Our third child taught us all kinds of new things beyond dealing with hangry. (Oh, did you miss that entertaining discussion? You can check it out here.)
My mention of stopping a tantrum in its tracks raised a lot of questions. Yes, we had attempted all the “tried and true” methods (after all, third kid, not our first rodeo), but she was a different, fabulous personality. The only thing that worked to calm her down was Joy. Yep, it’s very aptly named. There were times she was really upset that we had to convince her to rub it over her heart, but on other days she would recognize the feeling, grab the bottle, and put a drop or two on herself.
After seeing how well Joy worked and how much our little one liked using oils by herself, we decided to give her a set of oils that would all be her own, teach her how to use them, and leave them in a place her little hands could reach. Two quickly became her faves: Owie and TummyGize.
An active childhood comes with lots of bumps and bruises earned through fun times, plus the occasional skinned knee or elbow. Our daughter kept Owie close at hand and dripped it on as needed. She also quickly realized that a day of roller coasters or eating too much junk with her grandparents meant she needed a drop of two of TummyGize in her belly button to calm a tummy that was topsy turvy.
She learned that Sleepyize in her Feather the Owl diffuser at night meant she would have good rest and the nightmares stayed away. Days spent in falling leaves or spring flowers blooming had her rubbing Snifflease on her chest. The greatest gift as parents was watching her intuitively know what her body needed and that she had the confidence to use it.
Maybe it was because she started using essential oils on her own at such a young age, but GeneYus was the last one she grabbed. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t put it to good use! Once she hit school age and figured out how much this blend diffused helped her brain during lesson times, it quickly moved up her favorite list.
We don’t have KidPower yet, but it is already on her wish list, especially once she heard it smells like Orange Creamsicle. Knowing that it helps kids balance their emotions, especially considering the difficult time we are all enduring, makes it a blend the rest of our house wants, too.
Those are simply the highlights of why we love these KidScents oils. When you are ready to hear more about our journey, recipes, and other fun ideas, you are welcome to join our entertaining FB group. For those ready to jump in with both feet, here you go!
The other cool thing is that we use all of these oils on our pets, too, and we we have some great bonus tips on that.
Have questions? Ready to learn more? I'd love to chat!
The other day, someone mentioned their hangry child to me. I said, “Oh, I feel ya! We went through that with our youngest, and it was so great to find tips to help her, especially the ones that made her recognize the signs for herself as a toddler.” The other person gave me this bewildered look like I had discovered world peace, so I thought maybe I should share the “tricks of the trade” in case I can spare some other parents from the epic HANGRY meltdown.
Our third child came out of the womb ready to rock and roll. She wanted to learn from and explore everything, and making time to stop for something as silly as eating was not her idea of fun. Sure, when I was breastfeeding, she was captive and I could get her to eat. Once she weaned herself, that all changed. I quickly learned to keep track of how often she ate, and I started trying out different ways to get a toddler to recognize her hangry signs. After lots of trial and error, here are the three things that worked for us.
1. Feed the Child
Okay, if you are going DUH right now, you’ve never experienced a hangry child. They get themselves so worked up and distraught that they pitch a full on fit about eating, even when that is exactly what their little bodies need. I learned to make sure my child had a small, healthy snack every 2-3 hours. I kept easily portable options in the diaper bag and my pocketbook for unknown occasions. Perhaps most importantly, I taught her the “one bite” rule: even if she didn’t want to eat, I needed her to take one bite of something, or we would have to stop whatever fun activity we were doing. That one bite was usually enough to make her body and mind realize she needed more, and the meltdown was averted.
2. Communicate the Feeling
Every parent knows how hard it is not to lose your own cool when your little one has a tantrum. If both sides find a way to communicate with each other, you can easily deal with your hangry one. The first step is for the adult to recognize the signs and verbalize to the child “your body needs some food” (or whatever you want to say.) This will help the toddler put thoughts to the feeling, even if they aren’t verbal. In fact, we used sign language with her because she didn’t have the words yet to tell us about emotions and a rumbly tumbly. Empowering her with communication made a big difference!
3. Finding Emotional Support
This was the game-changer for us. If you’ve ever been hangry, you know it makes your emotions topsy-turvy, too. Imagine being a little kid and not knowing why you suddenly feel so distraught, angry, or upset. You can give your child a quiet place in the house to sit and try to calm down (after you’ve tried the above recommendations), and you can teach them calm breathing/mediation techniques. For us, the only thing that worked was emotional blends of essential oils meant to calm the body and mind. Yeah, I know, it sounds wacky and woo-woo. I thought so, too, until I saw a tantrum stopped in its tracks. We had a new friend come over, and our youngest came running into the house in tears, grabbed an oil bottle, applied to herself, sat for about 2 minutes, and ran back out, all happy to play. That friend looked at me and said, “I need a vat of that stuff.” I replied, “Sure, but it only takes a couple drops.” ;)
If you are ready for more details of how the process worked for us, or you want to keep up with our other shenanigans, I can't wait to have you join me here.
