Folic Acid During Pregnancy? 73% Lower Chance of Baby with Autism

For the longest time, the cause of autism in children has been unknown. People blamed it on genetics, and other blamed it on genetics combined with environmental factors, and most definitely oxygen loss at birth is a cause too. However, recent studies have shown that taking folic acid and multivitamins during pregnancy doesn't only lower the odds of neural tube defects in the fetus, but it also reduces the risk of the child ending up with autism.

In fact, because studies conducted in Israel had found the correlation between lower instances of autism and mothers taking folic acid during pregnancy, it is recommended that pregnant women continue to take folic acid during the entire pregnancy.

The study that was conducted showed that women who took folic acid during their pregnancies were 61% less likely to have a child diagnosed with autism compared to pregnant women who did not take folic acid. It has also been stated that taking these supplements was linked to a 73% chance of autism not affecting the unborn baby.

Therefore, it is incredibly necessary for women that are trying to conceive take folic acid at least 3 months before they conceive to give it time to build up in their system before the baby is conceived. Once they are pregnant, they must not stop and continue. That will tremendously lower the risks of autism ever affecting the child.

As mentioned before, folic acid may help reduce the instances of autism, but there are other unknown or known factors that come into play that can indeed cause autism to happen to the child.

For instance, there are more and more genetic defects being found that can be passed down to the child which can increase the chances of autism. Therefore, in that case, if a pregnant woman or the baby's father passed down those genes, will autism be prevented from her taking folic acid? Probably not entirely but perhaps the child will end up being on the higher end of the spectrum, which is a lot better than a child being severely impacted.

What is Autism?

Autism is a neurological disorder that affects speech, social skills, and overall development. It is a spectrum disorder which ranges from mild (high functioning) to severe (low functioning).

A child that is mildly impacted by autism will need plenty of help and therapy ranging from speech to occupational therapy while they are young. Therefore, if the autism is mild and the therapy has been successful, then these individuals may end up living independently like anyone else, or at the most have a minimal amount of monitoring. However, people that have autism and are on the higher functioning end will be able to likely work, they can hold conversations, and they also can have friendships and relationships. Some may be able to drive, but others cannot but they can take public transit on their own.

Individuals that are severely impacted by autism cannot speak, many of them are still in diapers as adults, and need 24/7 care even after plenty of therapy and help while they were younger. Those who are moderate may be toilet trained, have limited speech and may be able to do menial tasks such as washing tables.

Therefore, if you end up having a child with autism, be prepared to get the child early intervention so he or she has odds of being functional adults unless the impact of autism is moderate or severe. Again even if there may be a genetic component involved, it is advisable for women to take folic acid no matter what. Because it is quite possible that even if the child will end up with autism from genes, then the severity of it will be minimal if folic acid is taken.

My Story

I can tell you from experience that I believe there is truth to this study. While I was struggling to conceive my daughter, I took folic acid for a very long time due to being on Clomid and having to have intrauterine insemination since my husband's sperm count was low. My daughter is smart, witty, and definitely not under the autism spectrum at all. I took folic acid, and I ate well during my pregnancy with her. Most importantly, the delivery was smooth and there were no complications at all. She has a mild case of ADHD which is most definitely genetic because I also have it. However, it can be frustrating when it comes to school, but it certainly helps with your creativity. Both she and I can agree with that.

However, my son has mild autism and severe ADHD. Because I struggled to conceive the first time, I did not use protection after my daughter was born. I was certainly open to having another child but was assuming that we would have to go through treatments again. But lo and behold, after thinking that I was having a very long cycle which is typical for women with PCOS, it did get to a point that not having a period for 12 weeks was even odd for me. I went to the doctor. I did not at all think for a second that I was pregnant because of the struggles the first time around, and secondly other than not getting a period, I had no symptoms. But to my shock, I was already 3 months along and because I didn't take folic acid, and I ate sushi and had one glass of wine, I was very worried. My doctor told me not to be concerned so I started taking folic acid anyway even though it late to begin.

