Crunchy moms/ natural parenting

[chicka.chicka]

I don't consider myself particularly crunchy, but I do try to go as natural a route as possible on things.

* I have had 4 home births and 5 hospital births (2 of which were supposed to be home births but ended up having to transfer to hospital). Four of the 5 hospital births were with epidurals. I'm hoping for a home birth with this one.
* We do not vaccinate as a general rule (a couple of my kids have had some vaccines, but they were case dependent).
* We do circumcise.
* I do some baby wearing, but not as a constant thing; more out of convenience when out and about.
* I do breastfeed, but not past a year so far and don't specifically subscribe to BLW.
* We do homeschool.
* I don't co-sleep, but the baby does usually stay in the bassinet and then pack-and-play in our room for several months.
* I do use cloth diapers, but have resorted to disposables on occasion for one reason or another. I didn't start using cloth until #8, though.
* We don't do vitamin K at birth, but did do the eye cream for the last one at my midwife's suggestion.

 

[Dream.dream]

I wouldn't consider myself a crunchy mum but I natural birth in the hospital ( with midwives ) breastfed and all that jazz, we don't co sleep though it just doesn't work for us. Bubs will be in a bassinet/cradle next to my bed. My boys are both intact, their daddy is cut.
We will be trying cloth nappies with next bubby which I'm excited about.
We vaccinate our kids I find it extremely important not to only my children but all the children they will be around, I couldn't imagine my child dying from something like whopping cough that can be prevented by a quick needle. I watched a video with a newborn that cought it, it absolutely broke my heart. They don't do the eye drops at birth here is Australia ( so not even sure what they are or for ) but we do the vit k shot.
We are also going to try baby led weaning as well when the time comes

I do vaccinate with the exception of the chicken pox vaccine because its to new and really rare for a child to die from chicken pox. The rest I agree , there has been a rise I'm measles and resurfacing of polio because people arnt vaccinating . The measles one in particular bugs me because an older child getting measles may be able to fight it off but if they give it to a smaller child who isn't fully protected yet they may die or end up more ill because of it.

 

[pinkpassion]

I will be doing vaccines on my baby, just not the heb B one at the hospital! After that I will follow the vaccine schedule! I agree that we still need to vaccinate our children because that is the only reason we have done so well at controlling these horrible illnesses !! I definitely don't want my child to die from something easily preventable!

 

[Bonnie11]

Am going to be half crunchy! Cloth nappies etc but no co sleeping and definately vaccinating. With the spread of measles at the moment I just can't justify not having the vaccintion, especially as that boy died last week from it. I realised that is why a lot of the diseases have died out, smallpox etc and I think that it is unfair on the children that can't be vaccinated due to illness etc. worst thing is my friends son was not vaccinated when he was younger, he's 13 now, and he caught measles from a child at school. He had it quite badly and has developed fits and convulsions since. He is still going through tests now but they think it may be epilepsy. Now my friend is racked with guilt over not giving him the vaccine at the time. I know she thought was doing the right thing thing at the time (MMR scare) , I just think its terrible that the media is allowed to publish things as facts and scare everyone with no solid evidence!
On a brighter note this will be my first so I'm going to see just how crunchy I can be and what works for us. I don't know anyone who has done cloth bum or BLW or had even breastfed for more than 4 weeks so am fully expecting some strange looks from my friends!

 

[kelloggs]

as an aside i had never heard the term crunchy until now!

with my last we co-bedded for a good two years, were as organic as was humanly reasonable, i baby wore alot, and came into cloth at about 5 months.

will do mostly the same with this one and hope to be able to breastfeed with more success than last time. xxx

 

[kelloggs]

oh and i absolutely do vaccinate both myself in pregnancy and the baby.

 

[Pearls18]

Tbh I don't understand how not vaccinating can be assigned to a type of parenting? God I hate labels, I really do!!!! If you're going to be making such a dramatic decision it should be based on the medical history of the child and family, not to conform to something. It worries me people will think oh I want to be this type of mum, and then look at the supposed criteria, and then make the decision to not vaccinate....scary...if anybody wants to see the consequences of this google the measles outbreak in Swansea and London at the moment.

 

[teacup22]

Tbh I don't understand how not vaccinating can be assigned to a type of parenting? God I hate labels, I really do!!!! If you're going to be making such a dramatic decision it should be based on the medical history of the child and family, not to conform to something. It worries me people will think oh I want to be this type of mum, and then look at the supposed criteria, and then make the decision to not vaccinate....scary...if anybody wants to see the consequences of this google the measles outbreak in Swansea and London at the moment.

It's fine if you don't agree. I just don't see the point in commenting though.
I also vaccinate but I just think each to their own.

 

[Pearls18]

Tbh I don't understand how not vaccinating can be assigned to a type of parenting? God I hate labels, I really do!!!! If you're going to be making such a dramatic decision it should be based on the medical history of the child and family, not to conform to something. It worries me people will think oh I want to be this type of mum, and then look at the supposed criteria, and then make the decision to not vaccinate....scary...if anybody wants to see the consequences of this google the measles outbreak in Swansea and London at the moment.

It's fine if you don't agree. I just don't see the point in commenting though.
I also vaccinate but I just think each to their own.

Why can't I comment? I explained earlier what things I will be doing "naturally" I hope my comment will make some people think about their choices if they were to go off by criteria rather than individual decisions. I don't see not vaccinating as a choice, personally, so disagree with the sentiment "each to their own" on a matter of health, and most seriously, death. Your post was pointless, not mine.

