A handful of my friends are currently sick with Delta, and many more are stuck in quarantine from an exposure. Omicron is all over the news and it now seems almost certain that this variant is both more contagious and better at evading existing immunity than any strain we’ve seen thus far.

It’s easy to despair, or if you’re prone to anxiety like I am, spin out with worries about the future. For me, focusing on the facts and taking action to the degree that I am able helps calm me down.

I hope this post may make you feel a little saner! Let’s get to it.

What does a “more contagious” variant mean in terms of our day-to-day?

Every time a variant comes along that is “more contagious,” I struggle to understand what that means, and how we should adjust our behavior to reduce our risk of contracting Covid. Do I need to wash my hands even MORE? Can I now get or spread Covid even if I am six feet away from the nearest person?

According to my mother-in-law, Dr. Sixsmith, MD, and my husband (a molecular embryologist who understands immunology), Omicron—and Delta, for that matter—being “more transmissible” doesn’t mean that masks/distancing/hand-washing no longer work as mitigation strategies.

Both doctors said the six feet rule should still hold true—a more contagious virus can’t suddenly float two blocks away and infect someone. I asked my husband about the possibility of Omicron hanging around in the air or on surfaces for longer, and he said: “I wouldn’t anticipate that the point mutations in the spike protein would affect the ability of the virus to survive outside of a host.”

Both Dr. Sixsmith and Dr. James did say it probably takes a smaller viral load to lead to infection, so the old 15-minute rule may not apply with Omicron—you can probably get a disease-causing dose of viral particles in less time than that. Dr. Sixsmith also suggested making sure masks are very well-fitted (or double-masking) since it may take fewer viral particles getting in through the gaps to make you sick.

Hand sanitizers will still kill the newer variants, so there is no need to change anything with this habit.

What about Omicron’s severity?

Perhaps the best news so far about Omicron is that it really seems like it’s less severe than the other versions of Covid we’ve been dealing with for two years. I know we can’t be sure of this yet, but I’m reading everything I can find, and signs are sure pointing that way.

Am I the only one who keeps thinking there could be a huge silver lining to the emergence of this variant? If Omicron proves to be the fittest Covid strain in circulation, it could overtake Delta—and if it also causes milder disease, then even with some immune system evasion, aren’t we all better off? I don’t know who I am and what I did with the normal doom-and-gloom Maia, but I’m feeling weirdly optimistic that this may come to pass. (Knocks wood repeatedly and does the “pu pu pu” spitting thing despite not being Jewish.)

In any case, whether you’re worried about Omicron, Delta, or just getting a cold, here is what I’m doing with the hopes of keeping Covid and other viruses away this winter:

1) We take a few supplements.

I’m not a huge vitamin person, but the winter is a time when I add some to our routine, including elderberry syrup or an elderberry gummy,  vitamin D, and a probiotic. I drizzle Olea True high-phenol olive oil on as many meals as I can. When we do get colds, I focus on the remedies that really work to make us feel better.

2) We are all vaccinated against Covid.

This has been a hugely controversial stance to take, but I believe vaccination is worth it when it comes to Covid-19. You can read more about why here, here, here, here, and here.

3) We wash hands, use sanitizer, and wipe down high-touch surfaces with non-toxic antiseptics.

If you need help finding an effective, toxin-free hand sanitizer, we’ve got a Guide for that. If you’re worried about the toxic antimicrobial products your kids are exposed to due to “enhanced cleaning protocols” in school, you might ask them to consider using this.

4) We (try to) keep stress levels low.

This is easier said than done amidst our second pandemic holiday season. Nevertheless, I try to prioritize sleep, fitness, and self-care to keep my stress levels lower. You might also consider this THC-free gummy.

5) We (try to) keep our diet healthful(ish).

It’s an ongoing battle, and we often slip into a takeout habit, but this time of year I try to balance the inevitable holiday junk with at least one nutrient-rich meal or even snack a day. This can be in the form of kale chips (not always homemade), sauerkraut, or smoothies when I am pressed for time. I’ve also made getting healthful meals into myself easier by relying on Sakara and Provenance, and for family dinners with Sun Basket. Finally, I have cut back on alcohol (I’m averaging about 3 or 4 drinks a week which is easily half of my norm), and basically only drink this.

6) We run our air filter.

