It's that time of year again when I'm bringing my kids into the dentist for their 6-month check-ups. Somehow, trips to the dentist, and an array of other doctors, starts to feel like a full-time job. It's always really important for me to find medical professionals that air on the holistic side, or are at least respectful of my desire to build and maintain health through the most natural paths. 
 
We've been seeing a wonderful pediatric dentist. Unfortunately, the practice isn't holistic, though they're respectful and accommodating. With that being said, I wanted to share my favorite toothpaste recipes to help keep your teeth healthy and clean!
 
I’ve been using this recipe for the last 4years! I started with it when the dentist said that there was a small cavity on the back of one of my molars and wanted to fill it. I declined and decided to try to remineralize my teeth. I never felt the cavity, so it wasn’t severely worrying to me. Long story short, I didn’t get back to the dentist for about two years. After we had moved and settled into our new home, I scheduled with a new dentist for a cleaning. I didn’t mention that spot from years before and they didn’t find any cavities!  I still hold some healthy skepticism about remineralizing teeth and think many potential cavities are found by overzealous dentists, so I always recommend getting a second opinion if a diagnosis doesn’t feel right.
 
For the toothpaste, you’ll need bentonite clay, calcium carbonate powder, xylitol, coconut oil, and baking soda. This recipe is originally from Wellness Mama and adapted to suit our families tastes!
 
Ingredients:
 
5 Tb Calcium Carbonate Powder
2 Tb Baking Powder
1 Tb Xylitol Powder- use more to adjust sweetness
1 Tb Bentonite Clay
3-5 Tb coconut oil
Essential oil of your choice
 
Start by mixing 5 tb of calcium carbonate powder, 2 tb baking powder, 1 tb xylitol powder and 1 tb bentonite clay with a plastic spoon (using metal will deionize the bentonite clay and defeat the purpose of it). Mix in the coconut oil to create a paste. A splash of water can also be added in to help mixing.
 
I use a small 4 oz mason jar and dip my toothbrush into the paste. I’ve tried to use it in small squeezable tubes, but depending on the room’s temperature can get quite hard! Have you made your own toothpaste before? 

When concerned parents decide to take a different path, delaying or denying vaccines, saying “my body [and my children’s body], my choice,” you say no and start looking a little like 1940’s Germany with proposed registration of everyone who disagrees with you. I don’t necessarily find fault in saying that unvaccinated children can’t go to public schools. If it’s a state resource and people aren’t following the laws of the state, then that sounds reasonable. Perhaps, you should take away welfare benefits too. Now, history will tell us of times when those liberties have been taken, once again in Nazi Germany. But it could still be just? Maybe, all anti-vaxxers should sew on yellow emblems of a vaccine with a line through it to be easily identified. Or, is that too far? It’s hard to draw the line in the correct place.

For The Constitution State to support women’s choices, but not a mother’s choice is quite a paradox. It gets more paradoxical when we consider that women’s choice to abort their babies provided the necessary ingredients for the HP vaccines and further medical testing for potential vaccines against other viruses.I know that no one likes to think about that, but it happened. To judge the morality of something as “just” because it happened a long time ago is a philosophy that would feed the demise of civilization. To prevent the demise of civilization, many have relied on religious values.  The Buddhist practice a philosophy that involves harming no one, therefore they rely on a religious exemption for vaccinations because of the harm inflicted in the creation of the vaccines (Pelčić et al., 2016). Catholics too may rely on that exemption because of their stance of abortion, and Jews and Muslims may deny vaccines because of the use of pork products used (Pelčić et al., 2016).

With a stroke of a pen, those people will lose their freedom to exercise their religion guaranteed in the first amendment of the constitution. Have you prepared the cattle cars to round up the deflectors, Connecticut? I hope they’re not wealthy because God knows the state needs the tax dollars.

What about the people who are not able to move out of the state and are forced to inject their children with an unheard-of amount of vaccines all before the start of the next school year? What are the health consequences of so many injections so close together? Or is this one of Dr. Mengele’s experiments?

Dare I ask, why not spend your time and energy getting pharmaceutical companies to make vaccines that people wouldn’t object to on religious grounds, rather than taking away parent’s constitutional rights? Every other industry is forced to change and innovate to please consumers. Heck, even McDonald’s has reduced the sodium in their french fries to please their customers (Bhushan, 2016). Why not pressure pharmaceutical companies to make more alternative vaccines that wouldn’t be rejectable for religious reasons? It can be done and has been done, but the availability is sparse (Pelčić et al., 2016).

So, now the great debate rests in our legislature. Do parents have a constitutional right to decide how to raise their children, or do they have to follow legislation that violates their conscience? It’s a political battle I would not like to personally fight. I know what choice I’d make, and it stems from my constitutional right to make choices.

I sincerely hope your choice is wise,
Auf Wiedersehen.
 


References:

Bhushan, R. (2016, August 5). McDonald’s goes on a healthy diet, reduces sodium in its mayonnaise and fries. The Economic Times. Retrieved from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/mcdonalds-goes-on-a-healthy-diet-reduces-sodium-in-its-mayonnaise-and-fries/articleshow/53549504.cms?from=mdr

Pelčić, G., Karačić, S., Mikirtichan, G. L., Kubar, O. I., Leavitt, F. J., Cheng-tek Tai, M., … Tomašević, L. (2016). Religious exception for vaccination or religious excuses for avoiding vaccination. Croatian Medical Journal, 57(5), 516–521. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2016.57.516

Offit PA and Moser CA. Vaccines and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction. 2011. Columbia University Press.

I am so deep in survival mode at this point that things like Valentine’s Day barley cross my radar. My kids on the other hand, that’s all they’ve talked about this week. Apparently, we’re having a Valentine’s Day party in our homeschool and my girls already have their dresses picked out. Unfortunately, Friday is supposed to be too cold, otherwise we’d be hiking with our friends, but even these snowbirds know when to keep the littles inside.
My contribution to our Valentine’s Day party, besides location, chocolates, and gifts,  was supervising the cookie making. Sugar cookies are so much fun to eat and decorate, but I wanted to come up with a recipe that wasn’t so sugary. These maintained the proper texture and were tasted delicious! 

Without further ado, I'm happy to share my new healthier sugar cookie recipe with you!

​​We've all been super sick. It started last week when my baby developed a fever, cough, buggers accompanied by shear misery. Then five days later, my son caught it and a few days after that, my oldest daughter then my youngest daughter. I've just been too exhausted to even figure out if I'm sick.
 

Basically the premise of the dump soup is that you dump leftovers into a pot with broth. For this soup, I used:
 ​​
One carton of broth, 
1/2 lb of lentils
Two celery stalks sliced
8 baby carrots sliced
1/4 of an onion 
And 1 cup cooked spinach from last nights dinner.
Then salt to taste.

Start by adding the lentils to the broth in your favorite soup pot.
Add in diced celery, carrots and onion.
Let simmer for 20- 25 minutes
When tender, add in ingredient that don't require a lot of cooking like the cooked spinach and salt.

Enjoy! The results would give Amy's canned lentil soups a run for her money! 
 
Do you ever make dump soups? What do you like to add? Tell me about them in the comment section!