How to: Bone Broth

I have had a lot of friends asking me for my bone broth recipe lately as I have been posting pictures of soups and other sauces made using the broth on my personal Instagram. If you're wondering why you should make broth - you can find that out here, here or here. Or just Google it. 

So, after making about 1 batch of brother per week since the beginning of this Winter - I've just about made mega-litres of the stuff, experimenting with different methods and flavours each time. 

I'm going to talk about making chicken broth in this blog - as I have not been able to source any other free range (or pasture fed) bones from lambs or cows at this stage (because i'm a working mum of a toddler). Plus the flavour of the chicken broth isn't as dominant as beef or lamb would be, therefore you can add it to almost anything and it will just enhance the flavours rather than becoming the flavour. But why is free range or grass-fed meat/bones important? Because we are extracting the nutrients from the bones and so we want the source to be as healthy as possible i.e an animal that has been fed its natural diet. Not to mention that we absorb cellular memory from animals that we eat and its just plain narcissistic to support methods of animal farming that do not offer the animal a worthwhile existence.

So, how do we do this?

Ingredients:
The skin, bones and cartilage (and any left over bits of meat add flavour) of a free range chicken OR about 1-2kg (depending how much you want to make) free range chicken legs and/or wings, roasted
About 1/4 cup proper apple cider vinegar (I use Braggs)
About 6 peppercorns
1-2 Tblsp of pink sea salt
1-2 Onions, quaterterd, skin still on
1whole bulb of purple garlic (dont bother peeling it)
1 leek, white part only
A whole bunch of parsley, stems and all
1 tblsp of tumeric (optional, depending on your tastes)
1-2 bay leaves

You can really use whatever flavours you like here but id definitely make sure you have at least some onion, garlic and celery in there. Please take my advice and DO NOT add carrots (seen in the picture of one of my first attempts), sweet potatoes or any other sweet vegetables to your broth. The sugars in these vegies, after being cooked for so many hours, tend to take on an unpleasant off-caramel flavour that dominates the broth - not nice!

We start with the meat and/or bones. Now a lot of people say you should roast the bones first to add to the depth of the flavour of the stock. And, as annoying as this is, I've definitely found it to be true. If you like, you can roast a whole free-range chicken, consume most of the meat, and save all of the bones, skin, cartilage, neck etc and use this for the base of your broth (ie from your Sunday roast). Alternatively you can just buy a packet of free range legs and/or wings and season them, roast them, leave all of the meat intact and then use the meat for a soup after you've made the broth. It's really up to you. You don't HAVE to roast the bones/meat but you really should, for your own sake. Here's how i did it with some legs: 

Butter, rosemary, salt and pepper. Nothing else.

So, once your bones are ready/meat is cooked you add them to a large, heavy based soup pot and fill with just enough cold water to cover the bones. To this, you add you apple cider vinegar and allow to sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add in all of your vegies and seasonings and bring to the boil. 

Once boiling, a scum will likely rise to the surface in the form of a foam/bubbles like this (ignore the carrot): 

Just skim this off with a metal spoon. Then turn the heat down to very low, cover with a lid and allow to cook (ever so gentle) for 16-24 hours, or until the bones are easy to crush between your fingers (and mind you don't burn yourself trying to do this as I have so many times!).

Once you feel its ready, turn the heat off and allow to cool completely. Next strain all of the veggies, meat and bones from the broth and set aside. Place the liquid into a large bowl/container (preferably glass), cover and place in the fridge over night.

Once your liquid is in the fridge, you can then separate all of the (extremely tender) meat from the bones (if you chose to use legs and wings) and then place this is the fridge to use for soup the next day, or have in sandwiches, on the side for dinner, or whatever you have in mind - just don't waste it! The rest of the veggies etc are usually not good for much at this point - when I was foolishly putting carrots in the broth I would feed them to my dog - but I cant feed him onions etc so it usually just goes in the bin.

Once left in the fridge over night, your broth should now have a layer of fat set on top of it (depending on how much meat . Just peel this off with a spoon if you want to. You don't have to do this but if i'm mainly using it for soup, I do. You can also keep the fat in a jay to use for frying if you'd like (good for savoury fritters, bacon and eggs etc). Don't be afraid of the fat - its actually good for you! 

At this point, your broth should be a gel/jelly-like. If its still watery, its likely that you added too much water. It doesn't mean you cant use it, but you will need to boil it down quite a bit to get back some of the flavour.

