Month: June 2017

A Chance Meeting With A Beautiful Bride Made This Little Girl's Day

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date June 19, 2017

Not a lot of 2-year-olds are reading 19th-century British mystery novels, but this sweet little girl from Seattle happens to be a really big fan of the Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White.

In this book, the titular woman in white, Anne, is an unfortunate tragic hero—an eccentric who is committed to an asylum by her own conniving mother. Anne helps her half-sister marry the man of her dreams and inherit a large sum of money—and she dies in the process.
But this 2-year-old doesn’t need to know the whole story; she just calls the novel her “princess book.”
Technically, the girl’s mother—who asked that they remain anonymous—is the big fan of “old dead British writers,” according to BuzzFeed News. But her daughter likes to carry the book around everywhere, which she did on a trip to Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood late last winter.

The Princess of Ballard

Stunning bride Shandace Robertson was taking wedding photos with her new husband when she and the little girl made eye contact.

For the little girl, Mrs. Robertson was obviously a “princess” like the one on her book.
Scott Robertson, Shandace’s husband, told BuzzFeed, “My wife loves kids.” So he wasn’t surprised when she walked up to the little girl and gave her a rose from her bouquet. The girl showed Mrs. Robertson her book and pointed out the resemblance between the bride and the figure on the book cover.

Since this encounter took place during the time that the newlyweds were having their wedding photos taken, the new Mrs. Robertson asked the mother if she could take some pictures with the little girl.
The wedding photographer, Stephanie Cristalli, captured some truly amazing photographs of the interaction between the “Princess of Ballard” and her new friend.

May the Princess of Ballard reign on.

The wedding photographer shared the images with the young mother, and now the family has framed photos up on their walls of the little girl with Mrs. Robertson.

“She’ll walk up to it and be like, ‘There’s the Princess of Ballard!’” the mother told BuzzFeed. “And every time we go to Ballard, we expect to see the princess.”

Setting a High Bar

After reading this story, more than a hundred people commented, many mentioning that the tale had them in tears.
One reader, Katie Alexis, said: “If a little girl doesn’t come up to me on my wedding day thinking I am a princess I will be very disappointed. What a cute story. My eyes watered for sure.”
Ian Bruce wrote, “Anyone who goes out of her way to make the day of a 2-year old is a true princess in my book. Damn allergies…”
Maiko Dancer from Ithaca, New York, summed up the story nicely, too: “Not only is this just the sweetest story with the loveliest people, but the bride looks drop dead gorgeous in what is one of the most stunning wedding dresses I have ever seen. What a lovely way for a couple to begin their life together. And what a beautiful memory for the little girl and her mom.”

As for the bride and groom, Mr. Robertson described the encounter as “A really special moment…the cherry on top of the perfect day.”

Tags 50027226, hemingway, parenting

Nosh

A Surprising Number Of People Believe That Chocolate Milk Comes From Brown Cows

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date June 19, 2017

Quick: Where does chocolate milk come from?
For most people, the answer is fairly obvious: It’s regular milk mixed with chocolate syrup.

But according to a survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, 7 percent of Americans think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. That’s about 17.3 million people.
Granted, the survey wasn’t performed with scientific rigor. The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy polled 1,000 adults over a five-day period, and some people may have selected the answer as a joke. Other people may have been nervous, simply choosing the first answer that came to mind.

And some people, of course, might actually believe that brown cows give chocolate milk.
“It is a bit surprising,” a spokeswoman for the Innovation Center told CNN. “We don’t have a suggestion as to why people would draw that conclusion.”

No word on whether these people also believe that black cows produce licorice-flavored milk.

As The Washington Post reported, a shocking 48 percent of respondents said that they didn’t know where chocolate milk comes from—they simply don’t think about how chocolate-flavored dairy products make their way onto the shelves.

The center hasn’t released all of the results of the survey yet, but they did release a few startling tidbits.
For instance, 37 percent of adults secretly drink milk straight from the container. (Think about that before having a bowl of cereal at a friend’s house.)

About 5 percent of people abstain from drinking milk altogether, meaning the majority of Americans have at least a half-gallon tucked away somewhere in the fridge.
Oh, and adults don’t abstain from the chocolate stuff, either. But they might not admit it to their friends: 29 percent of respondents who’d purchased chocolate milk said that they use their kids as an excuse to buy the treat.

