Natural Solutions

[belovedlily]

I am currently trying to go natural/organic/environmentally friendly and I find it a wonderful challenge.  Please share your personal natural remidies, solutions, homeopathic alternatives that you are using in your parenting/pregnancy. 
I'll share a little about what I'm doing first:
Using cloth diapers
Trying to buy organic food
Giving my family massages (Especially my baby).

I am interested especially in natural non-plastic teething solutions and suggestions on making your own baby food.
Thanks!

[anjie]

Hi
Great to see you going nature's way.  As for preparing baby foods, I have been trying a lot from this site.


http://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/babies-6-9-months/weaning_recipe_fruit_puree

Hope it helps,
anjie

[khatty]

Environmental Friendly:

Have you considered early potty learning instead of diapering?  I do elimination communication with cloth diapers as backup.  I also try to hang my diapers out in the sun instead of using the dryer.

Baby Food:
I made my own baby food from garden or farmer market produce.  I just boiled it in water and then used a hand blender.  I found the recipe book "Blender Baby Food" by Nicole Young to have great ideas on quantities and mixing food.

Good Luck with your Green initiatives.

[THen]

I like cloth diapering with wool covers and EC (Elemination Communication).   

As for teething solutions, someone told me to soak a washcloth in camomile tea, then wring it out and freeze it rolled up.  You can give it to the baby to chew on. 

I also used some herbal teething tablets that my friend gave me (they have them in the grocery stores).  They seemed to help.

Other than that, my husband and I started no-poo-ing (no shampoo).  It sounds grose (at least that was what I thought when I first heard about it) but it isn't.  I had read of people having problems with shampoo irritating their scalp, or causing bumps.   Instead we use baking soda and vinegar.  My husband was the one with the irritated scalp, but I tried it, too, and loved the way my hair came out.  I only use shampoo if I run out of baking soda or apple cider vinegar.     (I haven't used it on my little one yet, though.)

[staceycanada]

We cloth diaper with wool covers as well.

We eat whole foods and are trying to buy more organic foods.

This year we are growing a lot of veggies in our garden.

I hang out clothing in the spring, summer and fall except dh's because he doesn't like how they feel. I have read that you can add vinegar to the rinse to soften the clothes for hanging outside.

We used a food mill to blend up dd's foods when she was little.

Oh and of course we breastfeed.

[cybermommy]

I liked the book Le Petit Appetit by Lisa Barnes. Their website has other tips, too. http://www.petitappetit.com/

I also found http://www.amazon.com/Super-Baby-Food-Ruth-Yaron/dp/0965260313 to be helpful, but occasionally annoying. The author can get a little preachy and off topic, and she does tend to make claims that are only substantiated by the anecdotal evidence of her own family.

I second the stick blender recommendation. I didn't have one when my baby was on purees, but I wish I did! It makes it so easy to make a small pureed portion of whatever your family is eating that meal, as long as the types of food are developmentally and nutritiously appropriate. Clean up is so much less complicated, as well.

I make my own yogurt, and we have smoothies all the time, thanks to the stick blender. You might consider making yogurt from breast milk when it's time to start solids, although I haven't done that myself (my supply was too low for culinary experimentation).

As for teething, we had a knotty doll similar to this made from organic terry.

http://sewingmamas.com/b/downloads.php?do=file&id=68

It wore well through the first year, going through the wash at least weekly, but then began to look grungy, so I made my son a new one. He chewed on it thoughtfully, then handed it back to me, and demanded his old doll back. The old doll is positively tattered now, but even at age 3, it remains among his beloved bedmates. The new knotty doll got adopted as a buddy when he was no longer teething, so it still looks pretty good.

My recommendation on teething tablets is to make sure you research every ingredient in it, as you are giving it to a baby (obviously). Herbs are not inherently safe just because they are natural (cocaine, marijuana, and tobacco are natural as well). And just because they are designed for babies doesn't mean that they are necessarily "safe" either. An overdose of Oragel can be fatal.

[staceycanada]

You can get an amber teething necklace. The amber has natural analgesic properties.

ex: http://amberteethingnecklaces.com/Amber_Properties.html

[chloe]

I now trying to switch to all organic products to my daughter, use Miracle soap (available in Miraclesoap.com) for any kind of washing , bath, clean the floor, for laundry we use lemon juice with baking soda. to rinse veggies, we use grapefruit seed extract, for U.S residents you can find in Wholefoods market (but I cant find any in my country), water we use Reverse Osmosis water. This all recommended by the Institute (IAHP)

[khatty]

Other than that, my husband and I started no-poo-ing (no shampoo). 

That sounds interesting any specific website you would recommend for more details on unshampooing?

[joyMegha]

It is good to hear that ur going natural way.
We also use cloth diaper, giving massage to my son everyday before bath with coconut n gingely oil.
we too not using soap or shampoo.We use green gram powder as soap.
And for food we used to buy it from market organic.Now I started preparing it at home.
If u want here are some recipes.    

http://forum.brillkids.com/india-b87/indian-recipes-for-kids/

[rose08]

Hi I have breastfed my daughter completely and still am as she still isnt eating much food. She will eat on and off, but due to teething pains isnt really interested.

I grow my own food and just blended it up with water for my daughter when she was younger, now she just eats the same as us modified...lots of vegies

I use cloth nappies on my daughter but during the day I will sit her on the potty after meals or a breastfeed just to get her used to it. Which also saves on nappies.

[nohayo]

Hey all

Here's what I do:

1. try to buy organic food (I buy non-organic too but those food items that have the least pesticide counts)

2. Buy natural skin care products and makeup etc..

3. for shampoo, i buy it natural ... it has a more oily texture etc.. I also read that you should only use baking soda once every couple of weeks or something..not everytime you wash your hair ...

Things that are hard for me to do:

1. natural cleaning products for the house and clothes etc....
(I do clean vegetables and fruits with vinegar ... but that's about it)

2. organic clothes - i don't feel the need for them unless the baby's skin is too sensitive for normal cotton clothes...

[hypatia]

Hi I have breastfed my daughter completely and still am as she still isnt eating much food. She will eat on and off, but due to teething pains isnt really interested.

Rose, have you considered feeding her 'finger food' when she is teething? These last 3 days my daughter would not eat from the spoon I was presenting her. I decided to give her the food without mashing it, so she had little pieces of cauliflower, chicken, sweet potatoes, apple etc. and she really enjoyed picking them up and ended up eating as much as usual. And today I found a tooth had come through, so that's probably related.

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