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Does every mom struggle as much as I do with signing up to have the doctor stick their baby with a needle full of potentially harmful ingredients that makes baby scream with teary eyes that say “why are you doing this to me” followed by two days of fever?

OK, maybe I’m a wimp, but, when I read books like Dr. Sears’s The Vaccine Book and articles like “Vaccine Debate” in Mothering Magazine this month, I feel rather vindicated for being very cautious about vaccinating my little one year old girl, Emerson.

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Exhausted Mom by Halfmoon Jewelry, Flickr, under a Creative Commons license

I have an eleven month old little girl named Emerson who, in spite of the nurses at the hospital saying “you’ve got a sleeper”, turned out to not be much of a sleeper.  There are worse stories, but mine is a good example of mixing mom’s intuition, dad’s motivation, and a great deal of research to figure out the best path to sanity.

Our Story

Month 1

Emerson started as a fairly typical baby. She slept for two hours at a time around the clock, waking only to latch on for her fill. I co-slept with her in our bed and my husband slept in an extra room so that he could get enough sleep to deal with life (don’t worry, we slipped nookie in here and there). She almost never cried the entire first month of her life. I thought the situation was quite blissful, particularly because I took the age old advice of “sleep when your baby sleeps” to heart. Clearly something in the mommy brain prepares us for waking up to feed a baby every two hours…but only up to a point.

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I thought I would be one of those mothers who would lovingly home make all the baby food. I sniffed at the idea of baby food in the jar. Why would I ever want to feed my baby THAT? I got a copy of Super Baby Food, read through it and smugly declared that I would never resort to feeding my baby those unhealthy commercialized baby products… Organic or not. Of course, reality set in once I became a mom. Days when just doing one more thing was an impossible task, I begrudgingly reached for those Organic baby food jars at our local grocery store with a heavy guilty conscious. On my defense, I did try to make homemade baby food, but Layla turned her head and longingly looked at the baby food jars. So even she agreed that my calling was not to be a home cooking mom.

Well there’s a healthy compromise with the HAPPYBABY frozen baby meals. Aptly tag-lined, “Think Outside the Jar” It’s a great alternative to busy, very tired, or cooking challenged moms. Instead of processed jar food, you get fresh but frozen food that is delicious as well as nutritious. All the ingredients are Organic. There are vegan and vegetarian option as well as organic meat for carnivores {which we are}. “HAPPYBABY was born when we saw the need for nutritious and convenient alternatives to highly processed baby food. We believe baby’s first meals should taste and look delicious—and nourish baby’s body”. Should I mention that it is endorsed by Doctor Sears {who is my go to person on parenting}.

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I am a big advocate of baby wearing and either I or my significant other wear our daughter on a daily basis. Studies and experts have proved that baby wearing encourages natural bonding and it’s a great colic reducer. If you have a fussy or a high needs baby defined by Dr. Sears; then baby wearing is a must. Wrapping is a type of baby carrier that seems to have a highly emotional attachment both to the mother and the baby. Like a big blanket or comforter that comforts; wrapping is a great way to keep your baby close to you while leaving your hands free to do other things. Wrapping is an art that is used by many indigenous countries; however it has taken modern societies by a storm. Mothers who wrap can attest, there’s an invisible cord of attachment that surrounds the act of wrapping.

Didymos, a german company that produces these beautiful woven wraps, are the best of the best in the world of woven wraps. Didymos, a company started by Erika Hoffman in 1972 makes the finest wrap that utilizes organic fabrics such as wool, cotton, and even silk. Didymos also released a limited edition of ultra luxe cashmere wrap that’s highly sought after.

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Sales of organic food clothing and household cleaners are rising as parents become more and more aware of the hazards of everyday toxins. Articles about phthalates in plastic and the mercury-autism connection abound but nobody’s talking about zzzzs.

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The big question for new parents was to either breastfeed or formula feed, but now a days with concern over side effects of vaccination and supposed link to autism; the bigger question remains, should you vaccinate your child? For some states such as Mississippi and West Virginia, there is no choice for parents to make, it’s a resounding yes. But over 20 states allow children to be unvaccinated and almost all states allow unvaccination for religious reasons.

With my concern over recent controversy of vaccines (especially MMR) being linked to autism, I ordered The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert Sears. The book itself offer invaluable resource over each vaccination including:

• How common or rate, as well as how serious, each disease is.
• How each vaccine is made and what its ingredients are
• Which ingredients are potentially controversial
• Possible side effects
• Which brand is considered the safest

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Now that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are combined into one shot, the MMR vaccine, avoiding those mega doses of vaccinations in one visit is a little harder. With a little ingenuity however, you can have the shot for each disease administered separately.

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The Vaccine Book is divided into 19 chapters. The first 12 chapters are devoted to a different vaccine. Within each vaccine chapter, Dr. Sears discusses:

• What the disease is
• When the vaccine is given
• How the vaccine is made
• What ingredients are in the vaccine
• What are the side effects of the vaccine
• Should you give your baby the vaccine (including both reasons for and against, as well as travel considerations)
• The way Dr. Sears sees it

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