But it is in past and present everyday life, too. It is now a cultural given that people listen to MP3 players on their way to work or at the gym, and indeed, the long history of music as an explicit medium of entertainment, which has remained popular for hundreds and possibly thousands of years, is proof in itself.

Music, then, is an integral and widely championed aspect of human existence. It has the power to move most people, and because of that, it will almost certainly never lose its importance; music grants expression and reflection, so that it can affect people, or allow people to show to others how they have been affected. For these reasons, it is an invaluable asset to culture and society, and makes a very pertinent contribution to human welfare and well being.

What needs to be remembered, in that respect, is that babies are no different. In fact, with experts generally agreeing that the early years of a person’s development are some of the most fruitful, it is perhaps more important to expose somebody to the influence of music from a young age, so that they may reap the benefits.

Indeed, many providers have done just that, and there a number of CDs on the market that are tailored specifically to helping the development of babies. A good example is the Angel Baby Sleep CD, from Earth Mama, which can be found at Scin Boutique. On its effect, the company has this to say:

“Every mama knows that tender, reassuring, voices help settle and calm infants. Angel Baby Sleep CD is a unique spoken lullaby that helps create an atmosphere of peace and safety. With words of encouragement and peaceful lullabies, your baby will gently and peacefully fall asleep.”

This summarizes the importance of music in child development perfectly; the calming and relaxing sounds of the Angel Baby Sleep CD are synonymous with a calm and relaxed baby, and as such, give for calm and relaxed development. That connection is embodied perfectly in the work of K.J Kemper et al in their report Music as Therapy, which was published in The Southern Medical Journal in March 2005:

“Music appears to exert direct physiologic effects through the autonomic nervous system…Music effectively reduces anxiety and improves mood…for children as well as adults”.

From a scientific and artistic point of view, then, music is integral to human development. It moves people physically and mentally. And with accelerated development appearing in babies and infants, it is all the more important for mothers and fathers, and mothers and fathers to be.

Chris Woolfrey is an expert on the connection between music and the development of babies and infants. He writes for http://www.scinboutique.com.

Convenience

One of the most obvious reasons for going crib bedding shopping online is the convenience factor. You can sit in a comfortable chair at your computer at home and browse Internet sites looking for exactly what you want for your new baby. If you have a laptop, you can even shop from bed. This can be a huge advantage because many pregnant mothers reach a point where they just don’t want to get out much.

Plus, you can easily share items you like with other people by emailing links to product pages or by bookmarking pages to show to your significant other at a later time. That’s easier than dragging everyone to the store.

Budget Friendly

Shopping for crib bedding on the Internet may also save you money. Generally, prices are lower, even for high end products, than they are in brick and mortar stores because of the reduced cost of overhead. While there’s no way to guarantee how much you’ll save, comparison shopping among online stores can help you find the best price on the crib bedding set you want.

Plus, you won’t have to spend as much on gas by running to every store imaginable to check out their crib bedding selections before making a decision. Another tip is to look for an online store that is going to offer you free shipping – that will save you even more money.

Selection

Unless you’ve been keeping up with trends in crib bedding, you probably don’t have a clear idea of all the designs and colors that are currently available. The selection is truly staggering. However, if you choose to go to local stores there’s a good chance you’re only seeing a small percentage of all the choices available to you. Most stores will only carry one or two lines of crib bedding and maybe only a few styles in each. That’s pretty limiting.

When you shop online, however, you’re likely to find pages and pages of choices to consider for your new baby. That also increases the odds that you’re going to find something you love.

Going Online Caveat

One thing to watch for is the location of the seller you’re choosing. Look for companies based in the same country as you to ensure they must adhere to the same safety guidelines for their products. Never buy crib bedding or anything similar through online auctions or any other questionable online source.

Pure and Honest Kids offers Crib Bedding. childrens clothing, complete with exceptional service! Visit us today on the web for the best selection of Serena and Lily Crib Bedding.

