Its all about Food!!!

When I think about the life I want ones of the first things that comes to mind is food.
Why you ask? Well if you want to live your most happiest, healthiest and fulfilling life you need to be running on the right fuel and sadly most of us are not and a lot maybe even most don't even realise it!

When we watch TV were bombarded with ad's for food and there all full of words like fresh, happy, naturally ect and images of crisp fresh produce, smiling happy people, farmers on there lovely looking farms and so so so much of it is just a lie and it tricks people into thinking when they go to the supermarket that what they are filling there trolley with is actually good for them and their family.

 Some of the ads that get to me most have to be from the chicken industry and Safeway, Pappa B and I were watching TV two nights ago and an ad came on for Baiada poultry who also owns Steggles and Lilydale free range (so when you buy Lilydale products your supporting Baidia and their cruelty) and it all looks lovely and shows a nice big open barn were the chicken roam and its all nice and clean and the farmers are smiling and looking happy ect and its completely false advertising and we get so annoyed about this type of thing cause this is why people think what their eating is healthy.

 The truth of the matter is these chickens are living in factory  environments where there welfare isn't taken into account at all its all about mass production and producing the largest amount in a shorter amount of time so they use  hormones to increase the growth of the chicken in a shorter time span and because the body mass is too big for the poor chickens bone structure it will only be able to stand for short periods of time then fall down again in pure exhaustion and extreme pain.

They are living in extremely close confinement with the current Australian laws allowing 20 chickens per square metre and they are standing in there own faeces all the time, in some sheds they never see any sunlight and can never take part in normal chicken behaviour like scratching in the dirt or roosting ect and sadly Australian current law is not on their side. You can read more here at http://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues lots of good information here not just on chickens either.

Then you see the ads for Safeway claiming that the fresh fruit and veg is received by Woolworths within 48hrs of it being picked from the farm but that's not to the stores themselves that's to there storage factories were things are kept in refrigeration for weeks on end before they reach the supermarket and you never see any mention of all the chemicals they have been sprayed and washed with to keep them looking nice and "fresh" Yuck!

The next on the list is Genetically Modified foods, now currently in Australia the only GM crops that are grown are cotton and canola but that doesn't mean the food your eating doesn't contain GM ingredients as the Australian and New Zealand food standards allow manufacturers to use a large range of GM ingredients in there products from overseas so if Im buying anything that is commonly genetically modified I wont buy it unless it either says its organic or states it contains no GMO's. Even some baby formula contain GMO's.
Foods that may be genetically modified include:
                                                                      - Soy Beans
                                                                      - Corn
                                                                      - Canola
                                                                      - Rice
                                                                      - Potatoes
                                                                      - Cottonseed oil

Here is some more information I have copied and pasted from Choice online

• Soybean products are used as ingredients in many foods. As well as soybeans, oil and soymilk, soy protein is used in products where you wouldn’t expect soy, such as bread, snack foods and even meat pies. Soy lecithin (additive 322) is used as an emulsifier in a vast range of products, including spreads, cakes and confectionery. Soybean meal is used in stockfeed (particularly for pigs and poultry and in supplements for dairy cattle). Much of this is imported from the US, the world’s largest producer of soy, where more than 90% of the soybean crop is now GM.
• Corn products used as food ingredients include glucose, fructose, maltodextrin and modified starches (1410, 1412). Again, these are often imported from the US where more than 80% of the corn crop is now GM.
• Canola oil is used in margarine-type spreads, dairy blends and as an ingredient in many other foods. Canola meal is used in stockfeed. Australia is largely self-sufficient, and locally-grown canola is segregated into GM and non-GM streams.
• Cottonseed oil, most of which is GM, can be used for food (it’s often used for deep-frying) and cottonseed meal is used in stockfeed.

And another link about GM foods here from Green Peace.

And last but certainly not least is of course chemicals and artificial additives in foods which include preservatives, colours, flavours, thickeners, anti caking agents and the like which are very bad for you and have a lot of bad side effects on our kids not to mention the long term health effects.
 If chemicals in the home are something your worried about I suggest you buy The Chemical Maze or download the Iphone app which is written by Australian Bill Statham so its all relevant to us here in Australia.
 The chemicals in our foods can cause problems that range from headaches behavioural problems, respiratory problems, diabetes, cancer and the list goes on and on and on so it really is important to know what affects the food your putting in your body can have.

