You may not know that the American Thyroid Association recommends pregnant and breastfeeding mothers should be taking in 150 mcg of iodine daily.  Iodine plays a major roll in a child’s normal neurocognitive development.  A deficiency in iodine (even a small one) is actually the leading cause of preventable mental retardation. 

But nearly 2.2 million people in the world have iodine deficiencies.  And even worse, only 51 percent of the United States prenatal vitamin brands contain iodine. 

Please talk to your OB/GYN about the iodine content in your prenatal vitamins.  This is just as important to those who have given birth and are nursing.

Furthermore, you can increase your iodine intake by eating low-fat yogurt, strawberries, eggs, mozzarella cheese, soybeans, asparagus, garlic, lima beans, mushrooms, spinach, summer squash, Swiss chard and turnip greens.

Have you ever had one of those days?    Today was mine.  Flip back a few days.  Make that a week - of sneezing and snot.  By Sunday, I could tell school was not in the cards.  And by the middle of the night, I knew work was not in the cards for me. 

Three days on the couch, aching, dizzy, hacking… tired tired tired. By Wednesday it was time for the doctor.  That was where the trouble began.  

Sinus infection? Check. Prescription? Check.  But then I had to open my big mouth.  “Oh, by the way, my daughter has a wart…”  No, No! I don’t want it frozen off!  But the doctor and I were swift, and three freeze blasts later, we were out the door. 

At that moment, I was officially the worst mom in the whole world.  Never to be forgiven.  I betrayed her.  And as a punishment, I was not allowed to see her finger.  Ever again. 

Thursday I woke up my daughter, and the tears began. “I donnn’ttt wannnnna go to schooooolllllllllll!”  Huge, crocodile tears, hysterics, heartbreak… one entire hour of crying.  Crying in the car, crying walking to the line, begging one last time with a huge red face, swollen eyes and a nose of goo. 

I kept my cool until she went in. Then my own tears began.  A day of stress later, I arrive home.  Only to find my daughter’s hamster stone cold dead in the cage.  Enter my daughter - enter another straight hour of heartbroken sobbing.  Isn’t this where it all began? 

For all of you Moms with days like these, I give you…. CALGON.