The Truth About Latch On NYC

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Breastfeeding, Health and tagged with , , , , , ,

ImageDisclaimer: Before I talk about Latch On NYC–a New York City initiative to promote and support breastfeeding–let me just first say that I have taken great pains not to be a judgmental uberboober. That goes for in this blog and also with my friends and family. Even though I have chosen extended breastfeeding for my kids, I realize it is not for everyone. There are many, many reasons to give your kids formula. These reasons may be medical or personal. We all have to make the choices that work for us and our families.

That said, my interest was piqued when my Facebook feed lit up with outrage over Bloomberg’s new Latch On NYC initiative.  People said formula would be kept under lock and key, that you’d have to sign out formula like medication. They said that nurses would lecture new moms about breastfeeding and make them feel bad. Formula feeders were mad. Breastfeeders were mad, too. Everyone thought the plan was ill-conceived, patronizing, and mean. They got this information from the Post,  Huff Po, and even the New York Times (which has since  pulled back a little.)

Well, the City now says much of this is misinformation. I’m unclear if the confusion was generated via media sensationalism, misguided hospital administrators, poor communication on the part of the City, or a combination thereof. In any case, the City now has link up to clarify its position. Click here to read Latch On NYC Initiative–Myths and Facts.

Apparently the plan is to support breastfeeding and hinder the active promotion of formula feeding– not to make people feel bad, make nurses’ jobs harder, or treat formula like a controlled substance. A lot of those rumors (the lock and key, the “lecture” for each bottle of formula) are not true. They do want to get rid of those “swag bags” filled with formula, which is just fine by me. Here’s their press release.  It’s difficult to tell how their plans will be carried out at each participating hospital, but, at first blush, the initiative appears to be sensible, evidenced-based policy…not some bizarre plan hatched by a draconian lactivist overlord. Hopefully the collective concern generated in the last couple of weeks will help to ensure that the program is implemented in ways that are both sensible and sensative.

New Moms and Facebook

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Breastfeeding, Family, Parenting, Thyroid and tagged with ,

“Boppy Bed” by Kelly and Kyle Adams from Flickr Creative Commons. This looks a little like my Piglet! (And, yes, I will post as MANY pictures of babies here as I want to. Even if it is getting ridic.)

I realize I’ve been a little quiet for a while–Piglet has been a feisty little night owl, my thyroid is being mean again,  and I am… s o   v e r y   t i r e d. So it was nice to check my WordPress account and  see that there’s been a small but steady stream of search engine traffic here composed of people who would like to know the lyrics to Doc McStuffins, kindred spirits who Hate Balloons, and other neurotics who worry that their cake pops might be undercooked. I love it! The Internet is a deeply funny place to me.

Anyway, I wanted to write today because this post over at the Atlantic made me smile. It describes a study that reports that new moms like to use Facebook, especially when they’re stressed. (DUH!… I mean, why didn’t I write this study? Grumble.)

As an over-sharing, new-ish mom, I completely get this. However you feel about Facebook, being a new parent can be isolating, and it’s nice to have somewhere to share your feeeeeelings (or, at least, your pseudofeelings). It helps to have people validate your experiences, and to have a forum to show people your new, AHMAAAZING child, Lion-King style, when you are awake in the dark at three a.m… Many new moms are in front of the computer all the time. Breastfeeding (and, presumably, bottle feeding, too) means you have to sit. And sit. And sit. Never in my life have I spent so much time online, checking Facebook and writing stream-of-consciousness, misspelled e-mails to my friends. Especially in the newborn days, the baby, the boppy, and the computer were the trinity of my daily life. I live far away from my closest friends, and we’re hours from our families. On Facebook, even distant relations and people who I barely spoke with in high school opened up to me about their kids, mentioned their joys and war stories. It was often a nice little lift in the wee hours. It will be interesting to see if we continue to (over)share in the coming years…

Does a Baby’s Wheezing Mean Asthma?

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Family, Health, Home, Medicine, Parenting and tagged with , , ,

“Poor Guy,” by cb and gk from Flickr Creative Commons. This cute fella is not Piglet. She would NEVER have allowed the nebulizer mask on her like that.

Poor Piglet gets sick a lot… and by “a lot“ I mean a lot more than her older sister did when she was a baby. Her older sister was the firstborn, was generally not around other kids, and had first-time parents who fretted and fussed and washed everything. Piglet was born into a different world, one where her sister goes to pre-school. One where the toys don’t get a systematic washing. One where, instead of the “five-second rule,” there is the “bathroom floor rule.” As in, as long as the toy didn’t fall on the bathroom floor, you can still put it back in your mouth.