Color and Mood

Cultures all around the world have realized there is a connection between color and human attributes. For example, early Native Americans believed that using certain colored lights could cause healing in the human body. While no one has conclusively proved this, there has been extensive research done to demonstrate that our moods can be affected by the colors in our environment. In fact, this part of color psychology result has been utilized in education, in web design, and in almost every facet of consumer products.

As a parent, this research is important to you as you choose the colors for your crib bedding because you want to create the most soothing and relaxed sleeping environment for your newborn.

The Benefits of Using Blue or Green

Two of the best colors for your crib bedding are going to be shades of blue and green. One of the most commonly used colors in surgery rooms is green because it is believed to be calming and to have great powers for healing. Different shades of the color are said to have a calming effect. One of the reasons may be that green reminds us of being in nature in a relaxed and stress-free state.

Blue is also a good choice for crib bedding, regardless of the baby’s gender. Color research has shown that exposure to this color can actually slow the rate of your pulse and reduce your body’s temperature which are both going to help you enter a relaxed and optimal sleep state. The color is almost universally considered a positive color. In the West, the color is associated with feelings such as tranquility and harmony which also creates a positive environment for newborns.

Colors to Avoid

Orange and red are probably not going to be good choices for your crib bedding. Orange is considered a color that grabs your attention which puts you in an alert state – not ideal for relaxation and rest.

Red is also considered the most energetic color in the entire spectrum. That means red crib bedding may have an undesirable effect on your child. Red is also associated with violence, danger, and anger.

Other Tips

With crib bedding, you want to pick the best and most relaxing colors possible for your baby, even if that means violating some of those traditional and stereotypical color trends.

Pure and Honest Kids offers Crib Bedding. childrens clothing, complete with exceptional service! Visit us today on the web for the best selection of Serena and Lily Crib Bedding.

Diaper Stacker

One of the most useful and attractive crib bedding accessories you can consider adding is a diaper stacker. These hang on the wall of the nursery near the changing table. You can place a good supply of diapers inside the stacker so they are easier to access. The real benefit of using the diaper stacker is that it hides those unattractive stacks of diapers but keeps them in convenient reaching distance. Plus, if you hang the stacker high enough, you can grab the diaper without having to take your eyes off the baby on the changing table.

Toy Bag

A toy bag could be another good choice for crib bedding accessories. The purpose of a toy bag is to keep all of the baby toys off the floor and off the rest of the furnishings. This is important especially when your baby gets old enough to start crawling and walking. The more things laying around as obstacles the better the chance of falling or tripping for your baby.

Another advantage of choosing the toy bag is that it can be an attractive storage solution that will last beyond after your baby gets older. Having one from the beginning means you can start teaching your child how to put up his or her toys at an early age.

Changing Pad Cover

Along with the other parts of your crib bedding set, you may want to consider purchasing a cover for the changing pad on your diaper changing table. These covers allow you to give the table a more decorative look and can help it fit the rest of the d

Easy Access by Guests

One of the best benefits of registering for crib bedding and other baby shower gifts online is that you can more easily share the information with your guests. For example, if you have a family member who lives out of town and may not have access to the same brick and mortar stores as you then an online gift registry makes it easy for them to purchase the crib bedding accessories you want. Plus, they can have the present gift wrapped and even sent directly to you in the event that they won’t be able to attend the baby shower.

Convenient Shopping for Everyone

Whether it’s picking the crib bedding and other items you want as gifts or helping your guests to have more convenient access to the presents you want, having an online registry is going to make the entire experience much easier for everyone involved. You’ll have a wider selection of crib bedding and other products to choose from if you pick an online registry, such as the one offered by Pure & Honest Kids. Plus, the costs may be lower and you may even be able to qualify for free shipping with some of your purchases.

Ease of Registering & Buying

When you go to register in a brick and mortar store, you usually are given some type of scanner so you can just go through and scan anything you want in the store. The scanner collects all of the product data for you. However, you do still have to decide on a store, drive all the way to the location, and wander through the store scanning items. Plus, you have to worry about items you scan being no longer carried by the store and messing up your registry.

