To Our Health

So it turns out that I have a VERY sensitive and allergic baby on my hands.  She started out getting hives a couple of months ago, and I didn't know why. I thought maybe it was something I was putting on her, and it was, partly (I'll have to write another post about that later) -- but what I didn't realize was that it was also what I was putting IN me, and was coming into her, through my breast milk.  In addition to a lot of contact allergies, she also has food allergies (she got that from her mother, I'm afraid...).  Some hives on my girl's cheek from another day: I've been gradually working on figuring out this tiny girl's MANY allergies... So far I know for sure she is allergic to dairy/eggs, as well as fragrances/chemicals/dyes. Lots of other things are still unknown because I'm almost never 100% certain of the cause of her reactions (hard to isolate just one variable in life!).  Yesterday I got a new mattress for my bed, and after layin...

I started having this earache last week and it felt like the inside of my ear was getting some sort of bubble in it, which was very painful and did not make me happy.  I remembered seeing a recipe in the newspaper once for home-made ear drops that help prevent swimmers' ear infections, so I googled and found this recipe, posted by a pediatrician.   I am happy to say that my ear started feeling better almost immediately after I applied these drops to the infected area, and after the next couple of days (after a few more applications with a Q-tip to the infection) it completely disappeared.   Swimmers Ear Drops Recipe (from:   http://www.food.com/recipe/swimmers-ear-drops-62628  )  Yield: 1  bottle Units: US | Metric Ingredients:  1 fluid ounce vinegar 1 fluid ounce rubbing alcohol Directions: 1 Mix the vinegar and alcohol in a small dropper bottle. 2 After swimming or bathing, dry the ears well and add a few drops to each canal. 3 Remember...

I started using hydrogen peroxide a couple of years ago as an experiment to whiten my teeth, which it did.  I bought regular 3% pharmaceutical solution of hydrogen peroxide from Walgreens (hydrogen peroxide diluted to only 3% strength in 97% water).   I followed the directions on the bottle and mixed the solution half and half with water (so the solution was now only 1.5% strength), and swished with it once or twice a day for 30 seconds or so.  My friends started mentioning my whiter teeth after a couple of weeks. That was a couple of years ago, but more recently I had a friend to whom I suggested the same thing.  He tried it, and actually didn't dilute the hydrogen peroxide any further, but just swished with the 3% dilution from the bottle.  After a few weeks he told me that he was really happy because his gums had stopped bleeding when he brushed his teeth.  He said his gums had been bleeding a lot every time he brushed for a number of y...

I thought I would tell you my story of flax oil healing my eczema just in case it could help somebody somewhere: When I lived in Texas for two years I developed some very severe eczema on my legs.  It came partly from allergens I encountered in the air there (especially in spring), as well as my diet, when I ate too much dairy for my allergies to handle.   The eczema was so bad that I had bleeding sores all over my legs (I wore jeans all the time to keep them covered up!).  One day, when I went to the doctor for some other allergy prescriptions (for itchy eyes, stuffy nose/throat, cough, etc.), I asked if he could look at my legs as well.  When I pulled up my pant legs, he looked shocked and said that I needed to go on antibiotics right away because they could easily get infected.  He gave me some prescription-strength steroid crème, in addition to the oral allergy medications I was taking.   The steroid ...