Home & Living

MEG MEEKER, M.D., has spent the past twenty years practicing pediatric and adolescent medicine and counseling teens and parents. Dr. Meeker is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a fellow of the National Advisory Board of The Medical Institute. Dr. Meeker is a popular speaker on teen issues and is frequently heard on nationally syndicated radio and television programs. She lives and works in Traverse City, Michigan, where she shares a medical practice with her husband, Walter. They have four children.

How common cleaning products could be a ticking time bomb in your home or office!

If your home or office is typical, it already has dozens of cleaning and personal care products that contain harmful chemicals. Recent studies have revealed that most households/offices contain over 63 hazardous products that together contain hundreds of chemicals. These chemicals have the potential to greatly harm or even kill your children, your pets and you, should they accidentally not be used with the utmost caution.

Could these tragedies happen in your home or office?

When little Jennifer Smith of Salt Lake City, UT was but a year old she crawled over to the dishwasher while her mother was unloading the dishes. She put her small finger in the detergent dispensing cup and ate a finger full of wet but un-dissolved commercial dish detergent. In minutes her face was red and blistered, the inside of her mouth and tongue were burned white. Luckily she was rushed to a nearby hospital emergency room for quick medical attention. She recovered in a few days.

Another documented case was a 20 month old boy who had to be fed through tubes for five months and suffered through many operations. Again, the culprit was dishwasher detergent.

This is only two of thousands of cases reflecting children ingesting and being exposed to, what most consider common household products, terrible life threatening consequences.

It is estimated that the U.S. Poison Control Center has nearly 1.5 million reported cases of accidental ingestion of poisons every year. Sadly most of these cases were under 12 years of age.

Have you ever wondered what the strong odor in the cleaners isle of your supermarket is?

Ingestion is only one of three major ways that these products enter the body. Inhalation is even for more dangerous because when breathed in these harmful chemicals go directly into the blood stream and can quickly affect the lungs, heart, brain liver and kidneys.

By the way, that strong smell in your supermarket cleaner isle is caused by what industry experts describe as "out gassing". Out gassing is the vapors escaping from the "sealed" containers on the supermarkets shelves. Which obviously are extremely harmful to your health.

Have you ever been literally driven out of your bathroom shower while using one of the most popular tile cleaners? These types of cleaners must contain strong chemicals in order to do the job. The job may get done but you are at risk from the strong vapors that are generated. By the time you have exited the bathroom the chemical vapors have entered your blood stream and are wrecking havoc with your health.

Where are your rubber gloves?
Do you know that one square centimeter of skin (the size of a dime) contains 3 million cells and 4 yards of nerves? How do you think nicotine and hormone replacement patches work? Do the chemicals somehow enter the body from the patch through the skin to do their work? Of course they do.

This same absorption occurs every time a cleaning product touches your skin. By the way, if your baby happens to crawl across your nicely scrubbed kitchen floor, even several days after, the skin will pick up and absorb whatever harmful chemicals happen to be in the cleaner.

Consumer Beware!

Why isn't the consumer informed and protected from the potentially dangerous chemicals contained in cleaning and personal care products?

• The government has very limited power to regulate and require proper testing.
• Products that kill 50% of lab animals can still get designated as "non-toxic".
• Of 17,000 household chemicals only about 5,100, or approximately 30%, have been adequately tested and less than 10% have been tested on the nervous system.
• No law requires manufactures to list the exact ingredients on the package label.

Veriuni All Natural Cleaners!
Just imagine your peace of mind if you never had to be concerned again about your family suffering from the misuse of harmful cleaning chemicals.

Veriuni's environmentally safe cleaning products provide a powerful answer to the harm that ingestion, inhalation and absorption of common household products. Veriuni's products combine all-natural ingredients and vigorous cleaning action for the ultimate in consumer safety and environmental health.

All-natural, gentle and powerful, Veriuni Cleaning Products use only citrus-based oils, as well as ingredients from corn and other replenish able materials. They contain no dyes, artificial fragrances, or pesticide residues. Even our packaging and labels are constructed solely from recycled materials.

The news is incredible, Veriuni's line of environmentally safe cleaning products work like no other cleansers on the market today. Consumers everywhere, including those at businesses, hospitals and schools are switching to environmentally, safe, effective cleaners to increase health among family members, clients and employees.


Just how good are these cleaners?
The Veriuni formula is used exclusively by the over 30 National Parks, a few which include Yellowstone, Grant Teton and Yosemite. The formula was also chosen by the City of Santa Monica after conducting tests for the most effective and environmentally safe cleansers for the city's cleaning needs. Warner Brothers and Fox Studios, the University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ and world-famous resorts have also chosen these products to clean their facilities. And most recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is testing these same products for use on its fleet of air and water quality testing ships.


Now, Veriuni makes these safe products available to you, for use in both your home and your office. A powerful, effective and non-toxic alternative to traditional cleaners.


Start protecting your health today!!
Don't waste another minute. You owe it to yourself, your family, friends and employees to get the protection that Veriuni's safe and effective products provide. Access to these earth friendly products is so easy and convenient.

