Be a Super Hero this summer when it comes to Food Allergies

With summer starting children will be breaking from the normal day-to-day school routine.  This can be a challenging time for kids with food allergies as they begin to interact with new people and visit out of the ordinary places during summer camps, family vacations, amusement park excursions or trips to the zoo where there may not be a familiarity with dealing with this medical condition.  FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), one of the leading non-profit advocacy groups for the 15 million Americans with food allergies, wants to help educate those who aren't afflicted with food allergies to have an understanding of the safety issues important for those who do have them. Plus FARE wishes to remind those with food allergies (especially children) along with their family and friends not to let your guard down when it comes to maintaining safety practices over the summer break.  You can be a FARE super hero this summer by being cautious and considerate regarding food allergies!



As an educational tool, safety kit, and fundraiser, FARE is offering a special Summer Pack for $29.95 (plus shipping) to help children with food allergies during the summer break from school.  It is a simple, fun way to store and carry all your favorite summer allergy-friendly products.  Plus all proceeds support FARE's mission!

The FARE Summer Pack includes a cinch bag, a medicine storage kit, a food allergy restaurant card, a food allergy tip sheet and a common symptoms of anaphylaxis magnet:

FARE cinch bag:  big enough to carry a water bottle, epi-pens, and all the other stuff kids haul around with them during the summer months.  It also displays foodallergy.org to encourage people to learn more about the topic and give them a heads up that this is an issue to be cautious about.

Medicine Storage Kit:  Can accommodate two epinephrine auto-injectors, a large bottle of antihistamine, and a list of emergency phone numbers.  It is bright red so it is easy to spot!

A Food Allergy Restaurant Card to present to the chef while dining out to outline the foods and ingredients you must avoid.

Common Symptoms of Anaphylaxis Magnet lists the most common symptoms of anaphylaxis and what to do in an emergency so that camp counselors, coaches, babysitters, and other people who may be supervising a child with food allergies can have easy access to the information.

Parents who have a child with food allergies that will be outside a lot in hot weather may also want to consider purchasing a FRIO Epinephrine Cooling Bag which isn't included in the FARE Summer Pack.  It keeps epinephrine at a stable room temperature during the hot summer months! This reusable 5.5” x 7” wallet has insulating qualities that are activated by water – no refrigeration or ice needed – and holds 2 epinephrine auto-injectors. When activated, the FRIO cooling pack keeps its low temperature for a minimum of two days, even in temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a great item to add to your emergency supply kit, travel kit or camping kit as there is no refrigeration needed. 

FARE has also posted a special SAFE FOR THE SUMMER section on its website.  It includes tips on emergency preparedness, traveling, summer camp, and barbeques.  Summer Barbeque Tips for Hosts & Guest and Managing Food Allergies at Camp are two very informative articles I'd recommend everyone take a moment to read.  This special educational section of the FARE website also highlights four important points for families dealing with food allergies to remember over the summer months:

1. Avoid the heat: Epinephrine is sensitive to light and should be stored at room temperature. Never leave your auto-injectors in a vehicle, where temperatures can rise to the triple digits. 
2. Prevent: Make sure you remain vigilant about reading labels and never take chances with foods you're unsure are safe.
3. Prepare: Summer is a great time to prepare for the school year, including learning how to advocate for your child and about the guidelines and laws that help ensure the safety and inclusion of students with food allergies. 
4. Practice: Using a trainer or expired auto-injector, practice how to use the device. Review your Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan with the entire family and all caregivers.

Dealing with my own children's food allergies is something that our family has to be constantly vigilant about.  I shared my story about being a food allergy dad on the FARE blog which you can read here.  We're lucky in that my children attend a school with a peanut free campus which provides a lot of peace of mind regarding their safety while they are attending classes but have to admit it can be easy to become complacent when they aren't guaranteed as protective an environment during the summer months when out and about.  Please be a Super Hero this summer by being cautious and considerate about food allergies.  Your actions could save a life!

Celebrating Red, White & Blue Day with some help from Australian Gold

**A Geek Daddy received the featured products for free to review**

Celebrating RED, WHITE & BLUE DAY during the Memorial Day Weekend is a decade's long tradition at my children's elementary school which entails an outdoor patriotic parade and concert featuring all the students.  With all that time being spend outdoors, we didn't want sunburn to put a damper on the fun and exciting atmosphere of this day.  So we used Australian Gold to help keep the sunburns away.

