TV for Toddlers?

I know how difficult it can be to get things done when you have little ones running around.  TV can seem like a great way to get the house clean or sit and relax for a while after being exhausted from chasing your 2 year old around all day.  But is TV good for kids?  The obvious answer seems to be no.  Yet, there are so many educational programs and Nick JR claims to be "preschool on tv", so maybe it's not so bad. 
There has been a lot of research going on the last several years that seems to prove that too much tv can lead to attention span problems in children. They say that tv rewires a child's brain to need fast movement all the time and causes them to lose the ability to focus on the slower pace of normal life.   I tend to agree with this since ADHD was unheard of back when kids went outside to play instead of spending hours and hours in front of the tv, playstation or computer.

 Here is an eyeopening quote "According to a study published in Nature magazine... the basal ganglia portion of the brain becomes very active when a person plays video games and watches TV. And the body releases a chemical called dopamine. Ritalin (and cocaine) also work on the basal ganglia of the brain and increase dopamine. As Dr. Amen writes, �The problem is that the more dopamine is released, the less neurotransmitter is available to do schoolwork, chores, homework and so on.

Maybe this is why video games are so addicting.  It makes alot of sense that if they are getting the same neurochemical response as taking ritalin or cocaine that they would become addicted. 

However, there are also studies that show that content is important as well as quantity.  Studies have shown that educational programs such as Sesamme Street watched at age 3 increase vocabulary at age 5 and that it also leads to better grades in high school.  The study also seemed to indicate that the advantages were greater for kids from lower socioeconomic status who don't have the same access to educational opportunities.

Placing your child in front of the tv also takes away from time spent interacting with adults and engaging in opportunities to learn.  For example, working puzzles and reading stories.  Even playing with cars or running around in the back yard is an educational opportunity for a small child. 

My personal opinion is that tv should be very limited in small children.  I think that if they are going to watch tv then it should be slow paced and educational shows such as Sesamme Street and Blue's Clues.  The time should be limited to maybe an hour a day (although experts recommend 30 min) when you really need to have some time to yourself.  The quote above should also make us think twice about allowing our older children to spend hours on the video games.  We need to think about what's best for our children, not what's easier for us.  By not taking the easy way out, we will end up with smarter and more socially adept children.

Here is another interesting article about ADD and television if you are interested.

Oasis Church of Joplin

Have I mentioned before that I love my church?  My husband and I moved to Missouri to 6 1/2 years ago to help start a church. We had never thought about helping with a church plant before but God had plans for us.  We had been attending my husband's dad's church because his dad was the Pastor.  When his dad resigned we decided to find another church.  After about a year we started talking about how we would like to move to out of California somewhere to the Midwest.  But we felt like God wanted us to stay under our Pastor's ministry.  Very shortly after that our Pastor announced to us that he was moving to Missouri to start a church.  We immediately knew that's where God wanted us.  I don't know why God wanted us to go a state with a million churches to start a church but I'm glad He did!
Our church started with less than ten people in an office front building that was about 20 by 40 feet.  At one time we were up to about 150 people and currently run about 100 on Sunday morning.  Our church is now in a real church building located at Rangeline and Zora behind SMB bank.  I believe that one day our church will run thousands of people but the number isn't the most important thing.  The most important thing is that the people who attend our church have had lasting change in their lives.   They feel that they are loved and accepted and God is speaking into their lives.  We have a great congregation of people!
We also have amazing Pastors.  Our Pastors are friends with everybody.  In some churches this can be a bad thing because the people want to think the Pastors are perfect and if they get to know them too well they realize they are not perfect.  I like that our Pastor allows the people to get to know his family, has them over for the holidays if they have no where to go, and will go to dinner or hangout with anyone who asks him.  Yes, they will realize he is not perfect but once they know his heart they will usually be ok with that.  After all, Pastors are people too and they are imperfect just like the rest of us. 
Anyway, I love my church and I love Missouri and I'm so glad we are here and a part of this vision!

