family - baby health - no smoking please or how to protect your child

NO SMOKING PLEASE!

Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of tobacco smoke in their environment. Here are just some of the reasons to protect your baby from second smoke:

Infant and your children whose parents smoke have a much higher incidence of bronchitis, pneumonia, allergies, asthma, ear and sinus infection and eye irritation
Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to have symptoms of respiratory irritation such as wheezing, coughing and excessive phlegm
Babies exposed environmental smoke are twice as likely to die of SIDS than children of non smokers Children of smokers have a greater chance of becoming smokers themselves and are at higher risk for developing heart disease and high blood pressure later in life

How to protect your child:

Don't smoke. If you do smoke, find an open area away from your family - but know that your baby can still absorb nicotine through your hair and clothing, etc. And never smoke while breastfeeding! Nicotine passes through a mother's milk to her baby. You can do you and your baby a big favour by quitting. For information on how to stop smoking visit
www.ivillagehealth.com

Don't allow anyone to smoke around your child.  If you use childcare, make sure that the facility has a no-smoking policy

For more information on second hand smoke visit www.lungusa.org
or visit National Cancer Institute; www.cancer.gov

Source: "Baby Steps"

Where There's Smoke

"If you want to protect your baby from the risks of second-hand smoke, a ban on lighting up the home is the only way to do it. A study of families in which infants lived with a smoker found that more than half tried to minimize babies' exposure by such methods as opening windows. But the only babies without significant amounts of nicotine in their blood were those whose parents forbade smoking inside the house. Another study found cigarette smoke residue in household dust and on surfaces throughout the home, a possible hazard for tykes who spend time on the floor and put objects in their mouths"
Mary Jane Horton  FROM BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL AND TOBACCO CONTROL

Healthy Eating Starts at Birth

Breastfeed
"A wide variety of flavours are transmitted from a mother's diet to her milk, and they're detectable by her baby," says Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a biopsychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. The more tastes your baby is exposed to now, the more open-minded he'll be about different foods later. Breastfeeding also reduces a baby's risk of becoming overweight. " The protective effect sees to be dose-dependent," says Joan Meek, M.D., director of general academic paediatrics at Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Fla. In other words, the longer you breastfeed, the better. The reasons aren't totally clear, but possibilities include a metabolic response to breast milk and the fact that it's easier to overfeed bottle-fed babies.
Try and try again
After you start solids, don't be discouraged if your little one turns up his nose at an unfamiliar food. "Research shows it may take 15 to 20 exposures to get a child to accept a new food," says Marilyn Tanner, M.H.S., R.D., L.D., a pediatric dietician and American Dietetic Association spokeswoman.
...but don't force food
Being able to tell when your baby is full is just as important as recognizing when she's hungry. If your baby turns her head away from the spoon or bottle, plays with her food or clamps her mouth shut, she's saying, "No more, thank you."
Follow the rainbow
" The colors of fruits and vegetables often dictate variety in terms of vitamins, minerals, photo chemicals and taste," Tanner says. So feed your baby a rainbow every day: red strawberries at breakfast, orange sweet potatoes at midmorning, yellow squash at lunch... you get the idea. Go easy on juice Babies younger than 6 months shouldn't drink any juice, and kids under 6 should be limited to 6 ounces a day

Source: "Fit & Pregnancy" magazine
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