Natural Parenting; Part 1 - Diet and Drugs

Many people find that natural remedies don't work. They may mock and laugh at natural remedies, because they think "they're useless". They need something "strong"... The thing is, though, that living the "nature only" or "crunchy" lifestyle is all about prevention, whereas living the "pill junkie" lifestyle is more about allowing chronic illness to surface by doing whatever you want, then managing the illness with magic pills. Once you let it get to that peak, natural remedies typically don't work so well, especially if they aren't used properly. Snake oil just doesn't cut it. (Did you know that the original snake oil was actually an excellent natural remedy? Snake oil got it's bad name because a doctor wanted to duplicate the natural remedy's original recipe, but his attempt failed miserably. So he kept selling the useless knock-off, which was essentially the first pharmaceutical, until people figured out they'd been had. Thus, the bad "snake oil" reference of today stands strong. But it's a reference of a pharmaceutical poorly ripping off a natural remedy that worked, while sales continued for profit. This still happens today.)

If you live naturally and use natural remedies on a regular basis, as well as eat clean and healthy, your ailments won't be so bad or frequent that you "need strong drugs".
In fact, most extreme ailments come out because of always using pharmaceuticals and eating the "traditional American diet." Then, to top it off, taking drugs makes you need more drugs to manage the first drug's side effects, and before long, you become dependant on those drugs. It's a vicious cycle. (There are some conditions that would have very dangerous withdrawals or consequences if drugs are abruptly halted, if this is the case, and you want to get off of them, talk to a Naturopath to find out how to ease off the meds. I wouldn't want to talk to a medical doctor, they will not completely help you with moving away from buying the products and services that earns their living, plus they were taught that their way is the only way. Speak to Naturopaths only, for weaning off of drugs.)

In order to have a natural alternatives lifestyle work for you, start by eliminating the pharmaceuticals. As much as you can, as slow as you need. This is a lifestyle change, not a quick fix for instant gratification.

Pic used with permission from my friend Brittani Weirath

Most people might wonder what this would have to do with kids, as most people try to be as natural and organic as possible with them. Think about what you've given your kids:

• Pitocin and pain relievers during delivery (drug)
• Medicated otc diaper cream (drug)
• Children's Tylenol (drug)
• Oragel (drug)
• Vaccines (drug)
• Vics vapo rub (or similar) (drug)
• Cough medicine (drug)

If none of those things apply to you, that's great! Sadly, though, we've become so accustomed to these products in North America that we don't even comprehend the fact that we've been drugging our babies pretty much since birth. In fact, some folks may even get offended by the idea that they're doing that, while they're doing it! Even more sad, none of those drugs are even necessary. Kids don't need a plethora of drugs before they can walk in order to live and thrive. That's ludacris. All that does is make them into life long pharmaceutical customers dependant on drugs for every little discomfort. We should be showing and teaching them to live healthy without any drugs at all. Save the drugs for those life threatening moments as they come... Which won't be very often, if any, during a drug free, healthy life.

The next step to living the natural life is to change your diet. Start by reading the ingredients instead of nutritional information. That's what actually counts. Think of it this way...

Would you eat poop?
No?
How about if I add every vitamin and mineral you need for the day, would you eat the poop now?
No?
Why not?
Because it's still poop.

Same thing with packaged food.

We're trained to read nutritional information in order to care for our health.

But in reality, that package of food that has all kinds of added vitamins is garbage because of what it's made of, (the ingredients). It really doesn't matter what vitamins have been added to it in a lab.

Poop with added nutrition is still poop.

Start reading and learning to understand the ingredient list, rather than nutritional information. A good starting point is knowing that all lists are ordered by highest to lowest quantities. So the first thing on the list is what it's mostly made of, continuing on in chronological order, making the last thing on the list what there is the least of.

I don't even look at nutritional information any more, it is irrelevant for healthy eating. I don't want vitamin fortified garbage for supper. Try sticking to as much real, whole foods like fresh fruit and veggies as possible. The less ingredients, the better. An apple is just an apple. Perfect. But that packaged apple pie is 20 different things, and half of those things are only found in a lab. I mean, what grocery store carries Sodium Propionate, Diglycerides, and Sorbitan Monostearate? Those are just part of the plethora of ingredients included in "Little Debbie's apple pies."

Yum....(not really).... Learn to make that apple pie yourself, with single ingredient foods. It's worth the effort and cheaper, too, because you can make much more! If you're just not one for baking or cooking, train yourself to watch ingredients closely. If you don't know what it is, don't eat it!

Another thing to watch out for is wording.

A package claims organic and non GMO, plastered proudly all over it. Looks good right? Look closer. It could still have dyes, harmful ingredients, lots of sugars, sweeteners, fructose, glucose, trans fats, etc, etc... You get the picture. Don't go by what packages proudly present on the front. We read the fine print on our contracts, we should do the same on our food. This may take some extra time in the grocery store at first, but once you pass that learning curve, you will be a pro! Always know what you're eating!

Once you wean off the drugs and change your diet, you'll be left feeling healthy and clean! (Although, there may be an initial detox period where you feel like crap while the toxins leave your system!)

Now, one thing I've noticed in this world, is that I often see parents eating decent food, but giving their kids junk because that's all they'll eat. Parents are sometimes more worried about filling their tummies than feeding them right... Good thing that garbage "kid-friendly" food has added vitamins! Since it does, there's no need to worry... But you'll be wondering why your kids are always sick, and blaming every episode on school, daycare or recent outings.

Many parents start giving babies junk food before they even know what it is, or what they're "missing".

Then they ask for advice on how to get their kids to eat healthy and drink water... My 3 year old rarely wants anything but water, and he absolutely loves super foods, especially in smoothies he helps make! My secret...I didn't give him anything but water or healthy food until he learned about and asked if he could have something. I took some fruit, and ran it through my blender. That is what he considers juice now, rather than sugar and dye laden fluoride water, because that's all he's known. Recently he's had some sugar water while we visit people, but he hasn't really even liked it. It's only preferred by most kids because sugar is just as addictive as drugs. And babies are set on an addictive lifestyle path right from the start, because parents don't want them to be "left out" when they don't even know what they're being left out of.

It's the same thing with feeding them. If you don't give a baby ice cream while others are eating it, the baby won't care. Don't get babies addicted to junk food for life, before they even know what food really is... If you're kids are older, try getting them to help you experiment with making super food smoothies. Our family's favorite is mixed frozen fruits, avacodo, banana, elderberry syrup, (we use a vegan version of fish oil,) chia seeds, frozen kale (mainly because we're vegetarian), and occasionally a bit of good yogurt in a sugar-free almond, coconut or cashew milk base. (Cow's milk is cow's milk, for baby cows. When it's factory farmed, it's all kinds of nasty; pus, antibiotics, other animal vaccines, etc. Plus, we don't need it at all. We can't even fully absorb the calcium as it is, it's almost pointless to drink. Research more about it and cut it from your diet... It could be the culprit of many difficulties and stubborn ailments... You'll be glad you did! We are!)

Once you cut out the junky food and pill plethora, you'll still find yourself and your kids needing treatment occasionally, but nothing at all like while drugs and bad diet keep you chronic. For those times of ill health, keep an eye out for my upcoming articles, where I'll tell you how I treat various normal childhood ailments!

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I am not a doctor or an naturopath, so please use my methods on your own accord. If you're unsure, reach out for multiple opinions and use those as a springboard to research, research, research!

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Up next: How I Best My Children's Colds and Flus Naturally