Grocers allowing your to stock your groceries without the stress

“You lose a lot of time in the grocery store when you could be doing other things.”

“I do my grocery shopping later at night to avoid the crowds.”

Cameron Walker of Dayton and Danielle Kniess of Kettering both said grocery shopping can be stressful and too time consuming, but now shoppers in the Miami Valley don't have to go to the supermarket at all.

Last week, Instacart launched in Dayton.

“It’s an online on-demand grocery delivery service which can get you your groceries in one to two hours,” said Instacart Ohio operations manager Kevin Duff.

Customers log on to the Instacart website or app, select a store, select groceries, and they’ll be delivered right to the door.

It’s free for the first year and delivers from supermarkets like Kroger, Whole Foods, and Meijer.

Last month Meijer launched it’s own delivery service with Shipt.

It offers 24 hour delivery for $99 a year and unlimited delivery on all orders over $35.

To see if service is available in your area go to the Instacart or Shipt websites and enter your zip code.

More competition could be coming- Kroger is piloting home delivery in a few markets but doesn’t yet have a timeline for when service will arrive in the Dayton region.

Cotton swabs injuring kids

Despite warnings on the packaging- a new study shows an alarming number of children are ending up in the E.R. with ear injuries from cotton swabs.

Vidya Raman was trying to get water out of her son’s ear using a cotton tip applicator when he jerked his head and it went in too far.

“We had to go to the physician,” said Raman, “hearing could have been affected. It was a big deal. More serious than we thought.”

Over a 21-year period, more than a quarter of a million children were treated in U.S. hospitals for ear injuries caused by cotton swabs, according to a study by Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

He said a swab can tear the eardrum, damage hearing bones, and the inner ear.

“Patients will have issues with dizziness, balance and irreversible hearing loss,” said Dr. Jatana.

Raman’s son had a torn eardrum- an injury that Dr. Kris Jatana sees too often in children.

“Despite seeing a gradual decline in the number of injuries during the study period, the rate of injury is still unacceptably high and that’s a big concern for us,” said Dr. Jatana.

The ear is designed to self clean, so their is no need to swab them, Dr. Jatana said.

Most of the injured children were handling the swabs themselves, so it’s important to keep swabs away from small children and teach them to never use a cotton tip applicator inside their ears.

Buying a happy healthy puppy

Sick and injured puppies, deplorable living conditions, and genetic abnormalities - those are some of the allegations the Humane Society has raised against puppy mills in it's latest Horrible Hundred 2017 puppy mill list.

“I don’t think it’s humane,” said Braden Shipman of Dayton, “I don’t think it’s natural for them to be bred that way.”

These concerns have many consumers second-guessing their shopping choices and decisions when bringing a new puppy home to the family.

People hear puppy mill horror stories and lump that in with dog-breeding in general, which is a mistake, according to Dr. Daniel Carey with Dayton Care Center.

“A responsible breeder has the best interest of their breed, their puppies and their puppy owners at heart,” said Dr. Carey, “the puppy mills are just trying to produce as many puppies as they can as quickly as they can, in order to sell as many puppies as they can.”

To make sure you are getting a happy healthy dog from a breeder, Dr. Carey recommends you should:

  • Visit the breeder
  • See at least one of the puppy's parents
  • Look for excessive fear or aggressive behavior
  • Take the puppy to a vet before you commit
  • Sleep on it before you make a decision

Dr. Carey said he’s seen the results when dog owners don’t take these steps.

“Suddenly these folks are faced with a life long medical problem or a life-threatening medical problem and a very, very large veterinary bill,” said Dr. Carey.

He said your best bet is to adopt a dog from an animal shelter, especially if you aren’t shopping for a specific breed.

Rachel Murray is a WHIO-TV consumer reporter. You can watch her reports on News Center 7, follow her on Twitter @RMurrayWHIO, and like her fan page on Facebook.

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