The Top Ten Must Have Books for Natural New Age Mums

July 1, 2015 · 7 Comments

The Top Ten Must Have Books for Natural New Age Mums

I am a massive book lover. Ever since I learnt to read, I have always had a book on the go.

We have such a great little library at home, covering all sorts of topics of interest to natural, new age mums! Actually the Natural New Age Dad can also be found reading up on them as well. The kids don’t let us go near bookshops anymore because we spend far too long in there!

I thought I would share the top ten books that I find invaluable. The ones I keep coming back to often and that I use as references throughout the website and our life! Books that have helped me learn more about being happy, healthy, and holistic.

♥ Healthy Home Healthy Family by Nicole Bijlsma

Building biologist, naturopath, acupuncturist and mum from Melbourne, Nicole Bijlsma shares with us her extensive research and knowledge in this book. Healthy Home Healthy Family covers everything you need to know about keeping your family safe at home including: electromagnetic fields and radiation; drinking water; allergens; mould; dust; pets; plants and pollens; chemicals in personal care and cleaning products; pesticides; our clothes, bedding and toys; cookware and building materials. You will be surprised at how many health problems can be caused by ‘sick building syndrome’.

♥Changing Habits Changing Lives

Nutritionist and Aussie mum Cyndi O’Meara has been sharing her healthy living message for 25 years! She is my go-to person for all things nutrition. Changing Habits, Changing Lives is one book that truly has changed my life.

With each chapter dedicated to small changes, healthy living becomes achievable and sustainable. I also love Cyndi’s down to earth, no BS approach. There’s a good reason why she has such a loyal following!

♥ The Chemical Maze Handbook

This book is simply a must-have for decoding all those labels! It’s quick and easy to use and doesn’t hurt your brain with too much advanced science info. Simply look up an additive or chemical via their numbers or name and Bill will tell you if it’s okay or not and the potential health hazards. Keep a copy in your handbag and become empowered to choose the best possible products for your family!

♥ Nourishing Traditions

Although this book is by an American author, the information remains relevant to us. Sally Fallon is a pioneer in the nourishing, traditional, real food movement. Over ten years ago she was dispelling the low-fat myth and urging us to eat animal fats and broth.

She also goes in to other diet myths like soy and helps us to understand how a traditional approach to food is one that is best for our health. Packed full of recipes, Nourishing Traditions is the well researched reference book for anyone who wants to adopt a real food way of life.

♥ Like Chocolate for Women

This is the ultimate self-care bible for women everywhere. Kim and Fleur cover so many topics including aromatherapy, ditching guilt, aging with grace, simple exercise, healthy meals and balancing hormones. Every time I read it, I pick up some new gem to take away. This book is so inspiring and insightful but at the same time presented in a loving, gentle, down to earth manner. One of the books I love to gift to my girlfriends!

♥ The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

We stumbled across this book so many years ago and I still like to refer to it. If you feel like you are constantly butting heads with those you love, have a read of this book! When we work out how our family and ourselves express love via one of the “Five Love Languages” we can then be guided to deeply understand each other. This works not only with our spouses but also our children, our extended families and friends and those we work with. A truly easy to understand and implement concept that will bring more harmony to your relationships!

♥ The Coconut Oil Miracle

Written by qualified naturopath and nutritionist, Bruce Fife, this is one book that was also life-changing for us! We have embraced coconut oil with a passion and use it everywhere and everyhow! This book is your go-to guide with ideas, current research, recipes and detailed information on how coconut oil can be the best thing you have ever discovered for your health and wellbeing!

♥ Buddhism For Mothers

There is no denying motherhood comes with as many highs as it does lows. This beautiful book gently encourages us to become calmer and happier mothers through principles of Buddhism. Sarah applies the practices to the everyday challenges of being a mother and helps us to nurture ourselves to be the best we can be. A must-have for all mums.

♥ Wholefood Baking

Jude has attained the level of goddess in wellness circles! She truly is an inspirational woman and well ahead of her time. In this award-winning book, Jude shares her philosophy and information about nourishing ourselves with wholesome, organic food.

