Happy and Healthy - Dry skin? Try an Oatmeal Bath

I have used lotion to ward off dry skin for most of my life. When I got pregnant with my first child I started to look at what goes into my cosmetics as well as my hair and skin care products. Needless to say, I was shocked, and started to look to natural alternatives. We live in a year round dry climate where it can snow at least 6 months out of the year. My kids have never really needed any lotions to keep their skin hydrated. They drink lots of water, bathe every 2 - 3 days, and when their skin gets dry we just add oatmeal to their bath. There is not a simpler, more natural, and cost effect method. It can cost $6 for an 8 pack of commercial oatmeal bath powder. This will cost as much as the oatmeal you use. It is also good for itch relief.

Oatmeal Bath
By Tiffany Teske

Ingredients
~ 1 c Organic old fashioned, quick cooking, or instant oatmeal (They all work just as well)

Directions
Grind your oatmeal in a coffee grinder or food processor. Put in your oats and grind until they are a fine powder. If you would like to make a large batch of powder you can grind in smaller batches and store in a jar with a lid for up to 6 months in a cool place. Add 1/2 - 1 c directly to your bath water or about a 1/3 c to a baby bath and swirl around with your hand. The water will look milky and feel silky. In a powdered form the oats will go down the drain without any problems.

If you don't want to or can't grind your oats you can add 1 - 2 cups whole old fashioned oats to a sock, knot the sock just above the oats so they are snug in the sock, and put it all in your bath for 15 - 20 minutes. Wring out the sock several times. Oatmeal powder will make your tub more slippery than usual, so take care.

Part Two Baltic Amber Teething Necklace- How to Make One For Your Baby

I decided to make my daughter her amber teething necklace, which I first wrote about in post "Part One". If you don't want to make your own necklace there are several places you can buy one online. If you go to Etsy.com and search on "amber teething" many sellers pop up. If you would like to make one please follow the simple tutorial below. I bought my beads online from Amberizon. My beads came from Latvia and are good quality. It is possible to get fake glass beads if you don't have a reputable source. Amberizon has many kinds of beads to choose from as well as necklaces that are already made. I ordered raw baltic amber beads as these are said to have the strongest calming properties. The one ounce package contained enough to make one 12.5 inch necklace, with some left over beads to add to the length of the necklace as my daughter grows. The quality is great, the various colorings of the beads are beautiful, and the holes are quite uniform.
PLEASE NOTE: I ordered 1513, which from the photo looks like rusty rocks, but what I received are the beads you see in this tutorial. They do have a frosted unpolished look, but they vary in color and don't look like the photo on the Amberizon site...

How To Make an Amber Teething Necklace Tutorial

What you need:
1 oz of Baltic amber beads
1 magnetic barrel clasp
beading thread of your choice (I made this necklace twice before I opted for six strand embroidery thread because it is strong and makes good sized knots. Other people use silk thread or hemp)
beading needle
elmer's glue


Step One
Tie one end of your thread around the end of one part of your barrel clasp. Tie several secure knots. Glue the knots. I didn't glue the knots the first two times I made this necklace and both times the knots came undone at the clasp. When this happens, you have to retie the whole necklace because the thread is too short to just retie it to the clasp. Tres frustrating! If you know anything about crimp beads, as seen in this photo, you can use one, but in the end, I didn't.


Step Two
Slide a bead onto your needle, then down securely to the knots at the clasp, and knot behind the bead, then repeat until you have a necklace that is the length you want. Knotting after each bead serves two purposes; if the necklace breaks your beads will not fly all over the place and your child is less likely to choke on a bead.


The best way to get a tight knot, right against your bead, is to make your knot, then slide you needle halfway into the knot (see photo above), then pull the loose thread coming up from the knot tightly down against the needle against the bead (see photo below). Slide your needle out as you continue to tighten. You want your knot to sit firmly next to your bead but not pull into the bead. For more on basic beading using knots see this video.





Step Three
Repeat step two until you get to the length you want. Now you can tie on the other end of the barrel clasp securely to the end of the necklace and glue the knots. Once it has dried, put your necklace on your baby and admire it.

To Care For Your Necklace
Some people leave their child's necklace on all the time but I take my baby's off when I bathe her. Do not wash your necklace with soap, which will leave a residue, hindering the healing properties of the necklace.

