Just recently, for close to four weeks I eliminated all sugar and gluten (grains, flour, etc) from my diet. My cravings were minimal and I enjoyed feeling my system regain balance. I was also able to recognize something I hadn’t before, at least on this level.

I already mentioned that I really didn’t struggle too much with cravings.  Sure, here and there I would want something that would take a bit of self-control and willpower to say no to, but for the most part it went pretty smoothly.

Until one evening.

Some stresses had been building up for the past few days, and on this particular evening I was feeling discouraged and very frustrated.  And suddenly, I was craving chocolate.  Ice cream.  Wine.  You name it, I wanted it.

I managed to not succumb to the temptations that were threatening, but it dawned on me how much food can be a crutch.  Or something we use to comfort ourselves. Or reward ourselves.  Or numb ourselves.  We feel a bit stressed or put under pressure, and it’s just knee-jerk to use food or drink for consolation.

I don’t think most of us are concerned about this.  So what, right?  Except when we turn to cookies, we probably aren’t turning to God who would love to have us bring our struggles to him in prayer.  We probably aren’t even turning to friends, which is also what God has provided for comfort, encouragement and counsel.

What’s worse is we end up subconsciously teaching our children this habit.  Lose a game?  Let’s all go out for ice cream.  Celebrating a birthday?  Let’s binge on fluorescent cake and chemicals labeled as candy.  Get all A’s?  Let’s splurge on sugary junk.

Our children get the message loud and clear.  Food, particularly the completely non-nourishing, disease-causing kind, is the perfect reward, comforter, and joy.

What if food was just food?  What if, when I did want to indulge, I based my choices on thoughtful consideration instead of ingrained habit?  What if I only enjoyed a piece of chocolate or a glass of wine when I simply wanted to revel in it’s taste?  What if I celebrated birthdays with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream?  What if a treat could be one hearty homemade cookie?

This has been a long, gradual change in our home, one that I often let slip and (even more frustrating) one that is constantly undermined by our culture’s mindless traditions and foolish patterns.   I’m trying hard to instill in my children a different way of viewing food.

But first I have to view it differently myself.

Let’s clear some things up.

I am not against medicine, science or technology.

If it weren’t for all those things, I probably would have died during my first pregnancy/birth.  Several friends of mine would have had tiny caskets to bury instead of enjoying a healthy toddler today.  Others I know would have died from cancer long ago.  The list goes on.

With that being said, there are a lot of tenets surrounding medicine, science and technology that I question.  I think we all should question, be willing to at least dig for the why’s and how’s, and then still be willing to say we just don’t absolutely know.  Taking our ques from the latest media or doggedly following a doctor’s opinion is setting oneself up for some big mistakes.

I hate giving specific examples because so often people get lost on a tangent as they frantically point out all the exceptions and what happened to their sister’s husband’s boss’s friend, but here goes…

A lot of people thought I was crazy seven years ago when I threw out all our plastic toys and sippy cups.  I just bit my tongue when about five or six years later the larger media caught wind of the story and then finally the majority of parents knew enough to be enraged about toxins like lead and BPA in our children’s items.

I’ve been asked why on earth I would use cloth diapers in this day and age.  What most parents don’t know is that many disposable diapers contain a long list of chemicals.  Sure, as a parent you can just trust that the “experts” are doing their job of keeping products safe.  But I’m just not the sort of person who waits for the diaper companies to write on their packages, “Caution, this product contains an ingredient similar to the substance that was banned from tampons long ago due to it’s link to toxic shock syndrome. Use at your own risk.”  Suddenly, the telltale droopy dangle from a soaked gel-filled diaper isn’t quite so darling.

And I mentioned my first pregnancy.  Yeah, it was medicine and technology that ended up saving me, but it was my unresponsible, unquestioning trust in them that got me there in the first place.

You see, I was diagnosed with really high blood pressure later in my pregnancy that progressed to eclampsia and toxemia.   Their standard protocol was to eat more saltines, drink more water, and rest with my feet up.  I have no idea who comes up with this stuff.  That kind of salt is perhaps the worst thing I could have been eating.  Since I was gaining weight so rapidly due to my blood pressure problems, I was avoiding protein and good fats.  Again, the worst thing I could have done.  But they told me I was doing it exactly right.

I was also eating fast food every day for 2 of my meals.  I started out packing a lunch, but severe pregnancy exhaustion, plus the fact that I had to be at work at 6:30 am, meant that habit quickly died.  I would usually grab a cheeseburger and a water.  Once in a while I’d get the fries too, since a meal was so cheap and I’d get hungry again so quickly after eating.  I thought that beef, dairy, fresh tomato and lettuce, and a bun couldn’t be all that bad.

