Your diet is never more important than when you’re pregnant, but cravings, food aversions and morning sickness can make healthy eating a challenge. As an expectant mother, the foods you eat are your child’s primary source of nourishment, which is why it’s so critical to consume the right vitamins and minerals and avoid potentially harmful bacteria.

Eating well during pregnancy is not about weight loss (in fact, trying to lose weight could be hazardous to you and your baby’s health). However, being mindful of what you eat will help you avoid gaining too much weight and keep conditions like gestational diabetes at bay. With this in mind, here are some top tips for a healthy, prenatal diet.

In some parts of the world, the school holidays are fast approaching–is there ever a time when they are not? It feels like the kids only went back to school last week! As it looms closer, parents, other relatives, family friends (and whoever else can pitch in with the childcare) will be turning their minds to how they will manage to keep the kids entertained.

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This can also be a time where you wonder where you are going to get the money to be able to keep them entertained, as many activities such as trips to the cinema or theme parks can end up costing large sums of money. Therefore, we have rounded up some ideas that you can try out to try and keep your costs fairly low.

1. Look out for vouchers

In the run-up to the holidays, you can be hunting for any deals that pop up related to fun activities for the kids. You might get cheap cinema tickets or tickets to the zoo at massively discounted rates. It might be worth your while signing up with all of the voucher companies that you can find, and most of them will let you set up alerts for certain categories so that you don’t get ones that are completely irrelevant to you.

2. Get the adrenaline pumping

Kids like to fidget, and although all the rage is pointing towards a fidget spinner, it may not cut it. Therefore, if your children are adrenaline junkies and love to be outside, purchase a stunt scooter for them to learn tricks on. Blunt Scooters, are known worldwide; with their decks becoming increasingly popular in the UK. With a Blunt Scooter, you’ll get a solid, well-built scooter which is perfect for a learning scooter rider. Aimed for street and park riders, Blunt is also the leading brand for freestyle scootering. This multifunctional scooter, is, therefore, perfect for impressing your kids. Who knows, their hobby could morph into something much more, and become a future career move. There are many scootering world champions out there, and one day, scootering may become an Olympic sport. Scooters, skates and more, can inspire your children to practice, persevere and strive to become the next best thing.

3. Check out the free museums and local community activities

While they say you don’t get anything for free, they obviously weren’t talking about keeping the kids entertained. There are loads of fun, free museums to visit wherever you are. Search on the Internet to see what is happening near you, and you might be surprised at how many events are available that are completely free of charge. You can also find funded initiatives for many sports camps and similar activities that run locally.

4. Create a list

Having a list of things you can do depending on the weather will help you avoid making last minute decisions. It is usually the last minute decisions that tend to cost the most amount of money, as parents get desperate for ideas. Save up the ‘rainy day’ activities until you truly need them rather than using them all up at once.

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Not everything costs money, so be prepared and have a good schedule with backup plans and you might find you can save yourself a lot of money these holidays.

As a parent, you will want to ensure that you do not give your children anything that could harm them in any way. However, when it comes to fluoride, deciding whether or not to give it to your children could be a tricky decision. Generally seen as safe and proven to be useful for dental care, fluoride is actually a toxin, which can cause illness if consumed in too large an amount. There has also been a lot of controversy surrounding fluoridation of drinking water and a possible link to cancer, resulting in many people switching themselves and their children to bottled spring water instead. So, should you really be giving your kids fluoride?

How Fluoride Can Be Beneficial
So, is fluoride good for your kid, or is it bad? Fluoride science and plenty of research has proven that fluoridated toothpaste can be hugely beneficial to dental care, with the potential to reduce cavities in kids from fifteen to thirty percent. Fluoridation of public water supplies has also been proven to reduce the risk of cavities in both kids and adults by around forty percent. However, if you look at the back of any conventional toothpaste tube, there is a warning to call Poison Control if more than a small amount is swallowed. Because of this, many parents are switching their children’s toothpastes to non-fluoride and natural varieties.

Fluoride Risks
Although it’s definitely true that fluoride can have a range of benefits for your kids’ oral health, there are also many risks involved that a lot of parents are unaware of. Experts on environmental health have often pointed out that whilst topical exposure to fluoride such as those from toothpaste and mouthwash products can appear to be relatively safe to use, ingesting high levels of fluoride in order to treat teeth from the inside out can come with a number of risks. Evidence backs this up, with a recent Harvard study revealing that fluoride ingestion can affect children’s cognitive development and abilities. Additionally, a National Academy of Science report in 2006 declared that it was apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with bodily and cognitive functions when ingested in too high amounts.

Reducing Fluoride Intake
Overexposure to fluoride can cause more harm than good, which is why the Obama administration is currently working to lower drinking water fluoride levels in the seventy percent of U.S.A. water supplies that are treated with the chemical. Even so, however, studies have found that the risks are minimal with the levels of fluoride currently in such mediums. Ultimately, it is up to parents to decide whether or not to attempt to limit their children’s fluoride intake, either by consuming more natural and non-fluoridated foods or sticking to bottled, spring water. When it comes to oral care, there are a range of natural alternatives to fluoridated toothpaste that work just as well.

When it comes to fluoride intake, there are both benefits and risks to weigh up, making it an important parenting decision.