Sometimes we get sick, and sometimes it’s our kids that get sick, either way it is difficult enough to take care of ourselves and the kids without having to run to the doctors and the pharmacy on top of it. Conventional medicines also have many unpleasant side effects and work to mask symptoms rather than heal. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to turn to our kitchens first to see what we can do for ourselves when we are feeling under the weather.

One item that most kitchen pantries have is honey. Raw or natural honey is best and it is great for your health. You can use it for coughs, infertility, allergies, and other many other ailments. In fact many in the natural remedy field recommend using honey everyday as a supplement to your diet; it helps your immune system and keeps you well. There is nothing better than a little preventive medicine right?

Apple cider vinegar is good for many sicknesses and illnesses. If you are sick it is helpful to restore your ph balance, and it helps your immune system. You will also want to add this to your everyday diet as it is helpful in several ways to your body. Make sure you buy organic apple cider vinegar to get the most benefits out of your purchase.

Another common ailment is constipation, and it can be quite painful and uncomfortable. There are two ways you can work with constipation. You can purchase karo syrup and take a teaspoon of this, or you can drink some prune juice. The karo syrup is also used for infants that are constipated. Either of these methods will help adults who constipation. In the future drink a lot of water with the fiber you consume. Getting lots of fiber from green leafy veggies daily will help too.

For the little ones at home they often get diaper rashes. These can pop up from being in the diaper too long, being allergic to chemicals in disposable diapers, having too much juice, or their body’s disagreeing with what they have eaten.

In any of these cases a good home remedy to use is corn starch. Corn starch is much like powder but without the scent. It is very dry and helps keep the rash and any sores dry. It can begin to heal the baby’s skin in little to no time. The cost is nominal for the amount of times you can use it, and the comfort it brings to baby’s bottom and mommy’s ears.

There is a nice plant you can keep around your house for cuts and scrapes. It is called an Aloe plant and it is absolutely a great investment. When your child (or you) get cut all you have to do is break off a little piece of the end of the plant and use the oozing ointment on the cuts. It is also good for sun burn, as it is in most commercial products that treat sunburn.

Another home remedy you can use is for colds and flu. Fruits have a lot of vitamin C in them and this vitamin helps to get rid of these illnesses. Invest in a juicer and drink a lot of juice and eat a lot of fruits to decrease your time being sick.

There are several products we keep in our house that are perfect for home remedies, using these products will keep you at home and more comfortable during your illness.

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It can be rather difficult to get kids to eat healthy foods these days. Healthy foods seem to be their least favorite and they would rather eat candy, cookies, ice cream, cakes, and all the other junk than sink their teeth into some good ole broccoli. It is even harder when society teaches them to eat foods not good for them. These societal lessons can be learned via television, commercials, school cafeterias, and even family events. So what can you do?

Fortunately there are some ways we can get them to increase the amount of healthy foods they eat without stressing the whole family. Some involve how we cook, some involve how we shop and some even involve how we eat, whichever the way, you can do it, and have your kids eating more vegetables and fruits.

One way is to make the foods taste good. They have many tasty competitors on the market so taste is important. There are a lot of ways you can do this without making them unhealthy. You can add cheese to a lot of foods to make them taste good. Most vegetables would be good with cheese, just melt a bit of cheese and pour it on top of the veggies. You can also add natural sweeteners to foods like raw honey or sucanat instead of using refined sugars. There are spices you can add to food too that do not have any MSG or salt in them. You have to read the ingredients carefully, but it will make the food you eat healthy and yummy.

You can also encourage them to eat fruits, especially their favorites. This isn’t usually too difficult to do because they are already sweet and/or sour and these are two tastes kids love. One thing you can do is switch up the fruits available to them. Get some apples and oranges one week, grapes and pears another week, and plums and peaches another week. By switching it up they are more apt to eat all of the fruits every week. Put them in a big bowl on the kitchen table or counter and make them accessible for snacks.

Another tactic that works is to eat healthy foods yourself. Like it or not we are our kid’s role models and if we want them to behave a certain way, we should behave that way as well. Whether it be foods we eat, things we say or the actions we take, they are going to learn from us. So, make sure you have healthy foods on your plate at meal time, and they see you eating them.

