Amy and Simon Blog

The Natural and Healthy Lifestyle we Discovered Along the Way…

18 years ago… July 24, 2017

Eighteen years ago, I had this brand new, sweet and healthy, blue-eyed, chubby little girl. After her first round of vaccines she stopped growing. At four months old I was told to start solids early to try to get her to gain weight; that just weakened her immune system and she got sick. She was diagnosed with Failure to Thrive soon afterwards. At this point she was so tired of throwing up after each feeding that she would nurse as little as possible and suck her fingers instead to avoid it.

On my own accord, I had began weeks earlier trying to change our families diet for the better to fix some issues. I took away dairy, then wheat, but it wasn't until I took out gluten that I noticed that the baby stopped throwing up after nursing. It only took three days of that and it was gone. After my daughter was no longer reacting to the food I ate, I worked several months to wean her from sucking her fingers and taught her to be a good little nurser. She was able to maintain her weight and slowly gain weight, she was weight checked every month and continued all her scheduled "well" visits. At a year old, she was only sixteen pounds, but she had good muscle tone and was content. She didn't start to gain weight at a more normal rate until I stopped vaccinating her after eighteen months old. She had a growth spurt years later, when I started detoxing her body of the vaccines.

At the same time my daughter stopped throwing up, I also noticed that our new gluten free diet had cleared my two year olds infant acne that he had since he started solids. This started the long journey to where I am today and the decisions I make about food, medicine, doctors, child- rearing, education, etc.

Over the years I have gone through times that I doubted what I had learned and I tried to just forget about it all, but there was always a physical or emotional side effect from someone making me go back to it. Believe me, it is not easy to be the odd one out, never fitting in, and having very little support.

So before you try to educate me with the latest research, please consider that I have already done the research and have seen the results myself. You can find research out there to support any outcome you would like to believe, but how do you know what is real? I live with the results everyday. Please don't try to dis-prove me, all you end up doing is discounting the last eighteen years of my life, with or without realizing it. We all try to do what is the very best for our children, I am no different. Please respect that and the things I do and I will do the same for you. I am all for knowledge and research, but do your own research, or at least research where the research is coming from. You'll be surprised at some of the sources and who funds specific research. I trust what I have learned from my own experiences as a mother and as a volunteer who has helped many new mothers. I've seen the results myself, not in theory.

 

naturalnews.com article about benefits of dark chocolate March 21, 2009

Thank you to Dotty at the E.C.H.O Foundation for finding and forwarding this article to me.

 

—— Forwarded Message
>
> hey amy, i was checking out your website and then…I saw this,
> Benefits of dark chocolate:
>
> http://www.naturalnews.com/025889.html
> May want to pass it on to customers or blog.
> Dotty
>
>
> —
> E.C.H.O.
> Educating on Children’s Health Options
> www.TheEchoFoundation.com
> ECHO the truth.
> Be a voice for your child

—— End of Forwarded Message

Posted via email from amyandsimon’s posterous

 

Georgia Parenting Conference (CERP sessions for Healthcare Providers) May 1-2 February 8, 2009

La Leche League of Georgia Annual Conference now registering!!!  $15 off if you register by March 1st!!!

Check it out!  The featured speakers are:

Marian Thompson, co-founder of La Leche League and Another Look

Dr. Bob Sears

Diana West, IBCLC

Lysa Parker, co-founder of Attachment Parenting Intenational

 

SEE YOU THERE!!!

 

Microwave Ovens

This came on one of my yahoo groups the other day, it was passed from another one…

 

Just sharing.

 

I received this email from our local Elgin Weston Price Chapter.  Out of

curiosity I will probably do this experiment myself to witness it with my

own eyes.

  _____

 

Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 08:06:52 -0800

Subject: Fw: [WestonAPriceElginIllinoisChapter] photo’s and short article

re: Microwave ovens

 

Subject: [WestonAPriceElginIllinoisChapter] photo’s and short article re:

Microwave ovens

Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 3:00 PM

 

I have known for years that the problem with microwaved anything is not the

radiation people used to worry about, It’s how it corrupts the DNA in the

food so the body can not recognize it. So the body wraps it in fat cells to

protect itself from the dead food or it eliminates it fast. Think of all the

Mothers heating up milk in these ‘Safe’ appliances. What about the nurse in

Canadathat warmed up blood for a transfusion patient and accidentally killed

them when the blood went in dead. But the makers say it’s safe. But proof is

in the pictures of living plants dying.

