Hi everyone! I just wanted to share that I am hosting a Food Challenge on my website this month, and there are *GIVE-AWAYS*! :) The main Food Challenge page is: http://www.seriousmoms.com/aprilfoodchallenge.shtml To see the most current content, you can go to the main page, http://www.seriousmoms.com. You can subscribe to the RSS feed, too! :) Enjoy!! ~~Brenda :)

Usually, people who have depression also have low serotonin. So, eat high serotonin foods: avocados, nuts, pineapples, strawberries, tomatoes, cheese, bananas. I have high serotonin, the top 4 on this list make me sick. :tongue_smilie:

I know of 2 little boys under the age of 2 named Henry! It's coming back! :)

I have to say one more thing: RAD is not a forever disease. I worry about the kids in foster care who have RAD and who will never have a family & will always have RAD, too.....But RAD can be cured. Please read Nancy Campbell's stuff. And there's a video we watched that shows this soooo clearly. There's a little girl who said she was planning to kill her mom and dad, and she explained how. Then it shows that little girl as an adult--she's a NICU nurse and teaches about fetal development now. Nancy Thomas adopted her (the family who had her couldn't handle her), used her own techniques on this little girl, and she is *completely healed*..... It's not a final statement about the child....There is hope. I've seen it in my boy, and in other people's "RAD" kids too. ~~Brenda

Ok, so I have to chime in, because I see some discouraging comments here and I want to encourage you!!! We have adopted 2 out of 4 of our kids. Our son Noah (now 6) has had pretty severe RAD (we got him when he was 14 months old). Our 2 year old daughter, though not diagnosed, I think has some signs of RAD as well (and we got her when she was 2 weeks old). I believe that *MOST* adoptable kids have some degree of RAD. I don't think you're going to get away from it at all. That said, it's not as terrible as they say. Is it hard? Oh yes. There are hard days, and then they eventually become hard moments (that's where we're at). But OH SO WORTH IT. We had a 3 year old and 2 year old when we adopted Noah--so then we had 3 boys, ages 3, 2, and 1. Our life was chaotic, for sure. For a while I was telling everyone not to adopt older kids or kids with RAD, just because it was so hard for me. But there is HOPE! :) I read some of Nancy Thomas's stuff (I highly recommend it!) and watched a video, and we brought Noah to a RAD counselor for several months and I learned some techniques & ways to help him. Life is so much better now. Like I said, we still have hard moments--but I can see his little heart healing a TON. I mentioned that at one point I was telling people not to adopt kids with RAD or who were older--now we are looking into possibly adopting a sibling group, and we are open to older kids, and we know they will likely have RAD. We know the road ahead will be tough--but since we've been through it and we've seen the hope on the other side, we now have a HUGE heart for these kiddos. It's worth it! And there's hope! Check out Nancy Thomas's site, as well as A4EverFamily.org, and you can join in on the Attach Oregon Yahoo group, even if you're not in Oregon. You can do it! I'll pray for you! ~~Brenda :) p.s. if you want, I can e-mail you with a list of all of the stuff we did & some ideas for you. I had to learn that training him was different from the ways that worked with my other 2...But once I figured it out, he started improving a ton. I'd love to share this info with you if you want me to! :)

Well, we were GF for a year, and now we're on the GAPS diet, which is GF + no starches whatsoever! When we were GF, I often served: Rice cakes with spreadable cheese on top (babybell brand), and then lunch meat Ham & Cream Cheese Rolls Cheese Quesadillas on Corn Tortillas Nachos with Corn Chips & Cheddar, baked or broiled Lately, I often serve: Apples with cheese GF/No Nitrate/No Sugar Hot Dogs (Applegate Farms) Apples/Celery with Homemade Seed Butter (like pumpkin seed butter--if you can have nuts, by all means, do peanut butter! That would be easier! :) Hard Boiled Eggs Hope that helps! ~~Brenda

Hi, I just wanted to chime in! I use this recipe: http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2009/07/homemade-coconut-oil-mayonnaise.html for Coconut Oil Mayonnaise. Coconut Oil is better if you're ever going to heat it (like I use homemade mayo with parmesan & spices on top of salmon & cook it). Olive Oil is perfect (and less of a strong flavor) if you're just going to use it like regular cold mayo (no cooking involved). Olive Oil turns into a trans-fat when it is heated (trans-fats are the bad ones). We get farm fresh eggs, and I feed my homemade mayo to my kids and to myself (and I have an autoimmune disease), and we're all fine. :) I would not use raw store-bought eggs. Your chance of getting salmonella from farm fresh eggs is soooooooo small. Food-bourne illnesses like that usually come from factory-chickens, not from small farms who take care of their animals & manage things the right way. Just my 2 cents! ~~Brenda :)