Female Care

Vitamin D is an important part of a healthy diet. New benefits of this vitamin are being discovered every day, but many people still do not receive enough vitamin D to reap the wonderful benefits it can provide to their health. Vitamin D is most famous for its contribution to joint and bone health by helping the body absorb calcium. It has been shown that people who take in enough vitamin D are less likely to suffer from osteoporosis and joint pain. This vitamin can also slow the affects of arthritis and lessen back pain in many individuals. Studies have shown that vitamin D can also prevent certain types of cancer.
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Vitamin E is one of the more well-known vitamins that is included in most vitamin supplements. Its antioxidant powers are particularly strong and are beneficial in different ways than other antioxidant vitamins, so it is good to be aware of the specific health benefits of vitamin E.

One of the benefits of vitamin E is its ability to improve the health of the skin. This benefit can be reaped by taking a vitamin E supplement or by directly applying vitamin E oil to the skin. When used in this way, vitamin E can help to heal scars and burns, reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in the skin, and can also relieve the scratchy, itchy feeling of dry or irritated skin. As an antioxidant, vitamin E protects the body from free radicals and provides a boost to the body’s immune system. This can not only fight the aging process, but it may also protect against certain types of cancer. Studies have shown that Alzheimer’s patients who maintain high levels of vitamin E see a slower progression of the disease. Vitamin E also benefits the health of the eyes by helping to prevent cataracts and macular degeneration. A few studies have even shown that vitamin E may improve the health of your heart by lowering the level of bad cholesterol in your body and by preventing blood clots.
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Vitamin K is commonly known to aid in blood clotting. When the body is injured, vitamin K initiates the process of healing by slowing and stopping the bleeding. For this reason, vitamin K is often given to patients before surgery to prevent excessive bleeding. Although this is the primary function of vitamin K, this vitamin has several more health benefits.

Vitamin K helps the body absorb the beneficial mineral calcium. Recent studies have suggested that vitamin K can help prevent or treat osteoporosis and the loss of bone density. If you have a family history of osteoporosis, it is important to make sure you maintain healthy levels of vitamin K.

There are also recent studies that have suggested that vitamin K also has preventive and treatment benefits for cancer. Several human trials have shown that vitamin K may have anticancer effects.

Vitamin K also prevents the hardening of the arteries, which aids in preventing heart disease and heart failure. Continue reading »

Headaches and migraines can be caused by any number of factors but they all have one thing in common – without an effective cure they can bring your life to a grinding and painful halt. This guide is meant for those who don’t wish to take prescription or over the counter drugs and would rather use natural remedies and healing techniques to cure their headaches.

Care should always be taken when looking at homeopathic or any other alternative remedies to ensure that they won’t interact with medication you are currently taking and, of course, to make sure they have the desired effect. However, what works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next so experiment to find the best cure for you.
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Throughout the stages of pregnancy changes take place that are sometimes uncomfortable. Beside the usual symptoms of morning sickness that occurs during the first trimester of pregnancy, the expectant mom may experience fatigue and an increase in urination. Vitamin supplements prescribed by the physician, adequate rest and a nutritious diet can help alleviate fatigue. The growing uterus exerts pressure on the bladder making the need for urination more frequent.

As the pregnancy progresses and the uterus continues to expand, increased pressure on the intestines can make bowel movements more difficult often resulting in constipation. Toward the end of the second trimester and into the third, the expectant mother may experience edema, varicose veins or breathlessness. Continue reading »

It was Saturday morning and while I was making breakfast, letting the cats outside, and watering my half-dead plants, I had the TV on. Saturday morning TV is usually composed of nothing but infomercials and today was no different.

One of the channels had this guy hawking a book on natural cures. He claimed that no matter what kind of disease you had, there was a natural or herbal cure for it — and he had it in his book. No drugs, no surgery, no traditional medicine needed at all. Now he wasn’t claiming that the information in his book would lessen your symptoms or reduce your pain, no, he was claiming that you would be absolutely, positively, money-back-guaranteed CURED!!

