WOW

I really have no other words to describe this recent blog post I read from Mayim Bialik, aka “Blossom” from the 80’s sitcom.  My “wow” stems partly from disbelief, partly from appreciation, and partly from concern.  The gist of it all is that Mayim is still breastfeeding her almost 2.5 yr old, to which I say that’s not that out of the ordinary, but then I read that she nurses him every 3-5 hrs during the day and 4-7 times at night!!  That’s where my jaw hit the floor.

I do understand her theory with nursing her kids as long as possible, and I also believe that nursing a toddler can be a good thing.  I nursed my son until he was 20 months old.  But the last several months it was only at night before bed, and it was NEVER during the night after about he was about nine months old.

The comments after this blog are also quite amusing (click on the link above to see the blog and comments).  One lady reports she nursed all three of her kids until they were FIVE years old?!?  I guess the part of me that truly believes that breast milk is the perfect food also believes that children need to eventually (as in WAY before age five) get their nutrients from REAL food.  Aren’t fresh fruits and vegetables really what nature has provided for us?  I’m sure even cave women gave their children nuts and berries before age two!

So I’m curious as to everyone’s thoughts on this.  I give kudos to Mayim for being so outright about her breastfeeding and wanting to help other women feel comfortable with it.  I think I would be perfectly fine hearing that women are nursing their children well into toddlerhood as long as they were also giving them as much REAL food as normal children, and also that these children were SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT.  The fact that her son wakes to eat 4-7 times a night is not just bad for her, but it’s worse for her poor son!  A baby’s developing brain needs sleep as much as it needs food, and studies clearly show that interrupted sleep is not the same as continuous sleep.  Let your child sleep through the night please!

Here’s the blog:

I Breastfeed My Toddler, Got A Problem With It?


from kveller.com



My son is almost 2 1/2 years old and he nurses every 3-5 hours during the day and 4-7 times a night.
I have not slept more than 4 hours in almost 6 years. My son, however, is healthy, happy, and independent, and I see no reason to wean him.

I believe that children outgrow the need to nurse just as they outgrow the need to crawl, poop in a diaper, or the need for holding and cuddling when they are scared or lonely.

Breastfeeding is normal, healthy, nutritionally, immunologically, and psychologically beneficial, and in all primates, nursing continues well into “toddlerhood.”

Not convinced yet? Take a look at my answers to the many funny, embarrassing, and interesting questions I often get about nursing a toddler.

Do you even have any milk anymore?
This may not be true for all moms who nurse a 27 month old, but I have enough milk that I still leak and spray at every nursing session, I still have an active (and forceful!) let-down, and like a new mom, I will get engorged if I do not pump, which for me, can lead to plugged ducts and mastitis. I worked very hard to build up and maintain my milk supply, and I still am diligent about pumping every 2-3 hours when I’m away from my son.


Does he need breastmilk for nutrition?
My son didn’t eat solid foods until he was 15 months and he doesn’t yet consume the amount of food that “most” 27 months olds consume. I am grateful that I can nourish him with nature’s perfect food, which is unable to be replicated by any artificial milk or animal milk. Breastmilk is designed for my child’s needs from birth until he weans; it is full of protein, healthy fat, brain-building substances, and vitamins, not to mention immune and antibiotic properties. It is always the right temperature and it is always on hand. I do not believe in giving my son milk from another animal, and humans are the only animals who seem to think that this is a good idea! The only other thing my son drinks is water, and a little sip of grape juice on Shabbat.

If he’s old enough to ask for it, isn’t he too old to have it?
Well, my son is not verbal yet, and although he has been signing for milk since he was 11 months old, he still needs to nurse. Whoever decided that “when they can ask for it, they should wean” must not have wanted to keep nursing, and that’s fine for them, but it is working for us, verbalized or signed!

Isn’t it weird having a walking talking thinking LARGE child nursing?
I will admit that nursing a newborn or even a 1 year old is very different from nursing a child in boots and a raincoat. But I struggle to understand why it’s not accepted. Besides the fact that it’s not “typical,” I don’t see that there is anything inherently wrong with it, other than people thinking it’s wrong.