For what it’s worth, these types of surveys always have a few surprising results, and there’s a reason for that.

Gallup once reported that 6 percent of Americans don’t believe that the moon landings really occurred. We’d like to think that it’s many of the same people who believe the brown cow thing, but the polling experts at Gallup have a much more sensible explanation.
“It is not unusual to find about that many people in the typical poll agreeing with almost any question that is asked of them,” wrote Frank Newport of Gallup, “so the best interpretation is that this particular conspiracy theory is not widespread.”

In other words, if you ask enough people whether chocolate milk comes from brown cows, some of them will be swayed by the question itself. Given that the Innovation Center’s survey polled just 1,000 Americans, we can’t definitively say that the 7 percent figure is totally accurate.
Still, there are certainly some people out there who haven’t thought about where their food comes from. That’s a bit frightening in and of itself—and it speaks to some of the issues that Americans have with nutrition.

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Motherhood

4-D Ultrasound Shows Actual Effects Of Smoking While Pregnant

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date June 19, 2017

We’ve known for some time that if a woman smokes while she’s pregnant it can have negative effects on her developing baby. From a higher risk of premature birth and low birth weight to increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long warned that a mother’s smoking habit can have a serious impact on her unborn child’s life.

The reality of the dangers of smoking while pregnant is clearer than ever before. This is thanks to new 4-D ultrasound technology and research performed by Dr. Nadja Reissland and her colleagues in the Department of Psychology at Durham University.

Similar to other ultrasounds used during pregnancy, 4-D ultrasounds rely on sound waves to craft a picture of what a fetus looks like in the womb. What sets them apart, however, is that fact that 4-D ultrasound technology can actually create a video of the baby that can be watched in real time. This allows parents to see their baby move in the woman and even observe their responses to stimuli in their environment.

An unborn child’s response to their environment is exactly what researcher Reissland and her team were interested in when they began their observations for a study published by the journal Acta Paediatric.

Using 4-D ultrasound technology and precise observation software, researchers focused on watching exactly how an unborn baby responds when mothers continue their smoking habits during pregnancy.

The results of their research were nothing short of astonishing.

Four ultrasound scans were performed over the course of 12 weeks, starting at 24 weeks’ gestation. Study participants included 20 expectant mothers. Four of these mothers were regular smokers.

Although further research is needed to determine the exact implications of this study, results indicated that the babies of the smoking moms had significantly higher mouth movements and were touching their faces at much higher rates.

Researchers believed that these movements were negative responses to the mother smoking during pregnancy, and this information provides further evidence that continuing a smoking habit is harmful to developing fetuses.

Outside of providing us with important information about how babies develop in the womb and how expectant mothers can make lifestyle decisions that are in the best interest of their unborn baby, 4-D ultrasounds also confirm one more important truth: Pregnancy and fetal development are truly amazing. In fact, thanks to advancing medical technology, here are seven things we now know babies do in utero.

1. Your baby is learning to recognize your voice.

While your baby is growing inside your womb, they are learning important skills for survival on the outside. One study published in the journal Infant Behavior & Development found clear evidence that during the third trimester, babies are learning to prefer their mother’s voice over that of female strangers.

2. Your baby is getting the hiccups.

Have you ever noticed that your baby’s kicks feel suspiciously rhythmic and predictable? Chances are high that you’re not experiencing kicks, but what you’re actually feeling is that your baby has a case of the hiccups.

Most babies start to hiccup in the womb early on, but you may not notice these jerky movements until closer to six months, according to Healthline.

3. Your baby can taste what you eat.

We may not be certain about what causes intense cravings during pregnancy, but we do know for sure that when Mom is chowing down on tacos, Baby is getting a taste, too. Research shows that the nutrients from the food that pregnant women eat find their way into their amniotic fluid.

Amazingly, as early as 20 weeks’ gestation, babies begin to take big drinks of amniotic fluid and develop a taste for certain foods. What you eat during pregnancy may even influence what they prefer or dislike once they begin to eat solid food outside of the womb, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics.

4. Your baby is smiling.

There is something life changing about the first time your baby flashes a grin. Thanks to 4-D ultrasounds, we know that babies start practicing their smile long before they’re born.

According to research published in The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, as fetuses’ brains develop they start learning to use their face. In addition to smiling, your baby is also practicing yawning, sticking their tongue out, and blinking while they wait to be born—when they can start making cute faces for their parents.

