Study Finds That One in Three Kids Experience Back Pain

Yes, the way kids wear their backpacks really can affect their posture!

Experiencing back pain is extremely common in today's society. In fact, experts believe that 80% of the population will experience a back problem at some time in their lives. Whether it's from a genetic condition, poor posture, or an accident like a staircase injury, which is the second leading type of accidental injury, millions of people experience back pain regularly. And now, a new study has found that back pain among children and adolescents is significantly higher than might be expected.

According to the study, “The Epidemiology of Back Pain in Children and Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study of 3,669 American Youth,” one in three children between the ages of 10 and 18 reported experiencing backaches within the past year. The survey reached about 3,700 children between these ages.

Easy Ways To Reduce Water Waste At Home

While you generally don't think of water as a non-renewable resource, maybe you should be. Only 3% of Earth’s water is fresh water, and with climate change causing significant problems for environments around the world, freshwater access is becoming more difficult. In fact, about one in every eight people in the world do not have access to clean water. While water might cover the majority of the planet, fresh, clean water is surprisingly hard to come by, and a lack of it can prove disastrous.

Around 20% of wastewater comes from agricultural operations and commercial discharge, but that still leaves a significant portion that's the result of individuals like you and me. The average home uses more water than you might think for everything from flushing toilets to washing clothes to cooking meals and more. Luckily, there are a few small things you can do at home to reduce your water consumption and do your part to save our limited sources of clean drinking water.

Teaching Children About Energetic Boundaries

Energy Boundaries for Kids:

Helping Them Be The “You” That They Are

By Cyndi Dale

A while back, I received a call from my son’s school.

Now I’ve been called by the principal every so often for all sorts of concerns. There was the time Gabe “accidently” punched a kid in the stomach after the other kid “mistakenly” kicked him in the gut. There was the day nearly every boy’s mother was asked to restrict her son’s activities at school, after the boys collectively staged a mass jump into a huge mud puddle—the one near the recess teacher. There have been the flu calls and the “dog ate the homework” calls, the latter usually accurate, as we’ve tended to host dogs that eat just about everything, except the dog food, of course. This particular call, however, flipped my stomach.

“Your son threw his back out,” the school nurse informed me.

“How?” I asked, my stomach now officially sinking.

“Apparently he was simply sitting in his desk at 1:30 and said his back started throbbing. He’s having a hard time walking right now.”

I groaned—not only because I was concerned about Gabe’s well being, but also because I was the reason for his malady. You see at precisely 1:30 p.m. that day I was “releasing energy” from my lower back while sitting in an office with my therapist. My “old emotions” had transferred immediately from my body to Gabe’s, no stopping at “Go.”

Are Recycled Homes The Next Big Thing?

In the era of climate change, more and more people are looking to unique solutions when creating their homes. While many will draw the line at simply adding solar panels to their homes, some families are taking it a step further and building their home of entirely recycled materials. Despite seeming like a far-fetched idea, these homes are actually shockingly doable and can help reduce your carbon footprint down to next to nothing.

Why Waste?

There are plenty of options out there for green construction, and with the U.S. Construction market being worth approximately $1,162 billion, builders know diversifying their construction materials is good for business. So what exactly is pushing people to use recycled materials in their homes? The answer depends on what style of construction you're looking at. There are a variety of types of recycled homes, with people using everything from salvaged building materials that you'd expect to see in a home all the way to plastic bottles and old tires. For some, building with recycled materials means getting a home that looks similar to conventional homes at a fraction of the cost. However, for others that tend to use more creative materials, building a home from recycled materials can be a way of expressing themselves. The ingenuity it takes to build a home from recycled materials certainly is a unique way of making a statement.

Have you ever thought about where your parenting beliefs come from?

Are you willing to take a hard look at your parenting skills and the way you discipline your child?

Have you ever thought about where your parenting beliefs come from? The ways we discipline our children have been passed down from grandparents to parents and then to us. Some parenting practices go back several generations. Societal beliefs also shape each decade.

How do you feel about the way you were disciplined as a child?
Have you ever explored these feelings? There is much value in this exploration. 
Are you parenting from the past?

A Successful tool we have used was to take a piece of paper and pen. Draw a line down the middle of the paper. On top of the page write mom/dad. Write pros' on one side and con's on the other. Now start listing what you liked and didn't like. This is where the intentional Conscious Parenting begins. 

(This is an example, no references to anyone in particular)

We invite you to take a look at the choices you are making that will shape your childs well being. Choose wisely, someday they may quite possible be passing along these beliefs to your grandchildren. 

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Pick one of ours or create your own with their picture on it!

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How to Modify Your Home With Accessibility and Health in Mind

An estimated 15% of the world's population is currently living with a disability, and it's not always easy to determine how accessible and health-conscious your home is to the average person. If you're interested in making some healthy improvements to your home while also making it more accessible and habitable for individuals with certain disabilities, getting started is easier than you think with these tips:

Widen Doorways

The U.S. is the second largest construction market in the world, with a market share of 10%. While there are plenty of major renovations that can be made to increase accessibility, this project is very simple and can even be performed by any DIY handyman. But widening the doorways of your home allows for easier access for individuals in wheelchairs, those using walkers and other people with limited mobility. While widening the doorways themselves is a relatively labor-intensive task, it's often more feasible to invest in a door with offset hinges, allowing for a few extra inches of space.
"Many wheelchairs and walkers are too wide to easily maneuver through doorways. Widening doorways can be a costly job (up to $1,000 in some cases), but you can use some offset hinges to help swing the door clear of the opening to inexpensively add a couple inches of space, writes Rachel Brougham on Family Handyman.

How To Get The Whole Family Excited About Exercise

Trying to stay healthy and active as a parent can be tricky; with the busy schedule of any mom or dad, you might struggle to find a time to work out. This is even more true for working parents, where fitting in exercise drops further and further down the priority list until it's almost entirely forgotten about. Parenthood can often make getting into shape seem impossible.
However, exercise isn't important just for you, it can be helpful for your family too. That's why you should try to plan your next work out with getting your family involved in mind. Exercise can help have many health benefits for children, including improved strength and immune systems. The average child catches between six and ten colds a year, but getting the recommended 30 to 60 minutes of exercise daily may reduce this number. Here are just a few ways to get your children involved in your exercise routines to help improve health for both them and you.

Turn Exercise Into A Game

If you can turn exercise into a game, you're far more likely to get your kids excited about joining you during your workout. For younger kids, use active games like tag, hopscotch, or other fun challenges that get your kids moving. Older kids might prefer to pick a sport. If you can, help them practice by shooting hoops or running bases with them; this gets you moving while also encouraging their active interests.
If childhood games and sports aren't preferred by your kids, use popular activities like biking; in spring 2017, 66.21 million people in the U.S. had gone cycling within the last 12 months. By using popular activities that your kids enjoy, they're more likely to ask to join you, possibly even keeping you motivated to work out more often.