A Hidden Summer Danger

With summer quickly approaching, I wanted to take a few minutes to warn you about a common & dangerous health hazard that could affect your little ones this summer. Dehydration. Most of you, like me, probably think that when your child is thirsty, you give them a drink to prevent them from becoming dehydration, right? WRONG. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated! I learned that the hard way this past weekend.

I had taken my kids swimming on Saturday morning for a few hours. It was around 90-degrees & sunny (though it can even happen in the shade). We had forgotten our water bottles back at the house, but I figured they'd be okay for 2 or 3 hours until we got back home. My husband ended up getting off of work & showing up at the pool & reminded me that we had a few errands to run. So the kids and I ran back to the house to get ready to go. I have no idea if Mahri got herself anything to drink when we returned. She & Christian are both old enough to get their own drinks, so I figured that if they were thirty, they'd grab some water while I busied myself getting the baby ready.

Once we started driving, both Mahri & I started to feel sick. Similar to being car sick: headache & nausea. Since we were driving down some winding back country roads, I just chalked it up to exactly that: we were car sick.

Now during this time, I know that my kids had drinks, but since I had no clue that Mahri & I were both suffering from mild dehydration, I wasn't making sure that Mahri drank any certain amount. Basically, my mindset was still "if she's thirsty, she'll drink".

The next morning, I was feeling much better. Mahri had a glass of juice with her breakfast and appeared to be doing better. But an hour or so later, she began complaining that her headache had returned. Then her belly hurt again. But this time we weren't in the car. I told her to get a couple of Tums for her belly & that she'd feel better. Wrong again. Soon her muscles started aching along with her headache and nausea.

Because we had gotten so "car sick" the night before, we had not finished our errand-running and some of the errands were important and time sensitive, so we asked Mahri if she'd be okay to go. She said that she'd be fine, so we all headed out again. The kids took a water bottle to share in the car. About an hour into the trip, Mahri really took a turn for the worse. Her body was just aching all over, especially her legs, her head was hurting even more and her nausea was almost unbearable. In fact, she had to run into the bathroom at one of our stops....and the poor thing got stung by a bee in there! My poor baby! Then she started getting head rushes.

I started thinking that maybe she had the flu.

When we got home, I put her in bed. She started complaining that she was so cold. It was 90 degrees out. This only reaffirmed my belief that she had the flu. She fell asleep in bed & I sat in the living room outside of her bedroom door and worried about her.

My mom ended up calling me, just to chitchat. We talked a few minutes but then I told her that I wanted to get off the phone because Mahri had the flu and I wanted to be ready in case she needed me. My mom immediately got concerned. What were her symptoms? How long has she been feeling that way? Had she been spent a lot of time in the sun? She suggested that maybe it was dehydration. I brushed it off. No, Mahri has the flu, easy peasy. But m mom was adamant. She told me to have Antonio pick her up some Pedialyte right away. She was so insistent that I began to think that she could be right. I got off the phone & relayed the message to him. While he ran to the store, I figured, why not Google it? Wouldn't you know it, every symptom that Mahri had was a symptom of dehydration!

Once Mahri started drinking the Pedialyte, within a few minutes she began feeling better! I gave her a few glasses of it to drink (this was all last night) before letting her go back to sleep.

This morning she is doing much better. She had a slight headache but I had her drink another glass if Pedialyte and it went away. Now we will be focusing on making sure she drinks plenty, not only to get her re-hydrated but to also keep her from ever getting dehydrated again. And the same with the boys.

Make sure your little ones (and even your not-so-little ones!) are drinking plenty of water & staying hydrated this summer. Our dehydration happened in just a few hours but left untended, it progressed quickly.

For the signs and symptoms of dehydration, visit this website: http://www.symptomsofdehydration.com/

American Cancer Society: Just In It For The Money?

I think it's time to worry when one of this country's greatest organizations, whose main goal is to help in the prevention of such a killer, cancer, may be purposely giving us deadly advice. All for financial kickbacks.

Is It Time To Boycott The American Cancer Society

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Who Knew?

So, in my quest for self-enlightenment in regards to natural parenting, I have picked up some interesting tidbits. I want to share a couple with you today....
Okay, so those of us who use 'sposies (that is cloth diaper lingo for disposables), how when our little one makes a nasty poo in his diaper, we are only too eager to wrap that sucker up & throw it away, kind of like your Aunt Trudy's meatloaf? Did you know that its actually against the law to toss the poo?! I had no clue! I mean, yeah, it makes sense, but I never really thought about it before. Can't you imagine that arrest? LOL
Another thing: not all CDs (cloth diapers) are created equal. I had it in my mind that I would just trot on down to my local Walmart, Target or Babies R Us & pick up a few of those Gerber diapers & be on my merry way. Little did I know that those actually absorb about as well as a 2-ply layer of toilet paper. You actually have to put a medium amount of effort into your purchase. Apparently, in the world of prefolds, Indian ones are the best. As you can see from the pic I am posting of unbleached Indian prefolds, they contain numerous absorbant pockets, with the thickest layer being in the middle. (the pic shows them under a stack of cloth wipes. which I also intend to use.)
So if any of you had the horrific experience of putting a Gerber cloth diaper on your little one, only to have him promptly pee right through it, now you (& I!) know why.

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The Diaper Dilemma

Everyone has tried to talk me out of it. They've tried reasoning, teasing & outright telling me that I wouldn't be able to deal with it. But if there's one thing my friends & family have yet to understand, its that the more someone tells me that I can't do something, the more determined I'm going to be to do it.

That's why I tried to go "natural" for my first labor. For 12 hrs. My mom was begging me to just get the epidural...however, she's the one who said that I wasn't strong enough to do it to begin with. And then the nurse walked in & caught me on my hands & knees on the linoleum, trying to birth my young National Geographic-style. She immediately took up my mom's "Say Yes To Drugs" chorus. Yeah. I buckled like a belt & was singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" with my legs in stirrups less than an hour later.

Breastfeeding? Another little gem that I was told I wouldn't be able to do. I am happy to announce that I exclusively breastfed my daughter for 6 months & am breastfeeding my second son right now. Well, not "right now" right now, but you know what I mean. He will be 6 months old in a few days & I have no plans of stopping anytime soon! (What about my first son, you ask? Due to a breast abcess that I got during my 2nd pregnancy & had to have operated on, I am sad to say that I opted not to breastfeed my first son.)

Oh! But back to topic! I have decided to switch to cloth diapers! Due to finances (or lack thereof), I am not starting out using the new fancy "cloth" diapers that bear no resemblance to cloth diapers of old, but instead I will be using prefolds. AKA: almost the twin of aforementioned "cloth diapers of old". I was even going to go really old school & use diaper pins, but I'm not so sure about that anymore. I do not wish to use my beautiful baby boy as a pin cushion while learning how to use them. Maybe they're not too hard to get the hang of during daylight hours, but all it'll take is one middle-of-the-night diaper change to require a trip to the ER for a punctured organ....

Now the tricky part is finding quality prefolds. I could order them online, but I am very impatient & want instant gratification. I have located a store an hour from my house that sells them, so I may be heading that way tomorrow. I also found an awesome deal for a bunch on Craigslist, but I have yet to hear back from the seller. Hopefully I hear back from her soon because I am so excited to get started.
Remember this excitement. I am sure it will be short-lived once I have to shake a few poos in the potty.