Toe blues

I broke my toe. It's the one next to the pinky on my left foot (ring toe?). I broke it a month ago.

There was this nagging pain coming from the general direction of my left foot, and I kept making a mental note to check it when I had a free second.

A month went by.

I just noticed it a couple days ago, this huge, pink, swollen "ring toe" the size of my thumb. My mom (x-ray tech) asked me if I pulled on it. (?) So I decided to pull on it. Excruciating pain. I limped around the house for two days. I told my husband I would need to go to the doctor. He mentioned that all they could do it tape it. Tape. Hmmm.

I taped up my "ring toe" to my middle toe, and it worked! My toes don't look too classy (recognize the nail polish Jamiey?), but they feel like a million bucks! :)

It's a baby bottle, it has to be safe, right?

My buddy Sherry brought up something about plastic baby bottles that reminded me of the choice I made not too long ago to switch to glass. At first I too wondered if it was really that big of a deal, but read on to see why we made the jump to safer bottles.

This article kicked me over the edge on the decision to switch bottles, as we had Avent ones before, and they topped the hazard list.

Here’s an excerpt from it:
Adverse Health Effects of Bisphenol A Include…
…early onset of puberty
…obesity
…diabetes
…hyperactivity
…increase in aggression
…changes in response to painful or fear-provoking stimuli
…impaired learning and memory
…reversal of normal sex differences in the brain structure
…elimination of sex differences in behavior
…decreased maternal behavior
…impaired immune function
…breast cancer
…prostate disease and cancer
…sperm defects
…impaired female reproductive development
…miscarriage

If that scary little list isn’t enough to convince a person that it’s a big deal to buy regular old plastic baby bottles anymore, then maybe this breaking news will: Walmart just announced this month that they are phasing out their hazardous plastic baby bottles by next year.

There are some great BPA and Phthalates-free plastic baby bottles out there like Born Free and Nurture Pure, but economically we thought it a better choice to just go with the evenflo glass ones (3 for about $10). Cadi does just fine with them, and they fit on the Medela pump, which is a bonus.

More info on the subject:

Here’s a recent article in Times about the issue as well. Times comes to the conclusion,” The obvious solution may seem to be, when in doubt, ban it. If there's a chance that bisphenol A hurts kids, then why run the risk?”

Dow Jones Newswires

Under the couch

I just sat my nine month old down in the living room to throw a load of cloth diapers in the laundry, and on second thought, decided to double check and make sure the room didn't have anything she could hurt herself with in the five seconds I would be gone. (I try to be thorough when it comes to child-proofing the house, but you never can be too careful.) Not noticing anything amiss when I glanced around, I decided to do the whole "from their vantage point" thing and started crawling around on my hands and knees to try to spot hazards. Not convinced that there still couldn't be anything there (I was having a paranoid moment), I got down on my tummy and wriggled around on the floor next to her, and lo and behold, there was a chess pawn, a plastic water bottle top, a coin, and a broken toy piece all within the distance that those little fingers could get to under the couch. Interesting. What's under your couch?

How I wandered by this way

Out of boredom and curiosity, I visited a toy recall site when my baby girl was just a few months old. I was perusing the various toys non-chalantly, when This Baby Einstein blue soft block with a snorkeling turtle caught my eye. That toy was sitting on my shelf in the next room. Here, in front of my face on the screen, that same toy was being recalled for lead. I felt sick, Baby Einstein had broken faith with me, and I got suddenly overwhelmingly paranoid about everything that was within Cadence's reach. It was hard to get my mind around it-- I couldn't believe that people would still put lead in things these days, not to mention baby toys.

I sat in front of the computer for the next week being schooled in the ways of keeping Cadi safe. All of this information on plastic baby bottles, household cleaners, vaccinations, toys, pesticides, baby food, disposable diapers, soaps and lotions and countless other health hazards were assaulting my sense of well-being. Then one article (wish I could remember which one) mentioned that it is easy to get overwhelmed by the immensity of it all, but just cutting back on harmful chemicals by 10% is a big step, and one to be applauded. I calmed down, went to the kitchen, and put all of our regular household cleaners out of reach. Vinegar would be my new best friend.

It turns out that though the first model number of the recalled toy matched mine, it was not made in the same area that was effected. Still, that toy sparked an awareness that I am ever so thankful for. This is pretty much the starting place for Rosebud Organics.