Hives

Hives are the way the skin sometimes reacts to allergies, physical irritation, stress or emotions. The often intensely itchy wheals that result may disappear in minutes of hours and usually within a couple of days, but while you have them, you may not want to appear all swollen and scratching in public. Here are the tips.

Antihistamines

Get antihistamines but remember most of them, make you drowsy.

Cool down

Cold compress or baths are about the best only topical treatment of hives. You can also rub an ice cube over the hives. However if you get hives from cold weather or water, you are out of luck.

Calamine lotion

It may help temporarily soothe the itch of your hives.

Alkaline

Anything alkaline usually helps to relieve the itch. Therefore try dabbing milk of magnesia on your hives. It is thinner than calamine, thus it may works better.

Hydrocortisone

If you have just a small number of small hives, a hydrocortisone cream like Cortaid applied directly on the hives may relieve the itch for a while.

Vegetation vigilantes

The leaves and bark of red alder, brewed into a strong tea, will help hives. Apply it locally to the affected area and you can also take a couple of tablespoonfuls internally. Repeat until the hives are relieved.

Avoid exposure

If you know you are going to get hives for whatever reasons, take an antihistamine beforehand to prevent it.

If you get hives in your mouth or throat, seek medical treatment immediately. People with chronic hives (longer than six weeks) or with severe acute hives should also see a doctor.

Conjunctivitis

Your mother called it pinkeye. We call it conjuctivitis. Here is how to soothe pinkeye if you have them.

Wash the red away

A warm compress applied to the eyes for 5 to 10 minutes three or four times a day will make you feel better.

Keep them clean

Conjuctivitis gets better by itself. However to help the healing process, keep your eyes and eyelids clean by using a cotton ball dipped in clean or sterile water to wipe the crusts away.

Baby yourself

A warm compress works well for children, but sometimes adults need a little something more. Adults who have a lot of discharge should make a solution of one part baby shampoo to ten parts of warm water. Dip a sterile cotton ball into the solution and use it to clean off your eyelashes. The warm water loosens the crust and the baby shampoo cleans off the junction of your eyelid and eyelash.

Throw in the towel

This infection is highly contagious. Do not share towel or washcloths with anyone.

Do not chlorinate your eyes

The chlorine in swimming pools can cause conjuctivitis but without the chlorine, bacteria would grow. That could cause conjuctivitis too. So, wear tight fitting goggles while in the water as precautions.

Use ice

If your eye itches like a mosquito bite and you have stringy pus in your eye, most of the time that is the sign of allergic conjuctivitis. Taking an over the counter antihistamine will help that and use cold, not warm, compresses. It will relieve the itch.

Get drugged at night

Germ causing conjunctivitis intensifies when your eyes are closed. That is the reason it gets worse at night when you are asleep. Therefore put any prescribed antibiotic ointment in your eyes before you go to bed.

Eye redness

If the whites of your eyes have more red lines than a road map, these are what you can do:

Water your eyes

If your red eyes are a result of not getting enough sleep, find a way to catch up on your rest. Closing your eyes for 7 to 8 hours helps to rehydrate them. Without sleep the eyes can dry out and dry eyes are red eyes.

Treat your eyelids

If your eyes are red when you wake up, the problem may not be in your eyes but on your eyelids. It is called blepharitis and it is a low grade infection of your eyelids. Just wash your eyelids with warm water at night before you go to bed.

Use drops sparingly

Drops designed to get the red out have an agent in them that works to constrict your blood vessels. They take the redness out by shrinking the blood vessels, however they wear off in a couple of hours and the redness comes back worse. Thus, use drops sparingly.

Crocodile tears

Redness that comes on during the day is caused by dryness. If that is the case, over the counter artificial tears can be used to moisten the eyes. Unlike normal eyedrops, they do not shrink blood vessels.

Cool it

Use a cool, wet washcloth and lay it over your closed eyes. The cold will constrict the blood vessels without the rebound effect while the water will add moisture to your eyes.

It is normal to see blood in the white of your eyes but it is not normal to see blood covering your pupil. See your doctor right away if you do. If your eyes hurt, your vision blurred or you have a pinkish haze, you need medical treatment urgently.

