Whooping Cough!

Yep, that is what we had, also known as pertussis. Brody had started with it a couple of months ago, then I got it and finally little Ozzye. We found out not too long ago, but were choosing to keep it under raps after having to deal with enough flack from people just listening to our baby cough. By the time we actually found out that is what it was we were all pretty much no longer contagious so we figured there was no harm in not sharing that info with some people anyway. When Brody first came down with it we simply thought it was a cold which I hear is common. But then when Ozzye started with it we figured it could be something more so it did not really come as a huge surprise to us when we took him into the Dr. as it had been suggested to us by a few people. We had kind of been putting off bringing him in since we knew we would choose not to "treat" it in a conventional way unless he took a turn for the worst. I probably would not have brought him in at all had my mom not suggested it simply to keep people off our back. And just as we thought our awesome holistic Dr. said that most people get over it without any problems and is really only a serious concern for infants if it turns into an infection. I was pretty sure this wouldn't even be an issue since I had started taking more pro biotics as soon as his cough started along with changing my diet. I ate a ton of raw garlic (a natural anti-biotic, the kind that won't kill your good bacteria), stayed away from sugars and dairy, drank raw apple cider vinegar (the cure all), and kombucha (yum!) to make the best breast milk for him to strengthen his immune system... and it worked! We are actually quite excited about how strong this is going to make their immune systems!

I think the hardest part through all of this was that the people I love would think so little of me as a mother that they needed to harass me to seek "help" for my child. And what surprises me even more is that many of these same people recommending the medical system to me had already had it fail them. I think what some of them forget is that my crazy holistic ways are not in vain but have developed in us out of having traditional medicine fail us as well. After watching my child sick and in pain for most of his early years I could not continue to sit by and watch my others follow in his steps and blindly trust in a system that clearly isn't working. I refused to believe there were no other options for us and I found a better way.

I watched with my own eyes Brody fight off the same allergies that Gage had, I have seen healing begin in Gage's body and most recently I watched my newly born son fight off a disease many argued could claim his life. I have never been so naive to think that living holistically can cheat death and I know hospitals have their place for when they are truly needed but I have found that keeping poison out of one's body and feeding it with natural nutrients can serve our health more than any drug.

I know it is harder to learn from others mistakes than your own but this is one that I learned early on from my Grandma's personal struggle and I lost sight of it when I had my own children. I abandoned my beliefs out of fear of being a "good" mom, now I am seen as anything but a good mom for not following the crowd. I live within my own beliefs though and like any mom I am doing the best I can with what I have to work with so hopefully my kids can forgive me some day for any way I may have wronged them and the rest of the opinions out there simply don't matter. I think that is all you need to be a "good" mom, mine was not perfect and she made mistakes but I know she did the best she could for me with what she had to work with and what her beliefs showed her to be correct... I would ask nothing more of her or any mom and hopefully people can start doing the same with me!

Anyway our little man is 8 weeks old now, has had it for about 5 and is well on the road to recovery! He is up to 9# 4 oz. which is a whole pound above what he was at when I had him into the Dr. a few weeks ago. He is tough which is good because he is going to need it with 3 older brothers to keep up with and simply to survive life with Brody!