 

FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT

 

Prepared By: William P. Kopp

 

A. R. E. C. Research Operations

TO61-7R10/10- 77F05

RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a

 

Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven

 

From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical

studies, we can no longer ignore the microwave oven sitting in our kitchens.

Based on this research, we will conclude this article with the following:

 

1) Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term

– permanent – brain damage by ‘shorting out’ electrical impulses in the

brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].

 

2) The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products

created in microwaved food.

 

3) Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by

continually eating microwaved foods.

 

4) The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual [long term,

permanent] within the human body.

 

5) Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or

altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body

absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.

 

6) The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when

cooked in microwave ovens.

 

7). Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths

[tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in

America .

 

8). The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to

increase in human blood.

 

9) Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies

through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.

 

10) Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional

instability, and a decrease of intelligence.

 

Have you tossed out your microwave oven yet? After you throw out your

microwave, you can use a toaster oven as a replacement. It works well for

most and is nearly as quick. The use of artificial microwave transmissions

for subliminal psychological control, a.k.a. ‘brainwashing’ , has also been

proven. We’re attempting to obtain copies of the 1970’s Russian research

documents and results written by Drs. Luria and Perov specifying their

clinical experiments in this area.

 

Supplementation and Medication September 10, 2008

When it comes to most things natural is the way to go.  So what do you do about supplementation and when you are feeling ill?  Do you just grin and bare it?  Well, sometimes you should, but you don’t always have to.  We would like to introduce you to a variety of natural alternatives to your everyday vitamins and over the counter medicines (and some prescription ones too).  

Our first step into more natural was with prenatal vitamins while expecting our third in 2001.  This time instead of using the prescription ones, we used a whole foods based vitamin by Rainbow Light.  We also read about and began to use things to keep mom healthy during pregnancy, labor and birth.  For example, raspberry leaf tea, alfalfa and some omega-3’s.  

This was only the beginning of our more natural approach to supplementation and medication.  In the next few blog posts we will give you some information on these.  We’ll give you general information about them.  If you would like more information on a particular subject email us and we’ll help.  Also, if you would like us to include something else, just let us know.

 

Measles and the non-vaccinated child August 29, 2008

Filed under: Natural Living — Amy and Simon @ 6:57 pm
Tags: , , ,

There has been some recent news about how not vaccinating children is leading to outbreaks of diseases that are no longer around.  It seems to be causing concerns in many people.  Even Grandpa called concerned about his grandchildren.

We belong to a yahoo group called [jstsayno2vaccs] and wanted to share the discussion with you.  This is a yahoo group for people who don’t vaccinate their pets.  Dawn T has some great insight on the subject.

OK, so a friend asked me last night what about this article regarding the recent “outbreak” of measles among children who haven’t been vaccinated and what’s going to happen if no one vaccinates and measles “erupts” again and children die etc.  Then went on to ask me about polio and would I want to see people debilitated again from this horrible disease that crippled and killed before vaccines?  And I didn’t have an answer.  I get it about the harm and the dangers of vaccines.  My weakest point is around the public health consequences of not vaccinating.  I vaguely understand that the turn-arounds on some of these illnesses might be related to other factors and coincidental to vaccines but I’m confused and would like to be better prepared for these discussions.

 Please advise.

 Carol

Response to Carol:

What the news media (most of them anyway) is saying is that all the children who have gotten sick are unvaccinated, but it’s not true.  About half have been fully vaccinated, which means the vaccines are failing.  This happened a few years ago, too, when a whole classroom of 35 kids contracted measles, and all of them were fully vaccinated.  Turned to be a recently vaccinated child who was patient zero.

Measles was dying out before they started shooting people with it.  If you look at the case charts even the CDC has, you can clearly see the decrease in measles that then STOPPED decreasing after vaccines were introduced. Public health consquences are actually from vaccinating, not from STOPPING vaccinations.  Unfortunately, there WILL be consequences for some children when people choose not to vaccinate.  Because most generations have been vaccinated by this point, children who are not vaccinated are not getting antibodies from their mothers who are vaccinated the way those whose mothers actually had measles are.  As a result, when measles does hit, it is often striking younger children than the disease did before the use of vaccines. Ergo, this increases the risk of complications.  Also, measles vaccinations SENSITIZE some children to measles – i.e. make them more vulnerable to it – because of the way the vaccine assaults the immune system.  Another reason why so many fully vaccinated children are getting sick with measles.