Yes. My photos are terrible. I didn't stage them or try to make them look pretty because i'm not trying to sell you anything. The benefits of this stuff speaks for itself. Bare with me!

So now you can use your broth like a stock, make soup, add it to sauces (bolognaise, nacho topping), cook veggies in it (my daughter loves carrots boiled in broth for a snack) - or just drink it like a savoury tea. Be ware that when you first start drinking broth your tummy may react a little at first (as in any detox process). Just push through this stage and keep drinking it and your tummy will settle down and you will be feeling the benefits before you know it.

That's all from me for now. I am trying to get back to blogging, i've just been excessively "busy" since returning back to work outside of the home.

Let me know how it goes!

Angela

The Poo Diaries Part 4: Fibre!

As our beloved Poo Diaries is coming to a close (one more entry following this), I am finally at the place that I think many people might have started on a similar journey. But, as I have mentioned previously, we found that fibre won’t heal a gut in crisis. If the issue is gut motility, then gut motility will remain the issue until it’s addressed specifically and in the appropriate way. Once we had healed Evies gut, we have been able to maintain that health and regularity with fibre awareness. 

So what is fibre? The definition of fibre is actually “Intrinsic plant cell wall polysaccharides” which, in people speak, means the skin of fruit and vegetables. So no, there is no fibre in breast milk, meat, dairy or eggs and if you’re living souly of off these elements (which, let’s face it, a lot of “fussy” toddlers are) then there in could very well lie your problem. Why? Because fibre is that which isn’t digested by the body. Thus, it moves through our gut, from one end to the other, bulking and softening stools and pushing everything else in there along with it on its way out the door, if you know what I mean. You can find more info on fibre here – I don’t really want to weigh you down with the details. All I’m trying to say is: you need fibre to poo, too much or too little can be an issue, and here are some recipes and tips on how to get more fibre into your little one (or yourself, or your nana). 

Number 1: Prunes 

Not prune juice that often has added sugar and preservatives. Just plain old prunes. The only additive free brand of prunes we found was brand called ‘Verity. But, if you can find organic, preservative free prunes somewhere then snap them up!
Because prunes are dehydrated, they do need to be soaked overnight in water to be effective. They can then be de-seeded, blended, and added to all kinds of sneaky foods. When Evie was severely constipated (before we realised we needed to heal her gut first) we were adding prunes to everything with some brief success. Foods such as porridge, baked beans and yoghurt are all good prune smugglers. Even if you’re adding miniscule amounts to each meal, it will add up and make a world of difference. Furthermore, prunes are a good source of iron – they’re not just an ugly face, you know!

Number 2: Apples 
Back in the day, before I knew what I know, I would read forums about constipation in babies and people would say “avoid constipating foods such as apples”, but then another would say “stewed apples work amazingly well for constipation”. And the confusion is here: stewed apples without skin = bad, stewed apples with skin = good. If you peel an apple, you are removing 75% of its fibre and leaving behind what is mainly sugar, thus constipation ensues. So another ‘add me to everything’ fibre solution is, in fact apples that are stewed whole, with the skin on. You just need to place your apple sin a sauce pan, fill up half way with water, place a lid on, and cook for about 15 minutes. Then turn the heat off and leave to sit for another 20. 

All you need to do once they are cooked, is remove the stalks and seeds, then blend them. Apples are more palatable than prunes, but we found that putting prunes and apple puree together in Evies porridge every morning was a recipe for success. You can also make apple yoghurt with this puree by just adding plain yoghurt and honey.

Number 3: Fibre rich meals
These are much easier to do than some might think. It just means leaving the skin on all your veggies, eating more beans, lentils, having porridge for breakfast and sprinkling LSA on everything! I have put a few of these toddler & baby friendly fibre rich recipes up on my Facebook page of late, but I’m re-posting them here so that they are all in one easily accessible place, and will add to them over time.

Potato Veggienaise!

What you need:

1 tablespoon oil
1 small carrot (skin on!) finely diced
1/3 of a medium brown onion, finely diced
1/4 cup red lentils, cooked via packet instructions
3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1 cup water
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
1 teaspoon flax meal
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

How to:
1. Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add onion & carrot and cook until tender (about 5 minutes).
2. Add bay leaf, water, lentils, oregano, flax & tomatoes and bring to the boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes, or until the majority of the liquid is absorbed and carrots are soft. Stir often.
4. Stir through Parmesan. Remove bay leaf.
5. Blend all, half or none, depending on your little ones chewing abilities & Serve with mashed potato.

*You can cook your potato with the skin on and then blend it instead of mashing, for extra fibre!         

Brown Rice Pudding! 

You will need:
1 cup long grain brown rice, cooked to absorption method
3 cups almond milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
A pinch of salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 green apple, finely chopped
1/4 cup currants
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to:
1. Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat and stir frequently until mixture reaches desired thickness (about 30 minutes). That's it! Blend all, half or none depending on your little ones chewing abilities!
Evie’s all-time favourite: Vegetable soup! 

You will need:
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 small carrot, diced
½ a celery stalk, diced
1 potato, diced
½ a swede, peeled and diced
½ a large zucchini, diced
¼ cup raw buckwheat, rinsed
¼ cup red lentils, rinsed
375mL Water
375mL vegetable or chicken stock

How to:
1. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a medium pot. Add garlic, carrot and celery and cook for about 5 minutes, or until just tender.
2. Add all other ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.
4. Allow to cool before serving.

I know that some kids won’t eat a vegetable soup, or a vegetable, even. Luckily, Evie is not one of those kids. Of course that kind of thing can be worked on over time. But if all Evie would eat was nutella on toast, then you best believe that nutella would have been laced with prunes! Or, if she would only eat chocolate custard, then that custard would have been smuggling apple puree! (I do not condone this kind of food for growing bodies and brains - but sometimes our circumstances are what they are and we just have to work with what we have!). Luckily, Ive never had that issue – but that’s just an example of how things can be worked with!

And so ends part 4 of our journey. I will be back with the final instalment just as soon as I get a chance!

Angela

[Recipe] Chocolate & apricot muesli bars

I have been meaning to conjure up a muesli bar recipe for a while now. My Dad recently went to see my naturopath and was thoroughly told off for his after work snack-attacks. And so, my Mum and I concluded that the answer to this would be to produce a healthier, but still tasty alternative that might stave off his hunger until dinner time. So, I was on the case. I usually research a load of recipes and then pick and choose different elements from each in order to create my own, as was the case here. A lot of the recipes I found required an array of expensive and exotic ingredients which arent really my style. So instead, I have (hopefully) stream lined a recipe that can be easily made, with a mixture of easily accessible and everyday ingredients. The mixture of oats (grain), nuts and seeds makes a complete protein (all 16 essential fatty acids), and thus should hopefully be 'filling' enough to stop one from reaching for a packet of scotch fingers in the hungry haze. 

*NOW I will start by saying that the muesli bars shown in the picture are raw, except for the chocolate on top. This is because I used my Mum's Thermomix to melt to coconut oil and honey together at 37 degrees, for 50 seconds on speed 3. But I don't personally own a Thermomix, and if you don't either, then all is not lost. Just boil some water, place it in a bowl, then put your honey and coconut oil in another, heat-proof bowl, on top and stir until melted and combined.

Anyway, on with the recipe! 

You will need:

1 cup raw almonds 

3/4 cup oats 

1/4 cup chia seeds 

3/4 cup pepitas 

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup raw honey 

3/4 cup coconut oil 

60g Lindt 70% dark chocolate, chopped (or raw chocolate of your choosing)

3/4 cup organic/additive free dried apricots, chopped 

How to: 

1. Place your oats, nuts, seeds and salt in the bowl of a blender and blitz until the mix becomes a rough meal. Place this mix in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

                

2. Next, melt together your honey and coconut oil by placing them both in a heat proof bowl, above another bowl of some just boiled water and stirring until melted and combined. 

3. Pour your honey & oil mixture over your oat mix and combine well (you might need to use your fingers a little!) 

4. Line a medium, rectangle pyrex dish (or any rectangle container, roughly 15cm x 20cm) with baking paper. Pour your combined mixture over the baking paper and press down with your fingers and/or the back of a spoon to pack firmly into the dish,  flatten and smooth out. 

5. Sprinkle over your chocolate and apricots, then use the back of a spoon to press them into the mixture (so that they will stick in place when the mixture sets). 

6. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes, until set. Cut into bars of your preferred size and store in the fridge. 

There is, of course, no reason why you couldn't mix your chocolate and apricots into the mixture instead of setting it on top - but i like the intensity of the flavours that having a whole layer of this deliciousness brings! 

I hope you enjoy these as much as we have! 

