Links for 2007-08-13 to 18 [del.icio.us]

• Study:Early diet advice for kids sticks - USATODAY.com
  "Teaching children from a young age to eat a low-fat diet can be effective — even as they reach their teens and begin eating more meals away from home, according to a new study.
  "The study of children in Finland found that those who were taught to focus on healthy fats — those found in fish, nuts, seeds and oils from plants — had slightly lower cholesterol levels compared to those who ate an unrestricted diet."
• BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Huge payout in US stuttering case
  "In 1939, the plaintiffs - all orphans in state care - were tormented for six months by Iowa University researchers. "The study was testing the theory that children develop speech impediments because of psychological pressure."
• BBC NEWS | Health | Depression is 'over-diagnosed'
  "Too many people are being diagnosed with depression when all they are is unhappy, a leading psychiatrist says.
  "...
  "But another psychiatrist writing in the journal contradicts his views, praising the increased diagnosis of depression."
• BBC NEWS | Health | Early cord clamping may harm baby
  "Clamping the umbilical cord straight after birth does not benefit mother or baby and may actually be harmful, a UK expert has warned. "Instead, leaving the cord for around three minutes can boost the baby's iron stores, cutting the risk of anaemia."
• BBC NEWS | Health | Fat 'crucial' in children's diet
  "Concerns about their child becoming overweight means some parents put them on low-fat diets, but the Nutrition Journal study said this was misguided.
  "Researchers found children burned substantially more fat than adults relative to their calorie intake.
  "Youngsters needed that fat to grow and thrive, they argued.
  "Over a third of a child's energy intake should be made up of fat, the researchers at Pennsylvania State University said, a recommendation in line with UK requirements."
• Aubrey DoodlePants Knitting Pattern
  A good (and free) knitting pattern for longies (to go over cloth diapers). I've made this pattern several times (with some modifications of my own) but thought I'd save the link here since I'm always having to search for it when I want to make more.
  
• hardrockzombie: Rescued from the Ravages of Time
  "I dug these patterns with considerable difficulty from the belly of the New York Public Library. I'm quite sure they sat untouched for years on their shelves, and would have quietly crumbled to fragments and dust with no one the wiser had I not intervened. As it was, in handling and photocopying them I'm pretty sure I fast-forwarded that destruction by 10 years."
• Instructables Make a diamond-paged book
• Farewell French and Saunders - Times Online
  "After 20 years, French and Saunders are still our most successful, and funniest, female duo. So why are they calling time on their partnership — and coming over all serious about matters of life and death?"
• Pollution Causes 40 Percent Of Deaths Worldwide, Study Finds | Scientific Blogging
  "...environmental degradation, coupled with the growth in world population, are major causes behind the rapid increase in human diseases, which the World Health Organization has recently reported. Both factors contribute to the malnourishment and disease susceptibility of 3.7 billion people..."
• BBC NEWS | Health | Baby growth chart switch closer
  "New child growth charts which reflect the slower weight gain associated with breastfeeding could be soon be adopted in England.
  "Current UK growth charts are based on predominantly formula-fed babies, which tend to grow more quickly.
  "The new charts have been drawn up by the World Health Organization.
  "They have been backed in a report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
  "It is hoped that adopting the new standards could stop breastfeeding mothers being worried about their babies apparently failing to put on weight fast enough."
• Identification card for children - ParentDish
  "Ident-a Kid cards are like a driver's license for babies and children. One sturdy, plastic laminated card stores their eye color, height, weight, parents name and address, as well as a thumbprint and recent photograph."

Links for 2007-08-06 thorough 09 [del.icio.us]

• Birth The Play :: Bold
  
  "Birth is a play based on over one hundred interviews Karen Brody conducted with mothers across America who gave birth between 2000-2004. It tells the true stories of 8 women painting a portrait of how low-risk, educated women are giving birth in America today."
  
  I don't know whether I'm likely to be able to see this play, or go to a Red Tent event, this year but it sounds really interesting to me (I read more birth stories than I have time for). During September there are groups all over the USA (and further afield) putting on the play, and/or organizing events in order to raise awareness about labor/birth and to make birthing more mother friendly -- look for an event near you.
• A pause before parenting -- PJStar.com - Journal Star Features
  
  "Women who began their families later in life share the rewards - and regrets - of delayed motherhood"
• August '07 edition of MagKnits, your friendly online knitting magazine
  
  I like the look of Lemonade (a fitted cotton cardi), Jenora (a cardigan that makes me think of the Bloomsbury group) and Summer Sky (a nice shrug/cardigan) Also there's a sock pattern, and a slinky knit dress pattern.
• A pioneer in an experiment called open adoption - Los Angeles Times
  
  The second part of the story is here. Interesting look at one story of an open adoption, you should really read both parts of the story. I've been reading several blogs where adoption is an important part of the bloggers life - as a first parent, an adoptive parent or a person who was adopted - and it's really expanded my understanding of adoption enormously. It's given me far more insight than I've got from people I know personally who've placed a child, adopted a child or been adopted (probably in part because I've never really talked about adoption in any depth with those people). I'm really grateful for the people who have shared their stories and helped me understand more about the long term implications of adoption for all involved.
  