They are seeing the same thing with chicken pox.  Children are getting it older and older rather than at an age when it is safest for them to contract it.  Plus, the vaccine is causing shingles in children, something that used to be seen pretty much only in older adults who were reaching an age to be immune compromised.  So their solution?  Create a separate vaccine for shingles.  So they are vaccinating for one disease (the virus that causes chicken pox and shingles is the same bug) and using two different vaccinations to do it.  And they are perpetuating chronic illness and immune destruction in so doing.

Of course, another public health consequence of vaccinating is that immunity from vaccinations doesn’t last a lifetime in many cases like natural disease exposure.  Children who have been vaccinated for chicken pox are still prone to the disease down the road, when they are older and at higher risk of complications.  Unlike people like me who had chicken pox as a kid and can safely be around kids now who have it as I’m permanently immune.  This may not seem too significant, but if you look at the big picture this means one thing – MORE vaccinations.  They are now recommending that these kids be vaccinated throughout their lives with chicken pox, rather than just as children, to make sure they don’t get it as adults since they didn’t have the disease as kids.  Of course, the more vaccines they are given, the greater the risk of adverse reactions and permanent damage, just like with vaccinating our dogs.

In essence, vaccinations have made measles WORSE than it was before.  My mother had measles.  She was a child during the time when people weren’t so ignorant and actually had measles parties (much like they had with my generation and chicken pox) so their kids would get it at the best age for less complications.  I asked her about measles once and she said she had never known a SINGLE child who contracted measles who died when she was growing up.  Very few kids actually died from measles in those days, because mothers knew how to take care of it at home.  They didn’t make the mistake people do today of getting doctors involved with every blessed case of everything.  (Anyone ever noticed that a HUGE percentage of kids who die from chicken pox even today are those who had doctors intervening and treating them with inappropriate drugs?)  Mothers used to use common sense when it came to illness.  Now, we live in a germ-phobic society who listens to doctors and kills and maims children on a mass scale.

We have to remember that most vaccines were invented for two reasons:

One is convenience.  It’s very inconvenient, especially this day in age of double income homes, for kids to be sick with anything.  This is why they actually came out with the chicken pox vaccine.  Had NOTHING to do with saving lives (chicken pox vaccine kills more than it saves anyway).  It was all about keeping people at work and not at home taking care of their kids if they got sick.  (Of course, they’ve traded being out of work to care for kids sick with measles, mumps and chicken pox for being out permanently taking care of kids with autism and other severe problems.)

Reason number two is money.  Pure and simple profit.  And they use fear mongering to boost those profits.  This is why they downplay the role vaccines play in killing and maiming.  This is why they continue to hard sell and legislate vaccinations.  It’s not about saving lives.  It’s about money. And because greed is at the base of it, they choose to ignore all evidence that vaccinations cause harm in the form of short-term and long-term illness AND that vaccines either fail to protect against the very diseases they are supposed to prevent, or that they CAUSE the very diseases they are supposed to prevent.  And that’s aside from the fact they are literally poisoning children and adults with the toxic chemicals and foreign proteins they are injecting into a body not intended to be poisoned in this fashion.

Oh, and I nearly forgot public health consequence number three of vaccinating – the perpetuation and spread of these diseases.  Children who have been vaccinated are CONTAGIOUS for about 3 weeks following vaccinations.  Even my mother, with her lack of formal education, knows this.  When we were kids and they vaccinated us for anything (I had a whole 3 shots by the time I was high school age), she was told by the doctors to keep us away from pregnant women, immune compromised individuals (i.e. sick people), younger children (toddlers and infant) and the elderly for at least 3 weeks because we were contagious.  This contagion factor hasn’t changed, but the doctors don’t mention it anymore.  As a result, mass populations of recently vaccinated children are exposing the whole population to disease.

