Shortly after birth, doctors sample infants’ blood via a “heel prick test” to check their blood sugar and to test for certain congenital problems. Since the recent recognition that newborns can feel pain — and in fact may even be more sensitive to pain than older children — several pain relief approaches have been investigated to help them cope with this and other painful procedures.

Giving babies sucrose can reduce pain somewhat, studies have shown, while breastfeeding also appears to have pain-relieving effects.

And in this study, researchers compared the relative effectiveness of breastfeeding during the procedure vs. giving the baby sugar water. The results were pretty impressive.

Newborns breastfed during the heel prick test had sharply lower scores on a standardized pain scale that uses facial expressions, behavior, heart rate and the amount of oxygen in a baby’s blood to give a pain score from 0 to 21. Most babies who breastfed scored a 3, compared to 8.5 for babies given sugar water.

Most breastfeeding babies cried for the first time during the procedure for 3 seconds, compared to 21 seconds for the sugar group. These infants also had less of a jump in heart rate, a smaller drop in oxygen saturation, and during the two minutes after the heel lance they cried for 8 percent of the time, compared to 56 percent for babies given sugar water.

Expectant mothers, keep this in mind if you opt to breastfeed. You can offer your new baby natural pain relief as you bond. How cool is that?

Well, it’s the end of round one, and I’ve lost 10 lbs in 12 weeks.

Not the worst thing in the world, but it doesn’t feel commensurate to my efforts.

This last week’s loss was unexpected. First, it seems to be that tricky time in my cycle. And more importantly second, I was reminded that my willpower exists at the grocery store, not after I’ve brought home a bunch of stuff I’m not supposed to eat. I think I’ve eaten a pound of cayenne flavored cashews in the last 2 days. (I wish I were kidding.)

I have a ton to update on (nutritionist second opinion, new nutrition plan, the saliva test, the frustrating visit with my internist, and the surprising visit with a psychiatrist — yes, as in a shrink with a prescription pad), but it’s all going to have to wait. Tomorrow morning I’m Vegas bound for MomSquawk Vegas 2008 — and I need to start packing!

Oh, one more thing… a special shout out to K, for your amazing transformation this round of MSBL. You look incredible!

As the mother to a three-year-old worrywart (she comes by it honestly, I have to admit), I’m no stranger to dealing with various worries. We’re in the middle of an in-town move, and as certain things disappear from the apartment (like her slide), she worries about what happens to them (are they lonely? do they miss her? will she ever see them again?).

A lot of her concerns seem like no big deal to me, but to her, it’s the end of the world until she gets some reassurance.

HealthDay offers these tips for dealing with children’s worries, big and small, courtesy of the Nemours Foundation:

* Take time to talk about what’s worrying your child.
* Listen carefully to what your child has to say, and explain that you understand and are concerned. Offer reassurance about what’s bothering your child, and offer comfort.
* Help your child figure out a solution to the problem, but don’t try to remedy the entire situation yourself.
* Help your child keep things in perspective, and explain that problems are often temporary.
* Show your child how to react to concerns by being a good role model.

It helps me a lot to keep it in perspective. My daughter doesn’t have the long view of life that I do; she doesn’t have my experiences to draw from. So a lot of the concerns that seem trivial or silly to me, are serious in her little world.

Bah. I’m sick, I had an unexpectedly fun-yet-fattening weekend with some Ike refugees, and my hormones are in full swing.

I’ll be back next week once I can bring myself to care again.

Hello MomSquawkers,

Now that MomSquawk has been busily plugging along, I’ve turned my attention to a new site called Your Neighbor’s Place.

Your Neighbor’s Place is a site where you can share and discuss pictures of your home. Need help decorating a room? Want to show off your new renovation? Can’t pick a paint color?

Post it on Your Neighbor’s Place!

For a great example, check out one user’s incredible nursery murals.

Your Neighbor’s Place is still very new and I need help from all the MomSquawkers out there to help me fill it up with great pictures of your homes. So get on over there, sign up, and show off your home! It’s easy, fun, and doesn’t cost a dime.

I look forward to seeing what all the domestic divas at MomSquawk have to show the world.

Regards,

Damon
MomSquawk Admin and creator of Your Neighbor’s Place.

So, here we go. Down 1.4 lbs from my lowest weight thus far… not a horrible thing.

I’ve made an interesting observation in that (TMI ahead) it appears that the first two weeks of my cycle (i.e., the time from when menstruation begins to when I ovulate), I lose weight… and the two weeks post-ovulation, I do not. Should this theory be true, this upcoming week I should have a very modest loss (as I should be ovulating mid-week next week), and then nothing to talk about for the next two. We’ll see. I might be blowing smoke out of my… (and that would be okay, if said smoke expulsion resulted in a weight loss.)