We have three Austin air filters in our home. These use true medical grade HEPA that removes 95% of all particles larger than 0.1 microns (the coronavirus that causes Covid is .125 microns). In addition, breathing cleaner air will keep our lungs in better shape when fighting any kind of respiratory infection.

7) We are still distancing (sort of), masking indoors (mostly), and taking Covid tests (often). 

While our daily routine now much more closely resembles our pre-pandemic life (I attend in-person fitness classes, we indoor dine, etc), this is largely due to our like-minded community. Here in New York City, vaccination is required to enter restaurants, gyms, Broadway shows, and more, and I noted today that there wasn’t a single unmasked person in my neighborhood’s crowded Trader Joe’s.

We took rapid Covid tests before Thanksgiving, and will do so again before a Christmas party this weekend. We keep indoor gatherings small, and when my mom is around we still tend to keep most things outdoors (above, a photo she took of me this weekend when we were out to dinner).

My brother lives in Pennsylvania, and when I recently visited him I was aware of how much less comfortable I felt in a place where people are largely unmasked and vaccines mandates are nonexistent.

Despite all of the above strategies, I often feel like catching Covid is inevitable. One by one, it seems to be getting to everyone I know. My hope is that by being vaccinated and otherwise fairly healthy, we will be only mildly ill if/when our turn comes!

I would love to know your thoughts on Omicron and winter wellness in general; please comment below.

Stay sane,

The post Staying Healthy for the Holidays…And Thoughts on Omicron appeared first on Gimme the Good Stuff.

Covid is again weighing heavily on me–after months of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! I’m sure many of you are feeling similar anxiety about what this means for the coming school year. I will be doing all the prevention measures we already know to work: Running my air filter. Taking elderberry syrup. Sanitizing my hands. Wearing a mask in crowded places.

That said, I am convinced that the long-term solution here is mass vaccination. This opinion probably surprises many of you. While I’ve never considered myself an anti-vaxxer, I was raised by two of them;), I and spaced out my owns kids’ immunizations (basically per the Dr. Sears alternative selective schedule). I’ve defended anti-vaxxers in the past, when I said the following about my basic stance:

• Overall, I would describe myself as agnostic about many vaccines–I don’t know that they carry with them any long-term risks, but the assurances of the medical establishment doesn’t entirely reassure me.
• I wish pediatricians would be more willing to discuss the ins and outs of each vaccine and the disease against which it protects. Instead, most physicians simply insist that there is zero potential for any long-term downside to vaccines. I believe that many parents would actually opt in to vaccinating against some of the scariest diseases if they could get more detailed information out of their doctors on the risks, benefits, and unknowns.

Here is my reasoning behind being strongly in favor of Covid vaccinations. Everything written here still holds true–what’s changed since it was written is that all of the interviewees, myself included, have received two vaccine doses. The baby boomers experienced no side effects, and Daylon and I both felt fluish for a day or so after our Moderna shots.

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What About Vaccinating Kids?

Many of you have asked what I plan to do about my kids (Felix is turning 12 in September). This may be another unpopular opinion, but I am not particularly worried about my children contracting Covid. We take many other risks that have a greater chance of resulting in serious harm, statistically speaking. I will, however, get both of my sons the Covid vaccine when they become eligible in order to:

• reduce the odds that they will spread the disease to someone vulnerable;
• prevent them from becoming long-Covid patients;
• ensure that neither of them is an incubator for the next, potentially worse, variant;
• move us closer to herd immunity, and thus a return to normalcy.

I don’t love the idea of my kids getting this shot. But given all the options, vaccination is the one about which I feel most comfortable. Here’s a post I found useful during my decision-making process.

Why I Am Being Vocal About This…

I’ve been disappointed to see so many other bloggers in the natural parenting space staying quiet about the vaccine. I assume either they are not getting the shot but are unwilling to admit it, or they are afraid that coming out in favor of the vaccine will cost them followers. And cost them it will; every time I write about this topic I get hundreds of angry emails and people canceling their orders from our store. One of you even snail-mailed me about nine pages of QAnon literature, which I admit I couldn’t get the whole way through.

In general, though, I like receiving your comments–I read every single one of them and am always open to the possibility that I’ll learn something or adjust my position. I’ve watched the Christiane Northrop videos, and I’ve read what Dr. Mercola says on this topic. So far, none of it has changed my mind or made me worry that the Covid vaccines are likely to be dangerous. But please do continue to send along the information that you’re finding convincing. (And if you’re not finding the conspiracy theories convincing, please go get the vaccine!). Also, this is not a sponsorte

Stay sane,

P.S. Some responses to an email I sent on this same topic that I feel are worth sharing:

I love what you do with your products and your information. We need more. But instead of relying on man made medicine, we should be held accountable for how we live. What we eat, drink, breathe. Be more responsible and stop blaming others for your own self-induced sickness.

