What? My Smoke Detector is Radioactive?

I think it is wonderful that California now requires Carbon Monoxide detectors to be installed in the house, I bought one as soon I heard about it. However, staring at both the carbon monoxide alarm and the smoke detector, made me want to purchase a combined one just so the house looks more simple. While trying to read the review of the rating of each product online, I was surprised to see a review that mentioned how the smoke detector uses radioactive material to work. What? My smoke detector is radioactive? That sounds horrible. I continued on to read the reviews and see how people are arguing that the amount is so minimal. However, it got me thinking if there are smoke detectors that don't use this technology at all.

Apparently, there are two types of smoke detectors: photoelectric detector and ionization detector. And it is the ionization detector that contains radioactive Americium 241 or Radium 226. Here is a link for more information:

http://iicph.org/radioactive_fire_detectors

I am actually not sure what my current smoke detector is, I never really thought about looking at it, that is probably bad, but for sure I know my next one to purchase I will look for a photoelectric type.

Another interesting note I learned about is that Carbon Monoxide detectors all have an expiration date of around 5 years, and they are meant to be replaced when they expire.

New Tri-City Area Holistic Mom Network Chapter

Introduced by my chiropractor, I went to the kick off event of the new chapter of Holistic Mom Network in the Tri-City Area, CA. I am kind of glad that I get to see other crunchy mamas that are in the local area as well as learn about what local vendors are around. This is their website that explains what they are about: http://www.holisticmoms.org/
I haven't yet officially join as a member, but I am liking the idea. And lucky me today too, I won a door prize for a free haircut at a salon, I guess it is time for a new hair style.

My Daughter's First Chiropractic Adjustment

I finally decided to let my chiropractor adjust my daughter as well. I found my chiropractor through http://icpa4kids.com/index.php I noticed that she is certified in the Webster Technique for turning breech babies during pregnancy and also certified in pediatric chiropractic practice. After doing several appointments for myself, I learned that she has a daughter that is the same age as mine and has been adjusting her since birth. The adjustment for babies are very different from the adults. As a matter of fact, I hardly noticed how she adjusted my daughter, felt like she only did some light pressing on her back. If I had knew that it would be this gentle, I probably would have taken my daughter in at birth also. But I kind of also wonder how the gentle adjustment would last, considering how I handle my daughter way rougher than the adjustment. I do like the idea of periodically having my daughter checked up and adjusted while she is growing up, this will ensure that everything is in line and that she will grow properly.

Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child -- Book Review

Just finished reading this book and I am impressed. This book feels like the continuation of Between Parent and Child and fills in the missing pieces in Between Parent and Child. Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child focuses on using five key steps for Emotion Coaching. 1. Being aware of the child's emotion. 2. Recognizing the emotion as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching. 3. Listening empathetically and validating the child's feelings. 4. Helping the child verbally label emotions. 5. Setting limits while helping the child problem-solve. I learned about how to be empathetic to a child's feelings through all my previous readings, however, I have always felt a little permissive as a result, but this book fills in that gap with step 5. It teaches you how to be empathetic and understanding and yet still set limit and gives example of how to, setting limits is very important. Just being empathetic and not setting limits or helping your child to move on, is not going to help the child's emotions any better. I also love how the book does consider practicality, and list times that emotional coaching is not appropriate and how it can be delayed, like example when you are in a rush.
The book categorizes Parents into four types: 1. The dismissing parents, who disregard, ignore, or trivialize children's negative emotions. 2. The disapproving parents, who are critical of their children's displays of negative feelings and may reprimand or punish them for emotional expression. 3. The Laissez-Faire parents, who accept their children's emotions and empathize with them, but fail to offer guidance or set limits on their children's behavior. And of course the ultimate goal for me, 4. the Emotion Coach that follows the mentioned five steps above.
Another interesting point mentioned in this book is the strong influence of the father to a child. Even though for reasons unknown, their studies show that the father actually has a stronger influence on the child's emotional intelligent than the mother. So it is actually very important for the dad to get involve with emotion coaching too.

Arnica Gel for Muscle Soreness

All the painting and moving furniture around the house is a real workout. My arms and legs are super sore. A friend of mine tells me to take Tylenol, but taking a pain killer just for regular workout muscle soreness goes against my crunchy philosophy. Thankfully, I learned about Arnica Gel a while ago, and this thing works. Arnica is a well known plant used in homeopathic treatments for bruises and muscle soreness. It is absorbed into the skin pretty fast also. When I rub the gel on the sore areas, it doesn't feel like Bengay or Icy Hot, as in you don't feel that minty cold and then that warm heat. It feels like you just put some regular gel on, but I immediately feel a release of my muscle. I am thinking this might come in handy when my daughter is older and gets sore muscle from hiking or something.

Painting with Zero V.O.C. Paint

We finally started our project to repaint the house, we have been holding off this project mainly because of the concerns of the toxic fumes from paint. We didn't want to do it while pregnant and definitely didn't have the time to do it while my daughter was still little also. But now that she can entertain herself a little more, we decided to tackle this. I made sure that we were going to use zero or low V.O.C. paint. Luckily many major brands now make this option. One thing to pay attention to is that some of the zero or low V.O.C. paints are only zero or low V.O.C. on whites, and once you add color it doesn't matter anymore, so you will want to look for description like color is also zero or low V.O.C. The Olympic brand from Lowes is and also Kelly-Moore has it too, probably other brands have it too, but I didn't look further. We decided to go with Kelly-Moore since it has a summer deal coupon that saves you 30% off your purchase. I know there are even safer paints that are made with completely natural ingredients, but I didn't want to go to that extreme since we are on a tight budget. The zero V.O.C. paint from Kelly-Moore really is different from what  I was use to about paints. There is hardly any smell while you paint, a big difference from the nostril burning experience from regular paint. I am pretty sure it is still not that great to be constantly sniffing this thing, so it is still a good idea to ventilate the area, but it sure made the painting experience a lot more pleasurable.

Avoiding Flame Retardants in Children's PJs

http://www.5minutesforgoinggreen.com/299/avoiding-flame-retardants-in-cozy-childrens-pajamas/
When my daughter was 9 months old I learned about how all children's sleepwear from 9 months to 14 years are required to be flame resistant. I was shocked, I mean, really, why do I want my baby to be covered with nasty chemicals when no one in the house smokes, we never use the fireplace or candles. And if the house was really on fire, that flame retardants is not going to help me much as it is not even for that purpose (read link). I started to think well, maybe I can wash off these chemicals, but through my searching online, I realize that is naive thinking. These clothing are designed to be washed multiple times and still be flame resistant, it is impossible to get rid of them this easily. But there is still hope, I immediately returned the 9 month sized PJs I just bought and looked for ones that were snug fitting, made of cotton, and with a yellow tag that says not treated with flame retardants. And now, I don't even use PJs on my daughter anymore. I just buy her t-shirts and regular cotton pants to wear at night. But the sad thing is, flame retardant is everywhere, especially more true in California because of our tough safety standards. Chances are your furnitures, your carpet, and anything cushiony they are required to be flame resistant. It is only last year that California exempted strollers, nursing pillows and baby carriers from the flammability standard.

