What the heck am I supposed to feed my child!?

Here's the thing blog readers: I've become a little too obsessed with eating habits lately. Between Kayla's whole foods posts and Austin's sharing of an article on tooth decay and a raw foods diet based on the work of Dr. Weston Price, I am currently on the verge of collapse. I keep looking horrified in our fridge and cabinets at the boxes upon boxes of toxic grains and the ultra-pasteurized milk and the processed Annie's cheddar bunnies! Now, mind you, we are healthy eaters, and I have been since my single days. I was known to throw together some stir-fried tempeh and kale greens for dinner on a regular basis. We eat less weird stuff now but still our meals usually consist of beans, lentils, quinoa, bulgur wheat, homemade bread, and a handful of different veggies and fruits. But, we also have some processed food like crackers and cereals and the occasional frozen pizza (I have a weakness for Totino's... WHY, oh, WHY?)

I've been pondering this a lot lately because A) I'm having a hard time getting Theodore to eat much of anything that is not strawberries,  bananas, oranges, or bunny crackers.... and B) I think he may have tooth decay (scary!) He has a spot on his tooth that was recently discovered by me today after I finished reading up on childhood tooth decay. I may be overreacting, and it may be nothing, or it may be a huge divine coincidence that I caught it. He has a little bit of a hole on his front tooth near the gumline, the same tooth that has a little crack on its jagged edge. I started doing a little research, and it's not uncommon for toddlers to have tooth decay! Now, I kind of knew this already, but I thought it was usually attributed to baby bottle mouth from drinking out of bottles or drinking tons of juice. But now I'm reading that night-nursing in a toddler MAY cause tooth decay... and we night-nurse.... A LOT (of course, there are others that stand by the claim that says breastfeeding absolutely can never cause dental caries).

There are also a variety of other factors like my prenatal diet, his nutrition during tooth formation (only breast milk and the occasional bite of falafel.... oh yeah, and all the FREAKING CANDY those Egyptians gave him.... damn them!), and genetics. Now, I have awesome teeth with nary a cavity but Tim has a mouthful of cavities and crowns and root canals, oh my! But is it really genetic, or is it the fact that maybe his mother didn't have the best nutrition when she was pregnant or he didn't have the best nutrition growing up, or is it the fact that Utah doesn't flouridate its water (damn Libertarians!)?

Oh geez, I'm getting all worked up about this.

And to add to all of this, we (meaning Tim and I) had a long debate about drinking raw milk and alternative medicine and etc, etc. He's not so sure about any of it... but we'll continue to discuss the matter and figure it out. There is so much that is hard to prove but I'm a believer in chiropracty, essential oils, and an holistic approach to our bodies rather than over-medicating and over-diagnosing.

I've also learned where I can buy raw milk in Orem. I think we might switch over to raw dairy, whole sprouted grains, organic produce, grass-fed meat and eggs. Thankfully, we'll be gardening this season since we have space in our backyard, so we'll have free (or relatively cheap) produce for a good while. And I know there are a number of local farms where we can get meat or eggs.

I have a feeling our food budget will be greatly increasing next month.

That being said, Tim also raises an interesting point: should we increase the amount of money we spend on food to increase our health a little bit (like, we could stick to store-bought produce and grains and milk rather than going the extra step to get it local and organic and raw), or should we donate the money to help feed those that are without or with little, where it would do a world of difference in their lives but maybe only minimally improve ours?