However, unfortunately, my son had a bowel movement in the womb and inhaled meconium so severely that he lost oxygen, and was on life support. He did get better but he has autism which is mild but has severe ADHD. He had plenty of therapy and is at a residential school getting more intense help because he is high functioning. He is just dealing with the other complication of the severe ADHD which should get better in time, so he will likely (and hopefully) be quite independent as an adult with some help.

My point of talking about this is that my daughter does not have autism and I took folic acid before and during my pregnancy with her. My son has autism and I did not take folic acid until I found out that I was pregnant which was probably too late to start. However, my feeling is that his traumatic birth was the cause even more so than me not taking folic acid.

Since this study has been conducted, this is excellent for women to know if they are worried about having a child with autism- especially one that may be severely impacted. My daughter knows what she will do to ensure that the odds are with her that her children will not have autism when she is ready to have kids!

Karen, thank you for sharing your story. 

How to Lead a Healthier Life

Leading a healthy lifestyle is naturally uplifting, but it’s common for people to neglect the importance of health. This is surprising, especially considering we only get one shot at life. It’s easy to get into a rut favoring quick fixes, but the ultimate natural high comes from looking after the body.

Though it’s difficult to escape bad habits, overcoming negative lifestyle choices will bring you one step closer to fulfillment. A healthy body is kin to a healthy mind, and with a view to sustaining exercise and a good diet, you can achieve long term changes that will significantly enhance your life. Though it won’t be easy, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment along the way, and the rewards you’ll receive from hard work will make everything worth it.

If you’re wondering how to get your health back on track, you’ve come to the right place. Below are some tips for creating a healthy routine, and we’re hoping by the end of this article you’ll have the motivation to better yourself.

Exercise Regularly

Exercising at least three times a week is highly recommended, and will boost your well-being tenfold. The sense of achievement from meeting exercise goals is immeasurable, and as you notice positive physical changes you’ll feel great. To overcome the initial obstacle, you can use a supplement like Gaba Max, which will maximize energy and stimulate your brain to exercise, while helping you lose weight effectively. Physical activity reduces the incidence of illness, and exercising at least 30 minutes per workout is a great starting point, but it’s important to tailor your workouts based on your capabilities. You can start with lower intensity workouts and gradually progress, but focus on doing whatever you can.

If you're a smoker, you may find that your breathing is labored while you exercise. It's wise for long-term health to cut out this bad habit. To help you achieve this goal, you can use cheap vape kits to reduce cravings, and this is a positive step towards quitting smoking altogether

Though dragging yourself off the couch is difficult, you can motivate yourself with exercises you find fun, like yoga, running or dancing. It’s important to engage in various activities, with cardiovascular activities like running, alongside strength workouts which improve your metabolism. Once you get into a solid routine of exercising regularly, your body will feel energized as you release endorphins, and you’ll feel an overwhelming sense of joy.

Stay Hydrated
Water has myriad health benefits, and if you’re dehydrated, your energy levels will dip, increasing the likelihood of feeling lethargic. Water helps transport nutrients around the body, taking them to where they’re needed, and is effective for flushing out toxins. Try to eliminate fizzy drinks since they don’t have the benefits, and as you grow accustomed to drinking water regularly you’ll wonder how you ever survived without it. Water can also help control calories, while energizing muscles. Focus on drinking roughly 64 ounces of water daily, and you’ll feel invigorated.

Eat Fruit and Vegetables
These are packed with nutrients and vitamins and will improve the functioning of your immune system. Eating fruit and vegetables regularly will reduce the chance of contracting illnesses, alongside improving your quality of skin. You should eat roughly five portions daily, and remember to eat as many greens as possible.

What’s great about these tips is they work in synchrony, and are interconnected. If you can achieve these goals simultaneously, your body will be eternally grateful!

