Yay! My amber teething necklaces are now available at health food shops!!!! August 18, 2011

My gorgeous amber teething necklaces and amber necklaces for adults are now available in the Natural Stores in Helston & Falmouth, as well as Archie Browns in Truro. Watch this space, they will soon be easily available all over (I hope)!

There are many reports of amber helping to relieve many conditions in adults, including arthritis, headaches, injuries, muscular aches and pains, stress and much more.  Succinic acid, which is absorbed into warm skin, is a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory and reduces teething pain and other symptoms associated with teething in babies.

I have had some such exciting feedback on the teething necklaces, of babies who’s eczema has cleared up, asthma reduced and have reduced crying and discomfort noticeably!  It’s no wonder really that resin from ancient forests should be healing! Nature is amazing!

Buy them here

 

Top reasons to get a sling! August 11, 2011

I can honestly say that I think I’d be a terribly frustrated mum if I didn’t have my baby carriers!  You do not have to get the most expensive, or even buy them new.  Here is an excellent babywearing swap group where I got both my sling and my carrier second hand.  Here are some top reasons to sling your baba:

• Baby loves nothing more than being close to you.
• In a sling baby can hear the heartbeat it has known throughout pregnancy.
• A sling reduces crying and reflux/colic symptoms
• There’s no trying to get awkward prams through shop doors or over bumpy ground
• You can keep up with your other child, and hold his/her hand, no stress
• You can still do household jobs using both hands!
• Your heartbeat helps regulate baby’s heartbeat
• Baby’s temperature is regulated and feels safe and calm closer to your body
• You can breastfeed on the move
• Your partner, family or friends have an opportunity to carry and be close to your baby too

My most common question now is: does your back not ache?  Honest answer, no!  If you get a good sling that balances the weight over both shoulders and supports your lower back, you should not get backache! Especially if you are carrying baby from when they are tiny, as you build the muscles you need to carry them as they grow.

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Geographic tongue July 18, 2011

Remember way back, over a year ago when Ayla was a little newborn with horrid thrush… wow, that seems like yesterday! I mentioned in my post about it  that she had these raised bumps on her tongue? Well, it turns out that these had nothing to do with thrush, and everything to do with her dad!! They both have geographic tongues.  I didn’t realise at the time was genetic, so didn’t give it a thought. And since she had thrush on her bum I presumed this was thrush too. But no!  They have remained.

Although there are days when her tongue is almost completely smooth, and days when they look like the surface of the moon, craters all over! The craters are like bald patches surrounded by a thin white line.   There is nothing you can do about geographic tongues. It is not serious, it does not hurt, bother or hinder her in any way. Steven is slightly embarrassed about his, but that’s it.  He just doesn’t go about sticking his tongue out. And no, it doesn’t change snogging or intimacy in any way…

The technical name for geographic tongue is Migratory Glossitis.  What happens is the little bumps on the tongue, called papillae, actually fall off.  They replace themselves within 7 to 10 days, but as the new bumps grow, so another patch starts to lose it’s bumps.

Although not common, it can be painful for some people, especially after eating certain foods (spicy, sharp, sour or citrus) . The penny has dropped…maybe this is why Ayla won’t eat oranges!  It is most common in people who are environmentally sensitive – have allergies, eczema or asthma.  And it often runs in families and is worse during periods of stress.  It is more common in females and is worse before periods and during ovulation and pregnancy.  I am watching Ayla’s at the moment, but I think it is worse while I am ovulating…makes sense since she still breastfeeds loads.

Apparently Vitamin B & Zinc are often prescribed for it, although it doesn’t seem to bother my darlings, so we haven’t tried it. I daresay our diet is quite high in these things anyway!

This is not her tongue, but this would be a on a really bad day!

Hers is probably more like this most of the time

Natural ways to calm a fussy or teething baby! July 11, 2011

Some ideas for calming a fussy baby:

• Wear baby in a soft comfy sling – babes love being close to mum or dads hearts. Choose a sling or carrier that spreads babies weight evenly over both your shoulders and has a support across the lower back
• Sing…babies don’t care if it’s off key, they love the sound of your voice
• Rock, pat, dance, talk gently
• Breastfeed!
• Take baby for a walk (my two are complete nature babies, they nearly always settle when we take them outdoors)
• Drink chamomile tea..it’ll soothe your frazzled nerves, and if you’re breastfeeding it’ll work it’s magic on baba too! (buying it looseleaf from a health food shop is cheapest, and you can get the quantity right – a tspn per cup)
• Put a pot of chamomile tea in baby’s bath. Being in water can also be comforting and soothing.
• Burn a couple of drops of lavender oil in an oil burner, or put a couple of drops in babys bath
• Get an amber teething necklace and some Nelsons Teetha …if it could be teething related
• Gentle baby massage, if baby likes it!

