Keeping Kids Safe from Choking | Gretchen Rossi | The Breakdown with Bethany
Gretchen Rossi is just as sweet and bubbly in person as she appeared to be on television, and the former Real Housewife is an open book. We dished on everything from raising toddlers to postpartum depression, keeping kids safe, and the reason why she and her partner, Slade Smiley, have yet to officially tie the knot.
Rossi also talked about her partnership with LifeVac and the reason why she teamed up with this amazing company. Check out the episode to see how you can get involved with the Save a Life Challenge.
Mom Life
Bethany Braun-Silva:
Hi, and welcome back to another episode of The Breakdown with Bethany. I’m Bethany Braun-Silva and today my guest is Gretchen Rossi, a former cast member of The Real Housewives of Orange County who’s also an entrepreneur and a loving mother. She’s also famously engaged to another cast member from The Real Housewives of Orange County, Slade Smiley. So we’re going to be talking about her not being married, living in sin, and keeping kids safe with an amazing life-saving device. You’re not going to want to miss it.
Gretchen Rossi | Keeping Kids Safe from Choking | The Breakdown with Bethany | MomCaveTV
Bethany Braun-Silva:
So we were just saying like mom life, I actually have to run and pick up my kids. So we’re going to jump right in and your daughter, Skylar is about two and a half. She’s going to be three in July. So I just want to know how is that going? I mean, pandemic, toddler, all of it, what’s going on?
Gretchen Rossi:
So I love to say that it’s like that juxtaposition of it’s the most incredible thing ever that you will do, but it is literally the hardest thing you will ever do. It is. It’s all about maintaining a balance and good time management, which I still haven’t got down and it’s just so much harder than I think I thought it was ever going to be. I think I had this vision of everything’s just going to be rainbows and butterflies and I’m going to have this kid and it’s just going to be so much fun and then you wake up and your house is a disaster and you have no time for yourself or self-care and you have this little person that needs you 24/7 and you’re just like, ah.
Postpartum Depression
Bethany Braun-Silva:
I know. I mean, it’s a lot. It’s definitely a lot and actually, when I was preparing for this interview, I was researching about different interviews you’ve done and you talked to openly about postpartum depression and that may have even been a reason why you might not even be getting pregnant right away. So I want to know sort of what was that like in the beginning and how has it evolved till now, because one of my favorite things that I say a lot is that postpartum, that postpartum period is not six weeks. It’s not even six months. It’s like every… The time from you becoming a mother and beyond. My kids are six and 10 and I feel like I’m still in the postpartum period. So tell us a little bit about how it was then opposed to now almost three years later?
Gretchen Rossi:
So, I mean, I will say it’s definitely a lot better. I mean, I really had bad postpartum depression and I think for me in particular, because I was older having her, I think that was the hardest part was I went from almost 41 years of my life, waking up in my life, being about me and about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go and where I was going to travel to next or whatever it was or what career move I was going to make.
Then, when you have a child, it just all stops like right then and there and you’re like this milking machine and it just it changes every single aspect of your life and you think, “Okay, I got this,” like I can be a working mom, I can just feed this into my everyday life but really you just don’t realize how much energy, time that it requires and you are so exhausted, you’re sleepless and I think that all adds to it.
Chemical Imbalance
Gretchen Rossi:
Now, I also had a C-section and I think when you have a C-section, at least I learned after the fact and I didn’t have a C-section by choice. It kind of happened within 24 hours of having her that when you have a natural birth through the birth canal, there are certain hormones that are released and when you have a C-section there are certain hormones that aren’t released and so your body kind of goes into almost like a hormonal shock if you will.
Your body just gets way off and so I think for me, it was a combination of, I had done four and a half years of IVF, and I had so many hormones in my body from that and then I had this C-section and my body just, it just freaked out and the chemical imbalance that was happening in my body was something I couldn’t control and that was another frustrating part is I consider myself a very happy go lucky up upbeat person most of the time.
Natural Remedies
Gretchen Rossi:
So the fact that I was so down and depressed just was really hard for me to wrap my mind around and being that I wanted her so badly, you feel like this guilt on top of it but, thankfully I started using our Bio Range CBD products and I feel like I naturally was able to get myself felt better.