5 Ways For Mom To Rejuvenate

This has been a rough week for my family. I'm not getting into all of it here, because most of it is not mine to tell. There have been some medical scares and we are not out of the woods with it yet. Also, I've gotten some bad news about my heart, which has me terrified. As you can imagine, with all of this, my anxiety is through the roof and I cannot get my medication switched until they know more of what is going on. Yes, all of this in addition to my normal anxiety, homeschool, running a business, a special needs daughter, and an ADHD son. As you can imagine, relaxing is very important right now and it is very hard to do. I thought sharing some simple ways to rejuvenate would be a good post for today.

1. Take a bubble bath. I have always loved bubble baths, but underestimated their power until I became a mom. Even if you do not have time for a bunch of lit candles, tons of bubbles, roses, a glass of win, and a book. Set a timer for 30 minutes and run a hot bath full of your favorite bubbles, light a candle, and have someone else listen for the kids. Do not get out of that bath until your time is up- you will feel so much better.

2. Treat yourself to a special cup of coffee. Whether you run to Starbucks, use the Keurig, or keep some special creamer on hand, there is nothing like spoiling yourself with your favorite coffee.

3. Walk outside for 5 minutes. This is an often underestimated tactic. When things go crazy, sometimes you just need a break, especially when the kids are going wild. What I do is tell my husband I'm walking out- he knows that means that mom is about to lose it. I walk outside to the porch, give myself 5 minutes, sometimes cry, and then I'm ready to go.

4. Give someone else dinner duty. Even if this means calling your husband and asking him to pick dinner up on the way home, assigning dinner to one of the older kids, or having sandwiches for dinner, sometimes mom needs a break. Take it!

5. Accept offers for help. This is one of the hardest things for me to do. I have this fault that makes me think I have to do it all. It is ok to accept help, I'm trying to learn this myself!

Suicide Prevention With TreasureLives and How You Can Help

My Story: 

Many people do not know how much suicide and attempted suicide has impacted my life. In my lifetime, I've had a couple of friends commit suicide, but I'm not going to get into that. It isn't my place to tell their story. I will tell this- when I was 9, I first learned about suicide. 

We had a chicken coop that was not completely covered- just the nesting boxes were. So, we had to make sure to keep the chickens' wings clipped. Normally, this would have been my mom, dad, me, and both my brothers doing this- my mom especially loved working with the chickens. However, on this day, my mom decided to stay in the house and do some baking. Something felt off to me, but maybe a storm was coming. I had no idea how right I was. 

Dad sent me in to get him a glass of tea. As I walked through the front door, mom reached the top of the refrigerator and got the pistol and walked out the front door- almost like she didn't even realize I was there. I asked where she was going and all she said was "Don't follow me!" I knew something was wrong. I ran to my dad and told him what happened. At first, he thought she might have seen something she was going to check out on the property, but I told him what I knew in my heart and he took off. A while later, mom and dad came back down the hill from the woods. Dad put the gun in his car and got mom in the bed. We were instructed to leave mom alone. The next day everything was normal and it was never spoken of again until I was an adult. Mom explained what was going on in her head and I understood.  As much as that changed my life, I cannot imagine how much it would have had mom succeeded. 

Years later, I got a phone call that my uncle "PeeWee" committed suicide and my world was rocked. I never imagined he, of all people, doing that. I knew I had to do something to help make a difference. 

Then, I Met Melody:

Melody contacted me about doing a little work for her. When I found out what her mission was, I knew I had found my place. Melody's mission with TreasureLives is: Learning From Lives Lost and Celebrating Lives Saved From Suicide.

I'm not going to tell you much about TreasureLives here, as I want you to check out the site and read about Melody, her brother John, and TreasureLives. I think you will like what you read and see why this is such an important organization.