My lab tests are back. Of note… my TSH is 3.4, and my cholesterol is low (total is like 120-something, triglycerides are 75-ish). What does this mean? In my oh-so-educated opinion, it means I’m borderline hypothyroid (shocker), and I’ve proven my diet is healthy, because I don’t think you can have numbers like that eating at McDs every day — so hopefully my internist will take me seriously. I’m meeting with him tomorrow — the other notable finding was that my thyroid ultrasound was apparently abnormal enough to where he wants to see me to discuss the results.

I just want to be fixed. I’m not sure to what degree I care about the details of how exactly that happens.

Guess that’s it for now. I’m watching the Big Brother 10 POV competition on DVR, and I think it deserves my undivided attention.

PS to my friend A: congrats on losing almost 20 lbs… and good luck on that upcoming milestone. You’re my inspiration over here!

* Make sure each toy is sturdy, well-made, and appropriate for your child’s age.
* Don’t let your baby play with toys that have sharp edges or points, or small parts.
* Make sure parts fit securely and are not loose.
* Read labels to check for safety information. Look for toys that are non-toxic, washable and hygienic.
* Don’t let your baby play with any toys that are smaller than 1 3/4 inches in diameter or 2 inches long, as these may pose a choking hazard.

So I’m back down a little bit (there was a PMS blip, as it turns out), but not to where I was before — and certainly not to a place that feels appropriate given my level of exercise and adherence to my diet.

My trainer, nutrition coach and I are all in agreement that something is awry — the math simply isn’t working.

As I’d mentioned last week, my thyroid is suspect. I’m still waiting for the lab test results (like I said, sloooooooooow), but I’ve done a lot of reading in the interim. I am absolutely convinced that I have a slow thyroid (hypothyroidism) — and I’m suspecting it’s due to something called adrenal fatigue.

Now, I should mention that adrenal fatigue is an “alternative” diagnosis, and not an actual disease process recognized by the traditional medical establishment. However, I’ve been killing myself for the last 10 weeks following what I’m supposed to be doing to lose weight per the traditional medical establishment — and it ain’t workin’ as it should. So under the guidance of my chiropractor, we’re going to explore this route. I did a weird saliva test yesterday to track cortisone levels — I’ll probably have the results back in a week or so.

However, the test really isn’t that important, in that the “cure” for adrenal fatigue is simple: relaxation. (ha!) So for starters, I’m totally readjusting my schedule to maximize my sleeping hours… these 2-hour workout sessions have been happening from 6-8 am, so I think I’m going to start sleeping in a bit more. I’m also going to break them apart — cardio in the morning, resistance training (aka abuse from my trainer) in the afternoon.

More on this next week, I guess. This is all still fairly depressing… but it’s not as though it’s all been for nothing. We did remeasure my body fat, and depending on the measurements you use, it’s dropped somewhere between 4 - 6%, so that doesn’t suck. My strength has also improved tremendously, which is fun. But I really would like to start seeing some numbers move on the scale with a little more gusto. Hopefully next week!

In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a health advisory recommending that over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold preparations not be used to treat children under the age of 2 due to the possibility of life-threatening complications. Such products include decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines, and cough suppressants.

And earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that some 7,000 American children under the age of 11 are treated each year in hospital emergency rooms because of problems with cough and cold medications.

To be fair, some of these cases might involve kids who got into cold medicine unsupervised, and therefore might be due to larger-than-recommended quantities being ingested. (Childproof your medicine cabinet if you haven’t already, as you would any other cabinet with potentially hazardous substances such as household cleaners.)

It makes me sad that some children’s lives might ever be threatened by a common product because parents didn’t know about or didn’t listen to the warnings. Remind your friends not to give OTC cold meds to their young children.

I started running again this week. The 2008 AT&T Austin marathon/half-marathon race training season kicked off last week, and I decided to join Austin Fit to train for the half-marathon.

I added the running on top of my other workouts, and kept my eating constant.

I was promptly rewarded with a 1 lb gain.

I’m hoping this might be some sort of PMS-related blip, but I don’t know.

I’m so done with the freaking scale right now, I just want to cry. I would consider actually being done with it if it weren’t for my team weight loss, and this blog. Well, that and I don’t care what anyone says… 173 lbs is NOT my body’s “natural” weight. So until I at least get in range of normal, I have to care.

It just sucks.