♥ Natural Remedies

Mim Beim is arguably Australia’s best known naturopath! With over 25 years of experience, she really is a leader in her field. In this book Mim has the natural remedies for over 200 common ailments and she firmly believes in diet and lifestyle before medication. This is a must-have reference book you will use over and over again – I do!

It was so hard to narrow this down to ten books! I tried to choose the most popular books by experts in their field to give you the most useful and reliable information. There are so many more I want to share with you though, so I think I will have to do a follow up!

I would love to know what you would add to my list! What is your top ten?

Three Mistakes I Made As a First Time Mum

January 22, 2015 · 5 Comments

Today on the blog is the gorgeous Paolo Espinel, nutrition and life coach from Be Wise Be Healthy. She is sharing with us the three mistakes she made as a first time mum.

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Three Mistakes I Made As a First Time Mum

When we women start a family, all the attention is focused in the pregnancy itself, the preparation for birth and the welcoming the baby home but little thought is given to the new life as a mum looking after a new tiny creature.

We are never taught formally how to be a mum, we do not know what to expect and how to best get ready to be responsible for another little human being. Yes, there are millions of books and information online, but this only creates confusion, guilt and doubt about the way we raise our children, especially those first couple of years.

Unfortunately, we tend to ignore the perfection and wisdom of our universe and the advice from the wise older mums; and as we walk on the self-discovery journey of being a mum we naturally do things that we regret later. For me, these are the top three mistakes that I made as a first time mum:

MISTAKE #1 – Not following a routine – I never believed in routines and was VERY flexible about how and when things were done. During the first two years of life, I took my daughter everywhere and she slept easily in the car or pram but rarely at home. There was no schedule for eating, bed time or any kind of bed routine at night. She used to cry a lot, especially when tired but I did not follow her cues. Days were long and I was tired. After many sleepless nights and exhaustion, I decided to follow routine and things changed overnight.

MY WISE ADVICE – Babies (and children in general) like a predictable world. Activities that happen at about the same time and in about the same way each day provide comfort, security and emotional stability and help children to learn to trust caring adults. Being able to anticipate what will happen next give also children opportunity to build their confidence and self control. Most importantly, routines allow you (the mum and carer) to have a rest, experience less stress in your days and live a more organized happy life. So, start by evaluating what routines you have in place and how well these are working for everyone. Keep in mind that every family is different, and you must create unique routines that suit your circumstances.

MISTAKE #2 – Wanting to control everyone – I created a stressful environment at home, as I was always complaining how my hubby was doing his job as a dad and how my little girl was developing and behaving. I had in my mind another picture and HIGH expectations and forgot that they were separate individuals whose behaviour I could not control. I had to learn the hard way to let go and accept that we all are different, we all do things differently. I had to remind myself about how lucky and blessed we were as a family.

MY WISE ADVICE – A large majority of us want to control the world because of FEAR! Yes, our own fears and insecurities are what make us behave like this. But it is only when you let go of control and surrender that you can enjoy all life’s possibilities and strength family bonds. By stopping trying to control others, you start to focus on yourself and in the process rather than in the outcome. So if you are feeling that you want to control everything and everyone around you I invite you to pause for a moment and ask yourself what is that you are afraid of. Is that true? Think how you can relax more, lower your expectations, and accept things as they are. Enjoy the feeling of freedom and peace that this shift brings into your life.

MISTAKE #3 – Being with my daughter 24/7 – I took a year of maternity leave and I spent most of the time with my little girl. I was pretty much with her ALL the time and did not give her much space or opportunity for independent play or self-soothing. She wanted mummy all the time, and after 4 years she still does. While being indispensable for a little cutie is an amazing feeling, it is also very tiring. I was craving help and some time for myself. Learning to separate from my girl was very hard but creating space and time for me and giving the opportunity for my hubby to interact more help him to strength the relationship with our daughter.