Hangnails

Where do hangnails come from? Those annoying little triangular splits of skin around the fingernails are nothing more than dead skin. The skin in that area, which does not contain a good supply of oil to begin with, simply dries out. It is particularly common among women who have their hands in water a lot or who bite their nails. People who work with paper all the time can get hangnails. The paper absorbs oil from their hands and hangnails is just the physical effect of oil being removed from their skin.

If your hangnails are giving you nightmares, try these tips.

Clip job

Clip it short and clip it early. Just clip off the little tags of skin with small, sharp, sterilized scissors. But before it, soak it in a littler water or a water and oil solution to soften it. Do not clip a hangnail when it is still hard and end up ripping the skin more.

Mom's advice

Do not bite hangnails. You will end up with fairly deep cuts around your fingers if you do that.

Go soak

Soak your hand in an oil and water solution as you would when getting a manicure.

Wrap it up

Rub an emollient cream or ointment on the affected fingers at bedtime and wrap it in a piece of plastic wrap. Secure the end with a bit of tape. The plastic will keep the moisture overnight. Remove the plastic in the morning.

Do not pick at hangnails

If you tend to do this when you are feeling nervous, wear clothes with pockets where you can put one hand in each pocket and leave them there until the urge passes.

Moisturize

Moisturize your cuticles every day. Rub hand lotion into the flesh surrounding your nails.

Cuticle cautions

Use cuticle removing product sparingly and always follow package instructions as it is the cuticle that provides the vital function of protecting your nails from harmful bacterial and fungi.

Bed-wetting

Bed-wetting can be both uncomfortable and embarrassing for a child. Thankfully, almost all kinds outgrow it in time. But should you want to do something while you wait; here are the ways.

Be realistic

Do not praise and do not punish. Just change the bed and do not say a word as it will go away by itself.

Change for the better

Set out a felt-covered rubber pad so when the child has 'an accident', he can lay it over the wet part of the bed. In additon, put out a pair of dry pajamas he can change into. You also can make the child feel better by arranging the bedroom so that the child can change the sheets himself.

Alarm

Bed-wetting alarms emit a buzzing or ringing sound when the child is wet. The theory is that the sound will condition him to awaken when he needs to urinate. Eventually, wetting will be inhibited and bladder distension will become the signal for the child to awaken. Most children respond to this type of conditioning strategy within 60 days. Bed-wetting is considered cured when the child remains dry for 21 consecutive nights.

Boost bladder muscles

Have the child drink lots of fluids during daytime then practice bladder control by holding off urination for as long as possible. This bladder stretching exercises may work.

Patience and love

All kids outgrow bed-wetting at a rate of 15 percent a year, which means by the time they go through puberty, less than 1 or 2 percent will still wet the bed. Therefore, just be patient and supportive.

Burns

10 treatments for minor accidents.

Douse the flame

Stop the burning process first. If it is a contact burn, run the injured part under cold water. If it is hot grease or splattered hot material like battery acid or soup, remove the clothing that is saturated first, wash the grease off your skin then soak the burn in cold water. If the clothing sticks to the burn, rinse over the clothing, then go to the doctor. Do not attempt to pull the clothing off yourself.

Leave the butter for your bread

Food on burns can hold the heat in your tissue and make the burn worse. It also might cause an infection. No vinegar, potato scrapings or honey too.

Check your burn

You can self treat first and second degree burns smaller than a quarter on a child or smaller than a silver dollar on an adult. See doctor for larger burns or for burns on infants under 1 year or people over 60.

Cover it

Gently wrap the burn in a clean, dry cloth such as a thick gauze pad.

Do nothing

For the first 24 hours, leave the burn alone.

Help it heal

Starting 24 hours after you burn yourself, wash your injury gently with soap and water once a day. Keep it covered, dry and clean between washings.

Soothe with aloe

Two or three days after you burn, break off a fresh piece of aloe and use the plant's natural healing moisture or squeeze on an over the counter aloe cream. Do not use aloe if you are using blood thinners or have a medical history of heart problems.

Soothing solutions

When it starts to heal, break open a capsule of vitamin E and rub the liquid onto your irritated skin. If feels good and may prevent scarring.

Dab on an antimicrobial cream

An over the counter antibiotic ointment containing the active ingredients polymyxin B sulfate of bacitracin will discourage infection and speed your healing.

