Your Health | PulseonParenting

Something You Should Know About Your Toothpaste

May 03 2018

My kids’ bathroom is a disaster. Wet towels carpet the floor, the wastebasket fills up daily (at least the trash is actually in the basket…), and I’m pretty sure the lavatory has gone MIA as it can’t be seen for all the soap bars, hair ties and dried crusts of toothpaste. I try to let this swamp be the kids’ responsibility, but on days the nesting instinct takes over, I can’t help myself. The other day I found a half-dozen gooey, gummy, squeezed-from-the-middle toothpaste tubes. Ick. I lined them all up on the counter and the bathroom was transformed into…

Apr 12 2018

In the book The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn the rusalka admonishes Jenny: Why does something good happening to someone else bother you? I read that and the world stopped spinning. Because in just a few brief words, the mermaid spirit nailed it. She told Jenny, a mother of two languishing after her husband abandoned them, to stop comparing. Stop comparing. This is one tall order. Today’s world is submerged in a “sizing up” mentality. Advertisements promote this-or-that over the other, we scroll through albums of friends’ cherubic children and fabulous beach vacations on social media, and not go…

Mar 15 2018

I entered the exam room with a paper chart (back in the olden days before the electronic medical record), the patient’s name and the patient’s concern, “discuss weight.” I was no stranger to addressing issues like this with my adult patients; it was a routine part of my day, treating and making treatment plans for a patient’s well-being and overall health. What I was not prepared for was, on entering the room, to see a mother and her preteen daughter…the latter, not the former, being the patient. At that point in my career I had little experience with…

Feb 08 2018

While driving down the busy artery through town, I noticed patriotic lights flashing behind me. What? Me? What did I do? I honestly had no idea. I wasn’t speeding. I didn’t run a red. Maybe I had a light out? My face flushed hot as I desperately looked for a place to pull over, wanting to halt the embarrassing parade-of-two on the busiest road, at the busiest time, through town. The amiable police officer approached my van as I nervously located my registration and insurance (thankfully I hadn’t left my license in my other purse, as I have been…

Jan 31 2018

I’m not easily swayed. To the frustration of Kirby vacuum salespeople and real estate agents across the Midwest, I’m not quickly convinced, if at all convinced. As Jimmy Buffett sings, “Indecision may or may not be my problem.” Maybe that’s my affliction, too, but I think it really it comes down to my preference for being in my head, mulling things over. And over. And over. Aaaaaand… over. Constant wheel-turning is one of my seriously introvert traits. Overall, I’m an ambivert, sitting on the fence between getting jazzed from socializing and feeling…

Jan 04 2018

It’s a new year, a new calendar, a new start. I love a new calendar, it’s like a clean slate. No creases or dog-ears, no chicken-scratches lined through and rewritten in another box. No mayhem. Just an open book full of possibility and promise. Before I write in all the appointments, extracurriculars and school inservices, I page through my calendar and enjoy the work my husband has gone to to create each month’s snapshot and how I want my family’s year to be filled with the same joy his art brings to each of the calendar’s 12 months. I…

Oct 19 2017

(This post was originally published January 22, 2014, and has been updated for the 2017-2018 influenza season.) As the days grow colder the influenza vaccine rhetoric heats up, even at the most zen of locales, the yoga studio. A few years ago I recall the discussion of who was ill and for how long infecting the air over the patchwork of exercise mats and the talk leading to a count of who got the flu vaccine, who did not, and the defense of their decisions. Back when I was a practicing physician assistant in Wisconsin, the misinformation about the flu…

May 23 2017

Summer, summer, summer. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. While sunscreen is recommended year-round to prevent burns, aging and the increased risk of skin cancer, in the warmer months we dress less and slather up even more. Have you ever wondered whether those chemical sunscreens are safe to use in such large-and-frequent proportions? In this repost from July of 2015, I describe some of the myths and facts surrounding the totally-tubular and ubiquitous poolside essentials. Everyone notices when someone sports that gorgeous sun-bronzed skin from a sunny vacation. But my family? The people who get sunburned through car windows? We return from a…

Apr 18 2017

We had to think about it for a moment. Then we remembered: it had been four years since my husband and I took a trip together, just the two of us. How time flies, just like we were, taking an early morning flight to Boston. It’s not like we haven’t had the occasional “date night” but there’s something about the freedom a couple has when they can do things on their own schedule for more than a few hours at a time. Author Ayelet Waldman (Bad Mother: a Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, 2009)…

Apr 10 2017

A couple weeks ago, in The Common Cold: Your Questions Answered, we looked at some of the lesser-known (but widely-wondered) aspects of that pesky triad of runny nose, sore throat and sneezing (etc.). Now let’s dig in to the burning question: What remedies really work to cure the common cold? Well, the bad news is no medication or remedy cures the common cold. And unfortunately, there are no prospects on the horizon. But the good news is there are options that help minimize symptoms and give relief while the virus runs its course: For the full gamut of symptoms: Rest and…

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