People who want to buy you a gift are given print outs with vague descriptions of the items and they must search through the store to find the items.

Choosing to register for crib bedding and other gifts online is easier. You create an account, select the items from the comfort of your home using easy navigation on the site, save the results, and still have the option to conveniently return and add more items later. Your guests just go online, enter your name, and choose an item right from your list.

The Choice is Easy

If you want to register for crib bedding or accessories, using an online gift list is the best way for you and your guests.

Pure and Honest Kids offers Crib Bedding. childrens clothing, complete with exceptional service! Visit us today on the web for the best selection of Serena and Lily Crib Bedding.

A Few Points about Crib Bedding

Before we look at those ideas, there are a few things to think about. One is that crib bedding does cost quite a bit of money. Remember that the cost runs from around $400 to $900 for an entire crib bedding set. You can buy individual pieces cheaper but if you want to create a cohesive look for the nursery you may prefer to choose a set.

Also, most babies will outgrow their cribs by about the age of three. That means you’ll have a good long run for the crib bedding you choose. However, it also means you’ll want to start making changes to the nursery around that time so you can make a smooth transition to the toddler stage.

Crib Bedding for Others

Although you may have been able to afford beautiful crib bedding set for your new baby, not all new parents are so lucky. When your baby outgrows the crib bedding, consider donating it to a charity that provides these items to the underprivileged at a reduced cost. That way another family will be able to enjoy the bedding, too.

Now if you have trouble parting with the set because of the memories it represents, consider keeping one piece, such as the blanket, that can easily be stored away safely and passed onto your baby when he or she is all grown up. Then the rest of the crib bedding can be donated.

Sharing with Other Relatives

In most families as soon as one child enters the toddler stage, another baby is born and needs its own crib bedding. Why not make the crib bedding set you’ve purchased an important part of your family tradition? You can pass it along to other members of your family when it is needed.

Not only will this be a nice way to share your memories and happiness with others in your family but there’s a good chance that crib bedding set could make it back to you or even to your own child when he or she becomes a parent. Good quality crib bedding sets can last that long.

Storage Ideas

If you do consider holding onto the crib bedding, you’ll want to have a good place for storing it. Consider investing in a large, airtight storage container. You can place the container in your home, under your bed, or in a storage facility until you need it again or want to share it with your grown-up baby.

Pure and Honest Kids offers Crib Bedding. childrens clothing, complete with exceptional service! Visit us today on the web for the best selection of Serena and Lily Crib Bedding.

Over the centuries, vinegar has been used for countless purposes: making pickles, killing weeds, cleaning coffee makers, polishing armor, and dressing salads. While many of the folk medicine uses of vinegar are unproven (or were disproved), there is some medical research backing them up.

The main ingredient of apple cider vinegar, or any vinegar, is acetic acid. Apple cider vinegar is also said to contain an abundance of complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Do not use a metal container when making vinegar or storing it; acid in the mixture will corrode metal or aluminum objects making the solution unfit for consumption.

When it comes to losing weight, experts say you are what you drink. Apple cider vinegar has recently found new use as a weight loss and weight management aide, and has been included in many over the counter weight loss nutritional supplements. Anecdotally, ancient Egyptians used apple cider vinegar for weight loss. The acetic acid in this vinegar can curve the appetite which benefits those trying to loose weight and keep it off.

Some say apple cider vinegar can help arthritis, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and assist in digestion. It is also thought to help the body maintain a healthy alkaline level. The acidic nature of this vinegar has been said to help scalp problems such as dandruff, itchy scalp, baldness and thinning hair. Apple cider vinegar can also help gastric problems as well.

Civil War, soldiers used vinegar to prevent gastric upset and as a treatment for various ailments including pneumonia and scurvy. Research suggests that this vinegar can delay gastric emptying. Ten patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and diabetic gastro paresis were studied; when the study was over the patients were able to demonstrate a significant delay in already delayed gastric emptying after the ingestion of vinegar. So delaying the rate at which the stomach empties can keep a sense of fullness for those looking to loose weight.

