<p>Portland doesn’t fluoridate the water?
I had no idea-
I will make sure D goes for her checkup I think she is due anyway-
Thats another thing- make sure that kids have had all their checkups shots optometrist updated before they go off to school. Much easier to deal with getting prescriptions at home, than trying to find a dr off campus.
But we didn’t get an egg crate mattress either- the mattresses were fine.</p>
<p>Things that were handy for my D during her first year in a small, double dorm room:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Tall, 13 gal.-size plastic trash can with a swinging lid. Takes up little floor space. The dorm will provide a wastebasket, but believe me, they need a trash can for all of the food stuff they throw away. </p></li>
<li><p>13 gal. Glad scented, garbage bags. Lots! </p></li>
<li><p>Room fresheners: Spray & the kind that can sit on a shelf.</p></li>
<li><p>Overdoor hooks & S-hooks: Great for hanging belts, scarves, hats, etc. in the closet. The overdoor hooks ($4.99 from the Container Store website) work well for using the footboard of a dorm bed as a place to hang wet towels (instead of adhesive, plastic hooks that will leave a big hole in the drywall).</p></li>
<li><p>Small, portable, color printer: We got our D the Canon i80 color, bubble jet printer ($229 on Amazon). It’s a great, little printer and takes up very little space on a desk. Super-high quality. </p></li>
<li><p>Tons of extra printing paper & extra ink jet cartridges.</p></li>
<li><p>Post-It Flags: Lots of these! For marking pages in texts.</p></li>
<li><p>Hoover, folding vacuum cleaner: Little and collapsible and does not require a vacuum bag. Other students on the dorm were always borrowing this from my D. Dorms will say that they supply a vacuum for the floor, but they’re usually really crappy, beat-up, old, missing a vacuum bag, or altogether missing. </p></li>
<li><p>Mighty magnetic strips (bulletin board): A space-saving alternative (28" X 2-1/2") to a regular cork bulletin board. Each strip costs $12.99 at the Container Store, and each comes with 12 magnets for hanging papers and notes.</p></li>
<li><p>First aid kit: The basics</p></li>
<li><p>Small, tool kit: screwdrivers (Phillips & flat), hammer, adhesive poster tabs, Goo Gone, Super glue. </p></li>
<li><p>Extra CAT5 Ethernet cable: Take a short one and a long one, depending on where the wall socket is. D’s roommate ended up borrowing one because she did not bring one.</p></li>
<li><p>Oscillating floor fan: Dorms are often heated, but not air conditioned. They will get uncomfortably warm in the Fall and in the Spring. A floor fan is better than a desk fan, which will blow papers and take up desk top space. </p></li>
<li><p>Quarters: For laundry and vending machines.</p></li>
<li><p>Shelf for the desk: We used an inexpensive, particle board shoe rack, about $8 at Home Depot. Depends on the desk. Some have hutches attached, but if they have a flat top, an extra shelf comes in handy.</p></li>
<li><p>Shower shoes</p></li>
<li><p>Extra light bulbs</p></li>
<li><p>Zip-loc bags: Quart & gallon size</p></li>
<li><p>Sharpie markers: For labeling things</p></li>
<li><p>Mini-fridge & microwave: These have been indispensible. </p></li>
<li><p>Paper plates & bowls; plastic utinsels; napkins</p></li>
<li><p>Paper towels & Antibacterial cleaner</p></li>
<li><p>Shower caddy: Liquid shower soap (as opposed to bar soap). </p></li>
<li><p>2 sets of towels</p></li>
<li><p>A couple of dishtowels & a small bottle of dishsoap: My D needed these for washing out cups in the bathroom.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>emeraldkity - and others sending kids to the great state of Oregon - none of the water is fluoridated. Kids here take fluoride pills daily and get flouride treatments at the dentist twice a year, generally until their late teens. By the time your kids arrive, they probably have had enough fluoride to be OK. But maybe a dentist out there will comment?</p>
<p>EK4 and Wish… our dentist was horrified that my D was not getting fluoridated water (at age 19). My D may have unusually soft teeth, but she is not careless at all about her dental care (she <em>hates</em> the dentist (a side effect of having had braces three distinct times from age 5 to age 16) and thus makes sure that her teeth are cared for, so she is there a minimum of time)—but she never had cavities until she moved to Portland.</p>
<p>D has lived in Portland for three years and she still doesn’t ahve any fillings- she did have flouride treatments up till she was 18 ( and actually it seems like she has had them past that)
she had braces for about 3 years- but her teeth were in good shape.
