JAK CHAT

What Parents Should Know About Earaches 2 out of 3 children will get at least one earache before their third birthday Sponsored by Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare - All Saints It's a common childhood complaint: an earache. Ear pain often heralds an ear infection — the leading reason children visit the doctor. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently updated its guidelines for managing ear infections. Arm yourself with the latest about this frequent child illness.   The ear has three parts: the outer, middle, and inner ear. As you might suspect, the outer ear is everything you can see, plus the ear canal. The middle portion involves hearing; the inner part plays a vital role in balance.   Most ear infections attack the middle ear, specifically, the eustachian tube. It's a structure that links the middle ear to the back of the nose. It drains fluid from the ear. When bacteria from an illness infect the tube, it swells up and blocks fluid inside. The result: a buildup of ...

[caption id="attachment_3033" align="alignright" width="210"] Raiden. Pre-diagnosis[/caption] Raiden's Battle Written by JAK guest mom blogger from Turtle WI, Sara Smith About 600 children each year are diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, the most common solid tumor cancer in children. Nearly 70% of those children will be at a stage four at time of diagnosis. This year my three year old nephew Raiden, from Salem, was one of them.   Neuroblastoma is a highly misdiagnosed cancer in the early days. As with most children in his shoes Raiden was having tummy pain and eventually swelling in his abdomen and limbs making it difficult for him to walk. It took months of emergency room visits and being told it was just constipation for them to be directed up to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee and get a correct diagnosis. His doctors say they only see 4 cases of this a year and are hopeful for a good outcome, even though one child with neuroblastoma dies every 16 hour...

Three Steps to Ensure Your Kids Will Remember Traditions of Giving Back Sponsored by Pixologie Celebrating Wishes in Wonderland 2014 – and providing hope to children struggling with life threatening medical situations . This past weekend, Pixologie loved hosting the Kids’ Craft Area for Wishes in Wonderland at our local Dave & Buster’s restaurant – an annual event to raise money for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin. We saw lots of people taking fun photos of their children with Santa, at the crafts and games tables and much more. Read more... Here’s some fun photos we took:   For each family, it is likely one of the photos they snapped will end up on the annual Christmas card. But what about all the other memories from the day and the sense that all were gathered to help children in dire and/or chronic medical conditions? Watch the news coverage here: http://fox6now.com/2014/12/07/its-a-good-cause-wishes-in-wonderland-event-raises-mo...

A Read/Want/Wear/Need Christmas by guest mom blogger from Racine, Amanda DeSonia A few years ago I decided to try to take back Christmas. That makes me sound like a total martyr. Honesty, I really struggle with the holidays. Struggle as in I bounce between moments of glee and peaceful nostalgia to fits of rage and moments of paralyzing anxiety….. Merry Christmas? I think most women and mothers go into the holiday season with ridiculous amounts of enthusiasm and equal parts unrealistic expectations for what we might accomplish. Perfect presents picked and wrapped? Check! 24 individually wrapped Advent gifts? Yay!  Trek to the local tree farm and pick and cut the perfect tree and trim it with the exact amount of Martha Stewart recommended LED lights based on the height of the tree? Done!  (I did research that once.) Bake cookies, buy matching Christmas outfits for the kids, holiday photos, pre-Pinterest inspired handmade gifts, Christmas cards….. I’m getting an ulcer just trying to remem...