Tag: health and fitness
2-year-old almost died after popcorn infected his lung
Go ahead and splurge for the extra-large popcorn at your next family movie — but you might want to keep it away from the kids.
That’s what Nicole Johnson Goddard learned after letting her son Nash, 2, snack on the crunchy kernels during a Saturday night viewing of “Mrs. Doubtfire.” His older sisters — ages 7 and 9 — were eating it, and she couldn’t see the harm in letting him have some, too.
But as the flight attendant from Parker, Colo., wrote in a now viral post on Facebook, that decision had near-fatal consequences for her son, resulting in a four-day stay in the hospital.
“At first [Nash] choked on something,” Goddard, 39, tells The Post. “We heard him gasping for air so my husband picked him up to see if he could dislodge it.” Her husband put Nash down (and took away the snack), when the tot said he was fine.
That mid-February night, however, Nash developed “this really funky cough,” Goddard says, which turned into a 104-degree fever a few days later.
With a flu-like virus going around the house, Goddard says she took Nash to the pediatrician, even though she “had been in there with my girls on three separate occasions with them being sick.”
“I kind of felt like a hypochondriac,” she says.
It was her “mom instinct” that convinced her to bring him in anyway, and to mention the weekend’s choking incident to the doctor.
After X-rays and a visit to a pediatric pulmonologist, it was clear that Nash’s left lung was swollen and infected with pneumonia.
The culprit? Multiple microscopic pieces of popcorn that were still lodged in his respiratory tract.
“When he choked on it, he had a mouthful of popcorn that he had chewed up and he aspirated it,” Goddard says. It took two separate procedures, under general anesthesia, to “pick out the six pieces of popcorn: kernels, shells and everything else,” she says.
Now, with Nash healthy and out of the hospital, Goddard wants other parents to know the risks of letting their toddlers eat the movie-theater favorite. (As she learned, the American Academy of Pediatrics classifies popcorn, along with grapes and hot dogs, as a “high-risk food” for toddlers.)
“Honestly, I’m not a big Facebook sharer,” she says of writing up her story, which has been shared over 130,000 times, “but I thought, I might as well post it, because it’s alarming and I would have liked someone to do the same. Maybe it would have prevented this whole thing in the first place.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/03/06/my-2-year-old-almost-died-after-popcorn-infected-his-lung/
Mom blends her placenta into smoothie and feeds it to family
A mom of four turned her placenta into a smoothie and fed it to her husband and their 3-year-old son for the health benefits.
Jay Woodall, 33, has four children, Logan, 9, Demitrius, 6, River, 3 and Storm, nine months, with husband Jon, 34.
Woodall always dreamed of repurposing her placenta but missed her opportunity with the first two, but found a solution by the time she had her two most recent children.
She paid $42 for her raw placenta to be turned into smoothies, and everything leftover was dehydrated and turned into pills – costing a further $210.
Woodall said: “It’s a mixed reaction, a few people think it’s a bit gross — not very appetizing.”
“There are some people that think about it and are interested and ask questions about it, I’ve had some people that listen to what I say and do it themselves as well.”
“People are grossed out, some people are interested.”
“I don’t care, everyone is entitled to their opinion and it’s my body. I’m the one that looks into stuff and I make up my own mind about whatever I do.”
“I’m up for trying things out if it’s going to benefit my health and my body, or my children’s bodies.”
“It’s not really much different from eating certain meats. A lot of animals do it, especially mammals, we’re the only ones who don’t eat the after birth.”
Woodall, a self-confessed hippy from England, even had her umbilical chord dehydrated and turned into a keepsake.
Woodall continued: “It just tasted like a berry smoothie. It had coconut water and berries in it so tasted really nice.”
“I had a boost of energy, better deeper sleep, and my mood was boosted – I felt really good.”
“Milk production was good too, I had to take less because I was producing too much milk.”
“The recovery after birth was quicker as well.”
“It didn’t really taste of anything because I had it with coconut water and berries.”
“But I did have a little taste of it on its own before and it just tastes a bit like liver, an irony, metallic taste. It’s not horrible, it’s not a disgusting taste at all.”
Woodall even fed the placenta smoothie to her husband and son, Demitrius.
Woodall said: “I think everyone had it. My husband had some just out of pure curiosity and my son tried some and said it was yummy. But again it had berries and stuff in it.”
“With my mom, I gave her half of my placenta pills when I gave birth to Storm because she was suffering from a few hormonal issues.”
“It was a similar response, they said it tasted nice and their energy levels increased. Mom said it made her feel very alert and very connected.”
“It’s a highly beneficial thing to do, I know mothers that have suffered from postnatal depression and I think it would help that, in my opinion.”
“She said it made her feel loads better and gave her a lot of energy. And I thought hormonally it made me feel a lot better too.”
“I’m quite an emotional person anyway, and it felt like my hormones were nicely balanced after I had it.”
“When you think how much some people spend on vitamins, it sounds like a lot but if it lasts you a whole year then it’s good value for money.”
“After I had the placenta smoothie, with both girls, I was able to go out that same day after giving birth.”
“A really calming feeling came over me. I had a boost of energy and just felt really good about myself. It was really lovely to experience feeling that.”
“It’s one of those things that you can be skeptical about it, but in my eyes, there’s nothing negative that could happen from it.”
“I was a bit more connected and bonded to my baby, I was able to have a very deep sleep after having it, so it just outweighs the negatives.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/03/29/mom-blends-her-placenta-into-smoothie-and-feeds-it-to-family/