Maman A Droit

New Blogosphere Location

Visit my new blog at: http://mamanadroit.blogspot.com/

I was unhappy with the technical constraints of free typepad blogs, so I'm switching over to Blogspot instead. Please come with me, and thanks for reading!!

Staying at Home: A Valid Choice

A mom I know dropped out of college a year before getting her degree and worked full-time at a taco shop when pregnant so she would be able to be a stay-at-home mom. She is one of the smartest women I know, speaks multiple languages, and reads philosophy in her spare time. But people still look down on her for her decision. A woman who was supposedly her friend even commented, when this mom's daughter was in elementary school, "well maybe when your daughter grows up she can drop out of school and work fast food too!", in a tone that clearly showed her disdain for this mom's decision, and her thought that this mom was setting a bad example for her daughter.

That's because this woman bought into an attitude that pervades our society, essentially arguing that you are "less" of a woman/person if you don't acheive some level of success at a career. Yet most men and women don't have meaningful jobs. That's not to say they aren't important and necessary, for society as a whole and for the finances of the individual workers. But for most people, work isn't where they seek intellectual fulfillment and what they gauge their self-worth on. Otherwise, the baristas, janitors, bank tellers, etc in the world would be in trouble. There's nothing wrong with being employed in those fields. But they aren't exactly rocket science. For the most part these jobs could be held by pretty much anyone, and while they keep society running, don't really change anything. If you are a retail manager like I was pre-baby, you don't go to work for intellectual stimulation-- you do it for a paycheck! And this is (part) of why the attitude I mentioned earlier is so absurd.

While I think women should certainly have the right to work in any job, and realize that for many it is a financial necessity, I absolutely disagree with the proposition that women are in any way "better" for working rather than staying home with kids, or that childbearing should be delayed until after you become successful in your career.The scientific studies showing the benefits of having a stay-at-home mom are numerous, and the tug of a mommy's heart to be by their little one constantly is undeniable. I think regardless of what type of job they work, women should not be made to feel bad about themselves because they think the best way to care for their children is to stay at home with them. Without taking away any opportunities from the working women, our society needs to once again acknowledge that being a full-time mommy instead of a careerwoman is an equally valid choice.

Tuesday is Newsday

Every Tuesday I highlight what I think are the most interesting news stories from the past week about babies and children, parenting, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. I'll include stories I consider good news or agree with and ones that I consider bad news or disagree with. Hope you enjoy, and maybe learn something too!

Approval of New Version of  Prevnar Lifts Pfizer Wall Street Journal

A new version of the "Prevnar" vaccine was approved and is now recommended by the CDC. The new version vaccinates against 13 strains instead of 7 like the previous version. They are also recommending the new version be used to complete the shot schedule if your child hasn't received all their Prevnar shots yet.

Pregnant? Some Foods May Raise Baby's Risk of Asthma, Allergies Health.com

A study of Australian mothers found that in families with a history of childhood allergies, eliminating common allergens from the mother's diet during pregnancy significantly reduced the prevalence of those allergies in the children born of those pregnancies.

Want A Better Listener? Protect Those Ears New York Times

Discusses how parents can help prevent hearing loss in children caused by repeated exposure to noisy environments like sporting events.

Naptime Helps Babies Learn New Things Health.com

A study found more abstract thought in babies who took naps after being taught words from a made-up language.

Childhood Obesity Linked to Heart Risk Wall Street Journal

Researchers found higher levels of a protein linked to heart disease in individuals as young as 3 years old.

BPA May Raise Risk of Asthma in Kids Business Week

Mice showed increased respiratory difficulty when exposed to BPA as baby mice!

 

Legislation Roundup:

Maryland Senate Bans BPA in Baby Bottles and Toddler Cups

While this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of every news story about anything mommy or baby related, please let me know if there are any interesting articles you think I should include!

Yogurt Cake Recipe

I don't know about you, but I'm already having one of those Mondays that feels like a Monday. So I think I'll make some yogurt cake later- it takes about 5 minutes, I don't even measure the ingredients really, and it tastes delicious. Definitely the kind of pick-me-up I need!