I’ve often felt that parvo is only still around because of viral shedding in vaccinated puppies and dogs.  I’ve wondered if it would have died out by now if it weren’t for this perpetuation.  I wonder the same thing about measles, polio and a host of human diseases.  If you look at the CDC’s own info and charts, you can see the sharp drop in cases of illness until the use of vaccinations started.  Then things either climbed or remained constant from that point on.  Of course, with polio, they redefined it to make their information look better (reclassified MOST cases of polio as something else after the vaccine came out to falsely skew the numbers).

The reality is, and history shows, that viruses left alone (i.e. no vaccinations or antibiotics) decrease not only in number of cases but also in virulence. This the natural way of things.  The population not only becomes immune to that virus and pass that immunity down to the next generation, but the virus itself becomes less virulent due to natural mutations.  It is NOT in a viruses best interest to kill the host.  If the host dies, the virus dies.  If the host gets sick, and the disease can replicate, and the host does NOT die, the virus lives.  Natural selection at it’s finest.  It is only when man gets his greedy fingers into the mix that we see viruses perpetuated with continued numbers of cases and even INCREASE the virulence of those same diseases.  Not to mention the forced mutations man’s arrogance triggers.

And finally, as I already mentioned – public health consequence #3 is the deaths and injury vaccines cause every day.  Before the use of the chicken pox vaccine, there were about 3 dozen deaths a year attributed to CP, quite a chunk of which were in older children and adults who contracted the disease and are the highest risk population for complications and death. Anyone care to take a guess at how many deaths the vaccine is admitted to have caused annually since its introduction?  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s a lot more than the disease itself.  😉  And I’m talking only about the deaths they ADMIT are linked to the CP vaccine, which account for less than 10% either way you slice it (per FDA admission about the actual reporting of adverse reactions).

Incidentally, one of the things that amaze me is that people get all screwball about an “outbreak” even if no one dies.  The kids get sick with measles.  Woopee…..  Kids get sick with colds, too, but no one freaks out over it.  Main reason being, the pHARMa industry hasn’t developed a vaccine for colds yet, so there hasn’t been any fear mongering about how deadly colds are.  And, yes, colds DO kill some people every year, due to complications, just like measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc when they weren’t being intefered with.  So, should we all freak out because there’s a cold going around?

Oh, and with regards to polio specifically?  Polio is actually no more dangerous than the average flu or cold.  Most people who contracted it showed few or no symptoms.  Many could have easily written it off as a simple flu or cold, as a matter of fact.  It is only those who are in a weakened state for some reason that actually get the symptoms that the fear mongers try to claim are the COMMON symptoms, including paralysis and death. Paralysis and death with polio were no more common than complications and death with flu today.  And we all know, despite how the CDC rolls in pneumonia figures to the flu figures, that flu isn’t the killer they want us to believe it is.  😉  I’ve talked to people who were alive during the big polio outbreak.  Most of them knew NO ONE who developed complications or died from it.  Also, most of them were around people who were sick to some degree or another and they never got sick themselves.  Turns out that they only knew about “all those deaths” because of the news media, not because of personal experiences with multiple polio-related complications and deaths. 

Go figure.

Dawn T 

Response to Dawn T:

Turned to be a recently vaccinated child who was patient zero.

Unlike people like me who had chicken pox as a kid

My first bout with ckn pox was in kindergarten.. i had it pretty bad then. however, with primary immunodeficiency disorder, i do not build up antibodies to any thing.

She was a child during the time when people weren’t so ignorant and actually had measles parties (much like they had with my generation and chicken pox) so their kids would get it at the best age for less complications. 

we did this for my son,  and it backfired on us.. His Measles went into scarletina.. and he ended up in a quarantined ICU.  Even though i had Measles before. i ended up with the scarletina also.  they did not give medications and just  let it run its coarse.. they DID take a lot of Blood from ME.. though.. i was the only one getting jabbed.

Mothers used to use common sense when it came to illness.  Now, we live in a germ-phobic society who listens to doctors and kills and maims children on a mass scale.

actually.. i think that its more that in the older days.. *moms* stayed HOME and were not out earning a living.. so they could stay at home with the sick child.. when i was able to work, (back in kansas city, missouri, and much younger <g>) the mom’s brought their *too sick for school* kids to work.. and i would be exposed to the ckn pox, measles all over again.. and i DID get them over and over and over again. this was prior to AIDS so there was no *scare* of it then.

