BABY POOPS..or Not

As a mother of five you'd think I've experienced it all right? Well, almost. It was #5 that introduced me to infant constipation, and I finally understood the stress other mothers feel. Lucky for me, I've got a fix to that problem.

I sell doTERRA essential oils because I couldn't stop my enthusiasm for how wonderful they are for families, pregnancy to death they are wonderful! I pulled out my handy-dandy resident expert, the Modern Essentials reference book and looked up Children/Infants. Under sluggish digestive it listed "Wild Orange" and under constipation it listed "Ginger". Well, I know that babies can taste anything you rub onto their feet so I tested the ginger a few times. Just a drop diluted a bit in fractionated coconut water made baby cry. Nope, doesn't like the taste so I stuck with Wild Orange. It wasn't an immediate magic fix. In fact it took about two weeks before I saw an improvement, but I did see one eventually!

Baby was only having one poopy diaper every five days or so. Not often enough if you ask me. With our diet, I spend a lot of time cleaning toilets because they get used a lot with all seven of us eating so much fiber! You know? So at first I guessed he was using a lot of the yummy mommy milk and having little left over as waste, but I wanted to help the problem along. I started with just a drop of wild orange once a day on his feet. Nope, not enough. Increasing the dose to a drop at every diaper change was much better. MUCH BETTER. That's typical with oils, a little bit frequently is better than a whole bunch one time. So the messy diapers started shortening, every four days, then every three. I was so happy to see two in one day! Yeah baby! Keep that intestine working!

If you are interested, or know someone who is, I'm very happy to share and help another mother feel the relief I get when I can heal my family without medications!

The Mormon Vegan

My husband and I have come to the conclusion that its time to pen the name "Mormon Vegan."

We love being whole-food plant based. It started due to my failing health and has transformed how we view eating animals. Often we think, why eat an animal when there is so many other good foods in the world? It has also changed our hearts, feeling much more compassionate about the animals that share our world. In fact, on a recent camping trip I had a thoughtful talk with my son who so badly wanted to hit a squirrel. He confessed he only wanted to knock out the squirrel, not kill it. I shared with him my feelings and added that their is a fine line between knocking out and death. He would be crushed if he actually killed a squirrel. He understood. And now he knows how mommy feels about animals.

But then again, things changed in my recent pregnancy with my newest son. As the pregnancy came closer to a close, I craved protein, so I ate every plant source available. Still it wasn't enough. Not only was I craving protein I was craving beef! The thought disgusted me (you get that way the longer you go without meat) and up until pregnancy the only meat I even remotely liked was poultry. Yet I couldn't deny that this child had a dietary need so I indulged in the "cleanest" meat I could find. Oh how my body loved it! Now my sweet baby boy is here and every so often I have the same craving and I indulge. I still diligently put all sorts of legumes, nuts and whole grains on our dinner table but there are those instances I have learned my men need meat!

Hence we reached our conclusion, just as my kids can recite, we are the Mormon vegans, only eating meat in times of cold, winter, or famine and loving all things whole-food, plant. Dairy and eggs are a big no-no in our home, as is sugar. But what do we love? Honey! Yes, we need a new name for ourselves and look forward to meeting other Mormon Vegans, or other vegan eating members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.