• How Much Salt Is Safe? | Scientific Blogging
• Latent Memory Means Genetic Learning | Scientific Blogging
• Freebirthing: Should women give birth alone? -- Daily Mail
  
  Freebirthing scares me personally, I had drug-free easy deliveries but I really valued having the nurses, midwives and my doula around (and I know my husband would have been terrified without them). Of course we were at a hospital that knows how to support "normal birth". Hearing stories of being in labor at hospitals that have epidural rates so high that the nurses don't know what to do with a naturally laboring woman, and hearing of the rising and rising c-section rates around the country (US and UK), (not to mention how hard it can be to find midwives and doctors to attend a homebirth what with malpractice insurance and not enough OBs and midwives around) I can see where freebirthing becomes a more attractive option for many women.
• MAGPIE » “Bread and Puppet continues, more than 40 years on, to live an ideal of art as collective enterprise, a free or low-cost alternative voice outside the profit system.” - Arthur Magazine blogs for you...
• Baby Videos May Hinder Infants' Language Development | Scientific Blogging
  
  "Rather than helping babies, the over-use of such productions actually may slow down infants eight to 16 months of age when it comes to acquiring vocabulary, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
  
  "The scientists found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. Baby DVDs and videos had no positive or negative effect on the vocabularies on toddlers 17 to 24 months of age."
• Online movie guides for parents - ParentDish
• BBC NEWS | Health | Diabetes problems 'vitamin link'
  
  "A simple vitamin deficiency may be the cause of many of the side effects of diabetes, a study suggests.
  
  "Researchers found people with the disease expelled thiamine - vitamin B1 - from their bodies at 15 times the normal rate in a study of 94 people.
  
  "The Warwick University team said thiamine helped ward off complications such as heart disease and eye problems, the Diabetologia journal said."
• The Phrontistery: Obscure Words and Vocabulary Resources
• Owl Hat Pattern
  Seen in a flickr photo
  
• BBC NEWS | Health | Diet food 'may fuel obesity risk'
  
  "researchers believe low-calorie versions of usually high-calorie foods disrupt the body's ability to use taste to regulate calorific intake."
• Monkeys, Humans Learn The Same Way | Scientific Blogging
  
  “'Like humans, monkeys benefit enormously from being actively involved in learning instead of having information presented to them passively,' said Nate Kornell, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in psychology and lead author of the study. 'The advantage of active learning appears to be a fundamental property of memory in humans and nonhumans alike.'”
• BBC NEWS | Education | Academic study 'not always best'
  
  "Parents should encourage teenagers to pursue a wider range of courses, not just academic ones, campaigners say.
  
  "Educational foundation Edge warns of 'academic snobbery' against vocational courses. It says a fifth of pupils think they are on the wrong path.
  
  "Going on to study for a degree for its own sake is not always suitable for the careers they really want, Edge says."

Links for 2007-07-20 & 21[del.icio.us]

joybucket: Peek-a-Boo Bunting Tutorial
found via Craftzine, a tutorial for a baby quilt that attaches to a stroller so the baby can't kick it off. Excellent idea!

Mandela turns 89 and launches 'a robust force for good' | Guardian Unlimited
Nelson Mandela marked his 89th birthday today with the launch of a group of world-renowned leaders who plan to use several Nobel peace prizes and "almost 1,000 years of collective experience" to tackle global crises that governments are unable or unwilling to confront."
Using their collective experience, their moral courage and their ability to rise above nation, race and creed, they can make our planet a more peaceful and equitable place to live," said the former South African president.

perfect pikelets ~ My Way or the Highway » Wear it. Eat it. Deny you are responsible.
Mmmm, pikelets.

By request. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
A great knitted top (cardigan/jacket) seen at flickr. I think this would make a great garment for a nursing mother -- may need to make myself one!

Your Gamete, Myself - Egg Donation - Reproduction - In Vitro Fertilization - Infertility - Women - Peggy Orenstein - New York Times
An interesting look at the implications of egg donation.

Magazine Box Tutorial - a photoset on Flickr
found via Craft

Snicket Socks - MagKnits, your friendly online knitting magazine
"These socks were inspired by the dress Violet Baudelaire (Emily Browning) wears in the movie Lemony Snicket – A Series of Unfortunate Events. I wanted to translate the net-like sleeves into knitting.

BBC NEWS | From Our Own Correspondent | Losing the taste for China's delicacies

BBC NEWS | Health | Healthy weight link to longevity
"Keeping a healthy weight may help people live longer by limiting brain exposure to insulin, say US scientists."

Celtic Braid Socks: Tuulian omia juttuja:
Another sock pattern, this one with a nice celtic looking cable pattern

Black Dog Designs
A collection of knitting patterns from the blogger of the blog Black Dog Knits
. Quite a few I would like to try sometime, probably going to stick with the socks for now (and there are several sock patterns that caught my fancy there.

Shetland Lace Rib Sock Pattern: Stitches of Violet
And, yes, another knitting pattern for socks!