What most of us don’t know is the extremely high sodium content in those foods, the dyes and preservatives in every single item, and the formaldehyde all fast food beef is washed in.  Yum.

Okay, so this is just one illustration.  My point is, I know so so so so many people who, like I once did, only get their info from one kind of source, end up in trouble, and then need that same source to help save them.

Now, the vaccine issue.

I am not against parents choosing to vaccinate their children.  All parents certainly should do what they believe is best for their children, their circumstance, and their lifestyle.

I also think parents should be getting ALL the information before they make the choice to vaccinate or not vaccinate.

There are risks with not vaccinating, and there are risks with vaccinating.  The sad thing is, most parents do not receive enough information to make an educated decision.  Most of them ask their pediatrician, and 99% of them will scare parents into vaccinating.

It’s not the doctors’ fault.  We want to believe that they know all the information there is, pro and con, and will pass that on to us.  The largest problem with this is, they get one-sided information handed to them, too.  Doctors are bombarded with tons of papers and journals that are almost impossible to sort through fully.  They fall back on the trusted assumptions that have morphed over the years into spoon-fed dogma.  They’ll say things like “vaccines are estimated to save millions of lives each year”.  They’ll bring up polio and state how the vaccine has virtually eradicated it.  If all else fails, they may, at best, paint the “anti-vaccine” people as ignorant fools who are unaware of the history of vaccinations that have made our “virtually disease-free” society possible, or at worst, as quacks who fall prey to conspiracy theories and put all of us at risk.

What the majority of parents fail to learn is that vaccine damage is not opinion, but based on documented facts with detailed references, most of it from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) itself.  They don’t hear things like the fact that there are more than one hundred vaccine antigens that are injected into children before kindergarten, that the U.S. has paid more than $1 billion to vaccine injured people, that most outbreaks occur in fully vaccinated or over 95% vaccinated populations, that the government’s own records clearly show that childhood diseases (including polio) were in sharp decline before the introduction of vaccines, that vaccines contain at least 39 different toxic additives, preservatives and cell types introduced during the manufacturing process, that the combination effect of all these toxins in children has never been studied (nor has the effect several toxins and antigens being administered at the same time been studied), that cow, chicken, pig, monkey, and human fetus tissue are commonly used in the manufacturing of vaccines, that therefore vaccines can contain contaminants from these animals that are passed on to the vaccinated child…

When it comes to the supposed safety of vaccines, most parents never learn that vaccine studies are relatively small, short and include only healthy children.  When a vaccine trial has been completed, however, vaccines are given to all children, regardless of the condition of their health, family history, or genetics.   Most clinical trials monitor side effects for only 21 days, and sometimes even for only 5 days.

In addition, most parents are shocked to learn that vaccine safety studies do not use a true placebo. One of the standards in medical research is the “placebo-controlled” trial. An inactive substance such as a sugar pill is given as a placebo to one group of participants, while the treatment group is given the new drug. The data is analyzed to compare the number of side effects that occurred in those given the drug compared to the numbers of side effects that occurred in those given the placebo. However, the “placebo” used in vaccine research is not an inert substance such as sterile water; it is another vaccine. Inert, sterile water doesn’t cause a reaction; as substitute vaccine can. If both groups of babies in a trial have the same number of reactions, the study reports that the vaccine “is as safe as a placebo.” This is deceptive science.

It all ties together with the never-discussed fact that vaccine-induced antibodies do not correlate with protection. In fact, the journal Vaccine stated this clearly: “It is known that, in many instances, antigen-specific antibody titers do not correlate with protection.” (The full reference can be found at PMID: 11587808)

I fully vaccinated my first two children fully, including boosters, with no noticeable negative effects.  I never even questioned the idea of vaccinations.

That changed with my third child.  No one at all ever mentioned that she could be at higher risk since she had struggled with things like thrush and severe constipation all through infancy.  I don’t think my doctor even knew of the correlation between vaccine damage and gut health.  And I didn’t know enough then to realize that the health of my child was my responsibility, not my doctor’s.  Lesson learned.

So I will continue to communicate the side of vaccines that isn’t so prevalent.  Parents have a right to be educated about vaccines.  When I hear parents spout the same old tired fear-based mantras surrounding vaccines, I know they aren’t educated on both sides of the issue.  When they are offended by factual information regarding the dangers of vaccines, treat my children as if they carry the plague, or ridicule my choice, it’s a clear sign they aren’t informed.  They are indoctrinated.