Recycling Made Easier

I am so happy to see a big recycle bin at Lowes. They take rechargeable batteries, cell phones, plastic shopping bags, and most importantly for me, CFLs, since many other places have bins for the rest of the items. I have been trying to look for a place to conveniently recycle CFLs and finally I am able to get rid of my pile of broken CFLs. For other hazardous wastes, many city also have free recycling. Like in my city there is a center that takes all your electronics, paint, etc for free as long as you are a resident. Now the only thing I am still searching for convenient recycling is all those CDs and DVDs that I want to get rid off. So far I am just collecting them in a box and maybe once I collect enough I will mail it in to a recycling center to recycle, but if they have drop boxes in stores like Lowes, it would make things a lot easier. I didn't even know that those CD and DVD disks should be recycled in the past and have been tossing them in the trash, I feel so bad now.

Is Silicone Safe?

Before my daughter was born I read up about silicone on Safbaby.com, here is the page: http://www.safbaby.com/is-silicone-safe
It kind of bothered me that there is no studies regarding it's safety, considering a lot of baby products claimed to be safe nowadays are made from silicone. But it still seemed like a safer option than plastic, so if there were a choice, I would choose silicone over plastic. But one thing about silicone products is that it tends to leave this weird chemical smell, I tried using a silicone cup to drink before, and the water just tasted awful, it really makes me think this stuff can't be good. And today I see this: http://www.safbaby.com/is-silicone-in-baby-products-and-bakeware-really-safe Now this seems pretty scary.
My daughter never took a bottle or a pacifier, so I never really had to worry much about the choice of silicone or rubber latex. But this have me thinking about then what is a good nipple to use then, silicone is made with tons of chemical, and rubber also has its chemical issue, and might cause allergy also. This pretty much leaves us with no choice besides start feeding our babies from a glass cup, well, I guess the best is still your breast, but that is definitely not practical for everyone. I guess silicone is still the safest out of all available choices so far, sigh.

18 Month Sleep Regression

I am at the 18 months sleep regression now, well, actually my daughter kind of started this regression around 17 months so I have already been in this mess for a little while now and just now finally admitting it. So, according to online resources and The Wonder Weeks, your child will go through yet another sleep regression at around the 18-21 months of age period. It can last just a few weeks, or even a few months. This is horrible for my daily scheduling, but I guess something that I just have to learn to live with. My daughter is fighting her nap everyday now, and I can't predict when I can successfully put her to sleep, she was already a horrible sleeper to begin with and now it is even worse. At first I thought I just didn't tire her out enough, so I tried to add more activities in the morning, however, I am just recently learning that it has nothing to do with it. Parenting is definitely hard work, I keep on telling myself that "this too shall pass." But I'll have to say, physically it has gotten a lot easier, I still cringe at the kind of sleepless times I had before my daughter turned 5 months. Bad news is this is still not the last sleep regression, but I'll survive. :)

Eliminating Dairy, Egg, and Gluten Cured Eczema

My husband has suffered from eczema on his hands for many years and it seems to be spreading and getting worse each year. The unsightliness of his hands is one thing, but the itch and pain that comes with it makes him a very grumpy person every time there is a flare up, which was getting more frequent also. He use to just put cortisone cream on it and it would relief him, but then the cortisone is not doing much for him anymore and the red and tenderness of the hand just never disappeared. I tried everything I could to rid him of the problem from the inside out. I supplemented him with fish oil, multi vitamin, vitamin E, probiotics, with not much improvement. I would also put fish oil topically on his hands when he has a flare up and coconut oil as lotion, which he says does work a bit. Then I started to cut out red meat from his diet and see if that helped, since I read something about psoriasis and eczema caused by pork consumption, well, that totally did nothing for him. Then I even put him on a chlorella and cilantro detox, thinking to eliminate some toxins might help, which also didn’t do much for the eczema. Finally, I read about cutting out major allergens like egg, soy, wheat, dairy, etc. But to eliminate all these common allergens for a long period of time and then reintroducing one by one seems like a lot of work and a very limited diet. I really don’t want to resort to this and cut out unnecessary food items. So I bought him a blood test kit for allergy test, hoping we could get some clues there. The allergy test tested for antibody Immunoglobulin G (IgG) for delayed onset food allergy, which is usually associate d to chronic immune problems like eczema. Probably many people have delayed onset food allergy and don't know, this makes me feel like getting myself a test too, but I have this extreme fear of poking myself for blood, I'll need more time to think about it. My husband ended up super high on dairy, egg, and certain other non common allergens, his was also showing moderate allergic to wheat and peanut. These were food that he love and eat every day. We thought he was eating a healthy breakfast with whole wheat toast with cheese and egg and a cup of yogurt. I immediately cut out these food items from his diet, and after 3 days, we saw significant improvement with his hands. We were shocked, thinking we definitely should have done this a lot earlier. He has had no major flare ups so far, still some little ones here and there, but that is partly because he has a hard time completely cutting out these food items. These major allergens are sneaky and in almost all of our processed food. He would eat a piece of breaded chicken thinking that it is okay since he is not that allergic to wheat, but he forgets that the coating might have egg in it too. He would eat a salad, and forget that ranch dressing has dairy. He would eat Asian food and think it is safe, but didn’t know that soy sauce has wheat. The list goes on. I am hoping that if his body takes a short break from these allergens and we start to eat more raw food, that his body would have a chance to repair and improve, and maybe he could one day eat these food again. But then again, we all know this is not an easy trip. However, I now strongly suggest anyone with eczema, psoriasis, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, etc. to look into allergy testing.

Natural and Safe Sunscreen

Ideally you don't even want to use sunscreen and just keep your baby under the shade and wear hat and sleeves, etc. However, as your baby turns into a toddler, this task gets harder and harder because they want to run around so much and a hot day also doesn't help either. There are two kinds of sunscreen, chemical and physical. Chemical sunscreen absorbs sunlight, however, creates free radical on your skin and some chemicals can absorb into your skin. Physical sunscreen deflects or blocks sunlight instead, and is less irritating to the skin, however, they tend to be greasy and not as transparent and hard to wash off. Of course I decided to go with a physical sunscreen. Then I read that there are also concerns about nanonized physical sunscreen, apparently if they are nanonized, they might get absorbed into the skin as well. So I finally decided to go with Badger Sunscreen, it is all natural and non nanonized zinc oxide (I heard that California Baby Sunscreen is also a good choice with titanium oxide instead, but I read that some people might be allergic to titanium oxide).

Let's Get Out and Play More -- It's Good for the Brain

Doing a simple search online and I find bunch of information regarding infant brain growth. Apparently 85% brain growth is done by age 3 and all significant brain growth in human children is completed by the time they are six years old. This means the first 6 years of our life is probably the most important for brain stimulation. I am thinking, maybe instead of spending all the money on expensive private schools or tutoring centers, it might be best to invest more into the first 6 years of your child’s life. Provide more stimulating activities for them, buy more toys or give more items of different uses and textures for your child, and provide the best nutritional food also, and ideally even more so before age 3.

