Non-Aluminum Deodorant Comparison
I braved stinky pits for the entire nine months of my pregnancy and am now reporting to you on my findings!
Sometimes you just need a win: First day back at the gym
To borrow a joke from a guy I know who is way funnier than me, today I just needed to kick some ass at the "All Valley Karate Championship" as opposed to really challenging myself but getting killed at the Regional Qualifiers. Note to self: I need to buy an MP3 of "Eye of the Tiger".
MacGyver Baby: Thank you presents on the cheap, part 1
So you just had a baby and everyone on the west side has given you a present. The last thing you want to be doing is writing thank you cards into carpal tunnel hell or spending a significant amount of money on thank you presents. Most gift givers are understanding of the new mother condition and are satisfied with a generic thank you or nothing at all. Never one to disappoint Ann Landers while simultaneously bowing to the pressure of the few gift givers who do expect (or deserve) something special in return I need to come up with a few choice thank you tokens beyond the birth announcement and thank you cards left over from my wedding.
MacGyver Baby: Binky tethers
Sometimes I can be surprisingly cheap. Well when it comes to mattresses I am willing to spend hundreds, but pay $5 for a binky tether which is a glorified piece of ribbon with a clip on it, this will not stand!
Diapers: Traditional vs. Cloth vs. Green Disposables
While researching the best diaper option for my kiddo I actually found a book that is quite popular on Amazon that suggested you should let your child go free range and use their "visual cues" to rush them to a handy toilet or bucket. At least for me, this seems like the LEAST eco-friendly solution as I would need to constantly clean and replace everything in my house from the curtains to the carpet... can I use that expression in a non-pubic hair context? Well, I just did.
Nothing is simple: Adventures in finding a non-toxic crib under $500
I had my first big breakdown this week over the whole crib situation. After doing a superficial search on cribs I discovered several very troubling things that had me reeling from my normal "greener is better, but only within the realm of what mere mortals can achieve and afford" mentality down into the depths of organic OCD mania.
The H1N1 vaccine and Pregnant Women
I don’t want to be a hippy-dippy moron who ends up in the hospital because I refused to get preventative medical care and at the same time I don’t want to be among the first wave of women in history to take this drug especially when there are no research studies to prove its safety only to have my kiddo end up like the armless thalidomide babies of the 1950s... The container that holds the drug that has a priority rating for pregnant women by our government has a disclaimer that completely contradicts the notion that pregnant women should be taking this unless “clearly needed” which I interpret to mean, works in an leper-type H1N1 colony. The insert goes on to say similar things about nursing mothers and pediatric use. This isn’t some conspiracy theorist spouting wharrgarbl, this is packaging included with the product made available on the CDC website.
I don’t belong here. All of these women are pregnant.
I’m in an episode of Sesame Street as one of the things that is not like the other. Except I’m exactly the same.
Antiperspirant Deodorant, Alzheimer’s and Pregnancy, part 2
So I have been looking online all day and up until a few hours ago all I found was the normal “everything gives you cancer, please wear deodorant, har-har-har“ line. But once I dug past Yahoo Answers and similar public sourced sites to several subscription-only online medical journal libraries and it turns out that there are several studies that have been done that show pregnant lab rats who have been exposed topically to the aluminum found in antiperspirants passing it on to their fetuses. And what is more scary is that in the fetuses it is present at a much higher ratio.
Antiperspirant Deodorant, Alzheimer’s and Pregnancy, Part I
You have probably heard that the aluminum in antiperspirant deodorant is correlated to Alzheimer's disease and possibly even breast cancer. If you didn’t already know, yes, there has been a correlation drawn in multiple studies between the incidents of Alzheimer's as well as breast cancer and the amount of aluminum and certain other chemicals found in most common antiperspirant deodorants... For me personally, I have always taken the “everything gives you cancer“ line. I mean, I drink my tea with sweet-in-low, I use a cell phone, I’m from Texas. Do you know how many days a year it is over 100 down there? Enough to have no friends if you’re not coating something reliable on those pits. That is, I didn’t care too much about the risk factor, until I found I was pregnant.