The effect of vinegar on blood glucose levels is perhaps the best researched and the most promising of apple cider vinegar’s possible health benefits. Several studies have found that vinegar may help lower glucose levels. For example, a small study compared the effect of vinegar with white bread on blood glucose and insulin levels. Keeping blood sugar lower is important to diabetic patients which can help reduce the use of insulin. Subjects with type 2 diabetes showed a slight improvement in insulin sensitivity, but postprandial blood glucose and insulin levels were not affected when apple cider vinegar was added to a meal.

In conclusion, apple cider vinegar could theoretically interact with diuretics, laxatives, and medicines for diabetes and heart disease so you must be careful. Apple cider vinegar should always be diluted with water or juice before swallowed. If you have diabetes, check with your doctor before using apple cider vinegar. Furthermore, blood glucose must be monitored more frequently in patients with diabetes treated with insulin experiencing gastro paresis to prevent adverse hypoglycemic episodes. All those taking medications should consult a doctor because the acid in this vinegar can enhance absorption and increase Side effects.

More information on apple cider vinegar is available at VitaNet

Understand Your Allergies

The first step towards reducing your exposure to allergens is to recognize the types of allergens that aggravate your symptoms. If you’re like most allergy sufferers in the United States you experience hay fever or asthmatic symptoms. These symptoms are a result of your body’s immune system releasing antibodies into your bloodstream. These antibodies in turn create histamine, the agent that acts on your eyes, nose, throat, skin, lungs, and even gastrointestinal system to produce your allergy symptoms. The allergens that induce this reaction in your body are generally environmental allergens –airborne particles such as dust mites, pollen, and pet dander. It is virtually impossible to completely avoid these types of allergens. They exist inside and outside your home, at work, and anywhere else you might think of enjoying your summer months. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to reduce the amount of environmental allergens you come into contact with.

Reduce In-Coming Pollutants

The easiest way to avoid contact with allergens inside your home is to keep your windows and doors closed. A clean air filter or air conditioner can help cut down your in-home exposure to allergens tremendously. If keeping your windows closed during the summer is not an option, invest in a good screen. Make sure you keep your window and door screens clean, too. Pollen that accumulates on your screen can be tracked into your home when you open and close the doors or windows.

Avoid Peak Pollen Hours

If you are particularly sensitive to pollen you may want to stay indoors during peak pollen times. Pollen counts tend to peak during the morning, and are especially high on dry, windy days. It’s best to avoid going outdoors until late afternoon or evenings, when the temperature has cooled off a bit.

Dry Clothes Inside

Inhaling pollen isn’t the only way to experience its affect. Pollen can also irritate your skin, causing dry, itchy rashes. Clothes, towels and bed sheets that are hung to dry outdoors can collect pollen spores and cause fairly severe allergy symptoms. It is best to use a clothes dryer if you can; if not, hang your clothes in the evening, when pollen counts are low.

Keep House Clean

There are other summer allergens beyond pollen you will probably want to avoid as well. Dust mites and pet dander can also cause severe reactions in allergy sufferers. Dust mites cause allergic reactions by producing waste products that irritate the linings of the nose, throat, and lungs when inhaled. The easiest way to control the amount of dust mites in your home is to dust surfaces and wash bedding and clothes often. Vacuuming a few times a week can also help reduce the amount of surface dust mites. Make sure your vacuum has a clean air filter, and if you develop symptoms while cleaning you might want to leave the house for a few hours or consider wearing a pollen-proof facemask.

Protect Your Sleep

Aside from simple cleaning, another way to avoid allergen symptoms in your home is to use mattress and furniture protectors. Mattress protectors are one of the best ways of protecting yourself against dust mites and pet dander. These impermeable covers provide a barrier between your mattress and allergy causing dust mites and dander. Covers are good options because they can be easily cleaned and reused regularly where as vacuuming or cleaning a mattress is difficult and doesn’t always remove harmful allergens. Waterproof mattress protectors are also available for children’s beds and baby cribs. These covers reduce the chance of your mattress developing troublesome mold growth, another cause of allergies.

