On Parenting

We Fixed Our Son's Lack of Appetite

We have been having trouble getting our boys, mostly Aidan (3), to develop an appetite.  It seems as if he has had blood sugar issues too, where he would crave a lot of sweets/carbs and then after a while he would develop this crankiness which would sometimes turn into aggressive behaviour.  This was all surrounded in a bit of tiredness or even lethargy.

The last time we had this problem it was with Aubrey.  She exhibited almost the exact same characteristics to the point where we were getting concerned.  She'd eat only carbs and was not a very voracious eater at that.

The way we fixed it with her was we found out a nutritional company that we liked, Metagenics, made a nutritional shake for children, called UltraCare for Kids.  Kind of like Total Shake (in fact it has a lot of the same nutrients) for kids.

Well about 5 days ago we started feeding Aren and Aidan the same shake.  I'm elated to report that Aidan has tried about 5 new foods this week and has been exhibiting a much stronger appetite.  Aren (2) is also trying more foods and just seems to have less cranky "terrible twos" type 'tude.

So we're pretty happy about this and I wanted to take a second to write this up and post it.  I'm sure there are other parents who are experiencing the same thing with their little ones.  I'd hate for them to think it's some kind of a mental thing when so much of what a kid exhibits in terms of behavior can be traced back to nutrition.

If you want to buy the UltraCare product, you'll have to go through your doctor or you can contact Gatza Chiropractic Arts in Clearwater, FL.  They have an account with Metagenics and are happy to order it for you.

The Commercialization of Childhood Index*

$500,000,000,000: The amount of money in purchases that children under twelve influence every year.

$17,000,000,000:  The amount of money spent to market to children, a staggering increase from $100 million in 1983. 

$3,400,000,000:  Revenue generated by the Disney Princess brand in 2006.  There are 40,000 Disney Princess items on the market today.

1,200,000,000:  Toys sold with kids' meals at fast food restaurants in 2006.

20,000,000:  Baby Einstein videos sold by Disney through 2006.  The American Academy of Pediatrics reccomends no screen time for children under two.

200,000:  The acts of violence, including 40,000 murders, that the average child will see on television by the time they are eighteen.

25,000:  Ads on television the average 2-11-year-old sees on television every year, a figure that does not include product placement.

4,151:  The number of product placements on the first thirty-eight episodes of American Idol.

$50 or more:  The donation from you that will help us fight all of the above.  We rely on you because we will not compromise our commitment to children by taking money from corporations.  All donations of $125 and up will be matched by an anonymous donor.  But any amount is appreciated.  To make a tax deductible donation please visit: http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/donate

*All statistics cited in this email are taken from CCFC's downloadable fact sheets: http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/factsheets/facts.htm.

Sneaking Nutritious Foods Into Your Kids

Lately I've have my attention on whether we are really doing all we can to make sure our kids are eating well.  Any friends who know us would probably LOL to hear me say that, because our kids have eaten the nastier fast foods (McD's, BK, etc.)  probably twice or three times in their whole lives. (Seriously.)

But that is not really the measurement of whether kids are eating well, in my view--a lack of fast food.  It would be a bit like saying "hey you guys don't pump poisons your kids daily, you're GREAT parents!"  (Sorry, if you do, I'm not judging you here.  Every family has it's own challenges and values.)

So when I look at how they have been eating, it occurred to me that, due our hectic lifestyle, they don't really get enough of a vegetable variety and we tend to get into a set pattern of the same foods over and over each week.  We don't want to find out down the road that this could have lead to allergies or some other health hurdle that could have been avoided completely if we'd just done the right thing from the git-go.

Thanks to Jessica Seinefield's book, Deceptively Delicious, we have a simple way to turn this around.

Bean Bag Chair Saves Day

Actually it saves the night. Aren, our baby boy has a cold and it is hard for a baby to sleep with a stuffed up nose. In the bean bag he can sleep on his back and slightly upright so he gets a little more air in his pipes and less irritability as a result. More sleep for us all!

Posting the idea here in case it helps anyone else in parentingland. www.hanseisenman.com 727-452-5241 c. Sent from my Sprint BlackBerry®

Cheap Pools Are Baaaad

 

This has got to be the third pool we have had to meet this fate.  It bothers me that we have fallen for this same scenario three times now. 

It's always the same: kids need something to do, it hot and they are so dang cheap (the pools, not the kids)!

In the end they remain impractical: sooner or later the algae comes.  Because the pools don't drain well (too heavy to move with any water + poor drain location sees to that), the scum is inevitable.   No on wants to clean it--and who can?

So off it goes to the Toy Graveyard. Too bad that graveyard is not in the proverbial sky (www.storyofstuff.com)...

