With easy access to delicious, savory foods around us, we are faced with the continuous growth in number of obese and overweight people in the country and around the globe.

Nowadays with the fast pace of urban living, couples are obliged to work in order to augment household expenses and to better provide for the family.

The term “housewife” has become a thing of the past. More and more moms are working to help their better halves in putting food on the table and to send their offspring to a reputable school.

With this kind of setup being practiced, moms tend to feed babies with formula milk more after giving birth, rather than breastfeed them.

The Department of Health supports and campaigns that “Breastfeeding is still best for babies”. It is not just more economical, it also strengthens the bond between mom and newborn– satisfying the emotional and oral need of the baby. In addition, breastfeeding give babies immunity to sickness (previously contracted by their moms). Moreover, it helps the body return to its pre-pregnancy weight!

To cater to the growing population of nursing moms, even malls (nationwide) have opted to put up a room designated for breastfeeding.

The following tips will help nursing mom to obtain good amount and quality of breast milk, thereby, adding to their self-esteem:

· Massage the breast and clean the nipples using warm water

· Make sure to take in foods rich in calcium and folate needed for bone formation and development.

· Eat fresh and nutritious fruits and vegetables

· Take in plenty of fluids and freshly squeezed or extracted juices[C1] , especially malunggay juice[C2]

· Take time to rest and sleep

With breastfeeding, there are more to gain than to lose. Be confident. Let’s support breastfeeding.

Cheers to all NURSING MOMS!

The early rainy season brought about an upsurge outbreak of this deadly disease.

The Philippines has recorded about 24,689 cases of the mosquito-borne disease, dengue, which is transmitted by a bite of Aedes aegypti, a white spotted mosquito.

There is no known cure or vaccine to fight against dengue fever.

World Health Organization (WHO) said that 2007 could be at par with the 1998, when nearly 1,500 people from Asia died of dengue mostly children and old people who have weak resistance to the virus and die of internal bleeding.

With the continuous unexpected pour of rain, everybody is enjoined to keep physically fit and stay indoor.

Helpful tips:

When staying indoors, always keep our surroundings clean and free of stagnant waters.
Make use of insect repellants. A very good insect repellant is Citronella. A botanically extracted Citronella is safest for all especially our children.
Mosquitoes breeding areas are stagnant water and dark cold areas such as flower vases, uncovered barrels, buckets and discarded tires, but the most dangerous areas are wet shower floors and toilet tanks, as they allow the mosquitoes to breed where we done expect them to.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Culicidae
Genus: Aedes
Species: A. aegypti
Binomial name Aedes aegypti

(Linnaeus, 1762)