What I didn't realize was that being genetically predisposed to allergies could and would mean any sort of allergy. I had no idea that my kids would have food allergies, which was something I'd never experienced. But along came my youngest, my son, and he wasn't even out of infancy before his multiple health issues led us down the path of allergy testing again and again.

First, he was anaphylactic to peanuts. We dealt with that -- made our home peanut-free and read labels religiously -- and still he had random reactions and various problems. Our next round of allergy testing proclaimed him allergic to a plethora of common foods, including eggs, citrus, and a variety of meats. We took him off the additional foods and forged ahead. When he continued with health concerns, we were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist who scared me half to death by telling me he probably had either celiac or leukemia (um, what??), and he turned out to have neither.

Over the years, my son outgrew all of his food allergies. That's right -- he even outgrew his peanut allergy (only 20% of those diagnosed with a peanut allergy will outgrow it, so he was one of the lucky ones), although to this day he hates even the mere smell of peanuts.

I thought we were home free, at long last.

Last year, my daughter came down with a skin condition at the ripe old (young) age of 10. She was misdiagnosed as having Molloscum Contagiosum, then referred to a dermatologist who told us it was a food allergy, and finally to an allergist who did some scratch testing. The diagnosis? Allergic to peanuts.

Oh. Hello there, irony. Come on in!

We removed peanuts from her diet and her skin cleared.

About a month ago I tired of some chronic skin issues I've been having, and I went on an elimination diet to try to determine if maybe I have a food allergy or sensitivity that's irritating my skin. Several hungry weeks later, all signs point to wheat. If I don't eat wheat, my skin seems to be okay. Why I have developed this allergy or sensitivity now is kind of a mystery, and I do still dream of bread, but whatever. Not a huge deal.

But here's the kicker: A week ago, roughly a year after last year's drama, my daughter broke out in the same bumpy, scaly, fast-spreading rash she had last year. Only she's still not eating peanuts. So what gives?

She asked me if she could try going wheat-free with me, while we waited for her appointment with the allergist. Great idea, except that she's also a vegetarian, which means that the elimination of wheat restricts her diet a lot more than it does mine. (Veggie burgers? Full of wheat. Boca crumbles? Wheat. Most tofu-containing foods? Bound with wheat!) But we went ahead and took her off wheat and her skin started to clear.

The allergist agreed to test her for a wheat allergy, but said he thinks it's more likely that she just has "seasonal eczema" and this will come down to managing her skin symptoms. In the meantime, my kid is miserable and we have no idea why. I've been here before, but it doesn't get any easier. Ever. Allergies are tricky and insidious and crazy-making. I just want my child to feel better. And all I can do now is... wait a week for the test results, and continue slathering on the creams that help with the itch. (And dreaming of bread. I don't suppose that helps, strictly speaking, but I'm doing it anyway.)

Plenty of my fellow moms know this particular frustration all too well:

LN of Local Nourishment is a mom to 6 who's been battling allergic eczema in her kids for years. She has some great suggestions on food and food supplements, including the fact that apples contain a component that fights inflammation (perhaps the root of the "apple a day keeps the doctor away" saying).

Robyn writes at Peanut Allergy Kid and (obviously) knows her son has a peanut allergy, but she describes the frustration of the "mystery reaction" so well, I could remember back to when similar things happened with my son.

Kristen of Cutes, Scoots, the Colbmeister and "Sheldon" writes a fascinating post that starts out about her toddler's asthma and ends up illuminating her husband's mystery allergy issue. (Apparently we can't just let the kids have all the fun.)

Tammi of InsideOut wrote earlier this month about Allergy Awareness week, chronicling the story of her daughter Little M's journey through food allergies.

Here's to more answers and fewer allergies. I don't know how that happens, but I'll be hoping for it, anyway.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.

For them, something like paper clutter arises because every single scrap of paper in the world that they've ever touched or written on or breathed near is the most wondrous and unique scrap of paper that there ever was and they don't want to risk throwing out anything, because surely whatever it is, they'll need it later.

Yeah.

As you might imagine, it's a bit of a bone of contention in our house, because the children generate huge amounts of paper. They bring papers and artwork home from school. They invent "projects" here at home. My daughter got some books on origami for the holidays and Lord help me, just as I thought she was outgrowing the whole "every paper is sacred" thing, now there are tiny swans and little intricate cubes and various other masterpieces she simply must keep.

It can take over the house in very short order.

Over time I've settled on a few very simple strategies; they've by no means solved the issue, but it feels like things are more or less manageable, at least.

The rules of paper in our house are as follows:

1) If I find it where it doesn't belong, it's fair game to be thrown away. If this is truly the most wondrous/special/fantabulous thing you ever made, then why is it on the floor of my office? Right. This rule at least (mostly) keeps the kids from leaving these items all over the kitchen counters and other places where they don't belong.

2) Remember the art chest, and use it wisely. The children have a three-drawer plastic chest in which to keep their art supplies. It's of generous size and their various markers and such really only occupy the top drawer. The bottom drawer holds reams of paper. The middle drawer is for everything else, and that includes creations they want to keep. When the chest is overflowing, they know it's time to do a sort and purge or I will do it for them. It's a nice system, because the drawers are large enough that they can continue to stuff them full for quite a while before the inevitable clean-out session, and by the time it arrives, the items which were oh-so-important a few months before are now easier to discard.