A lot of people find it hard to believe that the Australian Government would allow this sort of thing to be going on but its all about the short term gain and money money money sadly not about the health of the people and  future generations.
We hardly buy and processed foods now and make everything ourselves and in the beginning I though it would be hard but it really isn't once you start, we eat as much organic produce as we can and have drastically reduced the amount of meat in our diet.
You get so used to buying the easy to get brands in the shops ect you think it would be hard to find the healthier alternatives but they are out there and its not hard once you start educating yourself you realise the food sold in the big supermarkets really isn't real food at all.

So my top tips for avoiding nasty food are
                                                                - Buy organic and local
                                                                - Avoid all processed foods
                                                                - Have a Vegetable garden
                                                                - Get the chemical maze book or app
                                                                - Research, research, research.

So while your chowing down on that big mac and your little ones are scoffing a cheese burger think about the long term and what's more important cause if by feeding my kids the best healthiest food I can means they will live a longer, happier and healthy life full of less ilness or onset of ilness at a later age then I cant see why I wouldn't be doing that.

Who wouldn't want their children to have the best life they can?

                                                             

I'm Angry!!!!! We love co sleeping

Bit of a "ranty" post ahead, I'm so fed up with the news/media of late, its just pure garbage lacking proper research and is almost always biased. I know this and so do a lot of you but a lot don't and they listen to the news reports and often base their decision on this.

I don't know if its just a coincidence but it seems a lot of AP/alternative parenting type things have been attacked of late almost every week and sometimes more than one topic a week and most of these things I'm very familiar with and have research extensively and the stuff there reporting in the news is just compleatly untrue or misleading and it makes me MAD!!!!

Co- Sleeping, Homebirth, home schooling, vaccinations even breastfeeding have all taken a hit, and then we have the story by ACA just this week saying that Lucas Papaw ointment is a miracle cream which I couldn't believe it seeing as its main ingredient is petroleum, yes that's right folks Its only like 4% fermented paw paw and because its registered with the TGA they don't have to list the base ingredients. You can read more about it here and here.

Pappa B and I were roapable when we just happened to catch the Co-Sleeping story on The Project this week, we were waiting for biggest loser to start and had no idea this was going to be on! It was just a ludicrous report saying " the coroners are urging mothers not to co sleep" they even compared it to not properly restraining you child in the proper child restraint which I just cant even seen how the 2 even compare. They had the gorgeous Pinky McKay on and even though her little bit was positive the overall report was compleatly negative and full of scare tactics rather than proper facts and information.

We need to be educating families on safe co sleeping/bed sharing the same way we do for cot sleeping instead of telling them its dangerous, your baby will suffocate ect ect. It saddens me greatly that there are mothers out there listening to the mchn's that are saying this and watching the news reports and feeling guilty for co sleeping or going against their instincts and stopping co sleeping altogether.

Of course Co sleeping can be dangerous; just as unsafe use of cots, prams, carseats, highchairs is dangerous. If you not following the safety guidelines all these things are dangerous so why do they feel the need to slam one of the most beautiful natural parts of parenting. I just drives me bonkers that there not educating parenting how to co sleep/bedshare safely. Here's a great post from Dr. Momma  7 Benefits of Co Sleeping and the ABA's article on Breastfeeding, Co Sleeping and sudden unexpected death in infancy has a great load of facts and stats along with safety guidelines.

The basic guidelines I adhere to are:
* You should not co sleep if you are a smoker or under the influence of alcohol or drugs
*You should not co sleep if you are extreamly fatigued
*Make sure the sleeping surface is nice and firm, you should not co sleep on soft surfaces like a couch as it poses a suffocation risk
*Make sure any bedding and pillows are away from baby they pose a suffocation risk
* Make sure you mattress is tightly fitting to the bed frame and bed head so there are no gaps baby could possibly get stuck in
*In a sidecar situation make sure the cot is tightly connected to the main bed by either okky straps or something similar or in our case we have the cot pressed right up against the wall then the main bed pushed up against the cot our bed is heavy and there's no way it will move away.