Angela 

[Colic & Constipation] The Poo Diaries Part 3: Fix

                I told myself, I told everybody, in fact “WE’VE TRIED PROBIOTICS” Shut up, about the probiotics. “They don’t help” I would say, through a sigh, to whichever practitioner happened to be in my grasp at the time. When you haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in over a year, often being wrenched from your sleep every 45 minutes to feed, sooth or massage a thrashing, kicking, screeching, arching, grunting and irritable infant, you have little patience for, or faith in, things that don’t work immediately. You want the cure now, yesterday, 9 months ago even.
You see, I knew good and well antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the gut, and Evie was given IV antibiotics immediately following her birth, so probiotics were the first place I had looked for answers. What I didn’t know at the time, however, was the crucial role that probiotics play specifically in gut motility and that the gut takes time to heal. It’s not a one dose miracle, and if you can find the patience, the faith and the memory power to remember several daily doses through the sleepless fog, they might just be the oil strike you have been waiting for.
So what makes me so sure that probiotics can be effective in healing the gut and restore motility, that when sluggish, causes colic, constipation, reflux & excessive vomiting? Research my friends, research. Meticulous, obsessive, relentless, desperate, prop your eyelids open with toothpicks and pray for answers, research. And I can’t take all of the credit of course, a few of the people we saw about Evie’s gut issues did suggest probiotics, but they never bothered to explain to me (maybe because they didn’t know, exactly) WHY they were so important and how long they might take to have the desired effect, the fact that she needed more than the recommended dose on the bottle, which is prescribed for maintenance, and not repair. And I needed more than that. For example, you can tell me oxygen is good and I might believe you and think “That’s good, I must look into that”. But if you tell me HEY OXYGEN IS GOOD BECAUSE YOU CAN NOT, AND WILL NOT, SURVIVE WITHOUT IT – I might start to take oxygen a little more seriously. People try to sell you things all the time in this world that we live in, anyone can make anyone believe that they need any product if they are good enough at persuasion. But as a nurse, I’m a hard sell, I want to see evidenced based, peer reviewed research, so that’s what I went to find.

                So, babies are born with a sterile gut ^{[1], [2]}. They then acquire their gut’s microflora – throughout the birth process and then from breast milk (if breast fed) and the environment (formula, environmental germs etc) ^{[1], [3]}. However, when babies are either born via caesarean section, or receive antibiotics following birth, their gut flora is altered for at least 6 months (the longest period of study), and possibly permanently, if left untreated ^[1]. The reason that babies whom receive antibiotics following their birth suffer from gut-flora-annihilation is obvious; antibiotics don’t discriminate, they kill both good and bad bacteria, leaving the host depleted. But babies born via caesarean section also receive antibiotics, albeit prior to their birth. Mothers undergoing a caesarean section are routinely given a preventative dose of intravenous antibiotics prior to their birth. This is typically the antibiotic ampicillin. Ampicillin easily crosses the placenta and both Mum and baby will have equal amounts in their systems after one hour of administration ^[1]. 
So how did my search for answers about colic & constipation bring me to probiotic treatment? Because
                “Bacteria inhabiting the human intestine participate in the maintenance or gut
                sensory and motor functions , including the promotion of intestinal propulsive activity…
                Intestinal motility represents one of the major control systems of gut microflora…” ^[4]

So, when my daughter was given IV antibiotics immediately following her birth, her sterile gut was bombarded with bacteria killers that would make achieving a healthy balance all the more difficult in her tiny still-developing little system, from the get go. That balance is crucial to keeping the gut moving, pushing gas and solids in the right direction. Cue 15 months of sleeplessness thanks to our good friend’s colic and constipation.

*I will note here that this study of infants whom were normal vaginal births, without antibiotic administration. One third was formula fed, one third was breast fed, and one third was a formula fed control group whom received no probiotics. This study showed that whilst adding probiotics to the one formula fed group gave them a similar gut health to those whom were breast fed, it actually made no difference to reported gastrointestinal symptoms within the 6 months. This is possibly due to the fact that pretty much all babies struggle with gas, their muscles aren’t as co-ordinated as an adults, their tummy is getting used to being used and they generally all struggle to some degree (albeit much more mildly if not given antibiotics, the problem still exists). Suggestions to deal with normal infant gas can be found here.

You see, you can give as much fibre, laxatives and water as you like – if gut motility is sluggish, your fighting a losing battle. Furthermore, laxatives are not, and nor should they be, a long term option. Why wouldn’t you want to fix the underlying problem? Why would you just want to cover it up and hope it goes away? So, we started Evie on probiotics 3 x a day for 2 days, until her poo turned to green diarrhoea and the gas from this was so intense that the colic came back… Too much. So we pulled it back to just twice a day, and within 7 days she was doing big, soft poos everyday**, napping again during the day, waking less frequently at night and I was so happy I could cry.

