Eating Better

I've made a choice. I'm going to be strict on my grocery budget from here on out and eat exclusively natural foods (organic, non-GM foods, etc) whenever possible. We live in a dirty society. We may have adequate personal hygiene but our country is filthy. We spray pesticides on everything, inject growth hormones into our livestock, pump pollution into air and so on. We don't even know how to neutralize a lot of the chemicals we're producing. All of those toxins are absorbed by our food and then transferred to our babies through breast milk. Awesome, right?

A WWF study found 350 synthetic chemicals in breast milk including PCBs and alkylphenols (which mess with hormone production in even minuscule amounts). An Italian study showed that 88% of newborns have plasticizers in their bodies. One study found that breast milk from a mother with a conventional diet contains higher levels of dioxins than those permitted in pasteurized cow's milk. We don't know what we're doing to our bodies because nobody studies it. You can debate the ethics of purposefully infecting individuals with toxins that we all already infect ourselves with until you're blue in the face. It's ethical because we're all affected anyway or it's unethical because you can't purposefully infect someone with a known toxin. The only right answer in my opinion is to get rid of the chemicals! But since nobody elected me ruler of the universe I'll just try to be conscious and aware of what I'm eating and by proxy what I'm feeding LO.

I don't have piles and piles of money to build a nice EF house and wear only organic clothing that is easily sustainable but I'm trying. I'm doing what I can.

For those of you who don't have the time, energy, or access to natural foods to feed baby I suggest you check out Earth's Best baby food. They are made with organic ingredients, non-GM foods, and don't have additives. Plus, they're delicious.

Schedule: Day 4

We've got the nighttime thing down. Food, bath, diaper and PJ's, bottle, bed. He usually goes down relatively easily. At worst he stays up an extra 10-15 minutes then we repeat bottle, bed and he's out. I definitely think the routine is doing him good. He's starting to grasp the concept of going to sleep after eating and bathing. On a side note, the little bugger ate 4 oz of milk and 2 oz of solids tonight. Wow!

Naps aren't going quite as well. I think I need to spend more time paying attention to his natural schedule before I can try to get him to nap at the same time everyday. I'm going to do that next week then revise my scheduling aspirations. I also switched his first meal to right after he wakes up as opposed to before his nap. Naps are still too inconsistent to make that a plausible option.

* For the record I always give Baby T a bottle around 30-45 minutes before I give him solids. Solids supplement his breast milk diet. He's still far too young for solids to replace a meal. His bed time bottle is mostly a comfort thing now.

Schedule: Day 1

Now that I'm back in school I feel the need to get Baby T on some sort of schedule. At the very least I really think we should be going to bed before midnight. My kid is definitely not a napper. He usually only takes one nap a day in the afternoon. Since he just started solids we're going to do solids, diaper, bottle, nap around 1:00pm (hopefully). It worked amazingly well this afternoon but that could easily (and probably) be a fluke. We'll see what happens when we try it tonight (solids, bath, pjs', bottle, bed). I have a feeling night time won't go quite so well.

Poop.

I don't know what has been up with Baby T but he's been a terror the past few weeks. Some days he would cry for hours. and hours. and hours...

I think we've finally got it all figured out. He needs to poop more. I think he's scared of pooping or something. You wouldn't even believe how often I try to rationalize with him and convince him to poop. Since he won't poop on his own I'm helping things along. He gets a teensy bit of pear juice and probiotics every day. I know, I know. I'm sure you've heard me rant "I'm not going to feed him anything but breast milk until 6 months. Hell, if you keep bugging me about it I won't do it until he's a year! Don't you dare feed my baby a pickle!*"

But you can't be too set with anything if you have a baby. They almost always require that you change your plans for them. What we're doing seems to be working pretty well. We started it a few days ago and he has very happily pooped 3 times today (and it's only 5:00pm). He had been going several days and then being very, very upset when it finally decided to all come out.

So there you have it. An entire post about poop. Hah!

* Inside joke...

Car Seat Safety

Tonight I went to a car seat safety class put on by a program called Safe Kids in my county. I already knew most of what they went over but it was good to hear it nonetheless. In return for taking the class and giving a $20 donation I was given a convertible car seat for Baby T. The same car seat retails for $150! It was well worth 45 minutes of my time. I learned a lot in the class. For example,

Several studies done by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that 82% of car seats and installed and used incorrectly.

I also got a really good piece of information. Your baby can outgrow his or her car seat without reaching the height or weight requirement. Baby T is a big boy. He's very tall but it is all in the torso. His head is about even with the top of his car seat. Even though he hasn't met the height or weight limits for his infant seat he needs to switch to a convertible for this reason. It isn't safe for children to be in an infant seat when their head is within 1 inch of the top of the hard plastic shell of the car seat. I had no idea that his car seat wasn't safe anymore. How could I?

So please, please, please look into a car seat safety class. Your baby's car seat can save his life. It's such an easy (and usually free) thing to do. Plus, you might get a very inexpensive car seat out of the deal!

For those of you in Fort Collins, check out the Safe Kids program:
http://www.safekidslcc.org/carseatresources.html They're hosting an event September 11th where they will check your car seat (or you can call the Fire Department to set up an appointment for them to check it).

Accidents

I was out shopping today with Baby T. I thought I saw a friend of mine leaving the store. I was walking towards her when I saw something terrible happen. She was carrying her 2 month old daughter in her car seat. She took a step and the baby slid out of the seat and hit the concrete. I was 15 feet away but I heard her hit the ground.

My friend had unstrapped her baby to tend to her while shopping. She placed her back in the seat but didn't strap her in because she was sleeping. She didn't want to wake her up. She forgot she wasn't strapped in when she left. She tilted the seat just a little bit while walking and her baby fell.

It was terrifying. The entire time all I could think about is whether her baby was okay. She is so small and delicate. There were half a dozen women there but nobody else knew what to do. How is that possible? If anyone should know what to do when a child is injured it should be mothers. The baby looked okay - even pupils, didn't lose consciousness, no vomiting, acting normal, no cuts, etc. We called an ambulance anyway.

It made me realize how quickly things can change. Children are so innocent and fragile. Sometimes it's hard to remember to think for two people (you + baby) instead of one. A simple slip of the mind can end in tragedy. So hug your babies tight and remember the little things.