The best of natural tooth-care products

Have you seen all the buzz online about natural-living bloggers learning how to heal cavities with clean food & some supplements (like fermented cod liver oil?) I think the evidence is clear: there are non-toxic ways to have great teeth! 

We have a number of natural products for our teeth that we love here at the Haus of Harrison. 

Top row: Xyliwhite mouthwash in Cinnafresh by Now 

Middle row: Weleda Calendula Toothpaste, Lavera kids' toothpaste in "berry" of some sort (fluoride-free), Lush's tooth tabs (in almost all the flavours), Radius organic biodegradable floss, Radius recycled materials toothbrush that desperately needs to be swapped for a new head (see below)

Bottom row: Hakeem Herbal toothpaste

Everything listed is just over the moon delicious - I get so excited to brush my teeth. It also doesn't contain those nasty artificial sugars that are supposed to make products taste good but not promote cavities. Surprise: many natural products like stevia and xylitol are sweet and don't promote cavities either. 

I love my toothbrush because the handle (which is the majority of the material) can be used indefinitely. I only replace the head. 

I also use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide from time to time. And I'm considering buying some activated charcoal for whitening -- have you used it successfully before?

Update: 4 months & 34 months

DAKOTA FORREST //

Size-- she is approximately 5 flower chains wide in the head. 

In all seriousness, her pediatrician said she's healthy enough to go without an appointment between her 2 month and 4 month checkup but to please get her weighed in between to make sure she's on track. So one day I just packed the kids up in their stroller and walked to a medical centre and said "hi - can I use you infant scale?" She was 12 lbs. (We go in tomorrow - will update.)

Food -- well it's more what's going out than what's going in, but she's been drooling a lot. In this photo it's likely out of utter happiness. 

Activities -- rolling around like a circus monkey; singing beautiful songs; and being one of thousands of attendants at a youth conference that daddy was helping run on the long weekend. In her sound blocking headphones. 

Favs-- eating her hands of course. 

And brother reading her a story in the wagon. 

Least favs -- wearing these sunglasses. More than anything in history. 

PS Mommy's fav? These leg rolls. 

OLIVER WOLFE //

Size -- his old jammies are almost a no go.  

Oh and this happened... His shoes, my shoes. 

Food, favs, least favs -- I think I need to skip these this month in favor of showing all his activities. (If you were wondering, food is still cherry tomatoes and always will be, fav is apparently grandma who he told us this week is his "special friend" and least fav is having a fever and coming inside when it rains.)

Activities --

FASHION.

(He rocked his first man-pony today but the photo is alllll mine.)

Art

Building

Age inappropriate Puzzles

Music

(Singing while grandma plays piano - Jolene if you were wondering)

And this wonderland that they call a garden centre. 

It's been good guys. Tune in for 5 months/35 months (whhhhooooaaaaa.)

Starting the garden 2014

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Planting time!

With a son of limitless energy and a daughter who is all but crawling, starting seeds indoor (on my usual scale) was not happening. So I am doing garden center plants this year - save for a few I started from seed in the basement, a few that came back from last year naturally, and and few that I'll sow directly from seed. 

Here's what I've done so far:

1. Remove most weeds. Turn the soil. 

2. Lay out new soil (organic 3 in 1) and plants where they'll go.*

3. Spread soil. Plant! Water. 

Here's the before & after from planning to planted. 

* how I plan:

Tomatoes need a ton of space cause I cage them. 

I let squash & cucumbers climb my makeshift trellis. Beans can climb the fence. 

I plant an entire perimeter of hot peppers (12 plants) to keep animals from stealing. (If they ask I will let them!)

I plant all greens closest to the fence so they'll get some shade. Sunflowers there too so they'll be at the back and not shade anything from sheer height. 

Each plant gets it's own space except for greens which are an area, and carrots. 

Herbs are potted so I can bring them inside. Mint especially (it goes wild never leave it in the soil near other plants.)

My rhubarb & blackberries are where I can easily remove them if we move. 

Chives and kale just came up where they were last year.

I seperate cucumbers and zucchini because they look similar (ha ha). 

My potatoes and garlic are also potted because I started them earlier from kitchen scraps. 

I think that's it! Are you gardening this year?  

Our family creed

I finally got around to re-doing our family creed poster. 

If you think this one looks messy, illegible & slightly cut off in places you should have seen the last one! 

I chose to do it in sharpie because #1 I don't know how to make a crest like that on the computer, but also because it looks cute and homemade. 

So here's what we are all about. I'm happy to type out the words if you're having trouble reading it. It's a great reminder in times when we are, well, straying from the plan. 

Bacon fried rice

I simply could not convince myself to keep this recipe un-blogged. It's so simple, so yummy and so health... Wait, it's not healthy! Ha ha. Okay it contains veggies and brown rice so there's that. 

And it's adapted  from Shutterbean.com again so kuddos to the amazing Tracey!

 

Ingredients:

A splash of oil 

1/2 white onion, and 1/2 red onion, chopped

Pinch of salt

1 garlic clove, chopped

Ginger (I used a drop of organic ginger syrup but you can use 1 tsp chopped)

1/2 c green peas

2 eggs

2 cups cooked brown rice

6 slices bacon cooked

2 T soy sauce

Sauté the onions in oil. Salt. Once they are soft add the garlic and ginger. Sauté again for another minute. Add green peas. 

Move mix to the side and let 2 eggs fry up (scramble the yolks). 

Move eggs to the side and dump in cooked brown rice and cooked bacon. Let fry up then mix everything together. 

Add soy sauce. Enjoy. 

Update on Oliver's journey with Becker's Nevus

I suppose a quick recap is in order for those of you who are unfamiliar with Oliver's unique condition. 

At birth we noticed a large black birth mark on his leg spanning almost his whole thigh. A physician quickly came and diagnosed it as a beckers nevus - a form of birth mark that mostly affects men. 

She started seeing a specialist becaus we wanted to know what our options are. We were told we could give him a skin graft transplant surgery but the results wouldn't look great. We also try to make as many natural choices for him as possible and avoid medications/surgeries, etc. We decided we wouldn't write the idea off but we would discuss what HE wants, at age 5. 

Our concern has always been that other kids may not be kind to him about it. He is such a sweet kid but very sensitive (like his dad!) and it breaks my heart to think he could be bullied. I also don't want to constantly keep him covered and make him embarrassed of it. 

Meanwhile, working at a healthfood store I was introduced to a revolutionary (I try not to use this word often, but this instance merits it) skin ointment that uses the active/beneficial ingredient in broccoli (sulforophane) to repair abnormal DNA with an all natural cream. It's put out by the same Canadian company who have brought tea tree oil into so many of our homes. 

I saw this ointment (Broccofusion) cure skin conditions left and right, including skin tags falling right off, and birth marks disappearing. 

www.organicteatreeoil.com - read all about it. 

I used a few samples on his leg and IT WORKED. To appease the non-believers I chose one section of his leg to apply it so you could clearly see the results. 

See where it fades at the top?

I watched his dark black, thickly raised skin with hair, turn to a barely light brown shade on his leg, smooth and thin. Unreal. 

Recently I got up the courage to contact the company and tell them my encouraging story. I think more people who have a beckers nevus (or parents of children who do) need to know about this effective, natural treatment. And guess what? The head of the company replied and said he's so happy with Oliver's results that he wants everyone wither beckers nevus to know! He's offering a coupon code for 10% the ointment (or the lotion which is less potent but easier to apply) if you use the code: beckersnevus14 with your purchase. 

I encourage you to give it a try and then share your results with me! Birth marks can be embarrassing and they don't have to be!

Thank you for sharing the journey with us.