Mastering the Mommy – Wife Balance: Surprising Reasons He Loves Your Post-Baby Body

ID-100111555 “Hands Of Pregnant Woman And Her Husband In Heart Shape” by David Castillo Dominici

You’re excited about your new baby, but you’re also a little worried. There’s that nagging voice in the back of your head. It won’t shut up.

“Will my husband still find me attractive after the baby is born?”

It’s a common fear shared by many moms-to-be who are anxious about their post baby body. Well, here’s what your husband is thinking, but won’t ever say to your face.

“I Don’t Understand Your Pain, But I Understand The Results”

A surprising number of men “feel your pain,” even if they can never understand it. Many men had their “glory days” back in high school or college. They were the wrestling champ, the star football player. Maybe they lifted weights and tried to stay in shape. When they got serious about their career and got married, things started to change. After a baby, things start to change dramatically.

And, that’s when their bodies start to change, and not always for the better. They lose their hair, they get fatter, they start to show signs of getting older. Some men even pursue plastic surgery to “fix” what they think is “wrong” with them, according to KRPlasticSurgery.com. We’ve heard that sexy women at websites similar to frankfurt escortdirectory.com are some fine examples of these kinds of surgeries working their intended magic.

So, while you might think you’re husband looks at you differently, it might not be in a negative light. You may have just found a stronger partner who can relate to you (at least on some level).

“I Like Your Stretch Marks”

Some men like stretch marks. It’s a sign of maturity. For some, it’s a sign of beauty because children are beauty. It seems strange, but it’s true.

“I Hate Fakeness, And I Appreciate The “Realness Of Your Body”

Many men are just as cautious about women who try too hard to look sexy as you are about men trying to “act younger than they really are.” There’s a sort of fakeness to it – one that men sense from a mile away. Being pregnant, and having your body change, is about as authentic as it gets. Embrace it.

Some men go so far as to say that they hate plastic surgery and don’t want their wife to have her boobs done, butt lifted, and cheeks filled out. Saying this though, if a breast lift or tummy tuck is something you want to get done for yourself and no one else, then you should have the right to do just that! If your partner loves you, they will see that for themselves. Of course, if you ask your hubby whether you look fat in your jeans, he’s unlikely to tell you the truth. The truth can hurt sometimes. And, he loves you and doesn’t want to hurt you.

“I’m A Jerk and I Know It”

Of course, not all men appreciate a postpartum body. Some husbands really won’t understand their wives, what they’re going through, or appreciate the gravity of the situation. And, those men end up single.

If your husband seems to be disconnected from you and what you’re going through, you might have a problem. Sometimes, men “tune out” and believe that depression or a change in your attitude is “all in your head.”

For these men, they have a serious empathy problem, for sure. But, what should you do? What can you do?

Sometimes, nothing. But, if you open up a conversation about it, you’re sure to find out. And, that can give you valuable information – regardless of how things turn out.

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This is a guest post by Dr Kevin M. Ruhge who is an Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon. He is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and is always keen to take the opportunity to share his views and research with an online audience. He has already written a number of articles about reconstructive surgery.

Join Our Fight Against Wound Infection – Say #NoToStaphy

I seldom attend events especially when they are set on weekdays but one Wednesday morning last year had me getting ready to go out right after the kids hopped onto their school service. What had me waking up extra early and braving the morning traffic? An invitation from LEO Pharma™ and their digital partner PurpleBug® to a Mommy Bloggers Meet and Greet Event featuring talks about wound care by Dr. Kristine Guitierrez and Dr. Irene Gardiner, both experts in the field of medicine. Yes, I didn’t mind traveling from my little abode in the East all the way to Sofitel Manila and back because I believe that every mom like me SHOULD know proper wound care.

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Dr. Irene Gardiner, Dr. Kristine Gutierrez, and Mr. Lars Olen (VP Leo Pharma Global)

 

WOUND CARE 101: MYTHS DEBUNKED

What’s the first thing you do when your child comes running to you with a wound? I bet the first thing you do is grab that bottle of hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound and to immediately kill the germs. The more bubbles there are the better, right? I’ll be bursting your bubble but that is SO NOT TRUE! Hydrogen Peroxide may kill some of the germs (I say MAY because it doesn’t always do) but it also destroys the cells that help repair the wound. The same thing goes for alcohol. Next time, your child has a minor wound, just wash it with soap and water.

