Child Abuse:

Ok so this is a very upsetting topic to talk about, but it was a requested topic. So here it goes.

I've been a survivor of child abuse in more than one way. I made it through that time in my life and because of that and other things I have been through I am a much stronger person. I would never want my kids to go through what I went through and I wouldn't want any baby or child to endure the things I have gone through and have seen. It hurts me to see other children being abused and makes me think that the abuser should endure what they put that child through but 100x worse. I won't let anyone I don't have full trust in to watch either of my kids. I will not go online or around where I live to find a babysitter, these are my kids and if I want to know what’s going on with them and to know they are not being hurt or abused then it's my job to watch them. If I ever found out that the people I fully trust (meaning close family, mom/dad, oma/opa) hurt my kids purposely then I would go after them. My kids are there grandchildren or nephew/niece. I would make sure they never saw my kids again. 

I see many children being abused every day and nothing seems to be done about it. You can see it online. I never hear of what happened to the abuser and when you do hear about where or what the abuser is doing, they get/got there kids back and then the same thing happens all over again. It's really sad, and if I was the richest person alive I would make a big home with many families as one for all the abused children who had no place to go. Why have more kids in foster care when even then they are abused sometimes. All the parents that would live in the house would have had background checks and there would be cameras in place to see what was going on and how things were being handled. 

I have seen a baby want his own mother but she kept pushing him away, hitting the baby with pillows, shoes and other things and all this baby wanted was love, to be held and comforted by his own mother. I always wonder how mothers can't love their babies and would want to abuse them. Ok yeah some are too young and don't know how to handle being a parent, some have mental disease or defect, but to me that is still not a reason. Some mothers do really good then one day just snap. It's a scary thing t think about. I've seen mothers who were so upset by child abuse but then one day they themselves abused their children. It’s a sad thing but it does happen. 

I’m not sure what else to say so here are some statistics. 

Children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. Every year 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving 6 million children; that’s because reports can include multiple children. The United States has the worst record in the industrialized nation – losing five children every day due to abuse-related deaths. (this is from National Child Abuse Statistics website.)

So lets start off with some other statistics.

1. Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy.
2. Abused teens are less likely to practice safe sex, putting them at greater risk for STDs. 
3. One-third to two-thirds of child maltreatment cases involve substance use to some degree. 
4. Children whose parents abuse alcohol and other drugs are three times more likely to be abused and more than four times more likely to be neglected than children from non-abusing families. 
5. As many as two-thirds of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused or neglected as children. 
6. 14% of all men in prison in the USA were abused as children. 
7. 36% of all women in prison were abused as children. 
8. Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime. 
9. A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds.
10. *More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.
11. Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4. 
12. It is estimated that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates. 
13. More than 90% of juvenile sexual abuse victims know their perpetrator in some way. 
14. Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
15. About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse. 
16. About 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder. 
17. The estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States for 2008 is $124 billion.

Baby Food - Make Your Own?:

So today I made like 20 ounces of bananas into baby food. I have been wanting to make my daughters baby food. I want to do pees, carrots and cucumber next. But the pees and cucumber will have to be done for 5 days each before I can start going back to other foods she likes and has no problems with. She likes Bananas and Squash. Shes ok with Sweet Potatoes. Shes not crazy about Applesauce or Carrots but she will eat them, but maybe when I make them she will like mommy's baby food.


Bananas: With the bananas all I did was peal them, took the little end nipples off, cut them up into small chunks, then put them in my mini food chopper, but a blender will work better for stage one. My little girl is on stage one foods but my mini food chopper seems to make it into like a between stage 1 and stage 2 food. But Kira did wonderful with the bananas the way they were.


Carrots: With carrots I would wash, peal and cut them up into little 1/2 inch slices then boil them for about 10 minuets or until tender. After they are tender empty most of the water then (it would be up to you, but put either a dash of pure cane sugar or a pinch of salt) mix, put in a food chopper or a blender and blend until the right stage consistency. The dish up into storage containers.






NOTE* I will add more later and as I find what I feel is better or is easier. I will tell you this, if you don't have a blender, or you do things by hand with one of the store bought hand mills it will be very time consuming. I will do a review later on the Baby food hand mill that I have.