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, an international organization devoted to combating the world's most common cancer, 80% of sun exposure during a person's lifetime occurs during childhood.  They warn that getting sunburns as a child can double your risk of getting melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer which is often caused by ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, later in life.  With this in mind, here are a few regarding children's sun exposure to keep in mind:

• Wear sunscreen and apply it properly.  Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before going outdoors to provide plenty of time for it to be absorbed by a child's skin.  Make sure to apply sunscreen even on cloudy days because ultraviolet rays are still shining even if the sun isn't bright in the sky.  Use SPF (Sun Protection Factor) 15 or greater and don't miss easily forgotten spots like the nose, ears,and behind the neck.  When wearing sandals, or no shoes at all, don't forget those toes!  Reapply every 3 hours or sooner if a child gets wet or sweaty.

• Don't forget your lips & eyes.  Lips and eye balls can get sunburned just like any other part of your body. Apply lip balm that has SPF protection and wear sunglasses that will reduce UV exposure to corneas if spending an extended period of time outside.

• Medications can increase sunburns.  Some prescriptions have a side effect of increasing skin sensitivity to the sun with antibiotics and acne medications being two often cited examples.  When getting a prescription filled ask a physician or pharmacist if this is a possibility with the medication to be aware and help avoid a child being at risk from sun exposure. 

•  Best protection is clothing and a hat.  Sunscreen is helpful but remember the best protection from UV rays is by wearing brimmed hats, clothing, shoes and sunglasses. Beware though that wet, light-colored clothing can allow the absorption of just as much UV radiation into your body as exposed bare skin would.

• Set a good example! If children witness adults wearing sunscreen they are more likely to follow that behavior.  Ensure that skin protection is a priority for every member of the family.

My daughter often complains and tries to get out of wearing sunscreen.  With her blond hair and  light complexion wearing sunscreen isn't up for debate so we've had several occasions where we've been delayed and late getting place while we deal with her resistance to putting it on.  Australian Gold's Hello Kitty line of sun protection and skin care products have really helped us with her being more amenable to putting sunscreen on.

Australian Gold HELLO KITTY products include SPF 50 Mineral Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 30 Body Mist Sunscreen Spray, SPF 30 Lip Balm, and Frozen Aloe After Sun Cooling Spray.  They provide colorful character focused packaging that kids can relate to making their application less intimidating plus ingredients that really work to get the job done in warding off those harmful UV rays.  Have a safe and fun summer by making sure your kids are wearing their sunscreen!

Don't Blow Your Fourth of July Weekend Fun With A Fireworks Accident

It's that time of year again where tents selling fireworks seem to be on every corner and people enjoy the fun of the booms, crackles, pops and whistles that rocket and sparkle in the warm summer air.  Unfortunately, it is also a time when we hear too many stories of people getting killed or injured from being careless or drunk when enjoying fireworks turning a fun experience into a tragic situation.  The summer started off this year in our community with the news that a 47 year old man died the weekend before the Fourth of July when fireworks he was holding in his hand blew his head into fragments right in front of his horrified family.  Fireworks can be a fun summer time tradition, but please remember to treat them with caution and care because preventable accidents and deaths occur way too often during this time of the year.

Last year 11 people died from consumer fireworks incidents which isn't a huge number in the scope of all things but still were all living, breathing, folks who could still be living their lives today if they weren't essentially screwing around.  One of those deaths occurred locally here too when a 44 year old man was hit in the chest with an errant flying rocket on the Fourth of July.  In addition to the fatalities, 10,500 people were injured by fireworks last year according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

One of those was a high profile Detroit television personality who risked losing a high profile, high paying lucrative job when he lost an eye in a fireworks accident celebrating the Fourth of July in 2014.  Dave Rexroth, the 49 year old chief meteorologist at WXYZ - TV 7 described the incident in a recent interview with the Detroit Free Press newspaper, "a box of repeater mortars - multiple shells that shoot from a box up into the air and explode didn't go off - I went to check on it and it went off in my face."   As a result, he now wears a prosthetic eye.  It could have been worse though he could be blind or even worse dead.  Rexroth notes though "I'm not angry at the fireworks people ... I'm more angry at myself."

With more than $1.89 million in consumer fireworks sales just within Michigan last year, the bulk of those being sold between June and August, you can tell fireworks are a popular source of entertainment. Hey I'd be a hypocrite if I said "don't play with fireworks" as I've celebrated the holiday with them as a kid myself and with my kids as a Dad now. If you are planning on including your own personal fireworks celebration as part of the Fourth of July festivities, here is a friendly reminder on a few tips to keep in mind to keep everyone safe. 