Myth #1: Wounds should be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide.

Myth Debunked: Hydrogen Peroxide destroys other cells. Use soap and water instead.

You check your child’s wound and see that there’s no foul odor coming from it and there’s no drainage. You breathe a sigh of relief that there’s no infection. Uh-oh! Better put some medicine on that wound because ALL wounds are susceptible to infection. Even if there’s no foul odor or visible pus, your child’s wound could still be infected.

Myth #2: All infected wounds have foul odor and drainage.

Myth Debunked: All wounds are susceptible to infection.

 

After you have cleansed your child’s wound, you keep it dry and uncovered for it to heal faster. You could even use a wound healing tool like Woundvite. After all, you have always been told that bacteria will flourish under a wound dressing. Wrong! First, cells need moisture to grow, so keeping your wounds moist will help it heal faster with less scarring. Second, bacteria will only flourish if you don’t change the dressing regularly.

Myth #3: Keep wounds dry.

Myth #4: Bacteria will flourish under a wound bandage.

Myths Debunked: Wounds heal faster if kept moist.

 

Now that we have debunked some of the most common wound care myths, the next thing we moms absolutely need to know is how to properly treat wounds.

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Dr. Kristine Guitierrez says #NoToStaphy with Fucidin!

 

WOUND CARE 101: STEPS TO PROPER WOUND CARE

After finding out that wound should not be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide, I’m sure you’re now at a loss what to do when someone in the family has a wound. Here are the 7 steps to proper wound care I learned during the event:

 

  1. STOP the bleeding by applying steady but gentle pressure. If necessary, elevate the wounded area.
  2. CLEAN the wound and the area around it with soap and water. Remember, no hydrogen peroxide or alcohol please.
  3. PROTECT against wound infection by using topical medicine such as Fucidin®
  4. COVER big wounds with bandage to decrease chances of infection and to aid in faster healing.
  5. CHANGE the dressings when the bandage becomes dirty or wet.
  6. OBSERVE for signs of infection such as redness, increasing pain, warmth or swelling around the area, and pus oozing out.
  7. CONSULT your doctor if infection does not heal, if the wound needs stitching, if the bleeding does not stop, or if the wound is from animal bites.

 

During the event, I not only learned more about wound care but also received my very own wound care kit. Inside my first aid kit were sterile cotton balls and cotton-tipped swabs, gauze pads, plastic strips, surgical scissors, medical tape, antiseptic (for sterilizing hands not the wound!), and, of course, my partner in wound care, Fucidin® Ointment.

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SAY NO TO STAPHY, SAY YES TO FUCIDIN

Have you met Staphy? I have met Staphy the mascot and found him cute instead of scary. BUT the real Staphy (staphylococcus aureus) is nowhere near cute. Staphy lives in our skin and in mucous membranes such as inside the nose. He isn’t considered harmful on ordinary days but this naughty bacteria wrecks havoc when there’s a break in the skin surface. Staphy finds its way underneath the skin, multiplies, and infects the skin and underlying tissues in the wound. Naughty Staphy causes nasty wound infections!

STAPHY 1There’s no need to fret though ‘cause LEO PharmaTM has been providing us the best weapon against wound infection – Fucidin®. I remember Fucidin as one of the medicines we always had in our medicine kit when I was young. Yes, Fucidin has been in the market for many years now (And, yes, I am old! :D). It has been proven to effectively fight against wound infection without minimal side effects and risk of sensitization. It’s safe enough to be used by babies and pregnant women.

Fucidin® comes in two formulations – Fucidin® Ointment and Fucidin® Cream. Dr. Guiterrez shared an easy to remember mnemonic to help us decide which formulation to use:

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If the wound is MOIST, use CREAM.
If the wound is DRY, use OINTMENT

 

JOIN OUR FIGHT AGAINST WOUND INFECTION

As moms, one of our duties is to keep our kids LEO Pharmahealthy and happy. That also includes making sure that they are well-protected against wound infections. With partners like LEO PharmaTM whose mission is to help people achieve healthy skin, we moms can go full force against infection.

