As most of you know, just a few short years ago my little one was born. One of the biggest things my wife and I had talked about was, should she be breast feed or should we use baby formula? The choice for my wife and I was an easy one, breast feeding was the best way to go. Not only is breast feeding the best for the baby, the money savings are huge. We know how much baby formula cost, it’s not cheap at all. For me I could never really figure out why the brand name formulas cost so much more. The U.S government, FDA regulates what goes into baby formula. So basically what I’m saying here is, there’s no difference between brand name formula and store brand formula, it’s the same stuff. So why can one charge more than the other, don’t get it.

I just saw a video on YouTube on Suze Orman stating that she would approve someone to pay to store their babies core blood. A woman by the name of Theresa called in Suze’s show called “Can I Afford It?”. The woman told Orman how much money she made, had in life savings, got the Suze Orman story with a buy approval. Now this approval was given because her and her husband are able to afford it. To see if you can afford this as well you should request info on it. Suze also said “I am a believer in Stem Cell Research”. But what’s happening now is that a lot of people believe Orman believes everyone should do this, but that’s not the case. She only told this woman to buy it because she can afford it. I personally think before anyone rushes out to purchase Cryo-Cell service should do their own research. And most importantly ask a ton of questions. I would want to make 100 percent sure I know what was going to happen to my child’s core blood, as any concern parent would. So do that research, don’t jump into it blind.

I came across a site tonight that offers a lot information related to the collection of cord blood and other useful information. Cord blood is collected from the umbilical during the birth of a baby. People at times will opt to bank the cord blood for future use if the child ever becomes ill related to a major disease, like heart disease. Now it’s not cheap to bank this cord blood, but if it treats diseases you may end up with it’s well worth it in the end.

I really don’t know much about the banking of cord blood, and you may not either, but this site has a lot of resources to help you understand it more. If more people understand cord blood and how it can save your child’s life I’m sure more people would bank it. One thing that I do know for a fact is that you can’t decide the day your given birth, they need to know well in advance. If you wait you will not be able to get it done. So if your thinking of doing cord blood banking make sure you research as much as you can, and as always, talk to your doctor.

The state of Nebraska passed a safe-haven law in July of this year. And they have already taken in 36 kids that have been dropped off by their parents. With this new law parents just simply show up at any hospital and drop their kids off. I totally agree with law, children should always be kept safe. But what I disagree about this law is that they just changed a loophole in it. The law stated that any child could be dropped off at any area hospital. The problem as the state sees it is that the children being dropped off at times where teenagers. So now the new law states that the child age is limited to infants no more than 30 days old. I feel every child should have a safe place to go. Hopefully Nebraska officials will have a plan for the older kids to find a safe place to go. Because if they don’t these kids will end up on the streets.

I was just reading that the problems the Chinese people are having with the baby formula is must worst. I read that over 12,900 babies have got seriously sick from the contamination of this formula. Now remember this is the Chinese government reporting this number. For all we know it could be 25,000 kids sick. They also stated that 4 children have died from the contaminated formula, again that number could be higher. The chemical is melamine, which is used to enhance the protein in the formula. This chemical is also banned for use in food products, but you know how that works. This has been going on since the government first came out of the contamination. The Chinese government did issued recalls for just about every dairy product out there. They did narrow it down to just powdered milk and formula from one company, the Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. This company needs to be closed up and someone needs to seriously pay for what has happened to all this kids and their families.

I didn’t hear about this story in the news, I heard about it in Church today. I want to start off by saying this story has been confirmed by Principal Joseph Sullivan and Superintendent Christopher Farmer of Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts. With that being said it appears that a group of teen girls formed a pact to get pregnant. They did this so they could raise their kids together. Now, I don’t know the whole story about this, but from what I read truly believe the handling of this is so wrong. Everyone is pointing fingers at each other on how they failed these girls. Some are saying we should have handed out more condoms or provided more sex education. I even heard that 2 high school health employees quit their jobs in protest. They wanted to have more confidential distribution of contraceptives, and where told no. I’m glad they quit, this isn’t the answer, the answer is notify the Parents when these teens where coming in for pregnancy tests. These teens at times where mad when their tests came up negative. And when the test was positive, they high five each other. What in the world was the tester/school thinking when these girls where acting this way. I only have this to say, what these girls did was so wrong and everyone should let them know. Also, all schools need to contact Parents anytime a student comes in for testing, because after all, these Grandparents will be the ones raising the babies, not the teens. We must never say this is OK!

I recently read that by eating your fruits and vegetables may help smokers lower their risk of lung cancer. Oh, and drinking a lot of tea will help too. This is all coming from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. Their study shows that eating fruits and vegetables with flavonoids will stop the damage. Flavonoids are water-soluble plant pigments, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory that can counteract your body’s tissues. Of course they have done this big huge study to come up with this information. Now, I’m not a researcher, nor do I try to pretend to be. But I do have an opinion, and I think this study is giving people false hope. Smoking is one of the worst things you can do to your body. This study is basically saying, smoke all you want, just eat those fruits and vegetables. Don’t smoke, nothing will help you!

Well spring is here, and so is allergy season for millions of Americans across our great land.
For the most part, airborne pollens cause seasonal allergies, which is a very fine powder released by trees and other flowers and plants alike.  This powder is released when the plants and trees pollinate and fertilize other plants of the same kind.  The molds inside our homes and the outdoor air can also cause seasonal allergies.
 
Here are a few steps that help anyone prevent or relieve symptoms.

Use over-the-counter antihistamines for relief.  Most people will receive effective relief this way.
Keep your home’s doors and windows closed.  For the most part this will keep out pollens and molds from entering.

Limit outdoor activity, particularly in the morning.  When pollen counts are at their highest – about 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.

When traveling in your car, keep the windows up.  This will help by keeping the pollens and molds from entering.

Take a shower and change clothes.  Pollen will collect on your clothes and body.  By washing your clothes and taking a show, this will reduce the amount of pollen in the home.

As always you should follow what your doctor recommends.

First news report on this blog, and yes, it’s about Health. I don’t normally post about health topics but this one really caught my eye. You can read the same story I read over on BusinessWeek.com where I do a lot of my reading lately. My view on this is very simple, why hasn’t the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on the ball. I think the Gov. is to quick to approve new drugs. I also think that since most of the drug company’s out there are publicly traded, they’re even more quicker to release drugs for the public. To me, it seems to be about the oh mighty dollar!