Leave blisters intact

Those bubbles of skin are nature's own best bandage, so leave them alone. If it pops, clean the area with soap and water then smooth on a little antibiotic ointment and cover.

Snoring

There are different levels of snoring. Men are more likely to snore than women. Moderate snorers are those who snore every night but perhaps only when on their backs or only part of the night. In snoring, the sound is orchestrated by a wind ensemble located in the back of the throat. When you breathe in, it causes this tissue to vibrate and that effect is very similar to a wind instrument. So how do we stop the 'music'?

Diet

Most snorers tend to be middle aged, overweight men. Most women snorers are past menopause. Slimming stops snoring. The snoring becomes less loud, and disappears for some, if they loses weight.

No alcohol before bed

Alcohol before bed makes snoring worse.

No sedatives

Sleeping pills may make you snore. Anything that relaxes the tissues around the head and neck will tend to make snoring worse.

No cigarette

Just stop smoking.

Back off

Sleep on your side. Heavy snorers snore in virtually any position but moderate snorers only snore when they are on their backs.

Get rid of your pillow

A large pillow will make you snore more. Pillows only elevate your snoring level.

Raise you bed to new height

Elevating the bed can help minimize snoring. Elevate the upper torso, not just the head.

Allergies

Sneezing and snoring go together. Snoring can develop due to allergies or colds. Use a nasal decongestant, especially if your snoring is intermittent and comes during hay fever season.

Put a plug in it

If everything fails, the one on the receiving end of the nasal abuse can wear earplugs to bed.

Bronchitis

Bronchitis is a lot like a cold. It is usually caused by virus. Therefore antibiotics will not do much good. Sometimes, it is caused by bacteria and in that case antibiotics will work. Acute bronchitis will go away by itself in a week or two but chronic sufferers can cough and wheeze for months. Though we have to let it take its course, there are things we can do to breathe easier while we have it.

Stop smoking

If you are a chronic sufferer, quit smoking. 95% of chronic bronchitis is due directly to smoking. The fewer years you have been smoking, the more likely it is that you will have a complete recovery.

Avoid being with other smokers

Avoid those who smokes. You need to avoid all tobacco smoke. Exposing yourself to exhaled smoke can give you bronchitis.

Keep the fluids flowing

Drinking helps the mucus become more watery and easier to cough up. Warm liquid or just plain water is best. Avoid caffeine or alcoholic beverages.

Warm, moist air

Stand in your bathroom, close the door and then run your shower, breathing in the warm mist that steams up your bathroom helps a lot.

Creating a 'tent'

Fill the sink with hot water, put a towel over your head and the sink, creating a tent and then inhale the steam for 5 to 10 minutes every couple of hours.

Do not expect too much from expectorants

No medicine that can dry up mucus. Drinking fluids of any type is the best way to cough up secretions.

Listen to your cough

Do you have a productive or nonproductive cough? If you have a productive cough, one where you cough up sputum, you do not really want to suppress it completely because you will not be coughing up the stuff your lungs want to rid themselves of.

Watch your volume

If your cough is nonproductive, that is - you are not coughing anything up, then it is good to take a cough medicine designed to suppress a cough.

Milk may help suppress bronchitis in smokers. The same effect however was not found in milk-drinking nonsmokers. However, there is no doubt that quitting smoking is still the best way to rid yourself of chronic bronchitis.

Flatulence

It is tough to be serious about flatulence, though we promise to try.

Lay off the lactose

Expert says that if you are lactose intolerant, you could have flatulence problems from eating dairy foods. Some people can only handle certain amount and different kinds of milk product with comfort. If your doctor suspects that your favorite dairy product is causing your problem, try eating it in smaller servings or along with a meal for a day or two until you notice where gas begins to be a problem.

Avoid gas promoting foods

The primary cause of flatulence is the digestive system inability to absorb certain carbohydrates. Beans, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, onions, cauliflower, whole wheat flour, radishes, bananas, apricots, pretzels and many more foods can also be highly flatugenic.

Avoid fiber induced flatus

Some high fiber vegetables and fruits may increase gas. If you are adding fiber to your diet for health reasons, start with a small dose so the bowel gets used to it.

Charcoal

Charcoal absorbs gases and may be useful for flatulence. It is probably the best available treatment after appropriate dietary changes have been made and other gastroenterological diseases have been treated or ruled out. Charcoal however can soak up medicine as well as gas; so check with your doctor.