I don’t even think all parents should not vaccinate!  If a parent is not willing to hold themselves fully responsible for their child’s health, carry out the difficult task of nourishing their bodies consistently so they can lead healthy lives, and learn effective alternatives to treat problems, then they should vaccinate.  I even tell parents that I will not try to convince them one way or the another.  I will give information, but a parent needs to be fully persuaded in their own mind of their decision.

This could also go for such things as giving birth at home, drinking raw milk, and writing opinionated blogs.

Bottom line…  I fully appreciate and would in a heartbeat make full use of the wonderful and life-saving medicine and technology available.

I also believe, just as strongly, in making fully informed decisions as to why, when, and how I make use of it.

There’s a lot of hubbub surrounding the Tylenol recalls. Parents are wondering what on earth to do for their child’s pain or fever.

There are several alternatives out there that work even better than drugs.  I have been using them for years.  In fact, I haven’t purchased or used children’s Tylenol or Motrin for over 8 years.

First of all, parents need to understand that fevers are not a bad thing.  Allowing your child to run a temperature is allowing their body to do it’s job.  Yes, your child is uncomfortable.  Yes, they will be more irritable.  But giving them a false sense of temporary wellness by lowering their temperature so they end up being more active than they should isn’t doing your child any favors in the long run, and could actually be slowing their healing.

The biggest danger during fevers is dehydration, so it’s best to set a timer and have your child take regular small drinks.  Watch them closely to be sure their fever doesn’t rise above a safe level.

To help make my children more comfortable while a fever is running it’s course, I use essential oils.  Peppermint on the feet is very soothing, and will often lower their temperature a little.  It does need to be applied every hour or so.  Just one drop on each foot, diluted with a mixing oil is plenty.

I also use oils that boost their body’s immune system.  My favorite is a blend called Thieves.  I also apply it on their feet, as well as rub it along their spine.  It is also helpful to add a drop to their bath, along with Epsom salts.

In addition to oils, I often turn to homeopathy.  It’s amazing how effective homeopathy is for fevers.  If you are not familiar with using homeopathy, finding the correct remedy can be confusing.  There are several good books out there that make the decision easier (like this, or this, or this)   but you would need a fair-sized collection of remedies.  Hyland’s household kit is what I use.

Hyland’s also takes the guesswork out of homeopathy by offering blends.  On their children’s page, you can find remedies for several problems like earaches, colds, and teething.

Of course, to support your child’s natural healing abilities, please make sure their daily food choices are healthy ones.  It’s just common sense that your children need lots of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and good fats to remain healthy.  Supplement their diet with Vitamin D, especially in the winter season.  We use fish oil.

I also suggest removing dairy from their diet, if what is offered is the pasteurized and homogenized crap at the store.  Contrary to the commercials, it is a terrible source of calcium and does absolutely nothing to improve bone health.  You’re actually feeding them a non-food that is completely void of nutrition and encourages allergies and excessive mucus.

Limit their sugar intake.  There is sugar in everything, including lunch meat, ketchup and crackers.  So NO, they don’t need juice or candy or packaged cookies to add to the heaping tablespoons they’re already eating in their regular food.

Read labels.  Not the nutrition information, although that is somewhat helpful.  Read the ingredients. If you can’t pronounce them, or recognize what they are, do a Google search.

And… that’s a clue that you probably shouldn’t feed it to your kid.

I watched a video last week, where Jamie Oliver reveals how elementary school children cannot identify vegetables. Notice their exclamation of horror when he first reveals the pile of fresh produce. Amazing.

It’s all part of his Food Revolution, his passion to revolutionize the way we think about food, particularly in regards to children’s diets. You can view the entire movie, Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food.

His main point was that while the home used to be the place where we learned about food, what is good and how to prepare it, we are now a culture in which people are consistently eating foods that are killing them and their children, and supposedly we have no idea how to stop that.

He proposed things like schools teaching children about fresh fruits and vegetables, changing school lunch menus, and placing a food ambassador in grocery stores.  From corporations to government, he recommended changes in the way we choose and prepare our food.

I admire his passion.  I don’t agree with his assumption that we’re idiots.

And then I read an article in the New York Times titles, U.S. Children: Generation Snack.

It states “we are raising a generation of snackers - kids who eat almost constantly throughout the day as they graze on cookies, salty snacks and fruit drinks.”

They found numbers that suggest “snacking has eroded meal time and that children are taking in slightly fewer calories during breakfast, lunch and dinner, when more healthful foods are typically served, because of their intense snacking habits.”

