AppRx by HealthTap

This is a sponsored post by HealthTap.

I was recently contacted by HealthTap, a digital health service connecting you with health information and top doctors, about an exciting launch of their new app: AppRx.

Imagine searching for a health or wellness app. Now envision dozens of suggestions. Feeling overwhelmed? Confused, perhaps?

Where do you even begin? How do you know which app is most reliable? How do you even begin to decipher the quality of the app? With all these questions swirling your mind, your health and wellness questions sit, unanswered.

Now, HealthTap is offering one app that takes all those concerns and offers consumers a place “to discover the best and most useful health apps recommended by top doctors.”

AppRx is bringing together renowned doctors from all over the world to recommend the most helpful apps and organize them into useful, designated categories. 

“There are more than 600 different diabetes apps, 231 different children’s health apps, and more than 105 period trackers with new ones popping up almost every day! With only user reviews in app stores, it’s very difficult and time consuming to assess the quality and personal fit, let alone discern which apps are best suited for specific health issues.” 

With this launch, the idea is to alleviate health app discovery by providing doctor-approved apps in 30 different health and wellness categories right at your fingertips. 

The “one-stop mobile health hub,” AppRx, launches today. You’ll find it available for your iPad tablet and iPhone or Android.

Discover HealthTap on the web | Facebook | Twitter

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post and was only given information for the feature launch. All opinions are my own.  

AppRx by HealthTap

This is a sponsored post by HealthTap.

I was recently contacted by HealthTap, a digital health service connecting you with health information and top doctors, about an exciting launch of their new app: AppRx.

Imagine searching for a health or wellness app. Now envision dozens of suggestions. Feeling overwhelmed? Confused, perhaps?

Where do you even begin? How do you know which app is most reliable? How do you even begin to decipher the quality of the app? With all these questions swirling your mind, your health and wellness questions sit, unanswered.

Now, HealthTap is offering one app that takes all those concerns and offers consumers a place “to discover the best and most useful health apps recommended by top doctors.”

AppRx is bringing together renowned doctors from all over the world to recommend the most helpful apps and organize them into useful, designated categories. 

“There are more than 600 different diabetes apps, 231 different children’s health apps, and more than 105 period trackers with new ones popping up almost every day! With only user reviews in app stores, it’s very difficult and time consuming to assess the quality and personal fit, let alone discern which apps are best suited for specific health issues.” 

With this launch, the idea is to alleviate health app discovery by providing doctor-approved apps in 30 different health and wellness categories right at your fingertips. 

The “one-stop mobile health hub,” AppRx, launches today. You’ll find it available for your iPad tablet and iPhone or Android.

Discover HealthTap on the web | Facebook | Twitter

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post and was only given information for the feature launch. All opinions are my own.  

For Boston…

I held off posting right away.

There’s always so much speculation when such tragedies occur. Everyone trying to make sense out of the senseless.

This whole thing has been weighing heavy on my heart this entire week.

Reflection has done nothing to sort out the carnage.

I’m new to the running community. A community who, after only one 5k, has left a lasting impression on my mind and my heart.

Running is often thought of as an individual sport. Running against your own times. Achieving your own goals. But the camaraderie. Ah, the camaraderie!

I never felt so much emotion as when I gave birth. Indescribable, I-can-do-this-teary-eyed-joyous-love filled emotion. The day of my first 5k, I was filled with nearly that same emotion. 

A crowd of people I’d never met cheered on runners they’d never met, the high-fives handed out along the course, the father running with his son softly encouraging… it gives me chills.

When I opened facebook Monday afternoon and began reading the many posts about the brutal attack at the Boston Marathon I was in shock.

I cried.

My mind wandered to those injured. Those who lost their lives. I immediately began wondering about the hubs cousin who is away at college there (she was fine). I thought about runners, and their families waiting along the finish line to join in triumph over accomplishments. I thought about my own family standing at the finish line the previous weekend awaiting me. I wept.

Race grader and their followers offered a way to show support the following day by wearing a running shirt in honor of Boston, so I did. For Boston. Didn’t seem like much, but it was something I could do all the way across the country.

#RunforBoston was all over twitter, so I did. For Boston.

The past week, I’ve been spending extra time with A just snuggling, running, reflecting, snuggling some more, more running, and lots more snuggling. Because that’s what you do when tragedy strikes. You hold your loved ones tight, you find solace in the usual comforts.

