Ali the Artist

Many of you know me as one of the LolliDoo® Diapers co-founders. You may not know that I am also a formally trained artist. BL (before LolliDoo®) I was a relatively successful graphic designer.

Part of working through my grief after my brother's death last October, has been going back to my roots. I'd like to share some of my art.


These are all semi self portraits that I did in colored pencils. 

This next group is all acrylic on canvas of varying size. Some of my acrylics are available for purchase on Etsy.

I was very upset by all the anti-gay, anti-breastfeeding sentiments lately and these are my responses. (also available for sale). All acrylic on canvas of varying size. If you'd like more information or are interested in a commissioned piece please email me.

Lastly - a self portrait 

Green Your Baby - My 5 steps to a healthier baby

Several parents have asked me what they can do to keep their babies as healthy and green as possible.

My number one answer is always, "breastfeed".
Not only are giving your baby the healthiest possible start in life but by breastfeeding but you are saving thousands of dollars on formula, bottles and the likes.

The manufacturing of baby formula is energy intensive. The industrial processes release harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Formula is packaged in tin cans - the majority of which are never recycled. Formula requires plastic bottles and nipples - which take anywhere between 200 to 450 years to breakdown.

Read more

Additionally Since many cows in the U.S. are now routinely ingesting synthetic growth hormones to artificially increase their milk production, it stands to reason that these hormones are also getting into the U.S. formulas.

Click here for more information.



Make Organic Baby Food
This is actually quite simple. You don't need all the trays and fancy baby grinders unless you want them. All you need for little babies is a blender and for older babies - a fork.

To make organic brown rice cereal:
1. Cook your organic brown rice according to instructions.
2. Put it in a blender with a little breast milk.
3. When it's the right consistency - feed it to your baby. Easy Cheesy.

To make fruit and veggies
1. Boil the fruit and veggies
2. Blend or smash with a fork.
*Some fruits like bananas don't need to be boiled - just mash the heck out of them.

In my house we feed the babies whatever we are eating - just mashed up. No need to spend money on store bought brands that might have sneaky ingredients in them.

This is a good link for more information.



Use Healthy Sunscreen
Brands of sunscreen that you find in conventional stores typically are full of chemicals. There is no need to lather your baby in a chemical cocktail - here are several brands that are cleaner and safer:

*Badger All Natural Sunscreen

*Soleo Organics Sunscreen

*Kid Kare Biodegradable Sunscreen

And my personal favorite

*Alba Botanica Sunscreen - this is sunscreen made from green tea and my kids can wear it all day long in the pool without burning or needing re-application. Be forewarned - this is a THICK sunscreen.

Click here for a comprehensive guide to sunscreen.

Pay special attention to this "Hall of Shame" list of sunscreens.

I had to sneak a picture of my Doodle Bug in here :)

Cloth Diaper Your Baby
You knew I was going to say that, right? Since I talk about cloth diapers almost exclusively on this blog I'll be short and sweet. Protect your baby's tenderest parts, keep raw sewage out of our landfills and save literally thousands of dollars with cloth diapers. Of course I recommend LolliDoo Diapers :)



Last but not least - stay away from plastic toys, seats and the likes
You really don't need even a fraction of all the baby stuff in stores nowadays. Especially those plastic toys and bouncers. If you do buy them please pay attention to where they are made - things coming over from other countries are sometimes full of chemicals.

This is what I believe you need for a baby:
A sling and/or backpack (check out Sweet Pea Ring Slings)
Diapers
Clothes
Wooden toys
Organic blankets

That's it folks - all the other stuff is just gravy. Even cribs - how many babies do you know that actually sleep in a crib? I can count three - the rest sleep with their parents; where I believe they should be.

I am of the opinion that these five steps are easy, practical and safer for babies.

Cesareans; Once a Lifesaving Surgery Has Turned Into a Fad

I was born via emergency cesarean. My mother's pelvis was too small and I couldn't fit through, we would have both died without the surgery. Thank God that my mother was able to get a c-section.

Lately I've been hearing about something called "elective c-sections". It is becoming trendy for women to schedule their births around their busy lives. I wonder if they are informed of the serious risks associated with c-sections. Lets not forget that a cesarean is major abdominal surgery. Compared with vaginal deliveries, cesarean deliveries have twice the risk of complications and deaths of both infants and mothers when the fetus is in the normal, head-down position.


I really don't understand why anyone would choose major surgery, putting their child at risk for breathing problems, breastfeeding problems and fetal injury. According to the Mayo Clinic:

Babies born by C-section are more likely to develop a breathing problem marked by abnormally fast breathing during the first few days after birth (transient tachypnea). Elective C-sections done before 39 weeks of pregnancy or without proof of the baby's lung maturity may increase the risk of other breathing problems, including respiratory distress syndrome.



