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Boo at the Zoo 2009
Get ready for the 2009 Boo at the Zoo special event. The Denver Zoo’s fun Halloween event is approaching fast. As one of Denver’s top attractions, the zoo is always a good bet for fun.
Finding fun safe Halloween events and parties for kids in Denver isn’t always easy, but the zoo chips in with fun for the whole family.
Each year, the zoo offers kids of all ages the chance to dress up in costumes and trick or treat in a safe and fun environment. Boo at the Zoo is offered in two formats, one is during regular zoo hours in the day time. It is on the Saturday and Sunday closest to Halloween. This year Halloween is on Saturday, October 31, 2009, so that means you can go to Boo at the Zoo on Halloween day!
There are over 30 stations being set up this year! That means plenty of opportunities to trick or treat and get lots of candy. Of course, the zoo will also pull out some of its scarier residents and give the brave of heart an opportunity to pet a hairy tarantula or hold a big slimy snake! Zoo staff and volunteers dress up in fun costumes too.
The great thing about Boo at the Zoo is that it is a daytime Halloween event that is open all day long. That means you don’t have to make anyone miss their nap, or stay up late to have a fun Halloween day.
The daytime Halloween zoo event is free! Everything is included in the regular price of admission, so that means it is free for zoo members, and just $12 for ages 12 and up, and only $7 for children 3 to 12. Zoo admission is free for kids 2 years and under. There is also a special senior discount rate of $9 for people over 65.
Boo at the Zoo at Night
For the more adventurous, or for those who just know how to have fun in the dark, Boo at the Zoo at Night offers a rare change to visit the zoo after dark. The 2009 Boo at the Zoo Night time version is on Friday October 30, 2009 and runs from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Unlike the daytime version, the nighttime Boo at the Zoo is not free.
Admission is $10 for member 12 and older and $5 for kids 3 to 11. As always, kids 2 and under are free. For non-members, the cost is $15 for 12 and up and $10 for youngsters. Advance tickets are available NOW!
Consider buying your tickets in advance because it fills up fast, and the lines get CRAZY!
A money saving tip and line avoiding trick from your pal Undefeated Daddy: Go to the zoo during regular hours and then stay inside and Boo at the Zoo at Night is yours for the taking! Don’t forget, event though the Denver Zoo is open until 6:00 p.m. the entrance gates close at 5:00 p.m. so to pull this off, you have to get in before 5:00.
Have a fun save Halloween everyone!
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Toddlers Swimsuits Rash-Guard Shirts
If you have Toddlers and they like to swim, summer can be a really fun time at the swimming pool. Of course, sunscreen is a must for children out in the sun. Unfortunately, most kids from toddlers to teens hate putting on sunscreen. It’s messy, hard to rub in, greasy, feels funny, and tastes bad if you get it in your mouth. Don’t even think about how it stings if you get it in your eyes.
At swimming pools, it is doubly bad because swimming washes off sunscreen after a while. Don’t let the word waterproof sunscreen fool you. There is not such thing as waterproof sunscreen. In fact, if the FDA ever decides that it is more important to protect America’s children than it is to protect sunscreen company’s profits, the word waterproof will be banned from appearing on the label. As it is right now, any company that labels their sunscreen as waterproof is engaging in fraud, albeit legally sanctioned fraud.
All sunscreen regardless of brand or SPF level washes off in water. It says so right on the label where it tells you to reapply after swimming. What it doesn’t tell you right on the label is that the amount of time a sunscreen is effective in the water is measured based on how long it stays on while stationary in still water! In other words, the time on the bottle is a lie because your kids are going to be moving around and splashing in water that is moving thanks to the hundreds of other kids who are also moving around.
Add it all up and you should be re-applying sunscreen on children every 30 minutes when they are swimming. For toddlers, you should consider doing it even more often because of their sensitive skin.
If the thought of all that time spent making Junior unhappy and listening to crying and whining while you put on even more sunscreen than you used to, makes you sick to your stomach, there is another option.
Rash Guards are swim tops that were originally designed for surfers and divers to help protect their torsos from scratches and scrapes on coral and other water objects. These days, they make them for just about anyone and they are perfectly comfortable in the water. (They are not as comfortable out of the water, so plan on waiting to put them on at the pool.)
As an added bonus they cover up your boys and girls to a more comfortable level for you and them than typical swimsuits. And, since they are made for surfers, they are already cool. Just make sure and get fun patterns or plain colors, preferably your young kid’s favorite colors.
Since they cover up one of the big sunscreening areas, putting on sunscreen more often becomes much less of a chore, and your little ones are still protected.
It’s a win-win for everyone.
