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Gobble Gobble!
Yes, I know that I live in London but that doesn’t mean I can’t make like a pilgrim and invite the natives to my house on Thursday, does it? So the turkey is on order (because there are NO Butterballs at my grocery store), the Libby’s pumpkin cans are in my cupboard and I’m gearing up for a grand holiday with my family and friends. I know you are all busy, so I won’t keep you long this week. And rather than regale you with tales of my hilarious children, confess my maternal shortcomings, or preach to you about health and safety, I’m going to give you: Thanksgiving. Doctor Style. Fun facts to share with your family between mouthfuls of green bean casserole and Turducken!
Does your family engage in the old tradition of pulling on the Wishbone a few days after the holiday? Also known as the “Thanksgiving Bone” or the “pulley bone,” the wishbone is actually the bird’s collarbone. It’s called the clavicle in humans.
The average Thanksgiving meal is over 3000 calories. It takes an excess of 3500 calories to make you gain a pound. Guten Appetit!
Undercooked turkey can give you salmonella poisoning. Salmonella causes diarrhea in most people but can cause serious illness in the young, the old or those with poor immune systems. Oh, and nearly 100% of all domestic reptiles also carry salmonella. Just in case you were thinking of buying your kid a turtle for Christmas.
The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds. The average 4 year old weighs 40.
The pilgrims didn’t have forks. Which means my kids would be right at home, shoveling in their food with their fingers!
A toddler can drown in an inch of water in a bucket. A turkey can drown in a rainstorm by looking up. Who knew?
And finally, a human head has between 100,000 and 150,000 hairs on it. A mature turkey has 3500 feathers. Which, coincidentally, is how many calories you just ate!
Happy (and safe!) Thanksgiving, everyone!
Sunrise, sunset
I have finally found a benefit to living in a country where the sun comes up mid-morning in the winter: the girls are sleeping until almost 8! It’s been a glorious few mornings. Sleep science says that babies have sleep-wake cycles that are in tune with the sun and will adjust their nightly sleep/wake times with their exposure to natural light. However, when we traveled to NY last month, I was unsure how that was going to go and was really quite scared about having 2 infants waking at 3 am thinking it was time to play.
Of course, I had no reason to fear. It took them exactly 3 days to switch to a reasonable bedtime and they weren’t up before 6 in the morning. That was probably still a bit early for their mother, who was trying to see friends in the evening and ended up seriously burning her candle at both ends, but I couldn’t really complain. It was much better than my imagined scenario. It’s been reported that babies will actually do much better with a big time change of several hours than a simple one like we just had with Daylight Savings. I know many of you are still bitter on that one.
Now my sister is planning a trip to visit us on this side of the pond and is getting herself all worked up about how my niece will handle the flight and time change. To the point that she’s been soliciting advice and called today, asking if she should get some melatonin for Olivia. Melatonin is a natural hormone produced in our brains that is involved in our sleep patterns and many people use it as a “natural” sleep aid. But does it work? Does it work for jet lag? Is it safe for kids?
I did a little research (because I can’t know everything but I do know where to look) and here’s what I’ve found.
There are no good studies looking at the safety or efficacy of melatonin as a sleep aid (long or short term) in babies or young children. All the studies were done on older children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as cerebral palsy or autism. The hormone was given for a short period of time and the results are mixed. It isn’t without side effects, which can include irritability and drowsiness and is reported to leave you with a “hangover” effect if used in larger doses. (Who wants a hangover if you didn’t get the margarita?! Seriously!) Then again, we are talking small doses for a couple of days while she adjusts to the time. So it isn’t likely to be harmful per se.
That said, I’ll leave it to my sis. Armed with the information I’ve laid out here, I’m not too worried if she gets some and I’m also not concerned that she won’t do fine without it either. But if you want to try it, better buy it over in the States. The UK hasn’t approved it for sale here. It is a hormone, after all.
Bite me
I spent the morning at the dentist today. Broke my tooth on a peppercorn at dinner. Better than a beer bottle, no? Anyway, took the opportunity to visit with my friend Paddy (seriously, my dentist is named Paddy) to ask about fluoride for the girls. Turns out the UK is lacking in more than just Cool Whip.
Conventional teaching in pediatrics in the US is that most people receive fluoridated drinking water if supplied by a public waterworks. The CDC actually calls the addition of fluoride to drinking water one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century. When people get extra fluoride, the risk of tooth decay goes down significantly. And who wants rotten teeth? On the other hand, too much fluoride can damage developing chompers. With that in mind, most American pediatricians recommend fluoride supplementation only for infants and children who aren’t living in an area with fluoridated water. We also advise families to use toothpaste without fluoride for little ones until they are old enough to understand spitting, rather than swallowing, those minty suds.