Links for 2007-07-19 [del.icio.us]

• No-Knead Bread - OregonLive.com
  I made some of the no-knead bread after it was in the NYTimes a while back and the second batch came out really nicely and I've been meaning to make more. It's a great way to make bread for someone like me who doesn't have much time to bake, but plenty of time to let things hang around to mature for a day! And I'm entering a bread baking phase at the moment.
• BBC NEWS | UK | Education | The dead parrot curriculum
• Guardian Unlimited | A precious provision
  "We were unlucky in the tragic hand dealt to our son, but blessed to have had British healthcare "
  This article resonated with me. It made me remember after my first daughter died at birth (I had a 40% placental abruption at 23 weeks) getting the hospital bill for the delivery and the autopsy and everything: Obviously those people who took care of us and our baby and were doing there jobs so well deserve to be paid, but (especially as someone who grew up in the UK and still hasn't got used to the way it works in the USA) it seems unthinkable that I should have to look at a bill for that when my baby just died. And thankfully we have good health insurance, but what if we didn't? In the midst of that experience or some other unexpected turn your life upside-down event I think people should be able to focus on the very real things happening in their lives and not have to worry about what their insurance will cover, and how to afford the rest. The money wasn't really a headache for us in our situation, but it could have been, and it certainly made me think.
  
• Knitty: Spring 2007 - Clessidra Stockings
  I think my mum would love these, she likes nice long socks. The question is should I just send her the link to the pattern or should I attempt to make her some for Christmas?
• Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less - New York Times
• Warming Report Warns of Increased Flooding - New York Times
• Dewey? At This Library With a Very Different Outlook, They Don’t - New York Times
• V-Neck Hippie Dress w/ 6 Strips - theElektron
  found via :Craft
• Top 7 Tutorials for Making Your Own Shopping Tote
  found via :Craft
• Tickle Turdle Wool Wrap Pattern
  I've been knitting wool soakers for my daughter since before she was actually here to wear them but I've never tried to crochet one. I'm definitely much more of a knitter, but I do crochet sometimes and I hear the crochet soakers make up faster and may be a bit denser too. (Of course I should also work on my ripple blanket again one of these days.)

Links for 2007-07-13 [del.icio.us]

• Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature
  I saw the link at the new mom blog
  "Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and environment. In this article, however, we emphasize biological influences on human behavior, because most social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or feel in certain ways."
• Blossom dress on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  While looking at knitting pictures on Flickr I saw this incarnation of a Magknits pattern I'd thought of knitting in the past and forgotten all about. It's a cute wrap dress/top for infants. The sizes only go up to 6-9 months and my daughter's one now but perhaps if I fiddle with the gauge or something I can make one that would still fit her.
  
• Humpty Dumpty falls from favour - Times Online
  "now the traditional nursery rhyme, in all its gruesome, bloody detail, is in danger of dropping out of modern culture. A survey suggests that 40 per cent of parents with young children cannot recite a single popular rhyme all the way through."
  While I'm not always reciting or singing nursery rhymes to my daughter my husband and I can certainly remember plenty. Actually, when reading through Mother Goose we found we knew extra bits for some I seem to remember! I know my mum sings nursery rhymes to my little girl while she's here too. Of course we're fans of traditional music, crafts etc. around here so that's not entirely surprising.
  
• Raspberry chocolate verrine - vegalicious -delicious vegan food and more
  Chocolate and Raspberry, how can you go wrong?
• How Prevalent Are Antibiotics In Organic Foods? Scientific Blogging
An article reporting on a study looking at plant uptake of antibiotics.
"Plant uptake was evaluated in a greenhouse study involving three food crops: corn, lettuce, and potato. Plants were grown on soil modified with liquid hog manure containing Sulfamethazine, a commonly used veterinary antibiotic. This antibiotic was taken up by all three crops. Concentrations of antibiotics were found in the plant leaves. Concentrations in plant tissue also increased as the amount of antibiotics present in the manure increased. It also diffused into potato tubers, which suggests that root crops, such as potatoes, carrots, and radishes, that directly come in contact with soil may be particularly vulnerable to antibiotic contamination."
And because organic crops use manure for fertilizer this raises potential problems for organic foods.

Links for 2007-07-12 [del.icio.us]

• Dominic Lawson: From Pentecost island to modern Britain, the futility of trying to measure happiness - Independent
  "Nobody has yet come up with an entirely satisfactory definition of what constitutes happiness - although I think that Sydney Smith's "To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence" will do to be getting along with. A state of unhappiness could be described as the opposite of that, but we might also define it as a life whose reality falls far short of its owner's expectations.

  That is perhaps at the heart of the modern malaise, which has resulted in an unprecedented growth in clinical depression in countries such as the USA and the UK. We have increasingly allowed ourselves to think that happiness is ours by right - it's written into the American constitution - whereas in fact we can't find it: it finds us."

• Knitting Pattern Central - Free Pattern - Amy Doll
  Cute pattern I saw in a post on knitting dolls at V's blog, (you have to go look at the knees!).
  
• Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches | Guardian
  "Protestant churches yesterday reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they were mere "ecclesial communities" and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion.
  "Coming just four days after the reinstatement of the Latin mass, yesterday's document left no doubt about the Pope's eagerness to back traditional Roman Catholic practices and attitudes, even at the expense of causing offence."
• Mom Puts Family on Her Meal Plan - New York Times
  "The pitfalls of the modern family meal are well chronicled: the varying schedules, the demanding diets (low carb, no wheat, no meat) and the fact that all too often the dinner so proudly displayed is greeted by a cheerful “Oh, that looks disgusting.” For most working parents, even a 30-minute meal seems like a June Cleaver-era indulgence. By the time I walk in the door at 7:30 my children are off-the-wall hungry, even having had snacks. Ideally, dinner will take 15 minutes or less to put on the table.
  
