Home Otoscope
I’d give out a home otoscope with every baby if I could. Parents should make informed decisions about their children’s health starting at birth. From our experinece the most common early childhood health problems were ear infections – or not ear infections but kids teething and having soreness that mimics an ear infection. You can either take your baby in to the doctor every time it seems like you may have an infection or you can learn to use a good quality otoscope to see the condition of your kids ear drums.
You can find photos of what different ear conditions look like: here. With a little practice you can tell the condition of your child’s ears and potentially save unnecessary antibiotics.
When we did take our kids in to the doctor I compared my impressions with theirs, even taking turns looking at the ear drums in question.
Our first otoscope was a cheap plastic model which was not worth much. The otoscope above comes highly recommended (note, I have not tested this model) and the ones made by Welch Allyn are superb, but possibly overkill for occasional use.
Check Out: Dr. Mom Otoscope
Buy Nothing
Buy Nothing. Nothing is good for the environment. Nothing will make you look younger. Nothing will make your teeth whiter and brighter. You get the picture.
What I really intend by this little rant is to encourage you/us all to purchase less stuff. One of the goals of Access to Tools is to find the stuff that you will want to keep a long time. If you can go twice as long as average with your cell phone, you save a lot of energy, pollution and electronic waste. For each pound of laptop made there are hundreds of pounds of waste generated. Finding a worthwhile laptop and keeping it till it for half a decade or more is better than buying the cheapest or even an average model every 18 months to two years. (yes that is about the life span of a cell phone or laptop these days)
Our goal is to find the really outstanding products, often products that are made in an environmentally friendly manner, and bring them to your attention. We are not a techno-lust blog. There are plenty of those already. We just want to share the stuff we find really worthwhile. I use my old Nikon camera as a model. I purchased it in 1970 (or around then, it was just after the ’60s and my memory of the time is still a bit foggy). My Nikon still works like a champ. I have had it in for cleaning a few times and they tell me the light meter can’t be fixed if it goes. The thing weighs a ton but that now steadies my somewhat shaky grip.
So – find a cell phone that you can live with for 4 years. That is over double the average life of a cell these days. Find a laptop that you will want to be using for a long time. Replace your digital camera with one that will last for a decade. The megapixel count will go up on new models but for my printing purposes 6 megapixels makes a nice 8×10 which is about the largest photo I’ve ever printed. Just because you can now purchase a camera that will make a billboard sized print doesn’t mean we all need one.
Ok, this was a rant. Not as well organized as my usual post, but you probably understand who is writing this blog a bit better and you may just find that life with older stuff is pretty good.
Nothing will save you money.
BTW- The Buy Nothing website is pretty fun: Nothing
Locate Energy Leaks With Digital Infrared Thermometer
Mastercool MSC52224A Infrared Thermometer
A digital infrared non-contact thermometer is a great tool for locating energy leaks in a building. In winter you can trace the cold spots in your house and even tell where insulation is missing. The Mastercool MSC52224A works great and is more than accurate enough to find the real energy hogs in your house.
On the outside of a building you can trace temperature gradients, “see” hot spots and measure temperatures around windows, air conditioners, doors and roofs. I’ve found consistent problems where houses have been added on to. Somehow builders omit insulation or make compromises at the intersection of old and new construction.
For anyone who wants to increase the energy efficiency of their home, or just find the exact temperature for making pancakes, this digital thermometer is the prefect thing.
Mastercool MSC52224A Infrared Thermometer in Case with FREE MSC52220 Analog Thermometer
The Mastercool plus the Kill-A-Watt make a great pair of tools for making your home energy efficient.
-jsb