Summertime can be particularly problematic for allergy sufferers. Runny noses, sneeze attacks, itchy eyes, and burning throats can easily ruin any fun-filled summer activity. By simply planning ahead, however, you can easily avoid most environmental allergens and have an exciting, allergy-free summer.

~Ben Anton, 2008

Finding out more about reducing allergy symptoms caused in your home is easy. The CleanRest website features products and information on protecting your family with impermeable covers for mattresses and duvets.

Like the aristocrats of ancient Rome, many Americans are literally eating themselves to an early death. I feel that with a little bit of basic knowledge, supported by statistics and research from the cutting edge of health and science, people can take some simple steps and put the odds of living a longer healthier life back in their favor. There are 8 major diseases that have been sweeping the land since the 1940’s. All of them were virtually unheard of at the turn of the 20th century.

I started to do some of my own research, because I am one of those 77 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, that is quickly aging & I want to preserve my health as long as possible.

There is a lot of contradictory information available, which is why so many people are confused about what to do to maintain their health. I’ve heard people say things like: “there’s so much contradiction out there, who knows what to believe anymore–I’ll just eat what I want and take my chances”.

Incredibly, some of the so-called studies I read were funded by the very industries that were directly affected by the results! For example, how serious do we take a study on the effects of pesticide use, when it is funded by a pesticide manufacturing company? Or how about a study on the effects of dairy products on asthma and allergy patients that was funded by the Dairy Council of America?

I call this “junk” science. They start out with a proposition to prove, and then they find a way to manipulate the data in order to prove it! I decided to sift through the science and only qualify studies where the funding source was disconnected from an interested party.

In addition, I started studying people who were healthy themselves and maybe had overcome personal illness through holistic healing or natural remedies, people who had experienced definite, verifiable results (like me), using alternative medicine. There has always been something about our “drugs and surgery” approach to health care that never made sense to me. During my research I found a huge number of people that supported the idea that good health resulted from right choices with regard to food, nutrition, water, exercise and rest. Using a combination of carefully filtered scientific studies, stories, and good old common sense, I found that if the body is given those five elements in the proper form and amount, the body can solve almost any problem.

Most of us assume we are living longer, because the longevity stats have gone way up in the last 100 years. But the sad truth is that because these 8 diseases are growing so fast, we are actually living shorter…but taking longer to die. Our technology keeps us alive longer, but we sacrifice the quality of life in the process. Can there really be dignity when our elderly spend months or even years in a vegetative state hooked up to a machine?

What about the economic impact of this trend?

I used to think that normal aging was the same for everybody. You get one of the eight deadly diseases, and then you slowly die. Imagine my surprise when I learned that heart disease, the number one killer of Americans, is a relatively new disease! The first modern cases were reported in 1912, and even then it was extremely rare. Today heart disease kills four times as many American women each year as breast cancer. For 300,000 people each year, the first and only symptom of heart disease is sudden death. How did it go from almost non-existent to the number one spot?

What about cancer? Only 3% of us died of cancer a hundred years ago. Today, almost 30% of us will succumb to it. The 1909 edition of the standard U.S. textbook, Principles and Practice of Medicine, devoted only 15 pages to cancer. Breast and prostate cancers were not even mentioned; colon cancer received 2 lines. In contrast, the 1994 edition of Principles of Internal Medicine devoted 174 pages to this affliction.

Stroke, which killed only a very few people a hundred years ago, is today the number three deadly disease killer of Americans.

Alzheimer’s wasn’t even diagnosed until 1907. Today, 40% of those over 85 are suffering from it.

Diabetes has increased 600% in just the last generation. Each year, Diabetes kills more than twice as many American women as breast cancer.

Over 40 million Americans suffer with some form of Arthritis or Osteoporosis. Ask any American woman what disease she fears most and she’ll probably say breast cancer. Yet hip fractures kill more women than cancers of the breast, cervix and uterus combined.