Part One of Baltic Amber Teething Necklace for Your Baby - How They Work

I first heard of amber teething necklaces from a friend whose child wore one. At first I though the child was supposed to chew on them to get relief. This is not the case. A baby need simply wear one against the skin in order to feel better while teething.

How do they work? There are two theories behind this. The first is that amber, which is a resin, not a stone, is warm to the touch. When the skin warms the amber it releases very small amounts of healing oils which travel through the skin to the bloodstream. In parts of Europe, amber teething necklaces are sold in pharmacies and doctors recognize the calming effects they have on infants when they are in pain.

"A second theory is based on scientific findings which have shown that amber is electromagnetically alive and therefore charged with a significant amount of organic energy. Its special attribute is the fact that it is electronegative. Wearing amber produces negative ionisation on the skin's surface. This, in turn, has a positive influence on the human body. The negative ions assist in the in the prevention of illness. These health-promoting effects apply to babies, children and adults alike."
Found here

Like many natural remedies and even drugs, nothing works for everyone. However, the dozen or so families that I know who use these necklaces swear by them. I must say that I can tell a difference in my baby. She doesn't drool or hold her mouth in that painful way that my other child did when she was teething. I use my necklace in combination with occasional homeopathic camilia drops to soothe and provide pain relief. I have never needed to use a drug for teething with either child. Sometimes the only way I even know a tooth is coming is that my baby has a diaper rash, something she only gets when a tooth is breaking the surface. Known teething complications include lack of appetite, upset tummy, ear ache, fevers and colds. Anyway, there are no side effects to wearing amber for long periods so I feel they are worth a try.


Tomorrow, in part two, I will include a tutorial on how to make your own amber teething necklace.

More Families Look to Midwives...

Last week at our midwife appointment, we were interviewed by local Banff Crag and Canyon reporter, Larissa Barlow, about our decision to use a midwife. I had emailed Larissa to ask her if she would be interested in writing a story that coincided with the Alberta Government starting to cover the service as of April 1st, 2009. She came to the home clinic of our midwife, Mireille Caron, whom we are so happy to be working with. The article came out in the paper yesterday, and is also on their website, which is nice because they only feature a selection of their articles on the site. I will post the whole article below, since this link to the website may becoming inactive over time...

To read some of my other blog posts about midwifery click here, here, or here...

More families look to midwives
Posted By Larissa Barlow


Larissa Barlow/Banff Crag & Canyon. Midwife Mireille Caron, left, with Tiffany Teske, her husband Andre Quenneville and daughter Quinlyn. Midwifery officially became a publicly funded service in Alberta on April 1.

By Larissa Barlow
Larissa@thecrag.a

Last Wednesday was a day to celebrate for expectant moms.

Midwifery officially became a publicly funded service on April 1, giving parents the option of choosing a midwife without having to bear the brunt of the expenses – something that can average around $3,500.

A milestone for women and their families in Alberta, the funding kick-in comes nearly a year after Bow Valley residents protested in a province-wide demonstration against the lack of midwife funding.

Banffite Tiffany Teske was part of that protest, wanting to see the service covered so she and others could enjoy the benefits of having a midwife without breaking the bank.

Teske and husband Andre Quenneville had their first child, Quinlyn, at a birthing centre in Quebec with the aid of a midwife.

After moving to Alberta, they were surprised to see midwifery wasn’t a publicly funded service. The couple planned on having more children, and they wanted to have a midwife after the positive experience they’d had in Quebec.

“I don’t like hospitals and I would just like to avoid them,” Teske said. “I don’t see being pregnant as being a pathology.”

Teske said she liked the familiar feeling of having a midwife guide her through her pregnancy, and it made a world of difference when in labour to have someone there that understood her desire to have a natural birth.

“I wanted to be listened to and be respected and do this myself, but obviously with someone there that had experience dealing with births,” she said.

When she became pregnant again the reality was they would have to pay for a midwife. But less than a month after the couple found out they would be having another child, the provincial government announced $4 million in new funding for midwifery with additional support from the Alberta Health Services, giving a total of approximately $4.7 million to fund the service. Now Teske, due June 7, will be having a home birth with Canmore-based midwife Mireille Caron.

“It’s a safe choice with trained people to help you,” Teske said. “I’d rather be at home for this, and I feel great about that choice.”

