To help kick start the celebrations and of course educate on the subject I went on the Whole Mother Show this morning at 6:30 am with the host Pat Jones who is a local Houston midwife and founder of the BIRTH and the BIRTH Fair .

Here is the link to listen to my interview. I am not a great speaker but I do know about babywearing enough to talk about it for 25 minutes.

We started our babywearing journey when Kate was a newborn. She needed to be held and I needed to be able to get up to eat/pee/etc. She still is my child who needs me the most and we have this special bond. We lay in bed in the mornings and just stare at each other and smile as our eyes get ready to start the day.  She is and always will be our little girl.

first babywearing picture

This is our first picture of us babywearing her. You can see my tassled hair and the exhaustion in my eyes.

staring

There she was, tiny and scared. She was technically “overdue” but she was only 6 and a half pounds which makes me think that our dates were off. Thank goodness that I did not consider 40 weeks to be an eviction date for her as I really shudder to think of how teeny she would have been if I had done that… and possibly even sick.  We first wore her in a Moby Wrap because she wanted to be upright and did not like to be laying down. She also preferred to be tummy to tummy with me.  To me it also made it easier to nurse. She really did everything in the carrier at that point, she napped, explored, smiled, pooped, peed… I was thankful for good cloth diapers that protected me from her explosions.

I find this picture really interesting because she still looks like that when she falls asleep on us. Except for having more hair and being so tall that she doesnt fit through doors anymore easily when being carried laying down…

As she got older back carries really got to be our favorites. She could look around and be almost free and so could I. Yet she was still with me.

As she got older babywearing became a sort of security blanket for her. Her source of comfort. Except instead of her being comforted by a toy, or a blanket, or a pacifier she was being comforted by me.  This made it easier so that I did not have to carry around a comfort device because being worn was all she needed. After a while it didnt even have to be me doing the wearing because since others wore her too she became comfortable with Mike, my mother, even Mike’s father wearing her.

Is there anything cuter and sweeter than a babywearing grandpa? I dont think so. Nope, I dont.

I cannot say enough about how wonderful babywearing has been for us. If you need help babywearing please contact a local babywearers chapter. You can find them on yahoo groups and on MotheringDotCommunity’s finding your tribe section. Just go to your local area and ask!

A worn baby, is a happy baby.

This picture of our children is perfect. Much <3 to her.

Speaking of love.

This picture makes Kate look amazingly beautiful and serene. The hat, the fence… I am amazed at how gentle she looks. This pic looks so old fashioned I almost want to make it into a black and white photograph and see how it looks. I might mess with it in a bit.

Especially because THIS is what she normally looks like. Tongue out. Dirty face. Basically a blur… She is such a nut.

Truth is, that is never something that parents have to resort to but I can definatly understand why it is considered such an attractive option.  if your child has special needs that are made worse by being touched when angry or something like this, this obviously does not apply to you as you know better than anyone else what your child can and cannot tolerate… but for the rest of us, there are ways of avoiding CIO with all children. If you have chosen to try letting your child cry for whatever reason that is your choice, but you can stop it at any time and look for alternatives. Here are just a few.

FIrst of all, what is cry it out?

There are a few definitions. Some say that it is letting a child cry alone for no reason. Others say that it is letting a child cry for more than a minute. The way I see it, if you can stop your child from crying… and you know that you can.. but you will not do it to try to teach the child a lesson that is crying it out. Some may not agree with the way that I see this but I have a firm belief that it is our job to comfort our children and if we arent doing it on purpose we are not doing something right. We all know the difference between a toddler throwing a tantrum because they want candy and a child who truly needs us with them. I am not talking about giving in to every tantrum, I am talking about a child who needs and wants us. Who needs our attention.

How do we avoid getting to a point where CIO seems like it is our only hope.

