Johnson & Johnson admits: Our baby products contain cancer-causing formaldehyde
Today, the personal care giant announced that it would voluntarily (after consistent pressure from the public and groups like EWG) remove hidden formaldehyde from their baby products like baby shampoo and baby washes. Don’t see formaldehyde listed on the back of your bottle of “no more tears” shampoo? Formaldehyde is “hidden” in these products in ingredient names like “DMDM hydantoin“, and “1,4 dioxane” (which is “hidden” in listed ingredients like “fragrance”. It’s all a big fun game, you see.). “There’s a very lively public discussion going on about the safety of ingredients in personal care products,” said Susan Nettesheim, VP for product stewardship …Read more »
Mothers and Babies Daytime and Nightime – some FACTS
Mothers and Babies Daytime and Nightime – some FACTS In Western societies the practice of mothers, fathers and infants sleeping together came to be thought of as unhealthy and dangerous. Western parents are taught that “co-sleeping” will make the infant too dependent on them, or risk accidental suffocation but these views are not supported by human experience worldwide, where for millions of years, infants as a matter of course slept next to at least one caregiver, usually the mother, in order to survive. Many studies have shown that separation of the mother and infant has adverse consequences and anthropological considerations …Read more »
Colic
What is colic? Colic ‘s the name given to repeated episodes of intense crying, often at the same time of day, or late afternoon with no apparent cause. Symptoms of colic include very tight abdominal muscles, sudden and loud crying and a red face with intense facial expressions, all of which are indicative of pain. Other physical symptoms may include the baby drawing their limbs in towards their tummy. Always best to check out expressions of intensity like these with your doctor or health care provider as they can also be symptomatic of far more serious disorders. What can I …Read more »
American Academy of Pediatrics
Research from America followed 350 babies from birth to walking. This showed that babies who spend time on their tummies are able to roll over, sit up, creep, crawl and pull themselves up to standing significantly earlier than babies who remain on their backs. The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) now recommends that babies sleep on their backs but spend wakeful time on their tummies. “Back to Sleep and Tummy to Play” is their message. The five reasons they give for encouraging babies to spend waking time on their tummies are; 1. It helps strengthen the baby’s neck, back and trunk muscles. Babies need …Read more »
Cerebral Palsy and Prada Willi – syndrome – Massage and Movement with stiff and floppy babies
Cerebral palsy, also referred to as CP, is a term used to describe a group of chronic conditions affecting the child’s body movement and muscle coordination and refers to any one of a number of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood which may permanently affect body movement and muscular coordination. It is caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, usually occurring during fetal development; before, during, or shortly after birth; or during infancy. These disorders are not caused by problems in the muscles or nerves themselves, but through faulty development or damage …Read more »
Oils Essential Oils and Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is the use of plant essential oils to promote and maintain well-being. Essential oils are organic compounds derived from various parts of flowers, resins, leaves, barks, fruit and roots.They contain natural chemical constituents, with each essential oil having unique therapeutic properties which can be used to help promote and maintain health and well-being. The most common methods of application of essential oils include : massage / adding to the bath / vaporisation or inhalation. ABSORPTION Essential oils should be used with caution when it comes to working with babies and children, as up to the age of 12, a …Read more »
The ‘In Arms’ Relationship
What a baby biologically ‘expects’, and what today’s environments provide, can often be far apart. Human infants need constant attention and contact with other human beings because they are unable to look after themselves. Unlike other mammals, they cannot keep themselves warm, move about, or feed themselves until relatively late in life. It is their extreme neurological immaturity at birth and slow maturation that make the mother-infant relationship so important. In his film ‘Kangaroo Care’ Dr Neils Bergman clearly demonstrates the effects of early stress responses at mother and baby separation. The stress hormones having a negative impact upon the …Read more »
The Power of a Mother’s Touch
To minimise the risk of infection and avoid putting ‘undue strain on the baby’s heart and lungs’ touch was minimal for premature babies and holding and touching mostly accompanied medical or hygienic procedures. As a direct result many premature babies identified being picked up with a stressful experience and consequently this would tend to make the mother and child relationship more difficult up on the baby’s release from hospital. Far from touch putting undue strain up on the baby’s heart and lungs we now know that it is separation from the mother that causes arrhythmic heart rates, periodic breathing and …Read more »
Nature or Nurture
“It seems to me credible, at least, that all our experience in our life cycle, from cell one, is absorbed and stored from the beginning, perhaps especially in the beginning. How that may happen I do not know. How can one cell generate the billions of cells I now am? We are impossible, but for the fact that we are.” R.D. Laing psychiatrist Nature or Nurture or when does this developmental profile begin and to what extent does this influence our life? The fact that some of our deepest fears and anxieties come from our pre-natal, birth, post-natal and early …Read more »
Babies And Touch
WHY TOUCH IS VITAL TO BABIES A life from a life, from their mother’s womb into their mother’s arms, babies are born expecting to be touched and held. The baby is born exquisitely sensitive and their first contact with this world and the life that goes on around them comes through their sense of touch. It is body contact with their mother that ensures contact with reality until all the other senses have developed. For the first six weeks and beyond the new baby needs to be held, rubbed rocked and re-assured until all their senses have coordinated in what …Read more »