Planning a Vacation!

I have to admit I enjoy planning things.  My problem in the past has been that I plan things so much that I would get bent out of shape whenever things didn't go exactly the way I had planned.  Unfortunately, with a husband and son with ADHD, that seemed to happen a lot.  So I have learned over the years that great plans are an essential but flexibility is also required. 
I am always planning something!  Currently, I am working on my plans to attend nurse practitioner school.  I'm working on my application by getting my reference letters out, typing out a resume, making copies of my certifications etc.  My real fun will begin in the next few weeks when I begin to plan my vacation in December!
We are going to California to see family and a friend I haven't seen in years.  While we are there we will be going to Disneyland!  My older kids have been several times so it's not a big deal to them but it's the baby's first time.
I'm not sure yet if we will be driving or flying.  I'm going to start keeping an eye on ticket prices to see if I can find a good deal.  I need a great deal to be able to afford tickets for a family of five! 
I wanted to share a few tips on how to plan an awesome and affordable vacation.  The first thing you need to decide is where you are going to go.  If you are flexible with location you can find some really awesome deals.  Websites like allegiantair.com offer weekly travel deals.  For example, I just found out that if I stay at the Jolly Roger near disneyland for three nights I can get the fourth night free!  Sometimes you can get flights to Florida, Las Vegas and Los Angeles for as low as 50 dollars.
It's a good idea to check out websites like cheaptickets.com and travelocity.com just to see what prices other places are offering.  You do have to be careful though because those websites make money off of booking.  Often times you can get a better deal on hotels and rental cars by calling them directly.  It's a good idea to know what the prices are online and through discount websites when you call so you will know if you are getting the best deal. 
This goes for plane tickets also.  Check out cheaptickets.com and the airlines website directly before you purchase tickets.  Sometimes you can get the best deals through smaller airlines that offer less flexible schedules but much cheaper tickets.  Allegiant air for example, flies nonstop to several different locations at much cheaper prices.  A couple years ago I was able to purchase tickets for LA for 60 dollars each way. 
Another thing I do is plan activities while we are there.  If you decide what you are going to do ahead of time you can look for discount tickets.  A good website to use when planning activities is tripadvisor.com.  This website will give you reviews on museums, amusement parks, restaurants, hotels, and more.  They also make recommendations for things to do in whatever town you are visiting. 
Finally, don't forget to use your resources!  Many businesses offer discounts for theme parks and popular attractions.  Your employer may offer discount silver dollar city, disneyland or dixie stampede!  Many credit unions also offer discounts.  If you are a AAA member you can also get lots of great deals.  I hope this information helps you to plan a fun and reasonably priced vacation for your family!

I am truly blessed!

I grew up with an alcoholic and abusive father.  He wasn't abusive to me but he was abusive of my mom and older siblings.  My dad died when I was nine of an overdose on alcohol and pills.  My mom worked very hard with four children to support us while dealing with her abusive husband and trying to get through nursing school.  She graduated a few years before my dad died.  We were very poor when I was little.  Before my mom finished school we lived in a trailer with 2 bedrooms.  All four kids shared a bedroom.  It took my mom 5 tries at marriage before she finally found a keeper.  That was just last year!

