Samurai, If she is already giving her children sleeping pills.  I think you should educate her on alternatives.  Spaying should be done before the fact not after.

Mary

When I worked at a little market I used to get parents coming in all the time to buy Dramamine to give their kids so they would sleep while the parents partied. I finally convinced the owner to stop selling it, but I don't think it really helped the kids situation much.

Any woman or man giving children or infants sleeping pills, needs to be removed from parental custody of the child in question for clear and present endangerment!

you mean al-CIA-eda.

...Or the US military.

Alasdair - WRONG!  The peace and tranquility we enjoy in this country is brought to us courtesy of the US military.  If you want to enjoy the freedom to use the internet (ask a North Korean) and go out in the sun without a Burka on (ask an Afgani) ,you should support the warriors who keep us free.

Coke - It's The Real Thing....

'Thing' Means Bad Health, Diabetes, Hypoglycemia, Obesity, Hyperactivity, Tooth Decay, GI Tract Problems, & Cardio Vascular Disease, If Not Some Forms Of Cancer Via High Fructose Corn Syrup Or Sucrose....

As To Bottles Water, It's Not The Tap Or Reverse Osmotic Issue That One Needs To Worry About, It's The PRICE Versus Raw Material Cost, Plus Over Toxicity In Plastic Bottles.

Uncle Russ

You can purchase your own RO device for your home for roughly $100 depending on how many gallons/day needed. I have one for my aquarium. Unless you live in the middle of the Sahara the cost of running the reverse osmosis filter is very low. Filters can be purchased every 6 months or so and you can buy drums or even plumb your house so everything can have reverse osmosis access. The only downside is that for every 1g of RO produced, you'll waste 5 gallons (good for watering your lawn though). My total dissolved solids dropped from 200+ to less than 10.

I use RO water for my reef aquarium. If I put tap water in the aquarium, most of my corals will die and my fish will suffer withOUT a doubt.

Consider... $100 for a filter, $6 for a reusable water bottle, $10 for a water drum... You'll save yourself a lot of money on disposable water bottles in the long run as well as protecting your family from the toxins in tap water.

You could also spend only $20 for a Brita or Pur water pitcher for good filtered water.

Tap water is NOT reverse osmosis water. If it was reverse osmosis, my TDS wouldn't be even close to 50. Tap water, even if filtered, collects a lot of toxins on its route to your house. Get a TDS meter and measure it before and after a hard rain and you'll see the effects of your neighbors pesticides.

I was appalled when I noticed a couple of years ago on the label that Coke is made solely with high fructose corn syrup in this country!! I thought Coke was Coke everywhere.

In Europe, it's still made with sugar (I'm not saying that's good but I'd take that any time over hfcs), at least up until 2.5 yrs ago when my husband's job moved us from London, UK to NH, USA.  I wasn't a Coke or soda junkie, but I did use to enjoy the odd glass of ice cold coke with lots of lemon. My husband used to make fun of me saying that "how does the coke go with our organic whole foods lifestyle" and I knew he was right...  Since D-day (that's when I discovered the hfcs on the label), I am proud to say, I haven't touched a sip of the stuff (we don't buy it, period).

Moreover, before we moved here, we didn't even know what high fructose corn syrup was, let alone being bombarded with prescription drugs on telly (we joke about them like "oh, it's going to give you viral infections, ulcers, renal failure, liver cyrrhosis, it's gonna kill you, but have you been to your doctor to get it yet??" - it's really really sad what's going on in this country).  

I just feel bad for our kids because of the number of "nope, we can't have that because" they get!  And my 6-year-old son finishes the sentence with "I know, mommy, look, it has high fructose corn syrup in it". In fact, he was at a sleepover the other night, and his friends's mom gave him a Quaker Oat bar as a snack - which he politely gave back saying that he could not eat it because it had hfcs!!  Now, how proud a mom was I? I do try to find alternatives for them, though. We cook and bake a lot, press our own fresh fruit juices (which make great ice cream), bake brownies with wholewheat and dark chocolate (>70% cocoa content), BUT it requires a lot of effort.

It means that you must be engaged in teaching them and raising their and your own awareness about things around us all the time. And look for lessons learned.

Jewels1, I know how you feel about having to refuse your kids almost everything.  My 3 year old already know when I read a toy package and say "oh it's made in China" odds are good she's not getting it.  If it's something she really wants, she'll sometimes head it off by saying "I don't think it's made in China".  Cute, but so sad at the same time.

Jewels1, you must be SOOOOO proud of your little one.  It's really hard to turn down a "treat" when everyone else is enjoying one.  He'll probably grow up to be very healthy and not overwieght thanks to you.  Keep it up, moms of this world can make a difference in the future if we know how to raise healthy educated kids!