10 Things that New Mothers should know

Unfortunately, no matter how many books you read or how prepared you feel you may be, babies have their own special way of being and you have to adapt to it.

From your breastfeeding troubles and postpartum bleeding to baby’s colic and indecipherable crying. Here are some young mothers' most unexpected, unforgettable moments as a new parent.

Breastfeeding isn’t always easy.
If you’re not getting the hang of breastfeeding right away, don’t beat yourself up. Despite what you may have heard, it doesn’t always come so naturally.

Whether baby’s not latching right or you can’t seem to boost your milk supply, there are a number of potential frustrations and they’re all totally normal.

Don;t give up! Make sure you’ve read up on possible solutions to your breastfeeding problems; you may find that a small change to your routine is a real lifesaver.

It’s also important to realize that you’re not alone. First, talk to a health professional. Failing that chat with other new mamas or join a support group.

Most newborn clothes will go to waste.
Yep, despite all the sleep deprivation and constant exhaustion, those first couple months sure do fly by.

The likelihood that baby will get a decent run out of every newborn outfit in his closet is pretty slim.

So don’t go crazy registering for or buying up tons of adorable outfits in newborn sizes and whatever you do, don’t go nuts with newborn shoes either, cute as they are.

Baby will likely spend a lot of those first three months in and out of romper suits instead of fancy outfits, and you’ll be changing him so much, thanks to spit-up and diaper mishaps that most of them will hardly see the light of day.

Newborns poops are noisy and messy.
Noisy, smelly, and yes, sometimes explosive, newborn poops are certainly not for the weak-stomached.

Something else to keep in mind is that Baby’s poop will be pretty liquidy in that newborn stage, meaning it won’t take much to send it flying. Always carry wipes and a change of baby clothes.

Going back to work is hard.
Heading back to work is rough on every mother and missing your baby when you’re away can be overwhelming.

Before you head back to work, make sure you set up a childcare situation that makes you 100 percent comfortable, whether it’s a live-in nanny, a daycare system, or a friend or relative.

Then do what you can to stay in the loop during the day by asking your nanny to give you certain updates or calling the daycare periodically to check in.

Keeping the lines of communication open will make you feel less disconnected from baby.

"Getting to know and like" baby can take a while.
It’s totally normal to have a hard time adjusting to motherhood at first, not everything comes naturally and not everyone snaps into “mom mode” the second after they give birth.

Same goes for feeling that instant connection to baby. Give yourself a break, and remember your body is going through a lot of hormonal shifts after delivery that will eventually pass.

But do remember that if the feelings don’t go away, or if they’re too difficult to handle on your own, talk to a health professional who will help you get to the root of the problem.

You will bleed postpartum.
We know, donning those life-raft-sized pads in the weeks after delivery is no picnic for anyone, but at least you can take comfort in the fact that they’re only temporary.

Your bleeding should last only for a few days max and if it doesn’t, contact your doctor. After that, it may change to a discharge that will last up to several weeks.

You won’t have time for anything else.
While having a baby definitely uses most of your “me” time in the beginning, but you need to be able to set up a system with your partner or relatives, for doing things like basic chores and running errands.

Try devising a plan of attack well before baby arrives and vowing to stick to it as much as possible. Sure, it may be easier said than done before baby comes, but you need to make sure that some semblance of routine is kept up, if only to maintain your relationship with your partner and your own sanity.

You won’t always know what your baby's cry means.
It’s definitely frustrating and emotional when you feel like you’ve tried everything to calm baby and nothing works.

The good news is that you can be taught by a health professional and you’ll eventually come to learn exactly what baby wants the more time you spend with her.

Pay attention to the way the baby cries. A low-pitched cry often means she’s hungry, whereas a high-pitched one means she might be in pain, especially if she draws her knees up at the same time.

If her cries build in intensity, she may be tired and if she’s just plain bored, her cry may sound like a passing whimper.

Baby may have sleeping problems.
It can take a few weeks for baby to sort out the difference between night and day. If it continues too long then your health and your relationship with your partner will suffer. Seek advice as early as possible.

Take baby outside for at least an hour each day, the new experiences will stimulate her. Then, at nighttime, prior to going to bed, avoid any stimulation at all, no light, no singing, and no talking.

Sleep is a specialist subject and for more key information on sleep issues and their resolution contact Deirdre at Dream-Angus

Colic is a nightmare.
The dreaded colic (or reflux) affects up to 25 percent of infants. Several reasons can cause this and in most cases these have to be determined by a health professional.

