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."

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.

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.

Random Things

I have amassed a long list of links and articles to post. I wanted to write at least a little comment about a lot of them and haven't found the time to sit and write. So lest it look as though I've given up on this blog already, I'm going to skip to a few things I came across today and get back to the other stuff if and when I can.

First of all I was glad to see that Bill Moyers has a new show on (Bill Moyers Journal). Of course I forgot (or wasn't able to because of baby's needs) to watch it when it was on. The good news is that you (I) can watch stuff from the show at the website, and they have transcripts too! I watched the interview with Jon Stewart (being a Daily Show addict). It was interesting, not quite as excellent as I'd hoped, but thought provoking to be sure. The question of whether what the Daily Show does is journalism is an interesting one. Jon Stewart always seems emphatic that it's not, and I guess he should know. Seems to me it's satire rather than journalism, but it does seem that it's more than fake news and the interviews certainly get to be more like real journalism at times (there are some examples in the Moyers interview).

On a completely different subject, there was an interesting article about breastfeeding at the BBC News website today entitled "Lying down may help breastfeeding". 'Twas a little confusing to me -- they talked about lying down producing more of the mammalian nursing reflexes in nursing infants (because it's a more natural position than sitting up which seems reasonable). But then they're talking about the woman lying on her back with baby on top rather than side lying position which is certainly the position I think with other mammals I've seen nursing lying down (eg. cats, dogs, pigs), and of course some nurse standing (eg. cows, horses). Having said that I think the position's value is somewhat true in my experience. It actually took me longest to get the hang of side-lying nursing. But, when my daughter was pretty little I tried nursing lying on my back and it was quite good for us both (freaked out my husband a bit because he was afraid she'd suffocate or fall off but she had a strong neck from early on and could turn her head, and I was so hyper-aware of where she was I don't think she was in much danger of slipping off me even if I snoozed a little).

Oh, and also at the BBC News site, for those interested in Ancient History, read about "Gladiators' graveyard discovered ". There's an episode of Timewatch about it coming up. (That's a show I'd love to be able to watch on-demand, I love being able to keep up with BBC radio online, I'd love to be able to watch some TV too. BBC America just doesn't have a lot of what I miss.)