Hallelujah!

As for how long she will be on them, I will wait for the current bottle to run out and then see how she goes. I will know immediately if her gut isn't done healing and will quickly get her back on them at the first sign of any kind of upset in the future (including sickness or eczema etc).

                By now you might be thinking, that’s great for you lady, but my child has never had antibiotics and was not a caesarean birth! To which I would say: it doesn’t matter. The real point here is the crucial role that probiotics can play in enhancing gut motility. Furthermore, there are numerous factors that can throw out a child’s gut balance including, but certainly not limited to; the diet of the pregnant and breastfeeding mother ^[5] , the diet of the child^[1]  and being formula fed^[1].

For us, I feel as though probiotics played the key role in getting back on track. But they were, in fact one of many steps! So stay tuned for parts 4 & 5 of The Poo Diaries, coming up in the following weeks!
For those that are interested, I also found a great study (one of many, no doubt) that suggests the use of probiotics in infants can prevent the development of allergies, click here to view.

**When I say doing big soft poos everyday, this was aside from when she was withholding due to the fact that, after 15 months of constipation, she was now too afraid to go and doing her darndest to hold it all in, which I will address in a later blog (parts 4 & 5)! 

[Baby and toddler constipation] The Poo Diaries Part 2: Flush

Now this may seem like a blindingly obvious step to take, but it’s one that took me a while to fully comprehend and accept. It’s not enough to simply numb the pain of a broken leg and give the patient crutches. You must realign the bone and put a cast on it before crutches will be of any real use. What I’m eluding to here is: We had to get, whatever was in Evie’s gut (wreaking havoc), out before anything else would have a chance at being therapeutic. Because constipation leads to constipation leads to constipation. Allow me to explain;

Evie was constipated, so she couldn’t sleep at night.

When she didn’t sleep at night and was having gut pain, she had no patience for, or interest in, solid food.

Because she refused to eat solid food she was hungry.

Because she was hungry she would fill up on breast milk.

Because she would fill up on breast milk, she definitely wasn’t going to eat solid food.

Because she wasn’t eating solid food she wasn’t getting any fibre.

Because she wasn’t getting any fibre she was constipated.

Because she was constipated, she couldn’t sleep at night.

When she didn’t sleep at night and was having gut pain, she had no patience for, or interest in, solid food.

And so on, and so forth (not forgetting that she was also  withholding poo because it hurt), until I am pulling my hair out in hysterical, bloody clumps (I exaggerate).

SO. How did we do this? Well its different for a baby whom isn’t yet on solids than it is for a toddler or child who is. So we will proceed with how we treated this (or would, looking back and knowing what we know now)

In the land before solids

                When Evie wasn’t eating solid food yet, it was hard to believe that she could actually be constipated. She went 9 days without pooing once but in my sleepless daze I didn’t even realise that until I stopped to think and remember when the last time she went was. “They” say that breastfed babies are fine to poo as little as every 10 days – which could well be the case. They are not fine, however, if they are arching, scrunching, sleepless and screaming little bundles during this time. For these babies, of whom Evie was one, it’s not ok to poo every 10 days, clearly.

For one so young we obviously couldn’t give parachoc, coloxyl or suppositories as the issue here clearly wasn’t the consistency of the poo (breastfed = liquid), it was the fact that it was getting trapped and stalled because gut motility was sluggish and babies struggle to coordinate the muscles in order to un-trap wind and adjust to the right angle for elimination, in the way that a constipated adult with a gut ache might.

Given this, what used to work for us to release wind and poo were 4 things; homeopathics, massage, pressure and warmth. I will be forever grateful for Jimmy’s uncle, a pharmacist, who slipped a bottle of Brauer’s ‘Colic relief’ into the hamper from his family at my baby shower. This stuff worked wonders for Evie and I can highly recommend it.

Warmth is pretty easy and effective also. I used to just rub my palms together and place then on Evies belly, skin to skin. But you could also use a rolled up warm towel or a warm bath to apply gentle heat to the tummy to provide both an analgesic and pressure-releasing effect. 

Massage is kind of difficult to explain in writing, so I’ve attached a sweet little video here that you might find useful – the techniques shown are gold, but it doesn’t need to be so specific ie. ‘3 minutes of this’ or ’10 times of that’ – just go with what you baby will tolerate and use your instincts to tell you when it’s time to stop.