Reason number two is money.  Pure and simple profit.  And they use fear mongering to boost those profits.  This is why they downplay the role vaccines play in killing and maiming.  This is why they continue to hard sell and legislate vaccinations.  It’s not about saving lives.  It’s about money. And because greed is at the base of it, they choose to ignore all evidence that vaccinations cause harm in the form of short-term and long-term illness AND that vaccines either fail to protect against the very diseases they are supposed to prevent, or that they CAUSE the very diseases they are supposed to prevent.  And that’s aside from the fact they are literally poisoning children and adults with the toxic chemicals and foreign proteins they are injecting into a body not intended to be poisoned in this fashion.

this falls along the lines that Dr Laibow talks of with Codex and those behind it.. its more then money.. its still a greed.. for power.. much like the type of control that some tried to enforce on a race of people in Germany.. Codex was actually started by the same like people.. so i read. big pharma wants every one to be seeking them out to be healthy.. when they really are not.. not the money so much as it is the power over others. I think that is actually a greater danger.

Children who have been vaccinated are CONTAGIOUS for about 3 weeks following vaccinations.  Even my mother, with her lack of formal education, knows this.  When we were kids and they vaccinated us for anything (I had a whole 3 shots by the time I was high school age), she was told by the doctors to keep us away from pregnant women, immune compromised individuals (i.e. sick people), younger children (toddlers and infant) and the elderly for at least 3 weeks because we were contagious.  This contagion factor hasn’t changed, but the doctors don’t mention it anymore.  As a result, mass populations of recently vaccinated children are exposing the whole population to disease.

something that Codex really wants.. to prove their mission in life.. (sarcasm)

BUT a lot of doctors Now are NOT being taught this.. so shake the finger at their professors.. and the ones that write the text books.

just like it is with vets .. they are not taught about nutrition and digestion. they have a couple of paragraphs on it and nothign more..  and kibble mfgs buy up waste products from human mfg to make into kibble.

I’ve often felt that parvo is only still around because of viral shedding in vaccinated puppies and dogs. 

In humans, parvo is called *fifth disease*. ive had it 7 times.. all from exposures to kids that had the shots.. and that was from working in day cares.. i really did enjoy being a teacher.

The reality is, and history shows, that viruses left alone (i.e. no vaccinations or antibiotics) decrease not only in number of cases but also in virulence.  This the natural way of things.  The population not only becomes immune to that virus and pass that immunity down to the next generation, but the virus itself becomes less virulent due to natural mutations.  It is NOT in a viruses best interest to kill the host.  If the host dies, the virus dies.  If the host gets sick, and the disease can replicate, and the host does NOT die, the virus lives.  Natural selection at it’s finest.

Codex … *mission in life*

It is only when man gets his greedy fingers into the mix that we see viruses perpetuated with continued numbers of cases and even INCREASE the virulence of those same diseases.  Not to mention the forced mutations man’s arrogance triggers.

Main reason being, the pHARMa industry hasn’t developed a vaccine for colds yet,

and they wont either.. too much money is being made by them and their subsids.. for the otc remedies to *ease* the symptoms of the cold.. there is more money to be made to keep the cold around.. then to try to find the cure.  ever notice that those herbals / vitamins that actually help to keep people healthy are dwindling on the shelves? and some are no longer available???

such as kelp.. used to be able to use the whole product to supplement lower iodine  now its split up and in the wrong dosages.. too high in some portions and too low in others.

Most people who contracted it showed few or no symptoms.  Many could have easily written it off as a simple flu or cold, as a matter of fact.  It is only those who are in a weakened state for some reason that actually get the symptoms that the fear mongers try to claim are the COMMON symptoms, including paralysis and death. 

Except there are actually people these days that ARE disabled .. they have the problems with mobility and when tested, they are finding they had contracted Polio as children, showed no symptoms THEN (so they did nto know they had it) but they have major problems now.  its termed PPS.. or post polio syndrome. its not a label given lightly to describe some vague complaints.   its quite crippling now to these people later in life.  While they had no symptoms.. they did have the damage.