My jaw dropped as I listened to this guy make all these outlandish claims and I thought, how can people listen to this kind of junk? Worse, how can people send this guy their hard earned money? Continue reading »

Most women believe that the only way to get a beautiful, shapely eyebrow that is symmetrical is to go to a salon and have a professional first wax and then pluck the eyebrow for that tailored, elegant look. It is possible, however, to do at-home eyebrow maintenance ending with salon-quality results. By following these simple steps, the days of salon brow maintenance can be over.

Choose the grooming procedure that is right for you.

The two most common methods of eyebrow maintenance are waxing and tweezing. For women with naturally bushy or dark brows, waxing may be the best option.¹ Tweezing is best when only a few stray hairs need to be removed. With either method, it is best to stop after each wax application or after plucking a few hairs to evaluate shape.

Select a natural, flattering style.

Eyebrow shape and style changes with fads and fashion, but no woman can go wrong with a shape that is natural-looking. While it may be necessary to trim, pluck or wax eyebrows that are naturally bushy, styles that are rounded and gently arched appear more natural and flatter nearly every face shape. There are three simple steps to shaping eyebrows at home: Continue reading »

Depression is a prolonged and magnified sadness that lasts for more than two weeks. It can lead to a loss of interest in hobbies and relationships, and it interrupts one’s ability to concentrate. In addition, it changes eating habits, causing either excessive or miniscule food intake. Depression can last from weeks to years, and despite the discomfort, most people do not seek help.

Depression is an illness; it is a state of dis-ease in the body. Chemicals in the brain influence moods. Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are “feel good” chemicals and when these chemicals linger in our brain, we feel uplifted. When the chemicals reabsorb too quickly, we feel down. Scientists have found ways to help the chemicals stay longer in the brain. Continue reading »

With both parents at work and increasing number of single parents, daycare provision for children has become essential to the American existence. Running a daycare operation can therefore be lucrative, but it is not without its challenges. Children are prone to accidents, and because of their vulnerable nature are also the first to succumb in emergency situations like natural disasters and fires, or to toxicity or infection in their environment whether indoors or outdoors.

Whether it is a large organization servicing entire communities or small groups coming together to earn extra cash, one of the biggest concerns for a daycare is to keep the children safe under their charge. Children at a daycare need continuous supervision, and have to be within sight and hearing of the staff at all times, even when they are sleeping. This is important, because children can get into trouble pretty quickly, as any parent or babysitter can testify.

This supervision obviously extends to monitoring child behavior: any aggression should be discouraged with positive education, because child aggression often translates to injuries to other children. Children, especially toddlers, tend to eat or lick anything that comes their way, the staff needs to promptly intervene in such cases. Children need to be kept away from moving parts, any hot object, substances unfit for consumption and any other object that can pose a threat to their well being.

The daycare needs to put in place rigorous emergency safety procedures and train the staff at regular intervals about the activities in such a scenario. This would kick into gear in case of fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or earthquakes depending on the threat most likely in that particular region. Children should be guided and protected as the topmost priority in such situations.

To prevent children from harming themselves, the indoor and outdoor environment should be screened regularly for hazards, such as toxic substances, sharp, pointy objects, plastic bags or storage containers. All toys are to be of non-hazardous nature, and should be available to only the age group they are meant for. All playground equipment should be certified safe for children and should be checked for any potentially hazardous chipped paint or splinters from time to time. The daycare has to identify and follow a checklist of potential threats like tripping hazards, unprotected elevated areas, even contaminated playground soil and so on at small, regular intervals.