3) Each child has four magnets on the refrigerator. My kitchen would probably look a lot snazzier if I didn't allow my children to plaster their artwork all over my fridge, but I don't care. I consider the display of drawings on the refrigerator an inalienable right of childhood. That said, I still need to be able to both find the fridge and open its doors. Each kid may hang up to four masterpieces on the fridge at any given time. If you have four up there and you have a new one to hang, well, it's time to make some choices. Items removed from the fridge which aren't ready for discard may be saved in the art chest or given to me for my collection, if I agree it needs to be kept.

4) Mom keeps the ultimate collection -- the small but definitive assortment. Every year I pick a few select papers and art pieces of the kids' to put in their memory box (which is a box in my closet). They're welcome to state their case on why a given piece should be saved for posterity, but the decision is mine in the end. (And again, if they want it saved and I don't want it for the box, they are welcome to save it, themselves, in the space allotted to them.) At this point, I save maybe a folder's worth of papers each school year, and as I tell the kids, I'm not necessarily saving the best or most perfect, but the pieces I think most represent them and that they'll enjoy having the most when they're older.

We still battle paper clutter, of course. My son regularly complains his shelves are too full, and it turns out that he's jammed them so full of notes and "booklets" and such that his books are falling to the floor. My daughter will heap keepsakes on her dresser until I threaten to dispose of the pile, and then she'll go through it with all of the joy only a tween girl can share when her mother is being totally unreasonable. But our four basic rules serve us pretty well, and keep the day-to-day paper monster fairly well under control.

Check out other stories and suggestions around the blogs:

Gail Gray at Divine Caroline has tips for taming your children's art clutter.

Mama King at 4 Crazy Kings extols the virtue of the accordion file folder.

Alyn at Flying With Kids counts the papers as she goes through them, so that she feels more productive (love that)! She also suggests scanning artwork and making it into a book (and then the originals can be tossed), which I thought was a neat idea.

Tracy at Tips to Organize Life seconds the scanning idea, as well as supporting the "only what fits in this space" concept. She also suggests using old projects to make new ones, like cutting up old pieces to make new collages.

Finally, SouleMama reminds me that this time is short, and soon enough the kids won't bring me their masterpieces. Her words do make it easier to just let go and not worry so much about the clutter.

How do you handle the paper monster at your house? Do you have any foolproof organizing tips when it comes to the sheer volume of paper most children seem to generate?

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.

It wasn't important enough for them to put it away properly, mind you, but please don't go confusing them with logic.

Ahem.

I've been a parent for over eleven years, now, and I'm still struggling to help my children help themselves when it comes to staying organized. For me, in the short term, this is about keeping junk off the floor and preventing my head from exploding when I walk into a bedroom where there is no visible floor beneath the carnage. But for them, in the long term, this is about so much more than that; it's about teaching them to value their possessions, create a living space that nurtures them, and about priorities.

Kind of a tall order, really, when you consider how much of it boils down to the oft-repeated, "Please pick this up and put it away," request.

We've not won the battle here, by any means, but there are a few things which I feel are pretty good starting points for any organizational plan.

1) Get kid buy-in. I can decide whatever I want, but if I cannot get the children to agree to my plan, it's just going to be a protracted power struggle that makes everyone miserable. This means making the experience full of those lovely teachable moments (like explaining to young children what happens if you leave food or food wrappers around in a place where bugs are plentiful...), and also means the parents need to make a few concessions. While I would prefer never to find items on the floor which don't belong there, I may have to settle for a mutual agreement that said items will be picked up by bedtime, lest I'm viewed as intolerant and therefore wrong.

2) Set the rules, set the example. Try as I may, the "Do as I say, not as I do" school of discipline has just never worked for me. Go figure. And that means I not only have to model good organization, I have to admit when I don't. The common areas of our house generally conform to my ideal (which is little to no clutter), and we all work together to make that happen. But my office isn't nearly so pristine, and I can't demand spotless rooms when I'm not spotless, myself. So I have designated places for piles of papers and such, and make sure that my kids have something similar they're allowed, as well. A pile of paper in a bedroom, then, is allowable... but one in the bathroom (a shared living space) is not.

3) Determine the goals together and revisit as needed. My kids are collectors, much moreso than I am. I can't just tell them they're not allowed to do that because I don't; I'd lose buy-in and the rules would break down. Instead, we talk together about limits. Things like... it's okay to collect [insert item here] as long as your collection is kept tidy, so how can we do that? (Do you need a bin, a set of shelves?) Sometimes I have to put my foot down and say that hard choices need to be made -- a new collection cannot be started unless an old one is given up, say -- but we make those decisions together. For a while my kids were allowed to let their rooms go for weeks at a time, with only specified "inspections" twice a month; ultimately we all agreed that wasn't working (their rooms became so cluttered they were overwhelmed by the prospect of cleaning them), and the rules were changed.

