I look back at pictures of me with my month-old baby boy and cringe a bit. He looks great, of course—but I see a 35-year-old man standing there looking a little broken.  And wearing strange glasses.  Of all the changes that fatherhood had wrought, I was obsessed with my new glasses.  My previous pair that I’d really liked had been smashed in a mosh pit.  Seriously.  And so I’d gotten these just a month or so before he was born.  They were intended to be different, stylish, edgy.  But in the wrong light, or on a strange hair day, or if…

read more

The following article was written by Sally Wendkos Olds, author (in consultation with Laura M. Marks, MD) of The Complete Book of Breastfeeding, 4th edition to be published in 2009 by Workman Publishing. I am most grateful to Sally for her willingness to share her expertise with the baby gooroo community!

By Sally Wendkos Olds

We have known for years that breastfed babies are protected from a great number of diseases. In developing countries, the survival rate for the breastfed baby may be six times greater than for his formula-fed cousin, and even among the children of middle- or upper-class parents in…

read more

Even though I recently turned 31, my father, who was in his 50s when I was born, was a child of the Great Depression. My mother was born much later, but she inherited some kind of thrifty gene that suited her prowess as a homemaker.

Therefore, I grew up eating every scrap of home-cooked food on my plate, enjoying hand-me-down everything from three siblings, and wearing lovely outfits my mother sewed.

I never felt deprived from the hand-me-downs; why would I? I, too, had inherited the thrifty gene. I’d raptly listen to stories of my father’s childhood, trying to imagine what it…

read more

On Friday, December 5, 2008 from 1 to 2 pm EST, the Society for Nutrition Education (SNS) will sponsor a webinar titled, “Fish, Nutrition and Pregnancy: What Does the Science Reveal About the Risks and Benefits?”

The webinar will be presented by Captain Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD a member of the US Public Health Service and Acting Chief of the Section on Nutritional Neurochemistry at the National Institutes of Health. The moderator will be Patricia Kendall, PhD, RD, from Colorado State University.

Dr. Hibbeln will review the current evidence on seafood consumption during pregnancy so that participants will have a better understanding of…

read more

When I was three years old, I started reading a Little Golden Book called “The Pokey Little Puppy.”  While I have no memory of this, my mother recalls the book (and the particulars of how fluently I was able to read it back to her) as one of the touchstones of my childhood. I would read it to anyone who listened—friends, family members, people on trains and buses—and I would read every single word. She tells me how she now shops every bookstore for a copy for my son Willard, in the hopes that he will learn to read the…

read more

It used to be that learning a second language wasn’t given a second thought until children reached middle or high school. But with a rapidly diversifying culture and the availability of television programs like Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!” even the tiniest of tots can get a head start on a dual-language learning track.

Natalia Barba, a Spanish language teacher at South Lake High School in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, has had first-hand experience learning a second language at a young age. Born in the United States, she moved with her family to Mexico when she was a…

read more

Breastfeeding is well-recognized as having many benefits for the health of infants and children. Several studies have reported that breastfeeding has a protective effect on lower respiratory infections (Cushing 1998; Nafstad 1996; Oddy 2001; Oddy 2003; Sinha 2003; Hoddinott 2008), but the effect on asthma risk has been unclear. Now, a new study may shed some light on how breastfeeding positively affects lung function, even a decade later.

Led by Dr. Ikechukwu Ogbuanu, the team looked at data collected from more than a thousand ten year olds who were members of the Isle of Wight (United Kingdom) birth cohort. Because data…

read more

African American women breastfeed less than their white and Latina counterparts: in fact, only 19 percent of African American women breastfeed their babies for 6 months.

That’s according to “An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding for African American Women”, a publication from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That and other publications are all easily accessed through a guide to online breastfeeding resources, a Web site offered by the Early Head Start National Resource Center, a federally-funded but community-based program that helps low-income families with young children and pregnant women.

“Breastfeeding offers a true head start to children and families,” says the EHS…

read more

If you haven’t heard about the recent study on “light drinking” during pregnancy, let me begin by saying that the data does not show that it is safe for pregnant women to drink.

While it is unlikely that an occasional drink will harm most unborn babies, there are some, for reasons we don’t fully understand, who may be affected by even small amounts of alcohol. So, if you are pregnant or are thinking of getting pregnant please follow the current recommendation and Just Say No to drinking while pregnant.

As for the recent findings and why they are generating so much controversy, read on.

The…

read more

It’s an impressive endorsement from scientists who work in environmental health: according to research published in the October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, even when human milk contains pollutants, pesticides and heavy metals, it is still a better choice than formula.

We already know the numerous benefits of human milk, which are helpfully mentioned in the article: breastfeeding gives decreased risks of infection, allergies, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and both childhood and adult cancers. Even the very first breastfeeding sessions are important—colostrum (the fluid secreted during the first days after birth) gives the baby immunologic protection, especially against the bacteria in…

read more

Not that I don’t HAVE them.

I have two of them.

My son, Willard, has let me know in no uncertain terms that he will have nothing to do with either of them. He may slam his face into my chest over and over again, searching fruitlessly for something that will calm him down, that will soothe his hunger…but there’s nothing there. He may, from time to time, latch on to my dry nipples through my shirt, thinking that the milk will start to flow into his waiting mouth.

It won’t, Willard. It won’t.

My wife, Claire, has breasts that are so very far…

read more

Here’s some good news: Pressure is building for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finally take some action about Bisphenol A (BPA).

Still, as reported in May, the bad news is that any action might be a long time coming.

A review of the problem
As you may recall, BPA is a chemical found in baby bottles, sippy cups, the lining of infant formula cans, many plastic water bottles, and lots of other products. As reported by the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (of the National Institutes of Health), BPA could be posing some risk to the brain development…

read more