Josephine M

Dawn T Response:

Every issue you mention, Josephine, goes back to one thing. The individuals were not healthy to begin with. These are the types of people who would benefit greatly from homeopathy and other natural modalities that repair epigenetic damage that cause weakened immunity and vulnerable bodies. (Not to mention their children need that treatment to undo that damage plus whatever has been done directly to them since conception.) Individuals such as yourself are prime examples of why homeopathy and other such modalities are so important. A body that doesn’t form immunity from natural exposure is NOT healthy and not functioning properly. Whether that is due to things YOU were exposed to as a small child or damage handed down by your parents, I can’t say. Unfortunately, even with treatment, you will probably never be healthy (anymore than I probably ever can be), but the next generation could be a step better than our compromised systems. With treatment of each generation, improvement continues.

But as long as the poisonings continue, there will be only further degradation; no improvement is possible in that situation.

We see this same issue in dogs who come from kibble fed, vaccinated and otherwise poisoned lines. They are more prone to disease, less likely to fight off disease naturally, have more problems with healing, and more problems overall. And that is getting worse with each generation that passes. As some lines are cleaned up by NR breeders, those problems gradually decrease. It takes generations to clean up the mess PR breeders and conventional vets have created.  There’s no reason it would be different for people. But unlike NR breeders, most humans haven’t gotten to the point where they understand the damage they are doing to themselves by giving vaccinations to “prevent” acute disease, thereby causing chronic disease in exchange as well as adding to generational toxicity even further. We compound that in the human children in society. Each generation is getting sicker and sicker. There’s no coincidence in that. 

There has been great success in treating those who had contact with polio who later show damage from it using homeopathy. It’s no different than dogs who have long-term damage to their myelin from distemper or distemper vaccine (which causes it more than the disease itself) or other such issues. Polio vaccine is, in itself, a serious killer. And it disables more people than the disease itself has.  Make no mistake about it. Vaccination is NOT the answer. Building the body’s natural defenses is. Vaccination weakens the body, and that weakness is handed down to the next generation in the form of epigenetic damage. And each generation gets sicker than the one before as a result. It’s a vicious cycle that MUST be stopped before humans destroy themselves.

Shoot, the AR and environmental wackos don’t have to worry about us too much. We’re systematically wiping ourselves off the planet anyway by poisoning ourselves to death with vaccinations, poor diets, pesticides, medications, you name it. All they have to do is be patient. 😉 God simply didn’t intend for our bodies to be so badly abused. The body, whether human or otherwise, can’t take years and generations of chemical and malnutrition abuse and not break down.

We can’t create health by poisoning the body or starving it of the nutrients it needs. Fact of life. 😉

Dawn T

Response to Dawn T:

Hi Dawn;

You are so “right” on this issue!

I happen to live in the area where this measles outbreak of 200 cases is occuring. They are blaming it on one UNVACCINATED person from another Province who visited a family that also did not believe in vaccines!

Anyway, I don’t know if anyone caught the “Nova” program last night on PBS, “The Ghost in Your Genes” very informative.. one of the research projects they did with mice was to show the difference in offspring with “nurturing mothers” vs ones that did not nurture their young. Also there was another project on diet and how you could switch off those genes that cause disease “‘it really brought home and validated all that we as NR breeders are doing!!!

Here is a quote from the program:  Randy Jirtle is director of the Laboratory of Epigenetics and Imprinting at Duke University and is a professor of radiation oncology at the school’s medical center. His groundbreaking research with agouti mice has revealed that a mother’s diet during pregnancy can influence gene expression in her offspring by altering the epigenome. Since obtaining his M.S. (1973) and Ph.D. (1976) in radiation biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jirtle has published over 150 scholarly articles and registered three patents. He currently serves on the editorial boards of three scientific journals and manages the epigenetics Web site geneimprint.org, which focuses on the quest to understand how environmental factors can affect human disease.

You can view the program here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/

Cheers

Sandra

Another response to Dawn T:

Wow, Dawn… that’s a keeper! Thanks!

Martha

Response to Martha:

Thanks, Martha. Some issues, I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut. And being 

a detail person, I can’t usually sum these things up in a few words. *G* I 

hope I didn’t overload anyone. 😉

Dawn T

 

Where have we been? August 22, 2008

It seems like forever since we posted last.  Sorry about that, it seems as we get closer and closer to our due date, our days get shorter and shorter.  We have about six more weeks.  We have a lot to post before we can get to our present everyday lives.  We wanted to give you a little outline of what you can look forward to reading about on this blog.  