5. Your baby is learning to anticipate touch.

Newborns have an impressive ability to anticipate touch instead of merely reacting to it once they’ve experienced it. As it turns out, this is a skill that is learned in the womb.

Research in the journal of Developmental Psychobiology found that fetuses begin to open their mouth as an anticipatory response to touch right around nine months’ gestation. Additionally, repeated ultrasounds throughout the remainder of the pregnancy showed that babies become more skilled at anticipating touch the closer they are to being born.

6. Your baby is reacting to light.

Right around week 28 of your pregnancy, your baby’s eyes will open. They may not have a lot to look at in their first home, but they learn to react to light quickly.

By the 33rd week of your pregnancy, your baby’s pupils are dilating and constricting, fully able to detect when light enters the eye.

7. Your baby is learning language.

The developing brain is nothing short of amazing. In the third trimester, babies not only learn to prefer their mother’s voice, they also show preference for their native language.

Researchers studied fetal sensitivity to maternal speech and language by monitoring changes in the babies’ heart rate. The study determined that fetuses in the third trimester of pregnancy responded uniquely to their mother’s native language versus a foreign language being spoken.

Tags 50026456, hemingway, parenting

Mindful Parenting Motherhood

One Mother's Awesome Response When Her Daughter Called Her Fat

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date June 19, 2017

Maintaining a positive body image isn’t always easy. There are lots of messages out there telling us to be ashamed of how we look—especially those of us who weigh more than society says we should.
It can also be tricky to know how to talk about all of this. People who want to be sensitive about the way overweight people are often treated search for just the right word to use as a descriptor while not being insulting. And they frequently find themselves at a loss for words.
Self-help author Allison Kimmey has the right approach—and for the record, she doesn’t view the word “fat” as an insult.

When Kimmey overheard her daughter use that word in anger, she decided that she had to do something about it.
Many mothers would immediately punish their children for using “fat” as an insult. Kimmey, however, doesn’t believe in the effectiveness of that approach.
“Each moment these topics come up, I have to choose how I’m going to handle them,” she wrote. “‘Fat’ is not a bad word in our house. If I shame my children for saying it, then I am proving that it is an insulting word, and I continue the stigma that being fat is unworthy, gross, comical, and undesirable.”

“Since we don’t call people fat as an insult in my household, I have to assume that she internalized this idea from somewhere or someone else,” she continued. “Our children are fed ideas from every angle. You have to understand that that will happen; at a friend’s house whose parents have different values, watching a TV show or movie, overhearing someone at school—ideas about body image are already filtering through their minds.”
“It is our job to be the loudest, most accepting, positive, and consistent voice they hear. So that it can rise above the rest.”

Here’s how Kimmey responded to her daughter’s words (text taken directly from Allison Kimmey’s Instagram page).

“She was upset I made them get out of the pool and she told her brother that mama is fat. I told her to meet me upstairs so we could chat.”
Me: “What did you say about me?”
Her: “I said you were fat, mama, im sorry”

Me: “Let’s talk about it. The truth is, I am not fat. No one IS fat. It’s not something you can BE. But I do HAVE fat. We ALL have fat. It protects our muscles and our bones and keeps our bodies going by providing us energy. Do you have fat?”
Her: “Yes! I have some here on my tummy”
Me: “Actually everyone, every single person in the world has fat. But each of us has different amounts.
“Her brother: “Oh right! I have some to protect my big muscles! But you have more than me”

Me: “Yes, that’s true. Some people have a lot, and others don’t have very much. But that doesn’t mean that one person is better than the other, do you both understand?
Both: “Yes, mama”
Me: “So can you repeat what I said”
Them: “Yes! I shouldn’t say someone is fat because you can’t be just fat, but everyone HAS fat and it’s okay to have different fat”
Me: “Exactly right!”

Kimmey’s exchange went viral almost instantly, and for good reason.

She’s doing a great job of showing a healthy, positive way to deal with body shaming.

Kimmey has more parenting wisdom to share. She recently announced that she’s working on a children’s book about body confidence. The book will be available for pre-order this month, and it should hit store shelves in autumn. For more information, follow Kimmey on Instagram here.

