The Better Baby Book (31 page)

Place all ingredients (including the contents of the krill oil capsule, not the capsule itself) in a blender or a food processor and blend thoroughly. Place six to eight ounces in a clean glass bottle and store the rest in the refrigerator. To feed the baby, attach a clean nipple to the bottle and set in a pan of simmering water until the formula is warm but not hot. Heating the formula too much will denature the casein in the organic cream, which would be unhealthy.

What Not to Feed Your Baby

If you're not breast-feeding your baby and you're using the recipe above, it's important to use a high-quality commercial formula like Nutramigen or Alimentum as the base. These two brands of formula cause fewer allergic reactions in infants than other formulas. It's a bad idea to make your own base formula or create your own base formula recipe. Without the exact right blend, your baby could be getting too much of one substance or not enough of another. Although high-quality formulas are no replacement for real breast milk, manufacturers have done lots of research to design formulas that keep your baby alive and growing, so it's wise to start with a quality commercial formula.

You may have heard that soy milk, almond milk, and carrot juice are good substitutes for breast milk. This isn't true. Even if they're organic, they're not sufficient replacements for commercial formula, let alone breast milk.

Soy-based formulas are damaging and dangerous for infants. Never feed your baby soy. Soy is so high in manganese, aluminum, and phytoestrogens that soy formula isn't safe for infants. A recent study has linked ADHD with high levels of manganese. Breast milk contains only four to six micrograms per liter of manganese, whereas milk-based formulas contain thirty to fifty. Soy formulas contain an astounding two to three hundred! Two popular soy-based formulas are Isomil by Ross Products and ProSobee by Mead Johnson. Some manganese is essential for life and is used in cell energy production, but in high quantities, manganese is a known neurotoxin.

Vaccines

Vaccination has become a hot topic in recent years as provaccine and antivaccine groups have promoted their positions in the media and through research. We did our own research, and we believe the best approach is to avoid vaccines at least for the first several years of a child's life. Neurotoxic heavy metals are used as preservatives and adjuvants in the vaccines, and now that we have epigenetics to guide us, we know all too well how these toxins can disrupt a child's growth, especially at critical stages like right after birth. The most prevalent toxins in vaccines are heavy metals, like the preservative thimerosal and the aluminum salts that are used as an adjuvant.

Even conventional medicine rarely recommends vaccines to pregnant women. Stimulating a pregnant mother's immune system during midterm or late-term pregnancy is linked to much higher rates of autism and schizophrenia. The Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer is a perfect example of why avoiding vaccines during pregnancy is a good idea regardless of what you're told.

When Gardasil was released, both the Centers for Disease Control and Merck, the maker of the vaccine, recommended that pregnant women get the vaccine in the first trimester. Shortly thereafter, this recommendation was swiftly withdrawn, because women who got the vaccine started miscarrying or giving birth to babies with major malformations. Some may fret and wonder how this happened, but unfortunately it makes perfect sense. Gardasil contains amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate.

Some vaccines are very poorly tested before being touted to the public as safe and effective. In 2009, the H1N1 swine flu vaccine was declared safe after people who received the vaccine in testing were observed for a mere seven days. But neurotoxic effects like seizures, behavioral problems, and autism could become manifest years later.

18

Bringing It All Together

It would be nearly impossible to condense
The Better Baby Book
into a single chapter without losing important information, yet this chapter exists for prospective parents who are simply so eager to get started that they have not yet read the entire book. It is also here as a reminder of the most important things you can do before and during pregnancy to increase the odds of having a healthier, smarter baby.

This summary only includes what to do; the reasons these techniques work are spread throughout the book. We sincerely hope you will take the time to read the entire book and to use it to improve your health, your children's health, and even your grandchildren's health.

Getting the Right Stuff into Your Body

Too often people make the mistake of choosing an unhealthy food because it contains some healthy nutrient or another. Other times, they believe health myths, like the idea that cutting calories will lead to health.

Eat the Right Foods and Skip the Toxins

Simply following the Better Baby diet will do wonders for helping your body to restore and maintain healthy hormone levels, and it will provide the right building blocks for making the healthiest baby you can. The diet also automatically helps you to choose foods that have fewer hidden toxins and antinutrients in them. Toxins hidden in food can have a much larger effect on fertility and pregnancy outcome than most people ever imagine. Always eat organic food when you can. Never eat factory-farmed (nonorganic) animals, because they are usually fattened with synthetic estrogen or antibiotics that remain in the meat.

