Category Archives: Health

Breastfeeding Moms Need Support to Succeed

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“Last week, a Washington mom made news by getting kicked out of a restaurant for breastfeeding her infant son. Women need support, not judgement, and certainly not shame when feeding their babies. The restaurant owner made a bad situation worse when responding to the family’s online review, “Be like decent people not like animals, there are places for everything and this place is not to breastfeed your children.”

“The science supports that “breast is best,” but what we don’t talk about is that the most common deterrent from breastfeeding is lack of support.”

Read the full column below

Breastfeeding Moms Need Support to Succeed, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Last week, a Washington mom made news by getting kicked out of a restaurant for breastfeeding her infant son. Women need support, not judgement, and certainly not shame when feeding their babies.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Parent choice for masks isn’t helpful in the classroom

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Teaching a class of 25-plus kids requires some uniformity and consistency in expectations for the day to run smoothly. Why then, are people advocating for “parent’s choice” when it comes to school mask mandates?

Read the full column linked below
Opinion: Parent choice for masks isn’t helpful in the classroom
A mask is a school supply, like a #2 pencil and a water bottle.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Back-To-School Mental Health Series

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Bonnie Jean with her family for her son’s first birthday.

So many things in the press recently have come with a mental health cry for our children. Mask mandates, Critical Race Theory, Transgender rights… “Our poor children.”

In this back-to-school mental heath series I take a look at what the mental health issues of back-to-school really are, with the help of a few mental health experts along the way. Below, is the result. Both in a 50-minute podcast and four short columns. I hope you’ll listen, read and share.

Parent Footprint Podcast with Dr. Dan Peters

Thank you Dr. Dan Peters for inviting me on the Parent Footprint Podcast to talk about my back-to-school mental health series. Listen to it here or at the link below.

Dr. Dan talks to award-winning columnist Bonnie Jean Feldkamp about her new three part Back To School series which focuses on therapy, mental wellness, parenting mistakes, adolescent milestones, masks, and more. Bonnie passionately believes that prioritizing mental health is even more important than other Back To School essentials like backpacks, new sneakers, and haircuts.

Mental Health is a Back To School Essential with Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Dr. Dan talks to award-winning columnist Bonnie Jean Feldkamp about her new three part Back To School series which focuses on therapy, mental wellness, parenting mistakes, adolescent milestones, masks, and more. Bonnie passionately believes that prioritizing mental health is even more important than other Back To School essentials like backpacks, new sneakers, and haircuts.

Read the Back-to-School Mental Health Columns

Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School

If you are pro-mental health of kids or pro-suicide prevention, then you should consider supporting policies that benefit youth mental health across the board.
Read More…

Mental Health Matters More Than Adolescent Milestones

Though I didn’t have a pandemic to contend with, I saw my bright, talented kid struggling and wanted the best for her. But taking a “timeout” for mental health seemed like it would just add to her hardships down the road. 
Read More…

Therapy Is a Valuable Parenting Resource

Vulnerability requires courage, and parents should cultivate trust and create a safe space for their children to be vulnerable in both good and challenging times. Creating emotional equity in regular conversations that prioritizes mental health and normalizes talking about our feelings will help diffuse some of the shame that society has attached to psychological wellness. 
Read More…

Making Peace with Parenting Mistakes

I love my children, but love doesn’t make anyone perfect. I know my intentions, but I also know that I still don’t agree with every choice my parents made for me. My goal was to do better than my parents, but it turns out I’m not any better; I’m just different. Now that I’m older and have children of my own, I do understand more, but I’m also trying to understand it from both ends.
Read More…

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

The Challenges I’ve Faced Trying to Manage My Weight with Psoriatic Arthritis

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It’s hard to do everything you know you “should” be doing when symptoms like pain and fatigue keep getting in the way.

“Though it’s logical to think that managing your weight can also help manage your quality of life, that’s easier said than done when your body hurts.”

Read the article at the link below.
The Challenges I’ve Faced Trying to Manage My Weight with PsA
It’s hard to do everything you know you “should” be doing when symptoms like pain and fatigue keep getting in the way.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Mental Health Matters More Than Adolescent Milestones

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This is the second of three columns in a back-to-school mental health series. If you missed the first one read it here: Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School.
The second column is linked below.