Quenneville said from his perspective, having a midwife was an eye opening experience that helped him learn a lot and be at ease.

“I felt comfortable the first time and I feel very comfortable now,” he said.

Caron, who is the only practicing, registered midwife in the Bow Valley, said it’s that comfort, as well as trust and confidence, that people seek when choosing a midwife.

She said it’s an option for women with low risk pregnancies that want to feel that extra support they can provide.

“It’s very family oriented. I try to make it warm and give the feeling of group support,” she said. “The experience people are looking for is different.”

Caron is having another midwife join her practice in September, but now that the service is publicly funded, she said it will be in greater demand than it is now.

“They have to book as soon as they know they’re pregnant. I’m getting calls from women in the city because they’re so packed,” she said.

Caron is already tightly booked, but she said she tries to give preference to Bow Valley women.

With the increase of women seeking a midwife, Caron expects there will be an increase of people becoming midwives.

“There’s going to be a big change within the next year for sure,” Caron said.

For Teske, having a midwife was the preferred option all along, and now that it’s funded, it makes the process that much easier.

“You have such a close relationship with a midwife,” she said. “I’ve never had that with a doctor.”

Handmade Vitamin E Face Scrub

Today I got around to making myself some new face scrub. I have been wanting to make the Vitamin E face scrub in the Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano. It is an AMAZING book that I blogged about here.

Making personal care products is super easy. And they are so much better for you than a lot of toxic items you can buy. I have started to make a lot of the products I use. And they make great gifts!

Vitamin E Face Scrub
by Mark Montano

What You Will Need:
~ 1 cup finely granulated salt (I buy sea salt in bulk at my local health food store and it is really cheap)
~ 15 drops vitamin E oil
~ 2 teaspoons olive oil
~ 1/4 bar unused glycerin facial soap (or your regular facial soap)
~ Large mixing bowl
~ Cheese grater
~ Moisture-proof container

1) Grate the bar of soap using the smallest holes on the cheese grater. Don't worry if the glycerin soap sticks together. When you start to mix it with the other ingredients it will come apart.
2) Pour your salt, vitamin E, and olive oil in the bowl and mix well.
3) Add grated soap and mix throughly.
4) Pour the mixture into your container.


I tried this tonight and its great. My skin is smooth from the exfoliation of the salt, and the oils are moisturizing. I won't use this everyday, especially since I live in a pretty dry culture. I will use it once every few days.

Handmade Vitamin E Face Scrub

Today I got around to making myself some new face scrub. I have been wanting to make the Vitamin E face scrub in the Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano. It is an AMAZING book that I blogged about here.

Making personal care products is super easy. And they are so much better for you than a lot of toxic items you can buy. I have started to make a lot of the products I use. And they make great gifts!

Vitamin E Face Scrub
by Mark Montano

What You Will Need:
~ 1 cup finely granulated salt (I buy sea salt in bulk at my local health food store and it is really cheap)
~ 15 drops vitamin E oil
~ 2 teaspoons olive oil
~ 1/4 bar unused glycerin facial soap (or your regular facial soap)
~ Large mixing bowl
~ Cheese grater
~ Moisture-proof container

1) Grate the bar of soap using the smallest holes on the cheese grater. Don't worry if the glycerin soap sticks together. When you start to mix it with the other ingredients it will come apart.
2) Pour your salt, vitamin E, and olive oil in the bowl and mix well.
3) Add grated soap and mix throughly.
4) Pour the mixture into your container.


I tried this tonight and its great. My skin is smooth from the exfoliation of the salt, and the oils are moisturizing. I won't use this everyday, especially since I live in a pretty dry culture. I will use it once every few days.

Homemade Cough & Sore Throat Relief

Coughs, colds, and sore throats have been going around my home and those of friends and family like nobody's business. I approach everything but emergency medical situations naturally, especially since I am pregnant and have a small child in the house. After toughing it out for a couple days, which I tend to do, the tickle in my throat had just kept me from good sleep for too long. I NEVER use cough suppressants because I feel that if you have a cough there is a reason and that the cough needs to do the work that is needed to make you better. And even medical doctors will not recommend cough syrups for children under 6. I am not against getting some relief and of course when it comes to my loved ones I want them to feel better so I turn to natural products or make my own.

