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Tooth Tunes toothbrushes for kids
I gotta say, 
Tooth Tunes from Hasbro, has been a big hit in our house. At first, my wife scoffed, but these toothbrushes really are a good incentive for little brushers, like my 4-year old boy. The cool difference is that they play music through vibrations through the bristles which makes it sound like music going on through your teeth and into your ears. The songs they have are a little hokey, like “Waking (originally Making) up is Hard to do,” by Neil Sedaka, but others are by more recent teen brushers, like the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.
The brushes are available in two sizes, regular and junior. Music plays for a full two minutes to make sure the kids get enough brushing in. Too bad there is no “floss tunes.”
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Ubimed Cleanoz Aspirator a good replacement for that gnarly rubber aspirator bulb
We had a chance to meet the inventor, Jose Bensoussan, of the Ubimed Cleanoz Nasal Aspirator Kit at the recent ABC baby and kids product show (2008) and he told a compelling story about this new device. The Cleanoz aspirator is meant to replace the rubber aspirator bulb given by hospitals to new parents. Many parents have been suspicious of the bulb since there is no way to really clean it out or sterilize it and it’s used inside the mouth and nose of very small babies. Better to leave it on the ground the next time it rolls off the changing table and use it as a dog pull toy. The Cleanoz does the job far better and easier using suction to gently pull mucous into a little balloon. After use, or the end of the day, you just throw away the balloon.
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Baby Light and Clip – great gadget for fingernail-clipping dads
Baby Light and Clip – Nail Clipper for Babies If you’ve ever struggled to cut a baby’s finger or toenails, you’ll love this little gadget. It’s a very simple little tool that incorporates a basic baby fingernail clipper and a light so you can clip in the dark while they are sleeping. And, if you’ve ever cut down too close and actually cut your baby (yes, it does happen) because baby was struggling, or you couldn’t see, this clipper has finger guard so you can’t push in too deep. This may seem like just another gadget to some, but your kids will really appreciate it, up to eight years old. And the price is right at $14.99 MSRP and right now only $7.99 on Amazon (9/21/08).
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Parents to our parents – What one daughter wishes she had done differently with an aging parent
When you have kids of your own, you sense the changing of the generations. I hope your parents are young and you have thirty years before you have to think of elder care, but likely they are old enough you have to at least imagine the need some day. This article, written by a New York Times writer specializing in old age issues, still feels she made several mistakes in caring for her older mother.
What I Wish I’d Done Differently
By JANE GROSS
Looking back on the last few years of my mother’s life, with 20/20 hindsight and the belated knowledge that came from four years of reporting about aging for The New York Times, my single biggest mistake was not finding a doctor with expertise in geriatrics to quarterback her care and attend to the quality of her life, not merely its length.Given the crisis in supply and demand — too many old people and too few geriatricians — I may not have succeeded. But if I had, many of our crises might have been avoided. Those include unnecessary trips to the emergency room that left her in worse shape than she had been beforehand. It also includes surgery to remove a benign tumor from the outside of her spinal cord after it had already done the worst of its damage and with no regard for her advanced age.
[From What I Wish Id Done Differently - Caring for Elderly Parents – The New Old Age blog – NYTimes.com]
Her other three mistakes were:
2. accepting the “conventional wisdom” that nursing homes are uniformly bad and barely fit for a dog, and to be avoided at all costs. While she liked assisted living, it did not provide enough care as her mother got older, necessitating many changes, all of which were added work and destabilizing to her mother and the family.
3. thinking that a move out of the home to assisted living was the best choice. Once the move is made out of the home, you lose all opportunities for home care, and a nursing home becomes the only option when assisted living is no longer possible.
4. not fully understanding the limits of her $7000/year long term care insurance policy. It would have paid for 24/7 in-home care, but helped very little for assisted living. Once her mother was in a nursing home, the money went directly to the nursing home along with all of her savings until she ran out of money (when Medicare took over because she was “impoverished.”
As Jane Gross, the writer, points out, it’s hard to know how to avoid any mistakes since the sands are rapidly shifting in elder care and benefits, but her biggest words of advice are to research the situation now before you need it, since “haste, often the result of panic, is the enemy.
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Sick house? Tips for cleaning the air in your house
There has been a lot of talk about sick houses — houses that actually make you sick because of construction materials, cleaners, paints, solvents and pesticides. It might be hard to change houses, but there are things you can do to to make a house less toxic for you and your kids.
1. Get an air purifier and put new allergy rated filters on your furnace every 6 months. Whole house air filter systems work better than portable units. Ideally, use built-in or window unit air-to-air-heat exchangers in rooms where people spend the most time.
2. Get lots of plants. Experts recommend at least two tropical houseplants for every 12×12 foot area to clean up airborne toxins. Use ferns, spider plants, bamboo, and palms close to breathing zones like next to your bed, or TV chair.
3. Open the windows wide. Turn off heat or A/C and open the windows for 10 minutes each day to help rid the house of indoor pollution. Caveat: your allergist may tell you to keep all windows and doors closed during allergy season.\
4. Keep new pollutants out of the house. Every new TV, appliance, or laminate/particle board-based piece of furniture is a source of new toxins into the house. Environmentalists suggest setting these items in the garage a few days to air them out before bringing them into the house.
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