Babies – Health – Naturally

Empowering Information to Create Vibrant Health in Children

Category : Nutrition

Sharing The Passion

There is nothing I like better than coming across someone who is not just selling a health product in order to make a buck but is doing it because it is their passion.  The passion comes first, the money is a bonus.  That is something that certainly cannot be said about the big boys out there who care only about their bottom line.

That is why I am always looking for passionate people in the world of healthy products for babies, children and parents.

Head on over to More Than Alive and see what they have to offer.  Not only a delightful selection of healthy herbs and filters and books but an excellent list of natural remedies and recipes and how-to guides.

www.morethanalive.com

If you make it there between September 8th and 10th use this discount code BH7E4 to take 10% off anything they sell!!

Just click on the banner and enjoy.

Related Articles…

High Fructose Corn Syrup and Cancer

If you’ve been around my blog at all you know I am not a fan of high fructose corn syrup.  I believe the corn industry’s attempts to call HFCS the same as any other sugar are flat out lies.

Personally, I don’t need to read anything to know that this substance is not good for my child.  All I have to do is watch his reaction within minutes of eating something that contains HFCS.  I talk more about that in this post.

I came across this post in the Healthy Moms section of CafeMom – which, by the way, I love this group.  If you are interested in connecting and reading conversations between everyday moms that try to be healthy for themselves and their kids you should sign up.

Anyway, there is now a study that shows that cancerous cells thrive on HFCS.  If you know anyone battling cancer you should tell them to read labels and cut out the HFCS.  That’s probably one of the easiest things they can do for their health.  Actually, cancer eats all sugars, so a diet low in any form of sugar would be wise, but it does seem that as usual, HFCS is the worst of the worst.  And as for allowing your children to eat and drink HFCS, well it’s a battle, given the food industry has put it in everything imaginable, but the battle is worth the health of our children.

More and more companies are starting to see that they cannot win this battle and they are offering products that are HFCS – free.  Besides that, there are plenty of natural alternatives.  It just takes a little digging to find them.

You decide.

Related Articles…

Are You Infuriated?? You Should Be! Lipitor For Ten Year Olds!?

Infuriating.

Disgusting.

Sad.

Outrageous.

When I heard this news report the only thing that came to my mind were expletives!

EU body OKs chewable Lipitor for older children

And then I continued to read and found out that Lipitor has been approved for use in children age 10 to 17 in the United States since 2002!

Lipitor accounts for a whopping 23% of Pfizer’s total sales!  That’s enormous!

But that’s beside the point.  The point is that we need to wake up and take responsibility for our children’s health and we don’t do that by putting them on prescription drugs at the age of ten for something that can be fixed by a change in lifestyle.

If a ten-year-old is put on cholesterol lowering medication then what is next?  Are they going to live their entire life on a drug without ever being taught about how to eat real food instead of processed, how to take live supplements instead of plastic-coated vitamins?  Remember, drugs do NOT solve the problem.  They mask the symptom.

I will tell you right now a simple, inexpensive, natural, essential supplement that can lower your cholesterol.  Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth.  This is just one.  Do some research and I am sure you will find many options for lowering your cholesterol naturally but for some reason we have turned into a nation that thinks everything requires a drug to fix it.

The drug companies certainly don’t want you to know about it – not with 23% of their cash coming from their drug as you feed it to your children.

And what about the lifestyle that leads to high cholesterol?  Take a look at how much processed, packaged, fake food you are eating.  Do a candida cleanse.  Walk.

And then there are the side effects.   If a child is exposed to these drugs so early in life the chances of detrimental side effects must be significant.

I don’t understand what people are thinking sometimes.  Here a person like Jamie Oliver is trying to change the way we feed our children and he is being attacked.  And then Pfizer is making 23% of their sales from a drug that does nothing more remarkable than a healthy lifestyle will do and no one thinks anything of it.


Related Articles…

Pesticides Play a Part In ADHD

A new study suggests that organophosphate pesticides may be responsible for the rising epidemic of ADHD.

While a direct causal link is still yet to be established, a recent study published in the Journal of Pediatrics showed that exposure to pesticides suggests a strong relationship to the development of ADHD.

According to the study of over 1,000 children nationwide, children with higher levels of a byproduct from organophosphate pesticides had twice the odds of ADHD diagnosis. The author’s of the study hope this statistic will raise awareness regarding the risk of consuming commercially grown fruits and vegetables, particularly in children, who are more susceptible to exposure effects.

