Comments on: Happy Mom Secret #3: Be your own expert. http://thehappiestmom.com/?p=594 Happy. Mother. You really can use both words in the same sentence. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:24:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Dominque Crans http://thehappiestmom.com/?p=594&cpage=1#comment-3859 Dominque Crans Sun, 16 May 2010 10:28:18 +0000 http://meaganfrancis.com/?p=594#comment-3859 What a great write-up! I’m so pleased you decided to share it. What a great write-up! I’m so pleased you decided to share it.

]]> By: melanie http://thehappiestmom.com/?p=594&cpage=1#comment-1275 melanie Tue, 05 May 2009 03:10:40 +0000 http://meaganfrancis.com/?p=594#comment-1275 i have a friend that refuses to read any parenting manuals or magazines. she just finds it too detrimental. i haven't gone that far--i have gotten some good ideas from those resources--but i certainly take what i read now with a grain of salt. of course, having three kids has made me feel more like an expert than when i just had one. i have a friend that refuses to read any parenting manuals or magazines. she just finds it too detrimental. i haven’t gone that far–i have gotten some good ideas from those resources–but i certainly take what i read now with a grain of salt. of course, having three kids has made me feel more like an expert than when i just had one.

]]> By: Chris http://thehappiestmom.com/?p=594&cpage=1#comment-1278 Chris Sat, 02 May 2009 21:24:59 +0000 http://meaganfrancis.com/?p=594#comment-1278 1 - I let my babies sleep on their tummies, if only for naptime or for the first hour of their nighttime sleep. (Coincidentally, all 4 of my kids learned to sleep through the night by 3 months of age because they were so easily able to self-soothe.) 2 - I still give all of my kids whole milk (the oldest one is 9)....the boys are so skinny and not such fantastic eaters. I figure giving them a glass of chocolate whole milk in the morning will be a little nutritional boost for the day. 3 - I don't sign my kids up for every sport and activity that crosses my line of sight. I'm far to lazy to drag them to 10 different activities. They each get to pick one interest. 1 – I let my babies sleep on their tummies, if only for naptime or for the first hour of their nighttime sleep. (Coincidentally, all 4 of my kids learned to sleep through the night by 3 months of age because they were so easily able to self-soothe.)

2 – I still give all of my kids whole milk (the oldest one is 9)….the boys are so skinny and not such fantastic eaters. I figure giving them a glass of chocolate whole milk in the morning will be a little nutritional boost for the day.

3 – I don’t sign my kids up for every sport and activity that crosses my line of sight. I’m far to lazy to drag them to 10 different activities. They each get to pick one interest.

]]> By: Meagan http://thehappiestmom.com/?p=594&cpage=1#comment-1277 Meagan Sat, 02 May 2009 15:12:01 +0000 http://meaganfrancis.com/?p=594#comment-1277 Karen, the advice is still "back to sleep" but I think back in 91 they were saying you should put babies on their tummies because they might choke on spit-up on their backs. Nobody knows what causes SIDS, and so far nobody really knows why the back position correlates with a reduction in unexplained deaths. There are theories of course, and I think it's a good idea to put babies on their backs to sleep just in case it really is causal and not just correlative. But a lot of parents find that their kids just won't sleep on their backs. There was an interesting article about the "quiet revolt" against back-to-sleep in the NYT a few years ago, in fact: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/health/18slee.html The sleep positioning thing is a tough one. The evidence is there and pretty strongly suggests that back sleeping is safer. Yet, that doesn't mean tummy sleeping is worth panicking over, either. Especially if it helps otherwise miserable, sleep-deprived parents (which brings its own kind of danger). I can't say I'd suggest that anyone I know put their babies down on their tummies to sleep, but I wouldn't judge them for doing it, either. My friend Denise wrote a great essay about this topic: http://www.literarymama.com/oped/archives/001117.html Karen, the advice is still “back to sleep” but I think back in 91 they were saying you should put babies on their tummies because they might choke on spit-up on their backs.

Nobody knows what causes SIDS, and so far nobody really knows why the back position correlates with a reduction in unexplained deaths. There are theories of course, and I think it’s a good idea to put babies on their backs to sleep just in case it really is causal and not just correlative. But a lot of parents find that their kids just won’t sleep on their backs.

There was an interesting article about the “quiet revolt” against back-to-sleep in the NYT a few years ago, in fact: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/health/18slee.html

The sleep positioning thing is a tough one. The evidence is there and pretty strongly suggests that back sleeping is safer. Yet, that doesn’t mean tummy sleeping is worth panicking over, either. Especially if it helps otherwise miserable, sleep-deprived parents (which brings its own kind of danger). I can’t say I’d suggest that anyone I know put their babies down on their tummies to sleep, but I wouldn’t judge them for doing it, either.

My friend Denise wrote a great essay about this topic: http://www.literarymama.com/oped/archives/001117.html

]]> By: suburbancorrespondent http://thehappiestmom.com/?p=594&cpage=1#comment-1276 suburbancorrespondent Sat, 02 May 2009 14:43:47 +0000 http://meaganfrancis.com/?p=594#comment-1276 When my oldest was born in 1991, the slogan was "back to sleep" - supposedly a baby was less likely to die of SIDS sleeping on his back. So we spent months trying to force this poor kid to sleep on his back when all he wanted to do was curl up on his tummy. By the time my youngest was born (2005), the powers-that-be had changed their minds: tummy-sleeping was safer. I wanted to hurt someone. When my oldest was born in 1991, the slogan was “back to sleep” – supposedly a baby was less likely to die of SIDS sleeping on his back. So we spent months trying to force this poor kid to sleep on his back when all he wanted to do was curl up on his tummy. By the time my youngest was born (2005), the powers-that-be had changed their minds: tummy-sleeping was safer. I wanted to hurt someone.

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