Health
Mental and physical health are both important components to wellness and whole body health. Better health is a goal to work towards over the course of a lifetime. This section of Thrifty Mommas Tips explores issues such as child poverty, infertility and disability. With a heavy focus on women's and children's health issues, you will find content about rare eye disease, infertility and invisible brain injuries. Health care advocacy is also discussed in this section. Learn how to advocate effectively for your child or parent within the health care and education systems. Caregiving is exhausting and rewarding work. I have several tools for supporting your child at camp, home, school and in after school activities. There's nothing simple about achieving or maintaining wellness. But knowledge is the key to making smart choices. Knowledge aids in building better health for you and your family. As a child diagnosed with the inflammatory bowel disorder, Crohn's disease, I have over 30 years of experience navigating systems and experts. All of that experience comes into play here as I share how I have learned to live with a chronic illness and chronic pain. In this health section of Thrifty Mommas Tips, there is heavy concentration of topics like anxiety disorder, Crohn's disease, infertility, in vitro fertilization and FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder also crops up from time to time. Use this section to increase your knowledge and arm yourself with tools to feel better and live with intention.
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Bring on The Sun, Summer Fun Awaits!
Summer fun is right around the corner. The sun is out, the temperatures are finally where they should be. It’s time to get out and enjoy the warmer months. I am a July baby. So is my oldest daughter. We seem to come by our love of summer naturally. It’s a happy, calm sort of season that breeds a feeling of contentment. We love to take road trips and hit the beach when the weather turns warm. And we have a pool, so as soon as the pool opens we are in summer fun mode. Pool parties, beaches and family travel are some of my favourite things. But every single…
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How My Word of The Year Became a Matter of Life or Death
“I wish Dad was younger,” my daughter said driving home from a play rehearsal the other night. “If you think about it he could be 70 when I am in my 20s.” Math is not usually our conversation on the drive home. Neither is life or death. But here we are. Often I have to wonder how their minds work. “I wish you were younger too. I mean if you think about it you could both be dead before I’m 40.” Oh my god my head hurts some days keeping up with this kid. But I get it. It’s a fear of dying and every child has that to a…
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How We Improve Gut Health with Align
I created this post as a paid ambassador for Align® Probiotic. All opinions and advice are my own. I only work with companies I genuinely love and have used prior to being contacted. A lot of people look forward to spring. I have a bit of a different take. For some reason every single Spring I notice dramatic changes in my gut health. It’s not pure science or anything but it is my experience over more than a decade. The weather gets a bit warmer, slowly, and my gut goes haywire. So how do I cope with that? This year I have been using Align probiotic. In fact,…
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Fighting Allergies in Our Home with Oreck Tru Response
Fighting allergies all year round can be a challenge. Between outdoor allergens in the warm months, and year-round indoor allergens, my family is on constant guard against the allergies we all have. That’s right, every single person in our house suffers from allergies. We get it all – itchy eyes, runny noses, persistent cough, scratchy throats, the whole bit. That’s why I’m excited about our new Oreck Tru Response air purifier. It helps us fight allergies in our homes year round. Fighting Allergies All Day Every Day The thing I love about our air purifier is that it’s on constant duty, pulling the allergens out of the air in our…
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Six Ways to Empower Your Child to Take Charge of Health Care
My regular readers know my kids have special needs. I write about the challenges involved in parenting them sometimes. We shuttle (mostly I to be honest) both girls back and forth to doctors and medical appointments and for assessments so much that I get tired and overwhelmed. So I imagine they must also. Which brings me to a tricky balance question. I was a child when I was sick with Crohn’s disease. I was in hospital a lot and shuttled back and forth to doctors a lot and I never felt empowered throughout the process until I became an adult with a career. Honest To God. I never felt…
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Do Spring Allergy Symptoms Suck the Fun From Your Life?
This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label. Have allergies ever held you back from doing something you love? Spring allergy symptoms can be nasty. Honest seasonal allergy solutions are crucial to my family. Travel blogger here. Ready to go do all the fun things any time of year. But spring and summer mean getting outdoors and hitting the road. And I go nowhere without allergy medicine. Every last one of my family members have allergies. For my older daughter cut grass can often make her sneeze her head off. Grass cutting begins about now…
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Five Possible Effects of Stress
This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label. Life is fast-paced and stress is unavoidable from time to time. Many of us worry about work, school, money, love – even the pressure to destress can become a stressor. April is National Stress Awareness month. To mark the occasion, I’m sharing common signs of stress you may have never heard of! Five Possible Effects of Stress It can affect your hair growth Many factors can impact healthy hair including stress. If your hair could use some support, a nutritional supplement like Priorin can help improve hair growth and combat effects…
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My Word of The Year Check in – March Progress
Time for my March Progress Word of the Year checkin. Every year I pick a word or phrase to help guide my personal goals. I find this activity helpful for my own health and wellness throughout the year. This year you might recall my word of the year is MOVE. I am working on monthly checkins here to keep myself accountable to all of you. It’s technically three months into the year. Quarter one is done. So how did March progress? Am I making my personal goals this year? Have my fitness goals evolved or changed or slipped by the wayside? What have the challenges been? Have I been sticking…
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Take Care of Your Gut with Align
I created this post as a paid ambassador for Align® Probiotic. All opinions and advice are my own. I only work with companies I genuinely love and have used prior to being contacted. Take care of your gut, and you’ll feel better for it. Trust me, I know. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I suffer from digestive issues, and they can be quite debilitating at times. So it’s incredibly important that I keep my gut as healthy as possible. If I don’t, I absolutely pay for it. Taking care of my gut includes watching out for trigger foods, making sure I…
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Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month – Conor’s Story
This Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month a Winnipeg mom is sharing her son’s journey with juvenile arthritis. Diagnosis is rarely straightforward and there are multiple misconceptions about arthritis in children. Although the learning curve is steep when your child receives a diagnosis, there are resources available. This is Conor and Nicole’s story, from diagnosis to finding support and learning to live with the disease. Conor was 8 when he came home from school complaining of a sore foot. His mom thought his shoes were too tight and bought him a new pair, but the pain didn’t go away. Eventually, she took him to a sports medicine clinic. When they couldn’t…