Hi everyone!

What a great thread! Anyone else’s kid a choker? Mine was. She has grown out of it (she is now almost 9), but as late as 6 I still had to heimlich her cause someone gave her a hard candy. Maybe it was along the lines of the gagging you all were talking about. I couldn’t even feed her a full cheerio when she was little because she would choke on that...and even on spaghetti if you didn’t chop up the noodles into really small pieces.

As far as staying healthy goes, I all for that BUBBLE, I just don’t think I could get her to stay in it, lol. We homeschool, and that helps, but doesn’t eliminate by any means the exposure she gets. She swims on a swim team, attends art classes, sings in a chorus, and takes Hip Hop dance lessons, so overall I guess she is exposed to MORE people over a shorter time than if she were in school being exposed to the same class for a longer time, know what I mean? I’m lucky though, she is a good eater....sometimes too good, we had an issue when we went on Cortef with some pretty hefty weight gain. I now have to watch what she eats. We eat as much ORGANIC foods as possible (a suggestion made by our Endo), and I too do not use much non-prescription meds. We use homeopathy whenever we can. A great SINUS SPRAY that I can recommend that is easy to find in most drug stores is SIMILISAN. My daughter says it works better than the one her allergist prescribed so we use that only (besides the Singulair and Zyrtec-D). I will use ECHINACEA at the first sign of a cold and it usually minimizes the duration at the very least if it doesn’t ward it off entirely. Another thing is ACIDOPHILUS, and ZINC. Both of these are great for normal body functioning! You can get acidophilus in liquid or chewable form and zinc lozenges or chewable tabs are yummy. I also agree about the CHIROPRACTIC care, but not everyone is covered or can afford these costly procedures. I know my plan only covers a certain amount of visits. I really feel that it should be covered as it does help to prevent and heal illnesses, and most Chiropractors are homeopathic.

As far as getting little fussies to eat, all the suggestions here have been wonderful! Especially the one about getting the little ones involved in making and growing the food. Chelsea LOVES to cook and takes great pride in being able to make herself something to eat.....she is even ready this year to plan and produce a meal for our family using the microwave (no stove yet....unless mommy helps). A biggie for getting them to "try" something for the first time is when you are cooking, tell them that all cooks must TASTE their recipe to be sure it has enough salt, spices, etc! You taste first and then ask THEIR opinion! You’ll be surprised at what you can get them to eat!

And WASH WASH WASH is a MUST. OCD be darned. LOL! It is a known fact that people are gross and don’t wash enough and that’s why germs spread, so WASH WE MUST!

So until they create a CAH bubble where we can all go live together, all the suggestions everyone has posted are our only options!

Healthy Living!