Last week Piglet came down with a cold (normal). On day two, when I returned from work, she had a clearly audible wheeze (NOT NORMAL!) I listened for a few minutes, then listened with my stethoscope, then watched her breathe. I was sure the sound wasn’t coming from her stuffy nose, and I was relieved to hear that it wasn’t coming from deep within her lungs, either. She didn’t seem to be in any real distress, but I drove her to the pediatrician, who gave her a prescription for a few days of albuterol to be delivered through a nebulizer machine (WHAT THE WHAT NOW?!).

I am all too familiar with nebulizers–machines that deliver medication through inhaled vapor–as my asthma was pretty out of control in high school. While Piglet seemed fine, the nebulizer made everything seem scary. I asked our ped if she thought Piglet had asthma, and she reassuringly told me that a limited amount of wheezing in  a sick baby does not necessarily mean asthma, at least not yet. I had no idea! And after a day or so of nebulizing Piglet (which was next-to-impossible, by the way), she is better. Time will tell if she has my crummy asthma gene, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

The Mayo Clinic and Dr. Sears seem to confirm what my ped said about some wheezing not always being asthma in infants, but remember folks, talk to your doctor if you have any medical concerns.

Attachment Parenting by Accident

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Breastfeeding, Family, Health, Parenting and tagged with , , , ,

“Sleeping Thea,” by Dacia Miychell from Flickr Creative Commons

So…There’s this little photo on the cover of Time Magazine this week. Just a mom and her kid. No big deal. (Oh, except the kid is three. And standing on a chair. And breastfeeding.) And the picture–as ham-fisted,  sensational, and overtly incendiary as it is–will launch twelve million and one Internet debates. (And by “debates,” I mean venomous, adrenaline-laced attacks and defenses occasionally punctuated with someone crying “Let’s naaaawwt judge otharrr peopppple!”). The article accompanying the photos, which I have yet to read, is about Dr. Sears and his attachment parenting philosophy.

I’ve already read articles about the “attachment parenting movement,” and I can’t help  but be a little confused. I guess I’m an attachment parent? I never set out to be. I certainly never read any books, not even Dr. Blossom’s (though I love her).

Here’s the thing…My mother wore us as babies (sometimes), breastfed for kind of a long time (it was the 1970s), and fed us whole foods out of her garden (again–it was the 1970s!). We slept in my parents’ bed sometimes because we were up and they were tired.

I breastfed my firstborn for a year. I figure I’ll breastfeed my second for at least a year or two–we like it, it works for us, and there are all the benefits you already know about. Some people don’t breast feed at all. That’s fine, too. I almost quit myself a couple times. We also occasionally give Piglet formula when I can’t pump enough at work. No big deal.

I “wore” Weasel in a baby carrier when she was a baby and I often wear Piglet now.  I sit my kids down, too, but my particular kids like to be held a lot, and it’s waaaay easier for me to just wear them. I need my arms sometimes! I never thought: Oh, we’ll bond so much more this way! Doesn’t, like, every mom in New York City wear her baby at some point? I see it less frequently out here in the ‘burbs, but everyone I know at least owns a Bjorn or an Ergo or a sling.

As for sleeping, we kicked baby Weasel out of our room at 12 weeks. That worked well for her. Now, little Piglet is a different story. In the past couple of months we’ve all come to a point where it is just easier for me to have her in bed with us for much of the night. I struggle with it a little, but that’s where we are now. Co-sleeping.

So, there you have it, I guess I subscribe to the central tenets of attachment parenting: breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and baby wearing. Obviously, different things work better for different people.  It’s not a philosophy I ever set out to follow. It’s just easy for us. I didn’t do a lot of the other things associated with attachment parenting (I had epidurals in the hospital and my baby is in disposable diapers), but I guess I’m an attachment parent now?  I am repeatedly confounded by these lines in the sand.

Doc McStuffins: Please Get Out of My Brain

Posted by cornusella in Family, Health, Home, Medicine and tagged with , , , , ,

The Doc is in and she’ll fix you up. If you’re a toy, then you’re in luck. It’s okay, don’t be afraid. The Doc really knows her stuff!

Move over, Chloe’s Closet, Weasel has a new favorite show: DOC MCSTUFFINS. The show–about a child “doctor” who fixes talking toys–isn’t so bad. While it’s not terribly educational, the Doc is a decent role model and the show is designed to reduce anxiety about going to the doctor… But the theme song. THE THEME SONG. Not since Cher’s 1998 “Believe” has a song so thoroughly taken up residence in my brain.

