Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Wellness for Parents’ Category

Exercise Helps Kids with ADHD As Does Spending Time in Nature!

Posted in Fitness, Health and Wellness, Stress Management, Wellness for Parents, tagged , , on February 26, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Image from Mentalhealth.net

Image from Mentalhealth.net

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Recently I was reading about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and wondered if there have been any studies done about exercise and ADHD. Kids with ADHD tend to be restless fidgety and have a hard time sitting down and performing the demands of Westernized school work (Sitting and focusing on reading or math without moving). I also have heard that many schools have limited gym, music and art classes due to budget cuts and that some schools even limit recess. In winter, recess is often moved indoors to the gym, if the school has a gym!  So what is the effect on children, especially children with ADHD?  I would imagine they would become even more restless and fidgety.

So I took a look at WebMD, a fairly reputable source of medical info on the web. And what I found did not surprise me!  According to WebMD, physical activity was a valid treatment for kids with ADHD, especially those that do not respond well to medication. AND even more important, WebMD states that spending time in nature can also be calming for children diagnosed with ADHD, regardless of whether they are on medication. WebMD is pro-medication and I understand their position as a medical site. I would not advocate that we take kids with severe symptoms of ADHD off medication and just let them frolic in the park. (Although it would be pretty wonderful if our schools made nature walks and playing physically more important role in child development.) But it’s great to know there is actually scientific evidence that promoting physical activity and time outdoors in nature as a treatment option for kids with ADHD! And for adults with and without ADHD, nature walks and physical activity is pretty great too!

Related articles

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Former WWM Massage Therapist, Rania Baxter, Brings Compassionate Touch to Children In Viet Name With Our Help

Posted in Health and Wellness, Massage Therapy, Wellness for Parents, tagged , , , , on July 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Infant massage brings a smile to the face of babies everywhere!

Today I received an email from a former Working Well Massage massage therapist, Rania Baxter, who left Chicago a few years ago for the calm and quiet of upper Wisconsin. Rania let me know about a fantastic program she is taking part in to bring infant and child massage to children and caregivers in another country with the Liddle Kidz™ Foundation.  Rania, as you can see, is now calm and peaceful and ready to bring her compassion and touch to children in a less developed country.

Rania Baxter, L.M.T. & Future Infant Massage Giver in Viet Nam!

I think it’s a great idea and a wonderful way to bring massage therapy into less developed countries in a manner than can be healing for everyone involved. The lessons Rania learns on her journey will likely benefit children and parents here as well when she returns to the U.S. Rania is hoping to raise $4300 for this effort. If you an afford to donate to Rania and LiddleKidz™ Foundations mission to help children and their caregivers in Viet Nam, click here and you can enter any amount you wish. Donations are being handled by Firstgiving, a secure donation portal. And sorry, I can’t let you be the first to donate. Working Well Massage already made the first donation!

According to the Liddle Kidz™ website, “Children who are resilient typically have a number of characteristics that make this possible.  These characteristics include having a sense of purpose in life, confidence in one’s ability to control any given situation, compassion for others, a belief in the fundamental goodness of people, and the energy and resourcefulness to make things happen. The Liddle Kidz™ Foundation Global programs directly nurture two of these important characteristics; compassion for others and the belief in the fundamental goodness of people.  Liddle Kidz™   programs support children and their caregivers, so that each child has the chance to reach their full potential.”

According to Rania, “It is the vision of Liddle Kidz™ Foundation Global to make a true difference for children who have been orphaned, along with their caregivers who lack the necessary support to provide them with best developmental care possible. Specifically we provide focused support to orphans and children affected by HIV/AIDS, Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, Agent Orange, Down Syndrome, Autism/ASD, Muscular Dystrophy, landmine survivors, children with visual and hearing impairments, as well as a host of mental and physical impairments. The LiddleKidz foundation’s mission includes setting up massage and nurturing touch programs in orphanages and children’s care settings across the globe. The goal is to provide infants and children with experiences of caring and nurturing touch that they often lack. In addition to working directly with the children,  volunteers such as Rania, teach staff and caregivers at these facilities ways to continue to provide supportive, comforting touch to the children in their care.”

Annually, Ms. Tina Allen, the founder of Liddle Kidz™ and Liddle Kidz™ Foundation Global, travels with volunteer groups to provide touch therapy in orphaTina Allen | Founder, Liddle Kidz Foundation | Infant and Pediatric Massagenages all over the globe. This is the group that Rania will be traveling with this December when they visit orphanages and children’s hospitals in Viet Nam.