There is a lot to say about how you shop. The first thing to do is to not go when you are hungry or craving. When you do that you will fill the cart with everything possible, and most of it will taste really good, which could mean it is really bad for you.

Instead shop after dinner or another meal and try to shop around the perimeter of the grocery store to get fresh and healthy foods for your family. You might also try shopping a grocery store that offers a natural and organic area to shop for condiments, and boxed foods.

Last but not least check out some new and useful recipes. You can make honey pancakes, put chopped up broccoli in your macaroni and cheese and more. These are additional ways to make foods healthy even when they still taste good. Give it a shot and your kids will be eating healthy in no time.

It’s surprisingly easy to start elimination communication (EC) with your baby.  It’s really a matter of being observant about the times your baby naturally eliminates, then anticipating those times, cuing baby when he goes and catching his offerings.  Here are a few more pointers about the process.

Part of getting baby to pee in a container, rather than in his diaper, is to reinforce for him the dry feeling, and how that feels so much better than being wet.  This is the part about EC that does take more work.  An infant can pee as often as every twenty minutes, and if you’re using prefold cloth diapers, it doesn’t take much wee to wet the diaper.  You won’t catch every pee, and that shouldn’t even be a goal.  But you do want to get baby out of his wet diaper as soon as you can, preferably immediately after baby wets it.  You want baby to be dry most of the time, so even during times that you’re not trying to get baby to pee in the potty, you want to be checking his diaper at least every half hour and changing it as needed.  If you happen to catch baby in the act of wetting his diaper, you should cue him to strengthen his association between your cue and his elimination.

This brings up the question of whether you can successfully EC using disposable diapers or even some of those more high tech cloth diaper systems that try to keep baby feeling dry even when the diaper is wet.  You can EC with disposable diapers, but the challenge will be that since wet disposable diapers don’t feel wet your baby is less likely to develop a strong connection between peeing in a diaper and being wet or feel much difference between “wet” and “dry.”  You can still observe baby’s elimination functions and work with him on EC when you know he’s likely to go.

Once you start ECing your baby, you will tend to find more times that he’s likely to go and be able to anticipate those times.  You may have gotten started on a pattern of peeing right after nap.  But then you noticed baby also likes to pee right after nursing.  As you see more patterns, go with them.  You can also start trying to encourage baby to go by using your cue.  At first, you’re merely anticipating what he was going to do anyway.  But by using the cue, you create an association for him between your cue and eliminating, and this allows for you to encourage baby to eliminate at times he might not otherwise.  Some babies are really sensitive to the association, and others are less so.  Still, if you EC baby regularly throughout the day, most babies will begin to hold it at least for a few minutes.

Another thing to note is what your baby does right before he goes.  Maybe he squirms or wimpers.  Newborns especially seem to get their entire bodies involved in the process of elimination.  That can become baby’s way of communicating to you that he needs to go, and you can then take him to the potty.
Elimination Communication is a journey, not a destination.  It’s a fun way for you and your baby to communicate about an important function.  It’s another way for baby to let you know what he needs.  You should do it as long as you’re both having fun with it and it’s enhancing your relationship.

A woman’s body is the only one that can bring another human being into the world. Women are made specifically this way just so that they can birth another person. They can trust in their bodies to be able to come through the experience of childbirth as they were designed. With that in mind we need to focus on how to have more natural childbirths and thus have healthier moms and babies. Unfortunately society in general has forgotten to trust in a woman’s body to be able to birth a child. Instead we view pregnancy and childbirth as a medical condition and not a natural process.

The U.S. is 41st of the list for mortality of mothers giving birth in the world. This statistic has started to encourage many moms to consider natural childbirth options and shy away from medical intervention. Natural childbirth is when you use little to no medical intervention to birth your baby. This usually means no inducing, no medications, and can go as far as having a doula or a midwife present for the birth.

