I love my baby
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Monday 19 November 2012
How a Mother's Love Changes a Child's Brain
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Nurturing a child early in life may help him or her develop a larger
hippocampus, the brain region important for learning, memory and stress responses,
a new study shows.
Previous animal research showed that early maternal support has a
positive effect on a young rat's hippocampal growth, production of brain cells
and ability to deal with stress. Studies in human children, on the other hand,
found a connection between early social experiences and the volume of the
amygdala, which helps regulate the processing and memory of emotional
reactions. Numerous studies also have found that children raised in a nurturing
environment typically do better in school and are more emotionally developed
than their non-nurtured peers.
Brain images shows that mother's love physically affects the volume of
her child’s hippocampus. In the study, children of nurturing had hippocampal volumes 10 percent larger than children whose mothers were not
as nurturing. Research has suggested a link between a larger hippocampus and
better memory.
"We can now say with confidence that the psychosocial environment
has a material impact on the way the human brain develops," said Dr. Joan
Luby, the study's lead researcher and a psychiatrist at the Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. "It puts a very strong
wind behind the sail of the idea that early nurturing of children positively
affects their development."
The research is part of an ongoing project to track the development of
children with early onset depression. As part of the project,
Luby and her colleagues previously measured the maternal support that children
— who were ages 3 to 6 and had either symptoms of depression, other psychiatric
disorders or no mental health problems — received during a so-called
"waiting task."
The researchers placed mother and child in a room along with an attractively wrapped gift and a survey that
the mother had to fill out. The children were told they could not open the
present until five minutes had passed — basically until their mothers had
finished the survey. A group of psychiatrists, who knew nothing about the
children's health or the parents' temperaments, rated the amount of support the
mothers gave to their children.
A mother who was very supportive, for example, would console her child,
explaining that the child had only a few more minutes to wait and that she
understands the situation was frustrating. "The task recapitulates what
everyday life is like," Luby told LiveScience, meaning that it gives
researchers an idea of how much support the child receives at home
Now, four years later, the researchers gave MRI (magnetic resonance
imaging) scans to 92 children who underwent the waiting task. Compared with
non-depressed children with high maternal support, non-depressed children with
low support had 9.2 percent smaller hippocampal volumes, while the depressed ones with high and low support had
6.0 and 10.6 percent smaller volumes, respectively.
Though 95 percent of the parents in the study were the children's
biological mothers, the researchers say that the effects of nurturing on the
brain are likely to be the same for any primary caregiver.
Luby and her team will continue following the children as they grow
older, and plan to see how other brain regions are affected by parental
nurturing during preschool years.
"It's now clear that the care and affection a chid gains from the mother is not only good for
the development of the child, but it actually physically changes the
brain.
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Monday 12 November 2012
IF YOUR PIKIN NO DEY SLEEP FOR NIGHT TIME, ABEG READ THIS
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IF YOUR PIKIN NO DEY SLEEP FOR NIGHT time, ABEG READ
THIS
Step 1
Program your baby for
nighttime sleep by feeding him every three hours during the day. He won't miss
a feeding and awaken at night to make up for it, advises William Sears,
parenting author and associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the
University of California at Irvine
Beware of these foods
that are making you gain weight.EatHealthySecrets.com
Step 2
Schedule your baby's
nightly feedings properly. For instance, KidsHealth.org suggests that if your
baby usually falls asleep after a dinner-time feeding and awakens again at 2
a.m. for a late-night feed, try waking your baby at 11 p.m. for the late-night
feed instead. Choose times that suit your schedule.
Step 3
Determine the most
comfortable spot wey dey make ahm sleep fast. Every pikin get wetin him like pass. Some like
to dey sleep for crib, some like to dey
sleep for bassinet, while others prefer
to dey with their mama and papa 24-7sleep.
Step 4
Try to dey keep
your pikin awake during the day when hin dey convenient
for you. If your baby dey sleep too much
during the day, he’ll be more alert at night and less likely to sleep well.