To begin with we have to not have too high expectations for our children.  We should not try to fix a 6 month old that isnt sleeping through the night. My husband still does not sleep through the night, why should a 6 month old? We should also not believe that a child under the age of 1 (some might argue 18 months or even 24 months) should be able to sleep without milk or food, so night weaning at this age should not even be tried.  Trying to nightwearn a child or force a child to sleep through the night at too young an age just leads to tears and suffering for all parties. The best bet is to go with the flow of what your child is doing when it comes to this… because if a child isnt ready. They arent ready. Most new parents especially are guilty of this trying to get their newborn to walk faster, talk faster, eat solids faster, sleep better, etc…. it is especially hard when other parents tell you that their special snowflake already does these things… do just get over and it accept that your child will not follow the “rules” that “what to expect when you are expecting” has set out for you. Dont be afraid to give into your child’s wants…  in one of my favorite articles in Mothering Magazine by Peggy O’Mara she says is best…

1. Trust your child. Your infant’s wants and needs are the same. The child is unencumbered by fashions, trends, and customs.

You are not spoiling a child for responding to their wants, you are simply parenting.

Another thing you can do is set a routine. Some kids really like knowing what is next and really like following routines. If you child is one of them set something up. Maybe a bath, changing into PJs, a glass of milk, a story, and then cuddling and sleep. Be careful to not make these something that become a fight if you child doesnt want to follow them, not all kids like these… read your child’s cues. If it becomes a fight.. dont do it.

Remember that while many books recommend that kids get 12-16 hours of sleep a day… not all do and that is ok. If you child is thriving, happy, and active but they dont sleep that much.. it is ok. Mine are like this.. they dont need as much sleep as other children and I think that they are doing just fine. Again, read your kid’s cues.

Accept that if they want to sleep next to you and they are older than a few months old.. it is ok. They are only this little once and it is for a very short amount of time. If they need your comfort longer than you ideally wanted them to be with you in bed… let them be. They are still little.

There are a few books that are good to read regarding putting children to sleep, they give good suggestions abut what to eat, what not to eat… what to avoid.. what to try.. and give good insight as to how human being sleep in general.

One of them is the No Cry Sleep Solution , it does not advocate letting a child cry and is truly gentle. Books to avoid on this subject are books like Baby Wise, any book by Dr. Ferber, and I am sure others out there that advocate letting a child cry. I have read a couple and cannot believe that these books are followed. They tell you to let your child cry until it vomits. They tell you that you must be firm. I dont know about you but I cannot stand hearing my child cry for no reason.

I have a toddler and I know that they cry and throw tantrums but why would I purposely try to make my child suffer for no reason? I dont get it. There has been reserach done on CIO and how it is damanging to children and adults but no more studies are allowed on the subject because they are considered unethical. I find it sad that scientists wont allow studies done on this but parents are ok with doing it. Harvard did a study regarding some long term effects of crying it out on adults and it was interesting to see how adults were still affected by what was done to them as children.

I know that as a mother my heart breaks when I hear a baby crying and I believe that it is how we have evolved. In caveman times if a child cried it would have gotten eaten because it would have made noise… giving away the hiding place of the group to predators. So it is instinctual to stop babies from crying, very deep rooted. So why are we not listening to our instincts?

“Parents should recognize that having their babies cry unnecessarily harms
the baby permanently. It changes the nervous system so they’re sensitive to
future trauma.”
- Dr. Michael Commons, Dept of Psychiatry, Harvard

I do not know every single way of putting a child to sleep. Hell, my own kids sometimes wake up and have issues going to sleep… it is part of parenting. I have accepted it.. as well as you should if you have kids too… but I do know this. My child is secure in herself and smart. My infant trusts me. My toddler feels free to come into bed with us when she needs it, opening up the door for future attachment and communication with her… which she will need as she gets older.  As a parent we lose sleep for our children for the rest of our lives, so I would rather sleep better when she is older knowing that she feels secure because of the choices that I made when she was a baby.