I am already watching what my daughter is eating, and I am sure she has plenty of toys and books, I am going to make it my goal to do more activities with my daughter each day and to resist the temptation to just sit at home and watch TV or use the computer. Hey, this might even improve my health and quality of life.

Drink More Water and Relief Back Pain

We all know that water is good for us and we should drink more it. I notice that whenever I drink less water, I tend to encounter various problems such as clogged milk ducts in my breast (yes, I am still breastfeeding) or acne start to show up on my face, etc. However, one thing I never thought to link to dehydration was my back pain. But now I am reading more and more about how water can cure back pains. And I have to say from my personal experience, I will say there is definitely some truth in it. I really don't drink enough water a day, my husband likes to call me a camel because of this bad habit of mine, and every once in a while my lower back hurts. Afraid of it leading to sciatica again, I always run to the chiropractor to realign myself, the adjustments work and I do feel wonderful, however, I am frustrated on how short of a period I can maintain it. I usually contributed it to my improper postures or lack of exercise, which does play a role, however, I never thought it could also be related to water intake. So when I learned about this concept, the previous time my lower back started to act up again, I started to drink tons of water and surprisingly, within a couple of days, the lower back pain went away. Apparently we need adequate fluid in between our joints for it to work properly. I am a believer now, hahaha. Well, at least I know I definitely should drink more water, it also helps us detox our body of toxins. My grandmother had always drink a very big glass of water in the morning right when she wakes up and has practiced this for years, she lived close to 100 and was always moving around in good shape, I am thinking this is a practice I should do everyday too.

Natural Bug Repellent

Now that it is summer time, I see a lot of bugs outdoor; my husband has gotten a few bites from who know what, and asked me to look into bug repellants for our daughter and for the whole family. All the websites say that repellants containing DEET is the most effective, but reading how it shouldn’t be apply to babies less than 2 months old, and then you should avoid face, hand area, then how the concentration should not exceed 30%, it just seems like another chemical I would just rather not use. Looking into natural alternatives, the next effective ingredient approved by CDC is lemon eucalyptus oil, however, it is not recommended for children under age of 3. Now this is getting hard, the rest of the plant oils are not approved to be effective by CDC, so I need to base this decision on product reviews and looking into the ingredients myself. I don’t necessarily need something super strong, but I wouldn’t want to buy something that just totally doesn’t work either. After more research and suggestion from forums, I decided to go with All Terrain Kids Herbal Armor. Reviews seem to all say it works, but some people can’t stand the strong smell of citronella. I personally find the smell okay, it does smell kind of flowery perfume like, but it does also have that little tint of lemon smell. I haven’t really put it on and try it out yet, so I will have to come back some day to add to that, but so far it seems pretty good and natural.

Been Busy Watching Netflix Shows Recently

My household recently completely cancelled our cable television, as I find myself hardly watching any TV and not knowing many of the channels and show times, I find myself just watching shows from TLC like Say Yes to The Dress out of boredom occasionally. My husband does watch many of the History Channel shows, however, we did not give up TV completely, we signed up for Netflix instead. I find it to be a good decision, my husband gets to see his History Channel programs and more, and I find myself watching a lot more documentaries. As a matter of fact, I just finished Food Matters, and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and feel the importance of having organic raw fruits and vegetables in the diet. It is interesting how having raw fruits and veggies in the shows actually indicates a cure to autoimmune diseases and it is surprising to see how fast the body can repair itself if you really have the will power to go through with the diets. Off to the farmers market this weekend to buy organic local produces, my plan is to slowly incorporate more and more raw fruits and veggies into our diet and hopefully to see an improvement to my family's health.

Unconditional Parenting Review

This book has a point, and it definitely did open up my mind. I always thought that I wouldn’t want to use spanking as punishment on my child, but I thought that time-out is a good idea, and that lots of praising is good for self esteem. Oh boy this book sure changed my view. It is true, even the gentle method of time-out and using praise is really just tactics that we parents use in trying to manipulate our children into good behavior. We withhold our love from them when they behave in ways we don’t approve, meaning we only conditionally love them (at least it appears to them in behavior), so how are they going to know they can still come to us and count on our support in the future when they are in trouble. We praise and reward them excessively when they do act according to how we want and we turn the act into solely something to please mom and dad and instead of something that is rewarding in itself, so how are we going to expect them to do good on their own once we are not around to praise them. I definitely want my child to not behave badly, but I want her to do it for the right reasons, because of empathy and knowing the harmful effect on others from their behavior, not because there is a punishment. I also want her to do good and love learning and strive for higher achievement out of the reason that it is enjoyable and rewarding to herself and not just to please others including me. I know this is definitely a method that we are not use to, but it is definitely something that I want to try to achieve for my daughter.

Reading the book has really got me to start thinking, and I start to realize the horrible effect that traditional parenting has on me. I have memories of how it felt being a child and receiving the traditional punishments, threats, praises, and rewards, etc. I remember that the threats and sarcasms never motivated me, and my gut feeling will keep on telling me to do the opposite just to prove a point, but then the fear of punishment usually stops me from rebelling my parents physically, but doesn't stop the hate inside. I remember that those direct praise, good girl, and you are such an obedient kid, never felt good. Couldn't quite figure out why as a kid, but now I know why. Why would anyone want to get that kind of praise anyway? I know how I will feel if my boss says good girl to me, I will feel like a pet, it is not even a positive attribute. Anyway, but these are just memories, and how it didn't work effectively on me as a child, even though I was extremely obedient and well behaved. But now, I am realizing the effect it has on me today. Not saying this to blame my shortcomings on my parents, I wouldn't know how to unconditionally parent if I haven't been introduced to it either, but I do feel it is related. I feel like I have no passion for a lot of things, I am still desperately trying to figure out what I am passionate about, either it is for career or just for hobby, which I have none (although this is improving now since I am studying more and being passionate about my daughter’s upbringing). I picked a major in college just because it was a well respected and money earning career choice, and because that is what my parents expected me to. Maybe all that reward and punishment system just robbed me of all my natural passion. I read books only if it is required for a test during school age and now only if I feel it is practical, I never developed the natural love for reading, so forget those novels. I also admit I lack the general consideration for others, I have dificulty "reading people", which is a skill that is vital in society. I am working hard on improving myself, and it has gotten better as I open up my mind more. But just thought I would want to share my story for others to also see that traditional parenting does have long term effects. If I didn't learn about the AP way, I would have never realized this also. I would just be saying, I grew up this way and I turned out fine.


http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm

Banana Peel to Remove Splinters

Letting my daughter go barefoot outdoors sometimes means getting a splinter on the bottom of her feet. It didn't bother her at all, as a matter of fact I didn't even notice it was a splinter until many days have past. I just thought it was a tiny red bump, maybe a cut or a rash, but then it just didn't go away. As I look closer, I see this tiny tiny black dot in the middle, and sure enough, a splinter. Trying to squeeze it or use a tweezer did absolutely nothing, and plus my daughter's constant kicking and fighting me and my husband, worried and telling me to stop it doesn't help either. Out of frustration I looked for other methods online, then I came across a comment about putting a banana peel on top of it overnight. At first I thought this is the most stupid thing to do, but I figure, what harm can it do, plus I am kind of out of options, so I gave it a try. The very next day, I notice the splinter does look like it is more to the surface, and so I gave it another night, the next day I was able to use a tweezer and take it out. Who knew. Apparently banana peel has some kind of enzyme that promotes healing, and it will encourage the skin to heal and push out the splinter. Now, healing property means that it will also do a lot of other things besides just splinters. I found online that banana peel can be used to treat warts, cuts, bug bites, bruises, rashes, acne, and even wrinkle reduction, now I got to try that one and see if it is true, my husband just might see me cover my face in banana peels one day.

