MOMMY MYTHBUSTER: http://mommymythbuster.wordpress.com/

I love reading about moms (like me!) that defy the Mainstream Birth Board An “Expert” Wrote A Book And Said This So It Must Be Right And You’re Not Because You’re Different or We Just Don’t Like What You Have To Say Bandwagon Mentality and actually use valid data and common sense to raise their children (we don’t defy current legitimate recommendations/studies or less mainstream birth boards, however – they all know what they’re talking about!).  What a wonderful blog she has!!!  Great information for the new AND “old” mama!

Some of my favorite blurbs from her blog:

Carseats are safer than seatbelts for those 2+ years old

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administratin (NHTSA) manual says that carseats are only “54 percent effective in reducing deaths for children ages 1 to 4 in passenger cars.” Well, that sounds like an impressive number! So children who ride in carseats are 54% safer if than if they used seatbelts? No. That’s 54% safer than riding completely unrestrained. According to the NHTSA, children who ride restrained in lap and shoulder strap seatbelts are equally protected from fatal injury as those restrained in a carseat.

 

Bottles with BPA are dangerous

Following the ban Health Canada issued advice to parents who continue to use plastic baby bottles. They advised, “If you continue to use polycarbonate baby bottles, it is recommended that parents and caregivers do not put boiling water in them.” Why would you put boiling water into your baby bottle? Oh, I know. To wash or sterilize them, right? Surely the extreme heat from the dishwasher could cause BPA to be released. Nope.

Health Canada goes on to advise, “These bottles can be sterilized according to instructions on infant formula labels and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. They should be left to cool to room temperature before adding the infant formula.”

 

Kidnappers are usually strangers

The facts just don’t support the fear and hype we have all come to believe.

 

Kudos to Mommy Mythbusters – I hope your blog lives long and prospers!

I got such great responses from my “Did you know” (Pregnancy & Childbirth)” that I figured I’d do a quick one on newborns too!  Just some money- or time-saving tips from a mom that’s been there… four times.

Did you know:

• That you don’t have to sterilize bottles, nipples, and pacifiers?  Warm soapy water or your dishwasher are just fine.  Save all that time you’d waste (and the money on those commercial sterilizers!) and snuggle your baby, while the dishwasher safely cleans your things.
• That you don’t have to separate baby’s clothes and/or wash them in a different detergent?  Unless your healthy baby has a VERY RARE sensitivity to your regular detergent, don’t waste your money on “special” (read:  money-making) brands marketed towards your baby’s clothes. 
• That fabric softener is just fine.  I’m sure you’ve heard/read/been told that baby’s clothes have a flame retardancy in them that fabric softener will destroy.  Well, the flame retardancy is a NASTY chemical that I personally don’t want near my baby’s skin anyways; over time it will wash out; and I would rather have soft, good smelling clothes on my baby than ones that a cigarette can be put out on!   The supposed flame retardancy won’t save your baby’s life in the event of a fire, in my opinion.  I use liberal fabric softener so my baby’s clothes are soft next to their delicate skin.
• That your municipal tap water may actually be safer than bottled water and/or “nursery water”?  your city water system is monitored very closely, and unless a warning has been posted, it is absolutely safe and fine to use for your baby’s bottles if you use formula.  Bottled water and nursery water are not as stringently regulated, are most likely from municipal sources anyways, are are frankly a waste of money.  Use your tap.
• That your bottles don’t need to be heated up?  If your baby likes it, give her room temperature or even cool formula.  Makes life much easier when you’re out and about, and don’t need to try to figure out how to warm a bottle.  This also makes middle of the night feedings easier.  Have a bottle of room temperature water on the nightstand, with a container of formula right there.  Mix it in a second and feed baby – no heating, no fuss.
• You can bite their little fingernails to trim them when they are sleeping in your arms, if you’re afraid to use clippers or just can’t seem to get them short enough with them.
• That a sink bath is just fine.  I never had a separate plastic bath that I had to fill/bathe/wash/store for such a short amount of time.  Wash baby in the kitchen sink so you’re not bending over, then in about 6 months or so, or when baby outgrows the sink and can sit up, move to the “big” bathtub.  Easy, and free.
• Generic formula is just fine?  If you have to formula feed, save a LOT of money and buy generic.  All generic formulas must meet the same strict safety, nutrition, and manufacturing guidelines as the priciest products on the market.  The reason they’re less expensive is that the manufacturers of generic formula don’t spend millions of dollars on research or on marketing, and they don’t give away free samples the way some other formula companies do. They simply sell a product that meets the standards set by the United States Food and Drug Administration.  It does also boil down to baby’s taste – baby may prefer one over another, but most will be just fine with the taste of the store brand.  Buy generic diapers too, and save a lot!
• Cold air is not your enemy.  Just because it’s winter, don’t stay huddled inside.  Take baby for a walk in a sling or a carriage – it’s really quite good for them.  And no, cold air – in and of itself – does NOT make one sick, regardless of what grandma told you!
• Skip the highchair, and get a booster seat instead.  Most companies have boosters that grow with your baby.  High chairs take up a LOT of room, are harder to clean, aren’t portable, and baby isn’t truly at the table with the rest of the family.  Boosters are very easy to clean, baby sits right at the table, you can take it with you, and she can use it well into her toddler years, unlike a bulky highchair.
• If baby’s diaper just seems to always leak at night, and a larger size doesn’t work, don’t waste your money on the expensive double padded nighttime diapers.  Just slip a cheap generic feminine pad in night diaper.  It works.  Really.  For a fraction of the cost.
• If your baby sleeps in a crib instead of your bed, try layering sheets (mattress pad, absorbant pad, sheet, absorbant pad, sheet, absorbant pad, sheet) so middle of the night leaks or spit ups are easily cleaned – just rip the top two layers off and everyone goes back to bed fast!

