Browsing Category: Health

Yes, babies can cause carpal tunnel

November 21, 2016 Zoe

I had carpal tunnel when I was pregnant. Apparently it’s a fairly common thing thanks to retaining extra water and loosening ligaments – it’s something of a perfect storm for carpal tunnel. However, after giving birth, mine seemed to go away. The swelling in my hands went down, and I generally felt better. But then my right hand swelled up and was painful – my GP even did X-Rays and then assumed it was gout. But it wasn’t gout. Nope, it was the return of my carpal tunnel.

It is now really bad in my left hand, and moderately bad in my right hand. I’ve been to an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist for it. The joys of breastfeeding mean that I can’t take any strong medications for it, or even consider surgery at the moment, not that I really want to go for surgery for it. So what’s going on? Yes, I spend the majority of my day in front of a computer, but that’s not actually the root cause of my pain and suffering. Nope, that can be attributed to my ever-growing bundle of joy. Continue Reading

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3 Comments Health

Build a (literal) sense of direction in your kid by swinging

September 30, 2016 Zoe

I don’t like to brag, but there is a cool trait that I have that I am so happy to have. I have a great sense of direction. Plonk me in unfamiliar territory, give me a map or just a vague sense of where I am and where I need to go, and I can figure it out. My internal compass is pretty damn strong, and I do well with remembering streets, landmarks and a general sense of where I exist in space. It has made travel much more enjoyable, as well as made moving cities way less daunting. After driving somewhere once or twice, I can find my way there and back again without too much hassle. It’s sort of like in those Ubisoft open-world games – I sync my map internally and then I can access that info whenever I need it, even years later.

For a long time, I figured this was just an innate trait. I mean, sure, my father taught me about reading maps, and we had cool map drawing classes in my Waldorf elementary school, but in actual fact,I was drawing maps even before then. When my brother would play games, I would be the one drawing maps of dungeons, telling him where we needed to go. He was the one doing the controls, but I was always the navigator. However, after doing some digging, it seems that there was something else I did that helped give me a sense of direction, and it really isn’t hard to pass this awesome ability on to your little one… and maybe even improve your sense of direction, too. Continue Reading

3 Comments Child Development, Health, Parenting

early childhood development Sense of direction travel

“Overweight and Underpowered”

September 26, 2016 Zoe

There was a point on our trip to Knysna, driving along the single lane highway, when Dean was struggling to get our little car to overtake one of the many trucks along the route. Our Chevy Aveo does just fine most of the time, but loaded with 3 adults and a baby in her awesome car seat, plus the pram and all our baggage in the trunk/boot, it wasn’t quite as strong as we needed. Kris said it quite well in that moment – the car was overweight and underpowered. “Just like me”, I quipped from the backseat of the car. We all chuckled, but it’s been irritating me because it’s true.

I made a promise to myself (and to all of you) that I wouldn’t pass my body image stuff on to Harley. I don’t want her to grow up worrying about her weight, something that so many women (all women?) worry about. I also told myself that I’d give myself a year before worrying about getting back into shape after Harley came along – I figured it would take that long before we’d have a routine and stuff that let me carve time out of the day to go to the gym or at least do home exercise. But then I went for my post-baby checkup and I had actually lost weight. I even took pictures of my before and after body at that point. But I may have spoken too soon. Continue Reading

3 Comments Breast feeding, Fitness, Health, Rambling

Fitness post-baby weight loss weight loss

#CarseatFullstop – Moving forward facing backward

July 26, 2016 Zoe

I didn’t grow up in car culture. I grew up in New York City, where public transportation and taxis and walking are the norm. As a result, I didn’t grow up around cars and car seats, instead learning about them once I moved to car-centered cities as an adult.

This is actually a good thing, though – the information about child restraints has evolved a lot in the past 20-30 years, and research continues to show the importance of rear-facing seats. Harley’s infant seat was obviously rear facing, as is the norm for all infants, but she will probably grow out of it in the coming months, which means we’ll need to buy her a new one. But she will continue to face the back of the car, and here’s why. Continue Reading

4 Comments Health, Parenting, Sponsored

#CarseatFullstop Baby car seat

Coconut oil made my psoriasis worse

May 25, 2016 Zoe

If you’ve been anywhere on the internet, you will have seen that coconut oil is the new miracle cure. From acne to dry skin to athlete’s foot to hair care, coconut oil is the best thing for all your healthcare needs. I resisted its siren call for a long time, thinking that it would smell like a holiday and probably not do much. But once I jumped on the bandwagon, I jumped with both feet. Thanks to my sensitive and dry skin, I figured this could be a natural, cheap and wonderful solution. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

At first, I adored the coconut oil. It made my hair look luxurious and soft, it helped me scrape off my scalp psoriasis and it even left my skin feeling soft and smooth. I am a veteran moisturizer, so I typically know how to cover myself like those poor birds following the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. And that’s what I did with the coconut oil, using it daily to keep my skin moisturized from head to toe. It absorbed quickly, so I didn’t feel greasy afterward, and I thought I’d found the answer to life. Continue Reading

1 Comment Health

Alternative coconut oil Dry skin