Do you have anymore natural tips?

Temperatures/fever – to use Calpol or not to use Calpol?! July 9, 2011

Several times I’ve given Calpol or Nurofen for a fever, because I believed that my baby was in danger if I didn’t.  But is this really true?

Why do we get temperatures?

A fever is your bodies defence mechanism.  It is a positive sign that your body is working correctly. When your body gets an infection, your temperature goes up, triggering your immune system to produce more white blood cells, antibodies, and other agents that fight infections.  Babies & children get fevers even with minor viral infections. Mine get fevers when they are teething.

So, do we give Calpol?

In the past I have given Calpol, much less often then most people, and only if they feel incredibly hot.  I personally do not keep a thermometer, because I trust I can tell when my child is really unwell, and I don’t want to become obsessed with taking temperatures, when temperatures can be raised due to many other reasons (emotional upset, too many clothes, bedding, physical activity, etc.) .

I heard from a Dr recently, but cannot find any evidence online, that febrile convulsions most commonly occur at 38.1 degrees C, which is really not that high. And that febrile convulsions are in any case not thought to be harmful.

In effect, giving medication which lowers the bodies temperature, means you are preventing your body (or your childs) from doing what is supposed to do, therefore prolonging the illness. (Nevermind the fact that these drugs have a negative impact on babys little organs) Now that I understand this, I no longer want to use drugs at all.

Ayla had a temperature a few days ago.  She was really chesty and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t Pneumonia or anything serious.  By the time we got to the doctor her temp was 38.6 degrees C. Hardly surprising seeing as she was overdressed for the hot waiting room, and she was crying.  The first thing he said to do was to get her temperature down.  I went with my new found information and my gut, ignored his well meant advice, and she sweated a bit in the night and by morning she was completely back to her sunny little self! We bed share so that helped me to keep an eye that things didn’t get out of hand.

My question is, what about babies that are younger than three months, who apparently can’t regulate their own temperature. Is this true, and would you give Calpol? Anybody?

Hawthorn or Elderflower cordial recipe July 9, 2011

If you still have any elderflowers out, run and grab them and make this yummy cordial! Erin lives on the stuff!

Ingredients:

20 heads elderflower or hawthorn flowers
1.8kg sugar (I use the slightly healthier unrefined brown sugar)
1.2 litres water
2 unwaxed lemons
75g citric acid

Shake bugs off flowerheads and put flowerheads in a bowl.
Dissolve the sugar in the water by warming gently
Peel the zest off the lemons and put it into bowl with flowerheads
Slice lemons and add to flowerheads
Poor sugar water over flowerheads once it’s cooled a bit
Add citric acid
Cover with a cloth for 24 hours then strain through cheesecloth (or sieve)
Bring to the boil, then bottle and mix to taste (about1 part cordial to 6 parts water)

How to make a belly mould July 6, 2011

The best keepsakes I have, from both of my pregnancies(besides my lovely girls, of course), are my belly moulds!  First time around I bought a kit on ebay for £12, and second time I just ordered the bandages & got a bottle of PVA glue from the local art shop!  Number 2 turned out better.  They are so much fun and a great way to celebrate your pregnancy!

What you need:

To be about 36  to 38 weeks pregnant
ModRoc Plaster of Paris bandages (I got 3 rolls..I think I got the 6cm by 2m ones)(available online, or perhaps at an art shop or pharmacy)
Warm water
A tub of vaseline
PVA glue
Friend/s or a partner
Warm bath or shower to jump into afterwards

How to do it:

1. Cut bandages into strips long enough to cover your bump, cut some smaller pieces for breasts, nipples, cleavage, belly button
2. Put towels or an old shower curtain down
3. Get naked or wear old nickers
4. Cover any hairy bits with vaseline (or else you’ll know about it later!!)
5. Get a biggish bowl of warm water
6. Stand up or sit on a covered chair (arms above your head if you want your boobs looking extra perky)
7.  Time for your friend/partner to work fast…run the bandages through the water and start sticking.  It’s a good idea(I learnt second time around) to work from above your breasts, right down to your pubic hairline, and all the way around the sides of your body.
8. Do 2 or 3 layers, continuously smoothing it over with their hands.. bearing in mind mod roc dries quickly (not so quick that you need to panic!) You can add a bit of water to bits that need smoothing over.
9. Now add a big dollop of PVA glue to the water, give it a stir and continue. (about half water, half glue…so you may need to reduce the amount of water you have in the bowl) This strengthens it and stops the cast from going crumbly too fast
10. We did 4 or 5 layers in total, at which time the mould was coming away from my body.  I removed it and we very carefully painted the inside and outside of it with the glue/water solution and left it to dry.
11. We had a Mother & Father Blessingway(instead of a baby shower), where our friends each painted something on it, using acrylic paints. I put a glossy varnish over it once it had dried. What a wonderful memory and keepsake.