After the schooling thing happened we became blessed with our third pregnancy, right before we moved back to our second home (after we finished helping out the family business).  This is when we dove-in to learning all we could about being healthy.  So our next topic will be about whole food vitamins, homeopathy, essential oils, herbal remedies etc.  We’ll discuss some of the products we like best and still use today, like Rainbow Light, Body Balance, Young Living products, Traditional Medicinals, Garden of Life, Bach flowers etc.  And some of the new products we use today, like Zrii, Xocai, Nordic Naturals, etc. (See other links at the right.)

 This is a chronological list of our life lessons we would like to share on our blog: 

  • Homebirth:  We had our third child at home, then the fourth, and then the fifth and now are planning for our sixth homebirth
  • Colic:  Don’t be fooled there is a reason for it.
  • Soy:  The very un-healthy “health food”
  • Breastfeeding and La Leche League:  Amy became a LLL Leader.
  • No more “Well-Baby” visits:  Our last trip to the pediatrician.
  • Stuff, who needs so much:  Living through a hurricane or two, or three.
  • Raw Feeding:  The natural pet diet.
  • Chiropractic:  Is it just for injury?
  • Autism awareness:  There are just too many kids on the spectrum, why?
  • Respiratory distress:  Sounds the same in infants as well as adults.
  • Microwaves: don’t use them at all!
  • Fluoride:  a bi-product of the aluminum industry
  • Real Milk and other raw foods
  • Living with extended family:  Welcoming parents to live with us.
  • Neurological Chiropractic
  • Fish oil supplements:  Why so important?
  • The grieving process is important: Things don’t get better until you do it.
  • No sugar + no grains + no dairy =happiness
  • We really do belong for a reason:  Learning our own religion.
  • Giving is only giving, when nothing is expected in return
  • Naturopath, Homeopath, Chinese Medicine and other alternatives
  • Quantum biofeedback: non-evasive testing
  • Xocai:  the healthy chocolate?
  • Applied Kinesiology
  • Mercury:  how much can one really get in utero?

We also asked the kids yesterday to tell us what are the things that we do differently from their friends’ families.  In addition to the weird way we eat and the things above this is what they came up with to discuss: 

  • No TV or videogames in our home
  • No candy and how we handle holidays, especially Halloween
  • Music always available
  • No rewards, just expectation to do what is right

This is just a little preview of what is to come.  There will most likely be other topics stuck into the list; as we re-live the events it is certain more of our life lessons will surface.   If you have any questions or comments you are always welcome to email us at amyandsimon@amyandsimonblog.com.  We are happy to answer any questions about past and future topics or if you come across a product and what to know our thoughts.  Whatever, we are here to help in your journey to a more natural and healthy lifestyle.

We hope to compile an email list of those interested in a more in-depth knowledge of the topics we discuss.  Please let us know what you want to know about!  If you are interested in being added to the list, just shoot us an email.

Have a great day and we’ll try to get some writing in before #6 decides to join us.  Remember to live the life you love and love the life you live!  

 

Looks like a “must see”… August 6, 2008

I just received this link from a yahoo group I belong to.  I can’t wait to see it myself!  

You’ll have to watch the film trailer and then find out where you can see the movie in your area.

http://foodmatters.tv/trailer.html

 

Starting the gluten-free, dairy-free diet… July 31, 2008

Well back in 1999, it was not as easy to start this kind of diet. The resources and products were not as available are they are today.  Hindsight is 20/20, back then we thought this was a bad thing, but not true.  We were basically forced into eating healthier because to have a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, you have to basically eat whole foods made from scratch.  Today you can go to your local grocery store and get prepared foods that are gluten-free, dairy-free, but full of bad ingredients.  You really have to read labels if you want something healthy that is already prepared for you, or you could just start from scratch with healthy ingredients.  