Do do do what is good for you. The doc will help you feel better. Up up up is the way to go when you’re feelin’ under the weather.

Make it stop! (It won’t stop). I cannot it out of my head. What is the cure for an earworm? …There is some expert opinion that it is better to accept a sticky song rather than trying to fight it away. There is also a very clever website, unhearit, which promises to cure you of your earworm. It worked for me (by replacing Doc McStuffins with another song), but only temporarily… I suppose I should just give in… Let the tiny Victrola in my mind keep playing on. And on. And on….

Let Doc McStuffins do her thing. She’ll get you right back in the swing. Doc McStuffins, Doc Mc Stuffins, c’mon let the visit begin with…Doc Mc Stuffins, Doc McStuffins, c’mon let the visit begin. The Doc is IN!

Confession: I Hate Balloons

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Confession, Family, Health, Home and tagged with , , , ,

“Shoot the Ballon,” by CherryJay from Flickr Creative Commons

Here’s the deal: I have a latex allergy. I don’t think it’s super safe for me to blow up balloons or have them around the house. I don’t seem like such a shrew now, do I?

…Except here’s the REAL deal: I also simply hate balloons. I hate being repeatedly bopped in the head with them by a toddler (or a husband). I hate how they try to kill me by distracting me in the car on the way to a birthday. I hate how they lurk FOR WEEKS, floating around the house like mournful ghosts. I hate how they slowly sink to the floor, how they scare the sh*&t out of me at night, how they eventually deflate into choking hazards, how I can’t pop them and chuck them after a birthday without feeling like the meanest mom in the world.

In a recent moment of weakness, I bought one Weasel REALLY WANTED in the grocery store, and I regretted it. She immediately bopped the back of my seat while I was driving.

…But then the baby, Piglet, laughed. And then Weasel laughed at her laughing, and kept hitting the seat. And they laughed together like they had the best inside joke in the world! And then I remembered why I still buy balloons, even though I hate them.

What Happened to Mariano Rivera?

Posted by cornusella in Health, Medicine, Sports and tagged with , , , , ,

“My Knee,” by Ryan Snyder from Flickr Creative Commons. (Not Mariano Rivera’s knee.)

Husband: “You should write a post about Mariano Rivera.”

Me: “I don’t really know a lot about that sort of thing.”

Husband: “Everyone will come to your blog to read about it.”

Me: “No they won’t.”

Husband: “You should write a post about Mariano Rivera.”

Fine. But only because I like Mariano, the cool and collected superhero Yankee closer who tore an ACL and a meniscus today. I have watched Mariano pitch the hell out of baseball through the Yankees’ golden 1990s, through five World Series titles, from boyishly handsome Derek Jeter all the way to ruggedly smoldering Derek Jeter. After eighteen long years in Major League Baseball, Mariano was maybe-probably-possibly going to retire after this season. And then he sustained a devastating knee injury while catching fly balls warming up, and his season abruptly stopped. So, what is an ACL, and why does it tear? What is a meniscus? Why did this happen? Why, Mariano, whhhyyyy?

The ACL is one of the four major ligaments that binds your tibia (the lower leg bone in front, aka the shin) to your femur (thigh bone). The medial collateral (inner) and lateral collateral (outer) ligaments hold these bones together at the sides, the posterior cruciate holds them toward the back, and the ACL–the anterior cruciate ligament–connects them toward the front. His ACL damage is by far the more severe of his two injuries. A torn ACL often requires surgery, especially if a patient wishes to play sports intensively in the future.  According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, ACL injury often coincides with “deceleration coupled with cutting, pivoting or sidestepping maneuvers, awkward landings or ‘out of control’ play.”  The menisci are cartilage pads between the femur and the tibia which help minimize shock in the area; these can also be damaged during awkward motions or falls. A torn meniscus occurred at the same time Mariano tore his ACL.

It looks like Mariano will be out for a while, as he is in for surgery and a long rehabilitation period. While he very well may miss the entire season, he has vowed to pitch again.

Best of luck to the Sandman!

Orthoinfo (the website for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) has some really lovely diagrams and explanations of ACL and meniscus injuries.

Dear CDC:

Posted by cornusella in Family, Health, Medicine and tagged with , , , , ,

“Curious,” by Alan Light from Flickr Creative Commons

cdcinfo@cdc.gov

Dear CDC:

I am not usually one to write weird letters directly to federal agencies, and doing so makes me feel like a blowsy old lady who dictates letters to her cats… but I have this IDEA (I know, I know, you’ve heard this before). And did I mention I am a huge fangirl of Dr. Thomas Frieden (I should stop now)…?

