Health & Safety

#TuesdayTrivia Question: The average age of first-time mothers in the United States currently is ___.

A. 17
B. 23
C. 26
D. 31

You could have your Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings – the turkey, sweet potatoes and homemade cranberry sauce – but keep in mind that a big meal could weigh in at about 4,500 calories. That’s equivalent to about eight Big Macs.

The sleepiness or “turkey coma” (as some people call it) induced by overindulging is associated with tryptophan, an amino acid in turkey that is a natural sedative. Nutritionists and exercise physiologists recommend that people who tend to eat large Thanksgiving dinners prepare for their feast by increasing their physical activity days, and perhaps weeks, ahead of time, also on the big day.

Here are some outdoor activities for blunting the impact of Thanksgiving calories:

The word “kind” is defined by the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as “having or showing a gentle nature and a desire to help others; wanting and liking to do good things and to bring happiness to others.”

World Kindness Day is November 13. On this day, Gerber Life would like to challenge all of us to show a desire to inspire and do good things for others by choosing one of the following 10 ways to show kindness. Should you join in accepting our challenge, let us know how on our Facebook thread.

As a parent, it’s important to encourage healthy brain development in your child from infancy onward, and to take steps to keep your own brain and body sharp. Part of the benefit is that doing so can help guard against Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementia.

November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month. More than five million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s or another of the great many kinds of dementia, and two-thirds of them are women.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, a woman’s “estimated lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer’s at age 65 is 1 in 6, compared with nearly 1 in 11 for a man. It’s as real a concern as breast cancer is to women’s health, the association notes, point out that women in their 60s are about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s during the rest of their lives as they are to develop breast cancer.”

Although we often associate the risk of getting Alzheimer’s with getting older, maintaining a healthy brain should be a lifelong pursuit. By instilling the need for and making good choices, we not only support our own brain growth but also instill in our children some habits that can last a lifetime.

Here are some brain-boosting activities for you and your child that you can start doing today:

When a woman discovers she is going to be a mother, excitement, joy and curiosity are just a few of the many emotions she might feel. Among the many questions she will wonder about, a few of her primary concerns are proper nutrition, how to prepare for a newborn, and medical next steps.

Below you will find a few tips to help answer some of these important questions so that she might feel peaceful and prepared during her 40-week journey to motherhood.