I have never thought that letting a child cry it out did any good. I do not believe that it works… even if a child might react to it in the immediate future giving you a couple more hours of sleep… my child’s future wellbeing is not worth a couple hours of sleep and it never will be.

I have 6 sewing machines. An overlock machine too.

I havent used most of them in a while but I got a bug recently and decided to sew.

I found this fabric on etsy that made me fall in love with it. I love piggies I truly do. Actually.. I didnt find it. The evil Devin found it… go read about her exploits with Japanese fabric on her yarn yoga blog on my blogroll. She has been sewing up a storm too… anyways… this temptress found fabric and sent me the link and I fell in love…

So I made Kate a dress.

It was my first time sewing in a while but I like how it turned out. It fits her well and I find it adorable… it is a linen fabric so it is great for our humid Houston.

Then I decided that Calvin needed an outfit.. so I kept sewing… and this came out of it. It is cute and it fits his fat litle body…it will be the perfect set of outfits for bluebonnet pictures. I think i will do those this weekend.

I have more fabric of this but I am not sure what I am going to do with it.. maybe something for me? Maybe a stuffed animal? Hmm… we shall see.

Times have changed in the past few years and with more women working and fathers taking on more of the responsbility of caring for the children this had compounded.  WIth both parents working outside of the home the need for sleep is even bigger because one parent cant be made to sacrifice their sleep for the other with the hopes of napping during the day… they are both working fulltime jobs.

Well meaning family members often say that a baby needs to cry so that their lungs open up, that your child needs to find its own way to cope, and that if you baby a child too long they will never sleep through the night and they will never leave your bed and you will have a clingy needy child.  That holding a baby so that they go to sleep is just dooming them and you for suffering in the future… you know the story.  Children’s lungs are fully developed at birth for most children who are born full term …if they needed to “open up” as they say the baby would have been rushed to the NICU and not permitted to go home until they were fine …so this makes no sense, and lungs get plenty of “exercise” with that whole breathing several times a minute thing… so that again makes no sense.  I also perscribe to the idea that it is normal for babies to want to be held and that holding your baby is beneficial for both parent and child… hence why I am an avid babywearer.

So who do you trust when deciding how to help your child sleep? Where do you turn to for help? Those hazy 2 am mornings where your child wants to do nothing but play, or eat, or cry… what resources does an exhausted parent have?

To begin with I will say that I am a huge advocate of co-sleeping. We have a family bed.  I breastfeed my children exclusively and cosleeping makes night feeding easier on all of us. The baby wakes up, starts making noises.. roots around.. by this time I am awake and I have a boob placed firmly in their face and they start suckling away.  Getting comfort and nourishment. I dont have to get up and I dont even have to truly wake up… I go back to sleep and the baby keeps nursing in their sleep. The baby is done and pops off, many times I dont even know when this happens because I am asleep.  Cosleeping can actually help women with supply issues because they will nurse more often and get more rest.    Cosleeping has saved my sanity, I am quite sure of it.

When I was pregnant with Kate I really did not give it much thought honestly… I knew what it was and I knew that this was quite common in my culture and I thought it was something that I would do… but I didnt really know why at the time.  It just felt right.  Mike wasnt as conviced but he went along. After Kate was born she was one of those babies that would not sleep anywhere except on someone’s chest. This was the way it was for roughly 8 weeks. We sleep on our back and took turns with her on our chest.  It was eight long and exhausting weeks. We thought they would never end and we were sure that there was something wrong with us as parents because of this. Since then I have found that this is normal and have been able to convice other parents in similar situations that it doesnt last forever. You want have a 12 year old on your chest to sleep and that it is perfectly safe to sleep in the same bed as your newborn.  We were not given the choice with her on whether we wanted to cosleep or not, she made sure we knew that it was going to happen… and even now she is still our child that needs the most comfort.