I went to see my internist today (I’d had the appointment already) — we’re going to re-verify my thyroid function, given my history of dancing with hypothyroidism. I’m not sure what to think of all of that, given that my nutritionist seems to think that with enough time and patience, I can kick my thyroid back into action (assuming there is a problem) through dietary measures. I wonder what kind of time we’re looking at. 3 months? 6 months? 3 years? I don’t want to be on medication for the rest of my life, but if there is a problem… well, did I mention this all just sucks?

I should have results in a few weeks (this doctor is fantastic, but slooooooow… and given that I need to go in fasting, I had to schedule it for a few days from now to give my trainer notice).

In the meantime, I just keep on keeping on. There aren’t a lot of really good choices.

Blah.

Myopia continues to become more prevalent, perhaps because many young people today spend so much time engaged in indoor activities, many of which require close-up focusing (which may contribute to the development of myopia). The study found that the children least likely to develop nearsightedness were those kids who spent the most time outdoors.

Those who spent more than 2.8 hours outside every day were less likely to be myopic than their peers who spent more of their time indoors. Children who spent less than 1.6 hours outdoors every day and more than 3.1 hours in near-work activity had double to triple the likelihood of being nearsighted compared to kids who spent the most time outside and the least time in close-up work.

As if you needed another reason to get your kids outside every day, right? In addition to promoting general health through active play, spending time outdoors might keep those young eyes healthy, too.

Down another 0.4 lbs. Not the biggest loss, but given my concerns about the accuracy of last week’s loss coupled with some errant behavior on Sunday (a sugar/carb laden brunch with booze — yummy!), I’ll take any loss I can get. I need to step it up a bit somehow, though — I have 4 weeks to lose 8 lbs to meet my team weight loss goal.

So, with everything continuing downward on the scale, let’s finally get back to that topic I wanted to talk about: wives who let themselves go. As a single, relatively fit individual (although I did have weight swings of +/- 15 lbs from time to time, and on the + side, the “relatively” part is generous), I’ll admit it: I held women who gained and retained weight post-baby in contempt. I didn’t understand how it could happen or why it happened, and thought it was shameful that it did.

Which, of course, is yet another one of the 4,126 things about parenthood that I didn’t understand until I got here. Yes, there are the obvious time and energy constraints associated with a life with small children, but I figured that if women wanted it bad enough, they could find a way to make it happen.

The funny thing is that I still think that: that if we want it bad enough, we can find a way. The part I didn’t expect was that I would reach a point where I didn’t really give a rat’s ass.

Let me try to explain the apathy by taking a look at my past. In the aforementioned +/- 15 lb weight swing, the - 15 lb body appeared without fail when I was either unhappy in or without a significant relationship. I don’t think I ever consciously thought during those times that I was heading to the gym on a path to catch myself a (better) man, but given the high level of correlation between the two, they are undoubtedly connected.

And then I found my mate. I’ve chosen well, so he loves me for those things on the inside far more than my external appearance, to the point where he’s obviously willing to overlook aesthetic flaws to see my (assumed) inner beauty (heh heh). This process, of course, starts out with something small — like they aren’t super repulsed by morning breath. Or the accidental fart in bed. Or the sight of a newborn’s bloody head protruding through some sort of bodily opening. And the envelope continues to be pushed… and through a series of baby steps, we’re ogres in comparison to our sexy, single selves. And while I’m sure that they’d love to have the sexiness back, they find it within themselves to love the ogre, since that’s who’s there.

So if attractiveness is about exactly that — attracting a mate — and you already have one who loves you… on some level, isn’t continued attractiveness a liability? (Crikes, am I Muslim?)

Seems like it would be, except that there are other reasons to be attractive other than to attract a mate — health, self-confidence and personal effectiveness, to name a few. The problem is that these other reasons aren’t nearly as immediate nor intoxicating as the giddiness associated with that split second when you realize the next Mr. Right is leaning in for your first kiss, and thus aren’t nearly as motivating.

For me, I’ve found my strongest motivation comes from wanting to model a better behavior for my girls. I want them to think of fitness and a reasonable amount of vanity to be something you just do, period — not because you’re worried about what today’s Mr. Wonderful might think, but because it’s an innate behavior like making the bed (which I also don’t do on a regular basis, but I’m working on it). I feel that this cannot be a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do lesson, and so I’m struggling to walk the walk.

But I wonder where — or if — I would find that motivation if I didn’t have girls. Similar behavior should be modeled for boys, of course, but I guess I see the father having the primary responsibility for that sort of lesson, given that I think it’s one of those things learned subtly. (I’m really interested to hear the thoughts of moms with only boys on this.)

So my follow up question to all of you — especially those of you who have really struggled with post-baby weight, and have been successful — where do you find your motivation?

But are the so-called healthy kid-friendly foods really good for our children?

A Canadian study says not always.

Researchers did not include junk food in their analysis, but they found that nearly 90% of kid products still did not meet established nutritional standards. What’s more, 62% of the foods that researchers deemed to be of “poor nutritional quality” made positive nutritional claims on the package - such as being low-fat, containing essential nutrients or being a source of calcium.

I’m guilty of falling for that ploy myself. If I see “50% more calcium!” but the product doesn’t seem to have a ton more sugar or anything else compared to similar items, I’ll put the one with more calcium in my cart. It’s easy to be fooled into thinking you have a wholesome product in your hand when really, you have the same overprocessed crap — just with added calcium. The bottom line is, it’s still crap.

But it has Dora on it…

This is a big win for the week — another 1.2 lbs!

Given that this is coming off of a two-day anniversary celebration (happy anniversary, love!), I am thrilled. We’ve been at the ranch in Wyoming for the past week, and the hubby and I sneaked off to Jackson for the last two days for a much needed break from the world. We are getting ready to check out of here, where we have wined and dined for the last 60-ish hours. I was fairly well-behaved during the day, but dinners for the last two nights were an oh-so-delicious hell… we broke out of our sanctuary for dinner last night at Jackson’s best restaurant, where my decadent meal was topped off with these homemade eskimo bars — they were a layer of brownie topped with a layer of vanilla ice cream, all dipped in chocolate and served with a yummy caramel sauce for dipping. To die for!

But it’s back to business, because if I’m starting to figure out my body, it will mean that next week I will pay for this week’s sins. I hope not, but at least they were meaningful sins.

Now before we get too excited here, I have to add the condition that .9 lbs of this loss came from a change in scale. (My previous scale weighed only in 0.5 lbs, and absolutely desperate to see any sort of change, I thought getting one that showed weight in 0.2 lb increments might help.)

Still, I get to claim a 2.3 lb loss for the week. Finally!

So apparently, for me, the low-glycemic diet and the less-intense workouts were key. (Assuming this success continues, I think we can safely deem this a winner.) On the question regarding why the lower-intensity workouts — when I had the anaerobic threshold test done that I mentioned here, they determined that my most efficient fat burning zone was the lowest zone (zone 1). For me, this translates into a target heart rate of 116-125 bpm. Apparently, this is the case for many “sugar burners”… as soon as the body starts working anywhere near close to hard, it decides that it’s time to burn sugar instead of fat, and the weight loss resulting from exercise is pretty much nil. I was also told a classic hallmark of a sugar burner is someone who is flabby, even when reasonably fit — and this has always been the case with me.

For the diet, it’s starting to get a bit easier. I’ve noticed that days where I start to get a little hungry are days followed by downward changes in the scale. Noticing this has made it easier to deal with the hunger in telling myself I’m literally burning fat off my body at that moment. My new favorite discovery is the steel cut oats for breakfast — I make them in the crockpot overnight, and wake up to a nice hot breakfast. I’ve also discovered my local farmers market, which I’m super excited about — I’m looking forward to finding new and sexier ways to get in what feels to be my 86 servings of vegetables per day. My new easy vegetable fave is the steamfresh (I think it’s called; one of those steam-in-the-bag brands) garlic cauliflower dipped in Emeril’s horseradish mustard — super yum!

My challenge for the next 10 days is that I’m at my in-laws ranch, so I’m away from the safety of home and the gym. The good news is that my in-laws are very physically fit people, and are completely supportive of my efforts. My trainer put together a travel workout that I’m doing every weekday during the week (as I would be at home), and my husband graciously offered to briskly walk to the mailbox and back with me so as to help me avoid getting eaten by a bear. (To-and-from the mailbox may not sound like much, but given that the mailbox is over a mile from the house, it’s about a 50-minute round trip at my lame-o zone 1 pace.)

So that’s my report for the week. I still have a ton of fat-related thoughts I’ve been contemplating I want to discuss, but if I actually lose again next week, I won’t have much to bitch about — so I’ll save it for something to write about then. Thanks for checking in with me!

I may have to rethink my anti-gummy stance in the future. Investigators are checking into whether sugarless gummy bears containing xylitol can actually help prevent cavities in children.

Xylitol is a natural sweetener found in various berries, corn, birch and other plant sources. Research has shown that the sugar substitute reduces levels of mutans streptococci (MS) bacteria, which are known to cause cavities.

Is there hope, then, that candy might actually become a cavity-fighting ally? All I know is that if they make a good-for-your-teeth Milk Dud, I’m there.

Posted by Sunshine.