Although rare, accidental nicks to the baby's skin can occur during surgery.

The maternal risks associated with cesareans should be enough for women to stop and pay attention but when celebs like Kate Hudson, Madonna, Patricia Heaton, Toni Braxton, Elizabeth Hurley, Claudia Schiffer, and Kelly Ripa- have c-sections that were not necessary but convenient for them, the masses then think that elective c-sections are safe.

Women choosing primary elective cesarean delivery will have a higher incidence of maternal morbidity, including hemorrhage, infection, and venous thromboembolism. Maternal mortality, while a rare event in developed nations, is 2 to 3 times higher in elective cesarean delivery than in vaginal delivery, although there are no large studies of maternal mortality risk for primary elective cesarean delivery.

Hall MH, Bewley S. Maternal mortality and mode of delivery. Lancet. 1999;354:776



I urge every mother-to-be to really research childbirth, question everything and make safe choices and when a doctor offers to do a cesarean or induce labor so he/she can make their golf game, DON'T PUT YOURSELF AT RISK FOR THE SAKE OF "CONVENIENCE".

For more information:

http://ican-online.org/conference/index.html

http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/240_19673.asp

http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20071211/elective-csection-38th-week-too-soon

Formula is the last choice for feeding babies pt. 1

The WHO (World Health Organization) states that the most nutritious way to feed a baby is:
1. Breastfeeding
2. Pumped breastmilk
3. Using donor breastmilk
4. Formula

They have good reason to make formula a last resort. For starters, this was recently in the news.

According to FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product — Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. An FDA spreadsheet shows two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.

Three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct.

-FDA finds traces of melamine in US infant formula By MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers

To read the whole article, go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_he_me/infant_formula

Formula companies are marketing geniuses and they portray images of formula fed babies as healthy. While formula is not a prescription for poor health, it certainly has a lot of risks that I for one am not willing to take.

Lets look at some studies.

Formula feeding increases baby girls' risk of developing breast cancer in later life. Women who were formula-fed as infants have higher rates of breast cancer as adults. For both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer, women who were breastfed as children, even if only for a short time, had a 25% lower risk of developing breast cancer than women who were bottle-fed as infants.

Freudenheim, J. et al. 1994 "Exposure to breast milk in infancy and the risk of breast cancer". Epidemiology 5:324-331

Breast cancer is so prevalent that I would not willing introduce anything into my daughter's bodies that may up the risk.

People have argued that formula doesn't increase the risk of diabetes, so here are several studies linking development of insulin dependant Type I diabetes (formerly referred to as "juvenile diabetes") to lack of breastfeeding. The results of a study from Finland suggest that the introduction of dairy products at an early age, and high milk consumption during childhood increase the level of cow's milk antibodies in the children's systems. This factor is associated with an increased risk of insulin dependent diabetes. Now a new study has indicated that breastfeeding in infancy may help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes. This sort of diabetes was formerly referred to as "adult onset" diabetes, but has been mysteriously occurring in more and more youngsters.

Young, T.K. et al. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2002; 156(7): 651-55

Gerstein HC. "Cow's milk exposure and type 1 diabetes mellitus". Diabetes Care. 1994;17:13-19

Virtanen et al: "Diet, Cow's milk protein antibodies and the risk of IDDM in Finnish children." Childhood Diabetes in Finland Study Group. Diabetologia, Apr 1994, 37(4):381-7

Virtanen SM, Rasanen L, Aro A, et al. "Infant feeding in Finnish children <7 yr of age with newly diagnosed IDDM" Diabetes Care, 1991;14:415-417

Another big bad is that formula increases a baby's risk of SIDS. There are a number of studies showing a possible link between lack of breastfeeding and SIDS. A Swedish study has found that babies who were breastfed exclusively for less than 8 weeks had a 3 - 5 times greater risk of dying from SIDS than babies who were breastfed exclusively for four months

Horn, RS et al "Comparison of evoked arousability in breast and formula fed infants." 2004 Arch Dis Child.; 89(1):22-25

Alm et al, "Breastfeeding and the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Scandanavia." June 2002 Arch of Dis in Child. 86: 400-402.

McVea, KL et al "The role of breastfeeding in sudden infant death syndrome." J Hum Lact. 2000;16:13-20

Fredrickson, DD et al., "Relationship between Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Breastfeeding Intensity and Duration." Am. Journal of Diseases in Children, 1993: 147:460

Ford RPK, et al ."Breastfeeding and the Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome." International Journal of Diseases in Children, 1993, 22(5):885-890

Taylor BJ, Mitchell EA, et al. "Breastfeeding and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Int J. Epidemiol. 1993;22:885-890

Scragg LK, Mitchell EA, Tonkin SL, et al. "Evaluation of the cot death prevention programme in South Auckland." NZ Med J. 1993;106:8-10

I know that this post is very footnote heavy, but I think it's important to back up what I am saying.