Calvin was born and he almost instantly was able to soothe himself and sleep on his own better. We still cosleep with him and he nurses at night and he looks for us… but his world doesnt come crashing down if we are not there when his eyes are opened.  He never had to sleep on our chest and he will routinely push me away if I am too close at night for his liking. On the other hand Kate would cry if she woke up and we were not there next to her until she was 2 years old, and still now if she is in bed with us she is so close to us that we are breathing the same air. That is how she is and that is fine. We have accepted it and I quite honestly love cuddling with her.  She sometimes crawls into bed with us at 2 am from her own little bed and I can feel her burying her face in mine and going “mommmyyyyy” in a slow and quiet voice. I acknowledge her prescence and hug her. She smiles lightly and drifts back to sleep peacefully.

Some nights are hard. Sometimes she cries saying that she wants milk and she still uses milk as her comfort… I dont really see much wrong with that because I know that I still use things to comfort me. Other times (especially when she is sick) she still wants you to hold her upright in a chair… so her wonderful father takes her into the living room and they sit there and sleep together sitting upright… we have learned that this helps her sleep and breathe better when she is congested and even our pediatrician recommended this for her.  Teething nights are awful because we have a baby who is whiny and in pain and who really cant tell you know is wrong but he hurts and wants it to go away. Growth spurts are awful because all Calvin does is nurse nurse nurse nurse nuse all night long. They are especially bad the first couple of months after your milk comes in because there are a lot of growth spurts that seem to blend into one HUGE one. They can be exhausting… but again.. they do end.

Do all parents cosleep?

No. Of course not.. but I will tell you something. Parents lie. Especially parents of older kids (and your own parents, sorry to break that to ya). People have selective memory when it comes to having kids I believe. Most parents of older kids will tell you that their kids never cried in public. They were all potty trained by a year. and of course.. they never coslept. Even parents of younger kids will say that their kids are sleeping through the night at 6 weeks in their own crib. While for some it may be true I have found that parenting is like a weird competition for some parents… and they just outright lie to save face.  Co sleeping is a huge thing people lie about, it is like a dirty little secret almost.

Is cosleeping safe?

Yes it is. Of course you have to make sure that you are doing it safely… like dont let a toddler and an infant sleep next to each other and dont go to bed under the influence of anything that hampers your judgement and reflexes…and there are a few things that you have to make sure of.. most of them common sense. But yes, it is safe.  It has even shown to lower the cases of SIDS vs babies who sleep on their own.

Every once in a while an article comes out against cosleeping and mentions how it kills babies… some states like New york have a campaign against it…this article is a good example of this… but even this article that is supposed to be about how babies are dying from cosleepnig mentions how it is safe and the flaws in the New York campaign.

There is no real one size fits all for how to get babies to sleep but cosleeping should be seen as an option. It works for many parents and it is beneficial for families.

Both Michael and I went to public school (well I went to private for a while but lets not go into how much I hated that system right now) so we know the good and bad for that system.  We really dont agree about what to do with our kids though.

Mike believes that the public school system is fine. That any shortfalls that the system might have we can supplement at home. He believes that children need interaction with other children and that they need to be exposed to things that are different and that they might have problems with. It teaches them to cope in the real world.

I believe that the system itself doesnt permit children from learning what I want my children to learn, and that it hampers the development of other skills… in our current school system they are taught to take tests so that their school will have enough kids passing that they dont lose funding.

As you can see, we are an at empass.

My preferance would be to homeschool the children. While I know that it will be hard since we both work full time… I know it is possible and I have a tremendous amount of discipline when it comes to schooling. I think a happy medium for us might be a Montessori or Waldorf school… so I have been doing research on both…

We are already incorporating aspects of both in our lives… so here is what we have learned: Waldorf v Montessori

Both have the child at the center… not a test.. not goals… just the child. Respecting the child as a person, their own schedules, their creativity, their wants, their needs… their mental and emotinal wellbeing. This is important for me.