MY WISE ADVICE – As a mum you will be irreplaceable and your children will tend to prefer you over dad during those first years (most of the time). Give yourself permission to enjoy that feeling but create a healthy relationship with your children by letting them enjoy some time alone (always under close supervision!) and by allowing them to spend time with other family members or carers. And stop feeling guilty! You are doing your best, you will always love your kids and they know that.

Well, I could keep on going but I want to invite you now to share in the comments below what mistakes you made as a first time mum and what do you wish you have done differently.

Before you go, please grab a collection of my best freebies. You don’t want to miss out on the ‘Self-care Manifesto for Busy Mamas’ and the ‘Be Wise Be Well Mama’ recipe!

About Paola:

Paola Espinel is a Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach at Be Wise Be Healthy. As a mother of two young girls, her mission is to empower mums of young children to reconnect with their inner wisdom, develop new skills and love themselves truly so they can thrive in life, experience abundant health and become great role models for their love ones.

Through her supportive coaching, she inspires overwhelmed and tired mothers who are finding challenging to lose the baby weight and look well after themselves helping them to make small gradual positive changes in their diet and lifestyle to create long lasting healthy habits. Visit her website for more inspiration, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Paola is currently working on an 8 weeks ecourse called ‘Busy Mamas Shine: Give Birth to the New You and Live Vibrantly While Raising Young Kids’, and hopes to share it with the world earlier next year. Get on her mailing list today to be one the first to know when it launches.

Teaching your baby to sign

December 18, 2014 · 3 Comments

Today’s guest post is from the gorgeously talented and beautiful Allison Davies, music therapist at Oh My Musical Goodness. She has two beautiful kids and signs with them as a way to communicate. It’s really interesting and in this post she will give us some more info and tell us the benefits. You may remember Allison being on the blog before telling us about music therapy.

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Teaching your baby to sign.

Why would you teach your baby to use sign language?

Are my Children Deaf? No.

Sensory difficulties? No.

Developmental Delays? No.

Language Deficit? No.

Cognitive delays? No.

Can they still benefit from sign language? A big fat YES!!!

I have such enthusiasm for this language and the powerful effect it can have on you, your child and your attachment/relationship. Sign language is one of the most powerful gifts of communication you can offer your child.

I taught my daughter how to sign at around 12 months and now I am teaching my son. Read some more about that here.

OK, so what’s so great about it?

AUSLAN (our Australian sign language) allows for both verbal and non-verbal communication, it allows your child to express their needs before they can talk, it helps with physical development and it just gives so much joy!

Generally children develop their gross and fine motor skills before their verbal communication skills and therefore the gift of sign language is a very beautiful, empowering and practical tool for children to have.

And perhaps most importantly, the highly interactive nature of sign assists in strengthening the bond in your relationship. When you sign you face each other, make eye contact, you gesture and are animated – these elements are often eliminated from verbal language as we text, talk on the phone, call out from the next room or chat whilst doing other things – yet these elements are integral to our relationships and we should be embracing them!

And just how does giving children an outlet, whereby they are NOT required to verbally speak, encourage speech I hear you ask?

Well, sign stimulates neural development and, as opposed to spoken language, engages both hemispheres and various cerebral lobes, which in turn strengthens their capacity for learning language and communicating verbally. It will reinforce your child’s language skills by giving them visual cues, a tactile experience and greater emphasis on facial affect and body language. In young children a second language is highly recommended by pediatric specialists and sign is a fantastic option for this very reason.

So how do you start?

When your baby starts to display gross motor coordination they may be ready to start sign. It’s not something you actively TEACH them, it’s something YOU learn – then you do the signs as you speak to them and they just kind of pick it up over time. And they often pick it up very, very quickly! You may be amazed at how early on in life your baby responds to you with moments of facial recognition because they’ve understood your sign. And these moments usually start happening before they’ve developed the skill of signing back to you. (And are so completely heart warming!!!)

Introduce just a few signs to start off with, stick with half a dozen that are key words you like to use – Thankyou, please, more, finished, stop, bed, hungry, milk etc. are ideal signs to begin with.