Here are some other reasons why natural childbirth is better for moms and babies:

There won’t be any bad reactions to drugs. Even though a large percentage of people do not experience serious side effects to drugs, there are still many people who do. When given so many drugs to birth your baby you are at risk to have bad reactions that will cause further complications to delivery.

Natural childbirth without medication helps to keep mom aware and functioning at high levels during her birth. Using numbing drugs that paralyze her from the waste down can mean the birth process lasts for much longer and mom and baby can get tired, leading to the possibility of a c-section.

Statistics show that reduced medical intervention means lower chances for difficulties during birth. This includes pitocin to induce contractions, breaking the water to start labor and even a planned cesarean.

Medical intervention seems to cause your labor to slow. Sometimes it can help to relax you so you can dilate better, other times it slows down the whole process putting you and the baby through a lot more work than is needed.

Because medical intervention seems to slow down the birthing process it also raises the statistic for cesareans. You see doctors only want you to birth so long, they say you get too tired and you can’t handle it, or they are worried about you. Many times they could be more worried about getting it over with so they can get back to their families. This is another reason so many people have planned cesareans.

Although for many people they are safe, cesareans are performed on 30% of pregnancies in the U.S. when they are only needed for 10%, and unfortunately even the smallest mistake in a cesarean can cause the mother or baby to have complications as tragic as death. With natural childbirth available, why take the chance?

Sometimes cesareans are completely necessary and the mom or baby would be at more risk not having one. But as you can see only about one third of cesareans are considered emergency, and the other two thirds are putting themselves needlessly at risk. Natural childbirth is the way nature intended and much more safe for mom and baby.

One major concern for a large number of stressed parents is getting their kids to bed at a reasonable time and without too much fuss. There are many natural ways to help your children get the sleep they need. Some require some schedule adaptation, some require setting right mood and some are all about supplements and diet. If you need to consider some natural sleep aids for children, try some these ideas to get your little ones to sleep.

You might consider putting your child on a regular schedule, at least for bedtime. It might be difficult the first few days, but it will work itself out usually. Try to choose a time you can adhere to each night, and stick to it as much as you can. After you have been working with the same schedule and all the sleep problems are taken care of, it won’t be so bad if you have to put them to bed a little later than usual.

Bedtime rituals are another good way to get little ones to go to bed. You can find some time to relax together, read some books, say their prayers, singing a soothing song, and saying good night, all while getting them to bed. This becomes part of their schedule and they will appreciate the rhythm of knowing what they are expected to do and what is going to be happening during this time.

Also when it comes to bed, you don’t want children to associate being naughty with bed time. If bedtime becomes a punitive action you may be setting yourself up for problems getting them to bed peaceably at other times.

As far as diet goes there are a couple of things you should avoid at the end of the day and maybe a couple of things that could help your little one get to sleep.

First make sure you aren’t giving them a lot of sugar at night. Things like chocolate and soda all have too many sweeteners and they could get jumpy and excited, not to mention the caffeine can prevent them from sleeping well for up to 18 hours. They could still fall asleep but won’t get the restful sleep they need. Try to give them healthier snacks before bed. Sugary snacks would be better to consume during the early part of the day.

If you want to give them something that will help them sleep, warm milk could be a good option. If nothing else is working you can also try natural sleep supplements for children like Hyland’s Calms Forte 4 Kids Sleep Aid. Rescue Remedy with 5 Bach Flower essences can also calm them and eliminate stress prior to bedtime making the transition easier.

In setting the mood for sleep you can try some of the following:

A good pillow, as adults we try to find something comfortable for us, and try out several pillows at the store, let your child do the same. Or buy them pillows specifically for children. The right pillow can make a huge difference for them.

Lavender oil or scent might help as well as music or a sound machine. You can find all of these at a local store. Just remember all kids seem to have trouble sleeping at some point, it just takes a little adjustment and you will be able to work it all out and all of you will get some sleep.

