(I’m having technical difficulties accessing my storage of pictures so I thought I would share photos of my new niece, who is three weeks old now. My sister gave birth to her naturally and snapped these pics when she was about a week old. Isn’t she darling?)

Last week was really hard. Starting on Monday night at the closing social for our commonwealth school, my little guy threw up. He continued through the night and then on and off until Friday. I have this theory that babies are supposed to be attached to their mothers, almost constantly, literally through breastfeeding, and babywearing and almost literally with cosleeping until they are fully mature and mobile. They meet their needs for nourishment that way. They are the fruit of the womb. Their ripeness doesn’t happen when they are born, it happens years after their birth, and it’s different for every baby. I learned from reading Dr. Sears that the ancient word in Hebrew for “wean” means “ripe.” How interesting? Women are supposed to be literal trees of life to their babies through exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months,and extended breastfeeding and other attachment behaviors, until the child is ripe and ready to wean. This could mean three or four or five or more years after birth. Then they detach as easily as a fully ripe apricot falls off a tree.

As they get older, if they get sick in toddlerhood or are not feeling well in anyway, they revert back to that immobile baby state of wanting to be constantly held. They want to be attached to you because they are so needy. When babies are sick , the best thing to do is to keep nursing and holding your baby. When they get better they will detach.

Last week my little guy had a very high fever and was vomiting. I had so many things on my to-do list,like finish unpacking, call everybody about my lost camera, weed the flower bed, supervise children without using TV, inventory my food storage, and get out summer clothes, dejunk all the closets, etc. but I let his illness slow me down and I held him. We nursed, and slept. He hadn’t been taking two naps daily consistently for a long time but that week he did. It was nice for me to catch up on some sleep after our trip to TJED Land the week before.

I remembered the article I read in Wise Traditions, the journal for the Weston A. Price foundation. It quoted an old-fashioned medical doctor. The article was written by the doctor’s daughter, who was passing off his medical wisdom in this article. He said to throw away the Tylenol and ibuprofen and honor your child’s fever so it can do what it is supposed to do, which is to kill germs. So I didn’t give him any medicine, other than my milk, and prayed. After three days, the fever finally broke. The doctor quoted in the article did say that if the temperature goes above 104 degrees, to see a doctor. But he said that if you rush to lower the fever when it’s lower than that, the baby/child will get sicker quicker. Let the fever do its work so your child’s body will be strengthened, otherwise they will get sick again sooner than they otherwise would and, the doctor, added, it will be worse next time.

So I remembered that. The doctor also said it’s normal for a fever to do down in the morning and return later in the day. The real test of whether or not a fever is gone is if the child can go from 4 to 6 PM without the fever. By Friday he was fever free all day. Saturday he threw up again, but he was willing to walk off my lap and play. By Sunday he was perfectly well. I felt like yelling, “We did it! We got through this illness naturally! His body is stronger for it!”

It’s great to be a stay-at-home because when your baby gets sick, it’s much easier to just slow life down. All your projects can wait. You can just hold your sick baby and nurse or read to him. And just breathe and remember that dust doesn’t rot and all those projects will still be there when the baby is well and up to playing.  I do admit I was starting to get a little crazy after nursing sooooo much and he didn’t always went to be read to. So we used Barney. OK, so I didn’t get through the illness totally naturally, if you are counting electronic diversions. And  It was a struggle to just get three meals on the table but we simplified and had soup or popcorn for dinner for the people who weren’t sick. I was going to help volunteer at Simulations Week where my three oldest children had gone off to but that obviously didn’t happen. Thank goodness my son could drive them to it every day, except for the one day that I helped with the carpool.

Moms, you have the power to help your babies get through illnesses without toxic medications! You have the power to strengthen your baby’s immune system. Let the fever fight the germs and use your milk! It’s the best medicine. I heard a pediatric gastroenterologist at a conference say that your milk has the widest spectrum of germ-fighters of any substance on the planet! That’s quite a claim! Just slow life down, keep nursing, and ask for help from visiting teachers or your older family members or neighbors and remember, this too shall pass. Soon the baby will be back to being happy playing and you can do your other stuff. First things first.