I never did make it back, did I? Sorry about that. The only thing with which I struggle more than my weight at the moment is my time management.

As you can see, this week represents my first real loss — 1 lb. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard for a one pound loss in my life. My workouts continue, but we’ve tweaked things a bit. For cardio, I’m doing cardiovascular endurance building (working out just below my anaerobic threshold) three days a week with my “Team” (aka fat club), and then working out in my lowest fat burning zone (about 60% of my maximum heart rate) for the other three workouts (for a total of six cardio workouts per week). The move to a lighter workout on my non-team days was very counterintuitive to me… apparently, I most efficiently burn fat in my lowest zone, so that’s where we’re focusing for now. It’s miserably boring… an hour at a time on the treadmill at an almost literal crawl. I’m going to start downloading some audio books to get me through… I’m open to recommendations!

For my strength training, I’m still working with my trainer 5 days a week, but two of those days have become dedicated to private yoga lessons to boost my overall muscle condition and flexibility. I’m finally starting to hit a stride to where this workout schedule isn’t feeling quite as heavy.

We tweaked my diet pretty significantly, too. My nutrition coach took me to a low glycemic diet — which essentially means that anything remaining before that was quasi-fun (i.e. whole wheat bread, sweet potatoes) is now gone. Apparently, I am what they call a sugar burner… my body gives complete preference to burning sugar over fat whenever it can find it, so the cure is to strip it from my diet. No, this is not fun at all. If I don’t eat every three hours, I get a pretty substantial headache… but as long as the scale keeps moving downward, I’ll find a way to deal. If it would pick up its motion by another pound a week, I’d be thrilled.

I’ve also started chiropractic treatment to correct some posture and muscular imbalance issues we’ve stumbled upon during my training. My chiropractor is amazing — his specialty is applied kinesiology, and the wide scope of treatments he offers is unlike anything I’ve witnessed before. Unlike other chiropractors I’ve had, he’s not solely interested in performing adjustments… he’s also interested in diagnosing (and, as possible, treating) the underlying biomechanical issues that are causing problems. With all of the folks I’ve got working on me right now, I’m definitely feeling like Humpty Dumpty… I just hope the King’s Men have better luck this time.

Using functional MRI scans on normal kids aged 7 to 12, researchers found the parts of the children’s brains that were activated when shown pictures of people in pain, according to findings published in the current issue of Neuropsychologia.

This seems to suggest that children’s capacity for empathy is hard-wired into their brains, rather than being instilled in them purely through nurturing.

When the children viewed the images of people in pain, their brains showed an increase in activity in the same part of the brain that registers pain inflicted on their own bodies.

I could have told you that my three-year-old has pretty much always shown empathy toward other people when they seem sick or sad or hurting. It doesn’t seem to stop her, however, from inflicting pain on her baby brother. I guess empathy only goes so far!

Posted by Sunshine.

Wow, what a week.

Not in terms of weight loss, obviously, but in terms of time crunch. I have so much I want to talk about, and so little time. Part of the downside to finding my early mornings once again (with these workouts that begin at 6 am) is that my night time — my most productive time — has evaporated in exchange for sleep.

I’ll come back in the next day or two to get to the discussion I’d like to have, but I promised myself that come hell or high water, I would post these pictures on Tuesdays.

And so here it is — I lost that mysterious 1.5 lbs (it was actually gone the very next morning; we’ll see in a few days if your ovulation theory is correct, mommasteph), and that’s it. I’ve got a one-on-one scheduled with the nutrition coach (who is a registered dietitian) for Thursday afternoon to attempt to figure out what exactly is going on.

Be back soon. Thanks for keeping me company on what has thus far been an extremely frustrating journey.

I’m not sure I ever really thought of it that way, but it makes sense. Extremely authoritarian parents probably don’t let their kids slide with eating half a chicken nugget and then moving along to dessert. Very permissive parents are less likely to stress a ton about what their kids eat, as long as they’re eating something. (Yes, I’m sure there are exceptions.)

Experts are now suggesting that neither extreme is particularly productive when it comes to instilling healthy eating habits in our children. Better is the authoritative parent — the one in the middle. She is more likely, they say, to have children who eat more balanced meals because she uses positive reinforcement and sets a good example with her own diet, which therefore lowers her children’s risk of childhood obesity.

Well, I have to admit that my diet isn’t the greatest in the world, and I probably err on the side of permissive parenting at times. Maybe if I crack down on my own eating habits, my children will eventually adopt those new, healthier standards as they get older?

In sum, the researchers conclude that that efforts to control childhood obesity need to consider family dynamics.

Posted by Sunshine.