Test of Anthrax Vaccine in Children Gets Tentative OK
A presidential ethics panel has opened the door to testing an anthrax vaccine on children as young as infants, bringing an angry response from critics who say the children would be guinea pigs in a study that would never help them and might harm them. (via Reuters)
Most Parents Don’t Follow Doctor’s Orders
Two-thirds of parents say they don’t always follow the advice they get from their child’s doctor, according to a new poll. The findings showed that 56 percent of parents said they follow the advice they’re given most of the time, while 13 percent said they follow it only occasionally, according to the findings from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. (via NBC News)
Student Suspended for Pop-Tart Gun, Josh Welch, Files Appeal with Maryland School System
An attorney for an Anne Arundel County 7-year-old suspended from school for nibbling a pastry into the shape of a pistol has filed an appeal with the county school system to have the suspension overturned and the student’s record expunged, saying he will “go all the way to the Maryland Court of Appeals” if needed to pursue the case. (via Huffington Post)
New Guidelines for Athletes with Concussions
A major medical group is updating its guidelines for handling amateur or professional athletes suspected of having a concussion. The American Academy of Neurology says the athletes should be taken out of action immediately and kept out until they’ve been cleared by a health care provider with training about concussions. (via FOX News)
Organic Baby Food: It’s More Expensive, but it May Not Be More Nutritious
Parents go organic for a variety of reasons, including environmental concerns and a desire to avoid pesticide residue. And in some cases, they just want a status symbol. According to the consumer market research firm Mintel, organic baby food made up about 10 percent of the $1.4 billion U.S. baby food and snacks market in 2011. But studies show that parents who are aiming to buy the best food for their infants may not need to spring for the expensive organics. (via The Washington Post)
Every baby looks like he or she could be the Gerber Baby, no? But the sketch is of a woman named Ann Turner Cook, who was 5 months old in 1929 when her neighbor drew her for what would become the iconic baby face. She visited our offices a few years ago, and we loved it!
Gerber is running a nationwide baby-photo search on Facebook right now. The winner will appear in an ad campaign but even better, get $50,000! You have until August 26th to upload your little one’s photo. Best of luck, maybe your own kid will be the 2012 Gerber Baby!
As for Gerber’s baby food, my own daughter was an infant when they debuted their first organics. Now, the organic recipes come in pouches that are easy to throw in your diaper bag and less heavy in your grocery bag than the traditional glass jars. (Though the jars can be recycled, so they have that going for them.) I have such fond memories of planning out baby Grace’s meals. She loved prunes and apricots most of all, so we’d often do one of those for breakfast, but always got a green vegetable in at lunch or dinner. It’s still pretty much the same for her at age 10; fruit with breakfast and broccoli or peas or salad with dinner!
I’m happy to say that Gerber is going to give one lucky family almost $110 worth of free baby food just for leaving a comment at this post. Tell me your baby’s favorite puree flavor, perhaps? You have from now through the end of the day on Wednesday, August 8th, to leave a comment. We’ll randomly pick one person to win 15 Gerber Graduate Puffs, 15 Gerber Graduate Lil’ Entrees, and 25 Gerber Organic 2nd Food Pouches, a $108.95 value. You can read the official rules here. Good luck!
It’s an incredible responsibility, giving a baby his first taste of solid food. I made a big deal out of giving my son Joe his first rice cereal—I had a whole little ceremony at my Dad’s house. So of course Joe spit it right back out like it was poison. You’d think I would have learned my lesson after my firstborn, Grace, rejected the steamed, pureed carrots her aunt lovingly made for her first serving of veggies. Here’s the good news: Both my kids have gone on to be champion eaters. They will try anything, and enjoy most foods, even at the tricky ages of 6 and 9. I’d pat myself on the back except I’m not sure that I had much to do with it, beyond making sure they tasted a lot of different flavors between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. A 1-year-old will put anything in his mouth, it doesn’t have to be bland or sweet. But I have friends who served up a wide variety of tastes and still ended up with a picky kid, so it’s not a foolproof way to get a little foodie, just a good practice to try.
Yesterday I read an entertaining entry in my coworker’ baby food blog. Heather Morgan Shott chronicles her adventures feeding her son, Mason, at High Chair Times. Over the holidays, Mason accidentally ate peanut butter for the first time, giving his mom a scare as she watched to make sure he didn’t have an allergic reaction. It’s one of those funny-because-nothing-happened stories, and was similar to a scene that played out with me and baby Grace. She was sitting on my lap in a Thai restaurant when I absentmindedly let her chew on a steamed vegetable that had been in peanut sauce. In my sleep-deprived stupor, I didn’t even think about it until the end of the meal, when all I could do is be thankful she’s not allergic.
This is all to say that I salute all of you who are feeding a baby, or about to start. You’ll hear advice from everyone, but there is no one guideline to follow on the baby-food journey. You can get a rough idea of how much food—and what type—babies eat, here. And are you into the idea of making purees yourself? Check out our new story on homemade fruit purees. Since so many moms are on the make-your-own kick, I’m going to give away one Baby Brezza One-Step Baby Food Maker, which retails for $100, and one Baby Bullet set, worth $90. They’ll be part of a baby food maker slideshow, which I promise to post shortly. You have through Wednesday, January 11th to post a comment and be entered to win one of the two baby food makers; read the full rules here. You can only post once a day. Goody luck!
Sun exposure in babies could mean cancer later Getting too much sun is bad for anyone, but it’s especially dangerous for babies, whose sensitive skin hasn’t developed enough layers of natural protection to withstand intense summer rays. (CNN)
Warnings and tips for stepparents Editorial from CNN: Forty percent of Americans have at least one steprelative in their family, either a stepparent, a stepsibling or half sibling, or a stepchild, according to the Pew Research Center. (CNN)
GoodGuide Ranks the Best and Worst Baby Foods
Concerns about the eating habits of American children are constantly in the headlines, whether it’s the ballooning obesity epidemic among youngsters or bans on Happy Meals to encourage fast food chains to serve healthier food. (Wallet Pop)
Erica Jong certainly thinks so. In her controversial ”Mother Madness” essay that appeared in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, the novelist and poet argues strenuously against “attachment parenting”—a method that calls for an almost constant mental and physical connection between mother and child.
Jong makes the case that in today’s hectic world of busy working mothers such a style is completely impractical when the daily demands of these women are taken into account. “You wear your baby, sleep with her and attune yourself totally to her needs. How you do this and also earn the money to keep her is rarely discussed. You are just assumed to be rich enough,” she writes.
Jong says that while attachment parenting calls for the mother and father to be available to their baby almost constantly, creating a support group of multiple caregivers is not only helpful to stressed out parents but is also essential to raising a well-socialized, independent child. “Kinship is not exclusively biological, after all, and you need a brood to raise a brood,” she writes.
Similarly, she continues, simply because a woman chooses not to breastfeed, make her own baby food, or use cloth diapers does not by any means make her a less-loving or less capable mother. “We need to be released from guilt about our children, not further bound by it,” she explains. ”We need someone to say: Do the best you can. There are no rules.”
Needless to say, many commentors and bloggers have pounced on Jong and come to the defense of attachment parenting. Share your take with us!