Quick relief

Besides activated charcoal for relief of intestinal gas, simethicone containing products are still the most popular. This product's defoaming action relieves flatulence by dispersing and preventing the formation of mucous-surrounded gas pockets in the stomach and intestines.

Ingrown nails

If you have an ingrown nail, you know how it feels. The problem occurs when a nail, usually on the big toe, grows or is pushed into the soft tissue alongside it. Though your long term goal is to prevent a return engagement, your immediate aim is to soothe the pain. Here is how to accomplish both.

Try an over the counter products

There are variety of nonprescription over the counter products that may soften the nail and the skin around it, thereby relieving pain. Get one and just follow the directions. However, do not use them if you have diabetes or impaired circulation.

Get a wisp of relief

Your mission is to help that embedded toenail grow out over the skin folds at its side. Start by soaking your foot in warm water to soften the nail. Dry carefully, then gently insert a wisp (not a wad) of sterile cotton beneath the burrowing edge of the nail. The cotton will slightly lift the nail so it can grow past the tissue it is digging into. Apply an antiseptic as a safeguard against infection. Change the cotton insert daily until the nail has grown past the trouble spot.

No v-shaped, please

Do not cut a v-shaped wedge out of the center of the nail. People think that an ingrown nail is too big and that if you take a wedge from the middle, the sides will grow toward the center and away from the ingrown edge. That is utter nonsense. All nails grow from back to front only.

Let your toes breathe

Ill fitting footwear can cause an ingrown nail, especially if your nails tend to curve. So, avoid pointed or tight shoes that press on toenails. Opt for sandals where appropriate or wide toed shoes. Likewise, stay away from tight socks and panty hose.

Cut nails correctly

Never cut your nail too short. Soften them in warm water to reduce possible splitting, then cut straight across with a substantial, sharp, straight edged clipper. Always leave the outside edges parallel to the skin. Do not trim the nail any deeper than the tip of the toe. You need it long enough to protect the toe from pressure and friction.

Fix mistakes

If you accidentally cut or break a nail too short, carefully smooth it at the edges so that no sharp points are left to penetrate the skin.

If your toe becomes infected, see a physician. To reduce inflammation until your appointment, periodically soak your foot in an iodine solution then apply an antibiotic cream.

Diaper rash

Babies have this knack for making their problems your problems, and if baby has diaper rash, you have it, too.

How do we tackle diaper rash?

Give them some air

Give the baby's bottom some air. Take the baby's diaper off and lay him chest down, with his face turned to one side, on towels underlaid with a waterproof sheet. Leave the baby that way for as long as you are there to keep an eye on him.

Super absorbent diapers

Diapers containing absorbent gelling material have been shown to significantly reduce skin wetness.

Blow-dry

Keeping the diaper area clean promotes healing but drying with a towel can irritate sensitive skin. Try a blow dryer instead! Set it on low to avoid abrasion to wet skin. When it is dry, zinc oxide ointments may be applied.

Give cloth diapers a vinegar rinse

Adding vinegar to the final rinse when washing diapers will help bring the pH of cloth diapers into line with that of the baby's skin. Add 1 ounce of vinegar to 1 gallon of water during the final rinse.

The cranberry connection

When urine and feces mix in the diaper area, the result is a high pH that irritates the skin and promotes diaper rash. It is noted that 2 to 3 ounces of cranberry juice given to older infants will leave an acid residue in the urine, helping lower pH and reduce irritation.

Research shows that breastfed babies has less diaper rash than bottle-fed babies. Even better, it is noted too that this resistance continues long after a baby has been weaned.

Black eye

For black eye, you need to see your doctor when you are having a hard time seeing any doctor. Seek treatment if your vision is impaired, you have pain in your eye, you are light sensitive, double or blurred vision.

Otherwise the following is how to block a black eye.

Pack it in ice

Cold works in two ways; helps keeping the swelling down and by constricting the blood vessels, helps decrease the internal bleeding which causes the black and blue colour. Apply an ice pack for the first 24 to 48 hours. If your eyes is swollen shut, use it for 10 minutes every 2 hours the first day. To prepare the ice pack, just crushed ice in a plastic bag and tape it to the forehead to prevent putting pressure on the eye.