• 1 6-8oz. container of yogurt (blueberry or vanilla recommended)
• 2 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• dash of salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease an 8x8 pan.
2. Dump the yogurt into your mixing bowl. Save the container.
3. One at a time, use the yogurt container to measure quantities of sugar and flour equal to the amount if yogurt you used.
4. Add other dry ingredients and mix.
5. Use the yogurt container to measure approximately half as much oil as the yogurt quantity.
6. Add egg, and if desired, vanilla and lemon juice.
7. Mix batter and pour into greased 8x8 pan and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until top is goldeny brown and knife cones out clean.

Use any kind of yogurt you want, and feel free to add nuts if you like them. I usually eyeball the ingredients and it comes out great, except one time when I put in way too much baking soda (like several tablespoons...the box slipped). Double or triple the recipe and use a 9x13 if you want a bigger cake.

New Look

In case you noticed: yes, my picture used to be this:

 

and everything used to be pink. But I couldn't help myself from switching it to my adorable baby instead! 

Silly Saturday: These are a few of my favorite apps

Saturday just seems like a good day for something silly. And it's alliterative, so it must be cool, right?

My wonderful husband got me an iPod Touch for Christmas, and I play on it one-handed while Baby is nursing.  Here are a few of my favorite, free, fun, iPhone or iPod apps:

TapFarm: You plant crops and harvest them by clicking. You get experience points for farming, move up experience levels as you play, and then have access to more crop varieties, animals, trees, and buildings. Fun to play for just a few minutes a day=great for busy mommies!

Lemonade Tycoon: You control the price of your lemonade, where you sell, how much you advertise, and how much ice to use. Play as little or as long as you like each day.

 

Finger Physics Free: Balance blocks of different shapes, try to get eggs to drop into a basket by exploding blocks in the right order, etc. I am looking forward to testing some of my new building tricks with baby blocks in real life now!

Words with Friends and Chess with Friends: Like Scrabble and Chess against opponents using their own iPhones or iPods. You pick who you play, and it's impossible to make an illegal move, which is nice for me since I'm not very experienced with chess. No time limits, so you and your opponents don't have to be available for long spans of time or even the same time.

 

A couple more giveaways

Win a Svan highchair and a Babycook and some BPA free dishes from Beaba by entering at The Family Groove by midnight Sunday.

Win a Jeep diaper bag and Jeep shopping cart cover by entering at Mommy Mandy Blog  by midnight this Sunday

Earlier I innacurately said the Hobo Mama book giveaway ended tonight. It actually ended last night. Sorry for the confusion!

Freebie Friday

On Fridays I'll list fun giveaways I found online that end sometime in the next week and are for free baby and mommy goodies! Good luck!

Win an organic cotton Boba baby carrier by entering at the My Wee View Blog by midnight tonight.

Win a Safety 1st Air Complete convertible carseat by entering at the Born 2 Impress Blog by midnight Saturday.

 Win Johnson & Johnson baby bath supplies by entering at the Champagne Living Blog by midnight tonight.

On another note, I won a Baby Bjorn from a sweepstakes at HonestBaby.com and am sooo excited to get it and try it! Review coming soon!

Naptime is over so I went ahead and posted this, but will add more giveaways next naptime. Be sure to check back later to see what else you can win!

 

Co-Sleeping Safely

As I searched for articles to include in yesterday's post, I came across evidence of what seemed to be an epidemic of co-sleeping deaths in Milwaukee, WI. Here are my thoughts:

There are a lot of idiots in the world, and unfortunately many of them are parents. And apparently many of these idiot parents are not practicing safe sleep habits with their babies in Milwaukee. According to news reports out of Wisconsin, 5 babies & toddlers have died so far in 2010 "from co-sleeping." In response, the Milwaukee Health Department has launched an anti-co-sleeping campaign, including ads showing an adult bed with a tombstone instead of a headboard.

Unfortunately, further investigation reveals that many idiots are also apparently forensic scientists, pediatricians, "experts" on parenting or sleep, or Health Commissioners. The details of these Milwaukee "co-sleeping" deaths reveal an interesting and sad trend of unsafe co-sleeping practices, or of other unsafe infant sleep practices being considered "co-sleeping". A breakdown of the 5 tragic deaths:

1. Baby Boy, whose father who had been drinking alcohol then fell asleep on the couch with his baby.
2.  Baby Keilysha, who was bottlefed and sharing a bed with her mother and 2 year old brother.
3.  Baby Megan, whose parents had been drinking wine.
4.  Baby Aiden, who slept alone the entire night in his mother's bed where he did not usually sleep.
5.  Baby Zyeir, who slept in a bed with his 27 year old uncle and 5 year old sister.