My Daughter’s Gymboree Experience—Is Socialization Overrated in Toddlers?

Being a stay at home mom with my first and only so far makes me worry about the lack of interaction with kids for my daughter. I bring her to libraries and parks, even though she is not yet at an age to play with other kids, but I figure socialization is important, right? I see my friends signing up for Gymboree classes a long time ago, but I really didn’t want to spend the money when my daughter was so young. But now, she is reaching the mobile age, and I thought I would give it a try. I signed up for one of the free class and took her in. She was in shock the moment I arrived, she is usually wary of new environment and does take about 20 minutes of observation before she will make any moves, so during this time, I just let her cling on me for dear life. I see all the other kids laughing and running around, having a good time. Then the instructor rings her bell for a start of a new activity. She explains to us how the first activity is to lead the kids up the wedge to a bridge and drop a ball into the bucket. Well, that bell and all the loud music was a little too much going on for my daughter, so she was not quite ready to let go of me yet, so I respected that and let her continue to hang onto me. Slowly she start to let go of me and started to play with the balls she sees on the side, but is no way near letting me push her to do anything, hmm… as a matter of fact, I was never able to push her to do anything in her whole life so far, so I soon realize there is no way I can participate in any of the activities. The bell continues to ring for more different activities, but my daughter was solely interested in exploring on her own. That went on for the whole class, occasionally a kid would come over and want to grab the balls my daughter is holding, but the parent soon come in to stop them. Other than that, there is not much kid or adult socialization going on; all are busy running after their kids. After the class ended, it was hard for me to tell whether or not it was good, my daughter didn’t seem to like it that much, but it was only her first day, so I decided with the first month discount, I might as well try it for a month.

The very next day, there is open gym, I decided to take her in again to see if she will enjoy it more this time, I mean this is like a park right? But strangely she is still very unwilling to come down and play, even though she usually cheers at the sight of parks. Therefore, I lead her directly to the bucket of balls, she is willing to come down and play that, but throughout the majority of the time it is still the same. Except now there are more kids and the parents are not necessarily completely focusing on them. Many would come and attempt to grab the balls from my daughter. My daughter was able to keep her hands on the ones she is holding. One kid sneakily followed her until she bounces the ball on the floor and quickly snatches it, my daughter went after the kid to grab it back but was unable to until that kid lost interest in the ball. Then a maybe 2 year old went around the room and used his hand and wacked three kids, one including my daughter. It was not a hard hit, but I find myself dumb found and not knowing how I should react, I looked around for the parent and I see the mom, busy with a younger baby, no way of being able to notice what her son is doing. This really got me started to think about the value of socialization in daycare or preschool. Is it over rated? Is it really something I want? This is what I feel like my daughter might learn from this big group of kids of similar age in a small room, how to hold on tight to your toys or how to yank it from others and how to hit other kids or get hit by other kids. Do they really learn how to interact nicely with others by being in an environment like this? Something irks me about this concept. I know when my daughter is placed with nice and mature kids or people, she will model from their behavior; I really worry if all she sees is fighting for toys then what will she learn? Will she lose her trust in kids and be more unwilling to share?
Update: Since I signed up for the first month, I decided to go to yet another open gym time, but this time there was a lot less people. With a smaller group of crowd, and third visit, my daughter is able to relax and explore around. The smaller crowd has definitely made resources more available to all the kids. I guess this is the importance of small classes.

How I Cared for My Baby's Bone Development

Okay, so I am all for proper development of my baby's bones, considering my husband and I both suffer from quite a lot of back pains, I really don't want her to go through the same. We go often to chiropractors, but I am still a little concerned about taking my daughter to one yet, even though I really want to, maybe when she is just a bit older. I follow all things natural with her development, ever since my daughter was born I researched and decided to not use walkers, any crotch hanging carriers or jumpy seats as I heard they might not be good for the developing spine and pelvis. I didn't even get a Bumbo seat for her to sit up, and I never even held her hand to assist her to walk. My theory is, if you can't do it by yourself, then you are probably not ready for it yet, and it can't be good if I force you to. That, and plus I really wasn't in a rush for my baby to walk. On the side note, did you know that the crawling motion is actually more stimulating to the brain than walking? Crawling is actually an important part of brain development, so it is actually better for you to encourage your early walker that skipped crawling to do more crawling. Well, anyway, and when it came to footwear I follow the advice that barefoot is the best for babies to crawl and learn how to walk. But the down side of this is I tend a lot of comments and dirty looks about how I am not letting my baby wear socks in winter, and now about not wearing shoes when walking. Now that my daughter is walking outside more and more, I went and bought those soft sole baby shoes from Target, they are kind of like leather socks, and I intend to keep her in soft sole shoes as long as possible, I might even get her one of those FiveFingers shoes with us when she gets to that size. I really hope that by following nature that my daughter will never have to worry about back pains in her life.

Watermelon Cured My Edema (Swollen Feet) During Pregnancy

Talking with my pregnant cousin recently and she mentioned about her swollen feet. This reminded me of the couple times that I had swollen feet during late pregnancy and brought back some memories about how I treated it. I heard swollen feet or edema during pregnancy is from excessive fluids accumulating in your extremities, and counter intuitively it means you should drink more water. Apparently when your body lacks water it tends to reserve more of it as back up. So when one day in my third trimester when I notice my ankle had disappeared, I started all the things I heard about to treat it. I started drinking more water, and that made me peed more than what I already am. I slept on my left side, I kept my feet raised often, cut out salty food, but the truth is it didn't really do much. Then I read about how watermelon will help. Watermelon is high in water content, vitamin C, B, folic acid, and beta carotene. This makes watermelon a natural diuretic and will help to flush toxins and excessive water out of your body. I love to drink watermelon juice, so the first thing next day, I bought a watermelon and blended it into juice and started slurping on it. And miraculously by night time, I can already see my ankle bone again, yes, it worked that fast. So every time after that, if I see any sign of edema, I immediately start my watermelon juice and I would not see swelling at all. If you are suffering from swollen feet from pregnancy, listen to me and don't suffer a day longer, go get watermelon, it works and it works fast.