Be patient with the process, there’s no rush for your baby to start signing back or for you to learn every word under the sun. Make it fun – learn a couple of nursery rhymes, find some AUSLAN apps to play with, look things up on Youtube, make up some sign games. Take a look at this video I did with my kids:

Don’t worry too much about whether you or your child’s signing technique is perfect – you aren’t aiming for fluent dialect – just basic communication skills. Most young children and infants will adapt signs to their own little mindsets regardless! That’s all part of the fun of it!

I guess what it comes down to is that, for a very small amount of input, (ie. the use of half a dozen signs in your routine) you can achieve extremely significant outcomes. AND IT’S SO MUCH FUN!

Where can I learn some basic AUSLAN?

Well you’re in luck because I am a Registered Music Therapist and through my business, Oh My Musical Goodness, I offer online signing workshops catered especially for you. Face to face on skype over an hour you will learn up to 100 basic signs and a few nursery rhymes. Each session is valued at $70, makes a fabulously unique gift and will leave you feeling very clever indeed as you realize how simple sign can actually be! To find out more about these workshops or for a list of other exciting sessions visit here then go ahead and book your session today!

About Allison:

Allison Davies (BMus/BTeachMasMusThy) is a registered music therapist with The Australian Music Therapy Association and owner of ‘Oh My Musical Goodness’. She lives and works with her little family in Tasmania, specialising in the areas of early childhood intervention and mental health. Alli is especially passionate about bringing music and sound based services to those in isolated and remote areas and therefore offers an array of online educational sessions.

Find out more about Oh My Musical Goodness on Facebook or on her blog. Alli can be contacted by email at ohmymusicalgoodness@gmail.com.

Special Offer:

In the spirit of the end of one year and the beginning of another Alli would love to treat NNAM readers to 20% of any online session booked in 2014. Your session can be scheduled for next year but make sure you book it this year to claim your discount! Just email to secure your space!

Cool Christmas Crafts with Toilet Rolls!

December 5, 2014 · 5 Comments

Cool Christmas Crafts with Toilet Rolls!

Making your own advent calendars, decorations and bon bons is a great holiday activity to do with the kids.

Using toilet rolls is cheap and eco-friendly and when they look a bit worse for wear, just chuck them in the compost or recycle! I love these ideas.

What Christmas craft do you do? Share with us!

Make a Christmas Tree

Make cute owl tree decorations.

An easy advent calendar.

Christmas Fairy (with free printable)

Wreath

Easy Gift Boxes

Christmas Crackers or Bon Bons

Tree Decorations.

Reindeer

Paving a Holistic Path for Children with Special Needs.

March 14, 2014 · 29 Comments

Paving a holistic path for children with special needs.

Today I am welcoming one of my gorgeous friends to the blog, Kristen Morrison. We first connected many years ago via Facebook over our mutual interest of all things healthy. In that time, I have witnessed her family’s journey, smiled and laughed at photos and cheered at the milestones. I have no words for how much admiration I have for this woman. I wanted to share her story here today in the hope of inspiring other families whose children need a little help.

Kristen, tell us your story.

7 years ago, we welcomed our first baby boy who was born at home just like his sisters. Having had minimal testing – despite being in my late 30s, it came as a complete shock to us when we discovered he had Down syndrome – a condition I didn’t know the first thing about, except what it looked like!

Gryffin was adored from the moment he arrived but I knew he was going to need a lot of help. We were told to expect terrible health and development complications relating to the diagnosis, on top of intellectual disability and an overall compromised future. He would never drive a car, may not achieve an education and ‘you wouldn’t want him to have children, would you?’.

Nightmare doesn’t come close to describing the first few months until – after reading some encouraging stories online – we decided to prove the ‘experts’ wrong. We threw everything we had at achieving his absolute best with and for him. I gave up my career and spent 5 years working with him full-time at home.

The utter joy of watching him emerge like a butterfly was intoxicating, breathtaking and spurred us on every time he achieved a ‘win’ – and the wins came thick and fast!