Do you place any limits on this?
When a newborn needs to nurse in line at the supermarket, you don’t hesitate. With an older child, needs can be openly discussed and generally worked around. It is important to me that my son learn that we now nurse in some places but not others.

If my son wants to nurse because he is hungry, I offer him a snack first if nursing is hard to manage at that moment. A month ago, I nursed my little man on the floor of the lingerie section of a department store. His need was great, and he could not wait, so I decided to meet his need right there and then.

I don’t nurse in bathrooms, (I don’t eat in bathrooms, so why should my son?), and I try to remember a blanket when we’re out, but I often forget. I have cultivated a pleasant and confident smile to flash while nursing, and while sometimes it is met with icy stares and embarrassed glances, sometimes I get a thumbs-up and that really makes my day.

But you don’t nurse him at night, do you???
In our family, we let our children nurse until they’re done, and the earth’s position relative to the sun does not change our philosophy. Children need us at night as well as in the day. My son nurses 4-7 times a night. Am I tired? Yes! Did my body get used to it once my mind could chill out about it? You betcha! How did I do this? I found the support of like-minded moms who made me feel I wasn’t alone and that I wasn’t weird. And almost overnight, I stopped feeling tired. Once my self-pity lifted, plain old manageable exhaustion set in. I can manage it, and we are fine. And this exhausted Mama is the one who gets up at 4, 5, or 6 am with the kids, so don’t imagine I am sleeping it off while the nanny lets me rest; there is no such nanny!

Won’t this make him spoiled?
There is no respected scientific statistical evidence that children who self-wean are brattier, more spoiled, less independent, less socialized, or less productive in society. To the contrary, studies show that children who self-wean have learned that their needs are important, their development does not proceed according to anyone else’s timetable, and they are confident that love is abundant. These children typically show early healthy dependence that flourishes into healthyindependence when the time is right.

What does your husband think?
My beloved, patient, open-minded husband is very supportive of me nursing our boys until they are done, and it took a lot of discussion and research for us to come to this decision. I do not take his support for granted for one minute. Once we hit the 2 year mark with both of our sons, I will admit that my husband thought we could encourage more eating of solids to see if the need to nurse would diminish. If our son weans, though, my husband’s workload will significantly increase, as the preferred method of getting said child to nap is with breastmilk, and the way to soothe him to sleep at night, and to soothe him throughout the night is with breastmilk. Once milky is gone, we have to get creative; and that creativity will be both of our jobs- and that ultimately means less sleep for Dada!

When will you stop?
I don’t know. Hopefully by the time he’s 3. I can’t imagine myself nursing a 3 year old, and I myself see 4 and 5 year olds nursing and I cannot imagine it for me. My first son weaned at 26 months, so I have never nursed a child this old before. I am learning, too, but I am open to really being in touch with my child’s needs and acting for both of our benefits in a compassionate and loving way to the best of my ability.

Is he nursing for comfort?
Sometimes. Mostly, he nurses for a lot of milk, but big boo-boos get the offer of milky, and it is sometimes the only thing that will do. At night, I suppose it’s ‘habit,’ but that’s really just a biased way of describing the easiest and smoothest was to fall back asleep for a small person who has not yet mastered the skills he needs to do it himself. For the record, my older son did not stop waking at night to go potty until he stopped nursing at 26 months. I comforted him by rocking him 4-7 times a night in the early months after he weaned, but very quickly he developed the skills to soothe himself at night and not need to go potty every 2 hours. He now sleeps 10-12 hours a night with rarely a peep.