Between Parent and Child Review

I love this book! I am a very practical person, so I tend to like books that are straight to the point, have directions, and examples. Between Parent and Child is exactly like this. This book was written a while back, but definitely a classic that has withstood the test of time. Because it is base on one very important principle, “respect.” This was the first parenting book I read. When I first read the book, I definitely had doubts about it, won’t children run wild then? But then I reflected on my own childhood, my mom and dad pretty much did every single thing the book tells you not to, and I remember how I felt and how it affected me to today, which is definitely not good. The book teaches you very valuable social skills that I believe you can use beyond just with children.

I personally like to compare parent and child relationship with manager and worker relationship. I see a good parent like a good manager. Think about how you want to be treated by your manager at work. You want to be valued and be heard, doing work that you feel meaningful and contributing and involved, you want to be motivated, you want to be treated with respect. You don’t want a manager that is his/her way or the high way, but you don’t want a manager that is like your equal and can’t provide you guidance either. And to be a good manager/parent, definitely requires some skill, and this book helps you see this.

My favorite example in the book is when the author gives a group of women a scenario of a bad morning and a wife ended up accidentally burning a breakfast toast. The author asked them how they will feel and respond if the husband had criticized them for the burned toast. The group responded that they would not be happy and their whole day would be ruined. The author then asked if the husband sympathized with them how will they feel. The group responded that they would be so happy that they would give the husband a kiss. And finally the author asked how they would feel if the husband had say “here honey, let me show you how to properly make toast.” The group got the point, and realized that this is even worse than the first response, and that they would be furious. We as adults often use the third response with children thinking we are helping them, but with this example, we can see how unhelpful that really is.

Fluoride and Abrasives in Toothpastes

My daughter went to her first dental check-up today, fortunately no cavities. The dentist was going to put some fluoride on her teeth, but I refused that for now, I don't feel quite easy about putting fluoride on her teeth yet. This got me started to research about toothpaste that I am suppose to introduce at age 2. From my research online, it seems like there is definitely benefit of fluoride in preventing cavities, however, there is so much controversy around it, from fluorisis from too much flouride in childhood to cancer causing in adults . I have heard about using xylitol instead, however, there seems to be no information that says it can completely replace fluoride. The only study I can find says that xylitol with fluoride works better than fluoride alone. Seems like there is no study that see if only xylitol will be sufficient. I will probably start my daughter off with a fluoride free toothpaste regardless, since kids tend to swallow toothpastes, but I am definitely undecided about fluoride for us adults. However, through my search, I found another issue with toothpastes, seems like the abrasives like sodium lauryl sulfate used in some toothpaste can be too abrasive and actually take off too much of your enamel and cause sensitive teeth or yellowing of your teeth, yikes! I have sensitive teeth, and now I wonder if that was caused by Colgate Total with all that whitening and tartar control thing going on, which by the way studies seem to say it doesn't really work. The purpose of toothpaste is mainly to put fluoride on to prevent cavities and to take away plague with abrasives. Fluoride has controversy, and a study I read compared brushing without toothpaste to with, and brushing without toothpaste actually removed more plague than with. I plan on using Spry xylitol tooth gel on my daughter as a first toothpaste, since it is fluoride free and abrasive free and have natural ingredients. Now, I am wondering if us adults should be using that instead too. However, I am so scared that my speculation is wrong and I will ended up ruining my already lousy teeth. I probably will first switch to a low abrasive fluoride toothpaste with xylitol, looks like Tom's of Maine has a line for sensitive teeth that is low abrasive and SLS free.

My Journey on Baby Led Weaning

Before I learned about BLW, my husband and I were so ready to start making healthy puree baby food, we got a set of Magic Bullet; and while also trying to avoid plastic I bought silicon bowls and spoons.  Soon after I learned about BLW, went ahead and got the one and only book by Gill Rapley, and I decided this is the best thing to do for my baby, and also the laziest way for me the parent. I quickly returned the Magic Bullet and was ready for my adventure. My husband was super excited about BLW, he has always had the image of a cute baby eating real food and making a mess. When my daughter hit 6 months we started her first foods with boiled broccoli, carrot, and chicken, and also supplemented her with chlorella. She ate a little bit, but played with it more. I was not worried since I have no plans to wean at certain time, nurse on demand, and solids under one is just for fun anyway. In the beginning, she tries to eat and play with the food a lot, it was a messy deal.

But after few months, she grew tired of this game. It has never connected to her that food is for eating and can fill her up, if she is hungry she will cry for the breast, but if she just nursed, then she will not eat at all. But then there will be those days, though not enough of them, that she will pick up food and eat again. She has gotten neater though, food no longer is all over her face and floor, and she probably ingested maybe a teaspoon at most the whole day. It is very discouraging when you have a baby that doesn’t respond to food well when you see all other people’s babies just can’t get enough of it. When you read about BLW, they always tell you about the success stories of how their babies learned to eat quicker, developed better fine motor skills, and how other parents envy them. None of that happened with my daughter, as a matter of fact, I looked like a horrible parent most of the time with BLW. “How is that enough?  She needs more nutrient than breast milk? You need to feed her.” Which by the way though, she has never shown any sign of lacking nutrient at the doctors, growing well physically and reaching developmental milestones. “She is going to choke!” My daughter also happens to be a strong gagger, so she often gagged and vomited when BLWing, which doesn’t help in trying to convince others either. Soon, she started to refuse sitting in the high chair, I resorted to putting a snack tray out for her and not force her to sit during meal time, this does mean messy food everywhere, but at this point, I am willing to do anything that will make her eat something. The food most of the time just goes to waste. At her age now, I start to worry what if she has some kind of oral aversion, what if she has some kind of digestive issues that I don’t know about.

But now for some good news, one day at 16 months, I was eating some lasagna leftover from Olive Garden, my daughter climbed up the couch next to me and grabbed my fork, she shoved a tiny bite into her mouth. Afterwards, she kept on signing for more, and wanted me to feed her more. I didn’t have a lot of leftover left at that point, but she finished it all for me, I was shocked. Then the next few days she would come to me whenever I am eating dinner and want me to feed her, she would not grab the whole pieces of food I leave her, but wants what is on my spoon. I thought, maybe she wants to use utensil, but even after I give her a set, she still goes after mine and wants me to do the work for her. Happy that she is finally starting to eat, but also frustrated how she wants to be fed instead. Her food intake is roughly one tablespoon for the whole day at that point. Fast forward to today, she will grab onto some fruits and self feed while roaming around, she still wants me to do the feeding work for her, but is not blindly letting me feed her, she will actually let me know which food that she wants from my plate and ask to be fed that particular food. I am estimating her intake has increased to about 3 tablespoon for the whole day now, with most of the food eaten during the evening. But there are still days that she will eat nothing. She still nurses like a newborn, but at least now I know nothing is physically wrong with her, and I just need to continue offering until she slowly eats more. But one thing I am proud of myself for, is that I have always offered her healthy food and no processed sugar. My daughter has a pretty healthy taste bud so far, the couple times that she got her hands on sugary junk from friends, she either didn’t eat it at all, or tasted it and spat it out. So far I have convinced no one that BLW is a good approach, but I believe that even though some babies take longer to start eating, overall it is a good approach that leads to healthy eating. I will just have to wait even longer to see if it is true.

