Welcome to Crunchy Chaos!
Crunchy Chaos is a resource dedicated to parents who are looking to lead a more natural life for themselves and their children.
Who is the person behind Crunchy Chaos? And how did she get so Crunchy?
That would be me! And I wasn’t always crunchy. My daughter was born in 2010 and that is the time I began my journey to live a more natural life. I began small. I made her baby food. I made more informed choices when it came to picking out things like cleaning products. I reached for the “natural” diaper rash cream more than the Desitin. I questioned doctors. But was I crunchy? Not really. When my daughter, Riley, was around 4 years old we had already been battling about a year of stomach issues. We saw pediatricians who told me “Give her Miralax, this is normal” or “I am going to prescribe an antacid, it’s typical”. That just wasn’t an answer I was going to accept and none of that sounded “normal” or “typical” to me.
At about 5 years old we saw a holistic nutritionist and I would say this is when things got Crunchy. Now I was already a little crunchy, making my own floor cleaner, cooking all our food. I was basic crunchy. I would say this was the turning point of my journey. We left the nutritionist with a plan. I was making bone broth and homemade yogurt. I was buying supplements I have never heard of. We were one of “those” no gluten families. But most importantly I was RESEARCHING. I was reading. I was learning. I was AMAZED. How did I not know so much? How did I not understand this connection between the food we eat and our gut? The connection between our gut and our brain? There was so much I needed to learn and this only felt like the tip of the iceberg.
After weeks of sticking with this plan from the nutritionist, Riley was about 80% improved. It felt like a miracle, but really it was healing through what nature had to offer all along. And her pediatrician at the time, well she pretty much rolled her eyes when I said we were going to try healing through food first. We found a new pediatrician, one who understood and preached all these connections that I was eager to learn about. And Riley continued to thrive under his care.
In 2016 we welcomed our second child, Emerson. And I wanted to do better this time. I wanted to learn from the mistakes I made. I wanted to begin replacing the everyday items we used with a more natural and healthy option. I wanted to learn more about how food can heal. So I continued learning and growing. Trading in my Advil for Turmeric, my Benadryl cream for charcoal paste. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not claiming to be some guru of natural health. I still have a bottle of Children’s Motrin in the medicine cabinet and we see the doctor when we need to. Sometimes I am ordering a {gluten-free} pizza for delivery because I failed to plan ahead. Because our lives are….CHAOS. I am not going to lie. Because what would be the point in that? We are real people and we aren’t perfect. And what is perfect anyways?!?
What I want.
I hope that with this blog I can help share what I have learned and encourage other moms (and dads) who are wanting to start living a more natural lifestyle to take those first steps. I know the overwhelming feeling when you begin your journey to lead a more natural lifestyle. I hope that I can teach you new things about your health and get you interested in researching more on your own! And most importantly I hope to make you laugh along the way.
Crunchy Chaos 