Buckwheat honey, a dark almost molasses type of honey, was first recommended to me by our family naturopathic doctor. I looked into it further, and found this article, in the Ottawa Citizen, a respected daily paper, saying that research has been done and the conclusion is "A spoonful of buckwheat honey quells a child's night-time chest cold coughing better than the most common cough suppressant in nonprescription medicines." This is the result of a study done by Pennsylvania State University. The study was funded by the National Honey Board which doesn't bother me, since it is an Agricultural Department Agency, and since drug companies have been funding drug studies that end up in their favor for decades. It is about time that studies are funded for natural remedies. Feel free to read the article and decide for yourself. Or better yet, try it. My husband has had great results for a non-tickle sort of cough that kept him up at night. And I have given it to my daughter, who is 2 1/2. I have to say, it has not been incredibly effective on my tickly throat.


I decided to make a honey based remedy that is in a book I own called "Green Clean Eco Friendly Cleaning for the Home" by L&K Publishing. It is for Thyme Infused Honey, which like buckwheat honey is supposed to relieve cough and cold, NOT cure it. Nothing can cure a cold by the way.... Thyme has anti-fungal and antiseptic properties. The recipe is simple.

Thyme Infused Honey
350g/1 cup honey
60 g/1/2 cup fresh thyme or 30g/1/4 cup dried thyme

In a small saucepan, combine the two ingredients and heat gently over low heat for 15 - 20 minutes, being sure not to let the honey boil or scorch. Remove from heat and allow the honey to cool. Strain out herbs, then bottle the honey and label it. To relieve colds, coughs, and sore throats, take 1 teaspoon of this honey three times a day. You could also add a teaspoon of it to a cup of regular hot tea and sip slowly.


I used honey in a honey bear so I can squeeze it onto a spoon. I used a funnel to get it back into the bear, which was pretty easy, since it was nice and thin even once it had cooled enough to go back into the bottle. Now, that I think about it, next time, I will probably use a glass container, but the plastic bear is food grade quality and was not heated up. I had a bunch of fresh time left over from a recipe but I still didn't have 60 grams so I used about 45 grams fresh and 15 grams dried (which is why in the last photo you see two colors of leaves). At first, I threw the fresh sprigs in whole, but decided it would be better to pull the leaves off the springs... In the end, it tastes great, and today my tickly throat is gone. After 6 nights of it, that makes me so happy!

Homemade Cough & Sore Throat Relief

Coughs, colds, and sore throats have been going around my home and those of friends and family like nobody's business. I approach everything but emergency medical situations naturally, especially since I am pregnant and have a small child in the house. After toughing it out for a couple days, which I tend to do, the tickle in my throat had just kept me from good sleep for too long. I NEVER use cough suppressants because I feel that if you have a cough there is a reason and that the cough needs to do the work that is needed to make you better. And even medical doctors will not recommend cough syrups for children under 6. I am not against getting some relief and of course when it comes to my loved ones I want them to feel better so I turn to natural products or make my own.

Buckwheat honey, a dark almost molasses type of honey, was first recommended to me by our family naturopathic doctor. I looked into it further, and found this article, in the Ottawa Citizen, a respected daily paper, saying that research has been done and the conclusion is "A spoonful of buckwheat honey quells a child's night-time chest cold coughing better than the most common cough suppressant in nonprescription medicines." This is the result of a study done by Pennsylvania State University. The study was funded by the National Honey Board which doesn't bother me, since it is an Agricultural Department Agency, and since drug companies have been funding drug studies that end up in their favor for decades. It is about time that studies are funded for natural remedies. Feel free to read the article and decide for yourself. Or better yet, try it. My husband has had great results for a non-tickle sort of cough that kept him up at night. And I have given it to my daughter, who is 2 1/2. I have to say, it has not been incredibly effective on my tickly throat.


I decided to make a honey based remedy that is in a book I own called "Green Clean Eco Friendly Cleaning for the Home" by L&K Publishing. It is for Thyme Infused Honey, which like buckwheat honey is supposed to relieve cough and cold, NOT cure it. Nothing can cure a cold by the way.... Thyme has anti-fungal and antiseptic properties. The recipe is simple.