Cold soda

Hold a cold soda can against the eye intermittently (5 to 10 minutes every 15 minutes) until you can get some ice on it. Nevertheless make sure the can is clean and then hold it lightly against your cheek, not your eye. Do not put any pressure on you eyeball.

Avoid aspirin

Take acetaminophen if you need a pain reliever. Aspirin will make you ending up with a bigger bruises as it is an anticoagulant, which means the blood will not clot as well.

Do not blow your nose

Blowing your nose could cause your face to blow up like a balloon. The injury may fracture the bone of the eye socket. Blowing your nose can force air out of your sinus adjacent to the socket. The air gets injected under your skin and makes the eyelids swell even more and increase the chance of infection.

Most black eyes will last about a week and nothing can be done to disguise it totally. Thus you have to live with it. When it starts to heal, it will turn green, then yellow and finally it just disappears.

Vomiting

Vomiting is the logical conclusion of nausea. Your tummy is trying to get rid of whatever you did that made it sick. Your goals are to help your tummy settle down and to prevent dehydration. Here is what you should do:

Avoid being dehydrated
You lose a lot of fluid in vomiting, so the best thing is to replace it. Water, weak tea, juices are highly recommended.

Replace important nutrients
Vomiting flushes out minerals. Therefore taking clear soup and juices like apple or cranberry is better than drinking plain water. However water is better than nothing but adding a couple pinches of salt and sugar helps too.

Sip your drink
Sip your drink in tiny swallows.

Determine your timing
The less fluid you are sipping at a time, the more often you have to sip. How frequently you take fluids depends on how your stomach reacts.

Check your urine
The paler your urine, the better you are doing to prevent dehydration.

Avoid cold drinks
Drink warm drinks or those at room temperature.

No carbonated drinks
Tiny bubbles are not what you need if you are vomiting.

Coke syrup
Coke syrup proves to works both for children and adults. The dose for children is 1 to 2 teaspoons while adult is 1 to 2 tablespoons as often as needed between bouts of vomiting.

Start with carbohydrates
When the vomiting stops, the best way to start eating again is with a gelatin dessert. It is mostly liquid, easy on the stomach, high in carbohydrates and taste good. Non buttered toast or crackers are good too.

Add a light protein
When you are feeling a little better, you can move on to a light protein like chicken breast or fish. If you are taking chicken soup, be sure to skim off as much fat from the soup as you can.

Avoid fat
Avoid fatty meats and cream soups until you are really feeling better. Fat stays in the stomach too long and can add to the bloated, full feeling.

Vomiting can be a sign of something serious. If it is either bloody or persistent and nothing seems to help, seek help immediately.

Body odor

If you want to win friends and influence people – don’t stink.

The following are tips on how to feel fresh, clean and smell like a rose.

Scrubbing
Body odor is often caused by combination of perspiration and bacteria. Scrubbing with soap and water will wash both culprits away, particularly in those areas of the body which are most likely to smell, such as the armpits and groin.

Change your clothes
Washing yourself is not enough if you are wearing the same undershirt seven days a week!

Natural fabrics
Cotton absorbs perspiration better than synthetic materials. The absorbed sweat is then free to evaporate from the fabric.

Change your soap
In case you perspire a lot and are likely to smell bad, regular deodorant soap may be not good enough. Therefore get your pharmacist for advice.

Antiperspirants
If you have a body odor problem, you may need an antiperspirant. It reduces the amount of perspiration the body produces.

Topical antibiotic cream
If you cannot use commercial deodorants or antiperspirants without developing a rash, you might try a topical antibiotic cream.

Masking odor
Pine soap not only masks human odor but leaves you smelling like a pine forest. This type of soaps is used by hunter to mask all trace of body odor while hunting. If others fail, then give this soap a try.

Watch what you eat
Extracts of proteins and oils from certain foods and spices remain in your body’s excretions and secretions for hours after eating them and can impart an odor.

Keep calm
If you are anticipating a situation that is likely to excite or upset you, consider using an extra dose of deodorant that morning.

The old dog trick
An old folk remedy for a dog that has been skunked is to deodorize the poor pup with tomato juice. And guess what? It works for human too. Just pour a couple of cups in with your bath water and sit for 15 minutes.

Stained teeth

Cola, tea, smoke, acidic juices and highly pigmented food slosh past your teeth and your teeth tell the tale in the form of stains. Not that teeth were ever meant to be totally white as the natural colour of teeth is actually light yellow to light yellow-red.

