Safety at Home

I try hard to provide healthy food for my family. Sometimes I feel so paralyzed by all the no-no’s that I can hardly put anything in my shopping cart. But we cannot survive on hummus and sweet potatoes alone.

The newest fear that has crossed my radar is food dyes. You know, the stuff that makes blue yogurt possible.  When I told my husband about what I had read, that food dyes may be more responsible for erratic behavior in children than sugar. He agreed that we should avoid them – and I felt a weight lifted. I try not to be a nit picking spouse, daughter, or daughter-in-law, so when one of my children’s other caregivers offers a food that I wouldn’t myself buy, I just let it go. But this food dye thing is important to me in my own house, and I thought it would not be hard for my husband, who only does about 10% of the grocery shopping to avoid.

Learn more about food dye here.

When I read the lovely Gina Rau’s summary of a safe food Twitter conversation on her blog Feed Our Families, I was glad to hear that other people feel this is all so overwhelming. One lightbulb for me was that much like the relief I felt from getting my husband’s support on this is that I could enlist my children as well. One of them is old enough to read labels and is learning about nutrition at school. I had never thought of showing him how I check ingredients to help me decide if buying a product is a good choice for our family. Why not recruit him for my team instead of fighting against his desire for amazing rainbow-colored food products he sees in stores or in his friend’s lunchboxes?

I am grateful that our school system is dedicated to providing healthy, organic food for the kids. I don’t always think the snack they dole out is one that I’d allow in my house, but I know they are doing the best they can within the budget constraints that they have. I have not spotted any artificially colored cookies or snacks in the lunchroom. I thank them for sharing this responsibility with me.

Do you feel like you have other people on your team – or are you alone in your struggle to pick healthy foods? Or maybe you think I worry too much! We’d love to hear your two cents.

In case you’ve been procrastinating installing carbon monoxide detectors in your house, let me alert you that it’s now the law in California along with more than half of all states. That’s right: no longer a choice, or a “really good idea,” it’s our legal responsibility.

Why not protect your family by ordering a set of UL-listed CO detectors today? If you are a renter, make sure that your landlord is providing the right number of devices for your living space.

From the folks at First Alert, one manufacturer of a UL-listed smoke and carbon monoxide detector:

Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless poison that can only be detected with an alarm. With proper alarm coverage (the National Fire Protection Associate recommends one in every bedroom and sleeping area), CO poisoning is a completely avoidable incident.

You can look at the map of smoke detector legislation to find out if it’s a law in your state.

Related: Are your detectors and batteries fresh?

Nothing is worse than a flat tire. Well, let me correct that. Nothing is worse than a flat tire on the highway during a summer road trip with a car full of kids.

Are we there yet? Not even close.

Sarah K. Robinson, a test driver for Michelin, has some tips for tire safety. They’re good reminders for those of us who are loading up our ‘wagons in the coming weeks.

• Check your tire pressure – Check your tire pressure at least once a month — and before and after a long trip.  Tires can lose 1-2 psi per month.
• Examine your treads – Always make sure your tires have at least 2/32” of tread depth (use the penny trick shown below). Examine the wear patterns; the wear patterns can tell you whether your tires are over or under inflated and if your alignment is off.
• Avoid hydroplaning – Simple adjustments to driving, including reducing your speed and avoiding wet spots, especially standing water, can reduce your risk of hydroplaning.
• Rotate – Tires should be rotated every 6,000-8,000 miles.
• Keep deepest treads in the rear – Make sure when replacing just two tires that you put the two tires with the deepest treads on the rear axle regardless, whether you have front-wheel, rear-wheel or all-wheel drive.

Don’t know the penny trick to check your treads?

Here’s a little video demo I found on YouTube.

About Sarah K. Robinson – Her responsibilities as a test driver include evaluating tire performance in both objective (e.g., wet braking) and subjective tests (e.g., wet and dry handling, noise) then delivering her results to Michelin’s designers and engineers to ensure the best possible tire is brought to market.

Hot enough for you? With much of the country dealing with temperatures over 100 degrees, it is too hot for many of us! Also, threats of black- and brown-outs are keeping home air conditioners from running at full blast.

These high temperatures not only threaten our comfort and the power grid but also our health. Overheating can make heart and lung problems worse.  Thomas Farley, the New York City Health Commissioner, says, “There are more deaths from heat-related illness in the country as a whole than there are from all other natural disasters combined so we need to take this very seriously.”

Here are a few simple ideas to beat the heat:

• Play outside only at the shady times of day. Late afternoon may still be blazing but at least the risk of sun exposure is waning.
• Take advantage of municipal cooling spots. Cooling stations are open in many toasty towns right now. Google your city’s name and “cooling station” or “cooling spot”.
• Run a sprinkler or create an indoor water play zone for kids.
• Hit the movies, the mall, or the library – your unofficial cooling stations.
• Carry a sun hat and water misting bottle. You might need to keep adding ice cubes to keep the spritz refreshing.
• Hydrate well!
• Use your air conditioning wisely. Obey guidelines from city officials to prevent power outages. The mayor of New York recently suggested setting thermostats to 79 or higher (still a little sticky but better than a power outage!).

I’d love to hear more suggestions in the comments. What are you doing to keep your family cool?