I received a message from an old friend who knew about my running endeavors saying maybe I should stay away from marathons. It was certainly food for thought through all the reflection of this horrific event.

But that’s what the people responsible would wish for, isn’t it? That we retreat. That our spirit be broken, and we hide like the cowards they are.

I learned, with the untimely passing of my dad who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when ran down by a drunk driver, that senseless acts happen. It’s just that. The wrong place at the wrong time. We could live our lives shelled up in our houses. Never step out of our comfort zone. Hide like cowards.

If I learned anything from my first race it’s that those runners aren’t cowards. They’ll hold their heads high. They’ll make it to the finish line on the next race. They’ll never give up. 

Lives were lost to see those runners keep going… to the finish line. That finish line there in Boston and beyond. 

We will move on. The events will blur, and details be forgotten. What I think we should remember is the courage that swelled there that day. Tragedy will strike, events we can’t always control will happen. Boston solidifies that even though there is evil in this world, there is still so much good, so many good people.

My heart is with you Boston.

Will You Have The Tools?

Photo Credit

Reading through facebook the other morning, this question, posed by one of my favorite family sites, had me pondering: Would My Child Tell? They were asking in response to an article on inappropriate touching.


A timely piece for us folks here in California. How sickening. If you haven’t been keeping tabs on the news, there were teachers investigated recently here in California for this. But really, it isn’t just news at this moment, and there have been several teachers popping up on investigations like these lately. Each year thousands of children are victimized by sexual predators. Sad, Disgusting, and an unfortunate Fact of Life. 


If only we could avoid this subject all together. In a perfect world, right? Unfortunately, I don’t live in that world, and this is one of my biggest concerns as Lovebug grows, and will eventually spend alone time around other grown ups; be it at school or extracurricular activities. 


Because we can’t always keep our children in our sights, we have to arm them, and ourselves, with a plan.


The article “Would My Child Tell? Teaching kids About Reporting Inappropriate Touching” discusses reasons why a child might not tell:

• fear no one will believe them
• fear they’ll be faulted
• fear parents will be disappointed in them; not the offender

The article begins with a child telling her mother she fell and showing her the scrapes of her incident. The mother cleans it up, and kisses it all better. She fixed the problem. The point is it’s easy for a child to come to a parent when they fall down, bump their head, or scrape their knees, but what’s so different about confiding in a parent if there’s inappropriate touching? 

It’s physical. It’s hurts. And a child certainly needs their parent to fix it. 

I ask again, what’s different then? 


In the scenario of the little girl falling down and suffering some scrapes, her mom had the tools to handle it. 

We have to be prepared, but we also have to prepare our children. Our natural instinct is to protect our children, shelter them, and let them be children; care-free, whimsical. We don’t have to scare the shit out of them, but we have to be realistic. 

Open conversation is key. The article recommends beginning with something easy: head, shoulders, toes. As children grow, so should the conversation. They should be taught that private parts are just that, private. Correct terminology should be taught. 

A child who can only identify their private parts by a nickname may be more reluctant to make a disclosure because they are embarrassed to share the nickname they use. A funny moniker might also cause a disclosure to be missed. The 5-year-old who tells her busy kindergarten teacher that the janitor licked her cookie might simply be given another cookie rather than the help she is seeking.

Allowing your child to come to you with anything that scares them lets them know you will listen and help. 

The article makes a great point about reinforcing body safety with 10 tips to keep children safe:

1. Teaching correct terms for body parts. I think this makes it easy for communication.
2. Children should be taught that no one should touch their private parts and they shouldn’t touch anyone else’s.
3. There should be no secrets.
4. Identify a safety zone. Make open communication an easy process in your home. Allow your children to discuss anything with you, and have an open mind and heart.
5. Tell your children they should let you know anytime they receive a gift.
6. Let children decide for themselves how they want to express affection. Not everyone is “huggy”.
7. Tell your children it’s okay to say No to an adult, and that they need to talk with their parents.
8. As a parent, don’t ask your child every day if they’ve been touched. A no answer will be an easy routine to fall into.
9. Remember that other children can be perpetrators. 
10. Believe your child. You are not an investigator. Leave that up to authorities.

As parents, we don’t ever want to face such an unthinkable crime. The reality is that it can happen and burying our heads in the sand isn’t going make the problem go away.