Oh, it’d be one thing if children were snacking on good foods.  Children are natural grazers, in fact.  But, no.  The article goes on to state, “Desserts like cookies and cakes remain the main source of snacking. Salty snacks like chips and pretzels have posted the biggest gains and are the second largest snack category. Candy and fruit drinks are also popular. One notable trend is that in the past few decades, fruit drinks have replaced whole fruit as a snack.”

Okay, maybe we are idiots.

I mean, how stupid does one have to be to eat frozen corn dogs and Little Debbies every day and then act surprised that they’re obese and diabetic? How ignorant are we that we feed our children sugary junk constantly, while still expecting their school performance to rise?

(Meanwhile, we take away their recess, and even if they do go outside, tell them they can’t run on a playground.)

I don’t know if more education is the answer though, at least in what I can only assume the education will be like.  The typical nutritionist in the U.S. still advises a low-fat, high-grain diet for children.  Sigh.

It just doesn’t seem like rocket science to me that children need whole foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains), healthy fats and oils (real butter, raw whole milk, cheese, coconut and olive oil), seeds and nuts, and meat.  Salt should be real and unprocessed sea salt.

The Weston A. Price foundation has the best diet information that I know of.  Here’s a ton of articles specifically for children.

If you have no idea where to begin, Jamie Oliver’s own Ministry of Food isn’t half bad, either.

Another mom’s story of her family’s eating habit in Gradual Change.

Even if you’re the third generation of bad eating habits, there is a plethora of education, knowledge and resources at your fingertips.

There is no excuse.

My daughter was past due for her three month vaccinations.  When I took her in, she got a shot in each leg, plus an oral polio.  They wanted to do another shot to “catch up” but I declined, agreeing to return in two weeks.

I had no idea at the time how huge that decision would turn out to be.

Within hours, my daughter changed.  I don’t know how else to describe it.  Her face was just… different.  She was crying different.  She was acting different.  Within twelve hours, she had a low grade temperature and an unexplainable rash.

I called my pediatrician and told her what was going on.  I told her she had just received her first round of vaccinations.  The doctor simply instructed me to  give her acetaminophen (Tylenol).  I already had, but I continued giving her a dose every four hours.

It didn’t help.

In fact, my daughter seemed increasingly distraught.  Within the next couple weeks, I must have called the pediatrician about half a dozen times.  She still had the fever.  She still had the rash.  She still acted funny.  The only change was that the rash would disappear and then show up again somewhere else.

“Something is wrong.” I insisted.  I kept mentioning the vaccinations, but the doctor always said it “couldn’t be that.”

So I did the only thing I knew what to do.  I Googled her symptoms.  I typed “child+fever+traveling rash+strange cry” and hit enter.

The first page was full of words like “immunization”, “reaction”, “emergency room”, “vaccinations”, and “adverse effects”.  I began to shake inside, sick with the knowledge that in doing what I believed was right, I may have done irreparable damage to my sweet baby girl.  She had all the signs of children experiencing more serious reactions to a vaccine.  What hit me like a punch to the gut was that she was having many of the signs of children who later slipped deeper into autism.

I called my pediatrician once again. When I told her what I suspected, I was met with silence.  She then repeated her mantra, “It couldn’t be that.”

“Why not?” I asked, completely dumbfounded.  “It all began the very day she had her shots.”

Silence.

“Have you changed your laundry detergent?”

So that’s where it was going.  Nowhere.  The doctor was faced with a child experiencing classic adverse reactions to a vaccine and all she could do was try to pin it on soap?  She refused to even discuss the possibility, refused to tell me why, and refused to report it.   Doctors are required by law to report adverse reactions, by the way.

And so began my journey into the world of no answers.  A place where emotions run high, opinions are deep, and deception is the name of the game.

I immediately began reading all I could on vaccinations.  I began, of course, with how to reverse adverse affects.  My daughter is completely normal now, thank God.  I don’t think she would be if she would have received that “just one more” shot that day or even weeks after.

The fact that parents vaccinate their children doesn’t bother me.  What concerns me is the idea many have that parents should not have a choice in the matter.  And what frustrates me is that those who administer vaccines do not make the information and education readily available for parents to be able to make that choice.

Oh, I’m not talking about the pretty colored sheets that they hand you when you go to get their shots.  Those are practically useless, and only lend credence to the claim that any information they do make available is extremely one sided.  And yes, the information is in large part one-sided.  I have no illusions that the medical field is looking out for my child’s best interest.

What about telling parents about things they could do to help prevent damage from vaccines?  Don’t confuse that with making the child more comfortable by administering Tylenol.  I’m referring to things like homeopathics and large quantities of Vitamin C.  (Oh, wait.  I forgot.  Those are just snake oil and voodoo.)

