Jellyfish 2 – Pea 0

We live maybe five minutes from the beach, but if the truth be known, we don’t really go to there all that often. Maybe once or twice a summer, if that. I’d much rather swim in our back yard pool away from the crowds, the sand that gets into places where places shouldn’t even be, and the jellyfish.

You see, my daughter Pea, cannot go to the beach without getting stung by the jellyfish who lurk in the waters. Every single time we’ve gone to the beach, no matter who we’re with or how many people we’re with, she will be the one to get stung.

This week, we’ve gone twice… and both days, you guessed it. She got stung. Yesterday was a little sting that she shrugged off with no problem and a little meat tenderizer. Today was a different story. Her left arm looks like she was trying to arm wrestle with the jellyfish and lost. Badly.

Needless to say, our trip to the beach got cut short.

Because it was so bad, I went to WebMD in search of home remedies for jellyfish stings:

* Do not rub the tentacles with your hands, a towel, sand, or clothing.
* Soak a compress in household vinegar (5% acetic acid solution) and hot water. Apply to the affected area to prevent further stings.
* If vinegar is not available, rinse the area with large amounts of salt water. Do not use fresh water; this may cause the tentacles to release venom. Do not use urine, gasoline, kerosene, or turpentine.
* Rinse eye stings with a saline solution, such as Artificial Tears. Do not put vinegar, alcohol, or any other “stinger solution” in the eyes. The skin around the eye can be dabbed with a cloth soaked in vinegar, but you must be extremely careful not to get any of the solution in the eye.
* If vinegar is not available, unseasoned meat tenderizer, baking soda, or one-quarter-strength household ammonia may be useful for treating jellyfish stings. Be careful not to get these products in your eyes. Meat tenderizer or baking soda may be sprinkled directly onto the affected area or made into a paste by adding water and then applied to the skin. Apply meat tenderizer to the skin for no longer than 15 minutes. Soak a cloth in ¼ cup (60 mL) ammonia mixed with ¾ cup (180 mL) water and apply it to the affected area.
* After decontamination, pick off tentacles with a stick or your hand protected by a towel or glove. Be very careful not to rub or press the tentacles.
* If it is available, apply a lather of shaving cream or soap, or a paste of baking soda, flour, or talc to the skin. The stinging cells will stick to the shaving cream or paste and can then be easily scraped off with a safety razor, a knife edge, or the edge of a credit card.
Take an antihistamine, such as diphenhydramine or chlorpheniramine, or apply 1% hydrocortisone cream to help control itching. Note: Do not use the cream on children younger than age 2 unless your doctor tells you to. Do not use in the rectal or vaginal area in children younger than age 12 unless your doctor tells you to. Also, don’t give antihistamines to your child unless you’ve checked with the doctor first.
* Use an ice pack to help relieve pain.
* Clean any open sores 3 times per day, apply an antiseptic ointment, such as bacitracin, and cover with a light bandage.

When she first got stung, I had her wash the area with cold ice water and used meat tenderizer to start off with. Once we got home, I applied a vinegar compress and gave Pea some Benadryl.

Here’s hoping our next trip to the beach is luckier for her.

Lunches From Home Are Unhealthy? Ex-cuse me???

Today’s Daily Post topic hit a button with me, mostly because, the issue of school lunches being unhealthy keeps cropping up in my sphere of reading.

So now, some Chicago school wants to set a president by telling us not only are school “excellent” but they’re better for you than what a child can bring from home.

Umm, no, Chicago, it’s NOT. Not always. In a lot schools, the majority of the food is greasy, fried and prepackaged. Which means that it’s also not fresh, is loaded with preservatives (to make it last longer), way too much sodium and excess fat and calories. Even the so-called “bag lunches” that my daughter’s school provides consist of pre-packaged Smucker’s PB&J Crustables.

I give my daughter the choice, now that she’s older, but when she first started school as a kindergartener, I packed her lunches. Each day, she got her choice of sandwich (home made with her choice of either peanut butter & jelly or lunch meat and cheese), a cup of fruit or jello, a dairy product (usually yogurt or string cheese), and something to drink. Her drink was either milk, chocolate milk, or juice. I also included a “snack” item, usually graham crackers, pretzels or Gold Fish crackers. Sometimes the snack was a couple of cookies. It was never chips or candy. Furthermore, every item was made in direct proportion for my daughter, her likes and her needs. (The “ideal” serving of peanut butter is two table spoons… that’s one and a half tablespoons more than anyone in my family eats on a sandwich.)

Occasionally, she would have baby carrots and a small cut of dressing for “dip its,” a cup up apple, cucumber, or a banana.

This is what she ate Friday at school, courtesy of the school’s lunch program:

Cheeseburger
Cry Baby Sherbert Cup
Potato, Wedges

She brought her own drink on Friday, a vitamin water, but she usually drinks the school’s milk.

The price for this “excellent” meal was $2.35. It does not include a fruit or a vegetable, and sherbert isn’t really a “dairy product.” The cheese burger and potatoes were most likely fried.

And you’re going to tell me that THIS is healthier for her than what I could send in her lunch box? Um… no. Just… no.

With all due respect to the city of Chicago and it’s school system, but… NO.

I will grant that not all schools have bad lunches. I know that there is a growing movement to get schools to prepare healthier lunches and give students more options. I also am very aware that a lot of families cannot afford to buy better quality food or extra food to prepare lunches with.

But I’m also aware that some families cannot afford the $2.35+ for just one meal a day ($70.50 a month, that you very much!), especially if they have ore than one child. School lunches cost money and not everyone qualifies for reduced or free lunches. Do they even have free lunches any more?

The cynical side of me says the real issue here is the money. Public schools get funding and revenue for all the students who buy their lunches. They don’t want the kids to bring lunches from home, because then they wouldn’t get as much money.

The not-so cynical side of me sees both sides. I know that some families can’t afford to buy school lunches, and that some families can afford to buy the extra food to make a bagged lunch. I also know that not all parents have the time to make their children’s lunches and the kids don’t always make the best choices if they’re doing it themselves. They’ll grab their favorite cookies and soda over carrots and dip any day.

However, I do feel that this is not a sufficient enough reason to ban home made lunches entirely. Ban soda. Send home ‘lunch guidelines’ for the parents to read. Anything but take away a viable choice, especially when you can’t actually prove that your school lunch is better than my bagged lunch.

(Please note, I didn’t touch on the issue of bagged lunches for kids with special nutrition needs, food allergies, etc. I’m sure someone else will, or has, but these also, are good reasons why banning a home-made lunch would be wrong, wrong, wrong. )

Lastly, I’d just like to say this… I grew up in a time when school lunches were better for you, because they were actually made fresh every day by the ladies in the cafeteria, even the pizza. Very little came from a box or a “kit” and even less of it was fried. I would love for schools to return to those days, but barring that possibility, I would loathe for my children to not be able to bring a healthy lunch from home if it had foods they would eat.