How You Can Help:

Here are several ways that you can help spread the word about TreasureLives and help prevent suicides 

1. Share content from the site

2. Use hashtags #PauseNotStop #TreasureLives #AwesomeHero #ZeroSuicides

3. Smile at a stranger

4. Donate to suicide prevention & mental health awareness (see how TreasureLives is trying to help on the homepage. 

5. Tell your story

6. Be an #AwesomeHero and encourage people. 

7. If you have a site, we would love for you to share. You can contact me (carionmedia@gmail.com or Melody at melody(at)treasurlives(dot)org)

8. Don't Bully!

9. Help #BreakTheStigma of mental illness by not judging people by what they cannot help.

10. Listen to those around you. 

Study.com for High School Homeschool and CLEP

First off, I’d like to thank Cari for graciously letting us post on her blog. My name’s Koby Wong and I work with Study.com, an education company dedicated to making education accessible and helping students lower the cost of their higher education. Study.com serves many different markets, with homeschool being one of them. With this focus in mind, we’ve been connecting with homeschool bloggers to better understand the needs of homeschoolers so that we can ensure that our courses are as useful as possible. That’s how we met Cari.

Study.com for Homeschool

Study.com’s homeschool courses work for a wide range of middle and high school subjects. Our material is presented in many different ways so that all types of learners can benefit from using our courses. We appeal to visual and auditory learners with our video lessons and reading/writing learners with the text transcripts of our video lessons. We focus on micro-learning with our short, engaging 5-7 minute videos. By chunking information, the people who use our courses have consistently given us feedback that they retain the information taught much better.

Study.com for CLEP

Study.com recently launched the CLEP section of its site to help students better prepare for their CLEP exams. CLEP exams are Prior-Learning Assessments that test your expertise in specific subject areas. By passing CLEP exams, you can earn credit that is transferable to more than 2,900 colleges and universities.

Study.com’s CLEP section has everything you need to feel confident when preparing for your CLEP exam. Study.com has study guides for the CLEP exams that help you understand topics better as concepts are explained step-by-step. Our study guides are made up of short videos that take complicated material and break it down into easy to understand concepts using real-life examples. There is a complete transcript of our videos for you to review as well. At the end of each video, there is a short quiz that tests your knowledge and helps you retain the information taught.

Study.com also has practice tests to accompany its study guides. Study.com’s practice tests for CLEP are composed of 50 questions. After taking the practice test, you’re presented with your results. Your results show you which questions you got right and wrong, the correct answer to the questions you got wrong, and your areas of strength and weakness so you can spend your time preparing on your weakest areas.

With the cost of tuition continuing to increase, CLEP exams are becoming an even more effective option for earning college credit at a reasonable cost. However, it’s important to check the CLEP credits that are accepted at the college you plan to attend before taking your CLEP exams. Study.com has 20+ scholarships that can also help you reduce higher education costs: https://study.com/pages/Academic_Awards_Home.html

Visual Schedule + Launch Center Tips (Early Learning Resources)

Disclaimer: I received these items to review. All opinions are my own.

Snapper's developmental pediatrician suggested something at our last visit to help her with her anxiety. She doesn't do well with change and craves routine, but when we have a different schedule, she does not adjust well. The doctor suggested a visual schedule.

I've tried several, but nothing seems to stand up to her or give us the functionality we need. However, Carson-Dellosa had the perfect solution!

This is exactly what we needed. The portable visual schedule pocket chart works brilliantly for both kids. Actually, it comes with a set of 3. There are 6 activity pockets and a storage pocket (I have the storage pocket folded up behind). It also velcros closed for travel and for your child to carry with them. It is very durable and will work for any family or classroom. 

I used some photos I had used before while trying to make a visual schedule work and they were perfect. For my 1st grader, I simply wrote the task on a plain white card to encourage reading. I could not have found anything better than this set from Carson-Dellosa. 

Tips For Setting Up A Launch Station: 

1. Know what you need: Ours must have backpacks, coats, hat, tablet cases, schedule, lanyards, reminders, timer, and buckets for dry erase crayons and watches. That may seem like a bit much, but that's the only way I can keep a handle on it all. 