Formula fed babies have a higher risk of developing certain childhood cancers. In a study done by researchers at the University of Minnesota it was found that babies who were breast fed for at least one month had a 21% less chance of getting leukemia than formula fed babies. The risk was 30% for children breast fed for 6 months.

Shu X-O, et al. "Breastfeeding and the risk of childhood acute leukemia". J Natl Cancer Inst 1999; 91: 1765-72

The choice is clear to me, I would never choose formula. Mother's that do choose formula for convienence, say they don't want their boobs to sag (a myth by the way, boobs sag due to heredity not breastfeeding), need to educate themselves. It saddens me that in this day and age formula is still commonplace.

I leave you with my favorite quote.

When we trust the makers of baby formula more than we do our own ability to nourish our babies, we lose a chance to claim an aspect of our power as women. Thinking that baby formula is as good as breast milk is believing that thirty years of technology is superior to three million years of nature's evolution. Countless women have regained trust in their bodies through nursing their children, even if they weren't sure at first that they could do it. It is an act of female power, and I think of it as feminism in its purest form. ----- Christine Northrup M.D.

Stay tuned for part two of my formula rant.

Breasts in America

I have heard stories about women being banned from public places for breastfeeding, thankfully I have never personally experienced discrimination nursing my kids in public. A lot of people do not know that it is legal to breastfeed in public in every state.

If you, or someone you know, have had problems with public breastfeeding such as being asked to go to restroom to nurse, you can report it to www.firstright.org

FirstRight takes every reported incident of discrimination seriously, and they will help you. They have organized nurse-ins, an education committee as well as a Breastfeeding Legislative Action Committee.

I have issues with the fact that the grocery stores line the checkout counters with provative pictures of breasts. Take a look at this Maxim cover.




When this cover of Baby Talk came out, there was a lot of contraversy surrounding the bare breast. Give me a break people, boobs are for babies, we are genetically designed that way.



By not supporting a woman basic right to breastfeed in public, shaming these woman, asking them to nurse in the bathroom, hospitals handing out free "breastfeeding support kits" with a 6 pack of formula, bottles and a guide called, Breastfeeding Your Baby The First Two Months, and the acceptance of formula as a viable substitute for breastmilk; this country suggests that breastfeeding is unacceptable.

"When we trust the makers of baby formula more than we do our own ability to nourish our babies, we lose a chance to claim an aspect of our power as women. Thinking that baby formula is as good as breast milk is believing that thirty years of technology is superior to three million years of nature's evolution. Countless women have regained trust in their bodies through nursing their children, even if they weren't sure at first that they could do it. It is an act of female power, and I think of it as feminism in its purest form." ----- Christine Northrup M.D.

Here I am breastfeeding Talia, 18 months old, at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. I did not get any wayward glances from the other exhibitors, I did get nods, smiles and sighs. Am I exposing myself, do I look unprofessional? It certainly didn't negatively impact my response at the show.

If you haven't looked at this before, I encourage you to read 101 Reason's To Breastfeed at http://www.promom.org/101/.

It just doesn't make sense to me why anyone would discourage something that is a million times better for our babies. Consider this, mothers on WIC or Public Assistance get their formula paid for by the state, guess who is really paying for that? Yep, US. Also, formula fed babies spend more time at the doctors, which not only do we pay for if the baby is on public assistance, but if the baby is on traditionbal health insurance, it makes our rates go up.

Food for thought.

Sharing 5 of my favorite sites

I thought that I would compile s short list of the sites that I like. The first being http://www.mrsgreengoesmainstream.com Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream is a local radio show that focuses on green topics. Check out the site, it has all kinds of goodness.

My favorite printer in the whole wide world is http://www.wgiprint.com Wizard Graphics not only prints on recycled paper, but they print with low VOC vegetable based ink. They have great customer service and their printing is exceptional.

This really isn't a "green" site, but my absolute favorite travel site is http://chuckmanes.worldventures.biz/ It is my husband's travel site but they price match and you can rent condos, apartments in addition to hotels. You can also rent cars and find airfare, check it out if you are planning a trip.

I direct anyone who asks me questions about the cost of cloth diapers vs disposable diapers to the Diaper Pin's diaper calculator http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp. The diaper calculator gives an unbiased look at the reality of diapering.

For some reason the hyperlinks wouldn't work for the last two sites, so I bolded them. Copy and paste the addresses into your browser.

Lastly, my friend Nonie is doing an amazing thing for the breastfeeding community, it's called Mom's Breastaurant. http://www.momsbreastaurant.org She goes around the country to different festivals, fairs and expos, and offers moms a safe, comfortable place to sit and nurse their babies. Nonie doesn't charge for this service, which is even more amazing. Check out the site and support her if you feel like she deserves it, I do.