colic

Colic is weird. When you have a baby you hear a lot about colic. "Does he have colic?" other parents will ask you in the same hushed tones you would ask, "Is it malignant?"

I have photos of him crying, but I find them kind of upsetting so here's a grumpy one. His dad is keeping the dummy in his mouth because when he gets upset he spits it out and then cries because it's not in his mouth any more.

In adults (footnote: I often accidentally say 'humans' when I mean adults, I think that is very telling [second footnote: I hate having footnotes at the end of an article because then you have to keep scrolling up and down, I saw a website the other day that had footnotes on the side and I thought it was rad]) colic is a Real Thing; it means 'severe abdominal pain caused by spasm, obstruction, or distention of any of the hollow viscera, such as the intestines.'

In babies, it means 'your baby sure does cry a lot and it seems to be related to his farts but we can't really find anything wrong and also maybe he stops crying when you drive around in the car which is weird if it's because of pain but have this medical-sounding term anyway.'

Babies are said to have colic if they cry for more than three hours, three days a week, for three weeks. This seems awfully pat to me, but that's OK because it's a made-up disease.

Colic is the worst. There is pretty much nothing you can do about it (although you can find endless suggestions on forums) and the only advice you will get is "He'll grow out of it."

I don't know if Peanut's screaming fits into the definition of colic because I haven't timed his screams and I don't really care, but he seems to be getting more screamy rather than less over time. Babies are supposed to peak in their crying around 6 weeks and then gradually improve until they are perfect angels at 12 weeks. I think Peanut is just screaming more because he's awake more; he's gaining weight and is perfectly healthy. But I do think his guts give him trouble; sometimes he screams like he's being tortured while he lets out a string of farts.

(Another sidenote: when you read about 'crying' babies, you get an image of weeping, mewling infants. This is very misleading.)

Anyway, there has been a very interesting study done in Italy (double blind, control group etc) on the use of probiotics given to colicky babies. I have asked my doctor and child health nurse about probiotics but was told that as I am breastfeeding, this was unnecessary. However, the study at the University of Turin looked at breastfeeding mothers and showed a marked improvement in crying in the babies given probiotics. (The mothers also gave up cow's milk, but since the control group also did this, it's not necessarily significant.) It was a very small group of subjects - 27 plus 21 in the control group - but it's interesting. The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne did a larger study last year but the results have not been published yet.

Lactobacillus acidophilus. You have these bugs in you oh noooooo

Anyway, I bought some baby probiotics for Peanut and I'm taking them grown-up probiotics as well (which I suspect are exactly the same as the baby ones except packaged in capsules and cheaper). I won't be able to report on their efficacy with any reliability, because crying is a thing that babies are supposed to just grow out of. But like every parent with a crying baby, I am willing to try pretty much anything. I'll let you know how it goes.

get out of my face about breastfeeding

First of all, the inevitable disclaimer: I intend to breastfeed my child. It's cheap, it's handy and convenient, it's good for babies. It also seems like a nice thing to do, and I hope I can do it without too many problems.

However, as any currently/recently pregnant woman can tell you, there is currently a huge pressure on women to breastfeed, and it's really starting to piss me off.

Yes, it's great that hospitals and doctors and more supportive of breastfeeding these days. It's great that they acknowledge that breastfeeding isn't always easy, and that women should have access to support them. However, the rhetoric of breastfeeding often makes me feel uncomfortable.

"It's natural!" Meaning, of course, it's good. (And, by extension, formula feeding is "unnatural" and therefore bad.) I have to say, as soon as I hear the word "natural", my hackles rise and my skepticism goes on alert. Here are some other things that are unnatural:

• wearing spectacles to correct your sight
• eating with a knife and fork
• taking drugs to prevent epileptic seizures
• reading

Also, the word "natural" has been used a lot to justify ideologies which most of us would agree are highly problematic: sexism, racism, homophobia. So let's stop using that one as an argument, OK?

"It's best for baby!" Yes, if all other elements are equal, breast milk is better for a baby than formula. (Except that it doesn't have enough iron.) However, all elements are never equal.

If a mother is in agony trying to breastfeed, that might not be best for baby.

If a mother has to take drugs to breastfeed, that might not be best for baby.

If a mother is traumatised and made to feel inadequate by her difficulty breastfeeding, that might not be best for baby.

And how about this for a radical argument: the baby is not the only person involved here, and women have a right to choose what is best for them.

I am frankly amazed at some of the comments I have seen on the Internet regarding formula feeding. Women who opt for this method are called selfish. They are told that if they didn't want to fully devote their body and their life to their child, they shouldn't have one. They are told that they are damaging their children. It's very reminiscent of the arguments against mothers working outside the home.

