Living the natural way

Zhang, a stayathome mother and freelancer, cooks for her family. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Soapberry, baking soda and white vinegar are good for cleaning. Coconut oil blocks the sun well enough but may draw the attention of inquisitive bees.

She also has recently tried products at Beijing and Shanghai's country fairs and can help recommend the safe products and good food.

"Environmental and food safety problems are terrifying and we want our children to live a healthy life," says Wang, a mother at the seminar. "What Zhang has done is very impressive."

"Natural living is a lifestyle that has its essence in the littlest things you do," Zhang says.

"It all started when my son was born," Zhang says of her lifestyle, which is dutifully recorded and updated on a blog named Children of Nature, Zhang Yinghui.

"I was offered a spoonful of processed baby food. It was mashed carrot, but it did not taste like carrots."

Brought up in China's north-eastern Beidahuang, a fertile region where the black earth produces an abundance of produce, Zhang knows what natural food should taste like. She also knows additives and preservatives are not necessary.

Zhang left her hometown for further education in the 1980s and traveled across the ocean with her Italian husband. She now divides her time between Britain and Italy.

She decided to take charge of what goes into her infant's mouth and began to shop and search for natural ingredients not only for the dining table, but also for her whole household.

When Marco was 1 month old, doctors pressed her to agree to general anesthesia to treat his furuncle. Zhang decided against it, trusting more on the body's power to heal itself.

Fed only on a diet of natural seasonal foods supplemented with plenty of activities outdoor, neither of her children needs to visit doctors. Since 2009, Zhang's family has also done away with herbal and traditional Chinese medicine.