Gretchen Rossi:
I did not want to do the pharmaceutical drugs, even though my pediatrician and my gynecologist almost had to do an intervention with me and they wanted me to take the pharmaceutical drugs and I said, “No, I’m going to try a natural way.” I took our CBD products. Thankfully, I came out of it. It’s strange because you almost go through these like periods of where you feel like you’re back in postpartum because of all the different stages that your children go through and it’s like, you have to completely rearrange your schedule or your thing or like, okay, now they’re potty training so you have to figure that out in your life or they change their sleeping schedule or whatever happens. So it’s just constantly bobbing and weaving with these kids.
LifeVac Helps Keep Kids Safe
Bethany Braun-Silva:
No, you absolutely said it. I mean, I think that’s one of the things that surprised me too when I became a mom, it’s like, we get over one kind of hurdle and then we’re thrust back into another and one of the ones for me, and I know you speak about this a lot and you can certainly relate to it. I mean, you represent this amazing product, is that your kids are now starting solids.
Like what is… So now there’s like a whole… Like, you’re so happy it’s a huge milestone, but as they enter toddlerhood, you’re cutting up food, and then there’s that concern about keeping kids safe from choking, which I know is like, you are such an amazing spokesperson for, and I actually had never heard of LifeVac. So please tell us about LifeVac? I want to tell our viewers that we are filming this. What is today, Gretchen the 15th, or 14th, but… We don’t even know the day. It doesn’t matter but-
Gretchen Rossi:
I have no idea what day it is.
Bethany Braun-Silva:
But 3/28 is a really important day. So I want you to tell us all about that?
National Choking Awareness Day
Gretchen Rossi:
Okay. So March 28th is National Choking Awareness Day and this is a really important thing for me to share because I had a pretty big scare with Skylar when she was one. It was her first birthday and it was a mermaid theme party and we had all these sequins table clasps everywhere and the sequins on them were really pretty large about the size of a quarter and a couple of the sequins had fallen off of the tablecloth and were on the ground and she had picked up one of those sequins and put it in her mouth.
Gretchen Rossi:
Now, thank God, I happen to see the reflection of the sun and see it in the back of her mouth and I freaked out and I went running across the pool cause she was taking pictures with these mermaids we had there and I fell on the ground, jumped in the pool, started sweeping her mouth and everyone’s like, “What are you doing? What are you doing?” I’m like, “She has something in her mouth,” and they’re like, “No, she doesn’t, she’s fine.” I’m like, “No, I saw it. There’s something in her mouth,” and thankfully I like went way up in the back and I got the piece of sequin out. Now, when something like that happens to you, you’re physically shaken. I was crying. I was shaking. Like all my friends came up to me. They’re like, “It’s okay. She’s okay.”
Searching For Solutions For Keeping Kids Safe
Gretchen Rossi:
Da, da, da and I’m like, “I know, but she would’ve choked and more than likely died on that,” and that’s when I went into this deep research, if you will, trying to find a product or trying to find solutions for keeping kids safe, and in case, God forbid, I was ever in that predicament again and the Heimlich maneuver didn’t work or the current choking protocols did not work because you think of like a little baby like that and doing some of those current choking protocols is little scary on a small little being like that.
So that’s when I came across LifeVac and I have one of them here because it’s easier to explain when I have it in hand, this is a LifeVac device and what this does is it goes over your nose and your mouth, like so, and it’s literally a place-push-and-pull and it dislodges anything that might be obstructing your airway and it has saved already just under 300 lives. It’s not only for children, but it is for adults.
Keeping Kids AND Adults Safe
Gretchen Rossi:
The kit that you get comes with the child mask and the adult mask, which is so nice. You don’t have to buy two separate masks and I keep one in my car and I keep it right here in my kitchen closet here in case, God forbid, anything was to ever happen with her. I take them to birthday parties, to restaurants, mostly everywhere with me and it’s almost like a sense of peace I have knowing that I have this as a backup plan.
Gretchen Rossi:
We always recommend that you try the current choking protocols to begin with and then if that’s not working, you can pull this out. There have been so many viral videos or videos that have gone viral of people in their home videos, pulling this out and saving their child.