  "But despite the challenges, I tell you it can be done. I committed to cooking a family meal when my first son was born, in 1997, not because of any psychology study about the well-being of children, but because it gave me comfort.
  
  "Every working mother has to draw the line somewhere. Maybe my children would take their first steps with a babysitter, or perform in school plays with only their grandparents in attendance. But mom would cook their dinners."
  I stay home with one child and still have trouble getting dinner "on the table" (dining room table is currently inaccessible) at a reasonable hour, so glad a I don't have to work full time outside the home, commute and then make dinner.
• Sarah Churchwell: Why can't British students write like Americans? - Independent
  "An impoverished understanding of their own language combined with an inflated sense of their own talents doesn't merely result in smug graduates with a beggared ability to express ideas. Sophisticated ideas cannot flourish in a linguistic vacuum. Expression and thought are inextricably linked: crude language permits only crude thinking. It's bad enough that these university students can't communicate their thoughts intelligibly; but those thoughts are themselves constrained by embryonic language skills."
  This is a great article. I still feel as though I really need to go back to school and take English Language classes. We did have some grammar "lessons" at middle school (we had a text book there was time set aside to work through). I would say my vocabulary is not too shabby, but my grasp of how the language works is not so good. And I have a degree in Women's Studies and English Literature! When I spent a year at college in the US one of my professors took me aside and asked if I thought I might be dyslexic because of my bad use of punctuation, I said no I just never really learned how a semi colon is supposed to work (and I am queen of the run-on sentence). I am better than I used to be, but have a long way to go and (besides blogging) not much space for working on my writing skills. I really wish we had been taught more at school. At least my primary schools taught handwriting, I think it's so sad that that doesn't happen so much any more.
• The Knitting Circle Shows Its Chic - New York Times
  "Formerly neglected domestic arts like knitting, quilting, sewing and embroidery are being eagerly embraced, especially by the young. Their passion kindled by the abundance of handcrafted looks on the runways, they are blowing the dust off these folksy skills and lending them the bright sheen of style.
  "“It wasn’t that long ago that people would cringe at the word ‘craft,’ ” said Melanie Falick, who developed a crafts imprint at Stewart, Tabori & Chang. “Ten or 20 years ago, there were far fewer crafters and knitters, certainly fewer who ‘outed’ themselves. Now it has become a badge of honor.”
  "And an insignia of chic. The new generation of needle hobbyists, nimble-fingered women in their 20s and 30s, is growing ever more sophisticated, seeking out novel yarns imbued with bamboo or fur, working confidently with elaborate patterns, swapping tips online and emulating styles by fashion designers like Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga and Michael Kors."
• The World’s Best Candy Bars? English, of Course - New York Times
  "it would be easy to take a long, clichéd side trip into a discussion of the relative inferiority of British food. But for the rarefied palate that can appreciate the soft, immediate pleasure of an inexpensive candy bar, it's not difficult to give the edge to sweets from the realm of the queen."
  I'm totally biased on this subject of course, growing up with the sweets in England and then moving to the USA where I can be very dissatisfied with the candy on offer over here and wallow in nostalgia thinking about my favourite sweet things that I can't get here. Of course I can find good dark chocolate here (organic and fair trade and mighty tasty) so that keeps me happy mostly. When we visit England I come back with Cadbury's milk chocolate and licorice allsorts for me, and sherbert lemons and kendal mint cake for my husband. My husband is very distressed at the change to natural flavourings and no longer hoards fruit pastilles. The thing I miss most even when I'm back in the UK is the sweet shops with shelves of sweets in jars that were weighed and put into paper bags (cinder toffee, rhubarb&custard, cough candy, bon bons), and the case of penny sweets where I spent my pocket money as a small child (shrimps, bananas, flying saucers, the cigarette and pipe sweets that I loved but which never made me remotely interested in smoking). Sigh.
• Digital Cameras: The Top 10 Things You Need to Know - Unbiased reviews, prices, and advice from DigitalCamera-HQ
  Seen in a list of links at Not Martha, looks like a useful list to hold onto. Also love the link to the discussion how many is a few? as my husband holds very strong opinions on this subject.
  
• Organic Farming Can Feed The World, Says Study | Scientific Blogging
  "Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming on the same amount of land---according to new findings which refute the long-standing assumption that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population."

Links for 2007-07-10 [del.icio.us]

• Fish oil may save preemies' vision
  After a study in mice discovered that the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and other oils may protect against blindness in premature babies, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston are ready to test the results in a clinical trial.

• Do Sunscreens Have You Covered? - New York Times
  '"Most sunscreens are deceptively and misleadingly labeled, most perniciously to give consumers a false sense of security," Mr. Blumenthal said last week. "In my view, the F.D.A.'s failure to act is unconscionable and unjustifiable in any public sense.”

