Opine

Andrew showed me this article today.   Take a minute and read it.

Okay,  got that?

Did anyone else become extremely confused by it?    Let's start at the beginning: 

But the Framingham mother of two boys, ages 2 and 5, also works full time. She sends her youngest to a local day-care center that serves breakfast, lunch, and two snacks and, like many programs, prohibits outside food.

What?  Our daycare doesn't provide any food for infants (I'm not sure what they would have provided since she was breastfed),  will provide breakfast (though Baby Girl eats breakfast at home) and snacks to toddlers.   I assume it's the same idea in the pre-school rooms.   But we send in her own lunch - and I'd be horrified if someone told me I couldn't decide what my child was eating.  What kind of daycare are these people using?

In Massachusetts, licensed child-care providers - including private and nonprofit centers, in-home day cares and preschools - must follow two regulations aimed at obesity prevention: Provide one hour of physical activity every six hours, and follow US Department of Agriculture guidelines.

ONE HOUR of physical activity every 6 hours?  One hour?  They are toddlers!  They should be running around all day!  That's what toddlers do!  That and paint really unrecognizable blobs that come home at the end of the day and I squint, stare, rotate, and even ask baby Girl what it is before I throw it away (I'm the best parent ever,  obvi)

“Eating a diet that is high in sugar and refined starch can train the palate from a very young age to accept only these tastes,’’ Rostler said. “In these cases, vegetables become bitter and very unacceptable for children, and as they get older it’s harder and harder for them to eat healthy.’’

Now I just have to brag.   My kid loves vegetables.   I don't know why, I think it's a little weird.   But she does.  She will eat broccoli or green beans over mashed potatoes. 


Mildred Kelley, who runs a day-care program out of her Quincy home, said if she serves carrot sticks or celery, she ends up tossing them out.
“What toddler you know wants carrots and celery sticks for their snack?’’ she said. 

Mildred Kelley,  you are the worst daycare provider ever.  You know what toddler eats carrots and celery sticks for their snack?  My kid does.   And do you know why?  Because she's a toddler and she eats what I put in front of her.  Oh, I've learned not to bother with rice.. or peach flavored yogurt... or summer squash (yet she devours zucchini.... strange),  but she eats what I give her.   I give her healthy snacks.  Ergo,  she eats healthy snacks.   Mildred,  I certainly hope you don't charge for your service.

I don't know a parent would put up with not being in charge of what their child eats.   The toddler room at our daycare serves whole milk (because toddlers are supposed to be on whole milk until at least 2 years old),  but after she turned 2,  we switched her down to 1% because of some other.... digestive issues that she has.   We told them we would provide her milk for her since we don't want her on whole anymore.  I never ASKED if it was okay - they don't get to decide what kind of milk my child drinks,  I do.   And (because Baby Girl goes to the best daycare ever) they told us that we did not have to provide it,  they give the pre-schoolers 1% milk and they are more than happy to fill my girl's cup from the pre-schooler's milk.  They rock.  


OF COURSE - this is separate from the allergy issue.   Our daycare is a peanut free facility and no matter what we tell them,  there will be no peanut or peanut product allowed in.   That's an entirely different (and understandable) issue.  

And on that note,  we've found Sunbutter to be an extremely good substitute for peanut butter. 

sorry

I know I haven't been posting much lately. We no longer have a power source for the laptop, and the desktop is 7.5 years old and is so full of crap that it literally takes 25 minutes to start and then for a program (ie firefox) to open can be another 10 minutes. We are talking painfully slow. Until we replace the power cord to the laptop, I'm afraid posting is going to be way lighter than usual.

In my absence, Amy Winehouse has died, which was tragically not surprising. Sad, yes - but not surprising. The woman had a very public battle with drugs and alcohol and she either had no desire to attempt to get her addiction under control or it just proved to be too much for her. Either way, her life was cut way too short because of her addictions.

Which brings me to my point. I cannot stand Katy Perry's song "Last Friday Night". Call me old, call me a prude, whatever - but that song sends the wrong message to kids/tweens/teens/college students.

There's a stranger in my bed,
There's a pounding my head
Glitter all over the room
Pink flamingos in the pool
I smell like a minibar
DJ's passed out in the yard
Barbie's on the barbeque

There's a hicky or a bruise
Pictures of last night
Eended up online
I'm screwed
Oh well
It's a black top blur
But I'm pretty sure it ruled

Last Friday night
Yeah we danced on tabletops
And we took too many shots
Think we kissed but I forgot

Last Friday night
Yeah we maxed our credit cards
And got kicked out of the bar
So we hit the boulevard

Last Friday night
We went streaking in the park
Skinny dipping in the dark
Then had a menage a trois
Last Friday night
Yeah I think we broke the law
Always say we're gonna stop-op
Whoa-oh-oah

This Friday night
Do it all again
This Friday night
Do it all again

Trying to connect the dots
Don't know what to tell my boss
Think the city towed my car
Chandelier is on the floor
With my favorite party dress
Warrants out for my arrest
Think I need a ginger ale
That was such an epic fail

Pictures of last night
Ended up online
I'm screwed
Oh well
It's a blacked out blur
But I'm pretty sure it ruled

That is not the lesson I want my Baby Girl learning. I don't want her thinking it's okay to get so trashed that you black out, you wake up with someone you don't know in your bed, max out your credit cards on alcohol, etc. I know, it's just a song, I shouldn't be so up in arms about it... but abusing alcohol KILLS PEOPLE. IT RUINS LIVES. Having fun with friends at a party or a bar - that's fine. That's more than fine. In fact, I'm counting the minutes until Friday night when I am going out with some friends for margaritas. But living the life in Katy Perry's song isn't that far off from Amy Winehouse's life - only Amy also did hard core narcotics - and it's not okay. It's not a good message to send to the listeners of top 40 pop music. Not knowing if you have a hickey or a bruise and having no idea who is lying in the bed next to you - that makes you a ho-bag. And no one wants that kind of reputation.

Okay, I'm stepping off my soapbox. My beer is getting warm :)

time to offend

In general, I try to stay away from overly controversial topics on my blog. I'm so middle of the road on pretty much every topic (except, as Andrew would say, my Quest to Save the World) that I'd be pretty boring if I did. Healthcare? Sure, bring it on! Except leave out the public option, because that's a little too "I want to be a socialist" for me. Abortion? No! Overturn Roe v. Wade. Except don't outlaw EVERY abortion. There's a huge gray area there. See what I mean? Middle of the road. Boring. I tend to see valid points in both sides of every argument.

But. And I'm going to offend some people here, but I don't understand why more people don't breastfeed their babies. I really don't get it. Yes, the first couple of weeks is hard. The baby has to learn, the mother has to learn, the father has to learn what he can do to help, etc. There's a lot of learning going on. And I wanted to give it up so many times in that first month. When BG would latch on and I thought I would die from the pain, visions of formula were dancing in my head. But I kept going. I was lucky, my mother really supported me in my determination to make it work. She kept telling me that it would get easier, the pain would go away, that in the long run it is SO much easier than bottles. And you know what? She was right. I don't feel a thing anymore. I don't have to worry about lugging formula, bottles, clean water, and whatever else you need around with me. I'm so glad I kept with it. My first goal was to make it until I went back to work. And now my goal is to make it till Christmas. If I make it till Christmas, I'm sure I will extend my goal, but right now all I have are short goals.

Going back to work was a huge obstacle for me. Luckily, I have good insurance and got a Medela double electric pump for free (which brings us back to healthcare... the fact that I got this pump for free and other monthers don't have access to it is just wrong. My baby isn't any more important than the mother without good insurance... why does that baby not get the advantages that BG gets?) so I am able to pump and send BG to daycare every day with breastmilk. Pumping at work is miserable. Right now I am in a satellite office that my company rents in an office building. There are no extra rooms available. I have to pump in the bathroom. In a stall. While standing up. In heels. So yeah, that sucks. But I do it. Also problematic - my supply has been diminishing. I went out this week and bought fenugreek, which is an herbal supplement that boots milk production. I've been drinking so much water that I might turn into a camel.

"I want my baby to sleep through the night and formula makes them sleep longer". The fear that breastfed babies won't sleep through the night is lame. My daughter has slept through the night since she was 4 weeks old. So I don't buy that. Babies will sleep through the night when they are ready. My baby was ready at 4 weeks, formula or not.

"I don't produce enough milk". Yes you do. Babies don't need to eat for the first few days of their life. I don't think BG actually ate anything at the hospital, despite the fact that I tried to nurse her every 2 hours. Your body will produce what your baby needs. All you have to do is feed them on demand. Breastfed babies need to eat when hungry, not according to the clock.

"It hurts". Yes it does. For about a month. Then it's fine. You can make it through that month. I did, with the help of my friend Mr. Tylenol.

"I have to go back to work". I work. I still breastfeed and I send BG to daycare with breastmilk. I will say that my boss is understanding and lets me pump through the day. Some women are not that lucky and can't pump at work. I say give it your best effort, but if your job or your boss won't allow for it, you can still nurse in the morning, at night, and on the weekends. You don't need to give it up entirely.

"I want my body back". So do I, my friends, so do I. That's why I make short goals for myself. I can make it till Christmas. The thought of making it a year seems daunting to me right now. But in the end, breast milk is just so much better for the babies than formula, so I keep on trying.

I can go on and on, but it comes down to my belief that more people should nurse their babies. You all have heard the benefits of breastfeeding over formula, so I am not even going to bother reiterating them here (just google it, if you don't believe me. But even the cans of formula say right on them that breastmilk is best).

Going to throw you for a loop here, but FORMULA IS NOT POISON. I am not against it. In fact, we have formula and BG has gone through about 2.5 cans of it already in her 15 weeks of life. Clearly there are times when she has to have it (when I was in a wedding and gone for the better part of 2 days... she needed to eat something). I don't judge women who formula feed their babies. I just think every woman owes it to her baby to give it her best shot. It's really not that hard. New mothers need a ton of support, and they also need support to keep going with breastfeeding. I would have given it up if I hadn't had my mother's support. It takes a village.

Okay, now we can go back to the regularly scheduled pointless blog entries :)