Random Bits

Seems things always get busier as the holidays close in upon us, doesn't it? At work EQII is getting ready for Game Update 54 and the release of Sentinel's Fate and Free Realms has a big update coming mid-month, so things are busy there. At home we're trying new ADHD meds for Kiddo and getting ready for the holidays. Hubby is finishing his first semester of college, and Junior is making progress on potty training. Just a really busy time.

So here's some tidbits that aren't really enough to make a whole blog by themselves.

Caffeinating Your Kid

I never ever thought that giving my kid caffeine would be a good thing. Kiddo has hyperactive ADHD, and sometimes he just needs a little extra help keeping control. With ADHD kids stimulants suppress their symptoms (it's like they work backwards and slow them down). Caffeine is easy and readily available. Since we've been ramping him up to a target dose on his new meds we've needed a little help.

Problem is, Kiddo doesn't like hot drinks. Coffee tastes foul no matter how I hide it and he doesn't like hot chocolate. Tea was rejected, iced tea tolerated only with insane amounts of sugar added. We ended up giving him diet soda, which just makes me cringe and caused jealously issues with his little brother. I was at a loss, having rejected giving him NoDoz (it just seemed wrong, the kid has to take enough pills).

A couple weeks ago I had a burst of inspiration: tea-infused juice. Sure, juice still has sugars, but they're natural sugars and there's at least vitamin benefits. Black tea has too strong of a taste so I went with green tea. Bring a couple cups of water to a boil. Remove from the heat (if you boil the tea bags it gets bitter) and steep four bags of green tea for about 20 minutes. This gives you a green tea concentrate. Use this to reconstitute juice concentrate according to the juice instructions, making up any shortage with water. If you use a strong flavored juice (I like the Dole blends) you just about can't tell the difference.

Reading Instructions

I do a lot of laundry. Lots. Lots and lots and... good gods, I'm going to make everyone go nekkid. How can one kid under three feet tall generate four full loads of laundry a week?

Anyway, I felt like I was going through laundry soap terribly fast, even given the vast quantities of laundry in my house. I use All Free and Clear. I tried a lot of detergents because of Kiddo's dry, sensitive skin and I've been very pleased with results I get from the All. This time I bought the really big container because I felt like I was running to the store for more all the time. Here's what I discovered as I threw out the empty bottle of 2x:

The larger containers of All laundry detergent all have the same measuring cup. But read the instructions: there are four measure lines on that cup and the different concentrations of All use different measures.

Doh. The 3x uses line 1 for a regular load. The 2x uses line 2. Using line 2 with the 3x I was literally using twice the soap I needed to. Talk about a money-waster!

Flat-Rate Boxes

I've mentioned these before. If you're mailing a lot of Christmas presents you really need to look into the USPS Priority Mail flat-rate boxes. These now come in three sizes at different rates. I find them awful handy because a fruitcake and jar of jam together weigh over two pounds. You get fast service (parcel post no longer has any kind of guaranteed delivery time and get shoved to the back of the plane) and you can save a lot of money. They determine the price by which zone you're mailing to and from. An additional bonus: the boxes are free, and you can have them sent to your home from the USPS website. If you're very organized you can estimate and pay the postage online and they'll come pick them up.

I'm not quite that organized, but today I took seven medium-sized flat-rate boxes to be mailed. They cost me $10 and a bit each. For fun I took the last one and had the machine calculate it as though it weren't in a flat-rate box, and determined I saved $7 per box. That's almost $50!

I'm off to do laundry (grumble), go to the post office, and take Kiddo to Barnes & Noble to choose a book for being sheerly awesome with his little brother all week (we're liking these new meds!). Remember in your holiday dash to stop, breathe, and remember that it's not about presents and doing, it's about loving and sharing.

Product Review: Danimals Crush Cups

Since the end of school last spring Kiddo has been begging me for Danimals Crush Cups. These are yogurt cups marketed to kids, whose primary selling point is the squeezable cup which allows you to eschew a spoon and make tremendously rude noises slurping your yogurt.

Naturally I said no.

Now, my no has real reasons behind it. First, I want my kids to understand that they can't have everything they see on television. Second, because of his ADHD Kiddo cannot have any Red Dye 40. That's a whole 'nother blog, but the short version is that there's a ton of anecdotal evidence that in kids with clinical hyperactivity (like Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD) Red 40 aggravates the symptoms. The FDA isn't buying it, but in the UK and several European countries it's been banned for that reason. I know that when Kiddo was having truely horrible behavior problems in preschool he was having yogurt with Red 40 every day, and that his behavior issues lessened when we got the dye out of his diet.

Anyway, we don't have Red 40 in the house, anywhere. And I've found that it's especially prevalent in yogurt. It was quite challenging to find yogurt (which the kids think is desert, and may actually have two or three servings during the day) that had no artificial dyes and didn't cost a fortune. Trix yogurts are out. "Light"Yoplait is out, but most of the regular variety is okay. Store brands like Lucerne are pretty bad about it. Organic yogurt is always dye-free, but very expensive.

Hence my hesitation on buying a kid-marketed yogurt. One day in the store Kiddo, who has learned to spot Red 40 in the ingredient lists, picked up the Danimals Crush Cup package and said "Mom, I don't see the yukky red here, do you?"

I'll be darned. No artificial dyes or flavors. No corn syrup. Twice the calcium of some brands. 10% RDA of protein. And live cultures called "LLG" that they're particularly proud of. This is the nutrition info from Kiddo's favorite, Blueberry.

The price point isn't bad, about $2.99 a four-pack when it's not on sale, or 75 cents each. At Sam's Club I found a pack that worked out to about 50 cents a piece, which puts it at the same price as generic yogurt on sale.

And best of all, this morning I found a coupon rebate offer! Bulk store purchases like Sam's don't qualify, but since the Sam's pack doesn't have all the flavors the kids like that shouldn't be a problem. You must purchase the qualifying products by October 31, 2009 and mail it immediately (they must have it by November 16). The number of $1 coupons you receive will depend on how many products you purchase to qualify. Get your copy of the rebate form here: Dannonomics Rebate

Final Review: Nice to see a kid-marketed product that appeals to my over-protective mom-sense! Not only has a lot of thought gone into the healthiness of the product but they address hot parent concerns like artificial dyes and flavors. Kiddo thinks he's getting a great treat because he knows I usually say no to stuff on commercials (the commercials are annoying, but the product is so good I won't count it against them). And, as the final bonus... the spoons come home in his lunch box. Dannon's Danimals Crush Cups get my approval.