• Williams syndrome - Social Inhibition - Personality - Developmental Disorders - Brain Disorders - David Dobbs - New York Times
  "If a person suffers the small genetic accident that creates Williams syndrome, he'll live with not only some fairly conventional cognitive deficits, like trouble with space and numbers, but also a strange set of traits that researchers call the Williams social phenotype or, less formally, the “Williams personality”: a love of company and conversation combined, often awkwardly, with a poor understanding of social dynamics and a lack of social inhibition. The combination creates some memorable encounters."

• Crazy Kiwis « BitterSweet
  Fun blog post with a pattern for a knitted kiwi bird!

• DollQuiltFront on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  Cute little quilt with appliqué.

• Björk interview: 'I didn't like being a celebrity. It's a service job. Like washing toilets' | Woman | The Observer

• Johann Hari: Free speech must apply even to the odious - Independent

• BBC NEWS | Health | Sausage additive linked to cancer

• BBC NEWS | Europe | Vatican text angers Protestants
  "Pope Benedict has approved a new text asserting that Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism are not true Churches in the full sense of the word."

Links for 2007-07-07 [del.icio.us]

• The Big Question: As Bush spares Libby, what is the history of presidential pardons? - Independent Online
  
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Warning of data ticking time bomb
  "Unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face a digital dark hole."
• Unpartisan campaigner: Alan Bennett, the rebel with a lot of causes - Independent Online
  
• In his own words: Alan Johnston on his release - Independent Online
  'You have to have been a prisoner to know how good freedom is'
• Robert Fisk: The forgotten art of handwriting - Independent Online
  "I find something painfully human about reading the letters of long-dead heroes"
• Piece of cake | Food and drink | Life and Health
  "British summer fruit is so damned tasty, it's easy to end up buying far more than you can ever hope to eat fresh. But there's no need to turn all those berries, cherries and currants into jam or, worse, let them go to waste..."
• Get a cutting edge | Homes and gardens | Life and Health
  "Many gardeners, even experienced ones, are intimidated by the idea of taking cuttings. Yet it's such fun, as well as a great way to save money."
• A shocking act of disrespect - Independent Online
  Another article about Bush pardoning Libby -- this one is (angry) opinion on this case rather than looking at presidential pardons in general like the first link in this post.
• Baking Dish and Pan Size Conversion
• Vegan Low-Fat Chocolate Applesauce Cake Recipe - Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe
  I'm making this for my daughters first birthday party.
• Jemima Lewis: The lessons of George Melly's final years - Independent Online
  Wonderful thought provoking, challenging article about ageing, caring, family, duty and death.
  "At the age of 80, and despite creeping deafness and dementia, [George Melly] had not succumbed to the clichés of old age: he was sociable, funny, energetic and still much in demand. ...
  It takes luck and a certain kind of temperament to navigate your way through old age so successfully. You need to be open-minded enough to keep enjoying the world without resenting the young who have inherited it; physically mobile (and fearless) enough to keep going out into that world; financially secure enough to live at home, or at least in a comfortable spot of your own choosing; and sufficiently lovable that your friends and family want to keep you company."

links of the day

Links for 2007-07-06 [del.icio.us]

ON THE JOB / Life at the intensive care nursery: Making a living amidst parents' worst nightmares

Two-Hour Tote Bag - BeSewStylish

This looks like a simple sewing project that results in a nice, fairly roomy bag to use to carry supplies to the beach or park.

hedgie bias tape bag on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Another cute tote bag (this one's a little smaller), there's a link to a tutorial. I love the hedgehog embroidery on this one, it's what initially caught my eye.

Instructables - Ice Cream Pint Cozy

One of those things that I could totally make myself but it's so nice to find someone else has done the thinking and written it up so I don't have to! A good gift idea for my husband too as he eats straight from the pint tubs more often than me.

Instructables - Gift Bags for Bottles

Another one of those projects I could have figured out for myself, but someone's made it that bit easier for me! So nice not to have to think more than necessary when there's a baby draining your brainpower.

What I've learned about what to do when your wallet is stolen. - not martha
A very informative blog post which I hope never to need to use. But just in case....

It's Easy Being Green: playhouses with a conscience - ParentDish

Need to come back to this link when my daughter's a bit older. Although for inside the house my brother and I used to do very nicely with the clothes horse and sheets and blankets quite often!

Links for 2007-07-05 [del.icio.us]

BBC NEWS | Health | Organic food 'better' for heart

"A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found almost double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant."

del.icio.us links of the day
Posted: 05 Jul 2007 12:00 AM CDT

Bubbly Ployes (Buckwheat Pancakes) on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - These look a little like pikelets crossed with pancakes, this makes me want to try the recipe sometime. Also need to try to make pikelets again sometime since I can't get them where I live.

CEREAL BOX GIFT BOX: Craft projects from recycled, reused and natural materials.

:10 Things is a place for gratitude.
Found this blog via a post at "happythings" blog: " 10 Things is a place for gratitude. To be thankful for all sorts of things... big, little and medium." "10 Things features writers and photographers, exploring life's little joys through their lens."

The Validity ( Or Not ) Of Cognitive Tests | Scientific Blogging
"Timothy Salthouse, PhD, a noted cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia, has demonstrated that giving a test only once isn't enough to get a clear picture of someone's mental functioning. It appears that repeating tests over a short period may give a more accurate range of scores, improving diagnostic workups."

