Children’s Toothpaste And Artificial Sweetenters

I can’t remember exactly when I started brushing my son’s teeth/gums, but I believe it was sometime during the later part of his first year. I was a Gymboree Play & Music class and we used to have a “question” time as part of each class where the teacher would ask a question and all of the moms would go around the room and answer it. This week’s question was on brushing your child’s teeth. All I remember thinking was “Am I supposed to be brushing his teeth?” The thought had never occurred to me! So I went to the store, bought some “children’s toothpaste” and started the routine.

Well, my son is now four and in an effort to encourage “independence” while brushing his teeth, we have gone back to the “toddler toothpaste” which he loves. He will brush away as long as he can lap up all of the yummy berry flavored toothpaste.

One day, while he was brushing away, I was a little bored and started reading the ingredients on the back of the toothpaste container. We used the Orajel Toddler Toothpaste in the Thomas tube. I was shocked and extremely dismayed to realize that the toothpaste that my son was using – specifically designed for young children – has SACCHARIN in it! Not just any artificial sweetener, but the very one that was banned for so many years because it was determined to cause CANCER!

WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY CHOOSE TO PUT ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS IN CHILDREN’S TOOTHPASTE??

I can’t believe I have been using this toothpaste on my son’s teeth for 4 years (on and off) and never before did I even dream to CHECK THE LABEL to see if it had anything bad in it. It is DESIGNED FOR CHILDREN after all! So I went to the store and checked out all of the brands of toothpaste targeted at children – EVERY SINGLE ONE contains SACCHARIN. Recently I was in Canada and stopped in a drug store there too. I thought for sure Canada would have a ban on saccharin in children’s toothpaste, but to my dismay, they are all full of saccharin up in Canada too.

Just the other day I was at my local grocery store and asked one of the employees to help me find an organic toothpaste that was fruit flavored (I can find the mint ones, but my son hates those) and didn’t contain fluoride (because my son still swallows the toothpaste) and also was FREE OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS. Well, we looked all around the toothpaste aisle and the only saccharin free brands had fluoride. So this sweet girl helping us said that there were other toothpastes in the baby aisle. So we trekked over there and found that low and behold – they do exist – there were actually TWO different brands of toothpaste that were free of artificial sweeteners, artificial colors and fluoride! And they were fruit flavored too!
I let my son pick which one he wanted and he picked the JASON’S Natural Products Organic Kids’ Only toothpaste. He loves it! And I love it even more because it is free of all of the hazards that most companies are putting into products targeted at children!

Here is the description:

* Kids Only!
* Wheat and Gluten Free
* Sulfate, fluoride and Saccharin Free
* No Artificial Colors or Flavors

Jason Kid’s Only! Toothpaste delivers fun fruity freshness and an easy to squeeze tube. Delicious Natural Orange flavor keeps the kids coming back for more. Calcium Carbonate keeps teeth clean and healthy.

When was the last time you looked at your children’s toothpaste? Have you found other resources for healthy alternatives to the ‘big name’ brands?? Please share them by leaving a comment on this post.

Oh My God They’re Huge!

This might be something you’re saying to yourself as you progress through your pregnancy and start breastfeeding. Most women will gain 1-2 cup sizes in their breasts from the time they get pregnant to the time to they begin breastfeeding. When the cup size gain comes is different for everyone. I personally went up 3 cup sizes while I was pregnant (from a DD to a G), but didn’t change at all when my milk came in. Other women don’t change much while they are pregnant, but may increase 1 or 2 cup sizes when their milk comes in.

If you are a B-DD/E cup, then you won’t have any difficulties finding a great nursing bra. There are even quite a few styles to choose from for F-cup gals. But once you get BEYOND the F-cup, the selection of bras goes WAY DOWN. I personally didn’t even know bras came in a G-cup until I needed to buy one. I had to wear the most uncomfortable bras throughout my pregnancy and nursing days because I couldn’t find on that actually fit me properly.