I’m sure there’s more rattling about in my mind, but for now I will leave you with these!  If any experienced mom has hints of her own, feel free to comment and we’ll have a nice compilation for a new mom or two!

Okay, so insomnia forces me to scroll through television channels in the middle of the night, looking for something that will entertain me but yet maybe soothe me to sleep.  Not an easy task, but eh.  So last night I’m browsing the channels, and accidentally (trust me, it was QUITE accidental) stopped on Rosie’s Family Cruise, or whatever it’s called… that special by Rosie O’Donnell, whom is on my most-disliked person in the world list next to Tom Cruise, Satan, and The One… but I digress.

So in the millisecond I paused on this channel, I hear her talking about her 9 year old son, and how he’s constantly asking to do things by himself, and she is just so frustrated with this, like he wants to go to the public bathroom by himself, and why don’t more places have mom/child bathrooms….

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Wait… are you like me and had to re-read that?

Yes.  9 years old.  And wants to go to the restroom by himself.

How DARE he!!!  I am shocked and stunned!!  The restroom?  ALONE?  At the young young age of NINE????

Please, someone tell me I mis-heard her at midnight.  Someone please tell me that this woman, this “mother”, really doesn’t take her 9 year old into women’s restrooms because he’s not old enough to do it by himself.  I will delete this thread if someone tells me she was talking about her 3 year old, or her 9 year old dog, or something other than her son…

Now, I apologize in advance if her little bundle of joy has a physical disability or a mental impairment that requires Mom’s help – but if it’s the same little boy they flashed on during the brief brief moment I had the show on, he looked perfectly capable to me.

Dear Lord, this borders on creepy, if not obscene.

http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=vn

The official word on Merck’s website is that these vaccines are not available for order. I’ve called Merck to ask if they are planning to start making more, but I can’t get anyone from the company to call me back. I have heard from numerous people and some news reports that Merck isn’t currently making the vaccine. I haven’t heard that they’ve decided to stop permanently, just that they aren’t producing any at this time. So, it’s pretty clear that, at least for the time being, there is no more to be had. It is probably safe to say that there won’t be any more for at least 6 months to 1 year. It is also possible that they won’t ever make the separate vaccines again.

I haven’t contacted American Medicine in Baton Rouge LA yet to see if they still have them separate – it looks like I’ll just put off Ayla’s until she’s four, per Dr. Sears’ recommendation in this article.

So sad that we don’t have control over our own health choices in America.  Land of the free?  Think again.

http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2009/01/just-birth.html

At its core, birth is so simple and yet such a mystery.

http://www.marchforlife.org/content/view/34/1/

You won’t see much, I’m sure, about this in the mainstream media, because our new “leader” (that pains me) thinks children are a punishment and is fine with killing them at any time for whatever reason, and the MSM would be censored, blackballed, or fired if they dare disagree with The One…. but I wanted to let everyone know it’s happening today, and my hopes and prayers are with the cause and that we can stop the senseless killing of innocent unborn babies.  God help us all fight this cause.

http://infantsleep.org/cryingitoutresearch.html

Hats off again to my friend over at phdinparenting blog for passing this information along.  It is our duty – responsibility – to ensure parents get the correct legitimate information they need from reliable sources, rather than from amateur chat rooms where the only advice that is given (or rather listened to) is by brand new mothers or mothers who are simply following the bandwagon mentality.  Or those given the BabyWise book at their babyshower, and think it’s a baby bible!

She really nails it when she finishes her blog past with her statement on ”mommy instincts”.

Does this saying, or a form thereof, make anyone else want to wrap their head in ducttape lest it explode?

This, along with “they will NEVER leave your bed/stop using a pacifier/fall asleep on their own if you rock them/stop their bottle/insert any other ‘bad’ habit here”, are a some of perhaps the most ignorant statements I read in today’s parenting chat rooms.  For example, if you co-sleep, they will NEVER leave your bed (yeah, my high schooler barely fits in anymore, right?)… the list goes on and on.