Some colic /reflux goes un-diagnosed and is put down to a 'grumbling' baby or one that doesn't sleep but experienced health support professionals should be able to detect it.

Contact Deirdre at Dream-Angus for more information on Colic /Reflux, as well as breast-feeding, sleep and feeding.

Baby knows best: Baby-led weaning promotes healthy food preferences

A new study by psychologists has shown that babies who are weaned using solid finger food are more likely to develop healthier food preferences and are less likely to become overweight as children than those who are spoon-fed pureed food. (Credit: © Anna Omelchenko / Fotolia)

A new study by psychologists at The University of Nottingham has shown that babies who are weaned using solid finger food are more likely to develop healthier food preferences and are less likely to become overweight as children than those who are spoon-fed pureed food.

The research just published by BMJ Open set out to examine the impact of weaning style on food preferences and Body Mass Index in early childhood in a sample of 155 children.

Co-author of the study, Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, Dr Ellen Townsend, said: "Although numerous studies have focused on when to introduce solid foods into an infant's diet there is a dearth of evidence concerning the impact of different weaning methods on food preferences and health prospects.

We believe our report is the first piece of research to examine whether weaning method can influence food preferences and the future health of the child."

Co-researcher Dr Nicola Pitchford, added: "Our study has produced some very interesting findings. The research suggests that baby-led weaning has a positive impact on the liking of foods that form the building blocks of healthy nutrition, such as carbohydrates.

Baby-led weaning promotes healthy food preferences in early childhood which may protect against obesity."

The researchers enlisted the Nottingham Toddler Lab, based in the School of Psychology, and various relevant websites to recruit parent volunteers for the study.

They all had children between the ages of 20 months and 6½ years and agreed to complete a questionnaire about their experiences of infant feeding and weaning style. 92 parents used baby-led weaning in which the baby is allowed to feed him or herself from a range of solid finger food after the age of 6 months.

63 parents surveyed used traditional spoon-feeding in which they fed their babies smooth purees and increased the texture and range of foods as they grew.

The study also examined the child's preference for 151 different types of food in the common food categories of carbohydrates, proteins and dairy etc. It also took into account the frequency of consumption of each food type and the effect of age on food preference.

Between the two weaning groups, significant differences in preference were found for only one food category -- the baby-led group liked carbohydrates more than the spoon-fed group.

In fact, carbohydrates was the most liked food category for the baby-led group whereas sweet foods was most liked by the spoon-fed group.

The psychologists believe that understanding the factors that contribute to healthy nutrition in early childhood is crucial as this could be the best time to modify food preferences to encourage healthy diets.

The findings show that baby-led weaning has a positive impact on the liking of carbohydrates -- foods that form the building blocks of healthy nutrition. This is a significant result since, up to now, the factors thought to be most influential on early food preferences are sweetness and frequency of exposure.

It was found that children's preference and rate of exposure to foods were not influenced by socially desirable responding, i.e. parents putting down what they think they should report, or socio-economic status, although an increased liking of vegetables was associated with higher social class.

There was an increased incidence of underweight children in the baby-led group and higher obesity rates in the spoon-fed group. But, no difference in picky eating was found between the two weaning groups.

The research project concludes that weaning style does have an impact on food preferences and health in early childhood.

The results suggest that infants weaned through the baby-led method learn to regulate their food intake in a way which leads to a lower BMI and a preference for healthy foods like carbohydrates.

The research team believe their work has important implications for combating the well-documented rise of obesity in contemporary society.

The full report 'Baby knows best? The impact of weaning style on food preferences and Body Mass Index in early childhood in a case-controlled sample' can be found at bmjopen.bmj.com

Poor Maternal Diet Increases Risk of Diabetes in babies

A new study showed that individuals who were not properly nourished while in the womb have reduced ability to store fact correctly later in life, putting them at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and other age-related diseases.

The findings could lead to new ways identifying people who are at a greater risk of developing these diseases, researchers said.

According to the team from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester, the research showed that poor diet in the womb cause the individual's inability to store fats correctly as he matures.

Proper fat storage in the body is important, otherwise, these will be stored in the liver and muscle which could lead to diseases.

"One of the ways that our bodies cope with a rich modern western diet is by storing excess calories in fat cells.

When these cells aren't able to absorb the excess then fats get deposited in other places, like the liver, where they are much more dangerous and can lead to type 2 diabetes," said Professor Anne Willis of the MRC Toxicology Unit.

Researchers found that the process of storing excess calories in fat cells is controlled by a molecule called miR-483-3p, which produced at higher levels in individuals who had experienced a poor diet in their mother's wombs than those who were better nourished.