Thyme Infused Honey
350g/1 cup honey
60 g/1/2 cup fresh thyme or 30g/1/4 cup dried thyme

In a small saucepan, combine the two ingredients and heat gently over low heat for 15 - 20 minutes, being sure not to let the honey boil or scorch. Remove from heat and allow the honey to cool. Strain out herbs, then bottle the honey and label it. To relieve colds, coughs, and sore throats, take 1 teaspoon of this honey three times a day. You could also add a teaspoon of it to a cup of regular hot tea and sip slowly.


I used honey in a honey bear so I can squeeze it onto a spoon. I used a funnel to get it back into the bear, which was pretty easy, since it was nice and thin even once it had cooled enough to go back into the bottle. Now, that I think about it, next time, I will probably use a glass container, but the plastic bear is food grade quality and was not heated up. I had a bunch of fresh time left over from a recipe but I still didn't have 60 grams so I used about 45 grams fresh and 15 grams dried (which is why in the last photo you see two colors of leaves). At first, I threw the fresh sprigs in whole, but decided it would be better to pull the leaves off the springs... In the end, it tastes great, and today my tickly throat is gone. After 6 nights of it, that makes me so happy!

A Neat Tip and A Book Review

I have been the proud owner of The Big-Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano for about two months now. I first saw this book in Kelowna last spring, and kicked myself for not buying it. Cheryl, whom I work with for the Recycled Art Program for the After School Program, owns it, and said she loves it, so I was inspired to special order it and to pay full price from our local book store, The Banff Book and Art Den. I have not been disappointed. It has a great name, I mean come on, many people have probably wanted to title a book like this but no one accept Mark Montano had the balls. He truly is a talented crafter so I guess I can forgive him for being the host of that completely shallow show, 10 Years Younger, and just concentrate on his work on While You Were Out. This book retails for $23.50 in Canada and just $19.95 in the US. It is chock full, about the size of a small phone book, of 150 crafts for the home, gift giving, your mom, or the yard. Some of the projects include:

-Subscription Card Artwork
-Fabric Wall Panels
-Silhouettes
-Luggage Tags
And tons more DIY projects that can be made new or using recycled materials. I LOVE this book. It has practical and simple projects that I really do want to make. And the photographs by Auxy Espinoza are vivid and inspiring.

And this leads me to my tip. There is a very small section of homemade and organic personal care products. One of the recipes is for Olive Oil Body Lotion. I was really excited when I saw this. I don't have dry skin, but it is because I use lotion all over my body every time I shower or bathe, every other day or so in the winter. I buy natural products that are free from chemicals, however, once and awhile when I try a new lotion, it is not the right one for me. I know this when after about a week of using it, my skin is itching because it is too dry. This means, I have an almost new bottle of lotion that I won't be using. Frustrating. Of course, I still hold onto these bottles, because I don't want to waste them. Once and awhile I give one away to someone staying at our house, but they still collect in my bathroom cabinet. Today, I decide to take the two bottles I have now, and to fix them up to see if the addition of Olive Oil would make a difference.

Here is the recipe and the steps from the book:
Olive Oil Body Lotion
by Mark Montano
You Need:
* 1 cup of body lotion (the book says any kind will do, because the lotion is used as a base. I would still recommend using a decent brand, as the cheap brands are not natural and contain harmful chemicals.
* 1/4 cup virgin or extra virgin olive oil
* Plastic or glass container or lotion bottle
* Optional peppermint or lemon oil (I use quality essential oils, since it will be absorbed by my skin)

1) Put lotion, olive oil, and scented oil in your container and shake vigorously.
2) Use all over your body and enjoy!

What could be simpler? I would not suggest using this on your face, especially if you add peppermint oil, but it should be fine on the rest of your body. I LOVE peppermint soap, so I did add peppermint oil to the bottle of unscented lotion I had. The other bottle already smells like grapefruit verbena, so I only added olive oil to it. I will keep you posted on how well this works, although I trust it will, as the people who have really dry skin usually turn to oil to soothe it.

The other body product recipes in this book are:
- Vitamin E Face Scrub
- Lemon Lip Shine
- Lemon Tea Sugar Scrub
- Relaxing Bath Crystals Body Scrub
- Crusty-Foot Balm
- Mark's Special Toothpaste

If you have never made natural body products, nothing could be simpler or more cost effective. I plan to add all of these to my repertoire as I run out of what I am using now. These items all make great gifts that you can dress up in beautiful packaging. How fun!