Both are very much into making sure that the child doesnt need stimulation from technology. No TV and video game addicts… they both have programs where the kids either plant outside or play outside.. if nothing else they feel the dirt beneath their fingernails and the sun in their faces.

Both are very much about nature and things found in nature. Wooden blocks, wool, handmade… little plastic/no plastic. The things that are used can be made at home and creativity with basic shapes and toys is encouraged.

Both stress the importance or art, music, instruments, acting, etc.

Both of them seem to be flexible when it comes to adapting to the ways that different children learn.

However they have key differences:

Waldorf is more about letting the child be a child. It involves fantasy, fairies, pretend, make believe. It relies heavily on storytelling and fantasy and the children are encouraged to be creative and there is no limit to how materials can be used.  Actually materials that are unfinished and freeform are a big part of the curriculum. Playsilks, wooden block, sea shells, dolls with minimal detail on their faces (waldorf dolls). Playstands where children can pretend, act, and delve into a world of their own is a big part of what is encouraged.

From the book “Magical Child” by Joseph Chilton Pierce

The great rule is: play on the surface
and the work takes place beneath. For the child, the time is always now; the place, here;
the action, me. He has no capacity to entertain adult notions of fantasy world and real
world. He knows only one world, and that is the very real one in which and with which
he plays. His is not playing at life. Play is life

Academics are actually kept away from children under the age of 6 or 7, their “job” so to speak is just to play.  Children are not introduced to reading or writing until this age as well. Books are not even present in the classrooms.  The idea is to allow the child to bloom on their own and not to try and push them into learning because that gets in the way of them being children and of them developing their creative mind. The structure is more traditional than Montessori is as Waldorf does have teachers that lead classrooms and that lead teaching. This teacher also helps in the social development of the child, guiding in song and dance and in developing group consciousness.  The curriculum changes with the seasons but there is a great deal of rythm in the school day.  Waldorf seeks to nurture the child’s imagination instead of the child’s intellect, especially in the younger years. Kids are kept with kids of their same ages. The schools are more like homes, they are warm and inviting.  Importance is given to “feeling” intelligence.

Montessori does not stress the make believe as much, it leans towards “practical life”.  It is grounded in reality. Children are given the opportunity to take part in learning while doing. They have little “jobs” and are given responsbilities appropriate to their age and ability.  This is supposed to help give the child sense of accomplishments and opportunities to learn how to do things that they otherwise would not have been given the opportunity to do.

Kids are kept with kids of similar age ranges but not necessarily the same age. Younger kids learn by mimicking and they teach each other sort of. The teacher is not really a leader but just helps facilitate. The teacher gives one on one instruction to children throughout the day but the children are not told what they must play with at a certain time period. There are schedules that could be suggested that some children do like to follow but it is never forced and the child is permitted to follow what they might feel like doing at this time. It is more “real life”. Drawings of things are not used, but real photographs or if possible the real example of the object being discussed. They describe playing as “work” because it is considered a real adult activity.  Creativity is encouraged but Montessori believes that there is creativity in everyday things, like cooking and cleaning and discovering plant life in your backyard.

Intellect is nourished and it is more structured. The idea is that you dont tell the child what to learn but you give them the opportunity to learn all sorts of things by making sure that they are exposed to them and allowed to move from one to the other at their leisure. It believes that children are like sponges and will absorbs what they are given. It is less of a “group” way of thinking but more individual. There is a high protection of the child’s choice and children are taught to respect other’s choices by waiting their turn and helping others reach their goals and learn.

Learning is seperated into critical “periods” that are when a child is more prone to learning a specific skill and the skills build upon themselves. There is a high importance put on the child’s environment and on there being order which then in turn allows the child to really be themselves without interruption.

What are we doing?

Right now we are doing a little of both. We have a broom for Kate to clean up and she knows how to clean after herself. She puts up her clothing and has little tasks around the house. We believe in helping her learn “practical life” things like cooking and while we cook we learn counting, fractions, counting, chopping, etc. This is a version of the Montessori ways of teaching.