Introducing Solids and Allergies

When my daughter was 5 months old, I started researching about introducing solids and allergy. As a first time parent scared of what if my child will have an allergic reaction, I have only heard about not introducing solids until 6 months and that to use the four day rule for each food. But the more I researched the more confused I became. First I see information about peanut, some information are so extreme that they would suggest you to avoid peanuts during pregnancy and breastfeeding and to not introduce it to your child until age 3 at least. But then there are information saying that in cultures that eat peanuts a lot, there is hardly any peanut allergy, and these cultures also often use peanuts as one of the first foods. Then there are information saying that early introduction of peanuts prevents peanut allergy. Well, anyway, too late for that for me. I ate peanut butter like normal during pregnancy, and right after my daughter was born I started eating peanuts in soup, a common post-partum Chinese recipe to bring in your milk. I figure it is true that we hardly hear about peanut allergies in the Chinese community. Next thing is I see a study that says introducing cow’s milk in formula to your baby during the first 15 days of life prevents against developing cow’s milk protein allergy. Hmm… again, an information too late to know, but my daughter probably did drank about 2 ounces of formula total during the first 15 days of life, due to some early breastfeeding issues, who knows if that did her good or harm. Then I see the study about introducing grains before 6 months of age prevented wheat allergies. Then there is information about how humans should really delay grain because we don’t develop the proper enzyme to digest them until 2 or 3 years old, and that eating them early causes allergy. Well, I guess this doesn’t matter that much as well, since by the time I saw this information my daughter is already 6 months old and it is really hard to avoid grains until 2 or 3 of age when it is in such abundance in our diets. During all this research, I also see information not necessarily related to allergies, but it says it is important to introduce food at 6 months so your baby doesn’t develop an oral aversion to food. Then of course there is the other end that says to delay any solids until age one. Confusing? Definitely. The conclusion is, we have no idea what causes food allergies at all, maybe it is not even related to early or late introduction at all. A general consensus seems to be that if you are going to be allergic, you are going to be regardless. But I did finally make a decision for my daughter when solid time came; I went with the Baby Led Weaning method. I offered her whatever table food we have for her, and I let her be the judge and decide what she needs. I choose to not stress about what to feed her, or how much to feed her because simply I am not feeding her at all. Also, the best thing about BLW is that it forced us parents to look at what we are eating as well, and to make healthy choices. I will talk more about our BLW adventure in my next post.

Take Fish Oil During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

From americanpregnancy.org: Omega-3s are essential for both neurological and early visual development of the baby. After birth they are also passed to the baby through breast milk. Taking omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy also prevent pre-term labor and delivery, lower the risk of pre-eclampsia and may increase birth weight and gestational weight. Omega-3 deficiency also increases the mother's risk for depression. The best sources of EPA and DHA are from fish, but many people are justifiably concerned about mercury and other toxins in fish. For this reason, purified fish oil supplements are often the safest source of EPA and DHA. Omega-3 from flaxseed contains the shorter-chain omega-3, ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), which is different from the longer-chain EPA and DHA. EPA and DHA are the omega-3s that the body needs for optimal health and development. While it was once thought that the human body could convert ALA to EPA and DHA, current research shows that such conversion rarely and inefficiently occurs. Fish oil is a more reliable source of EPA and DHA. Plus, Flaxseed can act like the hormone estrogen and can possibly be unsafe during pregnancy, even though to date there is no reliable clinical evidence on its effect. Another good vegetarian source is from algae, even though fish oil is still a better source since it is in readily available form for the body. However, fish oil can't be used to supplement infant formula because it contains other fats that slow babies' growth, and that is why algae is regarded as a superior source of DHA for infant formula.

I Tried Hemp Milk

So I am reading bunch of people drinking hemp milk on Baby Center’s Crunchy Mama forum, and wondering what the heck is hemp milk. Doing a simple search online, it seems like it is made from hemp seed, which is part of the marijuana plant, but yet it doesn’t have the psychoactive component of marijuana. I read that it is rich in nutrients and protein, making it a good vegetarian choice. And on top of that, it is rich in omega-3. However, the omega-3 in hemp is alpha-linolenic acid, not the more desirable forms (EPA and DHA) found in fish oil. But, hey, with all that controversy about how cow’s milk might be bad for you and how soy might disrupt your enzyme, hemp milk seems to be a safer choice. Enthusiastic about all this good research, I decided to buy and try it. I am recently also interested in a rotation diet, and this seems like a good additional choice to rotate between my consumption of dairy, soy milk, and coconut milk. People seem to describe it as having a nutty creamy rich taste. But bad news, it is definitely not to my taste. One sip and I feel like spitting it back out already, and then the after taste was horrible as well, I had to force myself to finish my remaining cup without throwing it up. I am really disappointed in not being able to make this part of my normal drink choice, as it really sounds like a healthy choice. I read many people love the rich taste, but I guess my taste bud is not meant for it. Tomorrow I am going to go to the store and try to buy some chocolate powder or syrup and try to mix it in to see if I can finish the remainder comfortably.

Update: Actually, a second try of the hemp milk without chocolate and the taste has become much more tolerable now, I guess this is something you could get use to. However, I probably won't buy more of it since I am still not crazy about the taste.

My Journey of Elimination Communication

In the Chinese culture it is accepted as the norm to attempt to potty train your child early, even though that is kind of also changing now thanks to successful advertising of disposable diapers. So even when my daughter was as young as 3 months old, I had plenty of family and friends that were asking me if I had started to potty train her. Being an ambitious parent, I read up on books about elimination communication and started out my journey at 5 months old. After a couple day of naked time observation, I figured out a rough pattern and her signs. It was a great success the moment I started, my daughter gets it, well, either that or I am just so good at catching her moments, she also fusses right before she wants to pee also. She pees within seconds everytime I put her on the potty chair, even though I had trouble catching the poop, but I was excited, thinking she will be potty trained in no time.