 

[teacup22]

Tbh I don't understand how not vaccinating can be assigned to a type of parenting? God I hate labels, I really do!!!! If you're going to be making such a dramatic decision it should be based on the medical history of the child and family, not to conform to something. It worries me people will think oh I want to be this type of mum, and then look at the supposed criteria, and then make the decision to not vaccinate....scary...if anybody wants to see the consequences of this google the measles outbreak in Swansea and London at the moment.

It's fine if you don't agree. I just don't see the point in commenting though.
I also vaccinate but I just think each to their own.

Why can't I comment? I explained earlier what things I will be doing "naturally" I hope my comment will make some people think about their choices if they were to go off by criteria rather than individual decisions. I don't see not vaccinating as a choice, personally, so disagree with the sentiment "each to their own" on a matter of health, and most seriously, death. Your post was pointless, not mine.

I think to insinuate that anyone who doesn't vaccinate takes it lightly and just goes along with it as a style. Is really odd, and rude!
Why would anyone do something like that without thinking?
I'm sure everyone whos commented on here who doesn't vax, Has looked into it properly...

 

[Pearls18]

Tbh I don't understand how not vaccinating can be assigned to a type of parenting? God I hate labels, I really do!!!! If you're going to be making such a dramatic decision it should be based on the medical history of the child and family, not to conform to something. It worries me people will think oh I want to be this type of mum, and then look at the supposed criteria, and then make the decision to not vaccinate....scary...if anybody wants to see the consequences of this google the measles outbreak in Swansea and London at the moment.

It's fine if you don't agree. I just don't see the point in commenting though.
I also vaccinate but I just think each to their own.

Why can't I comment? I explained earlier what things I will be doing "naturally" I hope my comment will make some people think about their choices if they were to go off by criteria rather than individual decisions. I don't see not vaccinating as a choice, personally, so disagree with the sentiment "each to their own" on a matter of health, and most seriously, death. Your post was pointless, not mine.

I think to insinuate that anyone who doesn't vaccinate takes it lightly and just goes along with it as a style. Is really odd, and rude!
Why would anyone do something like that without thinking?
I'm sure everyone whos commented on here who doesn't vax, Has looked into it properly...

I see you're relatively new to this site, I suggest you go into the debate section and look through the debate on not vaccinating, then you might understand my attitude to it. Trust me, after 3 years of being on this site, I have seen every angle of this debate, it kind of hardens you on the issue. I don't think they take the decision lightly, but that doesn't make the decision right. I'm not talking about it any more, it isn't a debate in my opinion, I will leave it at that.

 

[teacup22]

Don't start the debate then....

 

[Pearls18]

Don't start the debate then....

That wasn't my intention, my intention was to highlight how I don't see this particular decision as fitting into a certain parental type and my concern for people making decisions (not talking about anybody here) on type, that is all, I understand it was anti vax in sentiment but I don't want to go into the ins and outs of the decision just the method of that decision, and all the labels!

 

[Dragonfly]

Bit shocked there is negitivity in this thread already when I thought it was asking for natural, AP and crunchy parents not a debate.

Anyway I did AP from the start when my son was born, didnt know what it was I was doing then but turns out its AP. I didnt have the birth I wanted at the start but I hope to have the one I want this time. I dont do home birth as my kids will be in my house and I dont want them to hear me giving birth so I hired a doula who is on board with my parenting style. I breastfeed full term, breastfeed my oldest for 4 years, Still breastfeeding my youngest who is 2.5 and pregnant with a third. We bed share from the start, we gentle discipline, maybe some day home school but dosnt suit at the moment. A lot of things dont have anything to do with AP but people assume they do.

 

[Pearls18]

My apologies...not my intention...just my idea of natural parenting is to be exactly what you described Dragonfly, natural, not contrived and labelled, I didn't mean to bring up debates. I shall unsubscribe and leave you all be, wishing you all happy and healthy pregnancies.

 

[Blah11]

Marinewag you've been very rude in this thread! How nasty to try and intimidate someone by saying you've been here longer so know better.

 

[Bonnie11]

Ladies this is getting a bit out of hand. I'm sure this wasn't what the OP intended so lets just forget it and move on.

 

[MandaAnda]

I don't think anyone's been rude, just misunderstandings, which easily happen when you can't hear tone. I think I'm a pretty natural parent, but I didn't read about it and decide to tick all the boxes either. I understand I can easily be labelled AP, crunchy or similar, but I don't think you have to tick every box to be considered to parent naturally.

I didn't plan to co-sleep at all, it just happened. I learned of the benefits later. Breastfeeding wasn't a question. Leaving my son intact wasn't a question. I read about BLW when he was four months old and then decided. We didn't cloth nappy until six months, and that was part time. I plan to start earlier on this time, likely after the meconium though!

 

[Dream.dream]

Tbh I don't understand how not vaccinating can be assigned to a type of parenting? God I hate labels, I really do!!!! If you're going to be making such a dramatic decision it should be based on the medical history of the child and family, not to conform to something. It worries me people will think oh I want to be this type of mum, and then look at the supposed criteria, and then make the decision to not vaccinate....scary...if anybody wants to see the consequences of this google the measles outbreak in Swansea and London at the moment.

I you hate labels and don't like it then don't comment you've Sao more then once your opinion. If the threa makes you mad don't comment . Not ment I be a place for bashing and arguing . If you don't agree then don't sy anything and stop reading the thread . Simple as that

Was looking for other people who share similar parenting philosophy's . If you read through the threa you'd realize that there is actually a lot of variation on what people do an dont do and they still consider it natural parenting , so no ones labeling you have to do all these things to consider it natural parenting .

I intend to ignore your negativity from now on and hopefully others in the thread will do the same so we can get back to the original intent of the thread

 

[Dragonfly]

Whats monconium like on cloth nappies? I wouldnt go back to disposable as it took a nasty reaction with my youngest skin and have loads of cloth.