BBC NEWS | Health | Yawning may keep us 'on the ball'
"Yawning may appear the height of rudeness, but in fact your body is desperately trying to keep you awake, according to research from the US."

Mommy Is Truly Dearest - New York Times

Baby Food

There seems to be quite a bit of media attention (in the UK at least) being given to baby food and baby-led weaning (BLW) just now. I noticed an article at the BBCNews website yesterday - Pureed baby food is 'unnatural' - and there's a wikipedia entry on baby-led weaning too. And ParentDish has picked up on the BBC article too.

I came across Gill Rapley's Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food via a comment (I don't know where I saw that, but there's a post about introducing solids here)at the Ask Moxie blog when I was reading around about introducing solids. I think that a lot of what Rapley's saying has been distorted but the media unfortunately -- putting the general population on the defensive perhaps because purees and jarred baby food have been the norm for so long?

Although I haven't done things exactly according to her guidelines, so much of what Rapley says makes a lot of sense to me. I've done a mix of spoonfeeding and giving finger-foods to our daughter. Against my better judgement I did try giving her rice cereal mixed with breastmilk as one of her first foods, she was so unimpressed; she ate some but kept giving me these looks that said Really? I'll eat this, but you realise it's breastmilk that tastes nasty? Why are you making me eat this? So we didn't do that again, and if she doesn't like something I don't try to force her (not that getting her to eat something she's taken against is much of an option) -- sometimes I'll try again another day with a different prep method.

At 11 months she eats a fair variety of foods, and clearly prefers food with texture, and things she can put in her mouth herself. She'll give most anything a try, but isn't afraid to reject something that doesn't taste good to her. One aspect of BLW that I think makes a lot of sense is trusting the baby to tell you when it wants to eat food, and how much. It seems to me that it follows on naturally from breastfeeding on demand which is what we've been doing since she was born. Hopefully she's learning to eat when she's hungry/drink when she's thirsty and stop when she's had enough (she certainly seems to be maintaining a healthy weight and developing on track). I sit down with her in her chair for meals, but she also gets to snack throughout the day (as do I, not only because breastfeeding makes me hungry a lot but also because with PCOS the idea of more small and frequent meals is more valuable than ever).

Our daughter hasn't yet shown any food sensitivities (so far so good), started teething before we were introducing solids, always had good head control, was really interested in food (trying to steal it from us and mimicking our chewing motions while watching us eat) and could sit up before we got started. She's also never had much trouble swallowing so long as whatever she was eating wasn't too much at once. She figured out how to cough forward anything that she wasn't going to be able to swallow so that she could gum/chew some more and try again or spit it out. There's been very little gagging, and nothing she couldn't handle herself. Here's hoping that continues. I imagine this would be a lot harder if she had allergies, reflux or developmental difficulties that make eating a challenge. I'm sure she'll get fussier when she's asserting her independence (and really I was a terribly fussy eater so I keep thinking it can't be as easy as it's been so far).

I'm really pleased to say we haven't used any jarred babyfood so far (although right now I'm having trouble preparing for going away from tomorrow through Sunday to a place with no kitchen access and no idea what food will be on offer...). I have bought big jars of applesauce to mix with barley or oatmeal. There are some other processed foods she eats now -- teething biscuits (although sometimes I bake those myself), unsweetened breakfast cereal, pasta, bread, sheets of nori (the hands down favourite) and rice cakes for snacking. Mostly though I just cut up fruit and tofu (she'll only eat it plain in cubes), steam veggies, poach egg yolks and chicken and boil up oats, lentils and pearled barley. I do puree prunes in the food processor but mostly she doesn't like purees, prunes are the exception. She thought pureed peas were a horrible idea but whole peas are her candy. (Oh and she also nurses plentifully still -- I'm not worrying too much about which solids she eats because I'm remembering that breastmilk is still her primary source of nutrition.)

I'm definitely moving more and more in the direction of giving her what we're eating simplified. I've been more focused on introducing foods one at a time, and holding off on a lot of the common allergens (although she had wheat pretty early on) than one perhaps might be when following the BLW guidelines with not much of any food allergies on either side of the family. She's getting pretty close to a year now, her digestive system is getting stronger and able to cope with more and more new things so I'm looking forward to introducing her to lots of tasty things in the next year!

If you're interested in reading more about Rapley and baby led weaning there are links at the wikipedia entry I mentioned. I just listened to the interview on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour from 2004 with Rapley and Annabel Karmel (author of Feeding Your Baby and Toddler). Karmel voices some concerns that I think a lot of people might have about Rapley's approach, and Rapley explains her approach. I found it interesting (although I found Karmel's delivery a little off-putting but that may be just me). The segment's about 12 and a half minutes long -- check it out here.

Part of what spurred me to write a blog post about this was the coincidence of the news stories and a new Ask Moxie post that led to a mention of the baby-led weaning introduction of solids yesterday. I had another look at today and saw that someone had posted in the comments with a link to another interesting sounding site that I've taken a brief look at. It's a site started by two mums following Gill Rapley's guidelines called simply baby led weaning

I'm also planning to read through this webchat Rapley did at IWantMyMum.com the progressive parenting site. This is a new parenting site to me but it looks right up my alley -- they say:

We are strong believers in each baby being an individual and each family have unique sets of circumstances. We also think a parent’s best asset is their instinct but that instinct has to be an informed one.

