Okay, I am really working on letting this go, but I think I have to type it out to do that. When is the allopathic medical community going to recognize the importance of breastmilk??? (That is a rhetorical question - I do know the answer is *never*)
Little Joey has an intestinal disease. We know that his intestines do not function properly. But are the doctors promoting breast milk for him since it is the perfect food for him? **** no!
He's back in the hospital and this time they suspect it is reflux unrelated to his Hirshsprung's disease. So what are they recommending for this 6-week-old baby? They want Mom to try adding some rice cereal to his formula. The sound you just heard was my head exploding.
Did you know that in their entire medical schooling doctors get a 2-hour lecture on breastfeeding? And I don't mean a semester class worth 2-hrs credit. I mean literally 120 minutes of someone talking and that is it!
Don't get me wrong, this is not just the doctor's fault. It just doesn't matter to way too many people. And that really breaks my heart. I hurt for every baby who doesn't get to breastfeed. Now I'm not talking about those who try and are not successful. Sometimes, it really doesn't work out, and for those cases I am glad formula exists (still sad, but understanding). I would never judge a woman I see bottle-feeding. First of all, I don't know what's in the bottle. It could be breastmilk and for some reason the baby won't nurse, or mom is not comfortable nursing in public. Or perhaps this mom tried her best and it didn't work out and her heart is broken over it. I am talking about those who really don't want to breastfeed. Those who think it's yucky or it ties them down too much. And I know way to many of them.
I'm starting to feel a tug in the direction of becoming a lactation consultant. I've just done some basic research and it seems harder than I thought it would be. But I still feel the tug. Maybe that's what I'll be when I grow up.
"Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know." Leo Tolstoy
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Joey
Once again I call on my prayer-warrior friends for little Joey. He's back in the hospital unable to keep feedings down. I was so sick when I was sick (ages 16-18) that I have watched my own son like a hawk for any signs of gut problems. Thankfully, none have surfaced. It was honestly a bit of shock to hear that Joey was facing gastro surgery. I really felt if it was going to be passed along, it would be to Gregory. But, like me, Joey has IBD on both sides of his family. None of this is bigger than God, and He can make the nerves grow in Joey's intestines just as easily now as when he was in-utero. I know He has a bigger purpose for this, whatever the outcome. He will carry us through.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
My niece
I became an aunt for the first time 32 years ago. My first niece was born 27 years ago, and her daughter was born 8 years ago. This week I got to meet my newest niece, Stella Rosalie, born to Greg's younger brother & his wife. She's a little bit - only 5lbs 6oz - but she's quite the keeper!
I love seeing my hubby holding a baby :)
She was asleep &/or nursing for a good while after we got there. Then when Mommy decided to change her diaper she woke up! Here she's holding onto her daddy's finger and looking straight at him.
Her Grandma Joan didn't want to hold her since she's so little. We talked her into it anyway. I think she's glad we did.
She slept in my arms for a bit too. Look at the sweet little hands...
I love seeing my hubby holding a baby :)
She was asleep &/or nursing for a good while after we got there. Then when Mommy decided to change her diaper she woke up! Here she's holding onto her daddy's finger and looking straight at him.
Her Grandma Joan didn't want to hold her since she's so little. We talked her into it anyway. I think she's glad we did.
She slept in my arms for a bit too. Look at the sweet little hands...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
an interesting article re: "minimally invasive education"
This article is really long but it's really worth the read!
From a Businessweek Online Daily Briefing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sugata Mitra has a PhD in physics and heads research efforts at New Delhi’s NIIT, a fast-growing software and education company with sales of more than $200 million and a market cap over $2 billion. But Mitra’s passion is computer-based education, specifically for India’s poor. He believes that children, even terribly poor kids with little education, can quickly teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy. The key, he contends, is for teachers and other adults to give them free rein, so their natural curiosity takes over and they teach themselves. He calls the concept “minimally invasive education.”
To test his ideas, Mitra 13 months ago launched something he calls “the hole in the wall experiment.” He took a PC connected to a high-speed data connection and imbedded it in a concrete wall next to NIIT’s headquarters in the south end of New Delhi. The wall separates the company’s grounds from a garbage-strewn empty lot used by the poor as a public bathroom. Mitra simply left the computer on, connected to the Internet, and allowed any passerby to play with it. He monitored activity on the PC using a remote computer and a video camera mounted in a nearby tree.
What he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net. Some of the other things they learned, Mitra says, astonished him.
The physicist has since installed a computer in a rural neighborhood with similar results. He’s convinced that 500 million children could achieve basic computer literacy over the next five years, if the Indian government put 100,000 Net-connected PCs in schools and trained teachers in some basic “noninvasive” teaching techniques for guiding children in using them. Total investment required, he figures: Around $2 billion.
On Feb. 25, BW Online Contributing Editor Thane Peterson sat down with Mitra, a stocky 48-year-old with a mustache and a mop of graying black hair, in his tiny, triangular office at NIIT’s R&D center on the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology in the south part of New Delhi. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.
From a Businessweek Online Daily Briefing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sugata Mitra has a PhD in physics and heads research efforts at New Delhi’s NIIT, a fast-growing software and education company with sales of more than $200 million and a market cap over $2 billion. But Mitra’s passion is computer-based education, specifically for India’s poor. He believes that children, even terribly poor kids with little education, can quickly teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy. The key, he contends, is for teachers and other adults to give them free rein, so their natural curiosity takes over and they teach themselves. He calls the concept “minimally invasive education.”
To test his ideas, Mitra 13 months ago launched something he calls “the hole in the wall experiment.” He took a PC connected to a high-speed data connection and imbedded it in a concrete wall next to NIIT’s headquarters in the south end of New Delhi. The wall separates the company’s grounds from a garbage-strewn empty lot used by the poor as a public bathroom. Mitra simply left the computer on, connected to the Internet, and allowed any passerby to play with it. He monitored activity on the PC using a remote computer and a video camera mounted in a nearby tree.
What he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net. Some of the other things they learned, Mitra says, astonished him.
The physicist has since installed a computer in a rural neighborhood with similar results. He’s convinced that 500 million children could achieve basic computer literacy over the next five years, if the Indian government put 100,000 Net-connected PCs in schools and trained teachers in some basic “noninvasive” teaching techniques for guiding children in using them. Total investment required, he figures: Around $2 billion.
On Feb. 25, BW Online Contributing Editor Thane Peterson sat down with Mitra, a stocky 48-year-old with a mustache and a mop of graying black hair, in his tiny, triangular office at NIIT’s R&D center on the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology in the south part of New Delhi. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.
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