Category Archives: Moms & Dads

When You Need to Save Your Baby___You Need Dedicated Doctors.

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NICU Baby

Not a day goes by…

that I am not grateful

for being a nurse

and for the many professionals…

who helped me along the way.

A story like this one… makes me proud to have worked with incredibly dedicated

physicians…who made a difference everyday!

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Kaiba Gionfriddo stopped breathing daily and had to receive CPR
  • Doctors tried the equivalent of a “Hail Mary” pass
  • They created a splint on a 3-D printer to enable him to breathe

Editor’s note: ”Life’s Work” features innovators and pioneers who are making a difference in the world of medicine.

via 3-D Printer Helps Save Dying Baby | CSH Greenwich Middle School Parent Blog.

Postpartum Depression & Breast Feeding, Infant Sleep, Children & Allergies….

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 heart drops

Sleep is so important and so many of us crave it…makes me wonder if it doesn’t start right at the beginning of our lives when we are infants. After all it is one of the topics so hotly discussed among parenting experts.

So how do we manage to get our newborns to sleep thus giving ourselves much needed time to sleep?

 

Nothing can prepare you for the changes in your sleep when you welcome a newborn baby into your family. Experienced parents will issue dire warnings and tell you to sleep while you can during the last few weeks of pregnancy. (And you will think, yeah right, there’s a large boulder resting on my bladder, and sometimes it kicks for good measure.)

 

 

If you breast feed do you have less of a chance of developing PPD (Postpartum Depression)? Here is some interesting facts from FFF (Fearless Formula Feeder) that questions this premise.

The same question holds for the connection between breastfeeding and postpartum depression. Some researchers have found a correlation between lack of breastfeeding and higher incidence of depression; however, the majority of these studies don’t factor in why the mother isn’t breastfeeding in the first place. A 2009 study found that women who exhibited pregnancy-related anxiety or prenatal depressive symptoms were roughly two times more likely than women without these mood disorders to plan to formula feed. (12) “Prenatal mood disorders may affect a woman’s plans to breastfeed and may be early risk factors for failure to breastfeed,” the researchers point out. And even if the intention to breastfeed is there, multiple factors inform infant-feeding choices once a woman leaves the hospital.

Feeling like a failure, dealing with pain, frustration, and exhaustion, and having a baby who screams at the sight of her, could make any mother feel overwhelmed, let alone one who’s already on the brink of actual PPD. Maybe for those of us more prone to anxiety or depression, the stress of breastfeeding struggles is just the camel’s dreaded straw.

 

Are there allergies in your family, if so, there is a community online for Moms of Allergic Children.  I have also included a link to a mom’s story of her son who has asthma.

 

Moms of kids with allergies have to do double duty to keep their bundles of joy safe, happy, and healthy. In the Moms of Allergic Children community, moms are sharing their concerns and questions about allergies. Here are some quick tips from Dr. Oz for them and others on how to treat — and prevent — some common allergies.

 

Why You Might Want to Have a Preventative Double Mastectomy.

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Breast Cancer Awareness Cupcakes

 

Cancer experts said Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a preventive double mastectomy because of a heightened genetic risk for breast cancer should encourage women to look into their family history for the disease.

via Experts Weigh In on Angelina Jolie’s Double Mastectomy – WSJ.com.

 

Many people, especially women are weighing in with their opinions about Angelina Jolie’s preventative double mastectomy.

Personally, I have had several friends die from breast cancer. My best friend from my college years died at 41 years old…way too soon. She left a three year old daughter to wonder what her risks were for developing this horrible disease.

In the years since my friend died, many advances have been made in the early detection of breast cancer. There are now reliable predictors of who might be at higher risk for breast cancer.

Angelina and many others carry a gene that makes them at higher risk for developing breast cancer. The determining test of whether you carry the “breast cancer genetic predisposition” is fairly simple. The decision as to what to do if you find you are at higher risk is not so easy.

What Angelina has done by revealing her personal choice after finding out that she was at higher risk for breast cancer is this:

  • She has opened a public discussion that just might save some women’s lives.
  • At the very least it will educate women about the choices that are available to them with regard to their personal health.
  • It will hopefully help today’s woman to advocate for herself when it comes to her risk and prevention of developing breast cancer.

I would definitely want to know if I had a gene that made me at high risk for breast cancer and I would probably consider a drastic approach such as Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy with reconstruction.

What would you do?

Has this discussion in the news made you more aware of how you can be proactive about breast cancer prevention?

I am really not interested if you think whether or not Angelina should be discussing her personal choice or if you think she made the right choice….the question is…

Would you do something drastic to keep yourself alive longer?

