychologists to survey 275 women about their attitudes in romantic relationships.

As the Daily Mail reports: “Comparing the brands used with the women’s answers revealed a clear link between the drug and envy. And the higher the dose of oestrogen in the contraceptive, the more likely a woman was to be jealous. Progesterone, however, was not implicated in jealousy, suggesting that progesterone-only versions of the pill play less havoc with women’s emotions.”

8. Being on the pill may have no discernible effect on your romantic behavior, because you’re a complex human being not entirely ruled by hormonal whims.

It’s also entirely possible that the hormonal changes brought on by taking oral contraceptives would be more or less insignificant in determining how you conduct yourself in a romantic relationship. Contrary to popular belief, women are not strange woodland creatures who behave as if under some mysterious spell. (The spell is our hormones! Get it?)

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Perhaps a bigger risk of being on the pill is hearing stuff like this and letting it influence you to view your own mind and perceptions as unreliable—something women have been encouraged to do for a lot longer than birth control pills have been around.

Maybe women going off the pill are more likely to be under psychological or relationship distress in the first place. For example, a woman goes off the pill because she’s no longer interested in being intimate with her partner—which may have more to do with the quality of the relationship than the effect of hormonal contraception—in the hopes that it will fix things, but in the end, it doesn’t, so they break up. Or maybe going off the pill made the possibility of becoming pregnant by her partner more immediate, which led to a more honest appraisal of the relationship.

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Whether you’re on or off the pill, don’t gaslight yourself. And don’t pathologize your emotions—they can provide you with invaluable information.

Tags 50020156, body, hemingway

Categories
Wellbeing

14 Things Every Woman Should Stop Doing

Post author By Lisa Douglas

Post date April 10, 2017

Women are empathetic creatures. The universe made us so! Actually, it was evolution that did. Empathy is a useful and necessary trait in women because it makes for more nurturing mothers and more connected friends. Unfortunately, empathy is also linked to the feeling of guilt.
Ever notice that your guy doesn’t feel bad about things like you do? Studies show that most men are guilt deficient because they lack “interpersonal sensitivity” or empathy. Unfortunately, because of all of our empathy, we as women go to the other end of the spectrum and suffer from something called destructive guilt. This is overwhelming guilt that can be habitual and become a part of everyday life.

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The good news is, knowledge is power! The more we recognize how guilt affects our behavior, the more we can change it. We can take back control of our lives and live forever, blissfully (guilt free).
Here’s how:

Stop saying “yes” to everyone.

“Sure, I can meet you for dinner (even though I’m exhausted).” “No problem, I’ll edit your article for you (even though I have a ton of work to do).” “Yes, I’ll drive you to the train station (even though I’m late).”

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Women hate saying no in fear that they’ll hurt someone’s feelings or they won’t be liked. It’s time we start setting some boundaries and sticking to them! Say no, then let it go.

Stop apologizing for everything.

The waiter bumps into you and you say sorry. You need something filed, and you apologize about it to your assistant. You ask your best friend her advice, then follow up with an apology for not having figured it out on your own.

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Studies show that women apologize often because they have a low threshold for what constitutes offensive behavior, they want to be liked, and they want to soften a pushy, demanding image. Women need to own up to their decisions and desires and stop saying sorry so much.

Comparing Themselves to Other Women

You find yourself on social media comparing yourself to your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers. You obsess over every detail: how they look compared to you, what they wear, how successful they are, and even what their homemade muffins look like.

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As Teddy Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It preys on your insecurities and only serves to make you feel bad. Be grateful and celebrate who you are and what you have. Build yourself up by becoming oblivious to those around you.

Holding on to Regrets

A wise woman once said, “I never regret nor do I look back on decisions I had to make; regret just seems so unuseful to me.” We can’t agree more! Own up to your decisions and mistakes, then move on.

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Life’s too short to obsess over the past.

Feeling Unworthy at Work

When you get complimented for a job well done at work do you often respond with, “Thanks, but someone else could’ve done even better.” Or “Thanks, but it was no biggie.” Do you often feel that you’re undeserving of your job and maybe even that someone might find out that you’re a fake?

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According to Psychology Today, over 70 percent of people report having felt like an impostor in their careers. You’re not alone! But you probably should not be feeling this way. You are where you are in your career for a reason!

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“You can only be your best, no more no less.” So own your success and sprint on!

Worrying About Having a Clean House

No one cares about the dust under the bed, the dishes left in the sink, the bills on the dining table, or the disorganized coat closet…except you. Obsessing about it will only leave you feeling stressed and bad about yourself.

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Close the door and move on with your life.

Worrying About Everything Being Perfect

Studies show that women worry about perfection much more than men do. If women are doing five things and four are going well but one is not, they’ll hyper focus on that particular not-so-great thing. Some experts believe this is a cultural phenomenon, while others think it may be genetic.

