I wasn't really health conscious growing up, and even when I was preggo with Ryan. Once he was born and I realized that I was helping him to grow and develop into a healthy human adult someday, my feeding him the healthiest foods possible became my top priority.
I started out breastfeeding, and had planned to do so for a year, but it didn't turn out to work for us as long as I had planned. I was really bummed, but what can you do. We switched him to formula, and he had an array of issues with them. Eczema, mostly, and then as he was more and more exposed, he started to get diarrhea pretty bad. Our ped suggested we switch to Soy based, which seemed to work for a while, and then the same thing happened.
When he was 1, he couldn't tolerate the milk that the peds said was crucial for his brain development. Well, since he had an intolerance for soy, we tried rice milk. He seemed to like it ok, but he really didn't seem to want it at all if he had his choice.
Later on, we found out that a thing called BPA was found in infant formula cans, and plastic baby bottles. How nice of them to tell us this after the fact... ugh! This stuff is so nasty, it causes an array of different issues and it's especially bad in small children. Small children! Then why in the world does it make sense to put it in baby items, things that they will be using every day?!?
We switched everything over, thinking that we had beat it. Well today on the news they came out with the fact that there are toxic levels of BPA in canned products. What mostly, oh the canned veggies THAT I FEED RYAN EVERY DAY! I am so mad at America/FDA who says that "BPA is completely safe" yadda yadda.
Here is a quote from Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports :
"Children eating multiple servings per day of canned foods with BPA levels comparable to the ones we found in some tested products could get a dose of BPA near levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies. The lack of any safety margin between the levels that cause harm in animals and those that people could potentially ingest from canned foods has been inadequately addressed by the FDA to date." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-starkman/tests-find-wide-range-of_b_342967.html)
It just really iritates me that America has such little concern for the people in it's own country. Canada has banned any sort of use of BPA in it's packaging of food products. Why is it so hard to think of the people first! What about the future children of this country! Why is it that we are having such a hard time thinking of health first, the building block of what people are made of?!
It just disgusts me that I have been unknowingly feeding this crap to my child thinking I am doing good by making sure he has veggies every day. Guess I will be buying all fresh for now... And that opens up a whole new can of worms about pesticides.
Yes, I am overtly aware that I am passionate about the topic of food and health.
Let me just say a few things about why organic is awesome, since I am on a rant. Organic is great because, as I am sure most people know these days, there food isn't pumped full of crap, to put it bluntly. Please, buyer beware - packaging must say that it is FDA certified for it to actually be organic, unlike labels that may say "healthy" or "organic" and are missing the label.
Yes organic costs more, but to me it's worth it. Think about this. Have you ever stopped to wonder why so many children these days have behavior problems? Why they are sicker than ever? THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE FEEDING THEM!
When you buy food, do you know how much pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics are full of? Now, here is the real kicker. This is what not many people realize. I am going to bold, underline, and italicize for effect here because it's so important: The amounts of these pesticides, growth hormones, and antibiotics are tested and "approved" for adults only. ADULTS ONLY!
Think about how much your children are getting. It is waaaay more than they should be getting. Also, going back to my previous statement about behavioral and health issues that our children are having today: Remember your mother's old saying, you are what you eat? There is truth in that. When you eat that food, you are eating and metabolizing the same things they put in your food. Are you sick? Do you need those antibiotics? Those growth hormones? No! Think about the effect these chemicals, used to kill things in the food, are going to be dealt with when it's going through a rapidly growing and developing child. It's truly disgusting.
Here is another bit of info worth reading about the risks associated with BPA: "Some scientists say there's reason to worry. They note that BPA acts like the sex hormone estrogen -- indeed, BPA was originally developed as a chemical estrogen. These researchers worry that BPA is behind hormone-linked trends in human health such as increased abnormal penis development in males, earlier sexual development in females, increases in neurodevelopmental diseases such as ADHD and autism, increased child obesity, decreased sperm count, and more breast and prostate cancers." (http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20070824/jury-still-out-on-bpa-plastics-risk)
Now, I am not one of those people to be able to go out and start my own farm, but what I did was did some research on some local organic farms in our area and contacted the farmers so I could talk to them. I ended up loving one that is about 40 minutes from here, but the farmers are really friendly, eco-conscious and just awesome. They had us go the farm so we could actually see what the veggies looked like, and how the animals were treated. They talked to us about how they raised them, how they were to make sure their food was organic, and they were very open to my questions.
Sorry about going off on a rant, but I am very passionate about what I choose to feed my child, and I think there is a lot of knowledge out there that is only selectively passed on to the general public. If I could, I would shout this from the rooftops. My child comes first. And if that means I have to walk to the ends of the world and back, I will do it to make sure he has all the healthy building blocks he needs to grow and be health. I just wish our government felt the same way.
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I love your post! Be sure to get BPA Free water bottles. We got ours from LL Bean. I try to stay away from store bought water that sits around and absorbs BPA and never microwave plastic! Ryan might be old enough to use coffee mugs instead of plastic cups! I love that you went to a farm. Children eat better when they are involved in the food choice process and what better way to involve him! Stop and Shop offers frozen veggies organic from Nature's Promise! There is even organic peanut butter on the regular shelves! Let me know if you find grapes. I can't! Good for U and good luck! U R a very good MOM!
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