Where did you go for help?

Initially I went to our family doctor – who had doubled as my obstetrician for all 3 of our kids. I asked him where a natural, holistic-minded parent might go for help in such a situation and he had no clue. Before forging my own path, the only other places I went to were an Early Intervention service, a Paediatrician and a Physiotherapist but frankly these weren’t a good fit for our family; their expectations were just too low and in that environment, we just couldn’t imagine him flourishing.

What happened next?

After realising that there was no ‘Holistic Service’ available for us, I researched intensely and put together my own program of therapies for Gryff including Naturopaths, Homeopathics, Nutritional Supplements, Osteopathy and Yoga for Special Needs children. A phenomenal kinesiology / acupuncture based technique – which balances out messages sent from the brain to parts of the body – brought miracles for Gryffin as he began to absorb his nutrients better, overcame food intolerances and improved his reflexes – at times overnight. Truly, this was miraculous and very exciting to watch! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of such successes for compromised children before – the potential was clearly WAY beyond anything I’d ever seen in the mainstream!

By the time Gryffin was 10 months old, he had a full day of exercises and therapies with me but I knew it wasn’t a complete approach; we could be more effective if we knew what else to do to help him. This is when someone introduced me to The Institutes For The Achievement Of Human Potential – a Not-For-Profit organisation based in Philadelphia USA.

The Institutes’ approach filled in every gap, gave us comprehensive strategies and tremendous hope for our son’s future! Theirs is a comprehensive program for stimulating every neurological function from hearing to seeing to reading and moving superbly, for children with neurological conditions of any degree or kind – genetic or otherwise. We read stories of blind children achieving sight, deaf children hearing for the first time, immobile children moving across the room, children’s diagnoses being lifted… normal lives being achieved in some cases! When we heard stories of adult graduates with Down syndrome driving cars, attending university, getting married and living independent ‘normal’ lives, we signed up without question! Gryffin’s Dad travelled to Philadelphia to do their parent training and 18 months later I attended the course in Singapore.

At this course, I was the only Australian and I vowed to bring what I had learned home to spread the word and help other parents to find true hope and solutions as we had.

Tell us about that program?

This program is different from anything else because it is entirely parent-run which means we do it all ourselves. No therapists needed! The course empowers you to assess your own child and then to create an ideal environment for a compromised child including changes to diet, sleeping arrangements etc and the removal of toxins from the home – because these kids are so sensitive.

Parents are trained to know which exercises to do with their children to target development areas which need help. For example, a child with vision issues will spend time being stimulated with light at many, many regular intervals throughout the day; a hearing impaired child will be stimulated with sounds of different volume and intensity, again at regular intervals and intensity daily.

On the subject of hearing, there are subtle issues with the auditory pathway in that whereas a child may be able to hear, they may not respond to ‘vital’ sound such a car screeching to a hault or a dog barking. This is not a normal reaction so The Institutes train parents to stimulate the reaction to vital sounds appropriately to specifically target this issue and develop appropriate reactions – which in this case are the child’s protection from the outside world!

With this program, physical movement is stimulated with an emphasis on moving symmetrically so activities like crawling and monkey bars are used. Intelligence is stimulated with a reading program and educational materials are presented to the child at a standard way ahead of the child’s age so they get to crave information, use their brains and explore their own inquisitive minds where they may not otherwise. (The kids LOVE the intellectual programs, in stark contrast to programs which assume the child isn’t very intelligent and therefore don’t stimulate or challenge much at all.)

Tell us more about The Institutes themselves?

The Institutes have worked with special needs children for the past 50 years, having begun their initial work rehabilitating adult stroke patients. The whole concept of ‘neuroplasticity’ comes from The Institutes’ founding research, which the Founder Glenn Doman did with a team of extraordinary minds including Nobel prize-winning scientists & NASA. This team is quite frankly dauntingly knowledgeable and the parent course they present gives parents the absolute best possible training to help their own kids. Their wealth of experience and spectacular results mean that they know exactly what a child needs to do to improve brain function. They know not only which exercises to do but how often and for what duration and these factors can make or break an effective program in my experience.

