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Fathers for Organic – Part 7 of 7: A Father Teaches
Even before our babies are born, we are teaching them about the wide world around us. We communicate our choices, our values, even without thinking about it. They hear our voices, smell our aromas, and they taste, remember, and prefer the foods we feed to their mother.
After they are born, they will continue to learn, day and night, from what we say and do. Within just a couple of years they will learn to speak and understand our language, just from listening to us speak and trying to imitate what we say. This is quite an accomplishment! When was the last time you fluently learned a language? Imagine tackling another in the next two years. Meanwhile, babies will also be learning the figurative language of our habits, our relationships, our emotions.
This truth hit home to me one day as my toddling son finished brushing his teeth. When he was done, he tapped his toothbrush on the side of the sink to dry it - tap, tap-tap, tap-tap, tap. It was precisely my habitual toothbrush percussion rhythm! But I had never noticed before that I had this minor routine. He had.
Tonight, as my oldest son enjoys tuxedos and boutonnieres, gowns and corsages, at his senior prom, he has learned 18 years of lessons from observing my example, for better or for worse. He has absorbed most of these lessons without either of us noticing. Tonight Cheryl and I celebrate the cycles and seasons of life.
By choosing organic foods for our families, we teach quietly and profoundly. We teach our kids about healthy nutrition, at a time when obesity is overtaking many American children. We teach our kids about justice, as we choose to pay fair prices to the farmers who grow our foods without the use of persistent synthetic chemicals. We teach our kids about respect for our planet, as we take steps to save the wildlife our children love. We teach them to one day be fathers and mothers themselves, creating an inheritance for their children. We teach, we provide, we protect. We are dads.
Alan Greene MD FAAP
March 30, 2006 in Food and Drink, Organic | Permalink
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Comments
i read dr. greene's journey through organic eating, parenting, living and was heartened to see another convert. my sister continues to teach me about the benefits of being organic (from the foods we eat to the products we put on our bodies and the things we put in our houses). as a parent of a young child, i've started to feed my small family organic foods in hopes of staving off some of the inevitable effects of environmental toxin exposure. Thank you for helping to spread the word. i'll be forwarding your story to my daughter's father in hopes that he, too, will take the journey.
Posted by: jackie | Apr 28, 2006 1:21:22 PM
I am a mom of five kids and have just finished reading Dr. Greene's seven part article on organic eating. I am more convinced now than ever that I must change the way my family is eating! Going organic appears to be a no-brainer. But there are many reasons why the average consumer would resist. Over the years I have made many healthy choices for my family including breastfeeding, growing a garden, fixing well-balanced meals, but I still purchase mostly conventional foods. Reasons include cost, convenience, habit, etc.
However, I feel strongly about limiting the amount of chemical exposure to my kids. Our family has had the unfortunate experience of having two of our kids diagnosed with childhood cancer. Our 2nd oldest son, who is now 15, was diagnosed with Burkitts lymphoma at age 3. Our youngest son was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when he was 22 months old. He is 7 years old now, off treatment, and doing great. The occurances were six years apart and we lived in different parts of our state. We also met with a genetic counselor who could find no connection between the cancers. We will likely never know why this happened to our family. And most days I'm okay with that. But if there is anything I can do now to prevent future cancers or other health concerns for my family, I want to know that I did my best for them. Thanks again for the information and sharing your journey.
Posted by: Suzanne | May 15, 2006 11:49:29 AM
While I have not spent a lot of time on Dr. Green's website, I find a number of Dr. Green's entries to be outdated or old (3-4 years), and that they do not take into account recent advances in natural therapy.
This is a form of misdirection, intentional or not. So, before, you follow any advice from this website or before you write-off any treatment, I suggest that you fully investigate your concerns with other sources.
Posted by: Rick | Aug 7, 2006 6:56:32 AM
Rick –
Thank you so much for your comment! You are quite right in your observation that many of the articles on DrGreene.com are old. We've been publishing on the web since 1995! We put the date on every page so our readers will know the last time is has been reviewed.
We review the content on a rotating basis, but can always bump something to the top of the review list if a reader reports an error.
Please bring it to our attention if you see a specific article that needs to be reviewed by emailing the URL to Beverly@DrGreene.com
Thanks again,
Cheryl Greene
Executive Producer
www.DrGreene.com
Posted by: MsGreene | Oct 14, 2007 12:11:12 PM