It's not just on the Internet, either. One woman I know of was looking at formula on the shelves of a supermarket, trying to decide between brands in case she had to supplement in the future. A complete stranger walked past and chirped brightly, "Breast is best!" Thanks, judgmental stranger! I spent pregnancy and birth alone in a cave and this is my first outing; I appreciate your advice! Also, let me punch you in your stupid FACE.

Women have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies. If you do not agree with this, or you want to add caveats, then brother, we have a more fundamental disagreement than I can address here.

"Your baby will have a higher IQ!" This is a very common and very powerful argument, except it's based on shitty science.

A large study recently co-conducted by the University of Edinburgh and Scotland’s Medical Research Council found that breastfed babies do indeed tend to be smarter than formula-fed babies. But it also found that mothers who breastfeed also tend to have higher IQs and more education, and tend to provide more stimulating home environments than formula-feeding mothers. Once the numbers were corrected to account for the mom’s IQ, the relationship between breastfeeding and intelligence disappeared. (And there was no statistical difference between siblings when one was breastfed and one wasn’t.) The study, analyzing data on nearly 5,500 American children, was published in the British Medical Journal in October 2006. Previous studies, for the most part, hadn’t factored in the mom’s IQ when declaring that breastfeeding made babies smarter.

(The same article also debunks the rather more superficial but probably equally powerful argument that breastfeeding helps you lose weight. It doesn't.)

"You'll have a stronger bond with your baby!" Well, that's a nice big fuck-you to adoptive parents, people medically unable to breastfeed, and mothers whose babies fail to thrive on their milk. This is sentimental and anecdotal; there is no evidence to support it.

"Formula is no substitute for breast milk." Actually, it's a damn good substitute. It doesn't have the antibodies provided in breast milk, but it's carefully designed to meet a child's nutritional needs. No-one should feel that they are depriving their child, or harming its health, by formula feeding. And the studies on breast milk are severely limited by the lack of attention paid to other factors such as wealth and socioecomonic class:

It is true that breastfed babies are healthier in many ways than formula-fed ones. But does that in and of itself prove a causal relationship between health and breast milk? Women who breastfeed tend to be wealthier and better educated than women who don’t, so it’s hard to tease apart how much of the benefit to their children comes from breastfeeding and how much comes from other factors correlated with money and education. (For instance, women who breastfeed are less likely to smoke.)

Finally, let's address a fact that very few breastfeeding advocates seem to acknowledge. While women get the blame for not breastfeeding, our society makes it difficult to breastfeed. Most women in Australia and other Western countries do not get much maternity leave; certainly not the minimum of a year which is recommended by breastfeeding advocates. When they return to work, they may choose to pump; however, many women do not work in jobs where they can take breaks to do this, where an appropriate space is provided, or where their workmates and supervisors are sympathetic to their needs. This is both a women's issue and a class issue, and there's no point throwing money at public education campaigns if it is not addressed.

on fear

Last night I had my first swimming lesson since I was a child. I was a timid kid and I absolutely hated swimming lessons. My sense of survival stopped me from putting my head under water. Why the fuck would I do that?! There's no air down there!

It took a long time for the smell of chlorine to inspire in me anything but dread. But my dad taught me how to tread water and float, and I learned how to doggy-paddle, and now I snorkel at the beach. But I still can't swim properly, with my face in the water, moving faster than six feet a minute.

#beautifulinsideandout week 8

 Image via That's Nerdalicious!

How did I go last week? Well, better than the two weeks before, that's for sure. I didn't manage to stick to my goals, though. My husband was sick and I used that as an excuse to get us lots of comfort foods. However, I'm really feeling like I've had enough of that, and that I want to make real changes.

This week I want to focus on one goal:

Stop eating food I can't digest.

I have known that I am lactose intolerant for several years. About a year ago I found out I am also intolerant of many other foods, including wheat. (My many food intolerances will have to be another blog post-- there's something for you to look forward to!) I went on a very strict elimination diet to find this out, and was vigilant about keeping those foods to a minimum. However, over time, I've become lazy. It's so much easier to grab a roll for lunch and than to look around for a gluten-free alternative. It's so hard to resist biscuits when a coworker brings them in.

But I've come to the point where I really don't feel good. I feel like my body isn't happy, and I need to make changes. So no more wheat, no more cheese (except my beloved vintage cheddar, thank god for aged cheeses) and a lot more cooking.

Drop some crumbs on the curb for me!

#beautifulinsideandout week 7

Image from Cutest Food

Ha ha, what happened to week 6? Don't ask!

Work has been crazy lately. I'm in a new role, and we have been working on a very large and complex project. I was out of the office and on my feet every day, and exhausted and stressed out every night. All my good habits went out the window and I drank too much coffee, ate out too much, ate fast food and comfort food.

But now I am back in the office (so I can easily record my calories), and much less stressed (so I can get back to being healthy.