Who is Tina Allen?

Tina Allen, LMT, CPMMT, CPMT, CIMT

With over a decade of service to children and families, Tina Allen, founder of leading children’s health and nurturing touch organization Liddle Kidz™ Foundation (LKF), has become an internationally respected educator, author and expert in the field of infant and pediatric massage therapy.

She is a Pediatric Massage Master Teacher, Developmental Baby Massage Teacher, a Licensed Massage Therapist with specialized training in providing massage therapy for infants and children with special healthcare needs.  Ms. Allen understands the varied physical and emotional needs of hospitalized and medically complex infants, children and their families. Because of her dedication to the well-being of the entire family, she has studied and become certified in pregnancy massage and is a Trainer of Peaceful Touch®, which implements a healthy touch approach for children in school based environments.

For more information on Tina Allen and her work with healthy touch and children, click here.

For massage therapists that want to be trained in Infant Massage and Pediatric Massage, click here for upcoming class information.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Social Versus Medical Health Solutions from Dr. Jay Parkinson, The Doc of the Future

Posted in Health and Wellness, Wellness for Parents, Workplace Wellness, tagged , , , , , on May 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Dr. Jay Parkinson reminds me of my behavioural Medicine professor this summer. My prof is the picture of health, muscular, lean, and enthusiastic about preventative health care. His classes really challenge me to think creatively about our nation’s health care system. I am currently working on a presentation about the problems associated with health care costs. As I am researching the existing literature, I cam across Dr. Jay, who is all about prevention and helping improve people’s health from a biopsychosocial perspective and blogs are The Future Well.

Check out Dr. Jay’s blog post, “Most health solutions aren’t medical, they’re social,” here. I love his message and it echos research I’ve read about the effects of your social circle on your health. If your friends are sedentary, pizza-eating gamers, you will likely eat a fair share of pizza, game and not move much. If you start hanging out with those that are more active and eat healthier, teach you to cook or a new hobby like hiking or human origami (I just made that one up but it sounds fun doesn’t it!), you are more likely to adopt healthier behaviors. And if you inspire your pizza eating friends to try a hacky sack game or two with you on a regular basis, you may be able to keep your friends and improve your health.

Who is Dr. Jay?

Dr. Jay Parkinson, MD, MPH

(From his blog site)

Instead of pills and scalpels, Dr. Jay Parkinson uses creative design to improve health. He’s been called “The Doctor of the Future” and one of the “Top Ten Most Creative People in Healthcare” by Fast Company. Esquire Magazine included him in 2009′s “Best and Brightest: Radicals and Rebels Who Are Changing the World” issue.

Jay is a pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist with a masters in public health from Johns Hopkins. After completing residency, he started a practice for his neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in September 2007. People would visit his website; see his Google calendar; choose a time and input their symptoms; his iPhone would alert him; he’d make a house call; they’d pay him via Paypal; and he’d follow up by email, IM, videochat, or in person. This concept led to Jay co-founding Hello Health, a novel way of experiencing healthcare via a Facebook-like platform that uses technology — including email, instant messaging, and video chat — to restore the traditional doctor-patient relationship but updated for today’s lifestyle.

He’s been called “The Doctor of the Future” and one of the “Top Ten Most Creative People in Healthcare” by Fast Company. Esquire Magazine included him in 2009′s “Best and Brightest: Radicals and Rebels Who Are Changing the World” issue. He’s been featured in GOOD Magazine, CNN, Newsweek, and Health Affairs. The leading trade publication for hospital and system executives, Hospitals and Health Networks, dedicated a cover article to Jay entitled, Your Future Chief of Staff? Jay also appears in Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin.

Selected Writings of Dr. Jay

BusinessWeek: How to Redesign Healthcare

Design Observer: Road to Wellville. How to redesign a broken healthcare system.

GOOD Magazine: Fixing What Ails the Sickness Industry.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Elizabeth Banks Goes Red for Women in Heart Attack PSA

Posted in Health and Wellness, Stress Management, Wellness for Parents, Workplace Wellness, tagged , , , , , , , on February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

February is American Heart Month according to the CDC. And now, Elizabeth Banks, (the actress from Definitely, Maybe, Scrubs, 30 Rock, and Role Models, did a pretty attention-grabbing public service announcement. In “Just a Little Heart Attack,” Elizabeth is a multitasking, overworked mother of two getting ready for work, getting the kids ready, and ….having a “little” heart attack. But in a really cute and funny way that only Elizabeth Banks can pull off. I think it’s an effective and clear video that makes a heart attack in a seemingly healthy, thin, middle-aged woman seem very real. Elizabeth personalizes heart disease and packages her heart attack in a scenario many of us can either directly relate to or understand. For a PSA to be effective, it has to keep your interest and make its message simple. Elizabeth’s message seems to be, “take time for yourself, and know the warning signs of a heart attack.” Good advice!