What do your family/friends/the public at large think?
Most everyone in my family thinks this party should have been shut down yesterday. My Ph.D. in Neuroscience as well as my recent certification as a Lactation Educator/Counselor has quieted many of their attempts to reason with me, since I have a lot of research, support, and education on my side, and most of what they have – with all due respect- is uninformed hunches, personal uncomfortableness with nursing, and just plan old “I didn’t do that, so why are you?” reasoning. Most of my close friends in our community nursed their kids into the toddler years
*

Am I a push-over? A weak mom who needs her son more than he needs her? Not at all. Am I letting my toddler run my life? No way. Am I spoiling him? There’s no evidence of that! Do I enjoy knowing that mothers who nurse longer have lower rates of breast, uterine, ovarian cancer and osteoporosis? Sure. Do I enjoy knowing that breastmilk contains antibiotic, anti-allergy, and anti-obesity properties? Yes. Is this why I do it? No. Those are neat facts, but the real reason we nurse this way, now, all night, all day, anywhere and anyhow, is because it’s not broken, so there is nothing to fix.

Ultimately, I get to parent the way I want to, and you get to parent the way you want to. I may not have convinced you that extended nursing is as wonderful as I think is, but that’s okay. When I see my precious son gaze into my eyes and grin that milky grin – the same eyes that looked into mine minutes after he careened out of my body; the eyes that convinced me that my only job was to keep this child thriving with the miraculous resources given to me through my body- not much else matters.

Exposure to pesticides in womb linked to learning disabilities

from USA Today

Babies exposed to high levels of pesticides while in the womb may suffer from learning problems, a new study suggests.

• By PhotoDisc

Children exposed to the highest pesticide levels in utero were three times as likely to have a mental delay compared to children with lower levels.

The study focused on a chemical called permethrin, one of the pyrethroid pesticides, commonly used in agriculture and to kill termites, fleas and household bugs, says lead author Megan Horton of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health. Most of the pregnant women in this New York-based study were exposed by spraying for cockroaches.

Permethrin — among the most commonly detected pesticides in homes — is being used more often today as older organophosphorous pesticides are phased out because of concerns that they harm brain development, says Horton, whose study is being published today inPediatrics.


Researchers measured 348 pregnant women's exposures by asking them to wear backpack air monitors, Horton says. Researchers followed the women and their children for three years.

Children exposed to the highest pesticide levels before birth were three times as likely to have a mental delay compared to children with lower levels, the study says. Children with the highest prenatal exposures also scored about 4 points lower on an intelligence test, the Bayley Mental Developmental Index. That test has a mean score of 100, with most people's scores falling within 15 points of that range.

That's about the same intelligence loss caused by lead, says Philip Landrigan, a pediatrics professor and environmental health expert at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Pyrethroid pesticides kill bugs by "being toxic to the developing brain," Landrigan says. The results are "very believable and should be taken seriously," Landrigan says.

Because the study is the first to link permethrin with brain damage, researchers need to conduct additional studies before concluding that the pesticide really harms the brain, says Mary Fox, an assistant professor at John Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Even without definitive data, however, Fox says it makes sense for pregnant women to reduce their exposure to bug sprays and other pesticides.

To control bugs, for example, she suggests fixing water leaks, keeping food tightly covered and, if necessary, spraying outside instead of inside the home.

Toxic Baby Products?

from Babies 411

“Toxic baby products?” “How’s that possible?” “I’ve been using what on babies?”


This was my reaction when I was researching baby products (during the development phase of Babies 411) and found out the news that most of the baby products that we know, love, and have used for years contain cancer-causing (carcinogenic) chemicals. What an eye opener.


As a NICU nurse, I care for babies that are compromised and are in their most vulnerable state. Now I find out that I have been unknowingly using and recommending unsafe products. Well, no more. I have taken a stand and made it a mission to educate mothers, caregivers and most of all healthcare professionals on the dangers lurking within our trusted baby shampoos, washes, lotions, wipes and more.


As a healthcare professional, I know that parents are looking to us for the answers. And because of this, parents choose and purchase products that we use in the hospitals believing that this is the safest options. Why wouldn’t it be if we use them in the hospitals? Unfortunately, we are unknowingly and unintentionally promoting bad products.