I'll have to check it out more and see what else is there.

The gathering of the links and other random musings.

Public 'unaware' of food origins - "Many British people are unaware that the ingredients for produce such as bacon, porridge, bread and beer come from farms, a survey suggests." [BBC]

The diary of a 14 year old Polish girl who lived in the Jewish ghetto and died in the Holocaust has come to light after being kept safe for 60 years by a friend. [via Parentdish] I was absorbed when I first read Anne Frank's diary (still am), this sounds as though it would be similarly fascinating, if more harrowing to read.

I read that Darcey Bussell is retiring from the Royal Ballet, the BBC has an In Pictures set of photos covering her career there. When I was in high school I was lucky enough to be taken to see the Royal Ballet by the family of one of my best friends and saw her dance. It's something I never would have done with my family. We had a cultural exchange going on -- we would take my friend to folk/traditional music and dance things and her family too me to see ballet and plays in London and Stratford, and sometimes we and our mothers would go see plays and movies at our local theatre. When we got into our later teens my friend and I , sometimes with a larger group of friends would go up to London for some of the Prom concerts in the summer too.

It's something I miss about my life in England, I've barely been to the theatre at all since living in the US and not that many musical concerts, and no ballet at all. Of course we do a lot of music so it's not as though I'm completely bereft, and it's not as if we even get to watch movies these days what with having a baby. It's definitely time to be organising a babysitter and a date for me and the husband.

Late risers unite in Denmark - "If you find it hard to get up in the morning, don't despair - you're not lazy, you're just genetically programmed that way, says the B-Society in Denmark." The link is to an article at the From Our Own Correspondent site, the story's part of the most recent episode (you can listen online or download the most recent episode). I like this idea of adapting society to the way different people's body clocks work. Of course I would since all of our household tends toward late to bed and late to rise!

Cod liver oil 'treats depression' - "It may make the stomach turn, but scientists in Norway suggest that taking a spoonful of cod liver oil each day could stave off depression." [BBC]

Parenting stuff

I actually started a post on mothering stuff for mothers day that my computer ate and haven't got back to reconstructing that. Here are some other parenting related things I've come across.

Breastfeeding

I gather (from articles that have popped up in my google news alerts) that it's been breastfeeding awareness week in the UK. I came across the BreastfeedingManifesto website (the actual manifesto is a pdf) which launched its campaign for greater awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding this last week:

Guiding Principles

The Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition looks forward to a society where:

• Women feel enabled to initiate and continue breastfeeding for as long as they wish
• Parents are supported to make informed choices about feeding their babies
• Everyone is aware of the significant benefits associated with breastfeeding

Aims

The Breastfeeding Manifesto was produced in 2006 by over twenty UK organisations working to improve awareness of the health benefits of breastfeeding and its role in reducing health inequalities.
The aim of the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition is to achieve widespread cross-party support for the Breastfeeding Manifesto, and to ensure that its principles are reflected in government policy and legislation in the UK.

Specifically, the Coalition’s aim is to ensure that the Manifesto is adopted by all of the UK’s main political parties by the time of the next General Election.

That sounds pretty excellent, they seem to have a lot of current MPs signed up in support already.

I also noticed the story about the mayor who's taken her local council to court for sexual discrimination [BBC and Telegraph articles]. I'm pretty sure there's more to the story than the articles can cover fully so it's difficult to know exactly what to think. Personally I can't imagine take on being mayor knowing I'd take office with a two month old (which she presumably did), and it's not the kind of job where you'd expect a 6 month maternity leave since surely that would be a substantial portion of the term of office? However I'm not a career oriented person in that way and it sounds as though she has a lot going on in her working life besides motherhood. Still, it sounds as though she got poor support from the council ["The council leader allegedly replied: 'Get him on the bottle as soon as possible.' " - Telegraph]

The council denied her the use of a civic car for her first month and for the rest of that year allowed her access to it only when she found or paid for an adult to accompany her. - Telegraph

I can't see why the baby couldn't ride in the car. I would think it's a positive example that mothers are capable of holding office, ditto for her breastfeeding the baby being the reason for the baby to travel with her. I don't think expecting her to have someone travelling with them to care for the baby while she's attending to her duties is unreasonable. With a newborn if you have a carrier you could probably get away with doing most things being a mayor would entail without a babysitter. But you never know when a baby might have a melt down or need a diaper change at an inconvenient moment so having someone available to deal with that would seem sensible.

I've been in meetings with babies present (my baby, and other peoples) and it does make you lose focus when you have to divide your attention between the proceedings and a baby unless the baby's nursing or asleep so I'd want a babysitter. And obviously her attendants shouldn't be expected to babysit, I don't imagine that was part of their job description. (Jane Swift got fined for having aides babysit.) Still the fact remains that there's a long way to go before society is set up to support working women breastfeeding in the way that medical experts recommend (go breastfeedingmanifesto organisation).