Resources:

My Medical Choice

Bright Pink

Related stories:

CNN anchor cancer diagnosis announced; former Chicago anchor Zoraida Sambolin, formerly of NBC5 Chicago, has breast cancer, will undergo double mastectomy, revealed during Angelina Jolie story | abc7chicago.com.

How to Clean Your Child’s Pacifier…Parents Saliva

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When your child’s pacifier falls on the floor are you guilty of cleaning it by sucking on it yourself?

Well, no more guilt if this report in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics is correct.

A small study was done to see if sucking on your child’s pacifier may have benefits and the conclusions were somewhat positive.

Recently, it has been published that vaginal deliveries expose the newborn to certain beneficial bacteria that helps their immune system. Now this new evidence that exposure to parent’s saliva may actually be a positive thing should make “germophobes” pause and rethink their position on depriving their babies from developing a certain tolerance to trivial bacteria.

These findings are interesting ones …and the human immune system is truly complex.

I will probably be rethinking the need to boil pacifiers and simply recommend running  them through the dishwasher or washing them with dish soap and hot water. I might even suggest to parents that every once in awhile they should expose their baby to their germs by sucking on their infant’s pacifiers.

My personal approach to hygiene is to try to keep things relatively clean and not to expose my family to bacteria and microbes unnecessarily…I use Lysol and Purell but not to extremes. I know that Lysol is full of chemicals but I do not drink or inhale it so I think I am pretty safe.

Now the questions…what if your baby does not use a pacifier? ….and what if your baby sitter decides to suck on your baby’s pacifier?

Well, there is no evidence to show that pacifiers should be sucked by anyone except the parents to provide any positive benefits so I would keep “pacies” away from other well meaning people and or pets.

And just maybe I would recommend a pacifier for all babies.

 

RESULTS: Children whose parents “cleaned” their pacifier by sucking it (n = 65) were less likely to have asthma (odds ratio [OR] 0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01–0.99), eczema (OR 0.37; 95% CI 0.15–0.91), and sensitization (OR 0.37; 95% CI 0.10–1.27) at 18 months of age than children whose parents did not use this cleaning technique (n = 58). Protection against eczema remained at age 36 months (hazard ratio 0.51; P = .04). Vaginal delivery and parental pacifier sucking yielded independent and additive protective effects against eczema development. The salivary microbiota differed between children whose parents cleaned their pacifier by sucking it and children whose parents did not use this practice.

CONCLUSIONS: Parental sucking of their infant’s pacifier may reduce the risk of allergy development, possibly via immune stimulation by microbes transferred to the infant via the parent’s saliva.

via Pacifier Cleaning Practices and Risk of Allergy Development.

Sucking Your Child’s Pacifier Clean May Have Benefits – NYTimes.com.

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day….A Birth Story.

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Childbirth

Happy Mother’s Day!

In honor of Mother’s Day, I am posting something about labor and delivery and Ina May Gaskin.

Midwifery and deliveries outside hospitals are controversial to some…each mother has to make her own choices.

Ina May Gaskin has definite opinions worthy of reading…the history of birthing in the “Birth Story” is also worth a view, in my opinion.

If you are interested, view my comment expressing my concerns about childbirth on the following Huffington Post site.

To say that I am thrilled about the Mother’s Day release of Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives would be the Understatement of the Year. I’m referring to the 90-minute documentary about the work of our midwifery team that filmmakers Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore and colleagues have just made available. It has been a three-year “pregnancy” with this documentary, and the labor to bring it into being is finally over. At last, we can give the world a look at four different births that took place at various birth cottages in our rural Tennessee community over a span of 30 years.

via Ina May Gaskin: Birth Story: A ‘Pregnancy’ 30 Years in the Making.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

A Mother’s Day Wish!

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Graphic MomsNotLovinIt-Graphic-FINAL_for_Parents_and_Allies

 

For Mother’s Day, I would like it if McDonalds’ Corporation would stop targeting children in their marketing campaigns.

I know that I have a choice about whether or not to support McDonalds and to tell the truth,  on occasion, I do patronize our local McDonalds’ drive thru.

In addition, we are shareholders.

We also live in the heart of corporate McDonalds’ land and benefit from the corporate taxes that McDonalds pays in Oak Brook IL.

I also work at a medical center that has a Ronald McDonalds House, which comforts many suffering families.

All of this being said, I continue to wonder, why on one hand, McDonalds Corporation continues to market to children and then turns around and funds children’s healthcare with their mobile services and family care with their Ronald McDonald Houses?

Obviously, their bottom line is profit.

Parents are encouraged by McDonalds marketing campaigns to view McDonalds as inherently good, when it is not.

Perhaps, McDonalds should look at this current generation of parents, who have been exposed to fast food most of their lives, many of whom suffer the ravages of morbid obesity with all of its’ sequelae, diabetes, heart disease, kidney and liver failure.