Want to know how to protect your baby from these toxic products? Here are a few recommendations:


1. Knowledge is power so do your research! Read labels and avoid those products that contain harmful ingredients. Learn more by reading our article “Protecting our Babies from Toxic Chemicals”.
2. Less is more. Be sparing on products that you use on your baby.
3. How safe is your baby products? Check out Skin Deep to learn more about the products you are putting on your baby.
4. Keep up-to-date on news surrounding chemicals in baby products (not just skin care products, but also chemicals found in toys, clothing, food, plastics and other baby products).
5. Love disposable baby wipes but want to avoid the chemicals? Make your own wipes. Want to learn how? Read our article Making Homemade Baby Wipes for the easy, breezy recipe.
6. Are you expecting a baby? Ask your hospital or childbirth facility what baby products they use on babies. If it’s not a safe choice, bring your own and make your baby’s first bath a healthy, toxin-free bath.
7. Help us spread the word. We are working hard with our favorite company, Earth Mama Angel Baby, trying to educate healthcare facilities on the dangers of toxic baby products and looking to phase these products out of our hospital systems. With your help, we could move mountains! Contact your maternity unit and express your concerns.

There’s a GOOD side to throwing up every day??

I’m currently 15 weeks pregnant with my second child and the nausea with this pregnancy has been downright horrible.  I’ve been in and out of the hospital for dehydration and was finally given a Zofran pump that administers the drug directly into my body.  The pump has saved my life (and stopped the all day vomiting), which I am thankful for, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered “why would my baby do this to my body??”  It seems so unnatural that a pregnancy would make the mother so extremely sick as to require hospitalization and so much medication.  Well, then I opened up a fabulous new book last night called Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five and began reading.  It’s written by Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, who shares what the latest science says about how to raise smart and happy children ages 0-5.  It bridges the gap between what scientists know and what parents practice.  So far I’m only two chapters in, but the read is FABULOUS!!


Here’s what excited me so much about my nausea! (pg 23):


One study, yet to be replicated, looked at children whose mothers suffered from major nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.  When the children reached school age, 21 percent scored 130 points or more on a standard IQ test (130 is considered gifted).  If their mothers had no morning sickness, only 7 percent of kids did that well.  The researchers have a theory – still to be proven – about why.  Two hormones that stimulate a woman to vomit may also act like neural fertilizer for the developing brain.  The more vomiting, the more fertilizer; hence, the greater effect on IQ.  Whatever the reasons, the baby seems to be going to great lengths to get you to leave it alone.



How good are we at leaving baby alone – at this stage or any other in the womb?  Not very.  Most parents have a gnawing desire to do something to help baby, especially when it comes to baby’s brain.  Fueling that drive is an enormous sector of the toy economy show sole strategy is, I am convinced, to play off the fears of well-meaning parents.


John Medina really does a fabulous job in this book of bridging parents burning questions about children’s development and learning with scientific evidence.  The five questions (actually from parents) he aims to answer are “What can my baby learn while she is still in the womb?”, “What’s going to happen to my marriage after we bring our baby home?”, “How do I get my kid into Harvard?”, “How can I make sure my little girl is happy?”, and “How do I make my child GOOD?”  If you’re looking for a great book on baby and child development definitely check out Brain Rules for Baby!

Whole Wheat Yeast Breads – Why Me and Why You

from Adventures in Beanland


Part I – Why Me and Why You


 
Part II – Ingredients
Part III – Technique
Part IV – Recipes


Recently, I hosted four nights of “how-to” for whole wheat yeast bread baking for the women’s group of my church. It was a bit chaotic with so many women in my smallish kitchen, and I was incredibly intimidated to be in the spotlight as I explained each step and ingredient along the way. Together, these women and I tore up my kitchen, cranked out a dozen loaves of whole wheat bread, many batches of whole wheat rolls, hamburger buns, pita bread, and 4 homemade pizzas. Insanely fun.