4) With privilege comes responsibility, and vice versa. I'm not above bribery, though I also want my kids to learn a kind of organization that's intrinsically rewarding, as well. Rooms not kept to the agreed-upon standard sometimes result in revocation of privileges. By the same token, when I see one of the kids going above and beyond, and really taking the initiative, I try to reward that. ("Wow, I love how you not only cleaned up, you completely went through and organized your shelves and put together a bag of donation items! That showed real maturity. I think you can stay up a little later tonight.")

5) Have the right tools for success. "Clean your room" is a frustrating phrase for almost any child. Foster their success by being very clear not only about what a "clean room" means, but in making sure that there's a place for everything that's (age-appropriately) obvious. When the kids were little, I actually drew pictures of toys on their bins -- they needed only to match items to the pictures. When I recently berated my tween for hanging upwards of a dozen clothing items on the hook outside her closet, she wailed, "But I don't have enough hangers to hang them all up!" I wasn't thrilled with the way she shared that information, but I was thrilled to be able to fetch her a bunch of hangers and solve her problem!

6) Compromise. I used to think compromise applied only to somehow meshing my idea of organized with the kids' idea of organized. I've since figured out it also means striking a balance between fostering their independence and helping them. I have one child who can walk through a room strewn with out-of-place items and not even register their presence. (It's a... special gift. The gift of obliviousness.) I came to realize that expecting said child to see the items, gather them up, and then put them away, was not only a tall order, the entire process was making me crazy. Enter the stair basket: Now when I find items in the family room that belong upstairs, I put them in the basket at the base of the stairs. Presto chango! I'm no longer annoyed (because the items are gone) and the kids know to check the basket each night. By mutual agreement, items that languish in the step basket for several days mysteriously disappear. It's a compromise we can all manage.

Need specific ideas on getting your kids organized? There's no shortage of bloggy advice!

I'm an Organizing Junkie recommends empowering your kids to make decisions about their rooms/spaces, so that they'll be more likely to participate in keeping things neat and clean.

Tip Junkie has lots of (illustrated!) suggestions for keeping kid stuff tidy (I'm digging the sock bins...).

Thrifty Decor Chick has put together some adorable and cheap kid organization solutions.

Blissful Home recommends minimal decoration, plenty of space to display keepsakes, and a zone defense (yes, really).

MOMboTV has suggestions on how to set up a kids' room to best advantage, too.

And I can't stop chuckling over the clever Spring Cleaning Invitation at Beth's Blog -- you just have to go read it; it's brilliant.

Do you have any great kid organizational tips to share? Please?

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Studies suggest that nasal irrigation can reduce sinus and allergy symptoms.

All together now, please: Duh.

I mean, listen -- a several-hundred-years-old practice probably has some merit, no? My family is chock-full of seasonal allergy sufferers, and we fully embrace the Neti pot. It does exactly what it claims to do, inexpensively and with little fuss: it helps clear sinus congestion.

The main objection I find people expressing about it is generally something along the lines of "Ewwww, gross!" and/or "I don't want to shoot stuff up my nose!"

The reality is that it takes a little getting used to, and it's not particularly glamorous, but it's no big deal. Even my kids can handle it with very little help. Though if you click through the Times piece you'll see a graphic wherein a woman appears to be irrigating her sinuses right into a pool of water she's standing in, and that's pretty gag-inducing. Not exactly the way to warm the masses up to the practice, I'm thinking. (We lean over the sink, and try not to bathe in the products of our, um, irrigation.)

Other than a flurry of Twitter comments on that charming graphic, what's the buzz?

Freakgirl cheerfully declares: Nasal Irrigation FTW!

Barrett at Five Points Yoga urges folks to give it a try, citing how helpful she's found it over the years (even before the NYT decided to verify).

Inge at The World According to Taquoriaan read the article and asks readers to let her know if they agree and find it really works.

Angela of Shaw Family is moved to verse:

I love my Neti Pot.
I hate my Neti Pot.
I'm going to write a poem about my Neti Pot.

(For what it's worth, I have a love/hate relationship with mine, too.)

At SisterSpot, Lian is ready for discussion:

It's the law: once a year we must discuss the alleged benefits of the neti pot on Satellite Sisters. I had never even heard of a neti pot for the first 30 or so years of my life, then bam! We get a radio show and the Neti Pot Users of America come out of the woodwork, beseeching the Sisters to use a neti pot to relieve any and all nasal situations, from colds to allergies. This is one topic that provides endless comments from the Satellite Sisterhood. And now, after years of anecdotal evidence, the New York Times takes on the benefits of the neti pot.

I love that the very first comment received is from a woman named Tracy, who says, "I'm not saying I don't think it works, it just kind of grooses me out."

So where do you fall -- are you part of the cult of Neti, or does the very idea make your toes curl and cause wooziness? Anecdotal evidence suggests that folks either love it or hate it, with very little opinion falling in-between. If you've been opposed, will the scientific evidence change your mind?

C'mon, you can tell me. I'm just a regular person. Who regularly sticks a plastic gravy boat-looking thing up her nose in the name of sinus relief.

(No, I don't have any dignity left. Thanks for asking.)

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.