“My daughter was a good student with a part-time job and friends in the marching band. I knew she didn’t like school, but what choice did we have? We had to get her through it. She cried each day on the drive to school. I hounded her about personal hygiene and tried to understand what was going on, but I just didn’t. I’ve never experienced depression, and because of that, I didn’t recognize when she was in mental health trouble.”

Mental Health Matters More Than Adolescent Milestones, by
My daughter was a junior in high school when her therapist called me into her office. I bounced my toddler on my knee and tried to absorb what the therapist was saying.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School

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Ezra showing off his Fiona Mask from the Cincinnati Zoo

This is the first of three columns in a back-to-school mental health series.

“Mask debates have returned to school board meetings. Many districts are mandating masks for everyone in the classroom, prompting the mental health cry of “these poor children” all over social media.”

Read the full column at the link below

Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School, by
I sat with my son in the school cafeteria. Wearing masks, we waited to meet his kindergarten teacher.

Read the second in the series at the link below

Mental Health Matters More Than Adolescent Milestones, by
My daughter was a junior in high school when her therapist called me into her office. I bounced my toddler on my knee and tried to absorb what the therapist was saying.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Vaccines: They’re Worth the Trouble

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Getting my COVID Vaccine in April

“Beyond the pandemic deniers, the pushback to getting vaccinated boils down to fear. Fear of rare side effects. Fear of missing work. Mistrust in the vaccine’s speedy approval process, big government, corporate medicine or overall long-term unknowns. This fear prompts justifications for concerns and then settles on a decision that the vaccine is just not worth the trouble. But it is.”

Read the whole column at the link below

Vaccines: They’re Worth the Trouble, by
Shots are a part of my life. I self-inject medication once a week to manage my psoriatic arthritis.

Read more columns from Bonnie HERE and HERE

Abortion and the Catholic Currency of Shame

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“Though I appreciated that particular priest, I no longer consider myself Catholic. The recent meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a great example as to why. The bishops voted to draft guidelines for receiving the Eucharist with the goal of ultimately preventing lawmakers, including President Joe Biden, from receiving Communion if they supported a woman’s right to choose. Catholic leaders are exerting their power through public shame, hoping to influence decisions of our supposedly secular legislature.

“It is the same powerplay that Catholic bishops in New York state exhibited in1967 that resulted in something unexpected from their religious peers. It’s a nugget of little-known history that would serve Catholics a great reminder.”

Read the full column at the link below

Abortion and the Catholic Currency of Shame, by
One day in Catholic school, Sister Mary Francis pointed her finger like a gun at my classmate and said shooting her was no different than abortion. Both, she said, were intentional murder.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE

What’d I Miss?

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Where Chronic Illness and Mental Health Intersect

Life doesn’t happen inside neat little schedules. Plus, my zest for life doesn’t quite match the illness’s demand that I slow down.

Click Below to Read the Full Column

What’d I Miss? Where Chronic Illness and Mental Health Intersect
I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, an autoimmune disease that, when left untreated, can be debilitating. There is no cure. My diagnosis was not a death sentence, but my mobility slowed as the disease progressed.

Read More From Bonnie HERE and HERE

Grass Isn’t Green, It’s Wasteful

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In this article for Subaru Drive magazine I take the reader through our backyard conservation projects to remove grass, establish pollinator gardens, install rain gardens, and turn our turf lawn into a clover lawn.

I like a lush, inviting yard. Grass? Not so much. Grass isn’t “green” – it’s wasteful, costing homeowners time, money and energy in an endless cycle of planting, watering and cutting. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that landscape irrigation accounts for nearly one-third of all residential water use, totaling almost 9 billion gallons per day. Grass is actually considered America’s largest irrigated “crop,” beating out even corn.

Read the full article below.

Subaru Drive
Substituting clover for grass, along with a few other eco-tweaks, can turn your outdoor space into a paradise for birds and bees.

For a simple step-by-step guide to install your own pollinator garden click the link below!

Subaru Drive
How To Create a Pollinator Garden in 5 Steps

Read more articles by Bonnie on the environment HERE