• NEVER allow young children to play with or ignite fireworks, including sparklers.  Parents may not realize how often young children suffer injuries from sparklers.  Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees - hot enough to melt metal;

• ALWAYS have an adult close by to supervise fireworks activities if older children are allowed to handle devices;

• Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or mishap;

• Never try to relight or handle malfunctioning fireworks.  Soak them with water and throw them away;

• Avoid buying fireworks that are packaged in brown paper, which is often a sign that the fireworks were made for professional displays and could pose a danger to consumers;

• Never carry fireworks in a pocket or shoot them off in metal or glass containers;

• Never place any part of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse.  Back up to a safe distance immediately after lighting fireworks;

• Never point or throw fireworks at another person.

•  It may not look cool, but consider wearing safety glasses to provide extra insurance your eyes are protected if you are the one lighting the fuses.

• Refrain from drinking alcohol while using fireworks - don't drink and drive / don't drink and shoot fireworks - impaired judgment is one of the leading causes of fireworks deaths and injuries.

Now these seem like obvious and easy rules to follow, yet thousands of people are getting hurt by not being careful enough around fireworks.  This year if you are using fireworks please take a step back and make sure you are being extra cautious and ensuring that only children are of appropriate age and maturity handle them plus are adequately supervised by adults.  We don't want to see anyone's Fourth of July blown apart by a fireworks accident.  Let's all have a fun and safe holiday!

For more information and tips CLICK HERE to visit the website for the NATIONAL COUNCIL ON FIREWORKS SAFETY, an industry trade association promoting responsible consumer behavior with its products.  The AMERICAN PYROTECHNICS ASSOCIATION also has a useful website filled with tips and information about responsible fireworks use.  CLICK HERE to read the Consumer Product Safety Commission's 2014 Fireworks Report that  was released in June 2015 which is an annual summary of accidents and injuries. You can also find useful fireworks safety tips and information from the CPSC here.

Make Sure First Car Moments Are Memorable Rather Than Regretable Times

I have partnered with Life of Dad and Michelin for this promotion.  I have received compensation for my participation, but my first car memories are my own. 

Do you remember the moment someone first handed you the keys to your very own car?  My #FirstCarMoment was saving up enough money from summer and part-time jobs to purchase a Buick Skyhawk my Senior year of High School.  Oh the freedom and adventures I had soaring around in my very own ride.  First Car Moments aren't always limited to teens and young adults though as I recently had a #FirstCarMoment when our family purchased and started driving a mini-van, which must be a parenting rite of passage.  We've had a lot of fun and adventures in our new ride, but it is also important to keep safety in mind when you are hauling around valuable cargo like children.

Many parents take a lot of care in making sure children are buckled up properly in a vehicle but don't think much about the safety of the tires they are riding around on.  Michelin encourages drivers to make sure that tires stay in good condition to keep you safe.  To get the most out of your tires - maximum mileage, safety and wear - it is important to properly maintain them.

 

How often do you you check your tire pressure?  Did you know that tires can lose up to 1psi (pounds per square inch) every month? Underinflation not only reduces your vehicle's gas mileage but could jeopardize the integrity of the tire creating a safety hazard.  Michelin recommends checking your tire pressure every month.  It's easy - here's how to do it:

• Purchase a tire pressure gauge you can trust - we keep both an old school pencil popper gauge and a newer digital one in our vehicles.
• Check your tires "cold" before you've driven or at least three hours after you've driven.
• Insert your tire pressure gauge into the valve stem on your tire (If using a digital reader it should begin reading air pressure immediately.  For the pencil style tire gauges, the gauge will pop out and show a measured number.  When you hear a "pssst" sound that is air escaping the tire which shouldn't affect your tire pressure unless you hold down the air pressure gauge for an extended period.
• Compare the measured psi to the psi found on the sticker inside the driver's door of your vehicle or in its owner's manual.  Don't compare to the psi printed on your tire's sidewall.
• If your psi is above the number, let air out until it matches. If below add air until it reaches the proper number.

While doing your monthly air pressure check you may also want to test out the tread on your tires.  Not having enough tread creates safety problems by not allowing for enough grip on the road or increasing the chance of a blow out. We always keep a few pennies in our cars so we can check for wear with some help from Honest Abe.  Here's how:

• Take a penny and hold Abe's body between your thumb and forefinger.
• Select a point on your tire where tread appears the lowest and place Lincoln's head into one of the grooves.
• If any part of Lincoln's head is covered by tread you're driving with a legal and safe amount of tread.  If your tread gets below that (approximately 2/32 of an inch) your vehicle's ability to grip the road in adverse conditions is greatly reduced and really increases the odds of getting into an accident.

Another tire maintenance tip to keep in mind is to regularly rotate your tires.  This involves having every tire and wheel removed from your vehicle and moved to a different position so that all the tires wear evenly and last longer.  Making it a regular routine like changing your oil helps preserve the durability and safety of the tire. Michelin recommends tires should be rotated every six months or 6,000 to 8,000 miles.

