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.