Fill your shopping basket with safe products. Get rid of all those harmful products forever and replace them with Veriuni.

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change. Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.

With the countless negativities the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z…

A - Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

B - Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.

D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.

E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.

F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

G – Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.

H – Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.

I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.

J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

K – keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.

L – Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?

M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.

N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

O – Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.

P – Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.

Q – Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.

S – Stop procrastinating.

T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement.

U – Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.

V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.

W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.

X – X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.

Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.

Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!

Is Christmas only about Christmas trees and Christmas gifts?

Let kids tell you what they think of Christmas and they will speak of images full of snow, caroling, putting up Christmas tree ornaments, Christmas gifts and the irresistible magic and wonderment. For everyone else, Christmas is a whole 30 days (even more for some) of headaches and stress.

This doesn't have to be so. Who says you can't enjoy the yuletide season like kids can? This article will give you a few tips on how to celebrate Christmas with less of the stress and more of the ho, ho, holiday fun.

I bet you've heard this a gazillion times, but I guess once more doesn't hurt until you take it to heart: do your Christmas shopping early. Beat the mad rush and escape your kid's heartbreak when you find out that the very last (insert name of their wanted toy] that sells like hotcakes here) has been won in a duel by another overzealous parent. So Shop early and avoid the scuffle.

And no, Christmas doesn't mean you have to be a Stepford wife whipping up delicious Christmas goodies from scratch. Doing this will definitely eat up time on your hands to actually enjoy the things you cooked or baked. Order your food ready-made, pop it in the oven for a few minutes, and no one will ever know. It's your little secret, everyone's happy, and Christmas will be full of merrymaking from then on.

If you need help with your holiday preparations, then by all means, ask for it. Is Christmas not a season of goodwill to all men? (And Women?) More often than not, you will come out with better relationships, a long overdue chat, or discovering kindred hearts. There's no better time of the year.

Learn to let loose and let the small things go. Trust me, no one will care about whether the food's a little late as long as they're enjoying each other's company. Hey, it's Christmas. In fact, you might get carried away by the excellent time spent with each other yourself. Just don't forget, there's still food cooking back in the kitchen. I mean, Christmas will cause you to be a little more cheerful and forgiving than most other days. Your guests are really there for the joy of your company - not just for the food.

K.I.S.S. works real well. In other words, keep it simple, sweetheart. Sure, your guests will no doubt be impressed by excellent Christmas decorations, but the whole point of Christmas is to enjoy each other, and pretty soon, after some interesting conversations, they won't even notice the Christmas tree is not a real tree. Don't go overboard on the decorations and preparations. Simple pine-tree scented candles can do wonders to your Christmas-inspired ambience.

Lastly, keep in mind what Christmas is all about, it's all about giving and caring, it's all about the season of happiness and delight, it's all about magic in the winter air. It's about innocent kids secretly staying up all night so they may have a glimpse of Santa and his reindeer. Remembering what this season is all about will keep you from going overboard and from going crazy with endless preparation. Christmas is about each other, not about competition. It's the memories of each other that last in our minds, not the Christmas decorations.

Recommendations:

Throwing a party—big or small, simple or extravagant—just got easier. Whether you're planning your first big holiday celebration or your twentieth, you'll find this memory-making treasury an invaluable hospitality guide for all occasions.

An autistic person is always absorbed in self-centered mental activity (eg. daydreams, delusions, fantasies, hallucinations), exhibiting a marked withdrawal from reality, and the inability to relate to people and situations. Autistic children appear to live in a world of their own, in some cases using language or vocabulary only they understand. Adults often show a stubborn resistance to change. The condition is rare, however, occuring only about two to four persons in every 10,000.

The Signs in children:

• Delayed in development, particularly in the milestones of social behaviour (eg. smiling and talking).
• Solitary play and withdrawal from the rest of the family and other people.
• Apathy (indifference) toward other peoples attempts at communication.
• Dislike for cuddling.
• The lack or absence of eye contact.
• Rote (fixed routine) and compulsive behaviour which, if interrupted, may provoke temper tantrums.
• Mental retardation, in most.
• In some, extraordinary talent or brilliance in a specific field (eg drawing, mathematics, music, painting)

Complications

• Injury due to self-mutilation, or to the lack or absence of response to painful stimuli.

Common Causes
The exact cause has not yet been pinpointed, but the disorder is attributed to:

• Genetic predisposition (hereditary).
• Failure of the section of the brain that processes stimuli.

What you can do

• Consult a doctor if you think your child is autistic.
• Stay positive and be supportive towards your child with autism.

Here is one great example how a mom successfully battle through with autism in her child.

