Natural Family Living with Tiffany

Our expert on green parenting and natural family living, Tiffany Washko, runs a very informative website for parents at www.naturemoms.com. She is a “natural” mom to three wonderful kids, six and under, and she is passionate and wise about sharing what she has learned.

Tiffany is concerned about the environment, holistic health and healthy parenting. She is the author of two fantastic ebooks - Raw Recipes for Kids and Green Smoothie Recipes for Kids. Visit these links for a free sample of her recipes.

Tiffany writes about natural family living, organic raw food, green cleaning, and safe products. Her interests also include travel, yoga, water aerobics, and hiking. She has contributed to many "green" projects, magazines, and blogs for companies like NBC, iVillage, Raising Arizona Kids magazine, Grasshopper News Media, 5 Minutes for Going Green, TreeHugger, Green Options, and various national and local newspapers.

We are honored to have Tiffany share her thoughts and insights on how natural family living and organic whole foods have impacted her family and her career path. Thank you Tiffany!

WBDD: You are an advocate of "natural family living" - what does that mean?

Tiffany: I am an advocate for families who want to get back to the basics and raise their families in natural, safe, green environments. Often times this means that I help to keep them aware of potentially dangerous consumer products and potentially helpful consumer products. I also provide information that makes their lives easier… such as how to clean their home with natural household ingredients or reduce the amount of plastic in their lives. I firmly believe that raising healthy, green kids is not hard to do if you have the right support team and my site is all about moms helping each other.

WBDD: What life experience(s) have influenced your natural family living choices?

Tiffany: The first life experience I had that influenced our natural lifestyle choices was a vaccine injury. My oldest son (now 8) was injured by a routine vaccination as a baby. At the time I fully trusted that doctors and conventional parenting experts knew what they were talking about. After my son almost died after a vaccination I started to see that things were not what they seemed. My son ended up being epileptic and I was told he would be on medication for his whole life. But the whole experience taught me that I needed to question them and look for my own way. After one year I was able to throw my son’s meds away since I got his seizures under control with diet alone. I started to see the direct relationship between my choices and my kids’ health and I decided to start doing it the right way. I had two more kids and gave birth naturally. I breastfed exclusively and in tandem. They ate whole, organic foods and later lots of raw foods. We stopped going to doctors and they never got sick anyway so who needed them?

Not long after that, I found out I had cancer and I had no doubt that it was years of bad dietary choices coming back to bite me in the behind. I blogged through all of it so that just maybe others could avoid the heartache I went through.

WBDD: How have these choices impacted your family's life?

Tiffany: My kids are healthy and I know they live in a safe home. I never have to worry about calling poison control because “poison” isn’t in our home. I also help my kids see that our choices affect our planet and our neighbors and together we look for ways to live in harmony with the planet. I think they have become amazingly responsible and empathetic kids as a result.

WBDD: In adopting a healthier lifestyle, what challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them?

Tiffany: It is challenging because we are bombarded with opposing messages. Commercials and society at large want us to be consumers who live rather greedily. They also want us to avoid asking questions about the products we use or look too deeply at them. I have to be constantly vigilant to do my own research and help my kids and other moms see past that smokescreen. It is not always easy and many people assume that you are a radical since you don’t believe what you are told to believe. I am a trailblazer not a follower and I don’t want my kids to be followers either. The attitude of mainstream society is the biggest challenge.

WBDD: What do you think are the most important issues facing families who wish to follow a healthier path?

Tiffany: Tops on my list would be food issues. I have pretty much thrown out all my previous knowledge about food and how it affects the body. Parents need to realize that 80% or more of the stuff in the grocery stores is crap. We need to eat whole, unprocessed, organic foods, preferably raw, and very few animal products. Not only is it healthier for us it is healthier for the planet. We need to get the chemicals out of our homes too. The average home has chemicals everywhere. They are even in the pajamas our kids sleep in and the mattresses we sleep on and we wonder why our kids have ADHD, asthma, and allergies. A green home is a safe home. Another issue is the amount of waste we generate and pollute our planet with. There is just no excuse for it and we have to change it.

WBDD:What advice do you have for those who wish to share natural family living resources and ideas with others?

Tiffany: Blog about your journey and you may just help other people on theirs. Everyone needs support to make these changes permanent.

WBDD: Thank you again Tiffany for visiting us at Whole Body Detox Diet to share your passion and experience. Please stop by her blog to soak up her wealth of information and ideas.