What's in that baby formula?

When I was pregnant with my first I always thought I would breastfeed and that would be that.  I mean, it's how our bodies provide for our babies so it must be the best and easiest way to nourish them.  Well, that's only half correct.  It is the best way, but I found it to be a far cry from easy!  Breastfeeding turned out to be the most challenging thing I had ever taken on in my life.  It was literally like having the life sucked right out of me.  My son was so sleepy, he could have cared less about eating.  We had to torture him with cold, wet wash clothes to try to wake him up enough to eat.  "They" say babies will eat when they're hungry, they won't die.  Well, my husband and I are convinced this one would have and given the amount of weight he was rapidly losing his nourishment was a huge concern during the early days.  Feeling defeated on the breastfeeding front, I resorted to pumping.  That lasted all of 4 months before my supply dried up and he was put on formula (Similac.)  It was then that the eczema first appeared and the rest is history.

Fast forward to baby number two.  She's been a great eater from the start.  She wakes, latches, and eats.  It's been awesome.  But prior to her birth I was well aware that I may need to formula feed so I started doing my research.  I seriously considered making my own following the Weston A. Price recipe, but the thoughts of seeking out raw milk and going through the whole process was overwhelming to me.  I then started to look at organic formulas, and this article stood out on the Food Babe's website.  It's absolutely astounding what goes into formula.  GMO's, palm oil that forms a soap in the baby stomach, synthetic nutrients, to name a few.  Even the word "organic" does not guarantee a healthy formula. In the end I decided that if I have to supplement it would be with the Baby's Only brand, but there are still a few areas that are left to be desired.

What we do to Stay Healthy!

With a newborn in the house and a school age kid I find it even more important to stay on top of our health.  I try not to let all the talk of this year's flu scare me, but I'm the first to admit that it is down right scary when you hear about 20 & 30 year-olds dying from the flu.  It's then that I have to take a step back and remind myself that it comes down to keeping one's immune system functioning optimally.  Last last year's flu shot was only about 56% effective overall according to the CDC, and the effectiveness for the media hyped H1N1 vaccine was 47% overall. So basically about the toss of a coin.  It comes down to the fact that although it would be nice to rely on a medical intervention to keep us healthy, in the end we are responsible for our own health.

Some steps that my family takes to optimize our health include:

• Healthy eating--we try to minimize sugar and cook from scratch as much as possible so we can control what goes into our food while avoiding processed foods to a large extent, and focusing on antioxidant rich vegetables.  We recently bought a Nutramix blender and have been adding greens to our smoothies.  We also add coconut oil and local raw honey to our foods when possible.  The nice thing about making healthy dinners is that we always save enough left overs for lunches the next day.
• Vitamins--Each day starts with probiotics to help with immune function. We all take vitamin D, Astaxanthin, Omega 3s, and a multi.
• We take a homeopathic flu remedy as a preventative strategy twice a month called Mucococcinium. It's formulated to elevate the body’s immune system to combat all types of influenza and respiratory colds.  It’s clinically proven to be 88% effective at preventing the flu and 82% effective at treating the flu-- more effective than the flu vaccine.  
• Hand washing, which we've taken to a new level now that we have a baby in the house.  Thank goodness for coconut oil to lather on afterwards to help with the dryness!
• Rest.  It's not the easiest thing to get with a newborn around, but we try.
• Moderate exercise.  I've learned over the years that my body needs to take things in moderation, and that goes for exercise, too.  As a hobby, I've been teaching group fitness for over a decade.  At one point I was teaching 11 classes per week.  I can honestly say that I was in the best shape of my life teaching only 2 classes per week than the ll (or anytime I wasn't allowing my body the recovery time it needed.)  I've read studies on long distance runners, too, that are at risk for severe health issues due to over-training.  The key is MODERATION!  You can get too much of a good thing.

Those are all I can think of right now, what are some of things your family does to stay ahead of cold and flu season?

Witch Hazel for Skin Care

I'm not sure how good witch hazel works on eczema, but it does seem to work really well on diaper rash!  My little girl has a huge appetite, making it nearly impossible to keep a dry diaper on her.  She's only 3 weeks old and has had her first diaper rash despite our best efforts.  It was looking pretty bad, and then I sprayed on some witch hazel, patted her dry, and followed that up with using a hair dryer on a warm/cool setting to completely dry her after her diaper changes.  I then applied diaper cream, either Butt Paste or my homemade cream of shea butter, coconut oil, & zinc (recipe is here).  Within 24 hours she was almost as good as new!

What I've Been Working on in 2013

We had a little unexpected surprise in 2013.  In April I found out that we would be having a special Christmas present, and we welcomed our baby girl 10 days early on December 15th.

So far she has been polar opposite from my son.  She eats a ton!  She sleeps.  She goes back to sleep after eating.  She has tons of wet diapers.  And she poops!  Since having her I can see why people decide to have more children.  With my son, I could never understand that concept.  He was such a challenge for us and I never would have willingly decided to have another one.  Quite the contrary.  But what a pleasant surprise she's turned out to be.  I count my blessings everyday.

Going into this pregnancy, my body was so much healthier than with my first.  I religiously take probiotics and vitamin D, I have avoided process foods as much as I can, and also avoid soy and GMOs to a large extent.  I also try to use more pure cosmetics and skin care products.  Earlier this year I also started NAET in case it could positively impact the baby, and I was able to make it through the basic 16--hormones took me 3 treatments to pass.

So far breastfeeding has been a breeze (aside from the initial pain that it causes.)  Baby seems to actually enjoy nursing, which is apparent when my husband tries to top her off with a bottle and she looks at him like he's crazy if he thinks she'll drink it (she's so hungry she'll eat for an hour+ and sometimes I just need a break.)

When she was born we declined the  HepB vaccine and opted for oral Vitamin K (the Vitamin K shots have a large amount of aluminum.)  We delayed cord cutting, which we had planned on only for a minute or two but ended up being much longer as the doctors worked on stitching me up and she just laid on my chest during that time.  The cord was bone dry by the time it was cut.

All-in-all it's been a very positive experience so far, and I'm optimistic about what the New Year has in store for us.  Big brother is so proud and helpful, it really is a joy watching him interact with her.

Happy New Year from my family to yours!