This Family Will Not Drink Cow's Milk

http://www.babyreference.com/MilkingYourBones.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/foodbytes/2008/09/chinas_milk_consumption.html

Mama has decided not to drink cow's milk (or any milk lah...) intentionally, unless it's used as an ingredient in other food. It's just another one of US marketing ploys, as with many of their other industries. Those corporations with lots of money spend lots of money to convince the world to buy their products which are not good for our health.

Cows eat grass to make milk for their young. So Mama will try to eat green vege to make milk for me :). Do you know only humans are the only animals who drink other animals' milk? And our adults drink milk beyond infancy stage?

For your info, cats do not drink cow's milk. Aunty Erny enlightened Mama yesterday. Like us, cats are also lactose intolerant. No wonder Mama tends to go to the toilet after drinking milk. Mama doesn't like to drink milk. But for a while, especially when she was pregnant with me, she forced herself to drink milk thinking it's good for me. How glad she is now to be freed from drinking milk! Now the challenge is to eat greens. :)

She can't really understand everything in the article above but the summary:

• By adolescence, neither calcium intake nor physical activity had any more influence on bone mineral improvement.
• Americans have among the highest osteoporosis rates in the world, while their dairy intake is also among the highest.
• A Harvard researcher produced a graph that demonstrated a nearly direct relationship between calcium intake and hip fractures - the more calcium, the more fractures.
• Boron, copper, magnesium, manganese, zinc, vitamin C, and proper fluoride levels are just as important as calcium for optimal bone growth. None of these are high in cow's milk, so none of these are advertised as important for bones.
• Clearly, high calcium intake, and certainly high dairy intake, are not the prevention for osteoporosis.
• Dairy's high calcium content causes relative deficiencies in magnesium and other bone-building minerals, and its high phosphorus and animal protein reduces calcium availability.
• Physical activity (exercise) has the greatest benefit - the body efficiently uses what is available to build strong bones when it senses the need. Human milk and vegetable sources are superior to dairy for calcium and other nutrients in many ways.

Breastfeeding beyond 1

Mama has resolved today to breastfeed me till I'm 2 or 3 years old. At first she wanted to breastfeed me till I want to stop. And to supplement with formula milk or fresh milk once a day, in case she goes back to work part time. But for my sake, she's considering feeding me even when I want to stop, unless I'm above 3.

She read an article today to inspire her to feed me breastmilk. Those who care for me or want to question Mama's rationale for her resolution, please read. http://www.babyreference.com/BEYONDBREASTMILK.html Even if you doubt the authenticity of the article, don't doubt God's wonderful creation. It's really amazing how God made the breastmilk to suit every stage of a child's life, even beyond WHO's recommendation of 6 months, or what most people say, 1 year is enough. When was Moses weaned?

Summary of what Mama learnt from the article:
- Breastmilk beyond 6 months do not lack in important nutrients, like iron, protein, fats, carbo, zinc etc. The content changes as the child grows older.
- Cow and goat milk have very little vitamins and nutrients, and far too much protein, sodium and many other things that is damaging to kidneys/body in general for babies; difficult to digest.
- Formula-fed babies (like Mama) usually need to start solids earlier cos their protein/fats and basically all the nutrients lah... are harder for young babies to digest. So they benefit from solids, more than breastfed babies.
- Breastmilk is not deficient in iron and efforts to raise iron levels in the absence of proven anemia are not beneficial. In fact, when exposed to formula milk or solids, then in risk of anemia.
- Iron-fortified food, including baby cereal, actually reduces zinc absorption! And it's not a good starting solid!
- Use close-to-no-iron foods as experimentation (pear, cucumber, apple, plum, papaya, melon, banana) to protect baby’s immune advantages before solid foods are a sure thing
- And feed high iron foods once solids are a “go”. These include peas, prunes, apricots, meats,
beans (especially soy), potato skins, spinach, fortified cereals
- Don’t push consumption even once solids have started
- Weight is not the end-all of an infant’s health
- Lower weight is often a greater sign of health than higher, in terms of long-term outcome.
- There is generally NO reason to feed grains early
- No reason to feed sweet fruit sauces and the like
- Only dark colored veggies, beans or meat and fish can hold a candle to breastmilk’s
nutrition
- Eggs are wonderful, and yolks only or complete egg can be tried before age one in a non-allergic family
- Meat, high in iron and zinc, is far better than fortified white cereal so that minerals are not set
off-balance
- How many have ever heard of a meat allergy?
- Breastmilk is an animal food. If breastmilk ends early (like before age 3) then other animal foods need to take its place, or great efforts need to be made to compensate for B12, zinc, DHA,
chondroitin sulfate and other vegan challenges
- Salmon is great: zinc, iron, selenium, retinol, omega 3’s, high-quality
protein (fish allergies are more common in adults)
- A diet of broccoli, carrots, peas, walnutbutter & eggs or meat might
not pale too badly in comparison to breastmilk nutritionally
- Of course Human milk has perfect calcium delivery for Human children
- After mom’s milk:
CALCIUM listed in order of amount per calorie: molasses, dark salad greens,
cabbage, broccoli, green beans, cucumber, peas, soy, squash, most other types of beans (including cocoa), figs, kiwi, almonds, real maple syrup, brown sugar, and tomatoes.