Maybe McDonalds  should now fund healthcare for these adults or perhaps childcare for the children that these parents will leave behind, when they die prematurely from the effects of being obese most of their lives. I am just saying…

If McDonalds did begin such a healthcare initiative for today’s obese parents, it just might be an acknowledgement of their part, along with other fast food markets, in the cause of this widespread health crisis.

There is really no simple answer here…

One thing for sure is, if McDonalds stops marketing to children, this could be a good thing.

If they continue to develop ways to make healthier choices on their menu, this could also be a good thing.

What could even be better is…

If they decrease their unhealthy menu choices, continue their healthcare initiatives and develop new ones.

Then and only then, we just might see this new generation increase their longevity and the chances that they will outlive their parents.

McDonalds, children should not die before their parents…please stop marketing to kids…

I am a #MomsNotLovinIt and a #GrandmaNotLovinIt

If you want to help…join the movement at MomsNotLovinIt.org 

 

 

Breast-feeding is not always best available option – Positive Discipline- What is it? – Baby Sleep, What Do You Really Know? Weekend Reading!

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Are you afraid to choose not to breast feed because of the backlash of comments that you anticipate from your relatives and friends?

Don’t you just want them to understand what you already know about you and your baby?

Maybe you should write down your story and hand copies to anyone who questions why you are not breastfeeding and then just maybe they will “shut up” and mind their own business!

 

BREAST-FEEDING is not always best.

These are fighting words if you are a mother who has delivered a baby at most hospitals throughout the Puget Sound. If you are the postpartum mother who dares to utter that statement, you will be the one fighting with nurses, doctors, lactation consultants and anyone on the street who sees you bottle feeding.

 

 

Do you use time-outs as discipline the way “The Nanny” does on her television series?

There actually is another approach….”Positive Discipline” and it just might work better with your child or children. Here is a link to someone who specializes in this approach…

I went on Amazon and bought all the top books on baby sleep and development. I read through them all, as well as several blogs and sleep websites. I gathered lots of advice.

If you are confused about Baby Sleep and how to help you and your baby get enough rest, you will find out why when you read this funny post from a mom who shares your confusion.

Don’t fret, you are not alone!

I hope these suggested readings help with three of the most discussed topics of childrearing…. Feeding…Discipline…Sleep.

Have a great weekend!

 

What moms should know about feeding baby!

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Bottle Feeding Baby

Suzie Barston wrote a book about infant feeding so that women can feel supported no matter how they choose to feed their baby…whether formula or breast.

I have not read her book but here is an interview with Suzie where she answers some questions that may help a new mom.

 

I wrote the book with a few goals in mind – first and foremost, I wanted to offer some support and perspective for women dealing with conflicted feelings about infant feeding. But I also wanted to provide a resource for childbirth educators, medical practitioners, and breastfeeding advocates which would explain how it feels – viscerally – to “fail” at breastfeeding in today’s world. I believe that most people are trying to help mothers; the problem is that they often unintentionally do the opposite. There is a right way and a wrong way to educate parents about breastfeeding, and I hope that even if childbirth educators don’t agree with some of what I have to say, they can approach it as a Field Guide to the American Bottle Feeder.

Science & Sensibility » “Bottled Up”: An Interview with Suzie Barston on Her Infant Feeding Experiences and Implications for Birth Professionals.

“I Hate YOU” How to Manage Anger…How To Get Your Child to Eat! – Weekend Reading

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Do you have difficulty getting your child or children to eat a healthy variety of good food?

At some point, in my opinion I think that every parent experiences food challenges with their children.

With the approach of warmer weather comes the opportunity to eat more garden fresh vegetables…perhaps growing a few easy ones with your children will help develop their tastes for new veggies and fruits.

If growing is not your thing then maybe a trip to the local Farmer’s Market will spark their interest in new seasonal varieties of foods. At the very least, hopefully they will enjoy the excitement of seeing all the flowers and veggies on a morning excursion

But really, it’s all about approach and finesse and what not to do.

With that in mind, here are ten things that you need to give up before your child will come around to the foodie way of doing things.

Gardening with your children creates wonderful memories

 

It truly cuts right through me whenever I hear a child say the word “hate”, but it really causes me sadness when it is directed personally at a parent, grandparent, or anyone else.

There are many ways to react when a child says “I Hate You”!…some of them are definitely knee jerk reactions but the thoughtful reactions of a parent will generate some thinking on the part of the child.

The manner in which a parent responds to a child’s angry outbursts will either help or hinder the child’s ability to understand the feelings he is trying to express.  Here are some ways to help him find other words to express his anger and encourage him to do so without punishment.