You are a good person, but unfortunately a misinformed person! Please do not subject your sweet children to the “shot” which is NO VACCINE! Unlike any other vaccine in history, this Covid 19 shot is a man-made, bio-weapon from China intended to kill and depopulate the World, a mastermind of China and the corrupt World leaders who want World Control!

Luckily nobody in my family is imunnocompromised and we are all able to get the vaccine. But I’m one of the people for whom the measles vaccine as a child does not take. I’ve had it multiple times and it doesn’t stick. I don’t develop the antibodies. So living in WB Brooklyn while doing IVF in 2018/2019, during the measles outbreak, was TERRIFYING. Babies die of measles. They don’t get sick. They just die. So I am counting on everyone else to get vaccinated and know that they too may also get the vaccine and not be immune but have no idea.

I was so nervous to watch your first video about your thoughts on covid vaccines, because I didn’t want to have to walk away from you!  I actually tend toward avoiding vaccines in general (our daughter isn’t vaccinated), but it is clear to me that this is a circumstance where the risk/reward calculation shifts. And as someone who is hesitant about vaccines, I think we should be applauding the development of mRNA vaccines, since they don’t have adjuvants or preservatives!  This seems like a move in the right direction! 

I am not a conspiracy theorist and I’m not even a Republican. When I became pregnant with my first child, I planned follow a delayed schedule and was a huge fan of Dr. Sears (still am!). But the more I read, from sources I worked hard to make sure were legitimate, the more paralyzed I became with indecision and confusion. At this point, I’m more scared of a rare, but totally possible, severe reaction from a vaccine than I am of the diseases themselves. I believe that vaccines are generally safe and effective. But I am just terrified of being one of the mothers who’s child has a bad reaction. I’m scared of polio, too! I guess I just feel like I cannot bring myself to vaccinate, and so I do nothing. I realize that doing nothing is making a choice. But if feels safer to me. So that’s where I am right now.

I am not confident about supporting your business. How is it that you seem to know so much about natural and toxin-free products but know absolutely nothing about vaccines, their side effects, and the science with this Covid virus???? For the record, pediatricians are paid to encourage vaccines and deny side effects.

I was VERY slow to vaccinate my children. They only really caught up on the schedule when they were about 8 or 9 and there are still a few I will pass on (HPV….the kids can decide that later) I don’t see anyway to end this pandemic unless we are all vaccinated. That was not an easy decision to come to, I have done a lot of research and really…it is necessary.

Thank you for this brave post. As a former anti-vaxxer, your emails helped change my mind about the COVID vaccines.

I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being a voice in favor of science in the natural parenting world. So many parents think that the two are mutually exclusive, when they are most definitely not.

Your poor kids. A coronavirus is a common cold. This is not FDA approved. Your kids chance of dying or spreading this common cold are basically zero. I am officially unfollowing your thread. I feel so sorry for your children that you as a parent are not educated enough about vaccines especially pertaining to common colds.

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The post Why I’m Going to Give My Kids the Covid Vaccine appeared first on Gimme the Good Stuff.

1. Vaccines

You’ve probably heard about the rudimentary way that we figured out how to inoculate people against smallpox–by scraping pus from a milkmaid’s cowpox blisters and then inserting it under the skin of an unaffected individual. (Cowpox was a much milder illness, but still conferred immunity to deadly smallpox). From there, we discovered increasingly sophisticated ways to vaccinate against more than a dozen illnesses. Vaccines are something that I’ve agonized over since I became a parent–there are now so many of them, and some of them are for diseases that are almost never serious in the developed world (like rotavirus or varicella). Felix is turning twelve in a few months, and his school requires a Covid-19 shot. Yes, I will get him vaccinated, and no, I’m not super psyched about doing it! Bottom line: We can’t overstate the number of lives saved worldwide because of the discovery of vaccines, although one could argue that the current vaccination schedule borders on “too much of a good thing.”

