The sun will come out... in April :(

Well, sad to say, winter is upon us, which means cold and flu season is right around the corner. Now that my daughter is in preschool, she's even more susceptible to germs. One of the best defenses against colds and the flu is Vitamin D! Since the sun is long gone until spring, the next best thing is Biotecs Research Bio-D Mulsion. You can purchase on healthdesigns.com.



I swear by this!! My doctor gave it to me last year and as soon as I started giving it to my daughter, she stopped getting a runny nose. There are two different doses, 400 IU and 2000 IU, at the recommendation of my doctor, I give my 3 year old 800 IU's per day and my 1 year old 400 IU's per day. You have to be careful because excess Vitamin D can cause health problems, so I would recommend consulting your pediatrician before giving it to your kids, but seriously consider this for yourself and your kids!

So busy!!!!

I know I haven't updated this blog in over a month. I've been so busy - my son turned one this month, my daughter started preschool, my sister is getting married tomorrow, I'm busy at work.... I literally feel so swamped, but I'm hoping that after this weekend I can get back into blogging. I think about potential topics everyday. I really want to discuss artificial sweeteners, vaccines and kid friendly dinners. So stay with me my loyal followers - all four of you :) I'll be back next week!

Have a great weekend!

Make sure to drink your greens!

My 11 month old son is starting to ween himself off breastfeeding, so the issue of breastmilk replacement is on my mind right now. He will still nurse a little in the morning and at night, but during the day he needs something to drink and since he has eczema, he doesn't have any dairy in his diet, so whole milk is out of the question. At the advice of my amazing pediatrician, she suggested I give the kids kale because of the high calcium content. I've been making green smoothies for the kids to drink with their breakfast. These are a fabulous way to get the kids to consume raw green veggies, which are such an important part of their diet... because let's be honest, kids aren't going to eat raw vegetables.

Green Smoothie:

In a blender, combine a handful of raspberries, blueberries, chopped watermelon, chopped cucumber, chopped kale, chopped asparagus, chopped spinach, a banana, 1 cup of rice milk and a handful of ice cubes. Once blended, I pour into a sippy cup for my son and add 1/4 teaspoon of probiotics.

Obviously you can add or delete ingredients depending on what you like.

He absolutely loves these and drinks one every morning! I do too :)

and the award goes to.... the apple!

I try to feed my family as organic as possible, however, it's not always an option to buy everything organic. After doing some research, I found a helpful list of foods that use the most pesticides in farming and the apple is the clear winner with 42 different pesticides used. Some other offenders - peaches, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, pears, blueberries, spinach and potatoes. Obviously, you also want to try and buy organic meat and dairy products. I've also heard from different sources that there are a lot of pesticides used on wheat in the various stages of processing, so I buy organic bread and pasta.

Pesticides make me so nervous. I feel that they are so overused. My mother told me the story of one of her friend who grew up on a farm and he was the youngest in the family, so he never had to work in the fields. His sister was the oldest, so she was inside taking care of the household chores everyday. The other three siblings all worked in the fields and all three of them died of cancer. The other two are healthy to this day. I think the best thing you can do is avoid pesticides as much as possible. Don't spray your lawn, don't have the pest control spray your house for bugs and buy as many organic groceries as you can.

Speaking of cancer, I read an interesting article last night regarding a study where cancer cells were grown in a petri dish. They both thrive on glucose and fructose, however, the cancer cells reproduce more rapidly when given fructose. Here's a link to the article:

Fructose and Cancer

More on harmful sweeteners next time!

One last note - last week I talked a lot about dairy. I wanted to make it clear that I am a breastfeeding mother, so I had to cut dairy out of my diet completely because everything you eat ends up in your breastmilk. Additionally, reflux is not the only symptom of a dairy allergy. Some other symptoms include skin problems (eczema, rosacea, acne) diarrhea, constipation, ear infections and arthritis.

"cow's milk was made for baby cows"

My favorite quote from the first holistic doctor I ever saw, Dr. Loewe. She made such a good point that humans aren't really meant to drink cow's milk, so it's no wonder most people can't digest it. I figured this out for the first time when my newborn daughter was projectile vomiting on me from the minute we brought her home. At the time I was familiar with food allergies, but it took me awhile to remember the wise advice of Dr. Loewe and completely cut dairy out of my diet. A few days later, the spit up was gone.

It's so frustrating to hear from new mothers who tell of the same reflux stories only to follow it up with how their babies are on prescription medicine for their reflux. It's common sense - if your body can't digest something, don't eat it! I think the whole idea of kids drinking milk as part of a healthy diet is a bit overdone. My daughter never started drinking milk on a regular basis and she's perfectly healthy. She eats yogurt and cheese occasionally and will drink the random glass of milk, but I just don't understand who thought it was such a good idea to start giving our kids a lactose overdose the day they turn 1?

I know everyone has different opinions on holistic medicine and I'm certainly not a doctor, but I just want to share my experiences from being a natural minded mother. I'm hoping to update this blog on a weekly basis to discuss different natural remedies and give some good advice to people who are interested in this approach to parenting.

So here are a couple tips if you are going to cut dairy out of your diet...

~ Whey and casein are found in so many processed foods - so beware!
~ Eggs are not dairy, contrary to popular belief.
~ Cocoa butter is not dairy as well, so if you are having a sweets craving, grab some dark chocolate, just make sure there is no milkfat in it.
~ Almond and Rice milk are great milk substitutes, I especially like the Silk Pure Almond milk in the refrigerated section.
~ Goat and sheep cheese are easier to digest, so there are some people with milk allergies that can have goat and sheep cheese.