The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Holiday safety tips: From cooking to travel

Readers share holiday food recipes

Who needs chocolate for Valentine's Day when there are shoes?
6:20 p.m.
Celebrate Valentine's Day by cooking a meal together
6:13 p.m.
Healthy side dish ideas from local chef
2/9/12
Some peope just don't feel Valentine’s Day love
2/8/12
How to turn a glass vase into a sweet candy dish
2/8/12
> More lifestyle headlines

Staff Report Updated 11:01 AM Monday, November 23, 2009

Thanksgiving is top day for cooking fires

The National Fire Protection Association is calling on cooks across the nation to include fire safety in their recipes. Thanksgiving is the leading day for home cooking fires. U.S. firefighters responded to roughly 1,300 home fires involving cooking equipment on Thanksgiving in 2007, nearly three times the daily average of cooking fires, according to NFPA.

NFPA recommends the following cooking safety tips:

•Be on alert. If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol, don’t use the stove or stovetop.

•If you are simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you are cooking.

•Keep anything that can catch fire — oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels or curtains — away from your stovetop.

If you have a cooking fire:

•Keep a lid nearby when you’re cooking to smother small grease fires. Smother the fire by sliding the lid over the pan and turn off the stovetop. Leave the pan covered until it is completely cooled.

•For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed.

•If you try to fight the fire, be sure others are getting out and you have a clear way out.

•When in doubt, just get out. When you leave, close the door behind you to help contain the fire. Call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number after you leave.

For more information visit www.nfpa.org.

Healthy holiday eating ideas

The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton offers five tips to keep your family eating healthy during the holidays:

1. Portion control: Watching portion sizes will help a child eat healthier and avoid adding extra pounds. Use moderation when choosing foods that are special to the holidays, like cookies, pies and fudge. Choose these holiday specials over candy, soft drinks, and snack cakes to help satisfy a sweet tooth without sending blood sugar levels too high or adding unnecessary calories.

2. Change recipes: Keep a grip on seasonal calories by extra healthy eating in-between the holiday eating events. If desired, minor modifications of traditional holiday dishes makes the season healthier for the entire family. Consider fat-free or light sour cream in recipes or as a garnish. Try steaming vegetables rather than cooking in butter. Reduce sugar by half in dessert recipes.

3. Monitor kids’ access to food: Help a child resist temptation and overeating by encouraging them to eat small snacks throughout the day so they don’t feel hungry. Select foods carefully and don’t eat at the buffet table. Start the day with a small meal that includes whole grains, fruits, dairy foods and protein.

4. Plan active family events: Spend some holiday together time with active outings such as hiking or sledding, visits to the zoo or museums, trying out an indoor rock climbing wall, visiting an indoor pool together or going skating. If you don’t have time for a big outing, just go outside together to play games like tag, jump rope or build a snowman. Park your car and walk neighborhoods or downtown to see holiday decorations.

5. Buy gifts that promote being active: Include at least one gift for each child that will help them enjoy being active, such as a new bike, skates, or balls. A gift for the whole family, like a badminton set or snow skis, can create a new opportunity for everyone to enjoy.

Dayton Children’s offers tips for travel

In the air or on the ground, a car seat is an essential safety device. If families are flying to their holiday destination it is important to know that booster seats are not allowed on airplanes because they require shoulder belts and airplane seats have only lap belts. However, car seats fit for infants or toddlers are allowed on aircrafts.

Not all car seats can fit on standard airplane seats, which are typically about 16 inches wide, but Dayton Children’s, Safe Kids Greater Dayton, and the Federal Aviation Administration strongly recommend using a car seat in an aircraft whenever possible.

The FAA advises travelers with small children to reserve a pair of seats by a window. Car seats are not allowed in aisle seats or exit rows, where they could block emergency escape routes; they must be installed at a window seat.

Inappropriately restrained children are nearly three and a half times more likely to be seriously injured in a crash than their appropriately restrained counterparts. Children should always wear a safety belt, in a car or in the air.

With holiday season comes flu season

As the number of confirmed swine flu cases continues to grow both nationwide and worldwide, Cincinnati’s Senior Helpers is urging families to review their hygiene practices to keep their elderly loved ones safe.

According to Guyer Owens, owner of Senior Helpes in Mason, senior citizens do not have a greater risk of getting swine flu, but the elderly do have the highest risk of potentially fatal complications once they contract the disease.

Seniors Should Practice Healthy Habits (Source: Centers for Disease Control)

•Wash your hands with soap and water for 10 to 15 seconds.

•If soap and water aren’t available, use waterless, alcohol-based hand gels that contain at least 60 percent alcohol.

•Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.

•Wash your hands after coughing or sneezing.

•If a tissue isn’t available, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve and not your hands.

•Don’t put your fingers in your eye or mouth to prevent the spread of germs.

Share this article