MRI results show the dramatic impact that breastfeeding has on the brain development of babies. A study out of Brown University was able to find actual evidence that by the age of 2, babies exclusively breastfed (for at least three months) babies had greater development in important areas of the brain compared to both children who were fed formula exclusively or who were fed a combination of formula and breast milk.

The areas of the brain that were shown on MRI images to have more pronounced growth were the areas that are associated with emotional function, cognition, and language.

Babies who were given a combination of breast milk and formula had more brain growth in those areas than babies who were fed only formula, just not as much as babies fed only breast milk.

Behavioral studies have come to the same conclusion, but this was the first study that used actual brain scans to come to the conclusions.

Cradle cap (infantile or neonatal seborrhoeic dermatitis) has been just a part of our lives since my daughter was around a week old. I never worried too much about it, because  her scalp didn’t itch. Her doctors weren’t concerned about her cradle cap, so neither was I.

When she turned four, and she still had a tiny patch of cradle cap, I began to wonder when it would ever go away. Still, I was counting my lucky stars that the rest of her skin was finally so clear. Even still though, she did have a very mild, small patch of cradle cap. After the first few months as a newborn, her cradle cap wasn’t as thick as the image in this picture, but it was still there.

Yesterday, my children were playing outside while I was gardening. My 7 year old son, decided to play Lion King with his 4 year old sister. They were using some ash and charcoal from our old campfire to mark themselves in some sort of tribal fashion. It didn’t take long though before their playing got a little overboard, and my 4 year old’s scalp was covered with a very thick dense layer of charcoal and ash. Her copper hair was turned to dark grey.

I dreaded having to rinse that out of her hair once I looked at her scalp, because it looked like a facial mask matted into her hair. After a shampoo and dozens of rinses, he scalp was finally free of ash and charcoal. But I was stunned to find it was also suddenly free of the patch of cradle cap. See, I had already tried olive oil and coconut oil for her cradle cap. I had tried washing more and washing much less, having been given different suggestions for how to treat cradle cap.  I had tried zinc oxide to remove the cradle cap, but that was just a mess. We tried a rinse with tea for her cradle cap. I was told lavender oil might get rid of her cradle cap, but that didn’t work either. We tried a soap with vitamin E and even oatmeal baths. The doctor suggested an antifungal in passing, but that also didn’t work. What finally ended up getting rid of her cradle cap was playing Lion King in the yard with a bunch of soot. I’m not sure if it is gone for good, but I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I was able to locate some infant soaps that contain charcoal that you might be able to try if you are dealing with cradle cap. Ask your doctor, naturopath or medical professional if it might be able to help with your baby’s cradle cap. If you try it, let us know if it works for your little one!

Back in 2011, a press release was printed in the BMJ that concluded that delayed cord clamping can protect babies from iron deficiency. When I delivered my first son, I breastfed and I can recall the pediatrician telling me that I may need to give iron supplements because breastfed babies were sometimes iron deficient.  I was told that babies who are given formula have the iron supplemented automatically added to the mixture, so many breastfeeding moms need to supplement. He didn’t give me any specifics, just a warning to keep that in mind.

It really bothered me for some time… trying to rectify in my mind how a baby could be deficient while breastfeeding if the mother herself practiced optimal nutrition and was in good health.  It did finally occur to me on my own that I bet babies became deficient from not letting the cord stop delivering the baby blood before cutting it. I know most of you already know this and most of you also were able to figure it out on your own as well. Logic dictates that.

However, regarding hospital policies, it’s one thing for mothers to consider these things, and it’s another thing for it to be written in a press release in the BMJ. The went so far as to say:

The researchers estimated that, for every 20 babies having delayed clamping, one case of iron deficiency would be prevented, regardless of whether the baby also had anaemia. Furthermore, delayed cord clamping was not associated with any adverse health effects. The authors conclude that delayed cord clamping “should be considered as standard care for full term deliveries after uncomplicated pregnancies.”