Source: Read full article at CNN Health

My next question would be this…
If pesticides are avoided and a child is given a cleanse to remove pesticides from the body, would the symptoms of ADHD subside?

This site has a simple, straightforward diet for ADHD.

This site discusses colonics for children with ADHD.

What experiences have you had with medications or alternative approaches to managing ADHD?

Related Articles…

Microwaving Your Child’s Food, Is the Convenience Worth the Risk?

Excerpt from Mercola.com:

Some fairly compelling evidence supporting the destructive effects of microwaves comes from a highly cited study by a Swiss food scientist named Hans Hertel. Dr. Hertel was the first scientist to study the effects of microwaved foods on the blood and physiology of human beings.

His small study, coauthored by Dr. Bernard Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry, revealed the degenerative forces produced by microwave ovens on the foods they cooked.

Dr. Hertel concluded that microwave cooking changed the nutrients in the food, and that changes took place in the blood that could cause negative health effects.

Hertel’s conclusions were that microwaving food resulted in:

  • Increased cholesterol levels
  • Decreased numbers of leukocytes (white blood cells), which can suggest poisoning
  • Decreased numbers of red blood cells
  • Production of radiolytic compounds
  • Decreased hemoglobin levels, which could indicate anemia

Not surprisingly, Dr. Hertel’s study was met with great resistance from those with much to lose.

A gag order against Dr. Hertel was issued by a Swiss trade organization in 1992, which was later removed in 1998. But an American journalist, Tom Valentine, published the results of Hertel’s study in Search for Health in the spring of 1992[15] .

The study was not without its shortcomings. It involved only eight participants, of which Hertel was one. As compelling as his findings were, his methodology did not stand up to the scientific rigors of the field.

In spite of Hertel’s methodological shortcomings, his findings do raise concerns about what this form of radiation is doing to your food and should be taken as a launching point to larger, more robust studies in the future.

Hertel wrote:

“There are no atoms, molecules, or cells of any organic system able to withstand such a violent, destructive power for any period of time. This will happen even given the microwave oven’s low power range of milliwatts.”

And then there is the issue of biophotons…

I strongly urge you to go read this entire article on Dr. Mercola’s site. It goes over many different aspects of microwaves and their affects.

It would be much more convenient for you to ignore this information and go about your day but you know the deal… it is up to you to take responsibility for your child’s health, do your homework and make an informed decision.

I stopped using my microwave probably about ten years ago. Yes, people thought I was crazy and yes, at first you feel lost.  I actually had to stop and think about how to boil water!  How pathetic.  Now, I don’t even remember what a microwave is.  I certainly never, ever microwave any of my child’s food.

I read the very few studies that were available ten years ago and I made the decision that it was logical to believe that forcing the molecules of my food into chaos would have detrimental effects on the structure of the nutrients.  It did not make sense that you could compare microwaves to transferring of heat from a stove top and say they have the same effect.  I made the informed decision that it was not worth the risk to my health or my family’s health.

Can you live without your microwave?  Or maybe the better question is, can you live with your microwave?

Related Articles…

Winning the War Against High Fructose Corn Syrup!!

I don’t believe it!  Doth my eyes deceive me?

Pepsi is removing HFCS from Gatorade.

ConAgra is removing HFCS from Hunt’s ketchup.

Kraft is removing HFCS from Wheat Thins.

Snapple is removing HFCS from its drinks.

You see parents. We are responsible for our children’s health – even if that means making demands on the giant companies that are harming our children and not buying into the lies that come down the mainstream pipe.

Read About How High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Hiding In Your Cupboards

We can make a difference.  Keep fighting and keep educating yourself.

Read the full article at Mercola.com

Related Articles…

Mommy Don’t Make Me Fat

“Parents’ obesity, especially mom’s, tied to kids’ risk…

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Having two obese parents may substantially raise a child’s risk of becoming obese, with mom’s weight playing a particularly important role, a new study suggests.

The reasons for that finding are not certain, according to Wardle. However, she said, mothers may be relatively more important because their weight and diet during pregnancy affect fetal development — and may, research suggests, help set a child’s future appetite regulation and weight.

Mothers’ weight may also be a bigger factor than fathers’ because moms are typically the ones who take charge of the children’s diets, Wardle and her colleagues note.”

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online April 7, 2010.

With all the buzz about our obese children you can’t help but pay attention.  Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution sheds some particularly interesting light on what our children are eating and of course the food industry has infiltrated our grocery store shelves with every conceivable convenience food for the busy lives of parents.  If you can call that food.