Tags 50027251, body, hemingway

Wellbeing

6 Telltale Signs Of Liver Trouble

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date June 19, 2017

A healthy liver is essential to your overall wellness. The liver plays a vital role in keeping our bodies functioning, and liver disease is a serious health issue that can have devastating effects if it goes undiagnosed.

Listen to your body and look for signs that may indicate your liver is in distress. This will ensure you get the help you need before serious damage is done. Before we get to the symptoms of an unhealthy liver, though, let’s take a look at what a healthy liver actually does.

What’s a liver for, anyway?

The liver is a large, bright red organ that sits protected inside the rib cage above the stomach. Its main jobs are to filter blood coming from the digestive tract, metabolize drugs, break down fats and nutrients so they are easier for your body to absorb, and regulate chemicals in the bloodstream. It is a crucial part of your entire digestive system.

Among the liver’s most important jobs is breaking down and filtering out any harmful substances. The toxins then leave the liver in the form of bile and eventually exit the body as waste.
When your liver is struggling to work properly, it will negatively affect your entire body.

Common Symptoms

Liver disease can be caused by a genetic trait, lifestyle choices, or both. Fortunately there are a handful of common, easily spotted symptoms that are often dead giveaways that your liver isn’t doing too well.
1. A very important symptom—and perhaps the most alarming—is the color of your urine and feces.
Anytime your body’s waste is dark, tar colored, or bloody, it’s time to go see a doctor ASAP.
2. Constant feelings of fatigue might indicate a liver that’s having a hard time.
3. Lots of things cause nausea. Liver disease could be one of them.
4. People with struggling livers often suffer from diminished appetite.

5. Most obvious of all, pain or inflammation in your liver tells you something’s not right.
6. The yellowing of skin and eyes (known as jaundice) and severe fluid retention are other well-known symptoms of liver failure.

When your liver starts to shut down, it’s unable to properly filter out waste products, and your body begins to retain toxins.

Some Not-So-Common Symptoms and Causes

In addition to the obvious body signs associated with liver failure, there’s a whole list of uncommon symptoms as well. These include bad breath and body odor, extremely itchy skin, bruising easily, developing new allergies, and the development of spider angiomas (swollen capillaries close to the surface of the skin).
Although you can’t control genetic factors that cause liver disease, there are lifestyle factors that can affect liver health and function. If you contract a virus that specifically attacks the liver, such as hepatitis A, B, or C, you will now be dealing with a compromised organ. Being overweight or drinking excessively can also lead to liver scarring or cirrhosis.

The earlier liver disease is diagnosed, the better. With enough time, there are changes you can make to your life and diet to reroute the course of the disease.
The liver has an impressive ability to regenerate and heal itself when given a chance to do so. It’s important to eat well, exercise regularly, and go in for annual checkups to stay on top of your liver health.

Tags 50027171, body, hemingway

Sweat

New Whooping Cough Study Has A Tempting Offer For Participants

Post author By curtis.strite
Post date June 19, 2017

How much would it take for you to let yourself be intentionally infected with dangerous bacteria? We know some researchers who might pay that much.

A team of scientists at the University of Southampton in southern England are working on a brand new study aimed at understanding B. pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough.

“This study is part of a landmark European project that aims to develop a better vaccine against whooping cough, as we know protection by the current vaccine seems to be much less effective than it was 15 years ago,” said Robert Read, director of the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, in a

or giving them a call at 023 8120 3853. Learn more about this important study here.

Tags 50027041, body, hemingway

Motherhood

Here Comes Yet Another Controversial Opinion In The Breastfeeding Vs. Formula Debate

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date June 19, 2017

Why is it that policy proposals that target women’s choices always spring from the mind of a man?
A 2014 article published inexplicably in the Guardian’s “News” section is a case in point. In the “expert” opinion piece (which has recently churned to the surface of the internet after a few years of deserved obscurity), a guy named Eric Assadourian argues that baby formula should be treated as a controlled substance worldwide.

Assadourian works as something called a “Transforming Cultures project director” at the sustainability research NGO Worldwatch Institute. We suppose he was simply trying to transform our culture.
Assadourian calls for a global Framework Convention on Formula Control, which would make formula available only by prescription. The goal is to make every mother in the world breastfeed their babies, no matter how she feels about it.

For the record, Assadourian’s risible policy is modeled on the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which shows you what he really thinks about baby formula.

If Assadourian could stop mansplaining motherhood for a hot second, he might learn that women generally don’t choose formula over breast milk because they hate their babies.

