Sometimes I find myself wondering where the time has gone… I look up and all of a sudden my daughter, Mia, is almost two years old. My husband and I held hands through the newborn phase, chuckled through her baby days and now we find ourselves sprinting into toddlerhood (because we’re literally trying to catch her all of the time!). These couple of years have been the best and blurriest of my life.

We’re pretty in sync when it comes to our parenting styles. We don’t freak out every time she falls. We shower her with hugs and kisses. We avoid overloading ourselves with too much info (we read about 10 pages of a baby book before she arrived and pretty much winged everything else with the help of peers, doctors and Google for late night guidance). Though I usually aim to be a little more laid back… when it comes to her health, there’s nothing to be chill about. She is everything to us and naturally, so is her health.

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What is Picture Genetics? They’re a consumer-focused genetic testing brand that believes that everyone should have access to real genetic analysis to get ahead of health risks. They offer medical grade testing just like you’d order through your doctor but completed from the comfort of your home.

Here’s a vid from Ellen and her daughter Kat. What really got me was her explaining how much time we spend as parents researching the various factors surrounding our kids like teacher credentials, product ingredients etc. and why it was important for her to look inward and learn more about her daughter, beyond what standard newborn tests can provide:

When the opportunity arose to experience a Picture Genetics test for myself (Picture Wellness kit) and Mia (Picture Newborn Kit), I asked my husband how he felt about it all. At first, he was apprehensive… what’s the point of doing it when she seems totally normal and had newborn screening at the hospital? What happens if we find out there’s a problem? Will we forever be walking on eggshells? What about the security of your and her health records? He made some great points that I hadn’t considered. When I brought our concerns, the team were super helpful and transparent. They put our minds completely at ease.

They built themselves off of a clinical lab, which means they function like a lab your doctor would send a test to. They make sure to work under the same guidelines and policies to create a system that’s trustworthy. They follow HIPAA privacy policies, meaning they don't sell data because that isn’t their goal. Here’s the specific law that protects Picture from health insurance companies using genetic data The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was signed into law in 2008. For detailed information about GINA, please visit www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/genetic.cfm

Our Experience - The kits arrived with easy to follow instructions in cute boxes. Mine was a spit-in-the-tube situation and hers was a super gentle cheek swab. No tears, no fears. We sealed them, packed up the boxes they came in and sent it back in the mail with a prepaid shipping label.

I was sent e-mail each step of the way, so I didn’t need to worry about what was going on with our tests. Within a couple of weeks, I finally received an e-mail to view our results. I signed into a dashboard online and was prompted to download a pdf of our personal test results. Right at the top… super clean and easy to read it said that neither of us were at risk for any hereditary conditions (INSERT HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF):

There were lots of other results in a long list. It was super in-depth. I loved that the dashboard prompted me to schedule time to speak with a third-party genetic counselor to review all of our results and answer all of my questions, regardless of all of our risks coming up negative. It was so incredibly helpful. I felt like I was back in science class – my counselor gave me a pretty thorough 101 on genetic testing and I appreciated that sort of transparency a lot.

I’m grateful that there’s options out there for us to empower our parenting in a safe and scientific way.

- Christianne aka ‘MiLOWE MOM’

Disclaimer: Though milowekids.com is running a sponsored giveaway with Picture Genetics on social media, this post has not been paid for or edited by the company in any way. The opinions above are entirely my own.