Natural Family News

My husband has a blog where he writes about various things that amuse or annoy him. His most recent blog contains both things that amuse and annoy. There’s a long discussion on medical statistics that continue to deny that injuries are caused by vaccines. While this seems like a serious subject, there is some humor. Take for instance this fictitious exchange between a doctor being paid by the auto industry for consulting:

Patient: “Doctor my fo0t really hurts, because that car ran over it a couple of hours ago. Can you tell me what’s wrong with it?”

Doctor: “According to the X-Rays you have three broken toes and some torn ligaments. But I don’t believe it was the car’s fault. I think you must have hurt it some other way.”

Patient: “But doctor the CAR RAN OVER MY FOOT, and right after that my foot was throbbing in pain.”

Doctor: “Yes, but statistically speaking cars don’t cause f0ot injuries. I am pretty sure your fo0t hurts because someone stepped on it or maybe you stepped on an uneven surface after the car ran over your f0ot.”

Patient: “It’s got to be the car, nobody stepped on my f0ot! A CAR RAN OVER IT!”

Doctor: “There’s just no way that a car running over your fo0t could have caused those broken toes. I have never seen that happen before. I am sure it must have been something else. You probably stepped on your own f0ot without realizing it.”

Patient: “Arghhh!”

To read the entire article, visit his blog.

As parents, we are all concerned about what our children are eating and how it affects them. Growing number of parents are turning to organic foods over concerns about pesticide levels in conventionally grown foods. A recent study shows high levels of pesticides in the bloodstream of children fed conventionally grown foods. However, these levels drop very quickly when the children’s diets are switched to organic produce. The government and representatives of the food industry say that it’s nonsense to be worried, that there is no problem with these pesticides, but, come on– how many times have they been wrong before? You can read more about this growing trend here.

This article is about the trend towards patient choice cesarean sections, and it just riles me. The whole concept of making birth “convenient” for the parents is nuts. Babies are not convenient creatures. They want to eat at all sorts of inconvenient times, have messy accidents, and sleep at irregular intervals. If you can’t be bothered by waiting for your body to go into labor, that’s not a good sign that you’re ready to raise a child. The other thing I found particularly interesting about this article is that it mentions the risk of death from a vaginal delivery, but not the risk of death from a cesarean. You can read it for yourself here

Hershey’s, the maker of Milk Duds, is apparently bothered by the play on words employed by the nursing wear company Milkdudz, and they have complained to the US Patent and Trademark office. All I can really say is – be serious. It’s not like this is a competetive product – another brand of candy that will be sitting on the shelf next to theirs. You can read about it here.

HOMEMADE BABY LAUNCHES WITH LINE OF FRESHLY PREPARED, ORGANIC, KOSHER FOODS FOR DISCERNING PARENTS OF INFANTS AND TODDLERS

Unique Meal Integrity System Tracks Each Ingredient “From Field To Fingers”
To Ensure Purity And Safety Of Each Serving

Delicious Dishes Available Exclusively Through Homemadebaby.Com Retail Website For Greater Convenience, Freshness And Quality Control

Los Angeles – October 24, 2005 – Homemade Baby, a new company focused on health and nutrition for babies and toddlers, today announced the company’s launch and the debut of its initial product line of freshly prepared, organic, kosher baby foods. Using only seasonal, 100% organic ingredients, Homemade Baby creates delicious dishes for children aged 6 to 24 months. Each dish is individually prepared, slowly kettle-cooked and pureed under a Chef’s supervision and delivered fresh to a parent’s home the next day. The announcement was made by Homemade Baby founders Theresa Edy Kiene and Matt Kiene.

“Research suggests that life-long eating habits are established during a child’s first three years,” said Theresa Edy Kiene, who co-founded the company with her husband, Matt Kiene, after the homemade foods she prepared for their three children were a hit with family and friends. “By creating great-tasting, nutritious and natural foods for babies and toddlers, Homemade Baby helps parents give their children a head start toward making smart food choices for life.”

Although Homemade Baby will launch with six varieties of vegetarian baby food, the product line will expand over the next year to offer new choices as well as seasonal specialties. Homemade Baby dishes are available in three distinct textures – So Smooth, Good Mushy, and Kinda Chunky. The first stage, So Smooth, features smoothly blended, single-ingredient foods for the beginning eater such as Just Apples, Just Pears, Just Peas and Just Squash. The Good Mushy stage is for babies who are ready for a more adventurous texture and taste, and includes varieties such as Piwi (pears and kiwi) and Squapples (roasted squash & apples). The Kinda Chunky stage is created for older babies and toddlers who need to exercise their developing chewing muscles and includes recipes such as Baby Tex Mex (corn, kidney beans, peas, carrots and brown rice) and Yummy Yammys (sweet potato & lentils).

