I LOVE Dwell Baby nursery stuff. I couldn’t afford Dwell items when Ace was born, so we came up with our own Ikea version. I am super excited that DwellStudio is coming to Target. Where was this nine months ago?
I read this article in my Newsweek last week. The article is review of the controversial documentary,”The Business of Being Born.”
Earlier this week we had a discussion on preschools. Here is an article to give you more tools in your Mom Toolbelt to help you parent your independent Preschooler.
The article states that the majority of the cases is from children taking the medicine unsupervised. Be sure to keep your medicines out of reach!
What do you do when you don’t agree with your friends’ kid’s behavior? The article explores how different parents responses. Interesting thought. Luckily I don’t think any my friends’ kids are monsters!
Laura Bennett is a mother of six, an architect and a fashion designer in the Big Apple. Yes, this article is a little dated! There was not a new episode of Project Runway tonight. I need my fix!
Bonus Link
A mom delivers her baby in her driveway on CNN
There are new reports stating that women between the ages of 18 to 24 are not taking enough folic acid supplements. Last week was Folic Acid Awareness week with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I think I had enough folic acid in my prenatal vitamin and I tried to eat veggies rich in folic acid. I remember my dentist telling me to take supplements, because it saved the lives of his twin girls.
There is interesting discussion going on over at Parenthacks about the safety of allowing your newborn sleep in their car seat. I know many moms (including myself) who have let their newborn snooze away in their car seat.
Our friend Dawn wrote a review about one of her new favorite toys the Fisher Price Stack & Roll Balls on her blog ‘Against the Window Pane*’.
One of my favorite bloggers, Miss Zoot, started her own parenting blog titled ‘Pregnant and Unemployed.’ I love her honesty about parenting.
As the mother of two children with congenital heart defects, I pay extra close attention to changes with the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. At my children’s last cardiology visit, our cardiologist informed me of a huge change the AHA has made. Many (not all) cardiac patients have been advised until recently to take a special antibiotic prior to dental work or surgery of any kind due to the risk of endocarditis. Endocarditis is an infection in the heart’s valves or lining and is spread through the bloodstream. This is a very serious and life-threatening infection. Dental work or medical procedures are a very common way this bacteria is spread. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough research to prove that the prophylaxis antibiotic is effective in preventing this infection and antibiotics have their own set of risks. The AHA has now changed their guidelines and does not recommend prophylaxis antibiotics prior to procedures except for a very small number of cardiac patients.
My children’s cardiology practice is saying “no thank you” to the AHA’s new guidelines. While unnecessary use of antibiotics can cause allergic reactions and antibiotic resistance, some people feel that a one time dose of antibiotic prior to a procedure does not contribute to the antibiotic resistance issue. It is also feared that this is the AHA’s way of getting the necessary research done to know for sure whether the antibiotic is effective in stopping the spread of endocarditis. It was impossible to ethical perform research studies under the previous guidelines.
This is a huge controversy among many families and the medical community and a very important issue. I am curious to see how this all plays out. I am curious to see how many cardiologists agree with the AHA and how many disagree and continue to prescribe antibiotics for their patients prior to procedures. My children will continue to receive the antibiotic prior to procedures and dental work until I and their cardiologist feel more confident in this new change, however please check with your cardiologist to see what precautions from endocarditis he or she recommends.
The AHA’s current information and guidelines on endocarditis can be found here.
AWildRide.net is celebrating its first year anniversary with a writing contest. The theme is “What to Expect When Parenting isn’t What You Expected.” There are many prizes to win. The deadline for entries is Jan.15th. I am still working on my entry!
CNN has an interesting article on what happens when you regret your child’s name.
Our kids may be asking to be part of virtual worlds like Webkindz and “Pixie Hollow” soon. A quote from the article ” ‘Get ready for total inundation,’ said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at the research firm eMarketer, who estimates that 20 million children will be members of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today.” Here is another quote from the article discussing Neopets, “ ‘Parents know they can trust our brand to protect kids,’ said Steve Youngwood, executive vice president for digital media at Nickelodeon.” I am a huge fan of the web and technology, but I would never rely on a website to protect my child. That is my job.
I read through all four tutorials and found them really helpful. It actually made cloth diapering less scary. She actually throws all the poop in the washer with the diapers. I wonder if anyone else does that.
I just read an interesting article in Mothering Magazine about aluminum in our children’s vaccines. In the past 10 years there has been a lot of discussion about the additive of thimerosal in vaccines. Thimerosal is a form of mercury and there was a lot of speculation about whether the mercury in vaccines was a contributing factor of the increase of autism in children. There have since been several studies showing that there isn’t a connection between the two but as a precaution thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines. In the article I read it mentioned that Merck (pharmaceutical company) was aware that the mercury in vaccines was well above the recommended amount (87 times!) and that a research doctor sent a memo to the president of his division stating his concerns.
Now there is a new concern about aluminum in vaccines. Aluminum can be toxic in large amounts. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that toxicity can cause neurologic damage and can be harmful for those with kidney disease. The shocking thing to me is that vaccine makers have done no studies to show that the amount of aluminum given to infants is safe or harmful. It is alarming to me that aluminum (a known potential toxin) is considered safe until proven harmful rather than the other way around.
30 mcg of aluminum per day for a 12 pound 2 month old baby is considered a safe amount. Some vaccines have 7 to 25 times the recommended amount. For example, the Hepatitis B vaccine has 250 mcg of aluminum. The Pediarix vaccine, which is a combination vaccine of DTap, Hepatitis B, and Polio, has 850 mcg of aluminum. It is a little scary to me that my baby could get that much aluminum at one time when it is unknown how babies process an abundance of aluminum.
What can you do about it? You can ask your pediatrician to use the vaccines that have a smaller amount of aluminum in it. There is a Hib vaccine that does not have aluminum in it but you would need to find out what kind your doctor uses. You can also ask your doctor how much aluminum is in the DTaP vaccine. There are several choices that contain different amounts. Another alternative would be to limit the number of vaccines your child receives per visit and go back for a special “shot only” visit. You may want to find a copy of this article and print it off for your doctor to read and get his/her input.
I have chosen to do delay vaccines with Graham for different reasons. I decided to wait to give him the Hepatitis B vaccine until we are done with all our other shots. Hepatitis B is contracted through sexual contact, IV drug use, and the mother. I know I don’t have it and I seriously doubt that Graham will be doing any sexual activities or drug use anytime soon. I decided to space out vaccines to allow his immune system not to get overloaded. One of my concerns about the doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of vaccines is that if my baby does have a bad reaction I wouldn’t know which one was the culprit. After reading this article though, I am going to show it to our pediatrician and continue to space out the vaccines.
The pediatrician who wrote the article, Dr. Robert Sears has written a book called The Vaccine Book which recommends a delayed vaccine schedule.