I will make sure she gets her teeth checked out though before she goes back this fall. cause when she graduates she won’t be on our ins anymore.
but why don’t they have floride? is it easier on the pipes?</p>
<p>Not sure the history of why they never fluoridated - my kids have perfect teeth, no cavities - S (now 18) has been here since he was 7 months old and D (now almost 25) since she was 7. Maybe the fluoride pills gave them more fluoride than fluoridated water in other states would, so they are better protected than someone coming from another state… but that is just a guess. Hmm, I think I should post something on the Oregon colleges thread.</p>
<p>Worked for my sister: </p>
<p>First Aid/Sick kit in small rubbermaid box with pills for every illness, bandaids, digital thermometer, etc…</p>
<p>Small file with important papers - social security card, passport, etc.</p>
<p>Hanger holders which hold several clothes hangers in a vertical line (great space-saver)</p>
<p>NO HALOGEN LAMPS - many dorms don’t allow them</p>
<p>Good list, but I’d like to add another item: GlueGone or some other thing that will get sticky stuff off. Will prove to be indespensable especially at the end of the year when you have sticky marks on the wall you can’t get rid of!
Oh, and your medical card in whatever you happen to be carrying your student ID around in. Hope no one needs to use it, but I did and it was undoubtedly the most intelligent thing I slipped into my pocket.</p>
<p>stargirl-good idea to carry your insurance card. I told son to carry his, and he did-but I must have forgot to tell him to show it when they took him to the ER!</p>
<p>emeraldkity4, </p>
<p>We’re from Sacramento area and water here is not fouridated, either. My D has never had a cavity–did take pills until 14. Our dentist recommends we all use “ACT.” It comes in 3 flavors - mint, bubblegum and grape, I think. (Mint & BBGum not bad tasting. Never tried the grape.) You can buy it anywhwere near the other mouth rinses in toothpaste section. Just rinse once a day, at night preferred. It costs around $3.99 a bottle. Well worth the price!</p>
<p>Back in the 50’s there was a group that thought fluoridation was a communist plot – a design to poison us and weaken our ability to fight the commies. Stanley Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove” played on this theme with its reference to POE (purity of essence) and the need to protect Americans’ precious bodily fluids from the threat of fluoridatioin.</p>
<p>In some communities, the decision to fluoridate became highly politicized, and when that happened sometimes fluoridation was not undertaken. When the decisions were taken more by city managers rather than politicized by elected officials (partisan strong city counsils), fluoridation was more likely to go forward.</p>
<p>This IS the fun part, guys (albeit expensive but I guess it pales in comparison to tuition, right?). I recall it fondly from last summer with my oldest going off to college for the first time (and all the great threads on here…remember the egg crate thread???). I told my D to enjoy picking out all this stuff like linens because it likely is the last time until she gets such stuff before she gets married! </p>
<p>You guys have fine lists so I need not add to it. </p>
<p>I get to go all this all over again this summer with D2 just a year later. </p>
<p>Patient, I just want to tell you that I got a kick out of your post about how it is all going to come home with them! My freshman is coming home in nine days and I can’t imagine where we will put all this stuff and she is only home for three days and has to unpack it all and store it here and regroup and pack up for her drive to Alaska. Then she comes home for one weekend and has to unpack all that stuff (including camping gear) and pack up for six weeks to go to a program at Harvard. It is like never ending and sometimes in these instances, the guest room is like the holding pen. I can’t imagine next August getting two kids packed up and lining all this stuff up…will need a second holding pen, I’m afraid. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Please send your student with his/her medical insurance card or a copy of the FRONT and BACK of the card. Unfortunately many students show up with only the name of the insurance company, the subscriber # and the group # this information is NOT enough to process a prescription online. If you belong to a managed care group find out which (if any) pharmacies in the area are allowed to fill prescriptions for their members.</p>
<p>Also, Dannon makes a bottled Fluorinated water.</p>
<p>Posted this on the shopping sticky as well: </p>
<p><a href=“http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/Produc...&TTYP=&ShopBy=0[/url]”>http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/Produc...&TTYP=&ShopBy=0</a></p>
<p>On Jcpenney.com in their outlet section for today Wednesday only they have XL twin fitted and flat sheets for $3.99.</p>
<p>For free delivery add the promotional code when you go to check out: APRWEL5. </p>
<p>Code will work for longer than today but the sheets will only be for $3.99 for Wednesday 5/11. Again in the outlet section under Wednesday Deals.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Thanks, Kat!! I just went there (had to go to jcpenney.com first and navigate through Outlet and Wed. Deals) and they only appear to have fitted sheets right now. (At least they have colors other than pink, though. 