Finally, there are the auto immune disorders like chronic fatigue syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus, lupus, fibromyalgia, and AIDS. I lump them into one big category, and this group is growing like wildfire in the US right now. 20 years ago, they didn’t even have names for most of this stuff and many of them were written off by doctors as psycho-sematic. But the harsh symptoms of these auto-immune disorders are currently wreaking havoc on the health of tens of thousands of Americans, and in the case of AIDS, are killing people at an alarming rate.

Obviously, something has gone terribly wrong here, and it’s happened in our lifetime. But we’re acting as if all of these diseases are just a part of the normal aging process! Not so! There is nothing normal or natural about degenerative disease. We have convinced ourselves it is normal as a way of dealing with the terrible new reality of sickness and disease in the modern world.

Many of these deaths are totally unnecessary.

And that’s the tragedy. When a plane crashes and a few hundred people die, it makes the front page news for days. But when a million people die of heart disease or a half a million die of cancer, you would think there would be more of an outcry. It’s the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of people crashing every single hour of every single day of every single month for an entire year, year after year.

How long do you plan on living? To what age? 70? 80? 90? 100+? What do you think is reasonable? Now, take that figure and add 10 extra healthy years to it. What if you could live to 100 and beyond without the pain and disease that most people think comes with old age?

Today the average person lives to about 76. That’s 79 for women and 72 for men. But in certain areas of the world centenarians are common. We have only lately started to uncover why.

Today, the risk of dying of any thing before you are 40 is really very small. But starting at 40, you enter the zone of the 8 deadly diseases. How deadly are they? They kill more than 80% of us, which is sad because the majority of the time they are preventable.

In summary food, nutrition, water, exercise and rest are the keys to enjoying the highest level of optimum health for many years after we thought possible.

See you at my hundredth birthday party, will you be there?

Sherrie Chastain Holistic Healing Health Care Consultant Holistic Healing, Natural Remedies, Alternative Medicine Helping People Live Healthier, Happier Lives for Over 25 Years

One of the many ways to show your dog that you are his leader occurs when you feed him everyday. With many families, feeding their dogs is an act of servitude.

I bet many of you didn’t realize that, did you?

Why not let the act of feeding your dog help change the way your dog looks at you? Here is what I do with my dogs and what I recommend to my Winston-Salem dog training clients.

1. Always run your hands through the dog food. I like for my scent to be all over his food. Why? In the wild, the Leader of the Pack is always the first to eat. By putting your scent on his food, we are teaching our dog that we are the leader. Our dog will eat only after we have finished with it.

2. I don’t just put the food down for him to eat. I will hold it and make him do some form of obedience for it before he eats. This can be sitting, laying down or just standing their being calm. Many dogs are so excited to eat and devour their food, it becomes a frantic process. I purposely slow down the event. I am showing my dog I am in the lead position. By doing this, you are also giving your dog mental stimulation in this process by making him relax and be patient. This is a mental exercise which is just as important as physical exercise for a well rounded dog.

3. I also make sure I praise him for good behavior and I make sure I always win. I never give in without getting the respect the Leader of the Pack deserves. If you do give in, you are just showing your dog you are not his leader, that you are pretending to be. Nothing good can happen in this situation.

You have to be consistent with all aspects of training in the obedience setting and in real life. If you do this, you and your dog will explore a totally new relationship together. You as his leader. Your dog as willing follower. Believe it or not, you dog will be much happier with this relationship.

That’s all we need to discuss right now! If you have a food aggressive dog you must contact a dog training professional before you attempt this; but, this should be a relatively safe event as long as you are not trying to remove his food while eating.

Note: Jim Hodges is a certified master dog trainer training dogs in Winston Salem, NC. He also trains dogs from other areas of the country via his North Carolina Residency Dog Training Program. The information he shares is from his many years of training and observing/studying dog behavior.

Do you want to become the Leader of your Pack? You can find more information on how to lead your dog at Winston-Salem Dog Training. Jim also contributes to Contain-A-Pet at Pet Containment System Contain-A-pet is the leader in combining dog training and behavior with pet containment systems.