Have questions? I can't wait to chat with you!
Who HASN’T started to feel run-down at some point during this crazy time? Everyone I’ve spoken with has felt it to some extent. Of course, that got the researcher in me thinking.
It all started one day when I was reminding my kids about planning meals for the following week (if you don’t know how we make that work, check it out here.) At the same time, I was also thinking which supplements each of the five bodies in our house needed, since we are all different.
My inner nerd kicked in. I’ve always been fascinated with how things work together, and planning meals, vitamins, minerals, and thinking about strong immune systems is no exception. My goal is for each member of my family to have the strongest immune system possible going into this fall and winter.
As I started researching and writing, I realized all this info is too good to keep to myself. I want to share with you the food recipes, nutrition information, whole food supplements, and diffuser and roller bottle ideas I’ve found to help us reach these goals. You'll start with a checklist and the ten most common deficiencies to help you know what your body needs most. From my desire to help others identify these lacking areas, Vitality and Vibrance for the Whole Body was born.
If you are ready to jump in and learn all the things, make sure you message me at ginny@sageginny.com.
Mine actually fell in my lap. True Story. I got a call from a friend one morning that his job needed some last minute help, so I chipped in … to park cars.
Yep, I see you saying, “Parking cars?! How is that a dream job?” Bear with me a moment.
This was a family-owned canoe livery, where we rented river equipment to hundreds of people on the weekends, late May to mid September. That first summer, I would park cars from 9AM-3PM, then I would spend several hours learning the ins and outs of the business. By the next summer, I had been moved into the “office.”
I definitely use the term “office” loosely. It was an old, historic building, no air conditioning. We often worked 12 hour days jam-packed days, where someone would grab a tomato from the garden, slap together a sandwich for you, and you would grab bites in between customers. It was hot, sweaty work, dealing with every personality type under the sun … and I wouldn’t trade a minute of the 15 seasons I worked there.
You see, customers became friends. They came back year after year and wanted to catch up with you. I’ve heard that years later there are still people who ask for me by name. Most importantly, the folks who owned the business took me and the other employees as FAMILY. Saturdays were home-cooked dinners, and the fridge was always stocked for us. Many of us were given places to stay and sleep if we wanted. In short, it became my home-away-from-home. I was valued for my work, and I was loved for who I was.
My last summer there was over a decade ago, and it took a long time to find another job that made my heart that happy. I never let the exhaustion, the difficult customers, or whole weekends lost to bad weather drag me down. I was excited to go to work every single day and so deeply saddened when we had to close at the end of a season.
Now, I’m not saying your dream job is to work at a canoe livery. What I am saying is this: find a place that ignites your passion. Where the owners become your family. One where you actually miss it when you are on vacation. And above all, find a job where people appreciate your personality and talents and pour into you, leaving you a better person that when you first walked through those doors … or in my case, the field parking lot.
This guy had a traumatic start to life. He was rescued not once, but three times … and then he ended up saving and fixing a gaping hole in our hearts. But that wasn’t then end of the rescuing.
(If you missed the beginning of the story, you can find it here.)
We will never know if Jay’s health issues came from a lack in his birth mother’s milk, the trauma of being abandoned in a ditch, the eye infection that set in, or something he needed that his adoptive cat mama couldn’t give him. We do know that we did everything the sanctuary and vet recommended once we adopted him. But it wasn’t enough.
Sure, he was happy, playful, and gaining weight. All the “professionals” said he was fine; however, he had horrible skin issues, from hair falling out to sores. We used the non-grain food we were told to buy. Heck, I even researched a raw diet and made pet food … only to have all the cats turn up their noses and act like I was trying to feed them sawdust. Yep, that’s a cat for you … and I absolutely love them for it.
The worst was when we used the vet-prescribed flea and tick treatment on the poor fellow. He turned lethargic, threw up, and lost a patch of hair larger than a silver dollar. I already had my doubts about those meds, but we were told it must have been the brand. I waited a couple of months, tried a different brand, and we had the same results. That was when I said enough was enough.
The human members and non-feline pets of our family had been using natural wellness options for some time. I had allowed fear to keep me from pursuing a deep and constant use of those same choices on our cats. Well, not after that drastic hair loss. I researched safe options to keep the creepy crawlies away, tried it on five cats, and had 100% success, no negative side effects. I decided to keep learning.
That wasn’t the end of Jay’s skin troubles. Any little nick would turn into a large scab; a large untreated scab sometimes became an abscess. We once again tried prescribed meds (our poor daughter, after losing one cat, wanted to follow a doctor’s orders), and those failed him every time. His human momma finally realized the value of natural options, and now Jay heals easily and quickly. In fact, his skin health and rapid recovery has become quite the joyful story in our household.
We would love to have you join us and learn more about caring for your pets and livestock in a different way.