Check out the video and tell me what you think. Is the video helpful, silly, interesting, funny. You be the judge.

Starring and directed by Emmy-nominated actress Elizabeth Banks.

“A little film about a super mom who takes care of everyone except herself” — Elizabeth Banks

Go Red for Women presents: Just  a Little Heart Attack.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Exercise Your Children’s Brains With Gifts From Fat Brain Toys!

Posted in Health and Wellness, Wellness for Parents, tagged , , on December 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

I like to give my nephews gifts that are not only fun but also educational. (Yes, I am THAT Aunt.) But educational toys don’t have to be lame.  Some toys can not only be exciting, but they can open a new world to a child that he or she might not even have know about. Depending on a child’s interests, Fat Brain Toys can teach children about chemistry, electronics, history, geography, Erector sets, how to build your own catapult for Medieval lore lovers, solar power and how to use their imagination.

According to their website, “Fat Brain Toys® is a retailer and developer of unique specialty toys, games, and gifts. They stock over 6,000 high-quality products, most shipped the same day, including: Erector Sets, Melissa & Doug, Science Projects, Games, Puzzles.”

The website is super helpful for those looking to find the perfect gift for a child (or for an adult. A lot of the toys  appeal to adults as well). I also like that I can search toys by intended age groups.

Here are some of the toys I found intriguing:

Solar Deluxe Educational Kit

Solar Deluxe Educational Kit for about $20.00

  • Everything needed to see solar power in action!
  • Increase awareness of solar energy & energy-conversion
  • A wonderful introduction to the basic concepts of electricity
  • Several different avenues for exploring how solar energy works
  • Understand voltage, amperage, circuits in series and parallel
  • Includes a fan, light bulb, solar panel, sound box with connecting wires
  • Well made and well configured; Easy to assemble
  • Ideal for a science fair project, classroom demonstrations, or home use
  • Comprehensive instructions
  • Durable solar energy kit

The Ultimate Spa and Perfume kit

The Ultimate Spa and Perfume kit for about $27-30. Using natural ingredients, kids create bath oils, oatmeal soap, foaming baths, bath balms, and more. Kids can learn about aromatherapy as they blend five different kids of perfume. For use by up to 8 kids–fun for parties and sleep overs!

Spa Science

Spa Science for about $18.00. Make colorful, fragrant bath gels, bath fizzers, spa lotion, bath balm, a face mask, and shampoo. Mix colors and fragrances to create your own product line with secret and exclusive mixtures. Explore the science of gels, fragrance, and fizzers.

Physics Workshop

Physics Workshop, for about $50.00. This toy is the recipient of the Parent’s Choice Silver Award in 2006.  Like chemistry, physics is an essential science for everyone to study, and Physics Workshop is the essential introduction to physics. The kit allows kids to build 36 models and 37 experiments (with 305 building pieces) to learn the principles of physics.

Why does a brick feel heavier than a pencil? At what angle should you throw a ball into the air to get the greatest distance? How is a screw like a ramp? Why can you balance more easily on a bicycle when you are moving than when you are stopped? How does a car transfer power from the engine to the wheels? What is power anyway? Gravity, force, simple machines, acceleration, momentum, work, and power are all demonstrated right in front of you–a hands-on approach that is fun and effective.

Snap Circuits

Snap Circuits 300-in-1 for about $56.00 is a Dr. Toy 100 Best Children’s Products Winner

The kit allows a child to engineer over 300 exciting, useful electronic gadgets & play lively electronic games with Electronic Snap Circuits. This kit includes colorful and easy-to-follow format of the instruction manual makes circuit assembly stress-free and fun. All parts are mounted on plastic modules and snap together with ease. 