2. Pasteurization

Listeria, tuberculosis, diptheria, and typhoid can all pass through raw milk, and this was a common cause of infant death before the widespread pasteurization of milk. (It’s worth noting that none of these microbes are passed through human milk–so this problem could have been largely avoided if more women had exclusively breastfed their infants). I don’t personally buy raw milk because we aren’t big milk drinkers and I don’t have access to a farm that I trust, but I do believe in the nutritional benefits of raw milk. Still, it’s worth remembering that the genesis of “processed” milk wasn’t a money-making ploy from Big Dairy, but rather a legitimately life-saving discovery. Obviously, there are myriad problems with industrial agriculture, from the inhumane treatment of animals to the environmental impacts to the hormone-laden/pesticide-ridden milk that comes out of factory farms. BUT, I am still grateful for Louis Pasteur!

3. Chlorination

Before municipalities started adding chlorine to the water supply (in around 1912), fatal typhoid and cholera spread through contaminated drinking water. I am a firm believer that we should all filter our drinking water (and that we shouldn’t drink any amount of chlorine). But once again, it’s good to be reminded that worrying about chlorine is far better than worrying about cholera!

4. Antibiotics

Penicillin was (accidentally) discovered in 1945, and practically eliminated deaths from bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. We take for granted that you won’t die from a scratch or lose an eye to a “mild” infection, but this used to be a totally common occurrence. Antibiotics also have a HUGE downside, and I believe they are wildly over-prescribed. Like so many other medical interventions, antibiotics are used too often when they are not needed, but thank God they exist when they are needed.

I’m sure there are other reasons that life expectancy has increased so dramatically this century–seat belts, lower smoking rates, pap smears, HIV treatments, skiing helmets! (And probably C-sections, too–this is another example of “often unnecessary and not without a downside, but thank God available when necessary.”)

It’s unearned good fortune that allows me to exert energy making sure my pans are the right kind of non-stick and that my rug gripper is made of real rubber instead of vinyl. Were I alive in a different time, place, or socioeconomic class, I would likely be facing much more immediate risks.

Modern lifestyles are rife with dangerous toxins and subsequent health risks. Nevertheless, I am thrilled that I was born after the invention of antibiotics, vaccines, chlorinated water, pasteurized milk, and many of the other man-made toxins!

I look forward to your comments on this–what other discoveries or medical interventions do you worry about but also feel grateful for?

Stay sane,

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The post The Privilege to Fret Over Antibiotics, Vaccines, Chlorinated Water & Pasteurized Milk appeared first on Gimme the Good Stuff.

UPDATE #2: Here are our thoughts on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

UPDATE #3: No, this is not a sponsored post. (I’ve been asked by more than a few people if big pharma paid me!)

When I asked you guys if you’d like to know my stance on the Covid-19 vaccine, including what my scientist husband thinks, I didn’t predict the massive response. I read all 250+ of your emails, some of which included ten or more questions!

The post COVID-19 Vaccine: Thoughts from a scientist, an MD, two (semi) anti-vaxxers…and me! appeared first on Gimme the Good Stuff.

Written by Maia, President

Let me start with this: I have chosen to vaccinate my children. That said, I’m annoyed by the media coverage of this issue and also by the viciousness coming from many pro-vaxxers.

My anti-vax friends are pretty quiet these days (and I wish they wouldn’t be), but not so with the pro-vaxers. These moms are not only keeping their kids out of playgroups—even here in New York City where there is no measles outbreak yet—but they are also furious with anyone who admits any doubt about the long-term safety of the standard vaccination schedule. In fact, if you question the recommendations of the AAP at all, you are anti-science and basically a climate-change denier and a creationist, apparently.

What’s up with this?

As I have written before, vaccinations are my least favorite parenting decision, and the one over which I have agonized most. In the end, it made sense to me to vaccinate my kids, but we spaced the shots out and seriously delayed some of them (like the hep-B immunization, which is recommended at birth). Does my decision to vaccinate my children mean that I think anyone who skips the MMR vaccine is an anti-science nutbag who gets all health advice from Jenny McCarthy? Um, no.