According to the team, miR-483-3p works by suppressing a protein called GDF3.

A study of a group of adult humans who were born with a low birth weight revealed that GDF3 protein was present at around only thirty percent of the levels found in people born at a normal

"It has been known for a while that your mother's diet during pregnancy plays an important role in your adult health, but the mechanisms in the body that underlie this aren't well understood.

We have shown in detail how one mechanism links poor maternal diet to diabetes and other diseases that develop as we age," according to Dr Susan Ozanne, a British Heart Foundation Senior Fellow, who led the work at the University of Cambridge.

"Improving people's diets and encouraging exercise is clearly the best way to combat the epidemic of diabetes and diet-related disease which is sweeping through our society.

However some people are at particular risk of these diseases, despite not looking visibly overweight.

This research will hopefully allow us to help these people to take precautionary steps to reduce their likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes," Professor Willis said.

The findings of the study was published in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation.

Childhood Obesity: Dads more likely than moms to impact

A father’s use of restaurants and his perceptions of family meals carry more weight, so to speak, than mothers’, according to a Texas AgriLife Research study, published recently in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

“Dads who think that dinner time is a special family time certainly do not see a fast-food restaurant as an appropriate place for that special family time, so this means that his kids are spending less time in those places."

"Dads who have no trouble eating food in a fast-food restaurant are going to be more likely to have kids who do so,” said Dr. Alex McIntosh, AgriLife Research sociologist.

Childhood obesity study points to father’s role

New research indicates that father’s are more likely than mother’s to have an impact on childhood obesity. A study by Texas AgriLife Research showed that lenient fathers allow their children more trips to fast-food restaurants which have been linked to obesity in children. (Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips)

The study began as a 15-month look at parents’ use of time and how that impacted meal choices. It aimed at the difference between fast-food and full-service restaurants because numerous studies have shown a correlation between fast-food consumption and weight gain.

Of particular interest for the research, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was parental choice of restaurants as a connection to childhood obesity, McIntosh said.

Almost as an afterthought, the researchers decided to ask children in these families also to record what they ate and whether it was at home or out. If a meal was eaten out, the name of the restaurant was not required.

“It never occurred to me that we would have data on them eating out and where they were eating out. But the kids — if they said they ate out, they always wrote down where they ate by the name of the restaurant,” McIntosh said. “So it was just a matter of tracking down information about the restaurant to find out if they were full-service or more like a fast-food place.”

Read more of this article here

Parental influence on children's feeding habits

As primary caregivers, parents are often believed to have a strong influence on children’s eating habits and behaviours. However, previous findings on parent-child resemblance in dietary intakes are mixed.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reviewed and assessed the degree of association and similarity between children’s and their parents’ dietary intake based on worldwide studies published since 1980. The meta-analysis is featured in the December issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“Contrary to popular belief, many studies from different countries, including the United States, have found a weak association between parent-child dietary intake,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, MS, lead author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health.

“This is likely because young people’s eating patterns are influenced by many complex factors, and the family environment plays only a partial role.

More attention should be given to the influence of the other players on children’s eating patterns such as that of schools, the local food environment and peer influence, government guidelines and policies that regulate school meals, and the broader food environment that is influenced by food production, distribution and advertising.”

He added, “Parents need to be better empowered to be good role models and help their children eat a healthy diet.”

More on this story at Science Blog

Children's Health Magazine and The New American Diet

Children's Health Magazine : Babies : The New American Diet

Exposure to pesticides and other toxins in pregnancy and early childhood can set your baby up for obesity later in life. Here's your stay-safe plan.

Of all the scary things to worry about when you're pregnant, there's one that's probably not on your radar, even though it affects almost every baby born: exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

When we began researching the forthcoming book The New American Diet (Rodale, 2009), we knew that traditional diet advice just wasn't working anymore. Simple principles--eat less fat, choose chicken or fish over beef, eat plenty of vegetables--were based on science from the middle of last century, and the world has changed since then.

From the hidden calories in many processed products to the way our meat and produce are being raised, today's food is very different from what we ate 50 years ago, and traditional diet advice simply doesn't take those factors into consideration.

But the deeper we dug, the more we realized that America's obesity epidemic had a sneaky underlying cause few of us consider in making our nutritional choices: Simply put, we're eating and drinking too many EDCs.

They enter our food chain through pesticides on produce, and through plastics that leach into our food and water. In a recent statement by the Endocrine Society, the largest organization of experts devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology, researchers noted that the rise in the incidence of obesity matches the rise in the use and distribution of EDCs, and concluded that they may be linked to the obesity epidemic.