Take a Good Multivitamin

Good nutritional supplementation requires more than a single pill per day to fit in all the nutrients your body needs. We have recommended brands on our website, at
www.betterbabybook.com/supplements
. Look for up to 50 milligrams of vitamin B6 and extra iron. Look for at least 500 milligrams of vitamin C. We recommend taking folinic acid, a more available and nontoxic form of folic acid, at 4,000 micrograms or more per day. Avoid more than 8,000 international units of preformed vitamin A (retinol), because it blocks vitamin D3. At least 400 milligrams of magnesium daily is also very important.

Take Vitamin C

Lana took at most 8 grams per day of vitamin C divided into at least two doses per day before and throughout her pregnancies, largely because of a 1971
Journal of Applied Nutrition
report by Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. Dr. Klenner reports, “Observations made on over 300 consecutive obstetrical cases using supplemental ascorbic acid, by mouth, convinced me that failure to use this agent in sufficient amounts in pregnancy borders on malpractice.” His studies of three hundred pregnancy outcomes used a program of 4 grams of vitamin C per day in the first trimester,
6 grams per day in the second, and 10 grams per day in the third trimester, with some women receiving up to 15 grams per day of vitamin C. The results were impressive. There was a large reduction in problems with leg cramps, blood iron levels, stretch marks, delivery, post-birth healing, and baby health. In fact, this vitamin C program led to the first successful birth of quadruplets in the Southeast United States.

There are rumors on the Internet about vitamin C causing miscarriage. We've done extensive searching, and there appears to be no conclusive evidence that vitamin C causes abortions or prevents pregnancy. However, there is a reasonable theory that suddenly starting or stopping large doses of vitamin C during pregnancy could potentially be harmful to a pregnancy. For this reason, Lana made sure to take vitamin C on a daily basis while pregnant.

Take Vitamin D3

Take 1,000 international units of vitamin D3 for every twenty-five pounds of body weight. Better yet, get an affordable blood test to see how much you need to be taking. Getting your vitamin D level right is one of the most affordable, effective things you can do for your baby.

Take Krill Oil and DHA Fish Oil

Take up to 10 grams (¾ tablespoon) of DHA-rich, mercury-free fish oil per day. Do not exceed this dose. Also take 500 milligrams of krill oil. Back off on both of these if you experience any unusual bleeding, and stop completely a week before your due date.

Take Collagen Protein

Collagen is one of the most important types of protein in the body; it provides a scaffolding for the bones and organs in growing bodies. Modern diets are deficient in collagen. We recommend at least ten grams per day.

Test Your Thyroid

It is shockingly common for women to have slightly underactive thyroid glands even in the face of “normal” results from a family physician. Pregnancy can also cause thyroid problems. If your thyroid level is low, your baby will be less healthy and potentially even less intelligent. Warning signs include dry skin and thin hair, constipation, and always feeling cold. Even if you don't have those symptoms, having your thyroid checked and treated if necessary can do wonders for fertility and for pregnancy health. Look for a thyroid-stimulating hormone level of three or less before pregnancy, and even lower during pregnancy. Make sure you have your T3 and T4 levels checked at the same time. They should be mid to high normal. If you're already on thyroid medication, your doctor should raise the dosage during pregnancy.

Keep the Bad Stuff Out

When you're pregnant, it's much more important to avoid toxins than it normally is. A fetus is very susceptible to a variety of toxins, and many of these are active at very small doses. Follow our advice in the book to learn how to avoid most of them.

Follow the Better Baby Diet

Our diet is designed to keep food toxins at bay while providing maximum nutrition for a growing baby and mother. Be scrupulous about avoiding gluten (wheat) and cooked dairy products, except butter. Wheat and milk are linked to a whole host of epigenetic (multigenerational) problems.

Stop Drinking Alcohol and Avoid Coffee and Tea

Even one drink of alcohol a day can increase ovulatory infertility by 30 percent, and fetal alcohol syndrome is a well-known problem. Most women know to stop drinking coffee when they're pregnant, but many switch to green tea instead. Green tea dramatically increases your need for folic acid, so limit your intake to one cup per day and increase your folinic acid supplements if you drink it.

Detox Your Home and Skip the Nursery

Household chemicals are a major source of pollution in the average home. Switch to organic cleaners and personal care products. Avoid air fresheners and pesticides. If you've had any chronic health problems, test the air in your home for the presence of mold spores. A moldy home has the potential to cause autism, and homes with mold are surprisingly more common than you'd think. We estimate that many houses may have problems that could affect a pregnancy.

