Here is the thing, it’s all about how the statistics are being presented.  The people that side with the no-vaccination route state statistics in numbers, like so many hundreds of people have been alternately affected by the vaccines.  That seems like a large number and makes you really think. But the people that side with the vaccination route, give statistics in percentages, like the possibility of being alternately affected by the vaccine is 100^th of a percent, which is same as one in a million. So, the statistics are the same, the difference is how they’re being reported.  By the way these are fictitious numbers, I’m presenting them as an example.

Being that it’s such a hard subject to argue, we have our own philosophy on the vaccinations. We permit our kids receive whatever is being required by state in order for kids to stay in daycare or school. We opt out of all of the new or the optional vaccines. My opinion is as follows, if the vaccine is established, it’s more likely been tried for many years and the number of lawsuits regarding that particular vaccine is so small that it may not be worth worrying about.

When a doctor offers me a new vaccine for some virus or flu of the day, I politely refuse. This is more likely a new type of vaccine that may not have been around for enough time for people to notice its alternate effects. The lawsuits usually don’t start until 5 or more years after the new thing is introduced, so it’s hard to tell how safe the vaccine is if it hadn’t been tried for some time.

How about you? What’s your opinion on this matter?

First, we decided to eliminate as much sugar as possible from Nathan’s diet, since sugar breeds bacteria if not fully metabolized. I started with the snacks he gets at the daycare. Three times a day, he’s being provided snacks, in the form or crackers, sugary cereal, a cereal bar or cookies. Though most crackers, such as Goldfish or Ritz may not be bad on sugar from the first glance, they still easily metabolize to sugar.  Plus they contain a bunch of other crap (check out the ingredients list) that’s really not helping. And the crazy thing is, the daycare would not let me bring my own snacks unless I provide the slip from Nathan’s doctor that he has allergies. Well, that’s just what I had to do.  Now I pack very plain snacks for him in form of fruits, like the bananas and grapes and either plain pretzels or rice crackers.  By the way, we did not cut his intake of fruits, since they actually have favorable nutritional value, like the vitamins which strengthen the immune system and help fight sicknesses.

Second, we bought powdered vitamin C and started adding just a tad to his juice in the morning. You really don’t need much. The type that we bought contains 5 grams, which is the same as 5,000 milligrams in one steaspoon.  We only add about one third of the quarter of a teaspoon, which is approximately 400 mg. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin, so one can’t really overdose on it unless they’re taking insane quantities of it.

Third, we started putting few drops of half white vinegar (5% acidity) and half water solution in each of his ears about three times per day. If we see that he’s starting to develop snot or cough, we increase the frequency to 5-6 times per day.  When I do the drops, I put him flat on his side and after I’m done administering drops, I lightly move my finger around the area of his ear and lightly tug on his ear to help the liquid go down. I weight for at least 30 seconds for him to get back up.

And this is it!

So far it’s been 0ver two months without the ear infection. We just had a well visit with the doctor. At the time of the check up Nathan had a cold with runny nose and some cough, but no fever. I asked the doc to check his ears for possible ear infection. She said she hadn’t seen his ears to be this clear in quite a while.  Yay!!

We started bringing our own snacks for him to daycare since he’s facing the tubes in his ears. Too many ear infections…

Elyana is still in the bunkers phase. She’s scared of the dark and sleeps by the door on the floor in her room with the lights on. Some nights she gets out and turns on all of the house lights and ends up falling asleep on the couch. Go figure…

I’m still working full time. I just got done with my Summer semester that went very very well. I have three more classes left and the graduation in 2012 looks very promising. Dave is working as usual for himself.

For the longest time the only sound he’s been making was “A-Daaaa” and different variations of it like the French version “A-Duaaaa-a-a-a” and the casual version “A-du” and the other version “A-doe”.  Also, since “A-doe” sounds almost like “All Done”, my motherly brain’s, been telling me that that’s exactly what he’s been saying all these months at the end of his meals. And you won’t convince me otherwise!

Anyways, today he graduated to saying “E-ka Ba,” almost every time after I would say “Take a Bath”. Now this I didn’t make up!  And he kept repeating it even after he was done with the bath. He’s so enjoying his new abilities.

He also likes to sing ABCs song. It usually starts in the middle and  doesn’t go till the end, but who cares, right?