More Attachment Parenting

In my bloglines feeds I keep track of the ParentingSolved which in turn means I see when the "Pediatric Grand Rounds" get posted. I have yet to actually make it through the most recent Grand Rounds and a lot looked interesting, and I guess the next set is due to be posted already. Still I did go to look at the post recommended at Parenting Solved and also loved it, I want to go back and check out more of that blog (Laughing Baby: Adventures in attachment parenting).

And finally, I came across a link to an interesting and informative article at Mothering.com entitled A Tale of Two Diapers with some of the recent history of diapers cloth and disposable and information about environmental impact.


Oops... One more thing I forgot when I hit publish post.
10 Steps to Letting Dad Do It, an article at 100 hats by thismom. Now my husband is pretty excellent with our daughter, but his helpfulness goes in waves. Sometimes has to get to a point where I've become totally overwhelmed and can't hold it together before he notices I need help. Some of these steps I definitely need to internalise better. I'm not good at asking for help, and I'm not good at remembering that the glaringly-obvious-to-me-things that need doing are invisible (or not important to him). We do try to get together to brainstorm about how to parent, which is good. However, my husband's memory is abysmal and he doesn't always remember. Sometimes he comes up with a strategy we agree to try (and sometimes I'm doubtful) and I diligently try it for days, then he'll have her for a little while and it'll be too difficult (or he'll have forgotten) and do things differently and wonder why I get annoyed. This whole parenting together thing is hard, but not as hard as it must be to do it all alone so I'm very thankful to be with my husband.

And while I'm adding things to this post I just saw an article at the BBC -- Pre-birth apples 'benefit babies' -- "Children of mothers who eat plenty of apples during pregnancy are less likely to develop asthma, research suggests." It also says eating fish once a week reduces the baby's risk of eczema.

Difficulty of Knowledge

I came across this article: Prenatal Test Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus (NYTimes): With the increase in prenatal testing for it, some parents of children with Downs Syndrome are moving to educate people in general more about the condition. They're worried that with more testing there will be more terminations and fewer people with Downs and that could further disadvantage their children (oversimplification, go read the article if you can).

As I started reading the article I wondered whether these parents were being selfish in trying to pressure parents into keeping a child they didn't think they could parent so that their children would have more people with Downs around in the future. Then I was stunned to read in the article that "[a]bout 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion." I guess people do need to hear more about Downs in that case. I'm not saying that raising a child with Downs isn't going to be a challenge, that you're not going to have more to worry about for longer as a parent, but all the people I know with Downs are such valuable people. I can't imagine choosing to end a pregnancy with that diagnosis, although I know I'd be feeling even more overwhelmed by the responsibility of parenting.

All the testing that's available now (and I'm sure that what can be tested for and how easy and "risk free" the testing is will only continue to increase), I see as a curse as much as a blessing. [add: another interesting article: Genetic Testing + Abortion = ???.] Same with fertility treatments, and testing for things like Alzheimer's, cancer, Huntington's etc. that you might develop in the future [see this interesting article: Facing Life With a Lethal Gene also in the NYTimes]. For some people it's empowering to have this kind of information available, for others it's daunting or even destructive. Even pregnancy tests you can take before your period is due can make you crazy if you're struggling with infertility, that's why after a few years of ttc I stopped taking tests until I was 18 dpo (which would usually indicate a pregnancy in and of itself).

When is it better to learn to accept what life throws at you as it comes, and when is "forewarned is forearmed" the way to go? One problem I see is that being forewarned doesn't always allow you to find a way to deal with the problem, sometimes it makes things more complicated/difficult. It can give an illusion of control where you have very little. I guess I think it's important to think about what the implications of the possession of greater knowledge are and whether we're equipped to deal with them before we move forward in some of these cases and I'm afraid that not enough people think that through.

The linky part

The Recycled Yarn Tutorial - How To Unravel A Sweater (via an email list)

Artificial food colouring warning - "Parents are being advised by experts not to give their children food containing certain additives until the results of a new study are published." (BBC) (Also in the Guardian)

Through fire and ice - "The Norwegians' architecture stands up to glaciers, snowstorms and dangerous drivers - and it still looks beautiful." (Guardian)

The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it (Guardian)

Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet survive 40 years in the bush (Independent). Glen Stasiuk has made a documentary about this couple , Warri and Yatungka , who ran away together into the desert because tribal law forbade their marriage. They lived in the desert in the old traditional way for many years. They finally were brought back to live with the tribe during a drought in the late 70s that nearly killed them, but they died a few years later. The documentary is called "Footprints in the Sand" and features the couple's son returning to places he lived with his parents. It will be shown on Australian TV in the summer, hopefully it'll make its way onto US and UK telly too, it sounds really interesting.

Just like that! Tommy Cooper's final days - "He was the comedians' comedian, whose unique combination of surreal humour and inept magic captivated the nation. Now the producer of 'The Queen' is to dramatise the last week of a life which ended so dramatically - in the middle of a show" (Independent)
I didn't read this article (yet) but I distinctly remember sitting with my family watching the TV and seeing Tommy Cooper collapsing live on stage, not quite knowing whether it was real or not, the curtain coming down. I must have been about 8 years old, it's just a quick memory and I don't think I really knew who he was at the time, but obviously it made an impression.

And another quilt to make my fingers itchy over at Flikr -- "Crazy"

And pictures like this make me want to get more sewing machine time in to make clothes for my baby, and children of friends (and me...).