• Health - infertility - Parenting

    Infertility Community Reacts to IVF Funding Announcement for Ontario #ivf4ON #onpoli

    April 13, 2014 - By 

    Ontario’s infertility community reacted with many emotions this week to news that IVF will soon be funded. That’s long awaited for many who took two or three jobs and sometimes used credit cards and second mortgages to be able to pay for health care treatment needed to get the health care treatment prescribed. Last Thursday, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Longterm Care Deb Matthews announced that public funding would be made available for in vitro fertilization. IVF funding is part of the draft budget officially. The funding will take place starting in 2015. An advisory committee or board will be…

  • Health - infertility

    The Many Faces of Infertility #Abhc4ivf #abpoli

    April 9, 2014 - By 

    What does infertility look like? You might be surprised. Very often someone you know has already been struggling with infertility. Many times there are underlying medical issues that contribute to infertility. You might be surprised to know that in all likelihood someone on your street has intimate experience with struggling to conceive. One in 6 people struggle with infertility. Take a moment to think about that. What does infertility look like? Sometimes it’s a couple who may never know the cause of their infertility. Sometimes infertility is a young married person like Danielle who learns at 25 they cannot conceive…

  • adoption and tweens - Health

    How I Started and Continue the Period Talk With My Daughter

    April 4, 2014 - By 

    How we tackle tough topics in my family is something I often talk about here. Period talk is no different. It’s just part of being a parent. Periods are as natural as showering, eating and sleeping here. So why shy away from period talk? Starting and continuing the period conversation is an important part of parenting and a vital part of development for young girls too.     This post is part of the YummyMummyClub.ca and Always Tampax sponsored program. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. This post reflects my personal opinion about the information provided by…

  • Health - special needs

    Ten Ways to Help a Child with FASD

    March 11, 2014 - By 

    For the first five years of my daughter Ainsley’s life we spent countless resources trying to figure out ways to help manage her disability. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is incredibly tricky to diagnose, and then to manage on an average day. FASD is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, an invisible brain injury brought on my prenatal alcohol exposure.   In Ontario we are likely 15 years behind the autism movement and advocacy effort. I have been told this by many experts in the education and health care fields. So, in the province where I live we have very limited resources right now.…

  • Health - infertility - Technology

    Five Free Infertility and Fertility Apps

    March 5, 2014 - By 

    Fertility apps and infertility apps are a great way to track ovulation and reproductive health. Here are five free fertility apps that will help at any stage of your fertility or infertility journey. When you are struggling with infertility or trying to conceive you need a huge toolkit of resources just to get through the journey. Knowledge is power, right? Luckily power and knowledge in the age of Google are right at your finger tips.    Lately numerous press releases regarding the latest and greatest fertility and infertility apps have been flooding my inbox here at thrifty momma’s tips, so I…

  • Health

    The Protective Factor of Diagnosis and Three Ways to Help a Person with FASD Now

    February 28, 2014 - By 

    When it comes to children and any form of disability early diagnosis and intervention is often key to success. Why is that? Because having a way to frame a child’s behaviour can make all the difference in the world to how you approach that child as a parent, as a therapist, a doctor, or a school. If you try to teach a fish to walk you end up frustrated, but worse than that you end up making the fish feel stupid. Proper diagnosis of FASD is critical to success. So why do we have such difficulty diagnosing and treating children and…

  • Health

    Can you drink alcohol when pregnant? – #PreventFASD

    February 22, 2014 - By 

    Can you drink alcohol when pregnant? It’s a weighty, controversial question. So many popular myths still endorse drinking alcohol as culturally acceptable when pregnant. Many people still believe alcohol is okay to consume in moderate amounts when you are pregnant. This is an interactive post designed to get you thinking about drinking when pregnant and risks associated with that. Interactive and hands on learning works best for my child with FASD – fetal alcohol spectrum disorder – and the same is true of many of our children and young adults diagnosed with FASD. So let’s give this a try.   This…

  • childhood anxiety
    Health - special needs

    Vaccine Drama: 5 Ways to Help with Needle Anxiety

    February 11, 2014 - By 

    Needle anxiety, or needle phobia, is very real for many kids and adults. One of my girls has anxiety, which is extremely pronounced around needles. When she was a baby she never balked at getting her vaccines. She was happy go lucky and hardly noticed at all. Then in the blink of an eye at around school age she started to be a worrier.   She worried about everything. I worried that she was worrying too much. Anyways you get the idea. We plugged in some supports and she manages most days very well. She has strategies. But the one area…

  • Food - Giveaways - Health

    Boost Your Child’s Health with Webber Naturals

    February 10, 2014 - By 

    Post may contain affiliate links as a service to readers. Any purchase made via the link here results in a small commission for Thrifty Mommas Tips at no extra cost to you.   A good vitamin supplement like Treehouse Vitamins from Webber Naturals can be like nutritional insurance for your child. In this neck of the woods, during one of the nastiest cold and flu seasons we’ve witnessed in recent years, insurance is important. My kids eat well, but we lead a very busy active life and sometimes I worry. My youngest, is especially prone to colds, and flu bugs. And she…

  • Health

    Five Things You Could Have Bought for $10,000: If You Didn’t Have to Pay for IVF

    February 7, 2014 - By 

    This morning I had math on my mind. Well, math, health and shopping, actually. What do all three things have in common? Let me tell you. They all have had to pay for IVF.   I was talking to five Facebook friends across Canada and I tallied up the price tag of their collective infertility journeys. The tally came close to several hundred thousand dollars. That’s five families. $300,000 to $400,000 paid to build four families. One couple was not successful yet. I can tell you that the infertile couples I interview, and meet and talk to often as community…