"Tickle monster" soft sensory balls are deceptively easy and fast to make, and kids love them. They're squeezable, lovable, throwable, catchable, and just generally fun. Best thing about them is that they're easy to do even if you're just learning to knit or crochet. Because they're felted, dropped stitches don't matter, you can be as lazy as you like, you can take shortcuts galore...and they basically come out looking perfect no matter what! Don't knit? It's really easy to learn, and the...
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I’m recovering from last week’s shoulder surgery, which basically means I’ve been spending a lot of time holding the couch down and exploring the Interwebs. I’ve become addicted to Pinterest (want to follow me?), and have been madly collecting craft, DIY, and repurposing ideas for when I have the use of both hands again. Browsing through the baby- and kid-related boards on Pinterest got me thinking about baby products -- both the ones I purchased pre-baby and the ones I actually u...
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With W’s first birthday behind us, we’ve got 12-month shots in our immediate future. In addition to the panoply of vaccinations she’s been getting at her shot visits for the last year, she’s up for MMR and varicella (chickenpox) this time around. The MMR shot is one I am fervently in favor of, despite the fact that it’s one of the vaccinations most targeted by anti-vaxers. There’s a bit of discussion of the MMR vaccine in this SquintMom post, and there’s quite a bit more informa...
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Wireless telephones, including both cellular phones and cordless home phones, emit electromagnetic radiation in the radiofrequency range. It’s been suggested in recent years that using a wireless phone on a regular basis could expose the brain to large doses of radiofrequency radiation, the risks of which are currently unknown. Particularly because children have rapidly developing brains, could using cell phones or cordless home phones increase the risk of cancer or have other negative heal...
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You see the ads everywhere -- in magazines for expectant mothers, in printed pamphlets at the obstetrician’s office -- and they evoke the wonder of life and perfection of a new baby. They’re carefully designed to rev up the protective instinct of any woman with a reproductive inclination and a pulse. The private cord blood banks cast a wide net, appealing to the “conventional” parenting set with glossy photos of a cherubic toddler contemplating her belly button in magazines like Paren...
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I’m guest-posting today! Alice at Science of Mom has recently featured two articles about conventional versus organic milk; the first claimed that milk from rBST-treated cows was the same as (or even preferable to) milk from non-rBST-treated cows, while the second claimed that conventional milk was just as good as organic. As a chemist with…
My husband and I are both avid cyclists, recreationally and for commuting purposes. We both owe our lives, several times over, to helmets. Some of our crashes have been due to, shall we say, “operator error,” while others have been the result of collisions with vehicles. Aside from those crashes that were severe enough to…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the week of April 21, 2012 to be World Immunization Week. The purpose of the initiative is to spread information about the importance and safety of vaccines. The question are vaccines safe and effective? weighs heavily on many parents. I’ll admit that even I, as staunch an advocate…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the week of April 21, 2012 to be World Immunization Week. The purpose of the initiative is to spread information about the importance and safety of vaccines. Immunizations protect children and save lives. However, the idea of a shot (or two, or three) can be intimidating to young…
Misconceptions and fear have been fueling the anti-vaccination movement in recent years, particularly with regard to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This is in part because a study published in The Lancet that linked the MMR vaccine to autism (Wakefield et al). In addition to rampant misinformation spread via the Internet, the Wakefield…
1) 1st Law of Thermodynamics — the energy of the universe is constant. That is to say, if one system or object gains energy, another system or object must have lost energy. As the day progresses, I steadily lose energy, and W steadily becomes more and more energetic. 2) 2nd Law of Thermodynamics — entropy…
Recently, I’ve blogged about my experience beginning sleep training with W. It’s been a week, and we’ve had both ups and downs, so I thought I’d post on our progress thus far. After the totally failed attempt to get W to sleep in her crib (in honesty, it’s a pack ‘n’ play) last Thursday afternoon,…
There are two interesting studies on breast milk as an analgesic (pain reliever) in this month’s issue of Pediatrics. Each compares the effects of breast milk to those of oral sugar (either glucose or sucrose) for relieving pain during the ubiquitous neonatal heel stick procedure. The first study looked at late preterm infants (gestational age…
We have sleep problems, as I’ve mentioned before. I’ve been sitting on the fence about sleep training for quite a while, and have been reading Alice’s posts on the topic (like this one) over at Science of Mom. I’m totally convinced that there are good reasons to sleep train W, which include (but are not…
My Surgery Is Tomorrow, and I’m Scared!
My shoulder surgery is tomorrow. I have been pretty calm all week. In fact, I’ve been looking forward to the surgery, for two reasons. First, because it’ll finally fix my shoulder, which aches all the time, and that will be nice. Second, because while I’ll be in more pain for a few weeks post-surgery than…
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