By some estimates, 1 in 1,000 new moms is physically unable to produce breast milk, a condition known as mammary hypoplasia. That might not sound like a lot, but considering that nearly 4 million infants were born in the U.S. in 2010 (the last year for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published statistics), that’s 4,000 moms who probably don’t want to be publicly shamed for a health problem that they can’t control.
Then there’s postpartum depression, which affects 1 in 7 women who give birth, by the American Psychological Association’s count. If Assadourian wants to tell a mom with a serious mood disorder that she should snap out of it and get pumping, what can we say?

(If you’re struggling with postpartum depression or think you might be, help is available. Call the Postpartum Support International hotline at 800-944-4PPD. That’s 800-944-4773.)
Men raise infants alone, too. Do we really want to ask them to call in a prescription every week to keep their babies fed?

Finally, social conditions predict the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding with remarkable consistency.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 21 percent of women who earn six times the poverty line breastfeed for six months after giving birth. Only 12 percent of mothers below the poverty line reach that same milestone.

The reasons for the disparity are as dismaying as they are familiar. Low-income moms have to return to work much sooner than their wealthier counterparts. The United States still doesn’t have laws guaranteeing paid maternity leave, and lower-paying jobs are far less likely to offer this benefit.
Women who aren’t wealthy often lack the freedom to stop what they’re doing and breastfeed their baby 10 to 12 times a day. Placing an added burden on these women could amount to class discrimination.

As Jeanne Sager writes on Cafemom, “Whether you love formula companies or hate them, breast milk is neither free nor available to all mothers. All the other aforementioned issues that keep moms from breastfeeding remain, and they’re not going away anytime soon.”
How many times do we have to say it? Her body, her choice.

Tags 50027061, hemingway, parenting

Sweat

This Is What Really Happens To The Human Body During A Flight

Post author By Lisa Douglas
Post date June 16, 2017

Ever since the first commercial flight a little over 100 years ago, airplane passengers have felt the effects that this type of travel has on the human body. We’ve all heard tales of heart attacks, strokes, and things like hyperventilation, but those are extreme cases.

We’ve always been curious about what being that high up in the air does to our bodies. Flight attendants and pilots do it for a living and they seem to be okay. But what is happening to their bodies that we can’t see?

Dehydration is a well-known issue on flights, but I never realized just how bad it was until my then-2-year-old son and I took a trip to Georgia. I was upset because he dumped an entire 16 ounce bottle of water on his jeans.

They were so wet that I could wring them out. Out of desperation, I removed them from his body and hung them on the seat to dry. I checked his pants two hours later when we landed in Atlanta, and to my astonishment, they were bone dry! Not a drop of water remained.

Wondering what else happens to your body when you fly? It turns out that jet lag is the least of our worries. Here are some crazy things that happen to your body when you’re up in the air.

1. You get deprived of oxygen.

Do you ever feel light headed when you fly? Do you have trouble concentrating or find it hard to take a deep breath? Do you get tired easily?

It may be only a small difference, but oxygen levels in the plane’s pressurized air can be lower, which can lead to minor oxygen deprivation in some people. The cabins are pressurized to simulate a 6,000- to 8,000-foot elevation on the ground, and at those altitudes, your blood absorbs less oxygen.

Additionally, more issues surrounding low oxygen levels can occur during longer flights, when you’re seated for an extended period. Your blood doesn’t get the opportunity to move around as much, and this reduces its oxygen levels.

How do you get more oxygen? Try to get up and walk around every two hours or so to keep everything moving.

2. You get dehydrated.

Flight attendants constantly remind you to drink water while in flight, but do you know the reason why? Humidity levels are considered healthy at around 50 to 60 percent, but a plane’s cabin can dip as low as a 10 percent. That’s drier than a desert!

This can lead you to get pretty dehydrated. This happens because water likes to go from places of high concentration (your body and mouth) to low concentration (the plane’s cabin). If you don’t replace those lost liquids you can end up feeling dizzy and tired, with a headache and dry lips, eyes, and mouth.

Make sure that you drink lots of water while you’re in the air, and stay away from beverages that will further dehydrate you, such as tea, caffeinated soda, or coffee.

3. Your taste buds go numb.

Ever notice that everything tastes bland (or the same) when you’re in flight? You’re right! A study in 2010 commissioned by Lufthansa found that our taste buds go numb during a flight.