Step 5
Always make hin nap time
dey consistent. According to Sears,
napping around the same time each day helps your baby to sleep for longer
stretches at night.
Step 6
Makesure say una pamper
your baby before bedtime. Give ahm warm bath and gently massage to induce
sleepiness.
No dey rock the baby
everytime to sleep as s will grow to expect this treatment to fall asleep,
explains KidsHealth.org. Instead, put your baby into her crib or bassinet while
she’s drowsy and quietly walk away.
Step 8
Always makesure you dey
flexible with your pikin because hin
sleep pattern go change as he dey grow
older. U fit try a different approaches to induce sleep when hin sleep patterns
alter, such as adjusting nap and snack time
Saturday 10 November 2012
Baby snoring causes and treatment
If you observe that your baby’s breath is quite noisy then it is likely
your baby isn’t breathing properly because their nasal cavity, oropharynx is
narrow and can easily be blocked by discharge or swelling.
Babies easily snore in weak sleep position, for example, when the
root of the tongue face upward Ershi back down, half blocking the throat, the
respiratory passage, flow out of the nasal cavity, oropharynx and throat, near
the mucosa or muscle vibration would cause snoring.
Long term snoring in children leads to tonsils and adenoids hypertrophy,
other factors include the long-term sinusitis. Body fat is also one factor, the
pharyngeal hypertrophy, swollen tonsils of fat children, due to oropharyngeal
airway during sleep which easily get blocked.
Snoring in babies also have some genetic relationship with their
parents, the parents of long-term snoring children have often sensitive
nose or sinusitis. Children with asthma, the long-term snoring will
exacerbate the situation or the attack of asthma more frequently.
Baby snoring treatment : Allow babies sleep with their head
sideways in a comfortable sleeping position to try to sleep, or tummy sleeping
(that side of the face to bed, but do not cover mouth and nose) position, so
the tongue is not after the sag stop to over-breathing passage. If the
nose, mouth, pharynx Department glandular or tonsillar hypertrophy and hyperplasia
body, baby snoring, or even to affect the sleep quality and children's health,
may consider surgical remove it.
It also important that parents help them cut down their weight to the oropharyngeal
soft flesh sparer to make breathing diameter smooth, so that breathing will
become smoother than former.
If there is not effective after you try these methods, your doctor
should carefully check early in time to check the nasal cavity, throat, or
whether the abnormal mandibular position.
Friday 9 November 2012
Best Foods to Eat While Pregnant
Even if you're already packing an alphabet's worth of vitamins and a mother lode of minerals into your daily meals, you might still worry that you're not taking in enough of the nutritional right stuff — especially if your appetite hasn't quite gotten up to speed yet, thanks to early pregnancy queasies. Enter, stage left, the "nutritional superstars" — a few familiar faces and a couple of up-and-comers that bring down the house with their performances in the dietary arena. At 11 weeks pregnant, these twelve pregnancy power foods pack an amazing amount of nutrients into just a few bites, making them especially effective when efficiency is a priority (as when you're too sick to eat much, when you're gaining weight too fast, or when you're not gaining quickly enough). Put all of the following "it" foods on your A list:
- Avocados: Loaded with folic acid (vital to forming your baby's brain and nervous system), potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 (which not only helps baby's tissue and brain growth, but may also help with your morning sickness), avocados are a delicious way to get your vitamins. Spread some ripe avocado on your whole grain roll as a healthy substitute for mayo. Keep in mind that avocados are high in fat (though the very good kind) and calories, so heap them on your plate only if you're having trouble gaining weight.
- Broccoli: America's favorite cruciferous vegetable, packed with plenty of vitamins A and C, with a calcium bonus (better to build those baby bones with), as well as baby-friendly folic acid. Toss into pasta or casseroles, stir-fry with seafood or chicken, serve steamed (with or without a vinaigrette), or dunk in dip.