BPA Gives Babies Cancer – FDA Doesn’t Care
Nothing really “gives” you cancer. Your body’s cells react to certain chemicals or events in ways that lead to cells mutating into cancer cells. One of these chemicals is BPA, also known as bisphenol A. Yet, this chemical is likely in the baby bottles you are using to feed your child baby formula or pumped breast milk, or in your toddler sippy-cups and spill-proof cups and yes, it is increasing their risk for cancer.
How can this be? Isn’t the FDA supposed to regulate chemicals like these and keep greedy, corporations from poisoning us and our children. The answer, is yes they are, but no they don’t. Unfortunately the FDA has become increasingly political and subject to undue influence from outside interests. In this case the plastics industry and manufacturers of plastic products. So, BPA is not safe. BPA causes cancer. The government doesn’t care. Well, the US government anyway. BPA is banned in Canada by an apparently less tainted government agency.
In over 100 studies performed around the world by numerous well respected scientists, universities, and research centers, BPA was found to increase the risk of cancer. In just 2 studies, BPA was shown to be safe. Guess who paid for those 2 studies? The Plastics Industry. And, based on those 2 studies the FDA approved BPA as a safe chemical to use in making all kinds of products including, BABY BOTTLES!!!!
Make no mistake, this conclusion is undisputed, BPA does cause cancer. What the plastics industry argues is that the amount of BPA you get when you use products with BPA in them is not enough BPA to cause cancer. In other words, yes, we are using a cancer causing material in our plastic products, but don’t worry because there isn’t enough of it to hurt you. Yeah, I feel safer already.
Actually, this doesn’t this sound really familiar? Oh yeah, replace BPA with smoking and Plastics Industry with Tobacco Industry and you have a replay of the “debate” about whether or not smoking causes cancer. It is the exact same blueprint. Use industry studies to produce “results” that show something every non-industry funded study in the world shows to be dangerous and then pretend like that is a real conflict of science and not a sham.
My dad told me that no long ago in this country there was a notion that when it came to children and babies, that safety is what mattered above all else. That meant if there was even the slightest doubt that something wasn’t completely safe, then it wasn’t done. That is why baby food used to only come in glass jars, because we knew for sure that it was safe. These days, it seems that the government and the FDA especially seem far more interested in protecting their big corporate donations than in protecting our children, who let’s face it, don’t really contribute very much money to political campaigns.
The FDA even refused to require that products be labeled so that people could make their own decisions about BPA! I guess we regular people are just too stupid to know what is and isn’t good for us, so we can’t handle having truthful information about what a bottle does or doesn’t contain printed on the packaging.
Fortunately, the lie is beginning to unravel. A consortium of scientists have reported that the finding that BPA is safe is suspect at best and a sham at worst, especially in babies and children. The lead scientist from one of the studies used to “prove” that BPA was safe has said publicly that her research was flawed and even so, was never designed to offer proof that BPA was safe in anything other than the reproductive systems of rats.
Unfortunately, by the time the FDA gets around to doing the right thing, your baby could have been exposed to thousands of feedings from BPA tainted bottles. Since the FDA did not require labeling of plastics you can’t be sure if a bottle does or does not contain BPA unless it is labeled BPA-Free or Does Not Contain BPA. So, buy only baby bottles (and all other hard plastics) that are labeled BPA Free.
In the meantime, assume that all plastics not labeled BPA Free are cancer causing plastics.
Or, even easier, just remember one of these handy reminders:
NO BPA FREE label = CAUSES CANCER, DO NOT USE
CAUSES CANCER UNLESS LABELED BPA-FREE!
Plastics Danger
So, our pediatrician has posted a warning on the main page of their website regarding certain plastics and their potentially dangerous nature (for all of us, not just children). It seems that certain plastics can release cancer causing chemicals, especially when microwaved. So, they are recommending that everyone avoid type 3, 6, and 7 plastics. To find out what kind of plastic something is, look on the bottom (usually) and find the recycling code. It is the number in the middle of the 3 arrows around in a circle (the standard recycle symbol). If that number is 3, 6, or 7, no one in should be using it for food or drinks, especially your children. That goes double for heating anything in 3, 6, or 7 plastic. You shouldn’t be using them either, but you aren’t a defenseless baby, so make your own decision.
Actually, you should probably get used to never microwaving food in plastic at all. Apparently, microwaves release potentially toxic and cancer causing chemicals from ALL plastic, but just in amounts that are deemed “too small” to worry about. That doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy, I don’t know about you. It isn’t that much trouble to transfer stuff to a glass or ceramic bowl or plate before throwing it in the microwave.
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