)</p>
<p>I did not need any sheets but did purchase a few of the men’s swim trunks for $4.99 for my 3 hulking boys. They only had XTall and Big but that is exactly what I needed for my football players!! And with no shipping it was a great price for suits for the summer!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Thanks Kat! Wow - 2 XL sheets for under $8.00, shipped right to my doorstep. I’m a happy camper. Thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>To those of you on the left coast, you still have an hour and 50 minutes to go get some!</p>
<p>I’m currently getting ready for my second year in the dorms. I recommend:</p>
<p>*Cooking supplies (pots, pans, big spoons, ect.) -The oncampus eateries may be more convenient but it is a whole lot cheaper to cook. Plus, it’s fun, relaxing, and useful in life.</p>
<p>*Cleaning supplies (broom/dustpan, mop, 409, ect.) -A lot of dorms require inspections to make sure the students are keeping common space clean (and to make sure they haven’t broken anything!)</p>
<p>*posters, pictures, small plant(s) and/or flameless candle(s) -Staring at four blank white walls can cause a mind to go blank when trying to write an essay. These things are comforting and can inspire creativity way better then white paint can. As for the candles, dorms don’t allow anything that could be considered a fire hazard (which is funny because mine included a gas stove-go figure) so flameless candles give the effect of real ones and aren’t prohibited. </p>
<p>*Alarm clock-pretty obvious</p>
<p>*hangers-The school won’t provide these and using the closet is necessary in maintaining decent walking room</p>
<p>*storage bins-depending on the size of the dorm, under bed storage bins are a very good idea. If the bed isn’t tall enough, you can get bed risers for pretty cheap.</p>
<p>*Some sort of planner, calender, and/or PDA- I don’t think I could have functioned without one.</p>
<p>*power strip/extension cord- Dorms typically don’t have an abundant amount of outlets so these are extremely handy.</p>
<p>*Foam bed padding- The mattresses provided are not exactly the most comfortable. Extra blankets aren’t a bad idea either. </p>
<p>*Sewing kit- Comes in handy for those who don’t have the money to just go out and buy more clothes.</p>
<p>*Air freshener-believe it or not, I used this stuff a lot</p>
<p>*Personal computer/labtop-While most (if not all) campuses have computer labs, they’re usually always crowded and have limited hours. A personal computer doesn’t.</p>
<p>*Plates, bowls, cups, forks, knives, spoons, and storage containers- Life is far more difficult without these (don’t forget dish soap!)</p>
<p>*Flash light-Keep it as part of an emergency kit.</p>
<p>*Waist basket-I went through an entire year tying plastic bags to a drawer before I began to consider the idea of an actual trash can as a good one.</p>
<p>*Music- Whether it’s an Ipod, cd player, tape player, or radio. Silence can make someone go crazy. Just be sure to use headphones so no one else gets annoyed (like the roommate or the people on the otherside of the wall)</p>
<p>*Dictionary and or thesaurus- It’s just handy</p>
<p>*ziploc bags-They have a lot of uses</p>
<p>*can opener- For spagettios…or maybe canned veggies?</p>
<p>*Microwave-Most dorms don’t supply them. Think about how often you use on at home. </p>
<p>*USB drive- they cost about $10 and up depending on what size you get but in my experience, the cheap one will last a long time, especially if you delete old word documents at the end of a semester. </p>
<p>*Pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, other school supplies-This seems obvious but I’ve met people who actually forgot these things.</p>
<p>*Entertaining items-Yes, college students are busy but sometimes they need time to relax</p>
<p>*And of course, money- The one thing there is never enough of. I suggest gift cards to grocery stores just so you have a better idea of what the money is being spent on.</p>