Gretchen Rossi:
EMTs, we’ve had firefighters use this. We’ve had the police, a retired policeman, use one of these devices on a 10-month-old, that was choking on a pancake in a restaurant. He just happened to be one of the people dining there and he ran out to his car and saved this baby’s life with this. So this truly is something that works. This ups your chances of survival from 50 to 70% to 99% and I mean, I don’t know about you, but as a mom, why the heck would I not have one of these everywhere I go, just as a safety precaution.
Save A Life Challenge
Gretchen Rossi:
So for National Choking Awareness Month, we are doing, what’s called the Save A Life Challenge. I just posted it today. So if you guys hear about this, please repost it. It’s just a slide that talks about saving a life and having an important device like this in your home. The challenge is really just about spreading the word. At this point, like you, like me, I had no idea a device like this was even available to us. So now I just want to tell everybody, use my voice, use my platform to let as many people know about this because it can save not only your child but also a loved one.
Gretchen Rossi:
The seniors, your husband. I had a friend whose husband passed away right in front of her and her children choking on a piece of steak. So it’s just silly. This should be like a fire extinguisher in our homes, on airplanes, in our businesses. This should be everywhere.
Bethany Braun-Silva:
I totally agree. We’ve had not quite a scare as you described with your daughter at her birthday. We’ve had, of course, I mean we’ve had scares too. I mean, it’s something that kids are learning and we’re watching and it could happen so quickly. So guys, be sure to go over to Gretchen’s Instagram and check that out, but-
Where To Find LifeVac
Gretchen Rossi:
They can also find it at LifeVac.net. If they want to go directly to LifeVac and use code Gretchen10, then they can actually get 10% off. I say that because I just don’t want you guys to have any excuse not to get it. Like I don’t… My code doesn’t help me. It’s not about that. It’s about just getting one. Don’t think about it, just have it in your home as a safety precaution, to help keep your kids safe. That’s the most important to me. I’ve received so many DMS and emails from people saying, “Thank God that you posted about this because it saved my grandchild. This saved my friend, this saved this,” those kinds of emails and text messages or DMS is everything to me.
Bethany Braun-Silva:
Yeah, and it just got me thinking too because in that moment you’re so stressed and you’re not really thinking. You might have practiced that Heimlich maneuver, that infant CPR, but to have that device, which requires almost like no thought process, it seems so easy to use. It is just sort of like a no-brainer like I’m going to have three I’m going to buy three.
Keeping Kids Safe On The Go
Gretchen Rossi:
Yeah and that’s why I have one in my car and in my house. A lot of the times when you’re running out the door, you’re forgetting about it. I have it in the back of my car so that when I’m pulling out the stroller or the diaper bag, it’s just right there and I can grab it.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at a party and like kids, especially when you’re doing like Super Bowl parties or stuff like this and there’s a whole table setup of vegetables or hotdogs or something like that, 4th of July when there are things there that could be choking hazards and kids are up there just reaching and they put something in their mouth and all of us parents are talking, we’re not even paying attention to what’s happening. The next thing you know, they’re choking.
Gretchen Rossi:
It’s like, can you imagine if one of your friends had that available and was able to save your child or you were able to save somebody else’s child? I mean, what a cool thing.
Famously Not Married
Bethany Braun-Silva:
Yeah, that’s great. I mean, I love it. As I said, I’m going to get them, but while I have you here, I have to switch topics just a little bit. My husband and I, he’s my now husband but we were together for a long time and not married. We had two boys before we got married and decided like this really… Marriage wasn’t a priority. Like the kids were the priority and all that, but I got like super pressured to… I got… So you’re famously not married, not in a negative way. Like you even did the podcast about it. You guys have been engaged.
Bethany Braun-Silva:
Like even your engagement, the way you proposed was so not traditional. So I wanted to like talk to you about it. Almost for my own personal, like… What is that like? Have you gotten judgment, do you feel you’re breaking a taboo or doing something taboo or breaking a stigma?
Bethany Braun-Silva:
I just have to… I’m just so curious because I love it.