So today I thought to ask our dentist about London’s water supply. I had assumed it was fluoridated and often used this point to chastise my friends who insist on using bottled water for their kid’s formula. (Not only are you wasting money but you’re going to ruin his entire future!!!) Well, well. Imagine my surprise when I learned that water in the UK is sometimes fluoridated and it varies from area to area. In fact, the children in the most expensive part of London have the highest tooth decay rate of the entire United Kingdom!
I guess this would explain why all the children’s toothpaste here has added fluoride, which had surprised me. And I’ve been advised to pick up some fluoride drops for the girls for a little added protection. Which I will be doing immediately. I have zero interest in spending any more time than necessary with our dentist, no matter how lovely he is.
The Bumps
Greetings from Wales, where I am teaching the last trauma course of the year. I love coming up here and being Dr. Zibners, as you know, but leaving three times in three months has been a fine example of biting off more than you can chew. Next year they already know not to expect me in September. It’s too hard on my family to have me gone so often. And it doesn’t help when I get up here and then receive a call like I did this morning from my husband. Zoe is covered “in a rash.”
A few questions were all I needed to make a diagnosis: red skin, white bumps, “like mosquito bites,” and some had already faded while others were appearing in new places. Hives, I said. Over the course of the day they came and went but Zoe remained completely unbothered by them. Her father sent me a photo of the rash but I didn’t need it to stand my early conclusion; there is no other rash that does what hives do. They come, they go, they move around.
Everyone thinks hives are an allergic reaction but it’s actually more likely they are related to her current runny nose. Most of the time we never learn exactly what caused hives, unless there is an obvious relationship such as “I gave my kid yellow squash and twenty minutes later she had hives.” And even then it might just be viral and a complete coincidence.
So I’ve stayed at my conference. G knows where the antihistamine is and he’s giving her a dose right now. I happen to have an EpiPen Jr in the house (because I’m super uptight) and he’s aware of that too. But most importantly I told him that unless she is having swelling of her lips or tongue or trouble breathing, it’s nothing to worry about. I can hear that he doesn’t believe me, but it’s true. And I told him to expect to see the rash again tomorrow and it’s likely to come and go for a several days. But I’m still expecting a phone call tomorrow telling me exactly what I just said. And when I get home, 100 bucks says my dermatology book is open to “urticaria.” Sometimes it takes a little extra reassurance to quiet an anxious parent.
On the wagon
It’s official. It has now been 11 days since the girls’ last bottle. Oh, they are still on formula all right. But “Bubah” is no more. Why? Because Dr. Zibners talks a big game and Mommy needed to back her up. If you actually go public with statements like, “introduce a Sippy Cup as early as possible and try to get off the bottle by the first birthday,” then, my friends, you sure as heck had better do it yourself. If for no other reason than just to prove it can be done.
The official reason to get a kid off a bottle by a year is that it is a bad habit. After age 1, a baby doesn’t really require formula or breast milk for nutrition and should be eating a varied diet, with a bit of whole milk or water in a cup at meals and maybe bedtime. (Point: 2 cups of whole milk or the equivalent in cheese or yogurt is all that is needed to reach your daily calcium intake if you are a toddler.) A bottle taken to bed can cause serious tooth decay, as can carrying around a bottle of milk or juice (or a Sippy Cup!) all day, which is what a toddler is apt to do. Plus, it can keep a kid from eating all the other things she needs to grow big and strong. (Like food with iron!) So the party line is to break the habit before it becomes one and simply remove it from the scene before a kid is old enough to say the word.
From my perspective. I just didn’t want to be the Mom whose kid is photographed at the age of 3 with a bottle, a la Suri Cruise. Not that the paparazzi is outside my door, but just in case. On the other hand, I had to balance my desire to rid us of the bottles with the knowledge that they do still some formula for nutrition. I am keeping them both on formula, rather than switching Eva now to whole milk, because Zoe really shouldn’t switch for a few more months and we sort of have a community cup policy at our house. Or Zoe does. She’ll take anyone’s bottle/cup/cookie. (My kids went to play group and actually wandered around stealing other children’s food, like little street urchins. The other parents must wonder if I feed them. Mortifying.)
So I had a plan. I was going to put water in Bubah and formula in a cup and let them choose. I figured water wouldn’t be a crime. And I am pushing them a bit fast. Eva may be one but Zoe is only 9 months and I hoped to split the difference and have them off bottles by Christmas. But lo and behold, those kids climbed right on board. After three days, Sippy Cup only. (Ok granted, it has a spout shaped like a nipple and is very easy to hold but still.) My babysitter tried to give Zoe a bottle and she threw it right back at her. Ha! My kids are clever little critters, they are.
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