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Keith McDuffee
Seventh Generation publishes book on natural cleaning
Health & Safety, That's Entertainment
Do you worry about cleaning your house
with toxic chemicals, but you aren't sure what you should use instead? Look no further than Seventh Generation's new
book, Naturally Clean, The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy Non-Toxic
Cleaning. There have been books written before about how to clean your house naturally, with recipes galore. It seems as though this book is taking a slightly different approach, though. Instead of giving you a bunch of recipes with vinegar and castille soap, it sets out to educate you in changing your household environment for the greener. Help with reading labels and identifying toxins, how to choose green products, cleaning the air in your house and natural solutions to stain challenges in every room are sections of this book.
As usual, Seventh Generation proves it is a company dedicated to not only educating its customers but also meeting their needs. Bravo.
New Yahoo groups target natural family living
Health & Safety, Media, Gadgets & Tech
Natural Family Living Online announced the creation of two new Yahoo
groups designed to help people come together and share ideas about natural family living. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/natural-family/ is for members to share information about "attachment parenting, breastfeeding, natural pregnancy and birth, vaccinations, cloth diapering and more," states their email newsletter. If you've got young children and want to know more about living naturally, this may be the group for you. To discuss the whole natural living family lifestyle, including whole foods, holistic health and wellness, natural homes and other family life issues, http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/natural-home/ would be a good group to join.
Can fetuses feel pain?
According to the British Medical Journal, no, fetuses
cannot feel pain. But how can we know for sure? The reason this debate is so hot right now is because there is
legislation in Congress that would require women to get anesthesia for their fetuses during abortions. Science is
telling us that this is an unnecessary risk for the mothers. An interesting debate to be sure, but not what I find most interesting about discussing whether or not fetuses can feel pain. If it is in fact true (and how can they prove that for sure, I wonder?), then what a wonderful thing to celebrate. The amazing protectiveness of the womb is already awe inspiring. Can it be that nature also gifted fetuses with nine pain-free months in the womb? It is a wonderful thing to ponder, and to hope such a great start is given to all of our children.
Toxic stuffed toys?
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You can't give your kids plastic toys because of phthalates, PCBs and dioxins. Some wooden toys from
Europe have toxic paint. Just when you thought it was safe to give your child a toy, the Society of Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry reports that stuffed toys carry DDT and flame retardants. Mothering gives tips on how to get
safer stuffed toys, by avoiding recycled materials, surface washable only and washing them before giving them to your
child. I'm off to wash Owen's new stuffed kitty . . .
Follow up to night doula article from Mothering online
I recently posted a link to an article on mothering.com about night doulas, and whether or not
they compromise the bond between mother and child. A response to that article, written by a doula, furthers the
discussion on this issue. I thought it was great that the first article made the author of the second one think about
this, as she states, because that is what it made me do as well. Some new points the second article brings up:
- Night doulas may be the only source of breastfeeding support for some moms, and support is crucial in continuing the breastfeeding if a mom is struggling.
- If a doula knows her stuff and supports the family and teaches them, the bond shouldn't be compromised.
New TV series on midwifery
Pregnancy & Birth, Media, That's Entertainment
Are you addicted to TLC's A
Baby Story? Well, you haven't seen a show that celebrates childbirth like House of Babies, which airs on
Discovery Health. The unscripted show, depicting births at a Florida birth center and midwifery school, celebrates
natural childbirth. OK, you can tune in to A Baby Story and occasionally get a lovely natural childbirth. But for the most part, you are viewing a laboring woman laying on her back in a hospital bed, hooked up to an epidural, along with various tubes and monitors. Surely that won't give you your fix of the amazing power of women, childbirth and nature at its finest. Yep, I'm the proud husband of a wife who birthed our healthy son naturally in a birth center. Biased? You bet, but I couldn't imagine helping my baby be born in a place designed for sick people when we were a low risk birth.
Easy energy boost for busy moms and dads
Health & Safety, That's Entertainment
No, not uppers. Something
else, and something good for you in so many ways. For years now, my wife and I have been doing the Jorge Cruise Eight
Minutes in the Morning program. Aside from the serendipitous weight loss (we did not do the diet plan part of it,
just the exercise), we enjoyed an amazing increase in our energy levels. Then along came Owen. We were able to keep up with the exercises sporadically, but it all depended on what type of night Owen had and what kind of morning we were all having. It would seem easy enough, to use free weights to work two muscle groups a day, approximating only eight minutes of time, right? Well, for some reason we made every excuse in the book (and I don't mean this one.)
I love wooden toys
Wooden toys . . . I wish we had
more than we do, but there have been times we have cheaped out because the wooden toys are more expensive than the
plastic versions. That's no excuse, but I had to come clean. Some of my favorite wooden toy features:- The musical wooden toys, like the Brio Plan Xylophone Owen has, for instance, have such a lovely sound. It is a refreshing change from the usually obnoxious sounds of the electronic plastic music makers.
Breastfeeding your teens?
Newborns, Babies, Toddlers, Pregnancy & Birth, Money & Work, Health & Safety, Eating & Nutrition
OK, now that I've got your
attention, no, don't breastfeed your teenagers. But new research shows that the longer you breastfeed your infant,
the less likely he or she is to have weight problems during the teen years. Researchers speculate this occurs for a number of reasons. One, they they learn to self-regulate feeding, as that is what breastfeeding babies do. Also, that breastfeeding has a positive effect on body metabolism.
Let's do a little informal poll here. If you are willing to share how long you breastfed your baby and whether or not they are weight for height proportionate between the ages of nine and fourteen, we can test the study in real life.
Organic baby food under fire
Eating & Nutrition, Playground Bureau
Thanks to Nick at
Slashfood for posting this story, about some brands of organic baby food in the UK that are not what they seem to be. Because of the UK labeling laws, an ingredient has to be a certain percentage of the whole product if it is listed first. Several brands contained much less than the amount required by law, which means that not only are you not getting what you think you are getting, but also that there are a lot more fillers in the baby food. If you are concerned about feeding one of these brands to your child (Heinz and Cow and Gate were two mentioned), check out the links to articles provided by Nick in his original post for more details.