Join us in our fight and say #NoToStaphy! Check out the following social media sites to know more about proper care for wound infection and Fucidin®:

 

Fucidin Team

 

#NOTOSTAPHY

How To Keep Your Kids Healthy Throughout The Holiday Season

While attending to your child’s health is important throughout the year, it is an especially important enterprise during the holiday season. During this era, unhealthy food, sedentary living, and high stress levels can compromise your child’s immunity and precipitate a host of unwanted diseases. Yet you can preclude this negative cycle from taking place by implementing health strategies to keep your kids healthy. One quick tip before we get started. Encouraging your child to look after their teeth is vital and can have beneficial consequences for their overall health in later life too. Therefore, along with regular teeth cleaning and use of mouthwash, you should take your child to see a Pediatric Dentist in Vineland or wherever you might live once every six months. So, what else can you do to keep your child healthy?

1. Make Sure You Yourself Are Healthy.

While you may feel tempted to pour all of your energies into optimizing your children’s health this holiday season, you won’t be able to accomplish your objective if you don’t attend to your own level of wellness. With that idea in mind, make sure you are eating well, exercising regularly, and meditating consistently. If you’re feeling stressed then maybe a CBD gummy or other product from the Vibes CBD store will help you relax. Remember that a bad mood spreads like the flu and you can’t help others before you help yourself.

2. Check for Undiagnosed illnesses.

Your children may have an undiagnosed illness lurking within their body which could cause issues. If anyone is experiencing inexplicable health symptoms right now, use the helpful testing kits offered by companies like Diagnostic Automation/Cortez Diagnostics, Inc. to figure out what’s going on. In addition to offering great fertility elisa kits, the company provides testing kits for conditions such as allergies, anemia, hepatitis, and diabetes.

3. Monitor Your Child’s School Lunches.

This is a strategy you should be implementing all year, but it’s especially important during the holiday season. During this time, students are oftentimes fed festive dishes that are laden with sugar and fat. These processed items will zap your child’s energy and compromise their immunity with lightning speed. Prevent it from happening by packing them delicious, nutritious meals from home. These homecooked meals would surely keep your kids healthy while making them feel loved at the same time. For recipe ideas, do an internet search with a key phrase like “Healthy Holiday Recipes For Kids.” You could even get a Sun Basket meal kit to make cooking easier. Check out https://myfoodsubscriptions.com/meal-kits/sun-basket/review/ to learn more!

4. Emphasize Fitness.

Although many children love playing in the snow and engaging in other forms of physical activity throughout the winter, this is not the case for every little boy and girl. In fact, some children enjoy sedentary activities like watching television, reading, texting, and socializing on channels like Twitter and Facebook. To ensure that your child stays mentally and physically alive by exercising, be sure to emphasize fitness throughout the holiday season. You may find it advantageous to get a family gym membership so you can have fun exercising with your children.

Don’t Delay – Start Optimizing Your Child’s Health Right Now!

If you love your child and want her or him to remain healthy and happy throughout the holiday season, you need a game plan. To keep your child’s level of wellness at an all-time high this winter, start implementing the strategies outlined above!

Christmas Gift Ideas: Health and Beauty

I know many moms have now managed to tick off items from their Christmas lists. But if you are one of those who have yet to start shopping for presents, here are a few not so ordinary gift ideas for the health and beauty of your loved ones.

Gifts of Beauty

I know we often say that we shouldn’t judge any person by the way he or she looks. I do believe this. However, that doesn’t mean that we should not care about how WE look at all. I’m not talking spending hours (and a whole ton of cash) on makeup and beauty treatments. I do think that we all should at least have a basic skin regimen to keep our skin healthy. So here are some ideas for giving the Gift of Beauty.