Well, have I got knews for you! Bravado! Designs has come out with a BRAND-NEW nursing bra (which I reviewed during my Blogiversary Celebration) called the Sublime Nursing Bra - and boy is it ever!!

There are THREE things that I love about this bra.
1) It is pretty
2) It gives great SUPPORT and SEPARATION
3) It comes in cup sizes from B to K – yes, that’s right – K!!

So now, all of you mamas who are in the “larger than an F-cup” category have some choice – a beautiful bra, with great support at a very reasonable price! What more can a well-endowed mama ask for??

**Disclaimer – I was not compensated in any way for this review – I wrote it to express my gratitude for a nursing bra that is beautiful, functional and comes in large cup sizes.

Pregnancy Bliss…

And The Winner Is….

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest for a Waterpik Dental Water Jet! The lucky winner is Colleen (aka @Halleelujahmom). Congrats Colleen!!

Breastfeeding And The Medical Profession – One Mom’s Story

By Tiffany Holley

I appreciate my doctors. I appreciate the medical system that got me through a variety of health issues. They know a lot about what they were trained in…

…But they do not necessarily know anything about breastfeeding.

It makes me so sad to think of all the babies that lose out on this amazing food (and relationship!) because their mother took the inappropriate advice of an ignorant (on this subject) medical practitioner.

Let me tell you what I went through to learn this lesson…

Towards the end of my pregnancy with Mr. Big Baby, I was under close observation for borderline pre-eclampsia. Somehow, still, we missed the fact that I was harboring a bladder infection – did you know they are often asymptomatic during pregnancy?

Untreated, this developed into a kidney infection (pyelonephritis).

When the baby was about five weeks old, I ended up in bed with raging chills and fever from the worsening infection. The next morning I woke up with a bright red, inflamed and streaked breast. I now also had mastitis.

The ER doctor told me I would have to stop nursing so that I could get myself well. Overwhelmed, tearful, I acknowledged that I had been afraid of that, and agreed.

Since I am physiologically unable to pump any meaningful amount of milk, his advice was not helpful: pump and discard my milk, and feed the baby from my frozen stash (of course I had none) or formula. I had already found someone in my LLL group who was willing to wet-nurse Mr. Big Baby if it came to that…

But still, I would be putting myself in danger of worsening the mastitis issues by becoming engorged, and jeopardizing our entire nursing relationship by potentially losing my milk supply.

After sitting there for hours, I had plenty of time to think through the issues more logically. Eventually I began asking to see my children, who were anxiously waiting outside.

Children are not allowed in the ER, period, they said. They have a separate pediatric ER area to treat children, so they keep them out of harm’s (germs’) way in the adult area. And I was not permitted to leave the treatment area because I had an IV placed.

Undeterred, I suggested that they could take me to the pediatric area, and allow me to have a treatment room there, with my family present (as we had all been together when my daughter had an ER visit).

Again I was rebuffed. I was told that my baby would be able to “visit” me once I was admitted and moved up to a regular floor. That would mean, then, the next day during visiting hours – probably some 24 hours of separation.

The more they came up with these reasons, which sounded more and more hollow, the more adamant I became.

Finally, I told the shift nursing supervisor (who had been called in to deal with my “unreasonableness”, I’m sure) that I wanted to sign myself out AMA, so that I could go nurse my baby.

She was shocked – or pretended to be – and asked how I could possibly want to leave without treatment when I was so ill.

I told her that the hospital was making me worse instead of better, and that I would go seek *better* treatment somewhere else.

Whether she gave in because she saw the light, or because she saw a potential lawsuit, I’ll never know… But give in she did.

They wheeled me and my IV pole out to a (relatively) quiet corner of the ER, and my son eagerly nursed – and nursed, and nursed, and nursed. It had been hours by then, which is an eternity if you are 5 weeks old.

