Babywearing

It's been a very busy year, and the blog has not been forgotten, but pushed onto the far end of the back shelf for a while.

Most of our time is currently dedicated to our new baby boy. Today's musings are about babywearing. There are only so many ways to carry a baby, yet there are so many carriers to choose from! Sifting through the options can be a bit daunting.

Some of my favorite articles discussing the various babywearing devices are at wearyourbaby.com. This is a huge resource for different types of devices used all over the world, and also has links on how to make your own baby carrier. There is a lot of information here!

If you are short on time, and just want a quick summary to guide you on a purchase of commercially available carriers, then this article is very helpful.

My babywearing experiences so far:

Moby Wrap

My favorite carrier by far is a wrap carrier, The Moby Wrap. It is simply a very long piece of cloth, about 18 yards long and 22 inches wide, with some tapering at the ends for ease in tying. wearyourbaby.com has directions to make your own, but I have been very happy with my purchase, as I don't own a serger to hem all the edges perfectly. It comes with an easy to follow instruction book. It actually is very easy to tie, and once you learn it, you can put your baby in the carrier in a variety of different ways. He's been in it since he was a newborn, and during the day he sleeps much longer in the moby than anywhere else. Between the cozy swaddling newborn position, the wearer's heartbeat and walking motions soothing the baby, and truly having your hands free to do chores, blog, etc, this has been indispensable. We ended up buying a second one for times when we suddenly needed to wash it, but still wanted to wear him cosily. Having the spare moby has also been very handy for passing the babywearing back and forth quickly.

Pros: comfortable, distributes baby's weight evenly for much less body strain, fits everyone (both baby and wearer) well, many positions to wear the baby, machine washable, less expensive than many other carriers ($39.95)

Cons: too hot in hot weather, people are hesitant to use it because they think it will be too hard to learn, ends drag on the ground when you are putting it on

New Native Carrier

The New Native is a very simple, non-adjustable sling that you purchase in your size. It is a tube with a curvy end at the bottom for a little extra pouch space for the baby. As with most carriers, you can wear your baby in front, on your hip, or on your back, but I find that I only use this carrier to have the baby sit in front, and near my hip, as he is not the right age/size for any of the other carries. I found that in my proper size carrier, I cannot easily wear the baby heart-to-heart. To wear the baby higher, I made a sling out of an old, stretchy t-shirt pictured on the right (just cut horizontally, so that you have a tube). It doesn't reach down as far, so the baby sits up high in a more natural position.

Pros: very easy to use, you can pass the baby to another person or into the carseat without disturbing him, comfortable in hot weather, machine washable, compact for travel, less expensive than many other carriers ($42)

Cons: not comfortable for long episodes of wearing as the weight is on one shoulder, must buy the right size which may limit who can wear it, fewer carries available

Baby Bjorn

The baby bjorn carriers are a structured soft carrier, with buckles and straps which adjust the carrier to the wearer. There are currently five models to choose from, some which provide more lumbar support, others which are lighter weight. Prices range anywhere from $54 to $160.

I find it takes a while to adjust the carrier the first time, but once it is adjusted, it is fairly fast to put on and take off. If you are sharing the carrier with another wearer, then you end up wasting a lot of time adjusting back and forth. Once in a while you will also need to adjust the carrier to the growing baby too. I find the carrier fairly comfortable, as the straps are wide and padded. My husband complains that the center of gravity while wearing the baby is not as comfortable as in the moby wrap.

Pros: somewhat comfortable, fairly easy to use (step by step illustrated directions were on the inside of mine), wide price range to choose from

Cons: adjusting between users is a chore, limited ways to wear the baby (only able to wear in front, facing in or out)

Next carrier to try:

Mei Tai

The mei tai, or Asian based carrier (ABC), is a simple unstructured soft carrier that is easy to use. It ties around the waist, then around the baby and shoulders. It's not as good for newborns because it doesn't swaddle as well, but now that the baby is 3 months old, that is no longer an issue. Since it's been hot lately, I am looking for a less warm carrier, and the mei tai fits the bill. I'm also getting ready to try wearing the baby on my back, but I don't feel comfortable wrestling with 6 yards of moby wrap. I've ordered a beautiful used one from ebay, and am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

Here are some links on how to wear it:

Mei Tai Baby slide show

Great youtube video showing front and back carries

Pieceless Jigsaw Puzzle: no pieces to lose!

I don't know how hard the puzzles actually are, but I love the idea.

Check out the ad/video:



Or, just go to their website.

Aquadots, now with GHB, and being recalled

Aquadots are a cool toy that uses individual beads of different colors that fuse together with the application of water. Easier to use the perler beads, which you fuse together with an iron, these toys have gotten very popular recently.