Makeup Sets. If you know someone well enough, you may just know their tastes in makeup nearly as well as they do. You could have a family member who is obsessed with Thin Lizzy’s top 5 tried and tested, as one example, or another who insists on MAC products. If that’s the case you can confidently put together a makeup set, or buy a premade one from their favorite brand, and surprise them with just how well you know their beauty regime!

Gift Certificates. Having said all this, makeup can be a tricky thing to give as a gift. So are bath gels, lotions, and perfume. Let your loved ones be able to choose the right shade or the right scent for themselves by opting to give them gift certificates from their fave beauty shop.

Salon Treat. It is every woman’s wish to be able to have an entire day of pampering (ehem-ehem hubby Jasper!). Treat the ladies you love with a whole day at the spa. Give them a complete package of facial treatment, body scrub and massage, mani-pedi, and hair spa and they won’t ever forget how special you made them feel this Christmas.

Skin Care Packs. Bags, clothes, makeup…these are among the most often gifted items during the Christmas season and you can never go wrong with them. From Synergie Skin care online in Australia to different products in Spain, people all over the world have different skin care products on offer, and women love trying new ones! This year, give them something that would make them look beautiful both inside and out. For women my age (proud almost-40 lady here!), the Celeteque Dermoscience Advance Anti-Aging Line is heaven sent. The entire line works on any skin type, even for sensitive ones, and is very effective in making one’s skin look years younger. Make the beauty regimen complete by adding some Myra-E’s to your gift basket. Especially if you’re gifting to a close friend or relative (who are really into skincare routines), skincare products like city beauty invisicrepe body balm could be a blessing.

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Complete your beauty gift pack with some Myra-E and phCare products.

Gift of Health

We may have a slew of beauty products in our vanity table but if we are not healthy, all these would be for naught. Here are some ideas which may seem unusual for gift-giving but are actually very great gifts to give to your loved ones.

Gym Membership. Get your loved ones a jump start on their fitness resolution next year. A gym membership leaves them with no excuse not to exercise anymore. 😉

Health Kit. Who would ever give a basket full of vitamins and health supplements as a gift? Sounds weird, right? But this kind of gift actually shows just how much you care about someone – and it’ll definitely be appreciated by the recipient. Unilab has come out with the Handy Health Kit which contains medicines that we all often use including Biogesic, Alaxan, Kremil-S, and Diatabs.

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The Unilab Handy Health Kit is something we all must have wherever we go. If your loved ones have tiny tots, throw in some Ceelin and Biogesic Syrups. These are among the medicines we always always always have at home. 🙂

Teen Years: Navigating Troubled Waters

You’ve hit the teenage years and you are at wit’s end with your son. Things were going smoothly and now it feels like major storms have set in. He’s become destructive in his behavior and his words, lashing out at everyone around him. Not only are his habits harmful to others, they are harmful to himself. This is your most precious gift. You don’t know what happened to cause this transformation, but you want to help your son to smooth his path and find inner calm again. The last thing you want to see is a dead end for your child. It’s time to take action before his problems become bigger than they already are.

Images by Artur84 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Images by Artur84 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Set Up an Intervention

When your teenager is acting out, you’re going to need help to confront him. Don’t take him on by yourself. Gather together friends and family members as a support system. Sit your son down and discuss your concerns. Everyone will be a part of the meeting, expressing their worries as well. Your son needs to know that you are doing this out of love, that you care for him and don’t want to see him throw his life away. The teen years can be a troubled time for many girls and boys. When they feel like they are drowning in their problems, you need to throw out a life preserver.

Be Present in Your Son’s Life

You need to be there for your son. Many think that the teen years are a time to let children be independent and leave them to their own devices. This is the point in life when your son needs your guidance more than ever before. Don’t let him have too much time alone. Make an effort to be home in the evenings, to sit together at the dinner table, and to be available when your teenager is heading off to school in the morning. If you drive your child to school, use that time as an opportunity to reach out. Try and turn his behavior around.

Get Help

If your attempts fail, speak with your son’s doctor about counseling services. Consider wilderness therapy programs at the Wood Creek Academy. When your son is put to the test in a challenging situation, he can find a new sense of direction in his life. A change in scenery may be the first step in making progress.

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