Supporting family members with disability weekend
A charity supporting children and adults with disabilities are gearing up to bring families together in a fun, informative weekend.
Leap is offering a family leadership weekend for the whole family to come together in an inclusive environment to begin to develop and share a vision of a good life for a family member with a disability, and for themselves.
The weekend allows families to take part in new activities, ideas and experiences. Parents and adult siblings take part in workshops that invite them to think about the future and about what a good life looks like for their family member, while other children and teenagers are busy taking part in a range of accessible workshops with a team of leaders and volunteers.
The weekend costs €80 per person (all inclusive) and is suitable for families with children from 3-18 years of age.
For more information please contact Rachel at leapireland@gmail.com or 087-6130165
Racism harms child healthcare says US report
This month the American Academy of Paediatrics put out its first policy statement on how racism affects the health and development of children and adolescents.
Racism has an impact on children and families who are targeted but also those who witness it, according to Dr Maria Trent, a professor of paediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, one of the co-authors of the statement.
“We call it a socially transmitted disease: It’s taught, it’s passed down, but the impacts on children and families are significant from a health perspective,” said Dr Trent, and the impact of bias on children’s health starts even before they’re born.
Persistent racial disparities in birth weight and maternal mortality in the US may in part reflect the deprivations of poverty, with less availability of good prenatal care, and poorer medical care in general for minority families, sometimes shaped by unacknowledged biases on the part of medical personnel, according to the statement.
Bamboo toothbrush for kids and you
Plastic toothbrushes, along with a plethora of other plastic products, are one of the worse pollutants of the environment.
Tackling plastic waste starts at home, and moving away from earth-unfriendly plastic toothbrushes is a good start.
Bamboo toothbrushes are the most advertised eco-friendly toothbrush alternative and there are some great options available, but there is also a lot of misinformation about them on the internet and some are poorly made.
Some of the cheap products and toothbrushes being given away for free sometimes aren’t smooth and tend to get soggy.
Doing some research online, asking an environmental group or a friend may help in your search for a sustainable bamboo toothbrush.