Homemade Baby maintains strict, comprehensive records during the production of its foods, according to its Meal Integrity System. Through the Meal Integrity System, the company can trace each ingredient inside each serving all the way back to the specific fields in which those ingredients were grown – literally, “from field to fingers.” All ingredients for every Homemade Baby dish are certified organic (by Oregon Tilth) and kosher (by Kosher Overseers of America: KOAOA). Homemade Baby purchases its ingredients from only the most reputable vendors, whose suppliers comply with the Fair Trade Laws, and then accepts only ingredients that are certified organic, kosher and GMO free. Every meal is prepared and manufactured according to the HACCP program, the strictest safety system implemented by the FDA. In addition, a portion of every batch of food that Homemade Baby manufactures is submitted to a professional laboratory for microbial analysis to certify an absence of microbes before the entire batch is released for sale.

“Because of these high standards, health-conscious but busy parents who might wish they had the time to cook tasty, nutritious meals for their children can trust Homemade Baby to do the cooking for them,” said Matt Kiene.

Homemade Baby is sold exclusively over the Internet at www.homemadebaby.com in order to offer 24-hour shopping convenience to busy parents. The company will initially focus on the Southern California and Nevada regions. The dishes are kept fresh during shipping via a customized, biodegradable 10-degree gel pack inside unique high-tech insulation to provide a constant 35 to 40 degree refrigerated environment during delivery. All of Homemade Baby’s packaging is recyclable.

Homemade Baby has enlisted an all-star team of consultants to advise the company regarding food safety and nutrition, including internationally known microbiologist and food safety expert Melissa Calicchia, M.S.; nutritionist and USC School of Pharmacy faculty member Dr. Roger A. Clemens; veteran food technologist Dr. Kathleen Nelson Feicht; Cal Poly food science and nutrition professor, and renowned organic certification expert Dr. Joseph Montecalvo, Jr.; and certified nutrition specialist and national lecturer Debra K.W. Topham, MS, CNS.

The Homemade Baby kitchen is located in Culver City, California, and features a baby “tasting room” where parents are encouraged to bring their infants for a free sample of the latest Homemade Baby creations. Homemade Baby believes that all children deserve good nutrition, and plans to donate 15% of the food it prepares to charities serving undernourished children.

Media Contact:

Taffy Miller
mPRm Public Relations
323-933-3399
tmiller@mprm.com

This was really exciting news to me. The Green Guide, which is an excellent resource for healthy living tips, eco-friendly product advice and green home news is having an open house next week from October 24-October 30. ALL their online content is FREE to browse for any 24-hour stretch during that week. I really recommend checking it out, and if you like what you see, think about subscribing. Visit the Green Guide and check out their open house here.

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (never knew there was such a thing) has released a statement which questions the AAP’s recent findings on SIDS. Instead of encouraging pacifier use, it encourages co-sleeping and breastfeeding. You can read more here.

A recent study shows that you would be better off walking along a freeway, breathing in exhaust fumes than sitting inside your air conditioned car. Bacteria, fungus, fumes from car seats, exhaust fumes– all of these can be found in your car. You can read more about this and what to do about it here.

This year’s listing of the most fuel-efficient vehicles is out. Topping the list are hybrids, of course. But even if you’re looking for a car and aren’t interested in hybrids, there are some choices available. You can read the list here.

I have a hard enough time remembering the names of my five children. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to rattle off the names of sixteen. But an Arkansas mom,Michelle Duggar, will be doing just that– and all their names start with J. You can read more about it here.

I shouldn’t have to choose whether to buy organic or imported produce but, apparently, I do. It seems that a lot of organic foods are now being grown overseas, in order to decrease costs. Funny, I haven’t noticed that my food bill is any less. Read more about it here.

New Zealand baby experts have a slightly different opinion than AAP doctors who recommended all babies use pacifiers (called dummies in the article) to prevent SIDS. They have concerns that the focus on pacifiers will distract from the more important guidelines: back sleeping and avoiding cigarette smoke. You can read more about it here.