Here are my goals for my New Start:

• Exercise four times a week for at least 30 minutes
• Record calories eaten
• Eat home-cooked meals 5 days a week
• No deep-fried foods

My inspiration this week is Dempeaux's post on eating and living healthy. Today I ate a salad and a yoghurt for lunch! We can do this thing!

#beautifulinsideandout week 5

 Image from cutefoodforkids via Cutest Food

So... you may have noticed that I skipped a week. Oops! The truth is that the last few weeks have been really stressful (huge project at work, tension leading to a four-day headache and now twice-weekly physiotherapy, etc) and I've really let things slide.

At the moment I'm just not set up to keep entering everything I eat at Calorie King, because I'm on my feet all day and not at my desk. So I'm scaling back a bit on my goals. Here are my goals for week 5:

• Exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes
• Cut out lollies and sugary drinks 
• Eat home-cooked meals 4 days a week
• No deep-fried foods

Hopefully I can scale back a bit, get back into the exercising habit, and be more careful about what I'm eating.

#beautifulinsideandout week 3

 image via Cutest Food

My goals for last week were:

• Exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes
• Record calories eaten
• Cut out lollies and sugary drinks

How did I do?

Pretty good!

I exercised five times (Pilates for an hour, dancing for 90 minutes, and walking for 30 minutes three times)! It felt great to get moving more, and I am definitely feeling fitter.

I recorded my calories every day except Saturday. I've found it easy to keep track on weekday because I'm at my desk all day, but I try to stay off the computer on the weekends. I need to make an effort on weekends, though, because that's when the tempting food is around!

I stayed away from lollies by chewing sugarless gum after every meal-- I find that it really takes the craving away. It was pretty painless to cut out soft drinks.

Grade: A

This week I'm updating my goals:

• Exercise four times a week for at least 30 minutes
• Record calories eaten
• Cut out lollies and sugary drinks 
• Eat home-cooked meals 5 days a week
• No deep-fried foods

We've been eating out way too much lately, which is expensive and can be unhealthy (or at the least calorie-dense). I put home-cooked to include visiting family. Cutting out deep-fried foods is a no-brainer: I have to stay away from chips! And I'm increasing my exercise amount to 4 times a week.

#beautifulinsideandout week 2

Ha ha, the fact that I am posting my Motivation Monday post on Tuesday is a good indicator of how I am doing!

My goals for last week were:

• Exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes
  
• Record calories eaten

How did I do?

Um... OK. I recorded my calories each day that I was at a computer, using Calorie King (which I highly recommend for Australians). It did help me make better choices, and I learned that some things I assumed were healthy were actually far too large for one meal. I didn't manage to do it every day, though, so I'll make more of an effort this week.

I exercised twice: Pilates for an hour on Wednesday and walking for 40 minutes on Friday. I was having a really stressful day on Wednesday and doing Pilates at lunch was fantastic: everything melted away and I completely relaxed. Work is very intense at the moment so I really need to step up the exercise to combat this.

Grade: C-

This week I am going to try to meet those goals, and am adding another goal:

• Cut out lollies and sugary drinks

I am a bit addicted to sugar. I've wanted to wean myself off for a while now, and I just found out via Dempeaux that eating sugar damages collagen in the skin, so that's an extra motivation. I'm not trying to cut it out altogether, just the extra sugar I consume in lollies and the occasional soft drink.

#beautifulinsideandout

Michelle of Eat Paint Sniff Glue and Kirsten of Commander in Chic have started #beautifulinsideandout, a way for them (and anyone else who wants to join in) to start taking better care of themselves. In Michelle's words:

To keep the focus on positive lifestyle changes, and to make the task less daunting, we’ve made an executive decision not to focus on our current weight, but instead on achieving small, weekly goals. There will be no tweeting of current weight (unless you're brave and really want to), only diet and fitness goals, and of course our weekly results.

Our goals are to be tweeted on Mondays with the hashtag: #MotivationMondays

Our results tweeted on Sundays with the hashtag: #SexySundays

The bridging hashtag, cleverly thought up by Kirsten, shall be #beautifulinsideandout. This tag will help tie the two together, making the whole thread available under the one search. This third hashtag will be our main one, and will serve as a device for general, related chitchat.

I think this is a lovely idea. Focusing on specific goals instead of results ("lose 10kg") or vague intentions ("eat better") is much more likely to help build better habits. There are several things I need to change, and doing anything with the support of a group is easier.

I don't know how much I'll be using Twitter for this, but I'll blog about my progress. Since I tend to make grand plans, fail and then immediately return to bad habits, I'm focusing on small, cumulative goals. This week, my goals are:

• Exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes
  
• Record calories eaten

That's it. I'm not going to make a huge effort to restrict my calories (although I find that to a certain point that happens naturally when I take notice of exactly what I'm eating). I have a weekly Pilates class and a weekly dance session, so I just need to exercise once more this week.

Small changes are easier to make than big ones, and they add up.