GivingHealthyTips.com

The Minnesota Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture released a report on Friday, January 10, 2009 stating that salmonella had been found in a tub of creamy peanut butter from King Nut. The three states, Ohio, California and Michigan have had the most outbreaks but all totaled this could be the break that 42 states have been hoping to find.

Saturday, King Nut recalled all peanut butter under its label and manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America. The company also recalled Parnell’s Pride peanut butter, as it too is manufactured by Peanut Corporation.

The president of the company apologized and voluntarily recalled the peanut butter immediately upon its discovery. They do not sell to private individuals only food service companies.

This out break comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled Peter Pan peanut butter that was linked to salmonella in 47 states.

The strain of salmonella found in the peanut butter was Salmonella Typhimurium, the most common of 2,500. It is often found in meats, chicken, cheese, and uncooked eggs. Salmonella is generally transmitted through foods contaminated with animal feces. Those infected develop diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours after contact with the germ. The infection generally clears in five to seven days. Antibiotics are often not needed just an increase in fluid consumption. Sever infections can occur in infants, the elderly and those with a weak immune system. In a severe infection, salmonella can spread from the intestines to the blood and cause death if not treated with antibiotics.

After the holidays, life slows down a bit. Then there are those New Year’s resolutions that can make life hectic again. Most of us tend to focus on our resolutions and a little less on the needs of others; because of this, January has been named National Volunteer Blood Donor Month by America's Blood Centers and the American Red Cross in an attempt to increase blood donations after the holidays.Hospitals use almost 40,000 units of blood across the country every day. Most of this blood comes from generous people willingly to take an hour out of their schedules to give the gift of life to help save lives. These are our heroes.Donors can donate blood across the country to blood banks, bloodmobiles or hospitals in our communities. Most donation centers require donors to be at least 17 and weigh at least 110 pounds in order to donate. Requirements may differ from state to state. Donors can donate once every eight weeks, and must be free of sexually transmitted diseases and meet other eligibility requirements. With each donation, donors are complete a series of questions that help screen out unusable donations.In an attempt, to teach our children to be more giving, programs have been designed for children as young as first grade to stress the importance of donating blood. These programs progress in knowledge base as the children enter middle and high school. In the younger grades they encourage children to have their parents, aunts, uncles and other grown ups donate blood. So when your child comes home this month asking you to be a hero, do it for them and save a life.

The family unit is the first group situation your child will have. Learning to get along with all family members is important and learning to cooperate for the good of the family is another. There is a generation of Americans that has grown up thinking that the world owes them. This is not the case. These people are miserable and enjoy making others miserable. What an awful way to live. Somewhere along the way these children were never taught that there are things more important than them, like family.

All of us today could take a lesson from the Boy Scouts. One of the things they try to teach boys on their way to manhood is to "do a good turn daily." All of us could stand to do that. Just think how much nicer the world could be if we were all a little bit kinder. A good place to start is in the family. Practice doing something nice for a family member every day and the two little words "thank you" go a long way. Do not forget them.

Every family need rules and these rules must be approached with consistency. The rules should reflect family values and both parents must be in agreement. They must also be able to hold their ground. These rules should serve to help the house run smoother. When these rules are broken, certain pre-determined consequences or punishments should be enforced. Regardless of age, rules and consequences are for all family members. Family meetings are a place to establish new rules and to hear out grievances and resolve them. Rules must be heard and understood by everyone for a house to run smoothly.

Feline leukemia is one of the most common feline diseases. It began to surface around the same time the Human Immunosuppressive Virus (HIV) was discovered. They are similar in that they both suppress the immune system but this feline virus can not spread to hurmans. However there are feline viruses like cat scratch fever and cytomegally virus (CMV) that can spread to humans. CMV is especially dangerous to pregnant women and can cause harm and/or death to the unborn child. It is for this reason that pregnant women should not be around cats.

GivingHealthyTips.com

Salmonella Again Found in Peanut Butter

January Blood Donor Awareness Month

Teaching Children Guidelines for a Lifetime

How to Set Family Rules

Feline Diseases