Gretchen Rossi:
Yes. Yes. You know what, for us, it never was about like, let me prove a point. It really wasn’t about that. Slade and I knew four days after being together that we were in love and that we wanted to be together for the rest of our life. We could just feel it in our souls. When we got engaged, we had every intention of getting married. We actually even picked a date and then he got booked to go do a mini-series down in Mexico. It was during that time period and then we kind of didn’t realize that it was… It was Memorial Day weekend and so a lot of our friends and family wouldn’t have been able to come at that date. So we were like, ah. So we kind of just decided, “Okay, we’ll pick another date.”
Piece Of Paper Not Required
Gretchen Rossi:
Well then we just got so heavily involved in IVF and that whole process and that is very expensive. IVF process is very expensive. So we just decided we’re not going to put all of our money into a big wedding. We would really rather have this family and we already felt like we were married. We felt like we…
It’s like we didn’t have to have a piece of paper and a big, expensive wedding in order to prove that we were together and in love. That’s really what it came down to for us. It was more about just not feeling the need to have this marriage certificate to prove that we were in love and committed. That said, we’re not against marriage at all. I mean we’ve already made our commitment before God and with each other. To me, I feel like we’re married.
Gretchen Rossi:
I call him my husband. He calls me his wife. We don’t think of it as anything other than that and we truly value each other at that level. We just don’t feel the need that we have to go necessarily make it a legal thing. One day we might. I mean, honestly, Sky might just be like, “Mom, Dad, I want you to be officially married,” and we’ll be like, “Okay.”
More Security For The Kids?
Bethany Braun-Silva:
That’s what happened with us. So my husband’s Catholic and when we were getting our son baptized… I mean, first of all, that was like in and of itself a little stressful because we were unmarried and we were going to the Catholic church to ask them to baptize our son. The priest said he’s like, “Okay that’s fine.” He was very kind. He said, When your child grows, it might be something that offers them a little bit more comfort and security.” So we’ll see what Skylar says.
Gretchen Rossi:
Yes, we’ll see what she says. But as I said, I mean, he and I already kind of had a private ceremony. I mean, we haven’t really talked about this much. We already did a private ceremony. He and I, Sky was actually there and we made our commitment before God with super important people in our lives and that’s really what matters.
Style
Bethany Braun-Silva:
Awesome. I love it and so speaking… My final question to you, Gretchen is like, you are such… I love your style. You’re so fashion-forward and you have this adorable little girl. Tell us about all these like matching moments because you do it so well. Is Skylar… Does she love it? Or is she still kind of too young to know that you guys are doing like this awesome match?
Gretchen Rossi:
Right. Right. As an infant, till about eight months she had no clue and it was just like, oh this is fun. We’re in mommy-and-me matching outfits all the time. She was just like, yeah, whatever, I’m a baby right. Then at about one till about maybe two months ago, so like two months and two and a half something right around there, she just was not having it.
Style With Skylar
Gretchen Rossi:
Like she was over it, right and she was just like, “No, I don’t want to take a picture. I don’t want to match. I don’t want anything.” All of a sudden at two and a half, she wants to look like mommy. She wants to sit at my makeup chair with me, do her hair. She wants to get dressed in pretty dresses, she wants to match mommy, she wants to take pictures. It’s starting to get so much fun because she’s really into it now. We got her, one of those fake little phones that is like at Target and it has a thing where it’s like tick, tick, tick. She’s like cute, like take… “Mommy, smile,” and then she smiles and we take one to go.
Gretchen Rossi:
So it’s really cute now because she’s into it but it took her a minute. I was just like you can’t not be like a fashion girl if you’re my daughter, right.
Bethany Braun-Silva:
I’m so happy that she’s into it again. I hope it lasts a really, really long time. Gretchen, thank you so much for talking with me today. Let’s remind everybody where they can go for that LifeVac information also where they can find you on Instagram.
Gretchen Rossi:
So on Instagram, you can find me @gretchenrossi and then LifeVac you go to LifeVac.net. You can use code Gretchen10 to get a percentage off and save a life.
Bethany Braun-Silva:
Great. Thank you so much.
Gretchen Rossi:
Love, great to see you.
Listen to Keeping Kids Safe from Choking with Gretchen Rossi as a podcast here:
She was previously the Senior Editor of Big Apple Parent Magazine and has written for OK! Magazine, Hollywood Life, Mom.com, and CafeMom. She is a graduate of New York University, but her proudest accomplishment is being a mom to Elias and Jake who make life (and work) endlessly fun!
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