Unfortunately for kids, they contain GHB (Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid), 'a powerful date rape drug', when eaten. From wikipedia: GHB is used as a general anesthetic, to treat conditions such as insomnia, clinical depression, narcolepsy, and alcoholism, and to improve athletic performance...GHB may induce nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, agitation, visual disturbances, depressed breathing, amnesia, unconsciousness, and death.

From FOX News:

Millions of Chinese-made toys for children have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

I hope teenagers don't start raiding their younger siblings' toyboxes trying to figure out the right dose of aquadots to take!

Good cop, bad cop helpful for children's emotional development

Well, sorta.

From Science Daily:

A new University of Illinois study in the September/October issue of Child Development suggests that young children benefit when mothers and fathers differ in their reactions to their child's negative emotions.
The researchers found that when one parent provided little support in response to a child's feelings of anger or anxiety and the other parent provided a lot of support, the child had less conflict with friends and a better understanding of emotions.

It's important for parents to be supportive, but having one parent offer support and problem solving, while the other parent let the child sit with their feelings to learn to process them, seemed to let kids both build their own emotion modulation skills and maintain healthy egos.

When that happens, the child is more likely to gain experience in understanding and controlling his emotions. He may also benefit from seeing different types of reactions, realize that there are different ways of looking at things, and thus develop more complex thinking about and understanding of emotions, she said.
"We're hypothesizing that if both parents rush in to help the child, the child doesn't have a chance to experience negative feelings and learn how to manage them," she said.
The researcher emphasized that "hanging back" isn't the same as punishing a child for being upset or minimizing those feelings. The second parent should also be supportive, but quietly so, she said.

The article also talks about differences between boys and girls, and also smaller differences around whether the mother or the father plays the less supportive role.
Some of their closing conclusions:

Of the study's findings, McElwain said, "They're somewhat counterintuitive. You'd think the more support a child receives when she's upset, the better off she'd be. But the study shows that sometimes less is more."
She encourages couples to think about how they respond to a young child's anger, anxiety, or frustration as a parental unit, not as individuals. That's particularly important if a child has many negative episodes, she said.
"When you react to a negative emotion, I'd suggest that one parent step back a bit and let the other parent handle it," she said.

Makes sense to me.

OLPC on sale starting November 12, 2007

In the spirit of the One Laptop Per Child program, when you buy 1, you will automagically be giving another one to a child in a developing nation. More about this at the Give 1 Get 1 Program.

Originally targeted to cost $100, these laptops are currently $188 each. A donation of $399 allows the first 25,000 consumers to participate in the above program, starting on November 12, 2007.

Karnataka, India to ban cell phones for children under 16

Pic: courtesy of BBC

Strange but true. Makes me wonder about the political alliances in that country, and who controls the money/power.

According to yahoo news:

While cell phone [use] is banned in most schools in the state, the government plans to ban it outside the school zone and 'will consider whether to authorize police to enforce the ban,' Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti and Health Minister R Ashok said at a press conference in Bangalore Tuesday. 'The government is taking the decision to ban cell use by children less than 16 years on the basis of advice of medical experts. Prolonged use of cell by teenagers does affect their health,' they said.

They also plan on issuing guidelines to cell phone dealers to not sell phones to anyone under 16.

I'm glad that I don't live in a country that tries to control their people in so many ways. At least India's menses reporting requirement was withdrawn quickly, and I hope this will soon follow suit.

Learn about your brain: the Video Game

The video gives you an idea of the graphics, as well as the target audience (citations are annoyingly targeted at parents).

From Corante:
Neuromatrix is an NIH-funded video game developed to teach children about their brains.

In the game, you play a secret agent infiltrating a top-secret neuroscience research facility. Your mission: to track down and root out the Nanobots that have invaded the brains of the scientists there. If you fail, the Nanobots and the secret entity that spawned them will take over the Earth, reprogramming the human brain into docile submission.

The game was developed by Morphonix and is recommended for kids age 10-15.

Watching TV is bad for blood sugar control

In this photo illustration two young children watch television at home, January 27, 2005 in London, England. (Photo Illustration by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Dr. Hanna Margeirsdottir of the University of Oslo is studying children with Type 1 diabetes. This is the type of diabetes where the body does not produce insulin, and people need to take insulin daily.

From physorg:

The study involved 538 children with an average age of 13. In Norway, about 25,000 people have Type 1 diabetes. In the United States, there are 3 million with the condition and about 30 million worldwide. The study evaluated results of a routine test that measured average blood-sugar control over three months. There was a continuous increase in the level of blood sugar with every hour of TV watched, rising to the highest level for those who watched at least four hours daily.

It's unclear whether it is because of snacking while eating, or because kids are sedentary instead of being active, or if there are other lifestyle factors involved with households' relationship to TV viewing, or even if there is any influence from the type of ads being displayed, but the bottom line is: increased TV time is connected to increased blood sugar, which is unhealthy.

School lunch vending machines: tracking so much more

From cnet:

"Instead of standing in one of eight long lunch lines during a 30-minute break, students at Sebastian River can walk up to one of the refrigerated vending machines, punch in a PIN code and student ID number, and buy milk, a bag of sliced carrots and a turkey sandwich, among other options. The machine prompts students to make choices that complete a balanced diet under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which officially approved the machines for use in schools on January 22. The school also calls the machines "healthy" because they don't sell carbonated soft drinks or fried and sugary snacks. "

The machine keeps track of prepaid accounts for students, and keeps track of disbursements to low income kids and the 'free lunch program' so that schools can be later reimbursed by the government.

Parents can log in online to MealPayPlus to see what and when their child ate during the day, and to add money to the account.

The machine also has a camera so they can take pics of who is actually purchasing the meal to prevent bullies from stealing PINs and IDs.

So much for the lunch lady.

http://news.com.com/Machines+give+kids+lessons+in+food,+finance/2009-1041_3-6185887.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

Another parenting must: Mediation training

"Science Daily — Children whose parents were trained in mediation skills had better conflict-resolution skills than those whose parents did not receive training. That's the finding of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and published in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development."

This skill would be useful in so many aspect of every day life that they should add it to the home economics curriculum. Just as important as learning to cook, or carrying an egg around in a basket for days on end.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070517063046.htm

Reverse alarm clock: helping kids let parents sleep

Pic: The moonset and sunrise calculator controls a "sky display," illustrating time in a way that young children can understand by using images of the sun, moon and stars. (Credit: Image courtesy of Carnegie Mellon)

"Science Daily — John Zimmerman, an associate professor in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design and Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has developed an unconventional alarm clock every new parent needs — a clock to keep their children sleeping. Called the Reverse Alarm Clock, the product aims to keep young children from interrupting their parents' sleep. "

Complete with bedtime music, wake up music, and simple icons (moon, sun, stars) to let the child know when they should still be sleeping, when they can get up but not interrupt the adults, and when it's time to get up for the day.
As long as the child cooperates, this can be a simple, useful tool until they are old enough to recognize numbers.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070514110501.htm

TV Food Ads Increase Obese Children's Appetite By 134%

"Science Daily — Obese and overweight children increase their food intake by more than 100% after watching food advertisements on television; a study by the University of Liverpool psychologists has shown.

A group of 60 children of varying weights, aged between nine and eleven years was shown a series of both food television adverts and toy adverts, followed by a cartoon. Food intake following the food adverts was significantly higher compared with the toy adverts in all weight groups, with the obese children increasing their consumption by 134%; overweight children by 101% and normal weight children by 84%."

Also of note, the fattest kids chose the highest fat foods, whereas the merely obese group chose slightly less fattening fare. I wonder what would happen if you laced their snacks with leptin?

Yet another reason to either a) avoid TV altogether, or b) get a personal video recorder (PVR) . Makes me grateful yet again for my replaytv. And now we have even greater data to support that commericals really can be detrimental to your health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070424130951.htm

Your first dose is only $3: Getting developing countries hooked on Microsoft

From engadget:

"Microsoft will be selling a package containing full-fledged versions (well, kinda) of its OS and office software to eligible countries for a mere three-bucks-a-pop. Starting sometime in the second half of the year, less-developed nations that agree to provide free computers for their school systems will be able to participate in the latest effort in Microsoft's Unlimited Potential initiative, which nets them a bundle containing XP Starter Edition, Office Home and Student 2007, as well as various other educational titles..."

At least Microsoft is honest about it: "This is not a philanthropic effort: this is a business."

The computer market of developing countries is at stake, and Microsoft is hoping to dominate over OLPC and other competitors in this huge untapped market by mass distribution and a 'cheap' initial investment.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/19/microsoft-will-sell-3-software-to-developing-countries/

Kids average 50 hours a year of junk food ads

Newsweek article about a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"...researchers looked at 1,638 hours of programming and analyzed nearly 9,000 food and beverage ads. They found that none of the food advertisements targeted to kids were for fruits or vegetables, and more than half the ads they saw were for candy, snacks or fast food...In compiling the report, Kaiser researchers looked at a week's worth of content from 6 a.m. to midnight between May and September of 2005. They collected data from the parents of more than 4,000 children to determine how much time kids watched TV and how much time they spent watching children's shows (where the amount of ads are limited by law, but where more ads, 50 percent of all ad time, are for food) as well as non-children's programming. "

And, it gets better.
"Thirty-four percent of the ads were for candy and snacks, 25 percent were for cereal and 10 percent were for fast foods."

It's just depressing.

Makes me relieved that I've trained my 5 year old to watch via replaytv, and to skip commercials. When she was younger, there were occasions when we watched live tv and she would pick up the remote control to fast forward when a commercial came on and disappointingly said, 'It's not working'. Wish I got that on video.

I know that ideally we're not supposed to let kids watch tv in the first place. But realistically, I'm hoping more kids will be increasingly accustomed to PVRs, and won't have to sit thru the obesity generators in the future.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17838488/site/newsweek/

But wait, there's more! :-)

I don't really care for Tivo, since I am a replaytv fan myself, but in the interest of more PVRs in the world, I saw this deal go by today:

http://www.dealhack.com/archives/2007/04/free_80hour_series2_tivo_wtih.html

The 'Essence' of security blankets

A study in England looks at 3-6 year old children's attachments to their cherished items.

"Children were introduced to a scientific looking machine that could copy any object but was in fact a conjurer’s cabinet where an accomplice inserted replica items from behind a screen.
Professor Hood said: “When offered the choice of originals and copies, children showed no preference for duplicates of their toys unless the object to be copied was the special one that they took to bed every night. A quarter of children refused to have their favourite object copied at all, and most of those who were persuaded to put their toy in the copying machine wanted the original back.”"

To explain this, the researchers have this hypothesis: "Hood and Bloom liken this early reasoning to adult notions of ‘essences’ where we think invisible properties inhabit objects that make them unique as if these properties were physically real. This may explain why some adults think that authentic works of art and memorabilia contain some of the essence of the original creator or owner. Likewise, it also partly explains our reluctance to touch or wear items previously owned by murderers."

Makes me wonder about the evolutionary benefits of this, much like the hypothesis that humans are hardwired to believe in God.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070307161756.htm

Genes, stressed out parents, and shy kids?

Seems like a strange connection, but "New research from the Child Development Laboratory at the University of Maryland shows that shyness in kids could relate to the manner in which a stress-related gene in children interacts with being raised by stressed-out parents."

"Like all genes, the particular serotonin-related gene examined in this study has 2 alleles, which can be long or short. The protein produced by the short form of the gene is known to predispose towards some forms of stress sensitivity.
Fox's research found that among children exposed to a mother's stress, it was only those who also inherited the short forms of the gene who showed consistently shy behavior.
"If you have two short alleles of this serotonin gene, but your mom is not stressed, you will be no more shy than your peers as a school age child," says Fox. "But we found that when stress enters the picture, the gene starts to show a strong relationship to the child's behavior," says Fox. "If you are raised in a stressful environment, and you inherit the short form of the gene, there is a higher likelihood that you will be fearful, anxious or depressed.""

This is a nice description of the interplay between genetics and environment. Both parts need to be present for a particular effect to manifest.

Clinical implications: Yet another argument for medicating psychiatric illnesses when people are undecided. This is especially true for post partum depression, when new moms have an episode of major depression shortly after childbrith (within the first month). Some worry about medicating women who are breastfeeding because of risks of antidepressant exposure via breastmilk to the infants, but research (including this study) supports that babies do better psychologically and developmentally when moms are not depressed, and are better able to bond, and attend to their infants.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070302111100.htm

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

Most socially conscious geeks are probably already well aware of this project, but I still think it's worth highlighting and following.

Background info: "The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is aimed at ensuring children around the world don't miss out on learning how to use computers. The fear is that the high cost of computers is keeping too many people in developing countries from learning how the software, Internet and communications benefits of computing can improve their economies, job prospects and lives, a conundrum commonly referred to as the digital divide." The original goal was to make these for less than $100 each. They've currently got the unit cost down to $130, but expect to meet their target by 2008.

Quanta Computer has already confirmed orders for one million laptops for OLPC. They hope to ship 5 to 10 million units this year alone, because the governments of 7 countries have already committed to buy laptops for their schoolchildren (Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay). (Yahoo News).

For the latest news on OLPC: http://www.olpcnews.com/

Kids, toys, and growing up way too fast!

Nice article about some cool new toys being presented at the American International Toy Fair next week.

Some of my favorites:

• The $55 Technokids Graphic Tablet, for example, features Click & Create With Mia -- a kind of Photoshop for tots that teaches kids to draw, paint and animate shapes on screen, and allows them to create posters, invitations and birthday cards.
• Concept Enterprises will be introducing a SmartKids laptop for children aged 3 to 6 that features a piano keyboard and bilingual programs in Spanish and English.
• Jazwares will be showing off its Marvel Ani-Movie Studio, which allows kids to create digital stop-motion films starring Marvel Comics characters.
• And there will be the inevitable iPod accessories, including Pressman Toy's iGamez, which allows kids to play a digital version of Name That Tune.

And for the calorie oriented:

Fisher-Price is also introducing the Smart Cycle, a small stationary bike that allows kids to peddle their way through a virtual environment on a standard television set. Kids can race other on-screen vehicles, and play a variety of educational games: picking up letters or numbers, or spelling various words. The faster they pedal, the faster the game.


http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,72674-0.html?tw=rss.index