As for pressure, I would simply hug Evie into my chest, so her belly was against my boobs, with her head on my shoulder, so that the curve of my bust would apply a gentle pressure on her abdomen. I would then walk around 'bouncing' with her like this and, I kid you not, you would have thought someone was firing a machine gun at times, it was that effective at releasing wind! If Jimmy (or someone otherwise less endowed than a breast feeding mother) wanted/needed to use this technique, we would simply roll up one of her muslin wraps, place it just under their shoulder and lay Evie over it so that the wrap was under her belly (fake boobs, really!). 

One more thing, which Evie doesn’t really allow me to do very often, is baby reflexology: This is great for teething, gut ache and general well being. They say that if the baby actually needs to reflexology, the pressure point on the foot will be tender, which explains why Evie won’t allow me to do it any more! 

 Solids, infinity, and beyond  
                I have found that flushing out my toddler’s gut is easier than doing the same for a baby in many ways, but also harder at the same time. The reason being that there are many a product available for short term, immediate or emergency use for evacuating the bowel – but the price you pay is the mother-guilt of using, administering, and subjecting your child to the taste of, these western pharmaceutical interventions. I love a natural prevention cure or answer, believe me, I do. But sometimes I believe that modern problems require modern solutions – which I will elaborate on later. But it would be great to be able to tip toe around a finicky elimination diet for months with a smile on my sleepless, frazzled face. But I can’t do that – because this life, this world, won’t slow down so I can take the scenic route. And I could not, and would not, watch my daughter suffer and squirm for a minute longer than she needed to and I won’t apologise for that. Enter ‘Parachoc’ and/or glycerin suppositories.

As mentioned previously, it would be very difficult to heal the cause of this particular issue without first treating the symptoms that play a massive role in continuing and feeding such a vicious cycle. I found that we needed to dispel the irritant that was causing pain, discomfort, lack of sleep and refusal of food so that we could fast track to an au-naturale avenue of treatment and maintenance. So – we did try glycerine suppositories, to no avail. I was adamant not to use parachoc for the reasons previously listed but then I had to talk some sense into myself. We were not going to use it for a year, or even a week. We gave 3 “flush” doses over 36 hours, as advised by our pharmacist, and that was it. Once we had given the Parachoc we could move forward.
My only advice here (until now I would like to think I have just been telling our story, what worked for us) would be; don’t be afraid of taking what you might consider to be “drastic” intervention. I think sometimes, particularly in natural parenting circles, we deny our children modern intervention for what we believe in the greater good – but we don’t consider that we wouldn’t necessarily deny ourselves with the same stubbornness. I know if I’ve had a headache that’s not going away – I will take panadol. But I will go to the ends of the earth to avoid doing similar for my daughter, for fear that the side effects aren’t worth the relief. I guess it’s about finding a happy medium that makes sense, and sits right with you and your family. 