One of her grumbled “threats” as she allowed this was that she was going to go get the lactation consultant from the OB department and “have her talk to me.”
My husband and I sat there wondering if it was really possible that they had a lactation consultant who had so totally sold out to the hospital machine that she would support them on this.

Nope.

The lactation consultant was a sensitive, wise, outgoing woman who was as shocked and baffled by the situation as I was. She became something of a liaison for us for the remainder of this ordeal.

Because there was more. Lots more.

Let me try to condense the next few days for you:

The ER staff eventually moved all of us into a big room in the back of the department to await transfer upstairs. Then the next shift came on and tried to kick my family out again.

We got transferred upstairs. The deal was that the baby could be with me as long as there was another adult(ish) present. I accepted this as a reasonable compromise – after all, I actually was too ill to care for him alone very much!

Then there was a shift change, and they tried to kick my family out.

Then a new doctor saw me, and told me that I needed to stop nursing on the affected breast. (Contradicting all medical literature and wisdom on the subject of mastitis).

Then a new shift came on, and they tried to kick my family out…

Since it was across a weekend, we had the same nursing staff only twice in five days (15 shifts). And, I kid you not, at every single shift change we had to argue the situation all over again.

Some went easier than others. Several times I called on our new best friend the lactation consultant.

I had a protracted argument with the infectious diseases doctor who was considered my primary caregiver. He knew nothing about mastitis, and treated it as he would have treated strep on my breast.

He was horrible, and rude, and I was ready to check out AMA again if I could not be assured that I could receive care from someone else.

On two other occasions I had to threaten to check out AMA to keep them from separating me from the baby. I spoke to several different nursing supervisors.

All of us were stressed out and exhausted by the time I was discharged. It was not good medicine.

Thus ends Round One of my adventures in the medical system.

Why do doctors and nurses know so little about breastfeeding?

It’s frightening that so many people are willing to take their word as law, trusting that these medical professionals know what is best for them.

I beg you, as the only advocate your child has, not to mention for yourself, investigate anything that you are told with regards to your nursing relationship.

As in this case – A simple internet search quickly yields dozens of creditable sources explaining that one important step in dealing with mastitis is to nurse frequently, especially on the affected side.

And if you have the opportunity, do a future mother and baby a favor: print it out and show it to your practitioner!

Tiffany Holley has nursed three children (currently 18 mos. – 15 years old) for a total of 8 years – and counting. She and her family live, breastfeed, urban homestead, cloth diaper, homeschool, and write in Southern Florida (but hope to remedy their location situation soon). You can read about their adventures on their blog, As For My House.

Lady In Red

Ask Judy: Is It Me Or My Pump?

Dear Judy, I am having trouble getting a let down with my pump. Even when I am all alone. Is it me or could it be my pump?

Lots of mothers have difficulty responding to a breastpump vs. nursing their baby. If you have normally been able to pump efficiently in the past, and are experiencing difficulties now, then it is most likely a problem with your pump. The first thing you should do is to make sure you are getting a good suction with your pump. Make sure there isn’t any condensation in your tubing and make sure your parts are in good working order. Most breastpump manufacturers recommend replacing your breastpump parts (tubing, diaphrams, valves, connectors) every 3 months. Just like you change your oil on your car on a regular basis, you also need to change the parts on your pump for optimal performance.

I remember one time not getting a good let down with my pump and it turned out that my tubing was loose on one side, so I wasn’t getting a good enough suction to stimulate my letdown. Once I figured out the problem and replaced the tubing, everything worked great!

Take a look around at your situation as well. Has anything changed? Are you undergoing more stress than is typical? Are you in a different environment? All of these things can effect your milk output.

If you have replaced all of your parts and evaluated your environment and you are still having difficulties, then it is time to call the manufacturer of your pump and see if they have any trouble shooting exercises to walk you through. There may be something wrong that requires more than just replacing spare parts.

Did you ever have a problem with your pump? How did you solve it? Do you have any tips for a mom who is having difficulties letting down with her pump? Please leave a comment to share your advice.

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