Dry air not only affects your internal hydration levels, but it can also evaporate nasal mucus. Complicating matters even further is the effect of cabin pressure on your membranes. It can cause them to swell, which, combined with low levels of nasal mucus, can prevent you from smelling foods.

Your sense of smell is necessary for you to be able to taste; without it, your taste buds are compromised. It’s no wonder that airlines create their meals on the ground and then test them in the air!

4. Your ears and belly hurt.

You’re about to take off, and the kind old lady next to you asks, “Want a piece of gum, honey? It’ll help your ears.” Why do your ears hurt when you take off and land?

Air pressure is to blame. As air expands in your ear canals it causes increased pressure to build within your ear and cause pain. You can alleviate a lot of the pressure by chewing gum, swallowing, yawning, or holding your nose and blowing gently.

Does your stomach feel a little queasy? You might be surprised to know that this motion sickness actually started in your ear as well. Your sense of balance is determined mostly by the communication of your inner ears and your eyes. Your inner ears detect motion such as turning, flipping, and going forward and backward.

Problems can occur in flight when your central nervous system receives conflicting messages from these two organs. For example, say you hit turbulence and you’re bumping all over the place. Your inner ears detect it and send a message to your brain.

Your brain, however, has received a conflicting message from your eyes, which are sending the message that they’re looking at a peaceful, non-turbulent cabin. This confusion could cause you to feel air sick.

Do you find that you’re super sensitive to motion and get nauseated at the slightest bump? Experts suggest that you choose seats that are situated over the wings; this is the steadiest part of the plane.

5. Your skin gets damaged.

It may never have occurred to you that you can get a sunburn while you’re inside an airplane, but at high altitude, more than 50 percent of UVA rays can come through the unprotected glass and damage your skin.

In fact, studies show that pilots are twice as likely to develop melanoma, which is the most serious form of skin cancer. Spending 56 minutes in the air is equivalent to 20 minutes in a tanning bed. The next time you fly, slather on that sunscreen!

6. Air pressure wreaks havoc.

As a plane rises in the air, the pressure in the cabin drops. This causes the gas in your body to go a little crazy. As the plane goes higher, the gas in your stomach and intestines expands, making your stomach feel yucky and cramped. Experts recommend that you don’t try to hold your gas in.

This could lead to further pain, bloating, or even worse. It’s a good idea before a flight to avoid eating anything that normally gives you gas (common culprits are beans, dairy, and cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts). And skip the carbonated beverages on the flight.

Your belly isn’t the only thing that’s affected by gas when you’re in the air. Just like air pressure causes trouble for our ears, it can also affect your teeth and sinuses (ouch!)

7. You can catch a cold.

Ever notice that you often get sick a couple of days after you fly? A study in the Journal of Environmental Health Research found that your risk of catching a cold is more than 100 times hi
gher when you’re on a plane than when you’re grounded.

It’s a common belief that the recirculated air is what gets people sick, but a study showed that there was really no difference in the health, post flight, of people who were breathing recirculated air versus fresh air. Instead, the studies found that it’s the small confined space that causes people to catch viruses.

Germs are forever present, and in a small space like an airplane cabin, there is a greater likelihood of coming in contact with them. We all know that when someone sneezes in tight quarters, your chances of getting sick are increased.

To combat this, experts suggest that you wash your hands in flight (or as soon as you get off the flight), avoid touching your face during a flight, and use antibacterial sanitizer whenever necessary.

Tags 50026936, body, hemingway

Motherhood

This Mom's Unique Parenting Move Is Teaching Her Son A Valuable Lesson About Respect

Post author By curtis.strite
Post date June 16, 2017

Nisha Moodley always asks her infant son, Raven, if she can pick him up before she gathers him in her arms.

You might think that’s an odd choice. You might point out that infants don’t speak and that even if this mom asks, she has no way of knowing his response. You might be wrong about those things.

“Since the moment he was born, we’ve always asked before we pick him up,” Moodley wrote in an Instagram post featuring her and her son flashing gigantic grins. “I always feel for his ‘yes.'”

Moodley is certainly not alone in her belief that she can intuit her son’s preferences without verbal language. Many moms say that they can “feel” their preverbal infant’s needs and desires.

