Month: March 2017

As a new mom, you will constantly be asking yourself questions to make sure your baby is doing fine. Some questions may be if your baby is getting enough milk or if you are producing enough. Since new moms have never breastfed before, it can feel uncomfortable since they have to deal with two bodies; theirs and the baby’s. Often times, it is normal to have more questions than answers. The best course of action is to see a lactation consultant to give you piece of mind. They can help you figure out if your milk supply is low or not. If is it, they can give moms advice on what to do to increase it.

There are certain foods that are known to increase milk production for mothers. But be careful on what you think is good for you and your baby. Sometimes certain supplements and lactation teas may have side effects. Alicia Simpson, a certified lactation consultant, has put together a list of foods that are known to help with lactation. It can help increase the quantity and quality of the breast milk.

Barley is the richest source of beta-glucan, which is known to increase the breastfeeding hormone. As you may know, beer is made out of barley but alcohol is known to hinder milk production so it is best to have it in other ways. Some examples of how to add it to your diet is to add are to soups, stews or salads. Barley malt is another great source of lactogenic beta-glucan. You can use it as a sweetener since it can be replaced for maple syrup. Fennel and fenugreek are other food sources that increase breast milk production. Fenugreek is a herb that is used most commonly in India and parts of the Middle East. There are many creative ways to have fennel in your diet. Since it has a black licorice taste, it can pair well with different types of foods.

Oats are the most commonly known breast milk producer after barley. They are one of the easiest ingredients to add to recipes. Papaya is another food that is known to be beneficial to breast milk production. Since this ingredient is being studied within recent years, the benefits are not quite known yet.

Recently, Swisshotel, a hotel chain, has posted some compelling evidence on why you should be taking a nap during the day. There are a slew of benefits people who take afternoon naps get such as increased productivity, attentiveness and ability to recall information, just to name a few. Our bodies are actually programmed to have two periods of deep sleep a day; one in the early morning and one in the early-mid afternoon.

Unfortunately most people in North America do not have the luxury to take that second nap during the day. That is where Swisshotel comes in to offer a few tips on how to make the most of a quick hour-hour slumber. A third of people believe they are not getting enough sleep at night. There are even successful people throughout history that are known to be midday nappers.

Out of all mammals, 85% of species are known to sleep for short periods throughout the day. The way human’s sleep, with just one long period is considered an anomaly. This specific pattern is not the way we are naturally programmed to sleep. Most people may experience some drowsiness not because of lunch but due to the fact of the tuning of your natural circadian rhythm.

There are many benefits to napping. Even with just a 10-20 minute nap, it will improve creativity and reaction time. It will even lower the chance of making mistakes and prevent burnouts. There has been a study conducted by NASA proving that naps increase performance by 34% and alertness by 100%. It will even increase happiness, memory and helps with weight control. Naps even decrease the chance of heart disease, blood pressure and dementia. It even helps increase your immunity and help with damaged skin.

Did you know that there are different types of nappers out there? Depending on your lifestyle and your schedule, you can either be a planned napper, power napper, micro napper, emergency napper, habitual napper or a prophylactic napper. Some famous people who are strong advocates of napping are Winston Churchill, Salvador Dali and even John F. Kennedy.

Keep in mind a few pointers for a perfect nap such as keeping your nap to around 30 minutes long. If it is any longer, it can interfere with your night’s sleep and make you feel groggy. Make sure the environment you sleep in is comfortable and lie down since it can take you 50% longer to fall asleep upright.

There is an increasing amount of children with food allergies. Raising kids with a certain kind of allergy for something considered common, is very stressful. If they eat the wrong thing, it can be fatal. Parents have had to deal with their children who have had a reaction to them consuming food they are allergic to.

The norm in schools is nowadays is to be nut free as well as having EpiPens on hand in case a child does come in contact with nuts. According to latest statistics, 2 out of 25 kids have some kind of food allergy and more than 1 out of 3 has suffered a severe reaction. Imagine the daily worries of parents on how to protect their children from the threats of food allergies when it is not always obvious as peanut butter.

A parent gives her account of her daughter getting a reaction from eating chicken. Her aunt had cooked chicken and let her hungry daughter have a taste. But little did she know, the chicken was dipped in eggs which she was allergic to along with peanuts, spy, shrimp and sesame. Within seconds her daughter started getting hives and was having trouble breathing. She thought with just the use of Benadryl and her inhaler, her daughter would be fine but she was in denial about the severity of the allergic reaction her daughter was having.

On the way home, it seems as though her daughter was feeling better after she had threw up once more. But the episode was not over since her daughter came into her bedroom late at night saying she was once again having difficulty breathing. This happened since she did not give her daughter her EpiPen quickly enough. The reaction got more severe and her daughter got pneumonia. Because she did not understand the severity of the reaction, it lead to this. From that point on, she made sure her house was nut free by double checking the manufacturers of the food facilities. Unlike eggs, nuts have a bad tendency to contaminate the surrounding environment.

In addition, she made sure all of her family and friends are trained in injecting the EpiPen in case something like the episode she went through does not happen again.