Honestly, children on these programs have a BALL and the rewards are so bountiful, you can’t help but continue as you watch your child’s abilities unlock and unravel (and begin to read street signs out loud at 3 years and under!).

By 3 years old our son could walk, run, read, do basic maths equations, he spoke well, attended day care 6 hours a week with neuro-typical children – he was a brimming success story for alternative and natural therapies, and – like his sisters – he had never had a drug in his life.

Still hasn’t today at 7 years old.

Who could this program help?

Quite honestly, any child with conditions such as Developmental Delay, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, Aspergers syndrome, Autism spectrum disorders, Dyslexia, chromosomal or other conditions affecting brain-function… The gains are there to be had, through the efforts of parents with support from The Institutes.

Our Grow Foundation now sponsors The Institutes to come to Australia every year to present this course to Australian parents – for the first time ever – and the results for Australian families are stunning! (You can read some of these on the Grow Foundation website).

Program Details

The Institutes For The Achievement of Human Potential’s

“What To Do About Your Brain Injured Child” Course

Date: March 31st to April 4th, 2014

Venue: The Bayview On The Park Hotel 52 Queens Road, Melbourne VIC 3004

To Book: Harriet Pinsker : wtd_registrar@iahp.org

For more information about the course, please visit www.iahp.org.au or call Sarah Delarue on 0417 104 689. Visit the Grow Foundation website to read some Australian success stories.

Thank you so much Kristen. Your story is so inspiring – it gives me goosebumps. This information truly is paving a holistic path for children with special needs.

Please share this information if you know someone who may need this help.

It could make all the difference.

The only 3 things you need to know to be a good mum

May 11, 2012 · 42 Comments

The only 3 things you need to know to be a good mum

Motherhood is a tough gig. To smack or not to smack. Breastfeed or bottle. In your bed, out of your bed. The list goes on. But I think that quite possibly, there only 3 things you need to know to be a good mum.

There is always a plethora of experts (and non-experts too) telling you how to bring up your kids. Books, blogs, baby whisperers – who do you listen to?

Did our grandparents worry so much about parenting?

I don’t think so. When did it all get so complicated, confusing and competitive?

I have been thinking about this a lot. Now that my kids are older, I can look back at the journey and wonder why I spent so much time fretting about everything!

I was one of those mums who read loads of parenting books and magazines. I approached motherhood like I would a university assignment. I was determined to get an A + ! Not everything went to plan though and I had to learn some hard lessons.

I had to give up my desire to be ‘the perfect mum’ and just be the ‘best mum I could be’.

Anyway, in hindsight, I have come to the conclusion that there really are only three things you need to know to be a great mum.

♥ LOVE. Always come from a place of love. Always act with love. Pretty simple, right? Actually, this applies to everything in your life.

♥ MAKE YOUR KIDS A TOP PRIORITY. When your kid’s needs are put right at the top of the list (don’t forget your own health and wellbeing), everything works. I know as soon as I start making other things a priority (like work), the cracks appear.

♥ FOLLOW YOUR HEART. I think we are born with maternal instincts. You should always follow them. Sit quietly and think. Does this feel right for me, for us as a family? The answer will come to you. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing or thinks about it. Just trust your instincts.

What do you think? Are these the only 3 things you need to know to be a good mum or would you add some more?

You might also like to read about reclaiming motherhood.

The shocking things I found in my son’s shoe drawer!

May 8, 2012 · 34 Comments

I have no words. The shock. The horror. Mortified and devastated is what I am.

Look what I found in my 13-year-old son’s shoe drawer.

Chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. Not just one bar, but three large packets! All of it laden with artificial rubbish!

At first I was a bit cranky. Not just about the chocolate – I hate it when my kids do sneaky stuff behind my back. He is well aware we don’t buy this stuff and we don’t eat this stuff.

Then I got to thinking, why? Why, oh why?