We also have waldorf dolls and believe in communing with nature. We have open ended toys like nesting bowls and playsilks that let Kate explore her imagination and we pretend often. We tell her stories and she tells us stories. We also talk about fantasy and fairy tales and encourage the learning of mythologies. This is heavily waldorf  influenced.

We read a lot. She loves to read and she knows letter and numbers. This is a direct violation of the Waldorf belief that children of this age should be kept away from books and intellectual stimulation. Yet it goes along with the Montessori belief of giving them the opportunity to learn about all sorts of things and letting them chose when they want to learn certain things. We very much believe that she is a sponge and want to give her the opportunity to learn what she wants, whens he wants to.

Digging in the eart is a fave past time of hers, she has her own shovel and rake, and her own yard boots and gloves for this. This is part of both philosophies.

I want to start up a nature table for the kids, with living plants and small wooden figures that will change with the seasons. Kate is taught that the seasons change what is around us and within us. We tend to live in a more Waldorf manner when it comes to this. Our family beliefs tend to run more in this direction.

So as you can see, we are firmly in the middle of this… which is why I still believe that homeschooling might be a better option for us because I dont believe that we would fit 100% in either label. We could always send the kids to one and supplement with the other at home… and I do believe that my children will need to socialization that they wouldnt get if they were homeschooled.

Again, I hate labels… but this is something where we need to make a decision as to what way we want to go.

While public school is still an option I dont believe that I would be ok with it. The more I learn about the public school systems the more issues I have with them and Houston has an awful public school system. Texas in general does. We are in the bible belt and we cant even teach scientific fact because it insults the delicate sensibilities of the religious right that control our region… this is not the way that I want our children to be raised.

We still have a whole lot to do when it comes to deciding what we want but I figured I would compile what we have learned here for our information or anyone else who is thinking about looking into these methods.

A little bit of family history here… my brother wont eat veggies. My father wont eat veggies. My mother would try to force feed us canned green beans and spinach which would promptly make us gag and puke yet we were not allowed to get up from our chairs until it was all off of our plate. So… I grew up hating veggies. One of my youngest memories is of sitting at a table with a plate of green metal smelling goop in front of me that my mother called spinach that I saw her pour out of a can and into our plates, it looked like sludge. I have vivid memories of the juices that my mother would make us with her extractor… all carrot based. I hate carrots.  She would try to trick us by putting apples, pears, and other fruits into it… but it was just a waste of good fruit to us. The carrots killed the yummy fruit flavor, worse when celery was put in it. ICK.

To this day I still believe that this harmed the way that my family views healthy eating. I cook and if the words “healthy” are uttered it is almost like a bad word… yet if I dont tell them what is in it.. they will eat it… and ask for seconds… so I have stopped saying what is in food and we are good to go.

WHen cooking for MIke and the kids I dont have the same struggle. Mike and i eat most veggies and Kate will too, we are starting Calvin on eating everything and hope that we dont have troubles with him. Yet sometimes all kids, even the best eaters…get picky.

There are days when Kate wont eat anything but soy cheese and crackers with maybe two grapes and 4 raisins. I have realized that this is why all kid food is “fortified” and has “100% of the needed supply of vitamins and minerals”.. because you dont know if that is all they are going to eat for the day… so you want to make sure that your food packs a serious punch healthwise.

This explains the allure of books like  The Sneaky Chef,and Deceptively Delicious. They are all mother’s desperate attempts at trying to trick their kids into eating better.

This becomes a real issue for those of us with kids with allergies or who are veg*s. I remember the phone call from my own inlaws that were concerned that Kate wasnt getting enough calcium in her diet because she couldnt eat dairy. I of course dont worry since I know that soy milk, tofu, and other products that we have on hand all have calcium in them. Leafy greens also have that and her diet is balanced enough that we arent concerned about her calcium intake.

