Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
DIY laundry detergent
Many of you know, but I've been on a homemade kick since before Jemma was born. I've gotten away from using commercial cleaners and pretty much make my own with a mix of water, soap, washing soda, borax, baking soda, and vinegar. Anywhoo, the only thing I hadn't jumped into was detergent. Having heard good things about a family recipe I decided to give it a try. I ended up modifying the recipe I was given as I just don't have the space to store gallons of liquid detergent and Tom prefers powder detergent. I'm including both recipes below.
Pope Family Recipe (Thank you Grandma, Aunt Margie and Aunt Sharon!)
Ingredients: ZOTE soap, Borax, Washing Soda; Water
Grate 1/3 bar of ZOTE soap, put in a pan with 6 cups of water and heat until soap is melted. Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat; add 4 cups of hot water in a bucket, add soap mixture; stir. Then add an additional 1 gallon plus 6 cups of cold water; stir. Let it sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Pour into empty detergent or softener bottles.
Notes: I couldn't find Zote soap, so I used Fels Naptha. The consistentcy will not be a smooth gel and should be shaken before each use.
My Recipe
As I said, I didn't have enough room to store the 2 gallons of liquid, not to mention I was impatient to use it! When I started grating the Fels Naptha at home, Tom started having an allergic reaction to it, so I knew this wouldn't work for us! He is extremely sensitive to chemical fragrances. One of my friends uses a similar recipe with castile soap, so I bought a bar of Dr. Bronner's peppermint instead. He seemed to tolerate that just fine :)
Ingredients: Castile bar soap, Borax, Washing Soda
Grate the soap and mix with equal parts borax and washing soda. I did 1 cup of each. Use 1 tbsp per load.
Notes: Working well so far! I haven't noticed any difference in cleaning, even with our cloth diapers. I also use vinegar in place of fabric softener and the occasional cup of bleach for whitening.
Pope Family Recipe (Thank you Grandma, Aunt Margie and Aunt Sharon!)
Ingredients: ZOTE soap, Borax, Washing Soda; Water
Grate 1/3 bar of ZOTE soap, put in a pan with 6 cups of water and heat until soap is melted. Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat; add 4 cups of hot water in a bucket, add soap mixture; stir. Then add an additional 1 gallon plus 6 cups of cold water; stir. Let it sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Pour into empty detergent or softener bottles.
Notes: I couldn't find Zote soap, so I used Fels Naptha. The consistentcy will not be a smooth gel and should be shaken before each use.
My Recipe
As I said, I didn't have enough room to store the 2 gallons of liquid, not to mention I was impatient to use it! When I started grating the Fels Naptha at home, Tom started having an allergic reaction to it, so I knew this wouldn't work for us! He is extremely sensitive to chemical fragrances. One of my friends uses a similar recipe with castile soap, so I bought a bar of Dr. Bronner's peppermint instead. He seemed to tolerate that just fine :)
Ingredients: Castile bar soap, Borax, Washing Soda
Grate the soap and mix with equal parts borax and washing soda. I did 1 cup of each. Use 1 tbsp per load.
Notes: Working well so far! I haven't noticed any difference in cleaning, even with our cloth diapers. I also use vinegar in place of fabric softener and the occasional cup of bleach for whitening.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Food Intolerance 101
It was confirmed today by the allergist that Lily has MSPI. Milk soy protein intolerance. This was pretty much what I expected to hear. I decided about a month ago that I would feel more comfortable going to an allergist and finding out more about what's going on with our little girl. Her pediatrician is great, but his advice in this area has been rather generalized and I wanted some more specialized input. While it's good to know she doesn't have a true allergy, it still means I will continue to be dairy free and now eliminating soy. We're going to be have to be very cautious of what she eats as we start solids.
Dr. Sutton helped me come up with a plan for introducing low allergen foods to her first and we will be delaying introducing cow's milk till she has a follow-up allergy test in a year. I'm going to be starting a food diary and keeping track of what I eat and how she reacts. The nice thing is since we are breastfeeding, I can try new foods and Lily gets a diluted amount of it, so even if we see a reaction, it isn't as risky as giving it directly to her.
