Your day mapped out: TimeMap puts your calendar on your smartphone map

If you're like me, you have a gazillion places to be in the day and don't necessarily know where they all are. Probably you use some kind of GPS map. And probably, you've done the find address, copy it [or even, gasp! write it down], then paste it in the map thing. I've done that and not only is it annoying, if you're driving it's down right dangerous.

That's why we at YLabZ made TimeMap, an app that puts your calendar on a map. No more copy and paste, just scroll through your day. TimeMap knows the time and where you are. You can flick through your events and you get the most efficient way to your destination. Watch this 32 second video, then download it. It's free!

Because beautiful babies don't deserve acid reflux and proton pump inhibitors are scary: the AR Pillow

Liz's AR Pillow.

I have three beautiful daughters and a son on the way. All of them had acid reflux or GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease (WebMD) and we'll see about the little guy. The experience with our first was hands down one of the low points of having kids: you're stressed, sleep deprived, doing your best to comfort a little one and totally failing. Plus projectile vomiting, coughing, wheezing, possible stunted growth...  Fortunately, kids usually grow out of it. Until then, ug.

Liz Goutevenier lost her niece when she drowned in her own stomach contents. Things like that have a way of making you solve things and Liz did: she made the AR Pillow, a 30 degree inclination with a comfy strap to keep the little one from sliding down.

Liz's AR Pillow is beautifully simple: gravity keeps acid from coming up. This just makes sense and is unsurprisingly supported by a bunch of research.

Let's contrast that elegant simplicity with research on proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) in kids. My wife and I declined that option:

• "PPIs are not effective in reducing GERD symptoms in infants. Placebo-controlled trials in older children are lacking... [E]vidence supporting the safety of PPIs is lacking."
• "Long-term inhibition of gastric acid secretion leads to [lots of bad things] and increased infections...but pediatric studies are limited." 
• "[E]fficacy of PPI treatment of newborns and infants through 11 months of age for GERD has not been demonstrated" with the exception of one study.
• "The use of PPIs in the management of infants with excessive crying, based on a presumptive diagnosis of GERD, remains a common practice among pediatric caregivers despite the lack of any evidence-based treatment efficacy or utility in these patients."
• "Non-specific gastric inflammation in children is associated with proton pump inhibitor treatment for more than 6 weeks."
• "[T]rials and observational studies are still needed to clarify the efficacy and safety of PPIs in the paediatric population."

So overall, PPIs don't work or don't work very well in young kids, they're prescribed anyway and they might do bad things. There are situations where PPIs are warranted, namely in erosive esophagitis of children older than one year. Outside of that, I'm not sure why they're prescribed. Does anyone else remember the marketing effort Prevakids?

Get Liz's AR Pillow here.

Eliminate your #1 bacteria reservoir: the Banish Sponge kills >99.9% of bacteria

Your sponge on the left and the Banish Sponge on the right. It kills >99.9% of sponge bacteria, including antibiotic resistant bacteria.

You know sponges are bad but did you know that 64% are infected with medical pathogens like MRSA, Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli O157? Worse, up to 48% harbor antibiotic resistance. I invented the Banish Sponge to fix this: it actively kills bacteria.

Nothing--and I mean nothing--comes close to having as many bacteria. Let me give you an image: if you make a bar chart of the number of bacteria around your home, and the sponge is the height of Mt. Everest, the next highest bar is your toothbrush holder at 3.6 inches.

Practically, using your terrible sponge probably means more infections. In a study of the cause of urinary tract infections (UTIs), 65% of bacteria that cause UTIs were found to be genetically identical to that from meat. Unfortunately, this isn't surprising: you're not getting sick from the bacteria that were in the meat and cooked. But, the one little bacterium that got into your sponge grows exponentially and then you smear it...everywhere! It's on your plates, your table, your stove, your hands...

Go here to find out about the Banish Sponge.