Anyway, my idea is for a webpage on the CDC website called “What Goes Around…” It would be linked to Facebook and  there would be a smartphone app (perhaps you’ve heard of these). Anyway, sick people would fill out a brief questionnaire via phone or computer about their symptoms and also indicate whether or not they have been diagnosed by a doctor with a certain disease. This would then be plotted on a chart, and people could then hover over a map of the U.S. and see what other things (colds, flu, GI illness, allergies) are going around in their area. It would have a huge disclaimer about not being scientific, or medical advice, blah blah blah… But it could be a really cool thing to look at, and maybe, under the right circumstances, tip off a health department to illness trends.

If nothing else, the Internet has taught me that I have NO unique ideas  (…HELLO, napping centers and Barcade…I thought of you first!!), so I’m sure you’ve thought of this and dismissed it, but I thought I’d share.  Sorry to bother you with my rambling… Since you’ve made me watch your graphic anti-smoking commercials, I figure we’re almost even.

Besos,
Ms. Florida

Pacis May Not Interfere WIth Breastfeeding After All

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Breastfeeding, Family, Health, Home, Parenting and tagged with , , ,

"DentyChild_light copy," by Sovgunga from Flickr Creative Commons

As CNN reports, a new study offers some evidence that pacifiers may not create as much “nipple confusion” as previously thought. The research, presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, tracked breastfeeding rates and use of supplemental formula after pacifiers were restricted on a maternity ward, and found that breastfeeding rates actually went down and supplemental formula use went up. All this this suggests that pacifiers don’t indeed cause problems with breastfeeding.

While this research is pretty interesting, the study is hardly the last word on the issue, as it has several limitations. For one thing, patients weren’t restricted from bringing their own pacifiers to the hospital. Also, I’m not clear on how long the parents/babies were followed for (whether or not a baby is breastfed, is given supplemental formula, and takes a pacifier can all change pretty quickly in the first months). As the study was not controlled, there may also be numerous confounding factors. And, of course, it’s just one study.

The specter of nipple confusion loomed large for me when my children were newborns. As there is some evidence that pacifiers prevent SIDS, I constantly offered them. Despite my best efforts, neither of my kids were interested. I was worried enough about nipple confusion, however, that I did hold off with bottles with my firstborn, who NEVER took one later on (seriously, she transitioned to a sippy cup eventually). When my second child was born, I went back to work quickly, so we had to give her a bottle, and I didn’t have any issues breastfeeding. I also know a lot of exclusively breastfeeding/paci-giving moms. I’m not saying nipple confusion doesn’t exist, necessarily, but I’d love to see more research in this area!

Mom Learns How to Walk, Too

Posted by cornusella in Baby, Exercise, Family, Health, Home and tagged with , ,

Running Shoes by Timtak from Flickr Creative Commons

There are many things I don’t miss about living in the city–the cramped living quarters, the acrid air, the woman on the subway with dirty Press-On Nails and a purse full of oxycontin who, without asking, reached over and grabbed my newborn’s little feet.

But I do miss walking.

Sure, I can walk here in the ‘burbs. It’s not like it’s outlawed or anything. It’s just not built into a daily routine. Back in the city, a trip with the baby to the park, the grocery store, and the bookstore could mean hours of walking. I didn’t have to schedule exercise–exercise was part of life. Never mind that I sometimes came home with a backache, burdened with groceries like a pack mule, cursing the pedestrian life. I was fit and (usually) happy to be outside.

Now, walks around the block have to be planned–and we’re walking for the sake of it. It is possible to walk into town from our house, a luxury that is not lost on me, but it lacks the ease of urban terrain. Early this morning it was forty degrees, but I was determined to get some exercise, so I bundled Piglet into her snugli, put on a big coat, and walked into town to get bagels. I felt odd, and indeed I was a curiosity in this barely- walkable town, with steep sidewalks on the edge of traffic-choked streets. It was great, though. We accomplished an errand, and I got some exercise. Piglet got some fresh(ish) air, a little sunshine, and some new scenery. When the weather is warmer, I hope to do it more and more. Hopefully the summer will bring more strolls into town and, once Piglet is big enough, some running with the baby jogger.

Gretchen Reynolds has a piece in the New York Times today detailing just how bad it is to be sedentary. She cites research indicating that merely stretches of uninterrupted sitting–even in an otherwise fit individual–is detrimental to ones health. (And I used to make fun of a friend who liked to stand at work!)