Our Family’s COVID Protocol
As soon as I shared in an email that our family had successfully weathered the COVID-19 virus, I immediately started getting replies asking the same…
Free Speech
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Let’s Get a Little Balance with Masks (Letter to County Officials)
First, a little background story: Our community hosted a public forum with the county board of commissioners. They asked the head of the health department to speak about our new school mask mandates, instituted just days before the start of school. Each commissioner had 5 minutes to ask him questions after his original 20 minutes.
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Full Interview with Dr. Christina Parks
Welcome, free speech kitchen stewards! You’re here because you’re a valued subscriber, and likely you caught a few snippets of my interview with Dr. Christina Parks, molecular biologist, when we discussed facts about viruses in general, modes of transmission, and the importance of Vitamin D. (If you missed that, you can find it here—or just
Why the Herd Immunity Theory is a Lie
Before I begin I want to state that this post does not deal with vaccine safety. It is not pro or anti vaccines. It is simply discussing vaccine efficacy and the theory of herd immunity. Vaccinating vs. not vaccinating is a very personal choice – a choice every parent should have. Vaccination is a medical
5 Compelling Reasons to Ditch the Tylenol with Vaccines
Nobody wants to see their child in pain, especially wee little infants. So, I’ve done it. When my oldest was under a year old, I gave him Tylenol after he spiked a fever a few hours after a round of vaccinations. I wasn’t a huge fan of medications even before I was a very crunchy
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Does Sugar Feed Cancer? (and other stuff we don’t understand)
If I got cancer, I would do 3 things: Be really, really ticked off because I’ve spent so much time trying to be healthy that I’d feel like it was a personal insult. (I know there’s absolutely nothing we can do to bulletproof ourselves from disease and that bad things happen in a fallen world,
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Risks and Benefits of the Vitamin K Shot vs. Oral Dose for Newborns
On day four of Gabe’s life, we found ourselves in the emergency room getting a quick blood test for bilirubin levels. The kid hadn’t had a bowel movement for 40 hours and was looking a little yellow, and since it was a weekend and labs were closed, the ER was our only option to make
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Are Babies and Toddlers Getting the Nutrients They Need?
For better or for worse, I’ve always turned down the Vitamin D drops that docs say infants should take from birth to six months. I might be completely wrong and haven’t done research on it for quite a number of years – which is not a good practice, given how quickly things can change! – but
Are Babies and Toddlers Getting the Nutrients They Need? Read More »
Natural Parenting During the First Week: You Still Might Have to Say NO, Just Not to the Child
First time parents quickly realize that suddenly being thrown into THIS new job – no training, no breaks, no going home at the end of the day to decompress and refresh – likely has the steepest learning curve they’ve ever experienced. It can be totally overwhelming just sustaining the new little life, let alone realizing
Cancer Fighting Vegetable Soup Recipe with an Asian Twist
My dad kicked chemo’s butt. There’s no denying it, the man weathered chemotherapy (for bladder cancer) with fewer side effects and more energy than anyone I’ve ever heard of. He had eight sessions of chemo, a six-hour infusion, then a two-hour infusion a week later, then a week off, repeating four times over twelve weeks.
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The Doc and I Talk Cancer…and I’m Not Buying It
Part of me feels dumb and slightly insane for publicly admitting that I think a doctor is wrong, someone who trained for an entire decade, has experience in the field, and says he has patients’ best interests at heart, and that somehow I magically know more than him – me, a random parent with an
I was Compelled to Buy Organics for My Cancer-Fighting Arsenal
To buy organic, or not to buy organic? Does it make a difference? It might as well be the existential, soul-defining question of our age, the way it’s debated hotly in popular media, academic circles, and blogs. Organics, of course, have zero to do with the soul but can sometimes feel as important as religion
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Cancer: You Are What You Eat
Yesterday I shared a little of our family’s story, of discovering that my dad had cancer, the shock and aftermath, and my drive to DO something to help him (plus the top 10 fruits and vegetables to fight cancer). Armed with the power of the Internet, I drove north to do some food education and
Monday Mission: Fight Cancer with Food
Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to reduce your risk of cancer by deliberately eating cancer-fighting foods. My dad has cancer. It’s still totally crazy to think about it, even though in another sense it’s become “the new normal” and we’ve had two months to get used to the idea. Time doesn’t make
I Called the Health Department on My Own Kids
Parenting is hard stuff. Balancing baby’s needs and new mommy’s needs is hard, figuring out when to start feeding solid food and what kind is hard, watching a child get sick is hard. Deciding on boundaries is hard, using consistent discipline is hard, facing down a stubborn 4-year-old who is screaming at the top of
Whooping Cough: Keep it to Yourself
This is part two of a three-part story about our family’s experience with whooping cough. The first part includes a video of what whooping cough sounds like. The third discusses the difficult vaccination decision and the problem of statistics. When I told my husband that I was writing next about the social aspects of having
How I Figured Out That My Kids Had Whooping Cough
Summer colds are no fun. But usually, they’re no big deal. This one was different: All three of our kids, ages 8, 5 and 23 months, had a terrible cough. None of them had a characteristic “whoop,” that the symptoms of whooping cough describe, but something about it was itching at the corners of my mind
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The Evolution of a Birth Plan, Three Kids Later
I was the mom in Bradley birth classes furrowing her brow at the stories of nursing toddlers, saying, “When my child is old enough to ask for mama’s milk, that’s when it’s been long enough.” Eighteen months later, I was the mama with the screaming child: “I want milllllllllllllk!!!!” He didn’t wean until two-and-a-half. So