There are many benefits of breastfeeding, which is why there has been a great increase in the number of breastfeeding moms in recent years. Check out some these breastfeeding benefits to mom and baby:

The colostrum or “first milk” for the baby is very important for health and immune development. Colostrum is produced in the first few days after giving birth and is more condense and thicker than regular breast milk. The baby gets a lot of nutrients, vitamins and the benefit of your immune system in colostrum. Because of all the benefits of colostrum it is now available to adults in pill form in some health food stores. It is very beneficial for health.

Breastfeeding is better overall for the health of mommy and baby. The baby continues to get nutrients and vitamins that mom takes in everyday, and is able to work up immunities to allergies through mom’s milk. As for mom, her body will go back to normal faster after childbirth by simply breastfeeding. It is a natural process that that helps mom and baby ease into natural health and well being.

In the mother, the uterus goes back to normal faster, shrinking back to its pre-pregnancy size. Because it goes so much faster there will be some cramping, usually felt during nursing sessions but it is very mild usually helpful in bringing your uterus back to its pre-pregnancy state..

Many moms lose baby weight faster when they breastfeed. After having baby and by breastfeeding, you will burn more calories everyday to keep up with the baby’s diet. You are feeding someone else and maintaining your own body systems so this means the extra calories you burn will help you lose the weight you gained during pregnancy faster than if you were bottle feeding.

Babies often thrive when fed breastmilk. Formula has synthetic vitamins and minerals, made in labs, and they aren’t as healthy as the ones that come from mom. Nothing can replace breast milk, it is naturally one of the most healthy things we can ingest.

Babies also use breastmilk to develop an immune system in early weeks. During the first few months and weeks of baby’s life he or she has no immune system of their own. By breastfeeding they are still using mom’s until they are able to build one of their own. This means less colds, less infections and overall a healthier beginning to life.

Brestfeeding has also been linked to a lower incidence of SIDS. Although scientists aren’t quite sure why, studies show that babies who are breastfed have a lower chance of dying from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Some have theories as to why this is but the numbers show breastfeeding may very well offer protection against this mysterious phenomena.

A great bonding experience between mom and baby can be yet another large benefit. Because mom is the only one able to feed the baby for the first few weeks at least of life they have more time to bond. The baby’s eyes can only focus so far from their face, about 8-10 inches, which just happens to be how far from mom’s face they are when breastfeeding. The eye contact, skin to skin contact, and early interaction provide a wonderful bonding experience.

The saying “breast is best” is still alive after all this time. If you have to formula feed, don’t feel guilty, but if you can breastfeed, even some, it will be completely worthwhile for you and your baby.

When it comes to having children, one very important issue will be the decision on how your child will be educated. You will have many options to consider such as public funded schools, private schools, charter schools, and home school. Many parents don’t give homeschooling any thought, but there are many benefits to homeschooling that you should consider.

When your child goes to school it is normally 20 or more students to one teacher, at least in public schools. In some areas it can be up to 30 students for each teacher. This means that children get very little of the teacher’s undivided attention. Homeschooled children typically get one-on-one time and this helps them to learn for efficiently and retain what they learn.

Learning at the pace the child is ready to learn at is important. When it is just you and a couple of children you are able to take the time to let them learn things according to their own schedule and skills. Children all have different strengths and learning styles and don’t understand the same things at the same time. In public school there isn’t time to let the kids learn at their own pace, that’s why they get so much homework. Homeschooled children need not made to meet these unrealistic expectations.

Each child learns things a different way. Many teachers only teach one way. Some children are visual learners, some learn by listening, and some learn by doing. Some teachers only teach one way though, which leaves the rest of the kids out. One of these kids might be yours…

Homeschooling also allows for more life skills training. This is one of the best parts of homeschooling in fact. You see 18 year olds coming out of high school that have no practical life skills that will help them get a job. They usually feel they need to jump right into secondary education instead. Can they budget money for their new apartment, balance a checkbook, or fix things that break around the house? Many times the answer is no. For the last 16 years they have been too busy learning how to do algebra, trigonometry, and learning definitions of huge words they will never use. Homeschooling can allow you to teach your child more practical things they can actually utilize later in life. You can teach them about saving, investing and paying bills. You can teach them about how fix things around their home, like the car, the toilet and electronics or computers. Homeschooling can give them the advantage they need.