There's a lot more to the sob story but the point is.....things could have turned out a lot worse for me.  Actually, things weren't looking good for me when I got pregnant at 15 years old.  We got married and moved away with the military.  My husband and I raised our daughter by ourselves without any financial or emotional support from any family.  Things still didn't really look good.
In spite of everything, my husband and I have stuck through the hard times and are now at 16 years of marriage.  We have a 16 year old daughter, 12 year old son, and 2 year old son.  Our kids are such a blessing!  I wouldn't trade my life or my family for anything in this world.  My kids are not perfect but they are really good kids.  I don't have to worry about them getting involved in drugs or worry that they are out getting in to trouble when they are with their friends.  I can't wait to see what wonderful things God has in store for them when they grow up.  Kristin in beautiful, fun, creative, and gifted in music.  Levi is super intelligent, witty, and outgoing.  Noah is just a plain doll! 
Besides having 3 beautiful children and a loving husband, I have an amazing church family.  I haven't had a relationship with my family since they are all addicts and have lived in different states.  My church family has always been there for us.  We always have "family" to spend the holidays with.  We know  our church family loves us and accepts us in spite of our imperfections just like we do them. 
Recently, my mom moved to the area, met a new man and changed her life.  This has been an amazing blessing as well.  Now my children have real grandparents that live a little over an hour away.  They have always had my husbands parents and family but they live in California.  This is the first time in my life my children have had the opportunity to have a relationship with my mom.  They also now have an awesome grandpa.  I wish he would have been around my whole life but I'm glad we have him now!
My life is proof that God cares and things can change!  I'm so thankful for all that He's done in my life!

The Truth about Pneumonia

We all know pneumonia is an infection of the lungs.  However, there are a few erroneous myths out there about pneumonia.  We've all heard our mothers or grandmothers say, "put a coat on before you catch pneumonia".  This is a popular old wives tale that being in the cold actually causes pneumonia.   Another one is that when you have pneumonia you need to stay in bed.  My own husband believed that since my son has pneumonia after his surgery he needs to stay in bed.  The purpose of this blog is to educate the reader on the symptoms, causes and prevention of pneumonia. 
Pneumonia symptoms can vary and are difficult to recognize at times.  In the elderly, they may not even run fever or they may have a low temperature.  However, the typical symptoms are productive cough, fever, shortness of breath, chills, and chest pain during respiration.  If the pneumonia is severe you may experience low oxygen levels which manifest as blue tinged lips or pale or dusky nail beds.  In small children watch for sucking in around the ribs, sternum, and clavicle or nostril flaring.  If you notice any of these things in an infant or child please take them to the emergency room right away. 
Pneumonia is most commonly caused by bacteria but it can also be caused by viruses, fungi, and aspiration.  Aspiration is when something foreign is inhaled into the lungs.  An example of this would be someone who has been drinking too much, passes out, vomits, and then breaths in the vomit. (A good reason not to drink).  This can be a very difficult type of pneumonia to treat and is very dangerous.  Pneumonia can be acquired in the community or in the hospital.  Typically, pneumonia is not "caught".  What I mean is you don't catch pneumonia from your friend, you catch the cold, flu or bacteria that they have.  I might get the flu from my friend and end up with pneumonia while my friend is better in a few days.  Similarly, I may have pneumonia and my friend may drink out my cup and end up with a cold.  So, it is not the location of the infection that is contagious as so much it is the actual bacteria or virus. 
The number one way to prevent pneumonia and other types of contagious illnesses is hand washing.  Hand washing is surprisingly the most effective and simplest way of preventing the spread of disease.  One way to prevent pneumonia specifically is to keep moving.  When you are sick with the flu it's not a good idea to lay in one spot for days and have your spouse wait on you hand and foot.  When you move around you help keep those alveoli (tiny air sacs in your lungs) open.  When you stay in one spot fluid can accumulate in the alveoli and become a breeding ground for bacteria.  Coughing and deep breathing is another way of helping prevent pneumonia when you are sick with the flu or laying in bed for an extended period of time for other reasons such as surgery.  Coughing and deep breathing also help to keep those alveoli open.  If you must stay in bed, make sure to change positions frequently and do cough and deep breathing exercises. 
If you suspect you or your loved one has pneumonia seek prompt medical attention.  The doctor will listen to your chest with a stethoscope and possible take xrays.  They will also check your oxygen level.  If the doctor feels that you need intravenous antibiotics or oxygen then you will be hospitalized.  If the doctor does not feel this is necessary then you will be sent home with oral antibiotics.  Be sure to take all your antibiotics until they are gone.  you also need to drink plenty of fluid and get plenty of rest.  Like I said before, do not lay in bed for days without moving as this will only make the pneumonia worse.  If you smoke you need to quit.  I will probably make that the topic of my next blog.  We all know how bad smoking is for you but if you have pneumonia and smoke you will have a more difficult and possibly complicated recovery.  I hope you or your loved ones are never sick with pneumonia but if you do I hope this information helps!