I found the Pyramind website that the government has set up has some interesting info on where veg or dietary restricted families can get their nutricion from.

As for us?

I have been known to put turnips, brocolli, and cauliflower into mashed potatoes. I put tomatoes and spinach into breads. I bread meats with oats and whole wheat flour.  Grated zucchini and carrots taste great in cakes.  My family loooves quiches. Some phyllo dough and cream cheese/tofutti is a great device for delivering greens and other veggies into picky eaters.  Raw green beans are crunchy like chips and are well loved, sprinkle some paprika and salt on them for a twist. Or better yet, make your own baked veggie chips. Soups are a staple here. We make our own broths that are boiled down veggies and bones or something similar…  the list goes on and on…

Want some fun drinks for parties?  Here is one from Veg Kitchen:

Sneaky Peppermint!

Makes about 2 to 2 1/2 cups

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup brewed, then cooled, peppermint tea (fairly strong)
• 1 cup ice cubes
• Handful of fresh spinach leaves (don’t let anybody see you do this.. it will make the drink green but not interrupt the flavor, adds nutrition)
• Raw sugar to taste, optional

Whirl away until in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into glasses to serve.

Teas are a great way to get nourishment into kids too. Red Raspberry Leaf and Nettle Tea which I drank when i was pregnant is a great sources of potassium , iron, and other goodies for your blood. Make a tea of these and make it into a popsciple for kids while sweetened with honey or stevia makes a good treat that they will LOVE to eat…. and they will think that they are getting away with something when they do!

Now I am off to find a way to sneak peas and liver into cream cheese icing. Wish me luck!

blurrrrrrrr

This is not a great pic really but it accurately describes our life with Kate. We all do our thing and play with her… and she is nothing but a blur.

Here is my father in law, her latest victim for the weekend.

This is what we call true love.

Kate and Aidan have known each other since they were a few weeks old and their mothers have been inseperable ever since… so have they.
They saw each other at the park and ran to each other and hugged each other. They immediately held hands and started walking off without us.

I love the kiddos

I have written whole posts about the guilt that I associated with not realizing this sooner and the Elimination Diet was what finally fixed my child’s suffering and my tears from it.

Before I hit the nail on the head though I did try things that helped a great deal. One of them was babywearing, it helped on a regular basis and I still do it with her at 2+ years of age and with the ShakeNBake. I will write a whole series on that another time but it needs to be mentioned.

Another thing I tried was Colic Calm’s Gripe water. I liked it for a couple of reasons, to begin with their website didnt reek of DRUG UP YOUR BABY NOW instead is has a whole page with causes and suggestions as to what the issue might be and how to fix it without drugging up babies.  I tried them all obviously and this is one of the places where I first saw that it could possibly be related to MY food.

The site also had an article that taught me a lot about reflux. I believe that true reflux exists but that it is highly over diagnosed in infant and most peds are wayyy too happy to write a script for an antacid and give poor babies DRUGGZZZZ.

In the list of ingredients I didnt see a whole lot that scared the bejeesus out of me.  Most of the ingredients are things I had either used myself or know that were used to help with stomach issues. Ginger, Fennel, Chamomille, and aloe are all things that I keep in stock in my home to help with random ailments…. so I figured why not right?

I remember googling late one night and sendin Mike out to get it and him not being able to find it. I was seriously bothered because the pharmacists seemed to be clueless regarding any “natural” type remedies… ugh it was so frustrating.  Anyways we tried it and it helped…things did not get 100% better until after the elimination diet but I can say that this was worth the 10 minutes of peace that it did give us. Thankfully Calvin hasnt needed it and at 6 months it seems like he wont.

I really havent tried other colic drops for kids because as I am sure you know well by now I would rather do anything under the sun than try anything I could buy at a pharmacy. :p

Thankfully, the colic ends.. and now my toddler is a well adjusted yogi.