What about checking vaccine antibody levels (titers) instead of automatically giving booster shots that could very well be unnecessary?

What about warning parents that children who have siblings with diabetes may have an increased risk of adverse reaction to the MMR?

What about warning parents that children with digestive or gut issues may have an increased risk of an adverse vaccine reaction?  (It is my suspicion this is why my daughter experienced such a strong adverse reaction.  She had digestive issues and severe constipation since birth.  To which my pediatrician simply advised daily doses of corn syrup.  Yes, corn syrup.)

Why do they call them immunizations?

Why is it so difficult to find anyone who will administer just one or two desired vaccines?  Why is it so difficult to find a doctor who is willing to spread out the vaccines?  Why is the CDC schedule more revered than the responsibility to view each patient as an individual?

Why do they so often try to avoid giving a parent the Lot number for the vaccine?  Why isn’t this information given automatically, as part of administering the vaccine?

Why is the Hep B vaccine given to every newborn at birth, regardless of the baby’s risk of the disease?  Why is opting out of the vaccine so difficult even when it is clearly not necessary?  Why are parents who choose to do so treated like they are irresponsible?  Why does the waiver sheet in essence say the parents are admitting negligence?

And on and on and on.

There is so much more I could say, especially in light of recent “news”.  Another day, perhaps.

Government schools serve the meat that fast food companies won’t use because of “quality considerations”??

You can read the full article here at Why Is Crappy Fast Food Safer Than School Lunches?

This song has been running through my mind ever since I heard it for the first time last week. I don’t know if it’s new or not, since I rarely listen to country music, but it’s new to me.

It’s about a guy talking to his friend who is basically giving up because he feels like he can’t deal with his life. His buddy complains about stuff like a car breaking down, a broken washing machine, and too many bills. He replies in the chorus,

Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me

It’s a funny thing…  Without the proper perspective, I can view the bumps of everyday life as overwhelming tribulations instead of minor annoyances that force me to slow down and perhaps learn from.

I’ll be freaking out over, oh, everything and then my dear husband reminds me that life is never without problems, mishaps and even calamity. He’s right.

That’s not discouraging. That’s just life.

It makes the good things even sweeter.

Having carried six healthy babies in my womb and experienced the joy of seeing them before birth via ultrasound, I can definitely say that yes, that figure in black and white squirming on the screen..

it certainly was a baby!

As a mother who has also held a baby in my hands that had died at about 12 weeks into the pregnancy… I can most assuredly tell you that

YES, it was a baby.

The following video speaks for itself. I have no words.

(you will have to click through to see the video)

Yeah.

So it’s Thursday, and there hasn’t been a post since Monday.  And that one was a rerun from two years ago.  Sheesh.

I thought cutting blog post publishing down to just three days a week would keep me on track.  But, apparently, NO.

At the risk of sounding cliche, things have been crazy lately.  Really. When I do have a chance to get on my computer, I begin with the lazy stuff of reading emails and facebook statuses.

(Not that I actually answer the emails.  Cuz that would require putting more than two sentences together, and, like I said, I am lazy.)

Now, hitting the “like” or “share” button, or commenting “LOL” on someone’s status?  That’s easy.  I frequently indulge in a frenzy of one-click action.  And then, before I know it, I am out of precious computer time.

AND.

Callahan has begun this highly annoying trick called shriek-over-everything-and-anything.  If I am to be the consistent parent I am always harping about, I have to jump up and administer a specific little consequence.

Which means my trail of thought is suddenly somewhere miles away and I am wandering without a compass.  Or hiking boots.

Whatever that means.

And then.  THEN.  My usually happy-go-lucky Spence (ahem) has also recently learned a new trick called crumble-to-a-heap-of-catastrophic-calamity over every little perceived injustice.

Not to mention that he and Carmen have also taken to attempting to administering their own form of discipline on each other, as apparently they each suddenly possess great depth of maturity and reasoning.

I can hear them in the next room, taking turns howling out the other’s name while the swatting becomes increasingly rigorous.

Spence!  *smack*

Carmen! *thump*

Spe-ENCE! *bop*

CAR-men! *whack*

SPEEEENCE!  *wallop*

CAAAARMEEEEN!  *pummel*

I am a great advocate of giving your children the chance to work things out on their own.  At least, that sounds better than I’m too worn out to go in there and pry their entangled, flopping arms apart.

Is this long enough to hit “publish” yet?  Because, frankly, all this writing is exhausting.

See ya Monday.  Maybe.

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