Noah's Surgery

Last Thursday was the day we have been looking forward to for a long, long time.  Well, it was actually a year and a half but that seems like a very long time when you are dealing with a sick child.  I mentioned in a previous post that Noah (my 2 year old) has had swallowing problems and has had repeated respiratory infections and trouble gaining weight since he started baby food at six months old.  We had one doctor tell us it was laryngomalacia and another doctor told us it wasn't.  The third doctor repeated the bronchoscopy and said he definitely did have laryngomalacia and she also found a fish bone embedded in his tonsil!  (This was part of his surgery.)  It is still hard to believe that all his problems could be caused by laryngomalacia because children typically outgrow this by the time they are two and 99% of children do not have major problems with it. 
The other problem he has been having since being on tube feedings is chronic vomiting.  He would vomit sometimes twice a day and sometimes twice a week.  The surgeon decided that when he placed the gastric tube he wanted to do another procedure called a Nissen Fundoplication.  This is where they take a part of the stomach and wrap it around the lower esophagus to create a high pressure zone that reflux cannot get past.  This was supposed to fix the chronic vomiting.
Well, Noah came home from the hospital Sunday after having all this done on Thursday.  The whole time he was in the hospital he was too sick to get out of bed.  He walked once during his hospitalization.  We thought maybe when he came home he would feel better and want to play.  He didn't.  Monday I ended up taking him to the emergency room.  They did a chest and abdominal xray and found that he has pneumonia and was severely constipated.  After miralax, enemas, and antibiotics he is finally feeling better today and has actually been out of bed playing!  Now we are just dealing with nausea and vomiting.  Except he can't really vomit since he had the fundoplication, he just wretches.  When he starts retching we have to attach a tube to the "button" on his belly and open it so the vomit can come out.  I feel so sorry for him!
 The next few days will be spent trying to adjust his feeding so that he doesn't get nauseous but doesn't have to be on slow rate feedings all day.  It's a huge pain to be on continuous feedings because he is attached to a backpack all day.  That wasn't a big deal when he was laying in bed but now that he is running around again it's very difficult.  The backpack is too heavy for him to carry on his back so he drags it around.  If it lays flat then it gets air in it and starts beeping.  So we have to follow him around and make sure his backpack stays upright.  We will be praying that he tolerates his feedings for the next couple of days so that he doesn't have to keep doing this!

Michael Jackson Case

The Michael Jackson trial has been back in the news lately due to jury selection for the trial against Dr. Conrad Murray.  This will prove to be an extremely difficult task.  There is hardly a person on the planet who is not familiar with the case.  Finding an unbiased juror will be, in my opinion, impossible.  The death of Michael Jackson gained international attention instantly.  Added to the media craze over the death of the King of Pop was the information that his death resulted from gross medical malpractice which has been deemed a homicide. 
I am not nor have I ever been a fan of Michael Jackson although I am sympathetic for his family, friends and fans.  My interest in this case stems from my interest in medicine.  As a critical care nurse, I have administered propofol more times than I can count.  I would never administer this medication to someone who is not on a ventilator.  The major side effect of propofol is respiratory depression.  This means that whenever you give the drug you take the chance that the patient could stop breathing.  Propofol should only be administered in a health care setting with lifesaving equipment and professionals trained in CPR.   In spite of these dangers, police did not find any monitors, controlled infusion pumps, defibrillators, or other equipment in the room where Jackson died.  They did find an empty oxygen cylinder.  There were also reports that this cardiologist did not even perform CPR correctly at the scene.  The complete disregard for safety is astounding to me.  In fact, I would say negligence at this level can only be intentional homicide or complete stupidity.  Conrad admits to administering the medication along with other powerful sedatives to help Jackson sleep.  This confession in combination with the evidence found at the scene should make it easy to convict this sad excuse for a physician.   

