It's Not What It Looks Like, I Swear!

Welcome to my suburban pill poppers paradise! Well, That's what it looks like anyway. But it's not. Really. Caleb has many, many, many food allergies which mess with is behavior. In order to decrease their impact on his life, he takes digestive enzymes. In the past I have served these dissolved in juice because he couldn't swallow the pill. He drank a mixture at breakfast, lunch, dinner, elevensies, second breakfast, tea time, you name it. If he wanted to eat he had to have the juice. The juice that tasted like fresh mown grass. Or worse. He was pretty good about taking it for a long time. But then I started finding the lunch dose still in his lunch bag at the end of the day. Or he would "accidentally" throw it away. Or not take it to school at all. Now, these puppies are pretty expensive as a maintenance item, so I decided to stop wasting the money. Except he was getting in trouble a lot at school. A LOT. And the rims of his eyes were so red and inflamed (His only external physical symptom) that he was starting to lose his eyelashes. Poor boy. I finally ordered more of his enzymes and when they came we worked on swallowing the capsule whole. It took about 24 oz of water, but he finally managed it. Now we could dispense with the yucky, grass flavored juice. Hooray!




















Except that these babies are in a cellulose or v-cap. And v-caps take 30 to 40 minutes to dissolve enough to release the enzyme that must accompany the food. What 9 year old plans that far ahead? What 9 year old's mom plans that far ahead?




















So they need to be repacked into these gelatin capsules which dissolve immediately. It took a long time to repack 180 pills (Which lasts about a month).




















And you are left with a massive pile of v-caps and a powdery substance all over the counter tops, making you look like you live in suburban pill popper's paradise.

The $.69/lb Cure For Warts

As moms we do our best to care for our children. We love them, feed them, read to them, tickle them, kiss them, and tuck them in bed each night. And, when they need it, we take them to the doctor.
We each have our threshold for “need” in that regard. I for one, will let them snot it out, let the fever burn off the germs, and know that the cough will likely go away soon. I hope. Warts are a different story. They are gross, icky, nasty, and did you know they are a virus, and therefore contagious?
In the past, with the bigger boys, have taken them to the doctor to have those little buggers burned off- to a tune of $130 each visit. OK. I think I mentioned that warts are gross and contagious. This summer we dealt with another bout of warts with our girls and our baby boy. All three of them had plantar warts. We took them each to the doctor for a treatment or two. Those darn warts would not go away.
We farmed our kids out for a weekend early in the summer, and we left our youngest son with my sister for the weekend. She is the one who taught me the $.69/lb cure. You probably already have everything you need.

First, feed your child a banana just before they brush their teeth before bed.
Second, cut a small piece of banana peel just big enough to cover the wart.
Third, place peel over the wart with the inside to the skin and tape in place with medical tape If the wart is in a tricky spot, use Coban tape, which sticks to itself but not the skin, to wrap as much of the area as needed to keep the banana peel in place.
Fourth, put your child to bed.
Fifth, in the morning, remove the banana peel, but don’t wash the area. IT WILL LOOK GROSS. If it will be visible and this will bother you, cover it loosely with a band-aid.
Sixth, After bath time, buff lightly with a foot file and start over.

After about a week, you should be able to file the wart right off.
We have had some really nasty and difficult warts that would not respond to any other treatment disappear within a week.
I have just saved you a few co-pays. You’re welcome.