Here are just a few projects your kids can make with the 300-in-1 kit: Lamp & Fan, Musical Doorbell, Laser Gun, Police Car Symphony, Reflection Detector, Spinning Rings, Pencil Alarm, Race Game, Photosensitive Electronic Organ, Space War Music Combo, The Lie Detector, Mosquito, Musical Motion Detector, Fire Fan Symphony, Water Detector, Screaming Fan, Daylight Music Radio, Blow off a Space War, Red & Green Control, Touch Buzzer, Laser Light, Flooding Alarm, Make Your Own Battery, Hissing Foghorn, Blow On a Candle, Mosquito, Voice-Controlled Rays of Light, Spacey Fan, Old-Style Typewriter, Blinking Double Flashlight, Hummer, Motor That Won’t Start, Steamship, Pressure Alarm, Feedback Kazoo, Race Car Engine

Check out the FatBrainToys website for ideas for your children, nieces, nephews, grandkids or that adult in your life that still has a passion for learning and the wonder of a child inside!

Toy Categories
Stocking Stuffers
Active Play
Arts & Crafts
Baby Toys
Bath Toys
Books
Brainteasers
Building & Construction
Classic & Retro Toys
Dolls & Dollhouses
Early Learning Toys
Games
Gear & Apparel
Gift Certificates
History & Geography
Imaginative Play
Kids Furniture
Kites, Planes & Rockets
Magnets & Magnetism
Music
Office & Desk Toys
Organic & Green Toys
Outdoor Toys
Playroom Furnishings
Plush
Puzzles
RC & Electronics
Room Decor
Science & Nature
Trains & Vehicles
Travel Toys
Wooden Toys

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Hey Chicago, Get Healthy With the Healthy In Chicago Blog!

Posted in Fitness, Health and Wellness, Nutrition, Wellness for Parents, Workplace Wellness, tagged , , , , on November 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Downtown Chicago Building Roundup: North

Image by Gravitywave via Flickr

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

I was looking at my WorkingWellResources  blog subscribers and noticed that I’ve got a few blog stalkers.   OK, not stalkers, just fans. One of them is Healthy In Chicago, an easy to read, fun and accessible blog about healthy lifestyle choices for Chicagoans.

What I like about this blog is that it’s not about being perfectly healthy. The blogger admits that it’s about trying to do his/her best at making healthy lifestyle choices. I am certainly not perfect either. I often have to check myself to see if I am practicing what I preach. And sometimes I fall short of the optimal healthy guidelines I would like to adhere to. I am human. And so are my clients. WE strive for our ideals but don’t get overly critical of ourselves when we fall short of perfection! This attitude of acceptance and moderation helps me be less critical and judgmental of my clients and allows them to share their successes and weaknesses with me more easily. So I am happy to introduce you to another blogger that has a similar positive, but not fanatical, outlook on Wellness.

Check out the Top posts on the Healthy In Chicago blog:

Chicago, Meet HealthyinChicago on the blog here. To follow Healthy In Chicago tweets, check out @HealthyNChicago.

Who is the Author of Healthy In Chicago?

The blogger chooses to remain anonymous, but did post some fun factoids about him/herself.

From the Healthy In Chicago Website, the blog author:

  • Is someone who doesn’t always ”practice what they preach” in terms of health advice.  I am not the perfect pinnacle of health.  I truly believe in moderation and not depriving myself of things (food and drinks) I love, which doesn’t always fit within the “recommendations” of healthy living.
  • Has a sweet tooth
  • Makes attempts to make healthy choices and health goals however
  • Has a college degree in Sport Science
  • Employed with IL largest health system, and is responsible for educating the community on health topics that plague Chicagoan’s (diabetes, heart disease, asthma, obesity, etc)
  • Previous experience as a personal trainer
  • Certified Intrinsic Coach (basically a life coach, someone to motivate you to follow through with the decisions, you have made in your life…example, quitting smoking)

The blogger also states that:

“I came to a point in my life where I was looking for more active, healthier activities and resources in the city…and really couldn’t find them and neither could my friends. So, I thought…why not share the information I find with everyone so they too can have the local resources to enjoy a healthier life, when and if they want to?  And with that Healthy In Chicago was created!”

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Chicago Children Run to Fight Poverty for African Children

Posted in Fitness, Health and Wellness, Wellness for Parents, tagged , , on May 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Teaching kids about the benefits of fitness AND the benefits of helping others is one reason I am a big fan of Breakthrough Ministries new blog and new cause: Breakthrough Runners blog and the African Running Program. The Running program sends kids from East Garfield Park’s Breakthrough Ministries Running club to Africa to meet three of the Africa children the Chicago kids are sponsoring. Breakthrough Ministries has been offering a boys and girls running club for students in East Garfield Park for the past two years. The club pairs adult mentors with adolescent students to train and run races each fall. While East Garfield Par  ranks at the top of the city for crime and drug use every year and is one of Chicago’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods,  it is teeming with brilliant and talented young students.  According to one of the posts in Breakthrough Runners Blog about the kid’s devotion to running: Over the past 2 years of running club, the Breakthrough youth have consistently shown up to as early as 6am on Saturday mornings despite the weather.  During the first year (09) our girls ran through hail and freezing rain on more than one occasion.  Last year our boys ran on the lakefront during a day in which the winds blew with gusts up to 60 mph and the sand from the beach mixed with rain was literally cutting them till their legs bled as the ran.