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Regardless of which it is, we think that the person who said this has got the right answer: “If you have to force it, leave it. Relationships. Yoga poses. Perfect pony tails. Let that s*** go.”

Trying to Do Everything

As you’re making dinner, you’re talking to your mom, while you’re doing crunches, writing a check, and googling where to go to dinner next week. Although studies show that women can multitask effectively, sometimes trying to do too much ends up being more of an act of messing up several things at once.

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Try doing one thing well, rather than 10 things poorly.

Living in the Future

“I’ll be so happy when I make more money.” “When I have a house, then things will be perfect.” “When I lose 20 pounds, then I’ll find a husband.”

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Thinking about being happy in the future, doesn’t make you happy in the present. A Harvard study showed that people who were focused on what they were doing and who they were in the present were the happiest. Those who thought ahead or daydreamed were miserable. Take a look around you, count your blessings and be happy for yourself right now!

Fearing Being Labeled a B****

Men who are pushy at work and demand what they want are called go-getters; when women act the exact same way, they often get pasted with a nasty label. So women—not wanting to be viewed as difficult—change their behavior, which results in them getting less of what they want (and often less of what they deserve).

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It’s time to stand tall, employ a “sticks and stones” mentality, and power through with confidence in your decisions and desires. You’ve earned them.

Obsessing Over Their Body

The universe made all people unique so that we could appreciate and celebrate our differences: Differently shaped hips, differently shaped breasts, differently shaped legs. Some are bigger, some are smaller, some are in between. As our kids often remind us, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.”

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We’ll take it a step further and add, “You take what you’ve got, and you love it with all you’ve got!”

Checking Social Media 24/7

Studies show that 30 percent of women check their social media multiple times a day, and although it makes them feel connected, it can make them feel anxious as well. It seems that obsessing over others’ seemingly perfect lives makes women feel not very good about themselves.

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Try going on a social media hiatus for a month and see how great it feels to live your own life in real time.

Doing Things Because You Have to

There are a whole lot of things that you HAVE to do in life: pay your taxes, stop at red lights, brush your teeth. Those are the non-negotiables. But how about other things that you often feel like you must do, even though you really don’t want to?

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Try an exercise the next time you feel obligated to do something that you’d rather not. Ask yourself, “What would be the worst thing that would happen if I didn’t do this?” And don’t do it. Then feel what it’s like to be free!

Feeling Guilty About Eating

You can feel guilty that you missed your friend’s birthday. Or that you forgot to pick up the dry cleaning. Or that you haven’t seen your parents in a while.

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But living your life counting every calorie and dissecting every morsel that you eat is not only a waste of your precious time, it’s self-defeating! Life is short and cupcakes taste good. Have a bite (or three).

Tags 50020251, balance, hemingway

Categories
Motherhood

Mom's Viral Story About Child Abductors In IKEA Is A Must-Read For Parents

Post author By Megan Senseney

Post date April 10, 2017

When one mom and her family set out for a trip to IKEA, they thought they’d end the day with taking home a new couch. Little did she know, however, that she’d have a terrifying experience that she’ll never forget.

Corner view of the Ikea furniture store in Sunrise Florida near Fort Lauderdale on a mostly sunny Winter day. The image features the typical blue store with the yellow logo on its wall.

When planning a trip to IKEA, you expect to have a day filled with picking out build-it-yourself furniture, Swedish meatballs, and probably a cinnamon roll or two.
There are some brave parents out there who choose to forgo the in-store childcare, bringing their kids along for the ride throughout the large, winding store.

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Although they might expect a few annoyances along the way, none of them would ever think they’d encounter a lurking child trafficker, but that’s exactly what one mother said happened to her.

Their normal day took a terrifying turn.

Diandra Toyos wrote about her recent experience during an IKEA shopping trip with her three kids and her mother, and the post quickly went viral. As Toyos and her family searched the store for a new couch, she said she noticed a middle-aged man who was fairly well-dressed walking around the area in circles. She didn’t think much of him at first, but that all changed in an instant.

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He started creeping toward her family.

Toyos began to notice that the man wasn’t really looking at anything in the store, only picking things up occasionally and putting them back down. He never strayed from the area she and her family were in, and at one point was so close to her children that Toyos instinctively moved herself between them and the man.
“I had a bad feeling,” she said. “He continued to circle the area, staring at the kids.”

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The man continued to pick things up here and there but eventually began to stare at her children while doing it, probably not even noticing what he was actually touching. “My mom noticed as well and mentioned that we needed to keep an eye on him,” Toyos said.
“We moved on…and so did he. Closely.”