 Most First Car Moments though don't involve 40 year old dads with mini vans but rather teens who don't have a lot of experience and can sometimes be lacking common sense when it comes to driving on the road.  Summer is a critical time to remind drivers of the importance of tire safety because the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day is often referred to as the 100 deadliest days for teen drivers, based upon accident data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Safety Council.  The cold hard reality is that automobile accidents are the number one killer of teens in America resulting in five thousand deaths per year.  There are also 2.2 million accidents that occur each year in the United States involving inexperienced drivers with 12% of those being the result of tire-related issues (26% are attributed to low tread depth; 32% attributed to improper tire pressure).

Michelin's #FirstCarMoment campaign is designed to create a conversation about the milestone and connect it to the importance of safe tires on that first car - or any car.  For experienced drivers we should use these First Car Moment reflections to remember the importance of taking car of our vehicle's tires and this is a chance to reinforce with new and inexperienced drivers the importance of tire safety.  Reducing the accidents due to improper tire maintenance are preventable and by following the simple tips listed above people can help reduce these accidents and save lives.

I cringe a bit when looking back at some of the trouble I could have gotten into racing around in that Skyhawk as a teen so it really is important for us as adults to reinforce with young and inexperienced drivers the importance of not just driving safely but maintaining a car properly too!

Remembering to check your tire pressure and tread monthly will get you a thumbs up from the Michelin Man for helping to reduce the roughly 264,000 crashes with inexperienced drivers that occur annually due to tire-related issues.

Are your tires ready for summer? Check out this informative video that reinforces the tips that I mentioned above. For more safety tips from Michelin please CLICK HERE.

 

DISCLAIMER:  It is not recommended to drive wearing a Darth Vader mask or anything that would obstruct your vision.  The photographs used in this post were staged for effect and the publisher never drives while wearing such apparel. 

Kids Buckle Up Safety Info & Gift Card Giveaway

A GEEK DADDY Blog has joined forces with our friends at Blog­gin’ Mamas to sup­port the Ad Coun­cil and The U.S. Depart­ment of Transportation’s National High­way Traf­fic Safety Admin­is­tra­tion (NHTSA) with pro­mot­ing the Seat Belt Safety cam­paign, which asks par­ents of chil­dren ages 8–14 to make sure their kids are con­sis­tently and prop­erly wear­ing their seat belt every time they get in the car.

Parenting tweens often involves compromise. But here's one rule that should not be up for debate - the car doesn't move until everyone is wearing a seat belt.  If you say it, and if parents buckle up themselves, your tween will buckle up. And if they don't, that's a fight worth having. It just might save your child's life.

Did you know that in the United States one child passenger age 8-14 is injured every 8 minutes in a car crash?  From 2009 - 2013, 1,522 kids between the ages of 8 and 14 died in car and van crashes.  Of those who died, almost half were unbelted.  As children get older they're sometimes less likely to buckle up.  The percentage of child passengers who die while riding unrestrained generally increases with age and is most pronounced among 13 and 14 year olds regardless of their seating positing within a vehicle.

Check out this Seat Belt Safety: Battlefield Mini-Van PSA:



+ Visit www.safecar.gov/kidsbuckleup for more info about buckling up!

+  Learn when to transition your child out of the booster seat to a seat belt and find out how it should properly fit. http://www.safercar.gov/parents/SeatBelts/Beyond-Booster-Seats.htm;

+  Parents are the #1 influence on children’s seat belt usage: http://www.safercar.gov/parents/SeatBelts/Number-One-Influence.htm;

 

The Giveaway

Prize(s): 1 win­ner will receive one (1) $100 Ama­zon Giftcard. Give­away Starts: 4/23/15 at 12:01am EST Give­away Ends: 5/7/15 at 11:59pm EST Eli­gi­ble: United States Res­i­dents ages 18+.

Enter via rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. All opinions expressed are my own. If you have any questions please email info@blogginmamas.com

National Walk to School Day

My children and I joined up with more than 100 students along with their parents and teachers to walk a 1 mile route to school this morning to recognize National Walk to School Day.  Unfortunately, we live more than 2 miles from their elementary school (and our district doesn't provide bus service) so we normally drive each morning.  Our family participated in National Walk to School Day though because we wanted to show our support to community leaders for making the financial decisions that support maintaining a walkable and safe city plus wanted to portray to my kids that regularly walking is a good thing we probably should be doing more often than we actually do to stay active and physically fit.

