Wild Farm Kids lost an Angel to the Choking Game

I wanted to share the outstanding work at this website to help further educate
others about the "Choking Game". Sadly a child's life was lost, another angel in heaven, read this post via the website by founder and big sister KeriGlenn, talking about the night her little brother died. Kudo's to your work "Wild Farm Kids"


The Game That Could Win Your Life.
November 21^st 2011, this day was my little sisters 7^th birthday and the day that has forever changed my life. My family had a small birthday party planned for my sister at my grandparents. The basketball games I was at coaching my cheerleaders went into overtime, so I didn’t get done until about 9:15 that night. I hurried to my grandparents to have cake and ice cream with them, but by the time I got there, they were getting ready to leave. I said hi and bye to all my siblings, then headed back to campus.
I no more than got in the parking lot and my mom called me screaming so loud that I couldn’t understand anything she was saying. I then got her to talk slower and she said the most heart breaking words I have ever heard, “Joshua is dead!” I dropped my phone and burst into tears, I couldn’t breathe, and I instantly turned back around and sped home. I got about a half mile out of town and got pulled over for speeding. I was a wreck. I told the cop what was going on and he didn’t believe me, so he had to call dispatch to see that I was telling the truth.
By the time I got close to my house I could see a light show from all the cop cars that were surrounding my parent’s home. I couldn’t get into my driveway so I drove through my neighbor’s yard to get to my parents. The look on my dad’s face, made me know this was real. My mom was crying, talking like she was talking to herself, but out loud. She said, “His eyes were lifeless and glazed, his skin was blue, all I wanted to do was hold him but they wouldn’t let me.” I tried talking to her but all she could say was, “They told me to prepare for the worst, but I know he’s already gone.”
The drive to the hospital was the longest drive of my life. Once we got there they wouldn’t let me in his room. So many EMT’s and ME’s were in the room working on him. I just wanted to go in there with him. Once they let me in, I held his hand, kissed his cheek, tried closing his eyes and talking to him. I knew he was gone, but my mind wouldn’t let me accept it.
We were fielding questions, going through all of his things, and trying to find peace of knowing what really happened and started the funeral planning process. I took on the “big sister” role, and helped plan his visitation and funeral. I never thought I would be able to do this, but I did and it was the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I did it because I knew my parents needed the help. There were so many people there; it was completely amazing to see all the love and support we got from everyone.
Joshua was 13 years old, a 7^th grader who was on the A honor roll, loved football, wrestling, drawing, singing, outdoors, 4-H and everything else a little boy loves. He had the biggest heart and a contagious smile that could light up a room. A few days after he died we found out the cause of his death, it was from “the choking game”. This is something that none of our family knew he was doing, but when we were told about it and what it entails, we found that the warning signs were all over. They included things like; headaches, itchy eyes, off sleep patterns, marks on his bunk bed, robe ties in his room, and the fact that he was a 13 year old adventurous boy.
Since this happened I have been so invested in the “choking game”. I have found that it is more common than people think. It isn’t something that people really admit to or talk about, but it is going on everywhere, probably even in your neighborhood. When someone participates in this, they are cutting the oxygen supply from their brain, for a short term high, which as a result kills brain cells and can be fatal. This isn’t a game and if people are doing it, I hope that this is a wakeup call to them to stop. The affects of this not only hurts yourself, but also everyone that loves and cares about you.
KeriGlenn
 http://wildfarmkids.com/