My heart goes out to these parents whose carelessness cost their babies' lives, but who surely did not intend to kill their babies. But these incidents could have been avoided, & the solution is not to eliminate co-sleeping altogether. There are many resources to help parents practice safe co-sleeping,  like this article.  Basically, never ever co-sleep if you are a smoker, drinker, or on medication that impairs any of your senses (i.e. NyQuil or Zoloft, as opposed to say Pepto Bismal). Don't let your baby sleep with siblings, extended family, or non-relatives. Don't fall asleep with your baby on the couch. There also seems to be quite a bit of evidence that breastfeeding moms are much more aware of their babies, presumably because of the hormonal changes caused by breastfeeding.

I think it is a major problem in the medical and parenting communities that such a wide variety of practices are being labelled as "co-sleeping". The Milwaukee Health Commission seems to be particularly loosey-goosey with their labelling, as only one of the 5 incidents so far this year was actually a baby, Baby Megan, who regularly slept with her mother and father and was doing so the night she died, and in that case alcohol use may have been a contributing factor and the cause of death was never actually determined (as opposed to cases that are clearly suffocation deaths.)

To use incidents like these ones to begin an anti-co-sleeping crusade is disingenuous and unhelpful to parents. Health officials, medical professionals, and the rest of us should all strive for clarity in the terms we use, especially when babies' lives are at stake. It is good to know that there are safe and unsafe ways to co-sleep, and to inform parents what those are. It is not helpful to lump drunk fathers passed out on couches together with sober breastfeeding mothers in order to advocate the elimination of co-sleeping. 

I think these tragic deaths and subsequent co-sleeping backlash are a good reminder to all of us who think we are co-sleeping safely to re-examine our sleep set-ups, and maybe even make some changes. But unless you realize that you are not a good candidate for co-sleeping (like you have a health condition for which you have to take a medicine that impairs your senses, or you are a smoker, etc.), that change should be something like giving up that occasional glass of wine, or your fluffy pillow, just to be on the safe side. Or to buy a co-sleeper so baby has their own safe place right next to you.  It shouldn't be to kick baby out of bed out of fear.

You can read more about what's going on in Milwaukee by checking out the Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel. A google news search for "co-sleeping death" unfortunately will return many stories of tragic deaths like the ones in Milwaukee across the globe. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on dangers of co-sleeping

Tuesday is Newsday

I decided to start a new feature; every Tuesday I will highlight what I think are the most interesting news stories from the past week about babies and children, parenting, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. I'll include stories I consider good news or agree with and ones that I consider bad news or disagree with. Hope you enjoy, and maybe learn something too!

IVF Kids Show Shift in Gene Activity  Science News

A recent study of individuals conceived through IVF found small but significant genetic differences linked to higher risk of obesity, diabetes, and other health issues later in life. The oldest individual conceived through IVF is only 32 so this research is obviously far from conclusive and has yet to face the test of time.

Mom's Antidepressants May Delay Baby's First Steps Reuters

Danish researchers found that infants whose mother's took anti-depressants experienced delays in their large motor skill development (sitting independently and walking) but were still within the normal guidelines for meeting these benchmarks.

Kids and Killer Hot Dogs? 3 Tips To Prevent Choking on Food US News

The American Association of Pediatrics updated their recommendations on choking hazards urging that many common foods be reconfigured to make it less likely children will choke on them. This article has a link to the guidelines plus some practical tips for parents.

 

Mom's Diet May Alter Infant's Allergies Reuters

Mothers who eat more orange and green veggies during pregnancy were less likely to have babies with exzema or who wheeze, according to a study conducted by Japanese scientists.

Legislation Roundup:

 WI Assembly Passes BPA Ban

OR ban on BPA fails on tie vote

 [WI] Senate Approves Breastfeeding in Public Bill

 

Working Moms get private places to pump in IA