I got myself into this because my Whole Wheat Bread in a Bread Machine is lovely. I won’t lie. It’s truly delightful. And, because I live a hermit’s life right now (working full-time from home and taking care of my girl and a med student husband)… I show love in one of the few ways I can: by giving away loaves of homemade bread.

Naturally, people who enjoyed the bread started asking for the recipe and tips on how to adapt it for their own bread machine. Well, soon friends who didn’t have bread machine wanted to know how to make it by hand or in a stand mixer, and they wanted to know where I buy my ingredients and if I made other things besides bread… etc.

I decided to make one of my monthly Healthy Minds and Bodies group meetings into a bread night. One night turned into four on the schedule and I started to panic. Because I had really only perfected the bread machine recipe, in preparation for these nights I dove into more hands-on bread baking. I love using the stand mixer, actually, but it’s hands-on in the sense that I’m constantly feeling the dough and making decisions as I go. I adapted the recipe and fine-tuned several others so I could share with confidence.

In the process, I discovered I truly do have a talent for this. My passion for healthy, do-it-yourself cooking drove me to lots of research, experimentation, and innovation. I’d like to share what I’ve learned so far with the 6 people who read my blog world.

Why Whole Wheat?

1. Whole wheat flour is a real food and nutritious. White flour? Not so much.
2. I buy wheat at a great price and it stores well. I grind it myself and get a lot of satisfaction from having food laid up in store in case of emergency (or rough economic times), and from creating something delicious truly from scratch.
3. I don’t have much experience with yeast baking with other grains. I hope to branch out, but I haven’t yet gone beyond a simple variation of my regular recipe with the substitution of rolled oats for some of the whole wheat flour.

Why Do I Make My Own Bread?

1. Because I can.
2. Because, in the long run, it costs less.
3. Because it tastes better and the smell makes me swoon. I grew up helping my mom make bread and it’s cathartic for me to work with dough and smell the yeasty goodness of the process. I want to pass on to my children the skills of self-reliance and the concept of being more in touch with food. They won’t need to go get plastic-wrapped bread that’s been trucked across the country. Yay!
4. The ingredients in store-bought bread are incomprehensible, like Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate . I don’t need that.

Intimidated yet?

Keep reading and you might be. I grind my own wheat. I make my own dough conditioner. I buy #10 cans of vital wheat gluten for a taller rise. We hardly ever buy bread from the store anymore, and I make nearly all of our pita bread, beanburger buns (because let’s be honest, there’s no meat in our house), rolls, and pizza crust. I’m very analytical and am constantly tweaking technique and proportions to achieve a better result (can you tell I wanted to be an organic chemist?)
However, I have some encouraging words for you:

1. You CAN do it. I didn’t make any homemade bread at all 3 years ago. And I don’t have oodles of time to sit around and make messes in the kitchen. I just kept trying and learning as I went. I made about a loaf a week for our family and it always came out (with two exceptions) edible, smelling great, and tasting good. A few times we ate it as toast. One time or two it went straight into breadcrumbs. But usually it made a good loaf of bread that continued to get better as I had more experience under my belt.
   Don’t try and you’ll still be eating store-bought bread 5 years from now. Try and who knows? You might find yourself enjoying making something healthy, cheap, and absolutely fantastically delicious for your family. And you can teach your children and your friends. Or just spoil your friends with homemade bread. They’ll thank you.
   It gets easier. And faster. And less messy. And cheaper. The more you do it, the more you can adjust things to fit your style. Prefer to do a loaf in the bread machine and skip the mess and time investment? Do it. Rather get your hands dirty but make 4 loaves at once to freeze and give away? Rock on.
   There will be a whole lot of info in subsequent posts. This isn’t required knowledge and you don’t have to be a bread expert to make a delicious loaf of bread. (This is a good thing because I definitely don’t consider myself an expert!* ) Instead, consider that the information you gather here and in other places constitutes tools in your toolbox. You can whip the info out if something goes awry or if you need to tinker, but you can certainly ignore my advice and still make excellent bread.
2. You do NOT have to do it the way I do it. Don’t run out and buy all the extra ingredients, a wheat mill, etc. Just start with a bag of whole wheat flour from the store and $5 loaf pan. Skip the dough conditioner and gluten. See if you actually LIKE whole wheat bread. (If you don’t, you should really learn to like it because it’s miles better for you. Ahem.) Get some successes under your belt and if you do decide to make this a habit, then invest in the nice-to-haves.
   Everyone has a different idea of perfection. My husband likes a light, soft, sandwichy loaf so that’s what this info is geared towards. That being said, the info should equip you to tweak as needed to achieve the result you want.
   You might decide you don’t want to make homemade bread all the time for your family. But, if you take the time to learn how, you’ll be able to use that skill when needed and you’ll be glad you have it.