So, what is a food intolerance? Symptoms can vary, but Lily's are fussiness and irritability, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and congestion. The congestion and rash only happen if I have goofed up and eaten something offending multiple times in a few days, but the vomiting and diarrhea happen every time I have an oops. With a food intolerance, symptoms usually begin within a half hour of eating the food but can also appear up to 48 hours later. Dr. Sutton told us that children with an allergy will almost always develop hives in addition to the other symptoms but children with an intolerance typically do not have an immediate skin reaction. The big medical term for this is that an intolerance does not produce an IgE antibody response, whereas an allergy does. That means Lily isn't going to need to carry around an epi-pen, but she could still get very sick from eating a food she is intolerant to. Based on her history and symptoms, Dr. Sutton felt she was very sensitive and that if she had been on a milk based formula, she would likely have had much more difficulty gaining weight and may even have struggled with dehydration. Thank heavens for breastfeeding!!
We are 100% certain of the cow's milk and I'm 75% sure of the soy. The next common food intolerance is grains, so we're going to hold off on giving her rice cereal or other grains until I've given her a small challenge through my diet. My plan is to clean my diet of soy over the next 2 weeks, and then I will begin my food diary and start challenging grains and soy to determine if those really are causing issues or if it is simply the cow's milk. On a positive note, this is likely something Lily will outgrow by age 3, but for the forseeable future, we're going to be dealing with this.
Dr. Sutton helped me come up with a plan for introducing low allergen foods to her first and we will be delaying introducing cow's milk till she has a follow-up allergy test in a year. I'm going to be starting a food diary and keeping track of what I eat and how she reacts. The nice thing is since we are breastfeeding, I can try new foods and Lily gets a diluted amount of it, so even if we see a reaction, it isn't as risky as giving it directly to her.
So, what is a food intolerance? Symptoms can vary, but Lily's are fussiness and irritability, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and congestion. The congestion and rash only happen if I have goofed up and eaten something offending multiple times in a few days, but the vomiting and diarrhea happen every time I have an oops. With a food intolerance, symptoms usually begin within a half hour of eating the food but can also appear up to 48 hours later. Dr. Sutton told us that children with an allergy will almost always develop hives in addition to the other symptoms but children with an intolerance typically do not have an immediate skin reaction. The big medical term for this is that an intolerance does not produce an IgE antibody response, whereas an allergy does. That means Lily isn't going to need to carry around an epi-pen, but she could still get very sick from eating a food she is intolerant to. Based on her history and symptoms, Dr. Sutton felt she was very sensitive and that if she had been on a milk based formula, she would likely have had much more difficulty gaining weight and may even have struggled with dehydration. Thank heavens for breastfeeding!!
We are 100% certain of the cow's milk and I'm 75% sure of the soy. The next common food intolerance is grains, so we're going to hold off on giving her rice cereal or other grains until I've given her a small challenge through my diet. My plan is to clean my diet of soy over the next 2 weeks, and then I will begin my food diary and start challenging grains and soy to determine if those really are causing issues or if it is simply the cow's milk. On a positive note, this is likely something Lily will outgrow by age 3, but for the forseeable future, we're going to be dealing with this.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Please pass the cocketballs
Dinner, Pope household, 7pm.
Jemma, pointing across the table, "Mama, Jemma have cocketball?
Tom, whispering to me, "Did she just say cock and balls?"
Me, whispering back, "I think she said chocolate balls."
Jemma, interjecting into our conversation, "Please Jemma have cocketball!" She is becoming a little frustrated at this point.
Tom, "What do you want Jemma?"
Jemma, "Cocketball! Jemma want cocketball!"
And finally, we realize she is pointing at the bowl of olives, which, yes, she thought were chocolate balls. She continued to ask for "cocketballs" throughout dinner!
Jemma, pointing across the table, "Mama, Jemma have cocketball?
Tom, whispering to me, "Did she just say cock and balls?"
Me, whispering back, "I think she said chocolate balls."
Jemma, interjecting into our conversation, "Please Jemma have cocketball!" She is becoming a little frustrated at this point.
Tom, "What do you want Jemma?"
Jemma, "Cocketball! Jemma want cocketball!"
And finally, we realize she is pointing at the bowl of olives, which, yes, she thought were chocolate balls. She continued to ask for "cocketballs" throughout dinner!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Rolling, rolling, rolling...
Lily started rolling! She rolled over once yesterday and she's done it twice today! This baby is going to be a mover. She thinks she's bigger than she is. She wants to stand and sit up all the time. I think Tom and I might be in for it with her!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Jemma changes a diaper
This actually happened a week or so ago, but I just got around to uploading the pictures. I went to the bathroom and came back to find Jemma changing Lily's diaper. Quite a feat considering we use cloth. Jemma had gotten Lily's diaper off, but couldn't figure out how to put the new one on her :)
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