But the one that kills me, my biggest pet parenting peeve in the world, is the whole “my mother left me alone in a room all by myself to cry myself to sleep every night and I’m okay”.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

This whole theory that one does not need to parent a child to sleep needs to stop.  This whole mainstream Western Culture belief that you must “train” an infant to sleep, that it’s a bad thing to parent from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., that your infant has the biological, physical, and emotional ability to not only put themselves to sleep but also sleep throught the night from weeks of age on, MUST END. 

PERIOD.

Like a lot of things, when one grows up living it, the circle is rarely broken so that one perpetuates the behavior in their own lives.  Hitting a child (whoops, sorry – those that hit their kids prefer the term “spank”), abandoning them to cry themselves to sleep, etc. etc.  Usually, when it’s done to you as a child, you assume it’s okay to do it to your child.

Well, it’s not.

When I was a baby, carseats weren’t a law.  And I’m okay now.  Does that mean my children don’t need them?  Absolutely not.

When I was a teenager, seatbelts weren’t law.  Does that mean today I can go without them, because “I’m okay”?  Nope.

Lots of women are victims of domestic violence.  Today they’re okay.  Does that make wife beating okay?  Shouldn’t even need to answer that one.

Your mother may have given you condensed milk and karo syrup as a baby.  Or started you on that awful boxed pureed cardboard - I mean rice cereal - at just a few weeks old.  And you appear to be okay now.  So does that mean you should do the same?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  We now have proof - undisputable proof – that an infant should not have anything other than breastmilk (definitely preferred) or formula for the first six months of life.

But hey, your mom gave it to you, and you’re okay.  At least those of you not fighting allergies, obesity, diabetes, or other health problems that you probably didn’t realize were caused by the early introduction to solids.

But that’s not nearly the horror of the practice of  leaving your child alone to cry.  The whole theory behind “cry it out” is to train your infant to sleep without needing you.  The mom or dad.  The one who chose to let the sperm hit the egg, knowing your life was going to change (at least I assume you knew that) and you may not be as free as you was before.  Yup – you may have to miss an episode of Grey’s Anatomy to take care of your baby.  Yup – you may have to get up in the middle of the night to soothe a baby.  That’s called PARENTING.  It doesn’t end at 8 p.m. when you think it’s time for baby to go to sleep (or your TIVO’d soap opera is ready to be watched).   But to read that “your baby will NEVER get to sleep if you don’t do it” makes ME want to cry.  Your child isn’t learning to self-soothe.  Your child is learning to GIVE UP.

There is real evidence – real studies, real proof – that this method is harmful to a baby.  You spent nine months under the paranoid impression you couldn’t even so much as smell a cup of coffee, eat a ham sandwich, or sleep on your back because of the love/safety/security of your baby, yet you give birth to this little miracle and immediately think you need to start neglecting him -  I mean TRAINING him.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Some start this unacceptable practice when their little precious bundle is but a few weeks old.  How horrifying for that little being, barely out of the comfort of her mama’s womb, to be taught that no one cares because it’s dark outside?  What a scary place that must make a crib or a bedroom for her.  How sad that her little heart is racing, her blood pressure is rising, she has endorphins and hormones being released to her brain causing harm, her eyes seek out someone to hold her but no one’s there, her little arms and legs quiver with the sadness and fear she feels.

But that’s okay – you get to watch CSI without interruption.  You GO, mom!

I have had the information requested enough times that I figure I will blog it for you.  For those that are vaccinating your babies, and doing so with a delayed schedule (see mine here), I did find the place that will send the MMR vaccine in separate shots to your doctor. 

American Medicine will send them to your doc for about $135.00.   Well worth it, in my opinion!!!  I’ll be ordering them next month – they have a shelf life of about 18 months, so I still haven’t decided when she’ll get them.  Probably one every three or five months, I don’t know.

Hope that helps!

 

SEE THIS POST.  APPARENTLY SEPARATE MMR VAX NOT AVAILABLE – TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT, WE DON’T KNOW.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4418620.ece

Let’s just suppose, in some sick parallel universe, that you wanted your children to be abducted. Let’s imagine that you’d had enough of them and decided that your cunning plan was to chuck them out of the house then sit back and wait for some passing kid-snatcher to run off with them. How long do you think you’d have to wait? Warwick Cairns will tell you. It would take 200,000 years, he says. And then you’d get them back within 24 hours. If you wanted them to be taken for longer you’d need to hang about for around 600,000 years. Because in any one year the average child stands a 0.0005 per cent chance of being abducted by a stranger and a 0.00016 chance of not being recovered alive within 24 hours. And yet, obviously, this is not how most people perceive the risk at all.

 

Food for thought…

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