2. Give each kid a side and a color. 

3. Decide what should be in reach. I put backpacks, coats, hats, and tablet cases up high so I can decide when they get them. The other stuff that I am trying to teach them to be responsible for goes within reach. 

4. Include a message board: I painted a cookie sheet with chalkboard paint- I can write notes or stick them with magnets. 

5. The buckets allow their watches and dry-erase crayons to be in reach, but I can also put bows and jewelry for the next day in them. 

6. Find what works for your family- even the location. Ours is in the kids' room because that is what works, but it may not for you. 

Early Learning: Easily Teach Counting and Number Awareness

Disclaimer: I received products to review. All opinions are my own.

So, I love being a part of the Carson-Dellosa Brand Ambassadors. I had the opportunity to review a bulletin board set, and knew just what I would do with it!!!

Numbers 0-20 Bulletin Board Set

Carson-Dellosa products are always my favorites, so I knew that I would find the perfect use for this set and it didn't take me long at all to find it! 

My daughter (4-year-old) is a very hands-on and repetitive learner. Sometimes teaching her new letters and numbers can be a challenge. I've been trying to find a different way of teaching her numbers and it finally came to my doorstep! 

I give her the number card and she has to put the correct number of stars on the 10 frame. Its working pretty well. As she learns her numbers, I can even fold the number card to hide the representation and have her put the correct number of stars on the 10-frame. I love using bulletin board sets for learning activities. 

You could also laminate the pieces so that they last longer, and even put velcro on the 10-frame and stars. 

This could be a great classroom activity or center practice, as well. 

Book Review: ICB Prayer Bible

Disclaimer: I was sent a Bible for each of my children to review. All opinions are my own.

These Bibles are our family's new favorites. They are incredibly easy for the kids to understand. My 7-year-old can read it and understand. My 4-year-old can understand it when I read it to her. 

Summary 

The Prayer Bible for Children helps children develop a heart for prayer and learn the Bible through the popular ICB translation, the simple translation children can read and understand.  Special pages throughout the text highlight the most famous and beloved prayers featured in the Bible. From Abraham's prayers to the Lord to Jesus praying before his crucifixion to the way Paul prayed for the churches he planted, this Bible will teach young readers about a God who loves to hear from His children and loves answering prayers. This Bible includes a pocket with a prayer journal for children to record their own prayers.

Special features include 160 pages of prayer articles throughout the text and 64 four-color pages featuring poem prayers, Scripture prayers and engaging Kids' Q&A's. The full-page prayer articles will help children learn how to pray, to not fear prayer, and to see the Word how and when God's people prayed. The colorful decorative pages will feature kid-friendly scripture prayers, topical poem prayers and fun questions and answers kids have about prayer. As a value-add, the Bible comes with a prayer journal and a handy pocket on the back flap to carry the prayer journal.

My 7-year-old has been writing in his prayer journal. Whenever we talk about keeping someone in our prayers or he tells me that we need to pray for someone, he runs to get his prayer journal and starts asking me how to spell names. It is unbelievably precious. My 4-year-old just copies her brother, which is teaching her the importance of prayer too. Tbomb has even taken the initiative to write the prayers he uses the most often, like our nighttime prayer and the Lord's prayer in the back of his prayer journal.

Teaching children the importance of prayer is one of the most important things we can do and these Bibles really help us parents out on this journey. This Bible puts an emphasis on prayer throughout. Plus, it is written in a translation that is really easy for children to understand.

Giveaway & Promotions

Would you like to enter for a chance to win a copy for your children? You can enter at Blessed Freebies.

Another exciting promotion: You can download a free sample of the ICB Prayer Bible. Plus, when you download, there is an exclusive discount code! Download

Buy Here:

Pink ICB Prayer Bible
Blue ICB Prayer Bible