Moodley relies on a mother’s sixth sense to feel her son’s consent. She always asks for it before she places her hands on his body.

Her reasoning is brilliant, especially in a culture that doesn’t always teach boys and men about respecting other people’s physical space—or the vital importance of consent in physical relationships, for that matter.

So why does Moodley ask her son if she can pick him up before doing so?

“Because we want him to know that his body is his, and that others’ bodies are theirs, and no one gets to make choices about someone else’s body,” this forward-thinking mom wrote.

Moodley concludes her post with a piece of advice that everyone should hear.

“If you ever want to hold someone else’s baby, my suggestion is to ask the parent, then ask the kid,” she wrote. “It always touches my heart when someone takes a moment to connect with him and says, ‘Can I hold you, dude?'”

Moodley’s post earned a quick 600 likes and sparked a conversation about men, women, consent, and parenting in the comments section. Of course this took place on the internet, so not all the commenters were particularly polite.

Some moms wrote in with a different viewpoint, arguing that they don’t need permission to express love to their children. The conversation remained civil, and most commenters reached a loving agreement to disagree. That’s something you don’t often find on comment boards.

Yahoo Beauty reached out to Moodley to learn more about her thoughtful parenting technique.

“The best thing I can do is honor his choices about his own body,” she said. “I also want him to pay attention to his instincts, and forcing physical touch could interfere with that.”

Moodley also elaborated on how she senses her son’s consent.

“There have been times where Raven has responded by reaching his arms out for a hug or turning his head or body away,” she explained. Those signals seem pretty hard to misinterpret.

Ultimately, it’s up to every mom to decide how to be the best parent she can be. There’s no set of rules, and there’s no one way to help a baby boy grow into a wonderful man. As Moodley herself wrote on Instagram, “Trust the pace of your wisdom and the wisdom of your pace.”

Tags 50026886, hemingway, parenting

Lifestyle

This Fitness Blogger Hasn't Shaved Her Legs In A Year, Here's Why

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date June 16, 2017

There’s nothing easy about being a teenage girl in today’s United States.
Morgan Mikenas knew this all too well. When her leg hair began to grow and darken, the other girls at school made fun of her. She learned from her peers that body hair was shameful, and she spent her teenage years struggling to conform to society’s expectations of her body. In other words, she started shaving.

She shaved her legs. She shaved her armpits. When people told her that body hair was “ugly,” she believed them. None of it made her happy. No amount of shaving could convince her of her own beauty.

Then, when she was around 19, Mikenas made a decision.

She was done shaving her body. She was tired of the nicks and the dry skin. She was tired of taking time out of her day. Most of all, she was tired of doing something that felt wrong just to conform to someone else’s definition of beauty.

“I stopped shaving because it was an inconvenience,” Mikenas told Vice after a year without razors. “It’s pointless. I feel like it’s an act of submission to the male-dominated culture we live in… Shaving my legs makes me feel powerless.”

As a 20-year-old fitness blogger, Mikenas is at home communicating with wide audiences on the internet.

Maybe that’s why she used YouTube as a venue to share her decision not to shave her body with the world. In March 2017, Mikenas posted a 13-minute video explaining why she no longer shaves.

“I haven’t shaved my legs for over a year, and I will never go back,” she wrote in the introduction to that video. “The purpose of this video is not to shame people who do shave, I just want to speak on how its helped me become more comfortable with myself, and maybe inspire others to do something that makes them feel confident.”

Mikenas figured that the video would clear things up for curious friends and family members. Within a few months, though, her video had more than 1.3 million views. She had gone viral.
“That was a surprise to me,” Mikenas said of her video’s popularity. “I wanted to share my views in order to change the way people think, encourage them to think more about their behavior and to experience self-love.”

Those are lessons that Mikenas had to figure out for herself.

Since she made the decision to let her body hair go natural, she’s been a much more confident person. She’s proud of herself for taking a stand against someone else’s definition of beauty. From now on, no one defines Mikenas’ beauty but herself. That’s empowerment she hopes to share with women everywhere.

“For someone who’s thinking of not shaving, but is concerned about being teased, I just want you to know that self-confidence is your superpower,” she said. “You can be immune to criticism by being fearless. Practice acceptance, for others and yourself.”
Watch Mikenas’ touching YouTube video here. No matter what you think about body hair, this young woman has some lessons in self-acceptance that we could all use.

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