Things To Help Kids Sleep

Here's at least a decent but possibly partial list of things we have used to hekp our kids sleep:

-Baby-Vites liquid b-coplex  by World Organics
-Calm by Standard Vitamins
-Taking walks before bed
-Chamomile tea
-Making sure they are fed well becore bed (not just milk if they are in a growth spurt)
-Letting 'em cry for a bit if we know they don't have empty tummies or soiled diapies
-Nerve Assists (Our kids love these.  They are very calming and simple to do.)
-Having a heart to heart about the rest of family needing sleep too.  This had evem worked on babies.
-Monitoring temp of room a bit better.
-Keeping air and room clean

Maybe I will think of more, but this is a pretty good start!

(sent from Treo 700 phone)

Great Overview: Genetically Modified Foods and Monsanto's Collusion With Big Politics

This is a very interesting article.  It's long but worth reading.  I'm pasting the whole thing into my blog here so you can use the built-in dictionary function my blogs have (just double-click any word for a definition of it--[*note: just tested this and it doesn't seem to be working right, but maybe it will for you. If not, try www.onelook.com for definitions.) since there are a few technical words here and there.   But don't let that stop you.  Not if you value your and your family's health.  Monsanto is bad news in my opinion.  BAD news.

An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton From a Wellesley College Alumna

      

Linn Cohen

Dear Hillary,

By polling logic, I should be your supporter- Democrat, older woman, white, liberal. I was even in a dorm with youin college. I have pulled for you for years. But something this past summer fundamentally changed my responsibility to my children and grandchildren. In the time I have left in my life to protect them and
others, I need to speak out.

I saw a News Hour piece on Maharastra, India, about farmers committing  suicide. Monsanto, a US agricultural giant, hired Bollywood actors for ads telling illiterate farmers they could get rich (by their standards) from big yields with Monsanto's Bt (genetically engineered) cotton seeds. The expensive seeds needed expensive fertilizer and pesticides (Monsanto, again) and irrigation. There is no irrigation there. Crops failed. Farmers had larger debt than they'd ever experienced.

And farmers couldn't collect seeds from their own fields to try again (true since time immemorial). Monsanto "patents" their DNA-altered seeds as "intellectual property." They have a $10 million budget and a staff of 75 devoted solely to prosecuting farmers. Since the late 1990s (about when industrial agriculture took hold in India),166,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide and 8 million have left the land.

Farmers in Europe, Asia, Africa, Indonesia,South America, Central America and here, have protested Monsanto and genetic engineering for years.

What does this have to do with you?

Great Expose on Fox News: Child Anti Depressants ARE the problem!

The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Link: The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup.

There's a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS [high fructose corn syrup]. According to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.

Consumers trying to avoid genetically modified foods should avoid HFCS. It is almost certainly made from genetically modified corn and then it is processed with genetically modified enzymes. I've seen some estimates claiming that virtually everything--almost 80 percent--of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point. Since the use of HFCS is so prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be right.

Karo syrup is GMO!

GMO = Genetically Modified Organism

This is very bad. Do your own research on GMO and see what you find out. There are chickens, for example, which have been fed GMO feed and it resulted in internal bleeding and all sorts of other problems.

GMO is man playing God and it ain't workin' out.

We use Karo to make our own formula. Even with the GMO corn syrup I'll take it over lab-rat formula (all the crap that's on grocery store shelves) any day of the millennium. But this GMO thing is getting out of hand. There's a book on GMO which is worth reading, called Seeds of Deception. Prepare to be shocked about what you read and what you are right now eating. What you don't know about this now could land you in the hospital later.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ACH ConsumerAffairs Date: Dec 3, 2007 9:46 AM Subject: Karo To: hans8008-blogmail@yahoo.com

The Karo syrups are made from genetically modified corn.

Denise Consumer Affairs

-----Original Message----- From: hans8008-blogmail@yahoo.com [mailto:hans8008-blogmail@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 12:01 AM To: ACH ConsumerAffairs Cc: hans8008-blogmail@yahoo.com Subject: New feedback from website, RE: Karo

Product Information: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Product Brand......................... Karo Product Name.......................... Karo Light Corn Syrup Product Code..........................

Comments: ----------------------------------------------------------------- I would like to know if the source of your corn syrup or any portion of it comes from genetically modified corn of any kind?

User Information: ----------------------------------------------------------------- First Name............................ Hans Last Name............................. Eisenman Age................................... 35-54 Children in Household................. Yes Address............................... ...................................... City.................................. State/Province........................ FL Zip/Postal Code....................... Daytime Phone Number with Area Code... Email................................. hans8008-blogmail@yahoo.com

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