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Does Maternal Consumption of Highly Allergenic Foods, Like Peanuts, Reduce the Incidence of Childhood Peanut Allergies?

Peanut allergies are becoming more common among children.  It is estimated that  3.2% of children have peanut allergies.  In an effort to prevent this allergy, the Canadian Paediatric Society has recommended the introduction of peanuts and other allergenic foods around 6 months of age. Research has interestingly shown that what mothers eat during pregnancy may influence their child’s taste preferences later

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How Much Sleep do Babies, Children, Teenagers and Adults Need?

Sleep is important for our overall health, it allows our body and mind to recharge. The amount of sleep that we need changes throughout our lifetime. The National Sleep Foundation has established guidelines for how much sleep babies, toddlers, adolescents and adults should sleep. These are the suggested total sleep requirements by the National Sleep Foundation:

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Does Running Cause Osteoarthritis?

What is Osteoarthritis? Osteoarthritis, or OA, is a degenerative joint disease that affects many Canadians. The joints in our bodies contain cartilage that protects bones during joint movement. Osteoarthritis is when this cartilage breaks down or becomes damaged.  This leads to pain, swelling and stiffness in the joint and loss of normal joint function. Once cartilage

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What to Pack in Your Maternity Hospital Bag?

Searching the internet or Pinterest, you will find hundreds of “lists” of things that you should pack in your hospital bag.  These lists vary from including music play lists to beauty products for your hospital stay. This list was compiled with the help of friends and family for our must haves at the hospital! Items for mom

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What is Menopause and What are the Treatment Options?

Menopause is a natural part of aging for all women. It begins when you go a full year with no menstrual period. For 2 to 8 years leading up to menopause, your period may have more irregular timing. On average, menopause happens around 51 years old, but this varies. Genetics play a major role in

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Toxoplasmosis and Pregnancy

Yes, it’s true.  You really are off the hook for cleaning the cat litter box while you are pregnant! While the risk of acquiring a toxoplasmosis infection from a cat litter box is very low, it makes sense to avoid the task if possible while pregnant.  What is Toxoplasmosis? Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the

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How Does Shift Work Affect Circadian Rhythm? How Can Sleep Hygiene Help?

Our bodies have an intrinsic timekeeping system that regulates sleep, wakefulness and other systems such as temperature, appetite and hormone levels. This built-in system is called the circadian rhythm.  For most people the circadian rhythm drives wakefulness during the daytime and promotes sleep at nighttime. This is because the biggest environmental contributor to sleep-wake cycles

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Breastfeeding and Plugged Ducts

Plugged milk ducts can be an uncomfortable complication of breastfeeding.  It is estimated that up to two-thirds of breastfeeding women experience a plugged milk duct at some point.  A plugged milk duct is a small area of breast tissue that does not drain milk adequately and causes swelling.  How Do I Know If I Have A Plugged Milk Duct? A plugged

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Postpartum hairloss

I experienced significant hair loss after both of my pregnancies. My experience with postpartum hair loss made wonder, why do we lose hair postpartum and is there anything we can do about it? Postpartum Hair Loss Postpartum hair loss is an inevitable part of a woman’s postpartum journey.  At some point anywhere from one to five months postpartum,

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