If you must prepare a nursery, at least use nontoxic paints. When the mommy hormones kick in, there is a powerful urge to nest. For us humans, that means preparing a nursery, often with toxic paint, furniture, and carpet. You don't want to deal with those added toxins while you're pregnant. Hang a mobile and some pretty colorful silks, and your baby will be perfectly happy for the first year.

Manage Stress

A mother's stress hormones have a lifelong impact on her baby's health. It is critical to manage the stress pregnant women feel, but it's easier to say that than it is to figure out how to actually manage stress. Here's how we do it.

Meditation with Heart Rate Variability

Lots of mothers manage stress using meditation. If this works for you, keep doing it. We find that many people believe they are meditating properly but that they are not getting the benefits in the form of a lowered stress level. There is a small device called the emWave from the Institute of Heart Math in California that makes it very easy to calm stress in the body. It pairs deep-breathing exercises with a light that turns green when you are in the best state for managing your stress. This state, called coherence, is also pleasant for babies to experience in the womb. Getting even ten minutes of this type of biofeedback every day before and during pregnancy can work miracles on stress. (Dave is a certified Heart Math coach!)

Sleep

Sleep is incredibly important for managing stress hormones. Before and during your pregnancy, make every effort to get a full night's sleep, and be sure your bedroom is completely dark.

Giving Birth at Home

It is stressful for a mother and her baby to sit in the hospital with flashing lights and beeping equipment and nurses and doctors rushing around. There is evidence that a calm, safe birthing environment leads to more comfortable mothers and less stressed babies. For normal pregnancies, a competent midwife can provide the same level of safety you would find in a hospital. Birth should be a beautiful, emotional experience, not a medical emergency or a surgical procedure. A calm birth in a comfortable familiar environment can do wonders for mother and baby alike.

Travel

Minimize long trips in the car and especially airplane flights. This gets more important later in the pregnancy, but long days of travel (especially when a change in time zones is involved) can cause a lot of stress on the body and the mind. Pregnancy is not the time for that kind of stress.

Exercise

Before you conceive, focus on building strength and endurance by doing high-intensity weight-bearing exercise for at most twenty minutes twice a week, or do interval training if you're already a runner. Avoid daily long cardio sessions lasting more than forty-five minutes, because these raise your stress-hormone levels and do not deliver much benefit compared to the T-Tapp exercises we recommend. After you're pregnant, lower the intensity and weight. Your baby, not you, should be putting on muscle!

An exercise program that is excellent during early pregnancy is Teresa Tapp's fifteen-minute workout. This is a form of aerobic exercise that leads to visible reductions in back fat and “love handles” in just days. It's the most powerful detoxing workout we could find, because it focuses on circulating the lymph. We recommend doing T-Tapp at least four times per week before you conceive and during the first trimester, but not during the second or third. We provide links to appropriate T-Tapp exercises at
www.betterbabybook.com/exercise
.

Yoga is good exercise and can be done throughout pregnancy, although pregnancy yoga is more gentle than normal yoga. Yoga helps you to relax and feel good. It's good for the mind and the body, and many mothers have found that it helps enormously. We did, too.

For Men

It turns out that the health of the father in the months before conception has a large effect on the baby's health for life. Men should take more vitamin C than women: more than 1,000 milligrams per day in divided doses. The amino acids L-arginine (5 grams, taken at night) and acetyl L-carnitine (1 or 2 grams, taken in the morning) can build healthier sperm, and so can 200 milligrams of the best form of selenium, selenomethionine, taken with 50 milligrams of zinc.

Your Beautiful Better Baby

There is something else that's more important than everything on this list, and that is love. When a woman or an unborn baby feels a lack of love and support, it creates psychological and epigenetic effects that last for generations. Fix your relationships before you get pregnant. If you're already pregnant and in a bad relationship, do what will lower your stress the most while you're pregnant.

Keep in mind that you don't have to do even one thing in this book in order to have a beautiful, healthy, very intelligent baby. No one is perfect, and seeking perfection with the Better Baby Plan will only make you feel stressed. When you use this book as a guide to make healthier decisions every day, you'll feel better, your pregnancy will most likely get easier, and your baby will have a head start on a healthy life. Aside from a parent's love, no greater gift can be given to a child than a strong body and a healthy brain.