The daycare should ensure that all the children under its charge receive all the immunizations at the correct time so as to reduce risk of infections circulating within the daycare. Any sick children should be kept isolated from other children. Medications for children need to carefully documented and administered according to strict procedures to avoid missing medical doses, overdosing or wrong medication. In case of any overdose or wrong medication, emergency procedures should be in place. All medications should come with prescriptions and the contact of the health care provider that recommended it. A complete and well-equipped first-kit should be easily accessible to all the daycare staff.

Hygiene and sanitation are of the utmost importance, because activities like changing of diapers bring the staff in contact with bodily excretions which might carry infecting microbes. Staff has to be adequately trained on safe sanitation procedures and all toilets are to be scrupulously monitored for cleanliness. Children also to be coached hygienic habits and behaviors, and all childcare products used are to certified safe for children. The daycare venue should be free of pests, and no children should be present during or after any pest-control treatment, till the place is declared non-toxic.

Food for the children, in case provided by the daycare, should follow nutritional standards for each age-group, and should be cooked, presented and served in hygienic environments. In case the food is provided by the primary caregivers, care should be taken to see that it is stored and served properly, and suggestions for better diet should be made available to the caregivers. The same goes for all fluids consumed by the children.

The individuals allowed to drop, pick up or interact with the child should be well documented and according to rigorous procedure, so as to avoid risks of missing children or kidnaps. At least two adult guardians should be easily accessible by phone at all times in case of emergencies. In case the guardian is not available on the spot of the emergency in stipulated time periods, the daycare needs to arrange immediate escorts for the affected child to a health care facility, and hand over the charge of the child to authorized caregivers only. This should not affect the care of the other children in the meanwhile.

The emotional well-being of a child is just as important  as his or her physical security. This means that not only is corporal chastisement of any kind totally unacceptable, but also any public or private humiliations, any form or emotional abuse, neglect, isolation, or corruption is prohibited. A child learns quickly, and is thus to be kept away from contact with any abusive or profane language or activity.

The staff should be trained to recognize signs of child abuse  caused by parents or guardians, and should have a health care and social welfare consultants reachable in case of suspicious injuries on the child or aberrational behavior from him or her. No member of the staff will be left completely alone during the hours of daycare with the children under their charge, in order to avoid providing opportunities for abuse. Any reports of abuse from a member of the staff or a guardian regarding any of the staff members should be thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action taken. Extremely strict remedial measures should be in place should any of the staff be found guilty, including a handover to the authorities.

All of this is only possible with three factors. Firstly,  knowing and maintaining the staff to child ratio, which varies with different ages. The following table provides a good indicator of the staff ratio and number of children that can be kept together in a group.( For instance, absolute infants require more attention, and thus there has to be more staff to take care of less children, and group sizes are smaller. Thus,  one member of the staff can look after a dozen 12-year-olds, but only 3 infants).

Age
Staff ratio
Group size
Birth-12 months
3:1
6
13-24 months
3:1
6
25-30 months
4:1
8
31-35 months
5:1
10
3 year olds
7:1
14
4 year olds
8:1
16
5 year olds
8:1
16
6-8 year olds
10:1
20
9-12 year olds
12:1
24

Secondly, the staff should be trained to the best standards in the industry, and have the safety and security of the children under their charge as their topmost priority. Thirdly, all the staff hired by the daycare should have unimpeachable records, and established references of good behavior and competence: absolutely no compromise to be made in this regard.

The entire reputation of a daycare organization depends on the safety and security it provides. Safety and security procedures as outlined here will ensure happy, healthy children for working parents and an established clientиle for the daycare organization.

Once your baby is on the move, it is time to childproof your home. To effectively childproof your home, you need to think like your child.

Get down low.
For starters, get down low. Take a crawl around your home in every room your child might possibly spend time in, and look for hazards. It might feel ridiculous, but seeing dangers from your child’s eye view is the best way to discover potential harm to your child, as well as to spot breakables you’ll want to move to higher ground.

Carry a notepad with you and take note of everything that needs childproofing. Don’t rely on your memory to recall every danger. Continue reading »