Time to clean up our act.

Do we need MORE proof that we need to clean up our environment and make changes in the chemicals that are used? Today's news was about rocket fuel in breastmilk. That's right. Rocket fuel.

From the article: "California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer said the study underscored concerns about the chemical. Boxer sent a letter to state and federal health officials asking them to determine whether mothers should have their breast milk tested before breast-feeding."

Barbara, Barbara, Barbara. You've got it all wrong. The onus isn't on the MOTHERS. We have to eliminate the chemicals from our food and drinking water! I urge you to contact Senator Boxer and tell her so.

From the same article: "We've got to come to grips with the perchlorate situation quickly," Feinstein said in a statement. "And EPA has to move quickly to set a national drinking water standard that protects the health and safety of all Americans."

Now that's more like it. As long as you are writing letters you can send one to Senator Feinstein too.

Here is the full study.

Well that is the bad news but here is some good news. First, read what Dr. Thomas Hale, the foremost researcher on drugs and breastmilk, had to say. Then read what Kellymom had to say.

From what I read they tested 36 women and found perchlorate 5x higher than cow's milk and 20x higher than recommended. Only one woman had no traces of perchlorate at all, and she lives in CT, just in case you are wondering where to move.

CNN talked more about the study this morning. They had an expert on who said the danger with the jet fuel was that it prevents your uptake of iodine, which you need to produce thyroid hormone. To conteract it, you need to eat more iodine, like iodinized salt, kelp, and shellfish.

Perchlorate has not been found to accumulate in our bodies over time

No matter what breast milk is healthier than formula, for so many already know reasons. There are chemicals in formula. Additionally, more of the mothers toxic load is transferred to her first child in the placenta than any received by breastmilk. Also, breastfeeding helps ameliorate or limit the damage caused prenatally.

Plus, there are greater risks associated with not breastfeeding - higher incidences of breast and ovarian cancer in the mom - lower IQ, more diabetes, obesity, and certain childhood cancers in the child.

Another very important point is that the making of formula adds to environmental contamination, whereas breastmilk does not.

Here is the World Alliance For Breastfeeding's FAQ about breastfeeding in a contaminated environment.
And here is La Leche League's press release "Breast feeding remains best choice in a polluted world".

The mommy wars part 7,365

I just read Judith Warner's article in Newseek promoting her book “Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety” at the dentist's office yesterday. I had been sent the link by a friend but I had no time so I skimmed the first page and clicked the link to Anna Quindlen's article. This was more my style and speed - mothers who raise their kids, as my friend put it to me, with "benign neglect". That's me - I have 3 boys 5 years old and under! I send them out in the backyard to play for hours - and they do! No need for leap pads or special classes. They dig in the dirt! Without me watching!

Personally I never did all that "stuff" with my kids- I had lots of reasons, we were broke, I had twins and then a singleton 15 months later and was physically incapable, but most importantly I had no desire to run them from activity to activity. My mother offered to pay for and help and I always refused - with no thought whatsoever that I might be damaging my kids or guilt that they might not be getting every advantage. Okay I had occasional twinges but never enough to join My Gym or anything.

I also never felt like I had to be perfect, like I had to measure up to anything anyone else was doing. I raised my children the way I did because it felt right. I did everything by instinct. Of course with 3 kids in 15 months I was also piloting on autodrive. Who had time to think of what others were doing or thinking?

I did read a couple of books which made me happy - not that I needed reassurance ;) - about "my way of parenting" One was "Mitten Strings For G-d" by Katrina Kenison. She is basically saying "stop! you don't need to do all that stuff with your kids! When they grow up they'll remember the fort they built in the backyard" (yay!) And the other is "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee" by Wendy Mogel. This is a great book that could have it's own post. This book is about raising your child to be part of a family and part of a community, not the center of it.

Reading the article though I get the point she's trying to make though, that moms ARE concerned with what others are thinking. I belong to a large playgroup, of moms I met through La Leche League and also out and about. We started small about 4 years ago and now we have about 40 moms in the group. I never got the feeling that we were comparing or competing. Who does more with their kids, who takes dancing, who takes gymnastics. Some people do, some people don't. That's all. Unless I am missing something, and I think with 40 moms I see a pretty representitive sampling, I don't get it.
I want to say maybe it's because they are all Stay at Home Moms, but that was my group in Ft. Lauderdale and I just moved here to Stuart in July and almost all the moms I meet work out of the home and I still don't see it.
Anyway, my kids want me to go see what they dug up in the yard.

More of what we've known all along

Breastfeeding is good for you! Yeah we knew this. The AAP just released their latest policy statement as a reminder.

The statement is strongly worded, much more so than the 1997 policy. I was so pleased to see that they stated all the diseases it helps prevent in infancy and childhood, as well as the benefits seen into adulthood. It also outlined the maternal health benefits of reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer, among others.

It spoke of benefits to the community and environment as well, which is something I feel stongly about. All the talk of environmental toxins in breastmilk, breastfeeding does not contribute to the environmental burden - but formula feeding does.

The best part of course is that they say newborns should sleep "in proximity" to their mothers to facilitate breastfeeding and that they say there is no upper limit to the duration of breastfeeding.

html is boring

I am typing anchor tags for all of my products, since none have individual urls, for my froogle feed. This is so boring.I have also just eaten my own weight in cashews. sigh.

First post

So Max has hand foot and mouth disease and we have no health insurance for him. He also has an odd bump behind his right ear. The hand foot and mouth should go away on it's own. The bump is hopefully a bug bite. I just found out today the medicaid expired in the end of October. Time to find something else, quick. Especially since I missed open enrollment for Florida Healthy Kids by 2 weeks. Sigh.

Ed's resturant got a great review in the Stuart News which was very exciting. He said they had a long wait tonite.

I helped a mom on the phone who was having tremendous pain breastfeeding get her baby latched on with no pain. I almost jumped for joy when she said incredulously, "It doesn't hurt!" I'm going over tomorrow morning to look at them nursing but I think she's got it.