The absolute best thing about homeschooling though is the fact you get to spend so much time with your children. No teacher will enjoy your child as much as you, nor will they enjoy watching your child learn as much as you.

No parent ever says “I wish I hadn’t home schooled and spent that much time with my kids” Think about it, in the end what are going to say? Consider homeschooling, you won’t regret it.

It is generally believed that little babies have no control over the muscles used in elimination functions. The truth is that a newborn baby does have control over those muscles. Whether baby pees or poops in a diaper or in a container, the baby often does so consciously and deliberately. An observant and in tune parent can work with her baby on the timing and location of those elimination functions. The result is another way to bond with baby and the use of a few less diapers.

People who practice elimination communication (EC) do so on a number of different levels. You have the people who believe diapers are evil and get their babies completely out of diapers within a few months of birth. On the other end, there are parents who keep their babies in diapers for pretty much as long as is normally expected and they work on elimination communication on a part time basis. It is my belief that most of us will fall into that second category. While it is possible to completely potty train an infant, it is a rather time consuming process and you will have a lot of misses, and therefore messes, along the way. I want to establish right now that elimination communication is not an all or nothing proposition, and it does not mean you have to dump your diapers. You can successfully practice it part time. Any amount of time spent working with your baby on elimination will benefit both of you and will lay a good foundation for future potty learning. In other words, you have nothing to lose by trying.

You can start working with a baby on potty functions at any time. However, it is easier if you start before the baby is four months old. I’d recommend beginning somewhere around ten days to two weeks after baby’s birth. In my experience any earlier is overwhelming, though more die hard ECers say it’s best to start with the baby’s meconium movement. In the time that you’re not ECing your baby, you’re most likely noticing when the baby is wetting and soiling his diaper. Maybe baby pees right after nursing, or poops at ten every morning. A real good time for elimination is first thing after baby wakes up and right after a nap. When you start noticing a pattern over a few days, you can anticipate your baby’s elimination and be ready with a container of some sort.

The container can be a small potty, your sink, bathtub or toilet. It can even be a dry diaper. Remove baby’s diaper before he goes, hold him over your chosen container and wait. You can hold baby gently by his thighs and allow him to rest on your forearms. When baby eliminates, give him a cue. It can be a “psss” sound or a phrase. You will use the same cue each time you see baby eliminating. At first, you wait until baby eliminates to give him the cue. After a while, you can use the cue to encourage baby to go.

Once you catch one pee or poo, EC can get pretty addicting because it really is a lot of fun. Here are some important points to remember: This should be fun for both you and your baby. If it stops being fun, it’s a good idea to take a break for a few days. It’s not about catching everything or seeing how quickly you can get baby out of diapers. It’s about bonding and learning with your baby. It should never ever be punitive in any way. While some of us may indeed find we can confidently take our baby out of diapers much earlier than what’s considered normal, most of us will just steadily EC our babies a little here and there and one day, that ECing will morph into gentle potty learning for our toddler.

If your child gives you a glazed look when you suggest taking a walk in the yard or to the park to enjoy the outdoors he may have “nature deficit disorder.”  Author Richard Louv coined this phrase in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods.  What Louv was referring to was the reality that kids today have a declining interest in things that our natural.  That’s pretty frightening when you think about it, especially when well meaning parents may be the cause.

Gone are the days when kids were encouraged to go out and explore nature on their bikes or on roller blades, etc., with their friends.  Those were the days when the only restrictions or guidelines given were to be home for set meal times and before the street lights came on.

Today few parents are comfortable letting their kids ride their bikes beyond their own street, not alone to the nearest park or conservation area.  With every new media highlight of a child abduction, drug incident or worse, parents become more cautious.  The end result of all this caution is a generation of kids that have become distanced from their environment.

Not only have parents limited children’s access to natural environments, but the lure of television, computers and video games has also eaten up a significant portion of recreation time that might have been otherwise spent out doors.