We have co slept with all of our 4 kids at one point or another, especially from birth till about 4 weeks. We love it and there are just so many benefits for mother and baby and when combined with breastfeeding those night feeds are soooo easy.

Benefits include:
* More sleep for baby and mum
*Great for forming a good breastfeeding relationship
*Studies show co sleeping helps regulated babies breathing, temperature and heart rhythms
*Lower risk of SIDS when safe co sleeping guidelines are followed, countries where co sleeping is the norm have a very low SIDS rate in comparison to countries where the cultural norm is to have babies in cots and in a separate room from their parent/s.
*It also has benefits for the child's long term emotional health.

When I wake up in the morning to my little princess's face I feel so blessed and its something I want other people to have the joy of experiencing too. It makes me sad to think some parents will  never wake up to that, its such a special time for me and my daughter, we just gave into each others eyes and let the love flow.

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Happy 3mths baby Hattie

Wow 3 months already, we cant believe just how fast its gone. The more kids you have the faster each one grows up it seems :(

There is so much I could write in here this bubba has brought something very special into all of our lives and that's not to say that the other kids didn't of course they did but there is absolutely something special about our Hattie.
I had a psychic reading done early in my pregnancy and she told us that this baby was more special than we could ever understand, she was from a previous loss we had suffered and that was a very rare and beautiful thing. The psychic had no idea that we had been through a miscarriage!!! I'm sure this is true cause a lot of other people comment on her as well saying when you look into her eyes she seems very wise or that she has never really seemed like a baby cause she is so engaging.

                                                                    

In the beginning Hattie was quite the "velcro" baby which I loved to be honest it was so nice to have such a little snuggler, for the first 7 weeks she was either feeding or being cuddle weather that was in my arms or in one of our baby carriers. The baby carriers were really fantastic it meant I could still get things done around the house and with a family of 6 there's a lot of work to be done plus I was able to still do thing with the kids while Hattie was content and happy.

We did things quite different this time as you probably already know she is the only bub I've breast fed more than 4 weeks (go me!!!) and with the feeding I've never looked at the clock or timed feeds ect she was just fed when she wanted it for as long as she wanted it even now I have no idea how many time she feeds but Id say its about every 2-3hrs sometimes more sometimes less and this has been so great. There is really no need to worry about how often she is feeding and just going with it has been compleatly stress free.

We have bed shared from the start but from about 8 weeks we set up our side car cot and thats fantastic, means we all sleep together but still have our own space but I can pull her in for cuddles whenever and makes breastfeeding 2hrly overnight easy. Its amazing really I can wake and feed her without it really disturbing me but Im still totally aware of her being there the whole time.

Proudly she has been in cloth nappies since birth and has only ever used one disposable nappy! The others were all in cloth but not from birth.

She hasn't been a huge sleeper and all my other were so at first I thought maybe it was a problem and that she needed to sleep several hours in between feeds but then I realised each baby is different just like we are as adults so like everything else we have just let her lead us in what she needs and we go with that.

So what's she doing right now? Well she is a super social bub who is always smiling and happy to have a chat with anyone (or anything for that matter), she is starting to try to roll from back to front and it taking starting to take an interest in baby toys but usually she is just entertained by watching the older kids play around her.
She is feeding max 2 hourly overnight which is totally normal for a breastfed bub and at first it was hard but I'm so used to it now I hardly need to wake up and if I don't wear a top she pretty much can just help herself, during the day she is about 2-3hrs in between but like I have said we don't really watch the clock.

So far she hasn't had any vaccinations, we will be getting her selectively vaccinated having the majority but we are still deciding just exactly which way we are going to go with it so haven't done anything as yet, you can always vaccinate but you can never un-vaccinate so its a decision not to be taken lightly. This is another thing we didn't do with the others because I just didn't know what I do now and I'm in NO WAY anti vax at all (just want to make that clear) but there's a lot more to vaccines than you doctor or child health nurse tells you so it pays to really research it.

So far having her in our lives has been some of the most enjoyable moments in mine and Pappa B's life and I can see just how much joy she brings the other kids too.

Happy 3 months Hattie May, we love you.