[Baby and Toddler constipation] The Poo Diaries Part 1: Our story

         My daughter was not born constipated. I know this, because she aspirated meconium during her birth. So there was, in fact a time in her life that she was actually able to eliminate without assistance. Albeit brief and ever so fleeting – that time did exist. 
My beautiful girl spent the first 6 days of her life in the neonatal unit being treated, firstly for the aspiration, and then for jaundice. Somewhere in the middle of those 6 days she was allowed to come back to our room to stay with is, but she needed to sleep on, and spend as much time as possible on, a biliblanket to treat the jaundice. I was so happy to finally have my baby to myself that I spent the next 12 hours pacing our room with my squirmy bundle, ignoring the pain of fresh stitches, the aching bruises and my violently contracting uterus, in order to continually help her get back to sleep. “If you’re struggling you can send her back down stairs, it’s no problem at all” the midwives kept telling me. “Maybe not a problem for YOU! But I’ve just got her back and I’m not ‘sending’ her anywhere!” I thought silently and ever-so bitterly back to them. You see, I knew she wasn’t hungry because she was on a 3 hourly feeding schedule (medically prescribed) that would see me almost force feeding her a ‘top up’ of expressed breast milk after 20 minutes on each boob! In any case she would scream at the breast and refuse to latch on unless she was good and ready. And it didnt seem like pain, as she was so easily soothed by physical contact. It was somewhere in between the two, my instincts told me. It was discomfort. She reminded me of one of those dolls who’s eyelids have weights in them so they close when placed horizontally, and open automatically when held up vertically. Only, she was the reverse. As soon as I tried to lay her down her eyes would pop right open, followed by her mouth to let out her screams of protest, that incidentally cut into my chest like a hot knife to butter.
Alas, I didn’t know any better. This was my first baby and I assumed that maybe this is what babies do. This is what all of those parents harp on about, the sleeplessness, the lack of answers and the feelings of guilt and self-doubt. That was until later that night, or possibly at about 3am the next morning. We were being looked after by a midwife on the night shift that I didn’t particularly like. She scolded me for nursing Evie sitting up in bed, and made me move to a chair next to the bed to do the exact same thing, although with slightly more pressure on my bruising and stitches. She heard Evie’s cries and came bursting through the door “Is everything alright?”  “Yes.” I told her. “She’s been like this all day. I just think she hates sleeping on that blue blanket, I can’t seem to get her to stay there, or stay asleep!” my voice was definitely quivering at this point. She smiled smugly and put her hands out, motioning for me to hand the baby over “Its sounds like trapped wind to me. When was the last time she pood?” “I don’t know.” I told her, honestly. “She’s been downstairs until today and the nurses have changed some of her nappies”. She nodded with a look on her face that told me it didn’t matter what I said, she already knew what the problem was and she also knew how to fix it. She then proceeded to lay my  still-screaming bundle down on the bed, stripped off her nappy and clothes and began to massage her tummy with a pressure that made us, as new parents, wince. She bent her little knees into her chest a few times, and then massaged a bit more, in a clockwise direction, finally stopping to pause on the lower right quadrant of Evie’s belly and pressing down even harder.  I could barely watch and had to choke back furious questions that were bubbling in my throat, ready to lash this lady. And then, all of a sudden a burst of air and poo came spraying out onto the towel so intelligently placed under Evie’s little bottom. “There” she said, handing me back my wailing little heart. “Try to nurse her now”. So, I did. Evie latched on straight away, fell asleep, and then finally slept for a good few hours after that, on that stupid blanket inside her bassinet.
The next morning, one of the neonatal nurses came to take some of Evies blood to assess how well the jaundice treatment had been going. Needless to say, the results weren’t satisfactory and we had to admit that we had been unable to keep her on the blanket for any extended period of time. This did mean that she went back downstairs to the unit where she was placed under lights for a more intensive therapy instead. It wasn’t the ideal situation. I was heartbroken, in fact. But what came of this (I’m a big believer in everything happening for a reason) was that golden massaging technique that I would end up using several times a day, every day, for the next 8 months.
Don’t be fooled – nothing changed after 8 months except for the fact that Evie no longer allowed me to massage her tummy anymore. She was fed up, and I don’t blame her. But nothing else seemed to work. We had tried homeopathics, naturopathics, chiropractic, probiotics, magnesium, elimination diets, coloxyl and infacol. We’d trawled forums and asked friends, grandparents, the child health nurse and the GP. No one had any answers for us except for “Sometimes shit happens. Or, doesn’t happen in this case, and it’s very common” (that is literally a word-for-word quote from our GP.). He told us to try parachoc and simply use it for a full year, as by then the problem should have resolved itself. I read the parachoc disclosure statement and decided that I was not desperate enough to subject my daughter to a full year of “Malabsorption of water soluble vitamins, anal leakage and itching”. So, stalemate it was.
And of course, starting Evie on solids made everything worse. And we started her early because we thought that maybe this constipation was all in our heads. Maybe she was just hungry and that’s why she couldn’t sleep and we had just let the idea that the midwife put in our heads about ‘trapped wind’ run away with us? Nope. We hadn’t. We were right, it was constipation all along (but we questioned ourselves – and everything, because that’s what good parents do!).
Months 9-14 were much the same. Only after 12 months we had the added stress of her refusal to eat anything, ever. It was fine and dandy to let her refuse meals when she was under 12 months (food before one if just for fun, after all!) but now that window had passed and we could no longer get by thinking that if we could just hang in there, this was just going to clear itself up and no damage would be done.
Exhausted and desperate, I turned to a new naturopath who educated me about antinutrients, oils and the power of fibre - all very useful and even successful for the first few days. But in our particular case, we needed more than fibre. The food Evie was having wasnt exactly absent of fibre, it just wasnt 100% fibre like the suggested meal plan. So I knew that there was more to the issue than a lack of fibre. And it certainly wasn't dehydration as my breast fed baby happily sucked back a few sippy cups full of pure water every day.
So I set off on my own, following my intuition into a land of research articles. It was these, comboned with the naturopath's wisdom that seem to have brought my daughter and her little belly to a happy place. I know that constipation is the number-one problem that toddlers present with, and that’s why I am sharing this information in the coming posts. I KNOW how hard this seemingly trivial issue can be on a family, and if sharing this knowledge can help anyone, who may not have access to the same resources, in anyway, then I am more than happy to do so.  So, stay tuned because there is a light at the end of this particular tunnel that, for once, is not a train.