Here are a few more tools to put in your parenting toolbox:

• Search the latest information on sexual predators with the Sex Offender Registry
• Keep safety at your fingertips with the FBI Child Id app. (It’s free!) I downloaded it and it’s very user friendly. The checklists option goes through step-by-step directions, there is an emergency tab that will allow you to make an emergency call, and you can even password protect. 

Opening the lines of communication can help you keep your child from becoming a victim, but is also a step to repair uncontrolled victimization.

Do you have a tip on broaching the subject with your child? 

Will You Have The Tools?

Photo Credit

Reading through facebook the other morning, this question, posed by one of my favorite family sites, had me pondering: Would My Child Tell? They were asking in response to an article on inappropriate touching.


A timely piece for us folks here in California. How sickening. If you haven’t been keeping tabs on the news, there were teachers investigated recently here in California for this. But really, it isn’t just news at this moment, and there have been several teachers popping up on investigations like these lately. Each year thousands of children are victimized by sexual predators. Sad, Disgusting, and an unfortunate Fact of Life. 


If only we could avoid this subject all together. In a perfect world, right? Unfortunately, I don’t live in that world, and this is one of my biggest concerns as Lovebug grows, and will eventually spend alone time around other grown ups; be it at school or extracurricular activities. 


Because we can’t always keep our children in our sights, we have to arm them, and ourselves, with a plan.


The article “Would My Child Tell? Teaching kids About Reporting Inappropriate Touching” discusses reasons why a child might not tell:

• fear no one will believe them
• fear they’ll be faulted
• fear parents will be disappointed in them; not the offender

The article begins with a child telling her mother she fell and showing her the scrapes of her incident. The mother cleans it up, and kisses it all better. She fixed the problem. The point is it’s easy for a child to come to a parent when they fall down, bump their head, or scrape their knees, but what’s so different about confiding in a parent if there’s inappropriate touching? 

It’s physical. It’s hurts. And a child certainly needs their parent to fix it. 

I ask again, what’s different then? 


In the scenario of the little girl falling down and suffering some scrapes, her mom had the tools to handle it. 

We have to be prepared, but we also have to prepare our children. Our natural instinct is to protect our children, shelter them, and let them be children; care-free, whimsical. We don’t have to scare the shit out of them, but we have to be realistic. 

Open conversation is key. The article recommends beginning with something easy: head, shoulders, toes. As children grow, so should the conversation. They should be taught that private parts are just that, private. Correct terminology should be taught. 

A child who can only identify their private parts by a nickname may be more reluctant to make a disclosure because they are embarrassed to share the nickname they use. A funny moniker might also cause a disclosure to be missed. The 5-year-old who tells her busy kindergarten teacher that the janitor licked her cookie might simply be given another cookie rather than the help she is seeking.

Allowing your child to come to you with anything that scares them lets them know you will listen and help. 

The article makes a great point about reinforcing body safety with 10 tips to keep children safe:

1. Teaching correct terms for body parts. I think this makes it easy for communication.
2. Children should be taught that no one should touch their private parts and they shouldn’t touch anyone else’s.
3. There should be no secrets.
4. Identify a safety zone. Make open communication an easy process in your home. Allow your children to discuss anything with you, and have an open mind and heart.
5. Tell your children they should let you know anytime they receive a gift.
6. Let children decide for themselves how they want to express affection. Not everyone is “huggy”.
7. Tell your children it’s okay to say No to an adult, and that they need to talk with their parents.
8. As a parent, don’t ask your child every day if they’ve been touched. A no answer will be an easy routine to fall into.
9. Remember that other children can be perpetrators. 
10. Believe your child. You are not an investigator. Leave that up to authorities.

As parents, we don’t ever want to face such an unthinkable crime. The reality is that it can happen and burying our heads in the sand isn’t going make the problem go away.


Here are a few more tools to put in your parenting toolbox:

• Search the latest information on sexual predators with the Sex Offender Registry
• Keep safety at your fingertips with the FBI Child Id app. (It’s free!) I downloaded it and it’s very user friendly. The checklists option goes through step-by-step directions, there is an emergency tab that will allow you to make an emergency call, and you can even password protect. 

Opening the lines of communication can help you keep your child from becoming a victim, but is also a step to repair uncontrolled victimization.

Do you have a tip on broaching the subject with your child?