The School of Natural Healing is having an introductory Special

This year is the 100th anniversary of Dr. Christopher's birth. I just had to tell all my blog readers that The School of Natural Healing is having a special on tuition in honor of his birth. They recently introduced their first course online. Normally tuition for the course is $495 but for a short time, it is $100. Dr. Christopher dreamed of a Family Herbalist in every home and a Master Herbalist in every community. This course will teach you the very basics to be a Family Herbalist. What herbs are in your kitchen that you can use to heal your family in first aid situations? What can you do to improve their health? I will forever be grateful for the knowledge I learned so long ago in that first course.

When should I feed the baby solids?

I have heard lately from several people that they are worried about food aversions or texture issues or pickiness in children if solids are not introduced early. I have heard of people taking their kids to specialists for oral therapy. I think this is a bit silly. How on earth did we survive all these thousands of years without oral therapy and rice cereal for 4 month olds!!!!?????

I sent the following to an email list about this topic. (I have slightly edited it for readability) The woman asking about solids was looking at specialized tables that have been "scientifically" calibrated to tell you what texture to introduce, how often during the day, and in what order to be sure that the child doesn't have texture issues later on. What?!?

This is a soapbox for me... I have heard over and over and over and over again that if you don't feed your kids solids until they are older they will have food aversions or texture issues. I personally think that barring something like autism, this is mostly hogwash IF the family eats a variety of textures etc themselves. Children want to do what we do. Most families eat things that are all the same color, similar texture, etc. Most families today eat a lot of processed junk and don't have variety. Furthermore, these families often want their kids to "eat healthy" so they start pushing foods that they themselves won't eat and is it any wonder the child refuses!? I am the mom of 3 and have delayed solids with all 3. They are the least picky kids I know.

Here is my method:

First and foremost, recognize that as teeth come into the mouth, more and more enzymes for digestion are produced. The last enzymes produced are those which are for the digestions of grains. This happens when the eye teeth come in. I think part of this is due to the fact that you MUST chew your grains thoroughly for the enzymes in the mouth to combine with the grains. This is where the primary digestion of grains occurs. Therefore, I delay the introduction to grains until well after a year. Furthermore, I use sprouted grains because they are better for the body.

Second, I wait until the child has lost the tongue thrust, has teeth, sits unassisted, has a pincher grasp, crawls with the belly off the floor, and is grabbing for food. The grabbing for food I am referring to is not the imitative grabbing at 5-6 months. Babies at that age grab at anything. I am talking about purposeful grabbing of food. Until then, I give them spoons to play with or special dinner time toys during meals.

Third, I only give them what is on my plate- I don't un-spice things, make special baby food, or puree foods. I literally feed them what is on my plate. If there are some soft cooked carrots, I might mush them with a fork, but that is usually the extent of my blending foods. I don't do baby food. I have the opinion that if they can't mush it up themselves in their mouth, they really shouldn't be eating it yet.

Fourth, I follow their lead. As they get more teeth, I will put salad, etc on their plate. Salad is kind of hard to eat, so I usually put 1 piece of lettuce etc and expect them to play with it more than chew it. But, they are used to the variety of textures and colors when I do this. I don't stress. I have one who refused food at all until 8 months and then it was a taste here and there because I didn't really want to feed him solids. At 11.5 months he insisted on 3 square meals with the family. One was 11 months before she would taste foods and began to eat at 14.5 months. One was also about 11 months before tastes and then she began to eat at about 16 months. The last one was a partly delayed in eating because I didn't bring her to the table for dinner time until she was nearly a year old. I did this because she was content playing and I didn't think she needed the food since she was well above average for weight and height on nothing but breastmilk. At about 11ish months I felt like she ought to be part of the family at meals and so I began to bring her to the table and she started to take an interest in what we were doing. She is now 2 1/2 and she asked for her second bowl of salad tonight complete with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes (she will eat an entire chopped tomato by herself while I turn my back to get the lettuce washed if I don't pay attention. Then I have to go chop another tomato!), red peppers, and green cabbage with a little of my Annie's Goddess dressing knockoff. My other daughter got angry with me last night because I made some kale salad and ate all of it- kale massaged with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, a tiny bit of greek spices, sea salt, and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and a chopped tomato.

All of my kids loved spicy (garlic) and lemony hummus by 18 months. Yesterday's lunch was hummus with carrot sticks and celery sticks. No complaining.

So, I think that as long as YOU don't live on chicken fingers and fries and white rice and iceberg lettuce you can raise a healthy eating child without special equipment or specialized feeding schedules or introducing foods at 6 months before a child is truly ready to eat.

Coughs

Someone asked about what to do with coughs. I like to drink red raspberry leaf tea. If it is really bad, I like Dr. Christopher's Lung and Bronchial formula or I like his cough syrup- it is NOT a cough suppressant though... it helps clear out the mucus so you can heal. I also like to make my own cough syrup- chop onion and place in a double boiler then cover with honey and let simmer on low heat for a couple of hours. Strain and take 1 tsp-1T every hour-couple of hours. I sometimes add some thyme to this because thyme is very good for coughs. If I have some left over, and I didn't dip a used spoon in it, I will put it in a glass mason jar for the next round of coughs. Also, avoiding dairy like the plague helps.
I have also been known to make a tea for really bad coughs. I take red raspberry leaves, mullein leaves, a little bit of lobelia, some comfrey leaves, a pinch of lavender, and a bit of thyme. This works really well for opening up the lungs. I don't have measurements on this one, because I do this one by feel, but if I were to venture a guess I would say about 1 part each raspberry leaves, mullein and comfrey leaves, 1/3 part thyme and lavender, and 1/4 part lobelia.
I do use comfrey leaves and sometimes comfrey root internally. Despite the FDA's claim that comfrey is damaging to the liver, the historical usage of it says otherwise. Here is some extensive information on comfrey on Herbal Legacy: Contentions with Comfrey Studies. Unless a person has a liver condition and is taking copious amounts of comfrey for an extended period of time, I don't find comfrey to be troubling. I suppose the above combination would work ok without the comfrey, but one of the things it does is aid in healing the lungs. Here is another contention written by Susun Weed.