Hand Sanitizer Dangers Part 1

They are everywhere, on the wall, in the bathroom, in the diaper bag, at the grocery store. Hand sanitizers have become common place in our society today. Would you ever think about drinking them? WHAT! Drinking it! Yuck that has got to be nasty, right?
Kids are drinking hand sanitizer to get high, since the alcohol content is at least 67%, some higher, and it is very readily accessible to them.
Hand sanitizers, once only found among true germophobes and in hospitals, have become ubiquitous. They’re present at the supermarket, the gym, in daycare centers, and you probably have at least one bottle rolling around in your car or in the bottom of your purse or backpack.
During the flu epidemic scare of 2010/2011, hand sanitizer use jumped dramatically as healthcare professionals warned us that the only way to keep from getting deathly ill was to strip our hands of the viral microbes that constantly hitch rides on them. When scientists told us potentially deadly bacteria are all over virtually everything we touch, we became paranoid about germs. Hand sanitizers seem like an easy way to mitigate the risk of…well…being a resident of Earth.
But hand sanitizers, like most things in life, have a dark side. Yes, it’s important to practice good hygiene, especially on the hands, if you want to stay healthy. But a hand sanitizer isn’t always the best way to do so, especially if you aren’t using it right. Here are 5 reasons why you might want to consider using it less.
1. Your skin needs its oils
Most hand sanitizers contain a high concentration of alcohol, which removes the layer of natural oils from your skin. However, the skin on your hands is relatively thin and delicate, and needs those oils to stay healthy. The more you use hand sanitizer, the more moisture you strip from your skin, leaving it red, raw, chapped, and eventually bleeding. And, without proper moisture, your hands—one of the first areas to show aging—will also look much older, much sooner.
2. Your immune system needs its exercise
Like body builders who maintain their muscled physiques by working them at the gym every day, our immune systems stay strong by constantly doing battle against unfamiliar microbes. When we remove bacteria and other microbes from our lives, it can weaken our immune systems. This is especially true for babies and young children. Our worry that exposure will hurt them actually deprives them of developing a hearty immune system, which could make them sicker down the road. We don’t suggest that you should purposely expose your children to harmful bacteria, but too much caution the other way can backfire.
3. They don’t replace soap and water
The Food and Drug Administration recommends that hand sanitizers not be used in place of soap and water, but as a backup. Dirt, grime, blood, and other body fluids present on the hands can block the effective ingredient in hand sanitizers. When the hands are visibly dirty, soap and water must be used to wash them first. Plus, studies indicate that, in real life on actual human hands (as opposed to controlled surfaces used by manufacturers to test their 99.9 percent kill claims), washing with soap and water does a better job of cleaning the hands.
In fact, one researcher at Perdue University claims that, by stripping the oils from our hands that prevent bacteria present in the body from coming to the surface, using hand sanitizer can actually increase the presence of bacteria on the hands in a way that soap and water washing doesn’t.
4. False sense of security
Manufacturer’s claims that hand sanitizers kill 99.9% of bacteria combined with not using them properly can lead us into a false sense of security about our exposure to harmful substances. Alcohol-based sanitizers, for example, have been shown to be ineffective against rabies and norovirus. Hand sanitizers containing less than 60% alcohol—and they are out there—are just plain ineffective. And if you don’t use enough to cover your entire hands and stay wet for at least 15 seconds, you might as well have not used it at all.
5. Toxins in your system
Many hand sanitizers claim to be antibacterial, which means they contain a chemical called triclosan, a hormone disrupter. In a 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, three-quarters of participants had concentrations of triclosan in their urine. While not all sanitizers contain triclosan, most do contain parabens, propylene glycol, and synthetic fragrances, all substances known to affect the systems and organs in the body. Those chemicals aren’t particularly good to add to the ecosystem, either.
Despite its dark side, hand sanitizer can be an important and useful tool in fighting disease. Used properly, and only when absolutely necessary when lacking hand-washing facilities, it can help you stay healthy. But if you are a too frequent user, you may be doing yourself and your family more harm than good.

info credit : Naked health online

Stay tuned tomorrow for  part 2  (Drinking hand sanitizer sends teens to hospitals)

12 Terrifying Teen 'Games' Your Kid Could Be Playing

 Credit to Jeanne Sager- Cafemom- The Stir
Taken from great article posted:

30 Seconds Game: You may know it as a knowledge game akin to charades. But among kids, it's generally accepted that playing 30 Seconds means kids fight as hard as they can for half a minute, and the onlookers declare a "winner." By some definitions, the fighting requires punching someone directly in the face, repeatedly.

Skittling: Forget about the yummy candy. Think about what is in your medicine cabinet, because this "game" involves teens raiding Mom and Dad's pills, throwing them all into one pot, and then grabbing a random handful of colorful little capsules, downing them in one incredibly dangerous swallow.

ABC Game: It sounds educational, doesn't it? But this twisted form of Scattegories has almost killed kids who have the letters of the alphabet scratched into their hand over and over by a "friend" as they're forced to name off items in a particular category that begin with each letter of the alphabet (hence ABC). The scratcher continues until the competitor makes it all the way through the alphabet, cutting deeper and deeper into the skin, often leaving behind infected wounds.

Hide and Seek: Oooh, we used to play this when we were little, right? Not exactly. The teen version involves, what else, cars. The hiders turn off their headlights, and the seeker has to find them on the dark road. Of course, no one else can see the darkened cars, and inexperienced teen drivers without headlights can't see where they're going.

Ghosting: There's no seeker in this game, just a bunch of kids who turn off the headlights and drive as fast as they can. I don't really have to describe the risks, do I?

European Vacation: Yet another reason to make you fear the trip to the DMV, this "trip" involves one teen driver motoring in the right lane while their pal moves over to the left lane to drive beside them.

Sack Tapping: Remember when you used to punch your friends in the arm to make it go dead? That was nothing compared to the pain suffered when a boy is hit in the, ahem, balls, and subsequently loses his testicle.

Trunking: Forcing a pal to ride in the trunk of a car may sound reasonable if you've watched too many mob movies, but it's been known to actually kill kids.

Surfing: Oh, if this only involved water. Riding atop a moving car is something done for generations, and yet kids are still dumb enough to do it, often with disastrous results.

Robotripping: Drinking cough syrup like it's a bottle of water, this is supposed to help kids hallucinate. Unfortunately, it can also kill them.

Planking: It's not just for kids, and yet it's still dangerous to lie face down in a random spot for laughs. If you're doing it in the middle of the road, you risk getting run over. Doing it on a balcony? Well, you could fall several stories like the Australian man killed last year.

Choking Game: Just because it's the game that gets the most press doesn't mean kids aren't still trying to achieve a high by cutting off the oxygen to the brain. This can knock kids unconscious or, much worse, cause brain damage or even death. Exact affects are hard to track, because choking game deaths are simply labeled as suicides. The CDC estimates 800 to 1,000 kids between the ages of 10 to 19 die of strangulation every year, and sadly that includes some kids who just thought they were playing a game. It's also called the fainting game, pass-out, good kids high, and choking off, among other names.

Of course we here at Ed4Ed4all are very familiar with many of these, the choking game being one of the most deadly right now, all of these "games" are so very dangerous.