So, why then, do mothers delivering in a hospital setting still have to request it? The press release quoted an editorial than an author and pediatrician involved with the original study wrote. The editorial asked, “ How much more evidence is needed to convince obstetricians and midwives that it is worthwhile to wait for three minutes to allow for placental transfusion, even in developed countries?”

Indeed.

I was amazed when I read the story on Midwifery Today’s website written by two birth professionals. Denise Gilpin-Blake, a licensed midwife and owner of Accouche Waterbirth Centers in Southern California, and Summer Elliott, a registered nurse and student midwife at the time the article was printed, explained { here } how they have integrated using seaweed instead of sutures for tears caused by vaginal delivery.

One of the women authors (presumably Denise, given that she was the licensed midwife at the time) also explains the situation that led her to originally try it. It fell back to a matter of necessity after the mother who had just delivered refused sutures for a second-degree tear. At that birth, which took place in 1986, she recalled a time when she had studied with a shaman on an Indian reservation. The shaman used seaweed to heal burns and deep lacerations. The new mother agreed to try that treatment and the next day the midwife was stunned at the healing that had taken place. Since that birth, she integrated it as an alternative to sutures regularly in her practice.

While a simple Google search of using seaweed for wound care will make light of this practice and call it just short of poppycock. I couldn’t help but notice a wound care dressing by Johnson and Johnson is a polysaccharide dressing derived from seaweed which at a price of around $20-$30 per 4 inch square. The indications for its use is to put it directly on the wound, and then to cover it to avoid it drying out. It apparently can also stop bleeding and creates an air tight water tight gel when it comes into contact with fluids from the wound.

I’m not suggesting you use seaweed yourself and this isn’t intended to be medical advice. I just thought it was fascinating. Any midwives in our community familiar with this treatment? Any moms ever been treated this way?

Pregnant? Think your vitamin D levels are fine? It wouldn’t hurt to get a blood test…

Dr. Joyce Lee and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan studied 40 pregnant women. The majority of them were taking their prenatal vitamins.  One would assume they would have all their major nutritional needs addressed right? Of those 40 women, only two of them had optimal blood levels of greater than 50ng/mL. 37 out of the forty woman had levels below 40 ng/mL and the majority of all of the women had significantly low levels that were below 20 ng/mL. More than a quarter of the women in the study had frightening vitamin D levels that were below 10 ng/mL!!!

40 women isn’t that many though, so we could dismiss it. Maybe it was winter in Michigan. But Dr. Lisa Bodnar and her team at the University of Pittsburg had a study group of 400 pregnant women. Granted, Pennsylvania is still fairly north and vitamin D is naturally obtained from the sun, but 63% of those 400 women had levels below 30 ng/mL! Prenatal vitamins did almost nothing to protect those women either.

It’s important to consider that prenatal vitamins are sorely lacking in adequate amounts of the right kind of vitamin D.

When a woman’s levels are too low, she risks:

• A higher likelihood of having a C-section- Women with levels below 15 ng/mL were four times more likely to have a c-section in a Boston study.
• A greater chance of getting bacterial vaginosis- Pregnant women with low levels were almost twice as likely to experience Bacterial vaginosis. (Consequences of that spiral once antibiotics are used as a treatment.)
• A higher  chance of experiencing pre-eclampsia- Women with levels below 15 ng/mL were five times more likely to experience pre-eclampsia.
• A greater likelihood of suffering from gestational diabetes- Women with low levels were almost three times more likely to develop gestational diabetes.

That’s just pregnancy risks. The risks to a child born of a mother who was deficient are enormous. A complete breakdown can be found at www.vitamindcouncil.org.

SOURCE: http://vitamindcouncil.org/news-archive/2009/pregnancy-and-gestational-vitamin-d-deficiency/

Click here to read more posts from Everything Birth about the importance of Vitamin D.