We can blame it on the food industry, we can blame it on the school lunches, but who is really responsible?

I don’t know about you but I take complete responsibility for everything that goes into my son’s body.  I’m his mother, that’s my job.  Everything he eats, every medicine he takes, everything he drinks, every chemical he is exposed to.  I take it upon myself to educate myself about what is healthy for him and what is not.  I also take it upon myself to make the best choices I can for him and hope that it rubs off when he is old enough to make choices for himself.  I am not perfect but I make every effort to be better than average!  If you take your two year old to a fast food restaurant twice a week, every week, you are responsible for the repercussions.  If you don’t think there are any repercussions to letting a two year old eat fast food every week then you need to wake up and smell the chemicals.

What I am really hoping is that my son’s taste buds are going to be so trained to taste real food that any processed food he comes across at a cafeteria line is going to be disgusting to him.  I can hope can’t I?

What we do or don’t do when it comes to our eating habits, our physical fitness and our self-worth is going to be reflected in our children.

I have struggled with my weight my entire life and let me tell you, pregnancy did not do me any favors in that department!  What I have discovered is that I have a new impetus to take care of myself.  I may not have found the drive in the past to take excellent care of myself, always assuming that nothing will ever happen to me.  But since the birth of my son, that has all changed.  I am acutely aware of everything in his life now that may cause harm later.  I am also acutely aware that what I do with my own health now will determine how long I am around to see him grow up.  Now that is a driving force to take care of me with the same effort that I take care of him.

The above article just reinforced that for me.  If I don’t take care of myself now, it is going to be reflected in him.  It is going to have a direct effect on him.  The two cannot be separated.  I want him to grow up not just knowing ‘lack of disease’ but knowing peak health and fitness.  I want him to enjoy the endorphin rush of physical fitness and get addicted to that rather than the hundreds of other toxic addictions out there.

I think I’m going to work on finding that endorphin rush myself.  How about you?

And by the way,  a new study found that as little as 20 minutes of exercise a day has a big effect on your health.  The key is to spend those 20 minutes alternating between high and low intensities.  Short bursts of interval training for twenty minutes — not so bad, huh?

Twenty minutes for the health of our children.

More Resources for Childhood Health

Excerpt from my newly released e-book – Brave Parenting …

Babies and health go hand in hand.  A brand new little life with a vibrant, untainted immune system.  As parents, we have the opportunity to take advantage of that healthy start by providing baby with every opportunity to keep that immune system strong.  It should be easy, but in today’s world it is a never ending battle against chemicals, poor nutrition and misinformation that slowly starts to degrade the perfect immune system and sets your infant up for unnecessary illnesses.

My son is two years old and he has never had an ear infection.  As a baby, he rarely lost a meal to spit-up.  He has never been on antibiotics or received any over-the-counter medications.  He almost never gets diaper rash and when he does it is gone within a day or less.  When he gets a common cold it is  mild and he is over it within a day.  He is smart and beautiful and loves to smile. This is how it should be!

Most parents just accept that it is “normal” for a baby to have constant ear infections and diaper rash and spit up after every single meal.  We think nothing of it when the doctor injects a newborn with foreign substances.  If the doctor said it’s necessary then it must be, right?  In the most extreme cases, we just accept that there is nothing we can do to prevent childhood diseases like leukemia and asthma.

I would like to introduce you to the idea that you do have control.  You have the ability to educate yourself and make informed choices about so many things that affect your babies and their health.  Do not make the terrible mistake of relying on a doctor or a government agency to protect you and your baby because it won’t happen.

I was blessed to have become a mother for the first time at the age of 36.  I was young enough to be healthy yet mature enough to be educated and independent minded.  I looked around me and saw so much illness and suffering, cancer and drugs, I knew that this was not normal! I did my homework, I researched, I learned and I made an informed decision about my son’s health.

  • I am not afraid of a fever- because I am educated.
  • I know the most important factor in supporting 80% of his immune system-because I am educated.
  • I know how to stimulate his brain to form neurons-because I am educated.
  • I know the truth about how to prevent SIDS-because I am educated.
  • I trust Mother Nature-because I am educated.

Parents please never take your baby’s health for granted.