Unfortunately the story doesn’t go on smoothly from here. Soon, I find myself stressed out being obsessed with watching her signals. I know they say you are not suppose to stress out catching every pee, but with her peeing every 20 to 40 minutes after nursing, and nursing every 2-3 hours, plus surprise poop every once a while, and occasionally peeing 10 minutes after nursing instead. I find myself doing absolutely nothing besides staring at her and putting her on the potty. This is definitely not worth it, I could have been reading a story to her, playing with her, or stimulating her brain in some way. I decided to just do the potty in the morning time. Then my laziness kicked in, the morning time started to become shorter and shorter. Soon, I decided to just catch the first pee after waking up from sleep and naps, then just the first one in the morning. My daughter soon got tired of this game, she has long stopped giving me obvious signs before going, and she refuses to sit on the potty at all, arching her back screaming. Not wanting to turn this into a stressful even for her, I finally got so tired and just gave up completely and wrap her back into disposable diapers (yes, I even ditched the cloth diapers, because at this point I did not even want to know that she peed) and decide to take a long break for both of us. Meanwhile, a friend of mine that started elimination communication at the same time as I did is having great success, ironically, she didn’t start out as smoothly as I did in the beginning. After her encouragement, I decided to resume. By this time my daughter is already close to one year old. However, this time, I decided to take a different approach. I didn’t attempt to put my daughter on her potty again, but I did put her into cotton training pants. Every time she wets herself, I would tell her that she peed and immediately change it for her. I did this for a while in order for her to get use to feeling dry. Then I started putting her on the potty with her pants still on and on top of my lap, this is for her to get use to sitting on the potty again. After she is ok with the potty chair again, I took her to the bathroom with me, I would put her on the potty with her training pants still on and I would sit on the toilet and show her how to do it. Funny how that actually worked, she would actually pee with me. Then I started putting her on without pants. Now she actually will go in the potty if I take her in at the correct timing, and she will tell me if she wets herself, but definitely not to the point of telling me before wetting herself. It is still a lot of hit and miss at this point for me, but I do think all this training does work a little bit. At the very least, she definitely knows what the potty is for and is able to go on it. But I think the majority of the work of elimination communication is still very exhausting on me. I often think, will I do this again if I have another child? I think I might try it from birth the next time around and see how that goes, maybe if I did it since birth it would be easier? But I have a feeling it is probably going to be a lot of hard work still. The truth is it is so much easier to just wrap her up in diapers, ignore it and not think about it. I really hope by the time she is potty trained I can look back and say this is all worth it, but for now I really can’t make the call yet, but we shall see in a few months.

Shoes Test Walk Result

After trying on the FiveFingers shoes more I realized that the Sprint style's has a harder piece behind the heels and it rubs on my ankle, the Velcro is also kind of rubbing on top of my feet, and I had to go back to the store to exchange for the KSO style. This style is a much better fit with me, I even had to go down a shoe size, since it has longer toes space, and everything was just comfortable except the painful part of putting it on. My husband is always enthusiastic about new stuff, so even though you are suppose to ease into the exercise routine with these shoes, of course we went all out, and walked a whole day in them. Walking on uneven surfaces like grass, dirt, and even pebble roads were surprisingly comfortable, you can feel everything under your feet, and it actually feels like a little mini feet massage. However, on hard concrete floor, our feet do hurt, but supposedly it should train our feet to walk correctly and strengthen the correct muscles. After walking only a little bit in these, I can feel certain muscles in my thigh and calves soring already, in a good way though. Overall I feel like I had a good workout day, and by the next day, the soreness is all gone and I am good again and ready for more walking.

Super Food Chlorella

This wonderful freshwater green algae is definitely a super food. I am not any medical professional, below are just knowledge that I organized about this super food that I have collected for a while through the internet.

Detox Properties:

Chlorella is comprised of 20% fibrous, indigestible outer shell and 80% inner nutrients. The vitamins, minerals, amino acids, chlorophyll, and other substances that the chlorella contains helps to detox our body. But it is the fibrous outer shell that has been proven to bind with heavy metals and other synthetic chemicals that have accumulated in our bodies. As a matter of fact, chlorella detoxes all known toxins, so this includes mercury and aluminum that we worry so much about in children’s vaccines or our aluminum containing deodorant; lead, PCB, dioxin, etc. that we worry about our children ingesting through toxic products, or even our breastmilk; and even radiation that the recent Japan incident have us worry about. Chlorella is often combined with cilantro for heavy metal detox. Cilantro can better release toxins from our nervous system and bones into our bloodstream so that chlorella can then bind with them and take them out of our system through our digestive track. Chlorella mainly detoxes through the digestive track, so taking it before meals is ideal so that it can get to the toxins before reaching the bloodstream, but as the chlorella takes out the toxins in our digestive tracks, it does also free up more opportunity for the bloodstream to pass the toxins to the digestive tracks.

Chlorella Growth Factor:

CGF is a nucleotide-peptide complex of substances found only in chlorella and is what makes chlorella reproduce very rapidly. It causes children and young animals to grow at a much faster rate and promotes healing of damaged tissues. I remember reading that there were these Japanese studies that found children taking chlorella ended up taller and healthy with no cavities. And another study about dogs having perfect dental arches after taking chlorella.

Boost Immune System:

Research in Japan again showed that mothers who took chlorella during pregnancy had significantly less dioxin in their breast milk, but an added bonus was that the breast milk also contained higher level of IgA, which reduces the risk of infections in nursing infants. Chlorella is a strong antioxidant therefore also has cancer fighting properties.

DHA:

A friend of mine has weaned her daughter and wanted to supplement DHA to her daughter asked me if chlorella has any DHA. I always heard that chlorella was a good brain food, but I didn’t really connected why. Therefore I decided to look up this question and found that chlorella to be an excellent source of DHA. As a matter of fact, the fishes got their DHA from eating chlorella and/or algae in the water. Then I found out many vegetarian source of DHA are also made from algae. DHA is critical for the optimal development and function of the brain, eyes, and central nervous system during infancy and childhood. 

Boost Iron Level:

While chlorella removes the heavy metals, it does not do the same with iron. Quite the contrary, it actually raises your iron level, so it is a good iron supplement. If you have problems with high iron level, this might not be a good idea to supplement more with.

How to Take Chlorella:

I have read various sources with different information on this. The general consensus seems to be to take it before or with food, and start out slowly and reach to 6 grams, but some say you can go higher or to the point that your stool turns green, and it seems like there is no upper limit. I have no idea what is the optimal amount, I don’t really take it every day due to forgetfulness, and never took any high detoxing amount because of the fear that I might detox into my baby through pregnancy and breast milk. If you are taking vitamin C as well, it is recommended to take it as far from chlorella as possible. Vitamin C counters the detoxing effect of chlorella by loosening its bind with toxins. Also, some people’s stomach cannot tolerate chlorella, but I heard that spirulina, another algae might be more tolerable. It is also very important to find chlorella that is not already polluted with heavy metals and toxins. Since chlorella act like sponges with toxins, the ones that are grown in nature no matter where they claim it to be will be polluted. Your best bet will be the ones that are cultivated indoor facility with clean water and tested by third party independent labs.

Conclusion for me:

After reading all these seemingly exaggerated benefit claims about chlorella, I just can’t risk passing it by. It is a food, so I am not that worried about it, since in Asian culture we eat and snack seaweed quite often also. I started supplementing a tiny bit of chlorella to my daughter ever since I started solids with her. She actually likes the taste of it and will drink the powder mix in water straight up; me on the other hand can’t stand the fishy seaweed taste and prefer the tablet form.

I Bought Those Vibram FiveFingers Shoes Today

I can’t believe I went out and bought these, I mean most people’s reaction to this shoe is something like, “ew, disgusting.” But after reading up about the benefit of being barefoot, I just can’t let this little bit of self-consciousness stop me from achieving my health or at least to test it out. My husband suffers from heel pain, and puts those support gel thing in his shoes, which now I learn might not be a good idea. I have had chronic back pain and many sciatica attacks ever since middle school. And believe me that this is no fun. I have been through many chiropractors and even had custom made feet support pieces in my shoes, but none has fixed me yet. I do believe that I probably need to work this problem out by wearing proper footwear and exercising and stretching. Now, reading from Vibram’s website, these FiveFingers shoes are suppose to let your feet move how it is naturally intended to, and it will train those muscles that have long been neglected due to our restrictive shoes, and in turn strengthen and align my spine and improve posture. I read some reviews from Amazon.com that claims some promising results, now I just got to try it. Going to start walking exercise with my husband, since I bought him a pair too, in these and see how they turn out.

