I started Healthy living kids because I want everyone to have the information that I wish I had 10 years ago. Healthy Living kids is about feeding nutrient dense foods to our children and seeing them grow strong and healthy, giving their bodies a chance to develop without being bombarded with chemicals and artificial additives.

When it comes to nutrition for my girls, we work on an 80:20 rule – 80% whole foods, 20% relaxed. For everyday foods we eat healthy whole foods, that are prepared at home – fruit is always offered as a snack. We rarely, if ever, have shop bought biscuits in the house, but we do bake muffins, cupcakes and slices. For these we use quality ingredients and it is what is NOT added to the food that makes the difference.

I am very passionate about living a healthy lifestyle and I have learned a lot over the years. Now I want to share my knowledge with as many people as I can, but also build a community where I can learn more from others.

I don’t claim to know everything…far from it, but I have a real thirst for knowledge on this subject and want to do everything I can to help our kids not only be nourished, but to thrive and be bursting with energy.

I want this site to be a source of inspiration, shared ideas and experiences about nutrition, kids’ activities, gardening, sustainability of our environment, and above all enjoying life.

So, I would love for you to come on the journey with me and work together to raise awareness, help to educate and build a community to give each other support and to find solutions.

We started Healthy Living Kids in 2006 with the aim of educating and raising awareness about toxic chemicals that have invaded our homes in the form of food, skin care and cleaning products.

When my eldest daughter was 2 she seemed to be always getting sick with ear infections. We would go to the doctor and be given antibiotics and it would clear up, but then be back again soon after. We went on and off these antibiotics and then she got the chickenpox. By then I had had enough and took her off to see a naturopath.

This has led me down a path of discovery about what is going into our bodies. I always thought my daughter had a good diet, I didn’t give her lollies or rubbishy foods, she never had jars of baby food as I always prepared fresh food for her. Little did I know the food that I thought was ok simply was not. It was processed and had hidden additives, preservatives and colours.

I started to look more closely at what we were putting on our skin: moisturizers, shampoo, soap, toothpaste etc, and discovered they are full of toxic chemicals as well.

Recently I have taken stock of our cleaning products. This is one area that I wasn’t too bad in as I never used spray and wipe or air fresheners, but I did use bleach from time to time and other store bought cleaners.

I researched the three areas: food, personal care and cleaning products, and completely changed what we are using. To my surprise there was a safe alternative for every product that I was originally using. As a result, my daughters health and our health has improved greatly and she has never had another ear infection since  My youngest daughter who was only 4 months old at the time has only ever known the “healthy and toxic free” way of living and she rarely gets sick. So I am living proof that making changes can improve your health.

I decided I had too much information to keep it to myself, so I started telling my friends and family and now I do group talks for mothers groups and schools etc, so that other people are able to make informed choices and not just take the word of slick advertising campaigns and confusing ingredients listings on labels. We need to take control of our own health and our childrens health, because no one else will do it for us.

Disease is on the rise, nearly two thirds of Australians die of Heart disease or Cancer! (Australian Bureau of statistics) and with all the money being poured into so called research why are we not getting better? Why is there an increase in cancer and heart disease? We need to start looking at prevention rather than cure, because isn’t it better not to be sick in the first place?