The walk was led by the school principal, city police and fire chiefs, and Paws (the Detroit Tigers mascot).  Our group had a police escort along the entire route with each road crossing blocked off until the entire group passed by which was really nice.  Members of the fire department walked along with students. parents and teachers talking to the kids about their jobs and giving some safety tips to the children. The fire department buggy pictured with my kids above followed along on the sidewalk at the end of the procession to close up the ranks.  I was impressed that Paws not only greeted kids at the start or the walk, but he joined in and tromped along the whole route with the rest of us.  My son was really thrilled that Paws was walking along the route to school with us.

Walk to School Day, which has been a nationwide event since 1997, is meant to encourage families that live close enough to walk or bike to school to do so.  It's goals are also to promote the goals of fighting childhood obesity by encouraging kids to be more physically active throughout the rest of the year, provide a teachable moment for pedestrian safety, encourage community stakeholders to support and invest in infrastructure and services that decrease traffic congestion, pollution, and criminal activity.  For more information about Walk to School Day or for help in organizing an event for next year if your school did not participate this time visit walkbiketoschool.org

Today is a good day to go over pedestrian safety issues with children.  The US Department of Transportation has created a series of safety tip videos that are specifically targeted to certain ages.  Here is the one aimed for children ages 5-9:

Additional videos are for tweens aged 10-14 and teens aged 15 to 18.  CLICK HERE to see all of the videos.  There is also a tip section on the website for parents "Teaching Your Child Safe Walking Skills" and an additional resources reference area for educators.

Several television stations appeared and along with the great crowd of attendees and participation by our local firefighters and police I'm sure the message got out we support a safe and walkable community.  As we approached my kids classrooms they were so excited to have participated and were chatting about what a great and fun time they had walking to school. Mission Accomplished!

CLICK HERE for more information about NATIONAL WALK TO SCHOOL DAY.

Comic Book Aims to Help People Prepare for Emergencies

One of the challenges of preparing a community to be ready if an emergency strikes is educating them in advance with safety tips.  Unfortunately that is often easier said than done as the format many educational tips are provided in often doesn't connect with its audience.  Understanding that posters, film shorts, and pamphlets weren't getting the job done in educating kids about how to handle themselves if confronted with an earthquake or tsunami the Oregon Office of Emergency Management partnered with Dark Horse Comics to create Without Warning a 12 page comic book that tells the story of a high school student caught in an earthquake and illustrates how she gets back home safely by following her family's prearranged safety plan.

Without Warning written by Jeremy Barlow and Althea Rizzo with artwork by David Hahn incorporates safety tips into their story so readers are learning through their inclusion within the story rather than just having information thrown at them to be memorized.  It is hoped that by presenting realistic situations to readers they will have a greater comprehension of why these tips are important to follow in an emergency and will be more likely to retain that knowledge for future use if they encounter dangerous situations themselves.  Rizzo, who is the Geologic Hazards Coordinator for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, hopes this comic book will help with educating kids.  "Most public education programs are not interesting to kids," she said in an interview with the online publication Comics Alliance. "This comic book allows us to reach a new audience not often targeted in existing preparedness materials."

Oregon residents can pickup FREE print copies of Without Warning through the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.  People can also download a digital version of the comic book from Dark Horse Comic's web site by CLICKING HERE.

 

There is some nice artwork in this comic book that shows Hahn devoted a great deal of time and effort into trying to make this project stand out.  The story also provides some decent tips with realistic scenarios.  The only negative about the publication is that it portrays the high school student Angie as an overachiever ready to go when an earthquake and tsunami strike her coastal town.  A high school student having a backpack with her filled with emergency supplies, including a rope used to lasso someone from a car trapped in a flooded road,  takes away from the realistic tone the authors are trying to set and seems awkward against the the comic's title Without Warning.  The comic book probably would be more influential if it portrayed a normal student who wasn't prepared in advance but used her family's emergency plan and remembered safety tips to get through the situation.  Despite that criticism it is applaudable to see some out-of-the-box thinking to help people get ready for dangerous situations.  We recently had flash floods in our community during the evening commute home that left Metro Detroit highways looking more like rivers for a few days putting thousands of people in peril in the blink of an eye.  Hurricanes in the South, Blizzards and Tornadoes in the Midwest.  Earthquakes and Tsunamis on the West Coast.  You never know what twist weather may throw your way so it is so important for people to be prepared.  So kudos to the Dark Horse Comics and the Oregon Office of Emergency Management for being creative in trying to help people understand the importance of being prepared through providing this #FREE comic book.  No matter where you live, I'd suggest you take a look at Without Warning because it is a nice teaching aid for an important topic.

#comicbooks #earthquake #safety