We should never assume that a baby will be born healthy whether we take our prenatal vitamins or not.  We should never trust that our child will glide through life with no lasting effects from the pesticides in their fruit and the chemicals in their snacks.  We know all too well that innocent children suffer from lead poisoning, nutritional deficiencies, allergies, cancer all of which can be prevented if only we were proactive about educating ourselves and taking control of our childrens’ health instead of blindly handing it over to the food manufacturers and a doctor that has been educated by the pharmaceutical industry.

Your baby’s health is in your hands.  The choices you make will affect your babies health for the rest of their lives.  I challenge you to open your eyes, research and educate yourself and then decide how to keep your baby healthy.  Don’t take my word for it.  Don’t trust me, don’t trust your doctor, don’t trust the government or the pharmaceutical industry, trust your heart and your educated mind.  Don’t sit idly by and assume that your babies will be healthy no matter what you feed them or expose them to.  That is the ultimate sin of the parent – taking your child’s health for granted.


Get the e-book now!  Go to Brave Parenting for a special introductory price and instant download!

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Related Articles…

Is Organic Food Necessary for Baby?

Many parents wonder if organic food is worth the money and effort.  It can be expensive and hard to find in the regular grocery stores.

The way I think about it is this…

  • The younger your baby is the more rapidly he is growing.  It is the most important time in his life for providing his body with quality food to support the cellular processes that are happening and creating the foundation for his health.  It is also the most important time in his life to support his immune system and avoid stressing his body so that he can avoid any illness that could threaten his young and fragile health.
  • The younger your baby is the easier it will be to get her to eat almost all organic food.  When your baby is at the age where she is eating only milk and baby food it is very easy to provide everything organically.  Organic baby food is available in almost any grocery store.  Yes, it is more expensive than regular but your baby’s health is worth $1.5o a jar and if you consider how little they eat you are still only spending a few dollars per meal.  That is a lot less than it costs to make a meal for yourself out of non-organic food.
  • The younger your baby is the less efficient her organs are at filtering out toxins such as pesticides.  That means that the same exposure to the pesticides in an apple have a much harsher effect on her than you.
  • The younger your child is the greater the relative amount of toxins they are taking in compared to an adult.  If your toddler loves fruit and eats multiple servings per day consider the amount of pesticides in that fruit and how it measures up to your body size and then your toddlers body size.  That tiny little body is getting a massive dose in a few pieces of fruit a day.

Here are a few ways to make things easier.  If you visit the Environmental Working Group you will find a list of the fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated.  Buy those foods organically and don’t worry too much about the others.

Also, pay attention to the foods that your young one eats a lot of and buy those organically.  If it is a meat or dairy product you can drastically cut down on the hormones and antibiotics that their little body is exposed to buy switching that one food.

If you are able to go all out and buy all your child’s food organically then go for it.  If you are not able to do that then that is okay.  Do what you can.  It does not have to be all or none.

Remember, that tiny little body will be better off if you only change one favorite food rather than changing nothing at all.

Related Articles…

High Fructose Corn Syrup-The Proof Is In The Pudding, and the Ice Cream, and the Juice…

To me, this is the perfect example of a piece of information that as parents, we need to dissect and look at from a logical perspective.  Just use common sense, think like Mother Nature and be suspicious of any news that comes from mainstream media.  The high fructose corn syrup industry is a $2.6 BILLION business – do you trust them to tell you the truth??

So why is high fructose corn syrup(HFCS) so widely used?  The bottom line is that it is cheaper than sugar and extends the shelf life of processed foods.  That means more money in the pockets of the corn industry and the food manufacturers.

For an interesting and in depth look at how fructose is metabolized and how it adversely affects the body – click here.  In short, high fructose corn syrup is not a naturally occurring sugar, it is manipulated by chemistry.

I won’t bore you with chemistry talk but I would like to tell you a story.

I raise my son on as natural a diet as I can.  I breastfed to start and then he received organic formula, then organic baby food.   He graduated to fruits and whole grains and natural meats.  If he ate something not organic it was at least free of bad preservatives and HFCS.

When he was about 18 months old I noticed an odd behavior for the first time.  He was running back and forth in a small area and babbling non-stop.  I laughed at first but as it continued I looked at him with a furrowed brow and wondered what in the world he was doing, this was not normal behavior for him.  It wasn’t normal toddler playing.  It had a frantic feel to it.  I jokingly asked myself “what did he eat?” and then it came to me.  His niece was visiting that day and she brought a bag of those cute little chocolate graham crackers in the shape of teddie bears!  My son had gotten a hold of the bag and helped himself to a few.  I looked at the ingredients and sure enough…high fructose corn syrup.  That was his first experience.