- Carrots: What's up, Doc? Here's what: Carrots are tops when it comes to vitamin A, so important for the development of your baby's bones, teeth, and eyes. They're perfect for munching on the go, but they also shred neatly into almost anything (from salads to meatloaf to cakes to muffins). Carrots are also a good source of vitamins B6 and C, and fiber to keep things movin'.
- DHA eggs: The old egg is still a good egg, delivering a low-calorie, high-protein punch in a tasty little bundle. But here's news: Science now lets us scramble, fry, or boil better eggs, naturally loaded with DHA, one type of omega-3 fatty acid (the "good fat") that is a primary component of the brain and retina, and is essential for brain development and eye formation in the fetus. Plus, they taste just like the eggs you've always loved.
- Edamame: These green pods are actually cooked soybeans — and they taste so much better than they sound. Packed with protein, calcium, folic acid, and vitamins A and B, edamame can be scooped up by the handful as a snack (salt them lightly, and you'll never miss the chips), or tossed into just about anything you're cooking, from soups, to pasta, to casseroles, to succotash, to stir-fry. They also make a gas-free stand-in for beans. So don't forget the edamame, Mommy.
- Lentils: Branch into beans for folic acid and protein, vitamin B6, and iron. Lentils are the most intestine (and spouse) friendly legume and readily absorb a variety of flavors from other foods and seasonings.
- Mangoes: Sweet revenge for any vegetable avoider, mangoes contain more vitamins A and C bite for delicious bite than a salad. This tropical favorite, also packed with potassium, is especially versatile, a perfect complement to sweet and savory dishes. Blend it into smoothies or soups, chop it up in salsas or relishes, simply scoop and enjoy.
- Nuts: Nuts are chock-full of important minerals (copper, manganese, magnesium, selenium, zinc, potassium, and even calcium) and vitamin E. And even though they're high in fat, it's mainly the good-for-you kind — especially baby- brain-boosting DHA, which is found in walnuts. So in a nutshell, go nuts with nuts (in moderation if you're gaining quickly, liberally if you're gaining slowly) and toss them into salads, pasta, meat, or fish dishes, and baked goods.
- Oatmeal: Here's good reason to feel your oats (and eat them often). They're full of fiber, the B vitamins, and iron and a host of other minerals. Fill your breakfast bowl with them, but don't stop there. You can add oats — and all their nutritional super powers — to pancakes, muffins, cakes, cookies, even meatloaf.
- Red pepper: A super-source of vitamins A and C, with plenty of B6 in the bargain, a red pepper is one of nature's sweetest ways to eat your vegetables. Enjoy their sweet crunch as a crudité, with or without dip (they make the perfect take-along snack). Chop them into salsa, slice them into stir-fries and pasta dishes, or roast or grill them (with a little olive oil, garlic, and lemon) and serve them up in sandwiches, salads, or antipastos.
- Spinach: Rich in folic acid, iron (which you need for all those blood cells, Baby!), vitamin A, and calcium, spinach now comes completely ready to eat in prewashed bags (free of sand). Eat it raw, in a salad (especially one with almonds and mandarin oranges), or as a wilted bed for fish or chicken, or layered in lasagna.
- Yogurt: Cup for cup, yummy yogurt contains as much calcium as milk — but it's packed with protein and folic acid too. Blend it with fruit into satisfying smoothies, layer with granola in a breakfast parfait, use it as a low-calorie substitute for sour cream or mayo in sandwich fillings, dips, and salad dressings, or simply spoon it out of the carton (no matter where you're headed today, a container of yogurt's always easy to find). And here's another reason to find culture: The active cultures in yogurt (also known as good bacteria) can prevent stomach upset, as well as yeast infections.
Of course, this A list is just a short list. There are plenty of other nutritional overachievers to choose from, including whole grains of all kinds, seeds (especially omega-3-rich flax), yams and winter squash, apricots, kiwi (one small kiwi contains as much vitamin C as an orange, plus it's unparalleled for its laxative effects), papaya — and much more.
See more tips for eating well while pregnant.
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