Plastics

Mama hasn't been taking photos these days so she will post her findings on plastics. From now on, take a look at the bottom of your plastic stuff to see what's the number in the triangle. Besides telling you the recycling code, it tells you the material.

Basically, toxic materials will leach out of the plastic when used, especially when exposed to heat. In the long run, will cause hormonal imbalances and all sorts of cancers. If you think about it, plastics have not been around long enough for us to see many people becoming ill from them but we probably will see soon enough... Like what my Grandma says, it's ok to die (cos we will see God). Just don't become ill with some disease and suffer, and let the loved ones around suffer with you.

Cut the long story short:

Number 1: Use only once (usually plastic mineral water bottles)
Number 2, 4 and 5: Generally safe to eat/drink out of them (but try not to expose to too much heat)
Number 3, 6 and 7: Don't eat/drink out of them, even worse with heat (6 is styrofoam!!! 7 is Nalgene (older models) and even baby bottles)

So use what to store food and water? Best to use glass and stainless steel.

So what do we do when we want to tah pao food? They always come in styrofoam or plastic containers. Papa says if you really can be bothered, bring your own stainless steel tingkat!!! Haha.... Maybe Mama will consider... Urmmm.... we see how ah....

And imagine almost all the things that I use are made of plastic!!! Thankfully I don't drink milk out of plastic bottles. I get it direct from the cow! Urr.... My Mama I mean.... :)

21st September 2008

We went to Bottle Tree Village at Sembawang today for an early dinner with 6 other couples from church. They meet once a month to group-date and celebrate birthdays. Mama and Papa started to join them 3 months ago.

That's me playing at the playground before eating because the rest have not arrived yet.

Besides finishing my food, I ate the steamed sea bass and tofu. I also drank the coconut juice. Yummy! And I kept tailing a very black cat.

That's the huge bottle tree. Looks cool eh? Like a huge carrot. :)

There's a pond too. Another family is feeding the fish bread. The fish look so cute when they open their mouth to gulp down the food.

What a huge cork! Not that it's made of cork lah...

Mama asked me to touch the bark. Very rough.

4th September 2008

We went to Conrad Hotel's Oscar's buffet for lunch. Not as good as The Line from Shangri-la Hotel, for me that is. There's hardly anything I can eat! I only managed to eat cheese and bread... Didn't really like the other stuff but Mama ate alot. :) The desserts were good, though she still preferes The Line. And lunch costs about the same.

I look like I'm dancing Saturday Night Fever here. Hehe...

I'm just happy to walk around instead of eating.

6th - 9th September 2008

6th September 2008
More pictures of me walking in Bethel church hall.

See me stand so straight.

Aunty Bri is trying to make me walk more by tempting me with HiChew sweets.

7th September 2008
Nowadays, when I want to drink milk, I will pull down Mama's shirt.

8th September 2008
I'm shopping! This Kiwi looks interesting. Mama, can we buy this?

Or should we get this?

Choices choices. Should I get this or that?

9th September 2008
Look at that bruise on my forehead. It's still so red after falling down on the 6th. Aunty Bri put me on the chair in Bethel and pushed me. I fell down and had a carpet burn. Ouch!

01 - 05 September 2008

01 September 2008
Nicole Jie Jie came to my place today to play with me. She's having school holidays you see. And she was a very good girl cos she finished all her homework already. So she can totally enjoy her one week holiday! I want to be as sensible as her next time.

We had dinner with Da Yi at the court but I had my porridge from home while Mama ate yummy food... OK lah. My porridge is also nice lah...

02 September 2008
We went to Marina Square today with Nicole Jie Jie. Mama wanted to eat dim sum at Bao Jin Tian cos there's a 30% discount if you dine in between 3pm to 5.30pm on weekdays. So it's really worth it. In fact, quite a few restaurants have weekday tea time specials.
Ok, that's me in the kiao kah position again...

Nicole Jie Jie is my nanny for the day. She's feeding me rice crackers while waiting for the food to arrive.

Look at my cheeky simle. Papa's taking a picture using his Treo handphone which he only got for $50! second hand lah... Cos he lost his beautiful red one months ago.

Mama likes the tim sum but don't bother with the congee that Papa ordered. Mama likes the black sesame buns.

That's me walking. I've been taking baby steps since I was 11.5 months old. But ever since I turned 1, I could walk quite well. Now, I can walk down the hall already. In fact when Da Yi came to my place yesterday, I was so happy to see her and Nicole Jie Jie. Da Yi was delighted that I could walk all the way to the door front!

I still like to push things and walk, like this stool.

I like to touch cold things, like Nicole Jie Jie's Teh Peng.

05 September 2008
Mama finally tried to put on the umbrella for the stroller. It fits well. I was quite fascinated by it. May not be as practical as a plastic see through rain cover lah... but pretty.