Several weeks later he found a box of regular plain old graham crackers and asked for one so I gave him a square.  A few minutes later the same thing.  Babbling like a crazy man.  I never thought it would be in plain graham crackers but sure enough again, I checked the ingredients and there it was…high fructose corn syrup.

Again one evening as we all shared ice cream…needless to say, bedtime did not come easily that night.  We are much more careful these days.

So in a way, this was my blind study.  I noticed the behavior first and found a common culprit each time.  That is my proof.  I take into consideration my personal knowledge, the debates between doctors and the corn industry and apply it to the outrageous assault on our childrens’ health and behavior over the past decade and I make my own logical conclusion.  If a tiny bit of HFCS affected my son in such a noticeable way then I have no problem believing that a diet high in this sugar would cause symptoms of ADHD.  The crime is that parents have no idea that their children are bombarded with HFCS because the food industry has put it in every conceivable food.

HFCS has taken such a beating lately that the corn industry actually made a commercial defending it.  That right there leads me to be suspicious.  Why do they care if consumers eat products with HFCS or not?  Because it will eat into their profits, that’s why.  They even have a website trying to pass it off as beneficial and healthy.   What was most amusing was their statement that any sweetener should be used in moderation!  HA!  Take a look at this list of foods that contain HFCS…

  • ketchup
  • spaghetti sauce
  • ice cream
  • fruit juice
  • soda
  • sports drinks
  • graham crackers
  • peanut butter
  • bread
  • pop tarts
  • almost all crackers
  • breakfast syrup
  • seasoned bread crumbs
  • pretty much all  cereals
  • frozen waffles and pancakes
  • pretty much all cookies
  • cough syrup
  • jelly
  • preserves
  • salad dressing
  • applesauce
  • pickle relish
  • baked beans
  • stuffing
  • BBQ sauce
  • steak sauce
  • cream cheese
  • pickles
  • cranberry sauce
  • pretty much all processed snack foods

Need I go on?  Would you consider this moderation on the part of the food industry?

I would recommend avoiding HFCS completely, especially for your children.  Their brains are so busy developing that they need all of the nutrition you can offer.  High fructose corn syrup has no nutritional value.

Whether you are going all-out HFCS-free or if moderation is what you strive for you better open all your cupboards and start reading labels!!

Do your research and make an informed decision.

Still not convinced?  Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury


Related Articles…

Babies and Health – Nutrition During Pregnancy Has Lifelong Effects on Your Baby

It may seem unbelievable but the research is in.  This is monumentally important to the health of your baby and possibly the easiest thing for you to control.

Your diet during pregnancy.

Scientists believe that a baby’s lifetime of good or poor health is determined by the nutrition it receives during your pregnancy.  Poor nutrition during pregnancy and in the first few months of life may lead to higher risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Professor Koletzko of the University of Munich and coordinator of a Europe wide research project on Early Nutrition Programming said: “Major differences in risk factors for significant health problems – such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, bone health, immune function, cognitive development and behaviour – have already been observed in children who experienced different diets in the first few months of life, or whose mothers were given different supplements during pregnancy.”

Do your homework …

My Naturally Well Baby – a website set up by Dr. van der Veer and offering wonderful, detailed yet easy to follow information about diet for your pregnancy.

Ask Dr. Sears – the author of some of my favorite books on baby care, this web page guides you through the ins and outs of your diet during pregnancy.

Prenatal Vitamins

Even the most complete diet cannot provide everything that a mother and baby needs for optimal health during pregnancy and breastfeeding.  A supplement is the best way to cover your bases.  However, I recommend you steer away from the prescription that your doctor may hand you and look for higher quality elsewhere (unless you have an enlightened doctor who is educated in integrative medicine).  Most prescription prenatal vitamins are made by large commercial manufacturers that are going to use the cheapest ingredients possible, many of which may not even be in “usable” form for the body.

If you do your prenatal vitamin research you may find the name Rainbow Light coming up frequently.  Women love these vitamins.  Rainbow Light is the creator of the first ever food-based line of supplements that offer natural, usable vitamins to the body.  They are complete with digestive enzymes and even probiotics.  Both very important to your health.

Rainbow Light Complete Prenatal System – Click to read product details and reviews about Rainbow Light.  If you are not able to take 6 pills a day from the Complete line they also offer an all in one pill.  Take a look around at all of their wonderful products.