Stains can be caused by antibiotics, by quirks in individual metabolism and sometimes by high fever. All these have to be fixed by a professional. But common stains can be washed away between professional cleanings:

Clean after every meal
Clean our teeth regularly and conscientiously.

Polish with baking soda
Mix baking soda with enough hydrogen peroxide to make a toothpaste and brush those stains away.

Rinse
After every meal, rinse the food from our teeth.

Electric toothbrush
An electric toothbrush will push more of the stain collecting plaque off our teeth.

Plaque dissolver
Mouthwashes that have an antibacterial action will reduce stain-catching plaque

Do not use the super-whitening tooth polishes
Tooth polish is a quick fix, but it is like using an abrasive on a countertop. It takes off the stain but it wears off the enamel too. When our enamel gets thinner, more of the dentin shows through. As dentin is darker, so it looks like our tooth is stained.

Earwax

The common problem is when earwax forms a hard little plug next to the eardrum and has to be removed by a doctor. So, what should we do to prevent that from happening?

Stick nothing in your ear
Never stick anything sharp into our ear, such as a pencil tip or a paper clip. We could tear our eardrum if we do this. Do not use a cotton-tipped swab or finger too. Even while we think we are cleaning out our ear, we may be ramming the wax deeper so it acts like a plug over our eardrum.

Drop in a softening fluid
Hydrogen peroxide, mineral oil or glycerin can be used for inexpensive cleaning of our ear. Add a drop or two of one of the liquids to each ear and allow excess to flow out. The liquid left inside will bubble away at the wax and soften it. Do this for a couple of days.

Once the wax is soft, we are ready to rinse. Fill a bowl with body temperature water; fill a rubber bulb syringe with the water, then holding our head over the bowl, squirt the water gently into our ear canal. The stream of water should be under very little pressure. Turn the head to the side and let the water run out.

Blow-dry your ears
Do not rub our ears dry, instead dry our ear with hair dryer or drop a little alcohol in each ear to complete the drying. This is to be done after every shower.

Make it a habit
Clean our earwax once a month and make it a habit.

Dry hair

Dry hair is caused by water! Particularly if we are talking about water of the salty, chlorinated or sudsy variety. Swimming and over shampooing cause dryness to the hair too. Other culprits are including of colourings, electric curlers, excessive blow-drying and too much exposure to wind and sun.

The following is how to rescue dried-out hair:

Shampoo with care
Shampoo washes out the hair’s protective oils. Try washing less often and use only a mild shampoo with ‘for dry or damaged hair’ labels.

Use a conditioner
Conditioners add lubricant to the hair and prevent static electricity which creates frizz.

Mayonnaise
Believe it or not, mayonnaise makes an excellent conditioner. Leave it in your hair for 5 minutes to one hour before washing it out.

Never use heat
Heat contributes to dried-out hair. So, stop using curling irons and electric curlers and rediscover those plastic cylinder rollers from years ago. For straightening, wrap slightly moist hair under and around rollers for about 10 minutes. For curling or adding wave, try using sponge rollers overnight or sleeping with moist braids.

Protect from the sun
Wear a hat not only to protect your hair from the sun but wear it both on breezy, balmy summer days, and on gusty, frosty winter days.

Beer
Beer is a wonderful setting lotion. It gives a crisp, healthy, shiny look, even to dry hair. Spray it onto your hair using a pump bottle after you have shampooed and towel-dried, but before you blow-dry or style.

A trip to the beauty parlor
Steam treatment with oils and creams lasts about an hour and you can really tell the difference.

Finally, old banana can nurse your hair too!

Teething

An infant’s teeth start developing months before birth. By the time the baby is born, all 20 of the primary teeth that will be sprouting over the next 2 ½ years are already present. At the age of four to eight months, those first teeth start pushing for daylight and cause discomfort to the baby. Parents have to bear this, though the following may be of help to ease the restless baby.

Teething rings
Give the baby the teething rings to chew on. Those that can be put in the refrigerator and keep cold, works very well and feels good on the baby’s gums. For a baby of 6 months or older, even a clean, cold washcloth to chew on feels good.