Are you ready?
*Full disclosure: I have lots more to learn so it’s a good thing I’m only 25 years old. I haven’t yet tried: Freezing dough. Whole Wheat Sourdough. Other grains in my bread. Whole wheat tortillas (ok I tried ‘em and I failed). Homemade hummus to go with my pita (I know, I know). Whole grain artisan breads. The list is long, but as I tackle it, I will blog about it.
**My sources of knowledge: A mom and three sisters-in-law who bake homemade whole wheat bread. I shamelessly stole and modified recipes (including my dough conditioner recipe) from them and picked their brains for help as I stumbled my way along. I read lots online and in several cookbooks, notably The Bread Bible. In every case, though, I adapted recipes to fit our tastes, particularly those from the Bread Bible because they weren’t whole grain at all.

Next up: Part II – Ingredients


This cute little bucket is one reason I make homemade bread:

 



To continue reading parts II, III, and IV, please click on the links at the the top!

Yookidoo Stack 'N' Stream Tub Fountain

I’ve been in search of  a new, non-toxic bath toy for my two year old son who is starting to shy away from bath time.   It’s definitely hard to find a fun toy that is also BPA, PVC, and Phthalate free, but this one fits the bill!

The Yookidoo Stack 'N' Stream Tub Fountain is a winner in my book.  It is battery operated and I usually shy away from toys with batteries, but I still love this toy.  The battery power pushes the water up through the toy like a fountain, and as you stack and unstack the different boats and characters with the toy, you get different effects with the water (sprinkler effect, spray effect, spout effect, etc).  There are so many ways to use this toy that it will definitely keep your little one entertained.  My son enjoys playing with all the little people and boats separately as well!

This toy is fascinating for both babies and toddlers, and I think it will last a long time in our house.  Just one word of caution…be prepared to get wet…both you and your child!

P.S. The cheapest place I found this toy (by far) was on Amazon.  (There’s a video of the toy in use on Amazon as well)

Baby Dream Gear Classes in Charlotte!

I am very excited to announce that Little Miracles Baby Planning is the exclusive provider of these amazing classes in 2011 in Charlotte, NC!

Whether you’re expecting your first or fifth baby, Baby Dream Gear is the class for you.  The baby market is ever-changing and full of fun and exciting new items, but it can also be extremely overwhelming to find the right products for your family.  Baby Dream Gear believes that families should be empowered when selecting products, in an elegant and relaxing atmosphere. Little Miracles Baby Planning is pleased to bring you excellent gear, essential considerations when selecting products, as well as pampering and relaxation for well deserving parents during this class!

You will be pampered with food and drinks during each class, and as if all that wasn’t enough, each family will receive one FABULOUS SWAG BAG full of incredible stuff for baby!   You’ll get your very own Blue Avocado reusable shopping bag filled with amazing gifts from our partners, including Thinkbaby, Dr. Browns, Plum Organics, Playtex, Episcencial, Baby Banz, and much more!

Baby Dream Gear is offered in select cities around the country, and Charlotte will be having it’s very first class March 26th &27th at Belly Elan maternity boutique.  Click HERE for all the registration information.

We hope to see you there!!