My friend did it for me at 36 weeks when I went to visit her in Brighton, and my two friends and I (well, mostly them actually) painted it with meaningful symbols/pictures that we chose together.

My hubby did this one for me, and we painted it at our blessingway, everyone painted their own picture(We painted the base layer the day before).  Both were done at 36 weeks pregnant.  The second one is stronger due to using glue and going further around my sides.

Elderflower bubbly June 25, 2011

It is that time of year! Everything is blossoming and fruiting frantically, and there are not enough hours in the day to do all that needs doing!  I did, however, get around to making some elderflower champagne, and this is how:

Ingredients:

8 heads of elderflower (preferably picked when fully open on a sunny day)
1 kg of sugar (I used unrefined demerera sugar this time – slightly better for you than white sugar)
2 unwaxed lemons (only organic lemons-or your own- are unwaxed)
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
10 litres cold water

Method:

1. Peel lemon rind of thinly with a potato peeler
2. shake insects of elderflower heads and put in bucket
3. add lemon rind and the juice of the 2 lemons
4. add sugar (gently) and apple cider vinegar
5. pour water over and stir
6. Stir twice a day for a week, and then bottle (plastic fizzy bottles work best – if you use wine bottles store them somewhere where explosions won’t do much damage – although they’ve not exploded for me yet!)
7. Can be drunk anywhere from week 2  and up to a year, and is only slightly alcoholic but very tasty!  Enjoy!

New baby alpaca! June 20, 2011

Oh, how lucky we are to live on the farm!  Yesterday, the first baby alpaca of the year was born.  A beautiful, strong, long legged rose grey boy cria, who looks similar to his stud male dad, Max. His name is Carthvean Dianthus!

Usually alpacas choose to give birth on sunny days, but there’s not been many of those around, and today was really rainy, so good thing it was yesterday!

Being greeted by all the other girl alpacas

Trying to get up…

Erin & Julie get to welcome baby

Wobble wobble wobble…it took about 30 minutes for him to do what it took Ayla & Erin about a year to do!!

Love…

Katya the llama on guard!

10 top reasons to breastfeed June 20, 2011

Well, here it is.

1. Breastmilk provides perfect infant nutrition.”Human milk is uniquely superior for infant feeding and is species-specific; all substitute feeding options differ markedly from it. The breastfed infant is the reference or normative model against which all alternative feeding methods must be measured with regard to growth, health, development, and all other short and long-term benefits.”
   American Association of Pediatrics
2. Breastfeeding reduces mother’s risk of breast cancer. Research shows that if mum breastfeeds for 2 years, her risk of breast cancer is reduced by 50%, but even breastfeeding for a few weeks reduces risk.  Prolonged breastfeeding also reduces risk of uterine and ovarian cancer in mum. Breastfeeding also reduces the risk of childhood leukemia.
3. Breastmilk is designed to boost babies immune system, preventing illness and diseases:
   Formula doesn’t give any of these benefits. Breast milk gives babies antibodies from the mother to help fight disease and so breastfed babies get sick less. Williams in Breast-Feeding Best Bet for Babies says “About 80% of the cells in breast milk are macrophages, cells that kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Breastfed babies are protected in varying degrees from a number of illnesses including, pneumonia, botulism, bronchitis, staphylococcal infections, influenza, ear infections, and German measles. Furthermore, mothers produce antibodies to what ever disease is present in their environment, making their milk custom-designed to fight diseases their babies are exposed to as well.”
4. It’s convenient and easy once mum gets the hang of it…no making up bottles in the middle of the night, sterilising, or lugging formula and bottles around with you when you go out.
5. Breastfeeding helps shrink the uterus after birth
6. You burn calories by breastfeeding, helping you lose pregnancy weight (provided your diet is good)
7. It’s FREE!  If you need to express milk you can usually pick up a good second hand pump for less than £10
8. Breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) And postnatal depression in mum
9. It is bonding, decreases behavioral problems in children & increases intelligence.
10. Research shows that the following illnesses are less common later in life in those who had been breastfed compared to those who hadn’t:  asthma, eczema, diabetes, leukemia, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholestrol later in life.