Am I being too strict in our food choices? I didn’t think so. We are by no means 100% clean eaters! It’s just impossible to be that perfect!

Just this week, hubby and kids shared two blocks of Green and Blacks organic chocolate (I buy it when it’s on special). I am all for treats – what is a life lived without some pleasure, after all? But, I want those treats to be the very best quality treats, not some chemical concoction.

It’s all relative though isn’t it? Compared to the vast majority of his friends, we do eat differently. Mostly organic, very little processed foods, very little takeaway or junk foods, most things made from scratch. I find it pretty sad that we are the odd ones out.

Is it a case of peer pressure and trying to fit in with his friends? Is he rebelling against the choices I make for him, being the supposedly older and wiser parent?

Part of me is sad. Sad that my baby boy is growing up – he has his own money, he goes out with friends, he is starting to make some of his own choices.

All I know is that eating chemical laden crap isn’t what I want for my kids!

Looks like we are going to spend some quality time with The Chemical Maze Handbook this afternoon!

What do you think? Are you too strict with your kid’s food choices? Or not strict enough? Is there ever a happy medium?

Bowen therapy to help with bedwetting

April 9, 2012 · 19 Comments

Bowen therapy to help with bedwetting

Anyone who has kids will be familiar with bedwetting!

It can be very a very disruptive and traumatic stage for a family to go through. Lack of sleep, extra washing and feeling like a ‘baby’ are no fun for anyone. On the blog today, I am sharing with you what worked for our family – it was painless, easy, quick and fuss free!

Both of my children toilet trained themselves relatively easily. I was pretty laid back about the whole thing and let nature take its course. However, night time seemed to be taking a lot longer. I wasn’t too worried, having read that children become dry at night when they are ready. Both of them were very heavy sleepers, so that didn’t help. They just wore nappies and later pullups to bed.

No stress. However, as they reached Year One at school (6 years of age), I started wondering if I should be investigating it further, as sleep-overs were becoming a possibility.

Initially, the doctor recommended nasal spray (chemicals? no thanks) or an alarm which would wake everyone in the house up (what? well, that sounded like so much fun). So, I procrastinated. Until one day I was at my bowen therapist getting my back sorted and noticed a poster on her wall mentioning bedwetting! Well, I thought, lets give this a go – it’s natural, can’t hurt or harm and it’s affordable. So, we booked our son in and had a few treatments over a couple of weeks.

Suzanne also suggested some other things that we try in conjunction with the treatment.

*no stress surrounding the bedwetting (well, that was us anyway, we didn’t make a big drama about it or make the kids feel bad)

*rule out any psychological issues (no traumas or big changes were happening at the time)

*cut out apples and apple juice (aha! our son loved apples, still does – the acid found in apples and apple juice can irritate the bladder)

*a healthy diet (check)

*only water as fluids after lunch time, limit milk and juice and avoid soft drinks and cordials altogether (check)

So, we combined all these ideas and a few Bowen treatments over a couple of weeks. Our son was dry at night within a week of the treatment finishing! He had the odd accident in the next few months, but then it settled down to very infrequently (when he was sick). I was pleasantly surprised and amazed.

When our daughter reached age six, we decided to once again try the Bowen therapy (backed up with the other advice) and hey, presto, it worked again!!

Now, I tell anyone who will listen about this fabulous treatment! No chemicals or alarms required.

What is Bowen therapy?

Bowen is a very gentle type of body work, an alternative to chiropractic or physiotherapy work. It was developed in the 1950s by the late Tom Bowen in Geelong, Australia. It’s an all over approach that allows the body to move back to its original state of well-being. Read more here.

Our whole family prefer using bowen for any injuries or ailments because it is so gentle and pain-free. It can be used on a wide range of health problems. It is really important to find an experienced, fully qualified practitioner. You can find a qualified Bowen therapist here.

If you are in the Central Queensland or Gold Coast area, I can highly recommend Suzanne McTier-Browne. Suzanne has been our Bowen therapist for years!

I really hope this information helps some of you out there. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or have any other natural remedies that worked for your family.