To Whom It May Concern

                I am not in the business of seeking other mother’s out to judge them on their decisions to make myself feel better about my own short comings. I am in the process of figuring this mothering thing out, doing the best I can for my family based on what I know, exposing what I don’t know and sharing my experiences along the way. Motherhood is not a competition. I repeat: MOTHERHOOD IS NOT A COMPETITION. Because, to borrow some slang from my x-box addicted other half, when it comes to the tricky business of parenting, we’re all “noobs” here.
For some reason, women are so quick to jump down one another’s throats for all kinds of reasons. In my experience, when a woman says to another “This is how I do it”, the other only hears “You’re doing it wrong”. We take advice for criticism and criticism for advice. And it’s got to have something to do with the fact that we have so much emotionally invested here – it’s our children, for goodness sake. The thought that we may be doing something, anything, to their detriment is confronting, and frightening, whether we knew better at the time or not.
 I’ll give you an example: Breast milk is better for babies than formula. This is a fact, inarguable and supported by a solid scientific foundation. So, maybe if you’re armed with this information, you may be more inclined to give breast feeding a chance (if you weren’t otherwise planning on it). However, instead of taking this information for what it is: (information), women who have chosen to bottle feed assume that this is a ploy to make them “feel bad” and become hostile toward the messenger. But the fact of the matter is; I can’t make you feel anything. You decide what you feel and when you decide to feel it. What’s really going on here is that you feel guilty for not being able to breast feed (for whatever reason, it doesn’t matter at this point) and you become angry at me because you don’t like to feel guilty or sad: ignorance is bliss. You also make the assumption that I am trying to convey that I am better than you because I breast fed and you didn’t. You don’t stop to consider that I could be a terrible human being in every conceivable way except for the fact that I chose to breast feed and I’m just damn lucky that it worked out for me. You might volunteer with the homeless and I spend my spare time getting my eye brows shaped and tinted. In fact, the very fact that you even feel guilty about not being able to breast feed your child speaks wonders of your character as both a mother and a human being. You want what’s best for your baby and you feel sad when you can’t provide that 100% of the time. You have a conscience, and a heart and you love your children in the same way that I love mine.
I just wish that women would let their love for their children bring them closer together more often instead of the way it seems to continually rip them apart. I post advice and information on my Facebook page and on my blog in the genuine hope that if there is anyone out there in the same situation, who might not have tried what worked for me, that this information can reach them and provide them with some relief. Why? Because I see my daughter in the face of every child on earth, knowing that her little soul could just as easily have landed in any other family. There is no real difference between my child or anyone else’s, they are all just as worthy of love, nourishment, nurturing, happiness and respect.
My Facebook page and blog are a direct reflection of every one of my struggles as a mother, partner and human being. This is me finding my way, and nothing more.  Sometimes I am lucky enough to find answers, and I feel compelled to pass them on because I believe that blessings are like candles; if you don’t use your flame to ignite other people’s candles then there will be no fire left to reignite yours when it burns out.  What goes around comes around, and I have a duty to create a magical life for my daughter, and I can’t do that in the dark.
So I suppose my message is this: if what I’m posting offends you, consider the reason why. Science and facts are not designed to offend, only to educate. I would never judge anyone for doing the best they could with what they knew at the time. I do not, however, make any excuses for people who know better and refuse to do better. If you fall into this category then there is no place for you here.  And yes, sometimes there is no exact scientific answer. In that case, if what worked for me doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t make me wrong and you right, or vice versa – that just makes us different in that particular way. My aim here is not to be an internet troll, rather, to somehow create a virtual village where we can all support one another in the way that nature intended, but that western society does not otherwise accommodate.
Needless to say, I will not engage in nonsensical arguments with the disgruntled and I will take no responsibility for their own misinterpretation. They say that other people only ever try to bring you down because you are above them. But I think other people try to bring you down because the wounded are weak and there is strength in numbers. If this applies to you please know in advance that I’ll not be joining you in the basement, because that’s not the kind of example I want to set for my daughter.

Sincerely
Angela