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As she and her family continued to walk around the store, Toyos said her mother noticed another man walking in circular patterns around the same area they were, this one a little younger and somewhere in his twenties.

She felt in her gut that something was wrong.

Toyos decided that she and her family were just going to sit down until the men moved on. It never happened, though. As soon as she and her family sat down on one of the display couches, the men sat down on another one that faced the family. Toyos knew it was no coincidence—they sat there for around 30 minutes, and so did the men. They only managed to lose the men after Toyos’ mother made prolonged eye contact with them, letting them know she knew they were there and she thought they were up to something.

Diandra Toyos

The men seemed to disappear after that, and Toyos continued to shop with her family, but all of the enjoyment of the day was gone after that. “[We] still kept the kids right with us the whole time,” she said. “I kept the baby in the sling which kept my hands free and my eyes too. I didn’t have to keep an eye on the stroller AND two kids… I just had to watch my older ones.”

She decided they needed to get out.

After winding their way through the rest of the store, Toyos and her mother stopped to talk to a store security officer and report what had happened to them.

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She then decided she needed to share their experience so other parents could be on the lookout for similar activity not just in IKEA stores, but anywhere they take their kids.
“I am almost sure that we were the targets of human trafficking,” she said. “This is happening all over. Including the United States. It’s in our backyards. I’m reading more and more about these experiences and it’s terrifying. If not that, something else shady was obviously going on. Either way, as parents, we NEED to be aware.”

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She’s absolutely right, too. Human trafficking is a thriving industry, one that generates around $32 billion each year, and it exists in each and every state in the country. Whether you’re a parent or just trying to look after yourself when you’re out in the world, there are certain things everyone can do to keep themselves and their families safe.

Stranger danger exists, but…

We all know that it’s important to teach children not to get too close to people they don’t know or wander off with them, and the rhyming phrase “stranger danger” is a convenient way to get children to remember that.

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The problem with this, though, is that it doesn’t cover all the bases. In fact, your child is far more likely to be harmed by someone they already know. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found that out of all reported kidnappings in the year 2000, more than 75 percent of them were carried out by acquaintances or family members.
Make sure you trust the people who are around your children, and don’t tell your kids that they have to be around or listen to someone just because they’re a sibling, uncle, grandparent, or friend.

Be aware.

It’s important to follow your instincts (like Toyos did) and pay more attention when something feels off to you. Try to be aware of your surroundings at all times, and make sure you report anyone who seems suspicious.

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Recognize the signs.

There are many signs you can look out for that can indicate someone may be a victim of human trafficking. These include:
Having a malnourished appearance. They may even talk about not having access to proper healthcare.

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Physical signs that the person is abused, such as marks around their wrists, bruising, or cuts.
Living or working in conditions that have high amounts of security, such as bars on the windows of the building, barbed wire fences, and security cameras. They may not be allowed breaks and often aren’t paid.
A lack of personal belongings. They may not have access to their own identification cards or banking information, and sometimes they aren’t allowed to actually speak to others.

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Avoiding social contact with others. They may seem incredibly nervous and refuse to make eye contact, or appear anxious, depressed, submissive, and fearful, especially when the threat of calling law enforcement is made.

Keep identification updated.

Yes, it can be a pain to take young children in to have an ID card made, but it could be what saves their life if they’re ever abducted.

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Putting together a child ID kit for each of your children can be one of the most helpful tools for law enforcement if they ever need to search for them, and they’re ultimately pretty simple to complete.
It is recommended that the kits contain a color photo of the child that is recent (no more than six months old), a full description of the child, fingerprints taken by a professional, dental records, and some type of DNA.

That last portion might sound surprising, but DNA can be taken from a number of sources like old toothbrushes, used bandages that contain the child’s blood, the child’s baby teeth, or even an old hair brush with some strands still in it. You can also purchase DNA kits, but these suggestions include simple items that you could gather at any time.

Remember escape techniques.

Whether it’s for you or your child, there are a number of techniques that can be used to make an attacker flee.

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Remember one word—velcro. If you ever find yourself in a situation where someone is trying to drag you, hold on to whatever you can like a piece of velcro and fight as hard as you can to hold on. Attackers will typically go for an abduction that’s easier, and making it easier for them is the last thing you want to do.
Yell. Loudly. Try to call as much attention to yourself and the situation as you can. Like the velcro technique, it can make the abductor feel like they won’t be able to take you without a fight. You can also buy your child a whistle that they can use if they notice someone acting strangely or coming near them.

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Use the swimming or windmill technique, which involves swinging your arms around wildly, as if you’re doing a backstroke. Doing so can prevent whoever’s attacking you from getting a firm grip on you, and you might even get in a good swing at them while you’re at it.

Tags 50020071, hemingway, parenting

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