That’s my boy

After having a piece of my great-tasting healthy bread, I wanted to find out its caloric and fat info. It wasn’t bad at all, within healthy range. Then I noticed ingredients’ list beside it and it seemed quite long, and the longer I read it, the less familiar they sounded. Here they are:

• whole wheat flour

• water

• sugar

• wheat gluten

• brown rice

• cornmeal

• oats

• wheat bran

• yeast

• cellulose fiber

• soybean oil

• salt

• molasses

• cultured dextrose

• maltodextrin

• DATEM

• mono- and diglycerides

• calcium sulfate

• citric acid

• poppy seeds

• grain vinegar

• soy lecithin

• nuts

• whey

• nonfat milk

Okay, so the first few ingredients I am very familiar with, I know their origin, what they look like, taste like and they sound okay-healthy to me. But as I’m going down the list, the names get more scientific and not nearly as familiar. I run into the unpronounceables! What are these ingredients? Still healthy?

Out of curiosity I decided to do a little research on my own to ensure that I am making a true “healthy” choice. Here is what I found so far translated into plain English.

Dextrose and maltodextrin are highly processed food additives derived from corn or wheat and come as a light, white tasteless powder. They mix well with liquids and have lower density than sugar. As far as I understand they are used instead of sugar for improved texture and flavor of the final product. According to Wikipedia they are commonly used for the production of natural sodas and candy such as SweetTarts. So why are they in my healthy bread?

DATEM is short for Diacetyl Tartaric (Acid) Ester, a mouth full, isn’t it? It’s used in baking as a softener. It is chemically produced and is generally recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration. Well, does safe by the FDA standards mean healthy for me? I’m yet to figure this one out…

Mono- and diglycerides are derived from vegetable oils or animal fats. They are the kind of fats that are solid at room temperature and are responsible for clogging up arteries. But on the other hand, they improve loaf volume, and create a smooth, soft crumb.

Next is calcium sulfate. Here is how Wikipedia states it: “Calcium sulfate is a common laboratory and industrial chemical”. What?  How does the proud statement “No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives” fit in then? Calcium sulfate is a chemical name for gypsum, the material that’s found in drywall and cement. Yakes. What’s it doing in my healthy bread? I am assuming it is a preservative.

So here I have it — beautifully preserved, soft, flavorful, tasty, loaf of gorgeous looking bread. After doing my research I decided this this healthy bread isn’t healthy enough for me. I still finished the loaf, it’s just so good. But I sure won’t be buying it again!

After some looking around, I think I found my healthy bread! I now buy organic sprouted grains breads by Food for Life. This bread is kept in the freezer, since it’s free of preservatives. Here is its ingredients’ list:

• organic sprouted wheat

• filtered water

• organic malted barley

• organic sprouted rye

• organic sprouted barley

• organic sprouted oats

• organic sprouted millet

• organic sprouted corn

• organic sprouted brown rice

• fresh yeast

• organic wheat gluten

• sea salt

No unpronounceables here. This bread is about twice the cost of the other bread, but to me, it’s worth it.

I also make my own bread at times. Actually, my bread maker does, I just toss the familiar ingredients into it and press the ‘START’ button.

What is your favorite bread? Please share your experience.

My goals are to have more energy, feel better physically and hopefully loose a little weight. I have two little kids and I need as much energy as I can possibly master to keep up with them and the household, and maybe have a little extra left for things that I enjoy doing for myself. Health wise I don’t have much to complain about, but there is definitely room for improvement. I do get occasional colds and quite often I get cold sores inside my nose. My nails have become brittle and I was told by my dentist that I am loosing the gum bone. Both of these are more likely due to two pregnancies and the breastfeeding. As far as weight, ideally I would like to loose about 15 pounds, which would put me down to pre-kids weight.

So far it’s been a few days since I’ve started and I’m feeling good. I don’t have restrictions of how much I eat, just what I eat. My cravings have subsided, but I still do crave the ‘bad’ things. The worst time is when I have to feed them to my two-year old. It’s hard not to take a bite off of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich or take a sip of cold milk.

It seemed like she developed a phobia of going into the potty. She’s been perfectly ready for the potty for at least 6 months. She’s been able to go without a diaper without an accident for a while. As she needed to go, she would request a diaper. And if we tried to make her go into the potty instead of a diaper, she would put up the biggest stink. It involved lots of screaming, crying, resenting sitting on the potty, until she had no choice but to go on the floor!

Finally a few days ago I decided to enforce the “no diaper” policy. Basically, I wasn’t willing to give up no matter how much stink she puts up. The goal was to make her go into the potty versus the diaper or the floor. I even sweetened up the deal by promising ice cream if she goes into the potty.

First couple of times we had to force her to sit on the potty while she was peeing. It came to the point where she would cry, scream and shake from trying to hold it in. But eventually, she just had to let it loose. There was quite a bit of spillage, but some of it made into the potty. After much praising she got her ice cream.

Now she seems to enjoy peeing into the potty. She gets really excited when she does, she runs around clapping and proudly showing everybody her full potty.

But our work is far from over. Our next step is to make her go #2 into the potty. The ice cream deal didn’t seem to work tonight. We’ll see what happens tomorrow!