I didn’t want to be completely silent during a time when it seems people want to talk about little else, so here is a summary of my stance:

• I am always going to be skeptical of the medical and pharmaceutical industry, mostly because they have a long history of retracting their recommendations (antibiotics, mammograms, hormone-replacement therapy, etc.).
• This doesn’t mean that the AAP and CDC are wrong about vaccine recommendations, but to me it means that it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that they could be wrong.
• Overall, I would describe myself as agnostic about many vaccines–I don’t know that they carry with them any long-term risks, but the assurances of the medical establishment doesn’t entirely reassure me.
• All this said, I believe in vaccinating, since the risks of vaccines are mostly unknown, whereas the risks of the diseases they prevent are real. I am particularly in favor of the vaccines for measles, polio, pertussis, Hib, and Pc.
• I wish pediatricians would be more willing to discuss the ins and outs of each vaccine and the disease against which it protects. Instead, most simply insist that there is zero potential for any long-term downside to vaccines, and—in the words of our first pediatrician—it’s “Russian roulette” to delay a single shot, even something like hepatitis B for a newborn. I think many parents would actually opt IN to vaccinating against some of the scariest diseases if they could get better, more detailed information from experts on the risks, benefits, and unknowns.

(If you want to hear people articulate my feelings on this better than I can do myself, here’s a clip of Bill Maher and Marianne Williamson discussing measles and vaccinations the other night).

Stay sane and healthy,

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The post Questioning Vaccinations While Not Being a Kook appeared first on Gimme the Good Stuff.

Admittedly, one of the reasons I haven’t gone there with vaccines is that it’s such a loaded issue.  I have friends, readers, and clients on both sides of the debate who believe with utter conviction that the opposing side is not only incorrect in their viewpoint, but culpable in illness and even death of children.

But there is a bigger reason that I don’t broach the topic of vaccines and it’s this: Gimme’s mission is to help you provide a safer environment for your kids while maintaining your sanity. And decisions about vaccines make me crazy.

I’ve found that many holistic parenting choices came totally naturally (pun!) to me–breastfeeding longer than a year (or two), co-sleeping, not circumcising, skipping the epidural during labor (okay, that one wasn’t so easy, but still felt really great when it was over!).

Even when I opt out of the most natural path, I feel okay about that, too–Wolfie spends time in a jumparoo, Felix has loads of plastic toys, I use my Bugaboo more than my Ergo, and I am even back to using disposable diapers (wah–a little guilt on this one, but I have justified it to myself.) But vaccines–these guys I agonized over, never feeling entirely comfortable with any of my options.

In the end, I have chosen to vaccinate my children, but I space the vaccines differently from the recommendations of the AAP, and differently even from the alternative schedule provided by Dr. Sears.

An easy choice: skipping the vaccine for hep-B (which is essentially an STD) at birth. But spacing out the DTAP shot so that my infant wasn’t fully protected from whooping cough when he’s most vulnerable should he catch it? That wasn’t without excessive worry and more excessive hand washing. Jabbing a healthy toddler in the perfect, chubby thigh with the ever-controversial MMR vaccine? That one I didn’t feel so good about, either. UPDATE: My mother-in-law is a physician, and she pointed out the following after reading this post: “About hep b—it is not really an STD.  It is ubiquitous in China (or used to be) because hep B pos mothers transmit it during birth, just like HIV.  It is also conceivable it can be transmitted by  hep b positive fathers also—hence, foregoing vaccine is fine as long as both parents/partners know they are hep b negative.”  Thanks, Diane, for the important clarification!

Speaking of whooping cough (pertussis), if you are a good neurotic mom like I am, you know that the last few years have seen outbreaks all over the county, and that unvaccinated kids have been blamed for its resurgence. But you also may have seen the new study showing that vaccinated baboons still can carry and transmit the disease, meaning that while they themselves were protected after being fully vaccinated, they were still passing it around after being exposed. So perhaps the tragic pertussis deaths and serious illnesses of the last few years were not entirely the fault of the unvaccinated after all. To be clear: the results of this study do NOT suggest that the DTAP vaccine CAUSES whooping cough. (I have seen a few natural living websites and publications misinterpret the findings of this study and suggest that the DTAP shot caused the baboons to become contagious with pertussis).

This study serves as another reminder that what’s taken as “fact” when it comes to vaccine efficacy and safety is ever-shifting. I wish I had the bravery of my friends in Vermont who skip all vaccines, or the conviction of my New York City mom friends who KNOW that the AAP’s schedule is on-point.

Instead, I’ve read and read and read… and researched until I’m bleary-eyed..and listened to the opinions of doctors and experts whom I respect– yet still I remain conflicted.

So rather than judging any parents for what they choose for their own kids, I assume pure intentions and educated decisions from most of you–whether you choose to vaccinate your children or not.

Okay, I’ve busted into this topic! Let the flame-throwing begin!

Stay sane,

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