Speaking of Growth Spurts

I did not know that this stuff exist when I hit my daughter's first growth spurt, so yes, it really took me by surprise. She was exactly 7 days old and I could not figure out why she was nursing so much and crying so much, I thought she was sick or some mysterious spirit was bothering her (crazy I know) and worried myself to death until I did a quick Google search and learned about it. I seriously think this is something that all first time parents should be told about. Anyway, the first growth spurt tend to be the 7-10 days old mark, then 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3, 4, 6, 9 months. But the timing tends to be more individualized as they grow older and older.
Growth spurts are a different issue from the Wonder Weeks, and also different from teething, so with all these going on, you can see that the first couple years of a baby life is definitely not easy.

Why I Don't Believe in CIO

I pretty much covered the three DVD/books that helped me tremendously to get through the infant stage, and also because of these three books, I no longer believe in letting a baby cry it out (CIO). I think it is cruel to let a baby with no speaking ability and no reasoning ability to go through this. Just because they can’t tell us what is bothering them, we go ahead and assume for them that they are just trying to be spoiled and that their feelings of discomfort or fear are not valid or important. From my experience so far with my daughter, I have yet to identify a moment that she cried for the sake of being bad, there is always a need or want, even though I don’t always give in to a want, but I at least let her know that her upset feelings of not getting the things she want is very valid. I don’t tell her not to be upset or that it is no big deal, I don’t think I can make that assumption for anyone and/or control how anyone should or will feel. Plus, there is just so much developmental milestones that are going on in the first couple of years, physically and mentally, nerves in the brains are connecting in tremendous speed, then there are growth spurts, then there is the teething, and different baby/person have different temperament and sensitivity level, it is not fair for us to make assumptions for anyone base our own personal view.

The Wonder Weeks Review

The Wonder Weeks

This is a wonderful thing for parents to know about, however, I feel like buying the book is a big waste of my money. The book basically tells you about the 8 fussy periods of your child in the first 60 or so weeks, there are developmental milestones reached, not ones that you can necessary see physically and these are not growth spurts either. The most important thing in this book is the time chart listing out the 8 fussy periods, which is available for free on their website. Each chapter in the book starts out by telling you what kind of development is going on each time, this information is also available when you sign up for the free email alert on their website. Then it goes into how your child might act during these time frames, reading the first chapter was really amazing, because that was exactly how my child acted, but then you start to realize that this information is repeated every single chapter. Yes, your child might act clingy, fussy, aware of strangers, etc. Finally, each chapter ends with games that you can play with your baby to assist in each developmental phase. This sounds a bit more interesting, but it is really just a list of games that most parents will do with their kids at those times, pee-ka-boo, pat-a-cake, singing, reading, etc. All in all, don’t bother buying this book, but do go to their website to get the chart. I think it is important to know about these time periods, and be mentally prepared, something developmental is going on, and that is why your baby is fussy, without taking these fussy periods into account, I will find myself worrying about things like is my baby sick? Teething? Or plain trying to challenge me? (which is a concept that I no longer believe in now, when your baby is fussy, chances are, there is something going on.) This is a book that helps you, the parent, to relax and not stress out.

Happiest Baby on the Block Review

Happiest Baby on the Block
by Dr. Harvey Karp

Another useful DVD, I notice it has a book too, but I would think that something like this I would like to see live action demonstrating. Dr. Harvey uses what he calls the 5 S's to calm down the crying babies. The 5 S's, which are swaddling, side/stomach position, shushing sound, swinging, and sucking triggers the babies's natural reflexes to calm down. In his DVD he demonstrates how to use the 5 S's. Compared with Dunstan Baby Language, I still rate Dunstan's higher, even though they kind of address different issues, I find the 5 S's to be more of a temporary relief, if there is an underlying problem, you will still need to fix it before your baby will stop crying, unless the issue was the baby was sleepy. So I find using the 5 S's with the combo of Dunstan Baby Language the best. The 5 S's again have an age limit around 9 months max, I think I read this on a forumn before, once you reach around that age, the 5 S's just don't work anymore. With Dunstan Baby Language, it is often very hard for the untrained ears, like ours, to be able to quickly identify the issue before the baby cry escalated to just pure screaming, then at that point, you need the 5 S's.  5 S's calms the baby down enough to give you the second chance of identifying their cries. However, often times I do find the technique to be hard to apply, especially since I don't have enough experience like Dr. Harvey. Swaddling and holding the baby side ways to an exact correct angle is very difficult for me, and yes, it has to be an exact angle for it to work on my daughter. But I often just resort to the shushing, I do worry about my daughter's ear drum though, the shushing does seem really loud to be that close to the ears, but with a screaming baby, I guess I don't have much choice, I did end up just getting a sound track of rain and playing it super loud. It got me through a lot of hard times.

Dunstan Baby Language Review

Dunstan Baby Language
by Priscilla Dunstan

Highly recommended, this DVD was a real life saver for me, so glad I watched it before giving birth. The DVD shows you the five cry sounds that babies make for five different needs. 'Neh' for hunger, ' Eairh' for lower wind gas, 'Eh' for upper wind gas, 'Owh' for sleepy, and 'Heh' for discomfort. There, I pretty much summed up the whole thing, there is really not much content in the DVD, but these sounds are very important, and the DVD shows you bunch of samples of babies crying, to familiarize yourself with the sounds. Note that these sounds only work for from birth to up to about 3-4 months, but by then you should know your baby enough to not rely only on these. For my daughter, truthfully I have only heard her make the first three sounds, or unless I just can't distinguish the other two, but the first three sounds are what bothered her the most. While I was still at the hospital, I was already able to tell these three sounds, a bit surprised about how often the sound for hunger comes out (I know people always say babies nurse a lot, but really ending up nursing that much still surprised me). The sound for lower and upper wind gas was a bit hard to differentiate at first, but I soon learn that upper wind gas is a much shorter vowel cry. Regardless, both of these cries means burping time, I bust out all the moves until she burps, from either end. I often just play the part where it demonstrates how to burp (which at first I thought was just a useless clip to take up space) and burp along with the video just to make sure I am burping long enough and patient enough. My husband is always surprised when my daughter is crying and I make a comment like, "she wants to fart," and then farts immediately after I said that.

Introduction - Hello!

I am a first time mom to my daughter currently 16 months. I consider myself a crunchy health nut and an attachment parent. Ever since I got pregnant, I started to research and read a lot about health for pregnancy and for kids, I also recently started reading a lot about child raising. I feel like I learned a lot and still am learning more as I go, many of which I wish I knew earlier, and would love to share and discuss my thoughts and realizations with you, and hopefully through the process we all find ourselves learning more and more.