Simply the best!
Positive Discipline Dr. Jane Nelsen's Positive Discipline books for parents should be manadatory reading for all parents and teachers. She puts the responsiblity squarely where it belongs - on the adult - and shows us we don't have to use corporal punishment, sarcasm, yelling and screaming to raise or teach a child of any age. A wonderful side benefit of Postivie Discipline is the improvement you can make in ALL relationships in life by putting these principles into practice. As Jane says, and I paraphrase, "Who ever got the crazy idea you could make people do better by making them feel worse?" If we would put ourselves in our child's shoes while we're yelling at them trying to correct them or make a point, or worse hitting them because they did something wrong, we would stop such nonsense in a second. Put her simple and very effective techniques into practice and you'll find a remarkable change occur in the relationships you have with your children. Check out [...] too - there's lots of free stuff there along with great articles. Click Here.



The balance of available medical research and personal story is what makes this book different and special. The information is comprehensive,accessible and readable. The writing is well-researched, engaging and interesting. The resources are invaluable. It's a book that will sit prominently on my reference shelf. Click Here

Defining success

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  Parents need to convey to their child what success is.
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  Success can be incorrectly defined as how well we do monetarily, materially or in terms of power.
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  Success should be defined as a measure of an individual's ability to contribute to society in a positive manner and to achieve a sense of self-worth and happiness.
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  Show your child that even if they aren't the top of the class there are other measure of success. For example :
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  Trying to do their best
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  Learning from their mistakes
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  An ability to get along with their peers and help others

• Teach your child how to handle everyday situations. Coping with everyday situations can only be learned through trial and error.
• Encourage your child to learn how to solve problems but be on hand when they need your help.
• A supportive family environment allows your child to become confident with whatever life has to offer and enables them to interact with others. It gives a sense of security and self-sufficiency.
• Self-confidence gives your child the ability to adjust to new environment and situations.
• If your child is well adjusted and secure, then they are more likely to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Pointers for parents on how to cater to the emotional and social need of a child in today's society. Incorporating study motivation, discipline and parental and family requirements.

The prospect of parenthood is for many an exciting time full of expectation. But with parenthood comes the responsibility for caring, nurturing and successfully raising your child. Parenthood, for everyone, is learning on the job and there is no formula for getting right.



THE NEEDS OF THE CHILD



In order for a child to develop, a parent must cater for 5 basic needs:

Social - A child's first role model is their parent, therefore they tend to imitate how the parent relates to others in their surroundings. It is important for a child to learn how to interact appropriately with their peers and other adults so that they can be accepted into society. Children often learn and practice these skills through games and role playing with other children.

Emotional - Children need to know that they have their parents' love and support to give them the confidence to act as an individual. This love and support is usually seen by the child as a measure of their own self worth and will translate across into their ability to interact and express themselves and their emotions to others.

Intellectual - A child's curiosity and need to question should be encourages. The pursuit of knowledge should be an area where parents become active and show an interest by asking questions and listening to the child. It also allows a forum whereby a child can learn to develop and voice their own onions, giving them the confidence to do so when challenged later in life.

Moral - Moral values and standards need to be taught, they do not innately develop as the child grows. Children model their morality on figures of authority in their lives an so it is important for parents to take an active role. To set the right example, parents should first be clear in their own minds of what values they want to instill into their child.



Physical - The most simplistic requirements, the provision of food, shelter, exercise and rest. The provision of these basic needs is often the focus of running a family and most often the reason that we are taken away from the family. However, it is important for the healthy physical development of a child that the basics of a balanced diet, adequate sleep and physical exercise are provided.

Values are beliefs and attitudes that affect the way we think and act. They form part of our character. They help us decide on the way to look at things, like what is right or wrong, good or bad. They also affect the way we relate with other people around us.

Many of these values may change over time, and people may have different ideas on what certain values mean. Still, there are some values that most people will agree, and accept as important ones that make family life so wonderful.

However, families all over the world are exposed to other ideas and beliefs that can weaken or threaten family life. This is why it is necessary to encourage and promote values that strengthen family ties.

Five Key Family Values

• Love, Care and Concern
• Mutual Respect
• Filial Responsibility
• Commitment
• Communication

Love, Care and Concern
Family love gives us comfort and security. Family members cherish one another and show mutual love, affection and support. Care and concern for one another encourage family members to give their best to each other and lend a helping hand when needed.
Commitment is the willingness among family members to support one another through life's ups and downs. It is a commitment that keeps the family together. Sometimes, this involves making sacrifices. A family is a team. All members must fulfil their duties and obligations to lay a firm foundation for security and happiness.

'Home is where the heart is...'

"There's no place like home..."

These sayings tell us, in some way, that the family is where we belong. It is where we can find love and comfort, food, protection and shelter.

Within a family, every member shares a special bond with one another that makes them a part of the group. This bond can give us much happiness that lasts throughout our lives.

A society, made up of many happy families, would also mean that the country is united, peaceful and strong.

Member of a family will:

• support and protect each other
• develop good social and moral habits
• look after each other's physical and mental well-being
• pass on important beliefs from generation to generation

Family life changes with time. For example, children grow up and become adults, and parents grow old to become grandparents. Events such as marriages, births and deaths affect family well-being, and bring new experiences to it.
With these changes, family relations can change too. This is why family ties need constant care and attention. A healthy, happy family depends on the efforts of every family.