Craziness!!!

We all know parenting is hard work, right?  It's even harder when you're trying your best to do it right!  This week I made the very difficult decision of making my daughter break up with her boyfriend.  She is 16 years old and this was her first real relationship.  My problem was that the boy  was a bad influence on my daughter.  He would not even accept me on facebook because he didn't want me to see all the cussing all over his page.  But I knew he really liked my daughter a lot and they were getting way too emotionally attached for 16 year olds.  Well, I tried giving my daughter the opportunity to break it off with him and when it became evident she was unwilling or incapable, I decided to do it myself.  I told her she had to break up with him that night. 
Little did I know the drama that was about to ensue!  The next day I felt sorry for the boy so I text him to try to make him feel a little better.  His "mom" answers and says Lucas is no longer with us....he killed himself last night...!  She also proceeded to go on about how my daughter was everything to him and she made him happy and on and on.  I had my husband call to find out if it was true and they would not answer.  So we called the police to find out if it was true.  The police said they did not respond to any suicide but if it was a diabetic overdose then it would have been considered medical and they wouldn't even know about it.  My daughter believes the mom is lying and I don't know what to believe.  I checked the obituaries this morning, called schools (I don't know which one he goes to, its in another town), and called the main hospital.  I found no proof of his death as of yet. 
The text messages have stopped and the boy has not tried to contact my daughter since the breakup.  There is alot more to the story and it's very confusing.  I don't know weather to believe its true or a lie!  Right now we are going to assume it is not true until we have proof otherwise.  I sincerely hope it is all a hoax.  If it is then I am so glad I made the tough decision to get my daughter away from this psychologically challenged boy and his family!

Is 16 too young to drive?

http://www.rmiia.org/auto/teens/Teen_Driving_Statistics.asp
http://dor.mo.gov/drivers/teens/gradlaw.php
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/286684/parenting_tips_easing_your_teen_into_pg5.html?cat=25

My daughter just turned 16 on Aug 16th.  On her birthday she passed her driver's test and received her license!  I had many well-intending friends and relatives who expressed concern that 16 is way too young to drive.  I agree that 16 is young and many 16 year olds are not mature enough to handle the responsibility.  However, I do not agree that all 16 year olds are too young to drive.  I believe that should be judged on an individual basis. 
There are many dangers in which teenage drivers are more susceptible too.  Cell phone use is highest among 16-24 year olds and  most teens use the cell to text rather than talk.  We all know how dangerous that can be.  Most of us have been nearly ran off the road at some point or another by someone trying to text and drive.  Teen drivers can also be easily distracted by other teens in the car, ipods, eating and many other things.  Adding inexperience to these distractions can be fatal. 
Many states have enacted graduated driver's licenses to protect our youth.  Missouri is one of those states.  The first step is a permit.  A young driver must hold a permit for at least 6 months before they can get a license.  That license is an under 18 license.  This license is restricted with a curfew and limits on how many children may ride in the car.  The driver also must maintain no alcohol or drug offense.  Before the driver gets a full license they must get an under 21 license which also carries restrictions.  These graduated driver's license programs have greatly reduced teenage motor vehicle deaths. 
This is not to say parents should rush out and get there child a permit as soon as they turn 15.  Parents need to use discretion when deciding if their child is ready to drive.  Consider the child's grades, ability to complete chores, and willingness to accept instruction.  If your child argues with you anytime you try to tell them anything they probably will not listen to driving instructions either.  If your child is known to associate with teens who drink, smoke or use drugs then they are probably not ready to drive.  Those would be the kids in the car with them while they're driving. 
As for me, I'm glad my  daughter is driving!  She drives back and forth to school and church, and she can run to get milk.  I do not allow her to go anywhere she wants whenever she wants.  I believe limits should be strict when they start out until they become more experienced.  Teens are still children who need boundaries but the benefits of driving can be great for the child and parent if the child is ready.