Breakthrough Runners

A representative from World Vision helped 6 runners from Breakthrough Running Club (Nick, Tony, Alesha, She-She, Ashley and Cheyenne) find children to sponsor AND for the Chicago runners to meet in a remote villages in South Africa, through World Vision’s Child Sponsorship Campaign. World Vision is a huge humanitarian aid organization that is working for sustainable solutions to global poverty in over 100 different countries. The African Running Club was charged with finding child sponsorships (through World Vision) for 3 of the kids who live in area that they will be visiting on their trip to Africa. Thus far the Breakthrough Runners have found sponsors for 10 children in Africa. However, they still need sponsors for 8 more children to meet their goal of sponsoring 18 African children.

The six Breakthrough Runners left Chicago today for their trip to visit the children they sponsor in Africa!  Read all about it here.

If you would like to help the Breakthrough Runners meet their sponsorship goals, email rfunk@breakthrough.org for more info about helping with sponsorship.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Learn How Your Child’s Young Minds Develops in the First Five Years of Life

Posted in Health and Wellness, Wellness for Parents, tagged , , , on April 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Are you a new parent or a parent of a young child? Do you ever wonder what is going on in your child’s mind? One book recommended by some Montessori schools can tell you more about your child’s brain development and inner world: What’s Going on in There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot.

Amazon reviewers summed the book up better than Publisher’s Weekly so I am reposting excerpts of some of the top reviews of this book.

One Amazon reviewer provides an overview of the book contents:

How the brain is developed
Prenatal risk factors
The special benefits of breast milk for brain development
What newborns can hear
Infant walkers don’t help infants walk
How to encourage a baby’s motor development
Stress, attachment, and brain development
How the brain store memories?
Language in the 1st eighteen months
The role of genes
The role of environment

The chapters in the book include:
Chapter 1 Nature or Nurture? It’s All in the Brain
Chapter 2 The Basic Biology of Brain Development
Chapter 3 Prenatal Influences on the Developing Brain
Chapter 4 How Birth Affects the Brain
Chapter 5 The Importance of Touch
Chapter 6 Why Babies Love to be Bounced: The Precocious Sense of Balance and Motion
Chapter 7 The Early World of Smell
Chapter 8 Taste, Milk, and the Origins of Food Preference
Chapter 9 Wiring Up the Visual Brain
Chapter 10 How Hearing Evolves
Chapter 11 Motor Milestones
Chapter 12 Social Emotional Growth
Chapter 13 The Emergence of Memory
Chapter 14 Language and the Developing Brain
Chapter 15 How Intelligence Grows in the Brain
Chapter 16 Nature, Nurture, and Sex Differences in Intellectual Development
Chapter 17 How to Raise a Smarter Child

Audry’s (who is an ex-reference librarian and ex-reference librarian who reads and reviews adult and children’s fiction) writes in her Amazon  review that “Subtitled ‘How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life’ and written by a neuroscientist mother of three, this book benefits as much from its organization as the material it presents. Research, supplemented with anecdotes, is divided into chapters based on sense or function and then detailed chronologically within each section…This is one of those books you should write in — underline, highlight, take notes — because if you are indeed interested in using this information to understand your child’s progressive developmental changes, you will be referring to it often. The author presents a lot of research material in accessible language and style, but the book is dense and is not a day-to-day how-to guide. You will not read about colic or how to tell a cold from the flu, but you will learn why your four-month old prefers a little salt in her mashed potatoes or why most of us can’t recall anything that happened before we were three-and-a-half years old. Because there is a lot of information, this is not one of the easiest books you will ever read, but it is eminently worthwhile. The author not only synopsizes a lot of research for us, but also defines the limits of research and/or those issues which are still under debate or not yet fully understood, and discusses the evolutionary implications of various developmental changes.”

To read more or to order the book on Amazon, click this link. Costs about $13.60 for the paperback. About $20 for the hardcover.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 553 other followers

%d bloggers like this: