Dawnrachele’s Weblog

http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/SE/20071210/NEWS/712100332

Safer car seats face rear to age 2: study

By Jennifer L. Boen

Research published in this month’s Injury Prevention journal could spur the federal government to scrap its recommendation that children older than 1 can ride in a forward-facing car seat.

Between 1988 and 2003, children 12 to 23 months old were five times more likely to be seriously injured when riding in forward-facing car seats than in rear-facing seats, according to data cited in the study.

Dr. Marilyn Bull at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis co-authored the article. She is medical director and founder of the Automotive Safety Program and Kohl’s Center for Safe Transportation of Children, both at Riley.

“It is really a dramatic difference for the 1- to 2-year-olds,” Bull said.

In frontal crashes, the differences in injuries in rear-facing vs. forward-facing car seats were not statistically significant. But researchers noted that overall statistics for infants and 1-year-olds involved in any type of crash show rear-facing seats were 93 percent effective compared with 78 percent for forward-facing.

“The rear-facing seat is more protective, we think, because the forces are distributed over the entire back,” Bull said. “With forward-facing, the harness straps assume the force over the smallest part of the body.”

She likened it to a strong finger-push to the forehead compared to an entire hand. “There’s a lot more force in a localized place. In the rear-facing seat the force is distributed over the head and the entire body. We think it also provides a kind of cocooning effect,” Bull said.

Children in rear-facing seats did not sustain spine injuries, Bull said. There were some head injuries, but not to the extent found in forward-facing infants and toddlers.

“Spine injuries definitely occur in the forward-facing seats,” she said. Children in rear-facing seats are more likely to sustain injuries to their extremities, which Bull said are more reparable and usually less likely to have lifelong consequences.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s current guidelines dictate that a child should be 1 year old and weigh at least 20 pounds before using a forward-facing car seat. No state statute requires rear-facing seats for a particular age-group or minimum weight.

The American Academy of Pediatrics in 1996 found that children should remain in rear-facing seats past age 1. But the authors said, “This message is somewhat overshadowed by the more highly publicized 12 months- and 20-pounds guideline.”

Bull hopes the data will be the catalyst for parents to use the convertible-type seat in the rear-facing position until their children are at least 2, and that pediatricians will also discuss the benefits of rear-facing seats with parents.

The findings have significant implications for car-seat and vehicle manufacturers. Bull said most children of average height and weight can comfortably remain rear-facing up to age 2 in a convertible-type seat. But if further data shows benefits for children to sit rear-facing past age 2, cars would have to be built differently.

“It would take a whole change in the federal motor vehicle safety standard process,” Bull said — something that takes years to accomplish.

Larger seats are available in Europe. In Sweden, for example, children must remain in rear-facing seats until age 4, but Bull said cars are designed so seats sit in a pod-like place, with more leg room.

Keeping children rear-facing longer can bring additional frustration to parents who cannot see whether their child’s pacifier has fallen out or if the child is asleep. Children, too, like to see their parents and get a straight-ahead view of the scenery. Bull cautions against putting mirrors on the back seat, which can become projectiles during an accident and hurt a child.

“We’d certainly talk about things like soft toys, soft books, more amusing things for the child,” she said. “It is very possible that car manufacturers might figure out how to use those video (screens) so kids could see them.”

In Indiana, 85 percent of infants under 1 are riding in rear-facing seats, and Bull would like that number to be 100 percent.

“Armed with the information we now have, it is imperative for parents to keep their children rear-facing in car seats longer,” she said.

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I only rated ’36’, ah well.

I’d forgotten how tired you become when your pregnant.

The way we get Cayden to sleep is we lay next to him in his dbl bed with lights out and he’s usually asleep in 15 minutes. Usually I’m rolling out of the bed in hardly any time at all. But lately I can’t seem to last 5 minutes without falling asleep. Now the funny thing is I also have mild insomnia, so I wake up at 12:30 (usually on the dot) and have to get up because I’m so wide awake. Tyson is often still up, so I’ll pee and go into the living room, have a snack, watch a couple minutes of whatever Weeds episode he’s on and I’m asleep again on the couch within 5 minutes.

Luckly Cayden has been a super sleeper lately. He’s been sleeping from 9-5:30 or 6, which is crazy. I remember when he was waking every 2 hours and I used to think this would never happen. And Tyson being able to get him down at night has been incredible. Sure I can’t be home when this happens, but its a start 🙂

I’m 9 weeks pregnant tomorrow. This pregnancy is happening REALLY fast and REALLY slow all at the same time, very wierd!

http://www.i-am-pregnant.com/Pregnancy/calendar/week/9

It’s the size of a medium green olive.

We decided to get Cayden the MMR shot first seeing as he’s allergic to eggs and we wanted to see if he’d have a severe reaction to it. We also chose MMR because I wanted to get pregnant (we decided 4 months ago) and felt it was a bad idea if I had contracted Measles, Mumps or Rubella while pregnant.

So last night at 2 years 7 months Cayden got his first shot of his life…but looking at his face while he got the shot, you wouldn’t think anything had happened. I was at least expecting a wince, but nothing. So thats great! He’s a pretty tough kid, is always falling and just brushes himself off and tries again, so maybe its just in his nature.

Someone asked me why I changed my tune on vaccines and homeopathy so I thought I’d put it on here as well.

So with vaccines, I felt really informed about ‘why not to vaccinate’, I felt I had read a lot of ariticles and a couple books and I felt I was making an informed decsion.
Tyson and I had agreed to delay vax until 2 years and then selectively vax Cayden at that point. So when 18 months came around we started looking into the info again so we knew which vaccines we wanted and which ones we didn’t. So we reread Dr. Sears book, and it definatly read different this time around. The first time I read it Cayden wasn’t born yet and I was against getting vaxed at that point, but this time after deciding that we wanted a handful of vax’s for him, I didn’t read it with as much of a closed mind to vaccines as I had before.
I started to feel that Cayden was a sitting duck, not having been vax’ed and was almost waiting to get certain illnesses, it was only a matter of time.
It also struck me that Dr. Sears said, just make sure that in your area it doesn’t become a fad that people don’t get vax’ed because it’s everyone else immune status that keeps you the non vaxer safe. So part of me felt incredibly selfish letting my child go needle free while I NEED other children to stick to the schedule to help keep my child safe.
I still know that vaccines aren’t 100% and children can have reactions to getting them, but I feel it is safer to get them then to not.
There are a few vax’s we aren’t getting, but most we are.
For our next child I still want to delay vaxing for the first year, but we will most likely do the same vax’s we do with Cayden.
 
And now on to Homeopathy…
I used to work at a Natural Foods store and was first introduced to homeopathy while working there and needing something to help me with my cramps.
I soon collected quite a few homepathic treatments and had them in my natural maedical box and felt really prud of my stash.
I read up on the history of homeopahy I even looked into becoming a Homeopath myself.
I knew how homeopathy worked, I introduced friends and family members to it and when I had a child who had terrible teething pain I gave it to him, everyday, multiple times a day. When my son had severe teeth caries at 1 years old, we brought him to a Naturalpath who prescribed us 6 different homeopathic treatments at the first visit.
As my sons teeth got worse and worse and we were questioning what on earth could have caused his teeth to deteriorate so rapidly, my husband remembered something we had put directly onto his baby teeth night and day, several times a day and wouldn’t brush afterward: Hylands Teething Tablets.
Now I’m not saying they are the sole problem, I blame genes and bacteria from my mouth as well, but we wonder if the tablets caused damage as well.
In the last year I’ve started to think skeptically about things in my day to day life. I’m not used to doing this…I come from a family who is vegetarian, very natural, spiritual etc. Science and spirituality don’t go hand in hand. . How do you scientifically question ‘energy work’?
I used to think that no scientific tests were performed on homeopathy, but in fact I was wrong, actually there has been many tests on it and they have all come back ‘just a placebo’.
So when I heard this I thought, well it seems to work whether its a placebo or not, so I could still use it. But then I thought of my natural medicine stash and I counted up how much I had spent on a placebo…I had $300 worth of placebo! I started to feel a bit taken advantage of.
I watched an episode of Penn and Tellers Bullshit on Homeopathic medicine, and even though its a tv show, it helped me come to terms with the feelings I had against the homeopathic companies making all this money on little sugar pills.
So I feel duped, decieved, fooled, taken advantage of.
I will not buy anymore homeopathic medicine.
With Cayden’s teething, I had done many things to help him including an amber teething necklace, frozen washclothes and lots of nursing, so its funny that for so long I gave credit to just the tablets for relieving all his teething pain.

Dawn

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http://www.funnyhub.com/videos/pages/videos/mom-jeans.html

Dear Non-Pregnant Person,
I hope you find these guidelines helpful in your interactions with pregnant women as failing to follow them may result in serious physical harm.
If you are thinking, surely she doesn’t mean me- then you should probably read this twice.

1) The appropriate response to a couple telling you they are having a baby is “Congratulations!” with enthusiasm. Any other response makes you an a$$

2) Through the wonders of science, we now know that babies are made ONLY by the mother and father- not grandparents. Unless the baby is in your uterus or you are the man that helped put it there, you may not ever use the phrase “my baby”.

3) On the same note, unless you made the baby as defined in 2, the pregnancy, birth and raising of the child are not about you. You do not have input. No one wants to hear your opinion unless they ask for it. The same goes for the name of the baby.

4) The body of a pregnant women should be treated the same as any other body. You would not randomly touch someone’s stomach if they were not pregnant, nor would you inquire into the condition of their uterus, cervix or how they plan to use their breasts. Pregnancy does not remove all traces of privacy from a woman.

5) Likewise, no woman wants to hear comments on her weight- ever. A pregnant woman does not find it flattering that you think she is about is pop, must be having twins, looks swollen or has gained weight in her face. Telling her she looks too small only makes her worry that she is somehow starving her baby. Making such comments invite her to critique your physical appearance and you may not act offended. The only acceptable comment on appearance is “You look fabulous!”.

6) By the time we are 20-30 years old, most of us have picked up on the fact that the summer is hot. We are hot every summer when we are not pregnant. We don’t need you to point out that we will be miserably hot before the baby comes.

7) There is a reason that tickets to L&D are not yet sold on Ticketmaster. Childbirth is actually not a public event. It may sound crazy, but some women really do not relish the idea of their mother, MIL or a host of other family members seeing their bare butt and genitals. Also, some people simply feel like the birth of their child is a private and emotional moment to be shared only by the parents. Like everything else in life, unless you receive an invitation, you are NOT invited. This includes doctor appointments, ultrasounds, labor, delivery, the hospital and the parents home. You do not decide if you will be there for the birth or if you will move in with the new parents to “help out”. If your assistance is desired, rest assured that you will be asked for it.

9) If you are asked to help after the birth, this means you should cleanup the house, help with cooking meals, and generally stay out of the way. Holding the baby more than the parents, interfering with breastfeeding and sleeping schedules and making a woman who is still leaking fluid from multiple locations lift a finger in housework is not helping.

10) The only people entitled to time with the baby are the parents. Whether they choose to have you at the hospital for the birth or ask for you to wait three weeks to visit, appreciate that you are being given the privilege of seeing their child. Complaining or showing disappointment only encourages the parents to include you less. I hope this helps- it sure makes us feel better.

Signed,
All Pregnant Women

Number two is due in April!

We are very excited.

It still hasn’t completely sunk in.

I’m happy to not be pregnant over the hot summer!

A Spring baby sounds lovely.

I hope to do things very similar for this birth, because Cayden’s birth was so near perfect. I could do without the back labour so I will be trying to keep this baby in an anterior position. So that means, homebirth, waterbirth, 2 midwives, 1 doula and Tyson. I’m hoping that Cayden can see the last stages and see his sibling being born. My mom will be watching him while I’m in labour so hopefully it will go well her being there while I’m in labour.

I plan to not have an ultrasound this pregnancy unless medically needed. I also don’t plan on getting labour started. I don’t want to do things (even naturally) to get labour going as I think that is why Cayden was facing posterior last time. This baby can come out when they are ready.

I will not be giving dates this time. I’m saying mid to late April as the ‘due date’ as I don’t appreciate 20 phone calls on THE day. Not to mention 10 calls every day after THE date to see if he’s arrived yet. Family just don’t want to miss anything I suppose, but IT’S NOT HELPFUL!!!!!! There, no more talking about my annoyances, its out in the open 😉

I’m in love with baking. I have always loved it. I remember especially making baking soda biscuits with my mom and the plastic childs glass we would use as a cookie cutter. I miss that glass. That was my moms glass when she was a kid and then it was mine, so sad its gotten lost. I bet it was a really bad plastic though. I wonder what 1950’s plastic had in it?

I like to cook, but I love to bake. Cayden’s sensitivities/allergies have really spawned me onto a whole new world of getting my hands floury. Its fun trying to think up healthy ways to have cookies, muffins and loaf. Ok, well I don’t actually ‘think up’ my recipes, but I certanly use my google toolbar to its fullest. I have this method of finding healthy baked goods. I type in ‘mothering pumpkin muffin’ and it will always, 100%, never fail give me at least 4 healthy recipes. It will either take me to the Mothering website with their list of recipes or it will give me a blog of someone who is also on Mothering, or at least talks about it. So basically a ‘crunchy’ baker,  hehe. I have found so many great recipes that way and our kitchen drawer is full to the brim with WORD documents I print out. Even at work I’ll be obsessing over recipes to print out so I can add to my recipes. Its really a great thing to be obsessed about.

On my list…start gluten baking. I feel so intimidated by mixing flours and trying to get a good product that I just haven’t plunged in, but I would love to make something really scrumptious and bring it to playgroup to share (our playgroup is gluten free, and mostly dairy and meat free) You’d think there would be nothing to eat with all those limitations, but if you saw our tray of yummies today, wowee! There was dates, pumpkin seeds, black olives, goat cheese, rice crackers, cashews, watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, pinto beans and almond nugget (is that how you spell it Kerry? Although you say it noogah)

Oh! Oh! And the NURSE-IN!!!!! I was there! I was outside for the short while I could attend, holding a sign saying ‘Breastfeeding isn’t dirty, don’t hide it away’ (although last night I was pondering if I used the wrong wording, it just sounds weird now) I wanted to speak to the people that say ‘cover up’ or ‘why can’t she use a blanket’. So maybe ‘dirty’ wasn’t the right word, I just didn’t want to use the word ‘offensive’, I wanted it to sound more ‘slang’, or ‘street’, hehe ‘street’, so I was wanting my protest sign to sound ‘street’ lol, I think I need sleep because thats way too funny to me right now.

Anyway, I got there late, was at work, slipped out early, didn’t have Cayden but showed my support by being there. The great thing is my friend Shawna who was thinking of trying breastfeeding shen her baby arrives in October is VERY pro breastfeeding because of the whole Manuela thing, and has become a great lactivist, she came to the protest too.