Gauze those gums
Massage the gum pads with a small gauze pad or even a soft baby washcloth wrapped around our forefinger. Regular massaging can contribute to healthier gum tissue. Doing so will remove bacteria buildup and gets the youngster use to having someone poking around inside the mouth. When the first tooth comes in, we can start brushing it right away without a fuss.

Serve a tasty teether
Most teething rings have no flavour. Hence a piece of cold apple, wrapped in a wet, child-size washcloth for the baby to bite down and work those teeth through the gums may make a difference.

Use of topical anesthetics
There are a number of topical anesthetics that are good for relieving teething pain and are available over the counter at any drugstore. Just wipe some on the gum pads and it gives quick relief to the baby.

What we should bear in mind is that fever during teething is not a ‘teething fever’. There is something else going on in our baby’s body! So, consult the doctor.

Bruises

Nobody is bruise-proof. However, we can lessen the likelihood of large bruises, shrink and heal them by the following:

Use an ice pack
Use an ice pack to treat injuries that might lead to a bruise. Apply the ice packs as quickly as possible following the injury and it must be continued for 24 hours, at 15 minutes’ intervals should we suspect it will be severe. Cooling constricts the blood vessels which mean less blood spills into the tissues to cause bruises. It also minimizes swelling and numbs the area.

Heat
After 24 hours, use heat to dilate the blood vessels and improve circulation.

Prop up your foot
Bruises are little reservoirs of blood. Blood, like any liquid runs downhill. If we do a lot of standing, blood that has collected in a bruise will seep down through our soft tissues and find other places to puddle.

Vitamin C
Studies show that people who lack vitamin C in their diets tend to bruise more easily and their wounds heal more slowly.

Medications
Some drugs like anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, asthma medicines and aspirins will cause bruise easily. Alcoholics or drug abusers are likely to bruise easily.

Above all, should we find ourselves bruising easily and cannot figure out the causes, we should talk to our doctor about it. Bruises can sometimes be a sign of illness. It is a point to remember however, that we do not have to bump to bruise!

Hiccups

What cause hiccups? There is a lot of explanations on the reasons of hiccups. But most experts start their list of hiccup sins with eating too fast and swallowing too much air.

The general goal of all hiccups cures is to either increase carbon dioxide levels in the blood or to disrupt or overwhelm the nerve impulses causing hiccups. However some says most hiccups stop on their own.

But why not try one of these when you are having a bout of hiccups.

A teaspoon of sugar
Some say swallowing a teaspoon of sugar cures hiccups. The sugar probably acting in the mouth to modify the nervous impulses that would otherwise tell the muscle in the diaphragm to contract spasmodically.

Drinking upside down
Some use to bend over forward and drink the water upside down. It may sound weird but it works.

Holding our breath
Holding our breath or blowing air out of our body in a slow, steady stream may work wonders.

Swallowing while the hiccups sensation coming
If we have hiccups while eating, just hold our breath for as long as possible and swallow at the time we feel the hiccup sensation coming. Do that two or three times, then take a deep breath and repeat again.

Tickle and have fun
Just tickle the person who is having hiccups. By tickling, we will make the person gasps for breath and makes his/her diaphragm go back to doing what it is supposed to do.

Oily skin

The good news is people with oily skin are likely to age better and wrinkle less compared to those with normal and dry skin. However, it is quite embarassing to stuck with a shiny forehead.

Heredity plays a big role in oily skin. Other factors that may cause oily skin are pregnancy and women on birth control pills. Both are due to hormonal activity changes. Stress and using wrong cosmetics can cause or exeggerate the oily skin too. Though on certain cases, we are left without alternative on how to control, what we should do is to always keep our face clean.

Besides that, the following may prove to benefit those with oily skin.

Use clay or mud masks.

Generally, the darker brown the clay, the more oil it can absorb. White or rose coloured clays are gentler and work best on sensitive skin. However, masks cleanse the surface greasiness only.

Warm water and soap.

Wash oily skin with warm water and soap. It is better than using cold water and soap.

Use drying soaps
Use a drying soap instead of those which moisturise to solve oily skin problems.

Use the right cosmetics
Choose a water-based product instead of an oil-based one.

Take a powder
Baby powder can do wonders when fluff lightly over make up.

One thing to remember - oily skin has nothing to do with the fatty and fried food we eat. We cannot turn off the oil glands with diet!