According to the Playing for Keeps organization 80 percent of children under age 2 and more than 60 percent of children aged 2 to 5 do not have access to daily outdoor activities.  The National Parks Service reports that state and national parks are experiencing a 10 to 20 percent drop in visitation.  

In 2007, the Governor’s Outdoors Conference in State College gathered over 300 public health officials, directors of government agencies, park managers, nature-related outdoor group representatives and outdoor enthusiasts from across the country to look at the challenge of getting kids and adults outdoors and the reasons for these changing trends.

This gathering of outdoor stakeholders came up with a number of reasons and causes for this unhealthy trend. For one, it was determined that urbanization and school district’s concern about injury-related lawsuits contributed to the decreased number of easily accessible outdoor opportunities for kids.  Other reasons point to our unhealthy diets.  Health care workers notice a lack of stamina in our youth when confronted with outdoor activities and link this observation to lower levels of Vitamin D.

So if you think your child has nature deficit disorder what can you do?  Here are a few suggestions:

• Get involved on your school PTA and encourage the school to incorporate more nature trips into the school curriculum.
• Take community events out of the manicured local parks. Instead plan community events in nearby conservation parks.  Carpool families to the location and hold a barbecue and baseball game there.  The different wildlife to be seen in a conservation park will make the trip interesting and get the kids excited about the beauty that really is all around them.
• Hang bird feeders around your house and look at the different birds you can attract with different seeds.  Involve the kids in this activity and watch their interest grow!
• If you have space, plant a children’s garden or start planting in pots. Put them in charge of weeding and watering. When their seedlings bloom their excitement will be something to behold.
• On your next family vacation choose a location that has many outdoor adventuring opportunities.

Is your child suffering from not spending enough time in nature? Richard Louv, author of Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, asserts that many modern children do. In fact, other medical and mental health experts and a growing body of researchers are also concerned about how little time our children are spending in the great outdoors. Why should parents be aware of this? What are some of the problems that result from nature deficit and what can we do to prevent it in our children?

First let’s define the problem. As Louv sees it, when our kids spend less time in natural environments, the results are what we’re seeing more and more of in recent years: weight issues in children, attention problems, depression, anxiety and stress. According to Louv, anecdotal evidence as well as several studies point to a connection between the increasing amount of time our kids spend indoors doing more sedentary activities, and emotional, health and social problems.

To be fair, many parents are justifiably concerned about safety. But this comes at a price. Many of us who are parents today remember spending much of our own childhoods out of doors, even in less than perfect weather! Long walks through the woods with friends, bike rides through the neighborhood feeling the wind in our hair, day dreaming for hours on the tire swing under the tree, these were the stuff memories were made of. Our kids today are often shuttled from one activity to another, most of these taking place in structured environments, and many of them indoors. What are our kids missing out on?

The research points to several things. One is that spending time in nature can help relieve stress. It also helps kids focus more. One study conducted by the University of Illinois found that children with attention problems can focus better after outdoor activities. Other studies point to increased cognitive ability among kids who have access to natural settings and display fewer attention lapses (such as interrupting, not listening and distraction). Also important are the findings that unstructured play (the kind that takes place when kids roam the great outdoors) leads to enhanced emotional and social development. They get better at problem solving and getting along with other kids. Not to be discounted is the fact any Mom can testify to: that getting the kids outdoors makes them calmer, helps them eat better as well as sleep better!

So how do we make sure our kids are getting enough time outside, especially if we don’t live in a rural area? One way is to structure recreation around nature. Spending time in parks, taking walks on nature trails, hiking, mountain climbing, visiting lakes, rivers and beaches and picnics outdoors are some ideas. Even in urban areas you probably have access to city parks and botanical gardens. Build a treehouse in your backyard if you can. Encourage your kids to go outside and play as much as possible. Make it mandatory if they don’t seem to enjoy it at first. Like eating vegetables, they often will start to love it with time. If it’s not safe for your kids to play outside without supervision, then spend time outside with them. Go for walks outside as a family. Eat some of your meals outdoors if weather permits. Involve the kids in outdoor chores like yard work or hanging laundry. The benefits will likely be obvious to you after a period of time and are worth the extra effort.