So we began to buy healthier things to eat and learn to make food from scratch.  We found some good resources for gluten-free recipes.  I still refer to The Gluten-free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy by Bette Hagman.  Then we read about candida and it’s connection to gluten.  We started to look into and follow some of the advice of The Body Ecology Diet, by Donna Gates.  Not long after eating this way did we all start to notice changes in ourselves. We started to feel healthier and look healthier.  Once that started happening we started researching everything!  We wanted to know more.  And one thing would lead into another thing and then another…  

For example, one thing we discovered was that regular disposable diapers, besides being bad for the environment, they contained dioxins, that are linked to cancer and infertility.  AHHHH!  We switched to cloth diapers.  From that we discovered a product called Bac-Out.  It was recommended for cleaning the diapers along with their premium laundry powder. It is a natural enzyme stain remover by a company called Biokleen. Which actually now produces a whole line of natural cleaning products.  We still use the Bac-Out and laundry powder as well as all the new products that have come out in the last nine years. They have glass cleaner, paint thinner, a substitute for W-D40, carpet cleaner, toilet cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, degreaser, dishwashing soap, dishwasher soap, etc.

Another example is when we became pregnant with our third child.  Someone said, “If you don’t want to have stretch marks stop using soap.”  Which after a few days of not using soap the stretch marks faded.  Why?  Well, we found out most soap is not good for you; the ingredients take the elasticity out of your skin.  Don’t worry we use soap, and all other hygiene products; we just use the natural form that won’t effect us.  Basically we use Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap, Giovanni Shampoo and Conditioners, Thai Crystal Deodorant, some Burt’s Bees products (but read the labels on these, they have just been bought out by Clorox), Jason’s or Young Living toothpastes and mouthwashes,  Eco-Dent floss, Fuchs toothbrushes, we can go on, but if you want some good alternatives to everyday products we have not mentioned, just let us know.

But the learning didn’t stop there.  And it still hasn’t stopped.  There is so much information to learn, so much research to be done.  We will do our best not to leave out anything we have learned.

 

How did we come to question “authority”? July 29, 2008

I’ll answer this one alone I think.  For me, Amy, I would have to answer SUPPORT, SUPPORT, and SUPPORT.  I didn’t realize how important a good support system was until I began to build one.  My first support came from a required class that Simon and I had to take for marriage preparation back in 1995.  It was a Natural Family Planning (NFP) class taught by Couple to Couple League International.  In the class we learned about NFP, a natural birth control method this is just as effective, if not more then the conventional methods and has no side effects.  We also learned about ecological breastfeeding, which is feeding on demand with no supplements or pacifiers and as long as is desired by both mother and child and the importance of natural birth.  In the class we needed to put what we learned into practice (obviously not the part with the babies) over a few months.  It was our first taste of doing things the natural way and it made sense to us.  Well, with this class there comes a bimonthly newsletter (now it’s a magazine) that gives recent information, examples of NFP situations, a section for those who have children and lots of articles from just everyday people who write in with their experiences.

This is where I first had my support from when starting a family. Simon used to have a job where he traveled pretty much 100% of the time, so he would be home a few weekends of the year, not including vacation time.  So after our first child arrived in 1997 all I had for support was this little newsletter and my own instincts. (My mother had passed away before Simon and I met in college and my siblings are all older then me and we all love each other, but keep to our selves for the most part.)  Now I don’t think I would have listened to these instincts had I not taken the NFP course and been exposed to “natural” thinking.  I would read the newsletter from cover to cover as soon as they arrived to keep myself up to date and feel like there were other people in the world that did things this way.

With the help of this support I was able to raise my child by following my instincts mostly, but I was still not questioning “authority”.  I took my son to his scheduled doctor appointments, gave him his vaccinations, believe they knew what they were talking about when it came to medical things (i.e. his eczema).

After having our second child in 1999, Simon decided to switch jobs.  This one didn’t have quite so much travel.  All of a sudden, I had some more support.  My system was growing.  To make the commute easier we decided to move as well.  I had decided that I wanted to attend a La Leche League meeting with my niece who was expecting so she would nurse her baby too.  I wanted her to experience the bond I had with my children.  Well, my niece lost her baby at 11 weeks, but something in me decided I would go to the meeting anyway.

Walking into my first La Leche League meeting was like coming home.  For the first time since becoming a mother I felt as if I belonged somewhere.  I always did things my own way based on what my instincts told me to do, so I was very different from my siblings.  Now I was in a room of mothers doing the same thing. Thus, my support system grew even more.  I became confident in what I was doing (I wasn’t alone anymore) and I learned so much more was out there.  This was all happening the same time my daughter was suffering with her weight gain.  Now I had the confidence to trust myself because I wasn’t alone anymore.  I knew in my gut it wasn’t right what they were saying.  I was a good parent and I could figure out what was going on with my daughter.