Conscious Parenting: Going From Stressed to Present

05/29/19 • 41 min

This week I was joined by Selene to talk about conscious parenting - and boy did we have a powerful conversation!

This topic is very near to her heart as she herself used the tools discussed in this episode to go from feeling that parenting has to be stressful and overwhelming to absolutely loving it.

Selene currently leads an 8 week online course titled Conscious Motherhood, where she teaches the ins and outs of conscious parenting so other moms can have a similar transformation as hers.

TOPICS DISCUSSED DURING THE EPISODE:

Common beliefs about parenting and where they stem from
How to break the cycle of repeating parenting patterns of how you were raised as a child
Why it's important to have a vision of what you want your parenting life to look like.
The power of perspective
How the home environment can be made more inclusive for toddlers/young children
The three things needed for a great parenting experience
Perks of non-tox living while raising a family
Tips for helping children move through emotions rather than encouraging them to suppress them

Selene certainly opened my eyes to so much of the societal programming around parenting! If you'd like to learn more about her course or new membership site, head to awakening.family for more info.

Additional Resources:

Heart Math Institute
Selene's Instagram: sunshel
Find the host on Instagram at: @chemistkarma

This week I was joined by Selene to talk about conscious parenting - and boy did we have a powerful conversation!

This topic is very near to her heart as she herself used the tools discussed in this episode to go from feeling that parenting has to be stressful and overwhelming to absolutely loving it.

Selene currently leads an 8 week online course titled Conscious Motherhood, where she teaches the ins and outs of conscious parenting so other moms can have a similar transformation as hers.

TOPICS DISCUSSED DURING THE EPISODE:

Common beliefs about parenting and where they stem from
How to break the cycle of repeating parenting patterns of how you were raised as a child
Why it's important to have a vision of what you want your parenting life to look like.
The power of perspective
How the home environment can be made more inclusive for toddlers/young children
The three things needed for a great parenting experience
Perks of non-tox living while raising a family
Tips for helping children move through emotions rather than encouraging them to suppress them

Selene certainly opened my eyes to so much of the societal programming around parenting! If you'd like to learn more about her course or new membership site, head to awakening.family for more info.

Additional Resources:

Heart Math Institute
Selene's Instagram: sunshel
Find the host on Instagram at: @chemistkarma

Previous Episode

Nutrient Dense First Foods + How to Deal With Picky Eaters

Ashley was such an awesome guest that she's the first to appear on the Toxin Free Mom To Be podcast for a second time!

Last week, Ashley taught us all about how to introduce first foods. But, since she also has additional training in pediatric feeding and picky eating, she was also the perfect gal to tell us which foods are good to start feeding with.

The Importance of Iron

One fact brought up by Ashley that really stuck out to me, was the importance of iron - especially during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and childhood. In fact, iron is one of the top nutrient deficiencies in children (source).

She also pointed out how one role of iron is to aid in absorbing nutrients. So you could theoretically be consuming enough nutrients but not actually absorbing them if you don't have enough iron. And since children go through so much growth, they are especially vulnerable to negative effects of not having enough micronutrients.

Interestingly, liver (yes, like the actual organ from a cow or chicken!) is not only a potent source of bio-available vitamin A, but also heme-iron.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding and the idea of eating organs isn't the most appealing (trust me, I get it!) I have linked my favorite freeze-dried and encapsulated liver supplement below in the 'Resource' section.

Other topics discussed during this episode:

Top nutrient dense first foods recommended by a pediatric feeding specialist
Why it is especially important for children of this age to eat calorically dense foods (especially ones high in fat).
Foods to stay away from as first foods or how to serve them so they do not pose a choking hazard
Why it may actually be better to serve first foods as stick shapes vs. cubes or purees
Reasons to ditch the rice cereal
How to approach picky eating and to realize it is a normal phase children go through
Top tips from a feeding specialist on how to create positive food experiences for little ones
What a "no thank bowl" is and why it can be so helpful

Resources:

Ashley's website: helpinghandsOT.com
Book for extreme picky eaters: Just Take a Bite
Instagram: @helpinghandsOT ; @chemistkarma (host)
Ancestral Supplements - Also supported by the Weston A Price foundation, this is my favorite high quality beef liver. The product is freeze dried and encapsulated (so you get all the benefits, without having to actually eat it!) This company even gets 3rd party testing done to ensure it is pesticide free and they never add fillers of any sort.
Treat Yourself Inc. - My favorite non-toxic toothpaste and deodorant. Code TOXINFREE saves you 10% storewide!

Next Episode

Ep. 23: The Rise of Chronic Illness in Our Children + the Search for Answers with Beth Lambert

It's no secret that chronic illness is on the rise.

Robert Kennedy Jr. himself even stated

"The greatest crisis that America faces today is the chronic disease epidemic in our children" - RFK Jr.

If you search pubmed (or any other publicly available scientific databse), you'll find hundreds of research studies done and scholarly articles written about the dangers of exposure to certain chemicals, delayed risks associated with C-section, adverse effects after antibiotic use in early childhood, chronic exposure to EMFs, too little exercise, too much screen time, and the list goes on..

Unfortunately, basically every study out there only looks at risks associated with a single variable (whether it be a single chemical or any other variable, such as the ones listed above).

But in the real world, most of us are exposed to hundreds of these stressors before even leaving our house. And what does that synergistic effect lead too? *spolier alert* : no one knows.

Beth Lambert, the founder of Epidemic Answers, is spearheading a study that aims to answer this question.

The hypothesis posed is such that: the amount of environmental exposures a child is exposed to and during key points in development affect their propensity toward chronic conditions. They also hypothesize that exposures during the 1st year of life, in-utero, and prenatally are more impactful than exposures later in childhood (~6-10 years old).

The more people that participate in this landmark study, the more concrete and statistically significant answers we can get.

If you feel called to participate, please head over to documentinghope.com/chirp-study/

Topics discussed include:

What is a toxin load and how it might be affecting us and our loved ones
How some stressors are relatively unknown - such as health risks with CFL lightbulbs
What happens when an extremely toxic chemical comes into contact with many other toxic chemicals i.e. synergistic effect
How the health of the whole family seems to improve when reducing the toxin load within the home
Moving from stories to science. At what point do these anecdotal stories become data? The CHIRP study is aiming to do just that.
In the U.S. over 50% of children are diagnosed with a chronic condition. The CHIRP study can help give us tangible answers so we can combat these statistics. Head to documentinghope.com/chirp-study to participate.

Other Resources: