Weird uses of English words in relation to babies.

My basic philosophies in life are to keep things natural, simple, and frugal. However it seems that in America, people like to needlessly complicate things, and through aggressive marketing and criticism and shaming techniques, the "new way" becomes the "normal way" and the real "normal way" becomes the "poor dirty hippy old fashioned way" or "alternative" and they make new language to describe it.
This strange use of the English language is not limited to things concerning babies and childcare, many people know the infamous George Carlin routine in which he picks apart the way people attach meaningless words and change language to make things sound "more important."

A common theme I noticed in things concerning babies is attaching the word "delayed" to things. "Delayed" means postponing an action that should be carried out immediately, but it is often used to describe actions in which being "delayed" is normal and doing it immediately would be abnormal. For example:

"Delayed cord clamping" Clamping the cord immediately prevents the blood transfer from the placenta to the newborn, and can lead to many health problems. Clamping the cord after it stops pulsing, which can be anywhere from 5-30 minutes after birth, is what should be done for optimal health of the newborn. The reason it became the norm to clamp the cord immediately after birth was because of the narcotics they used to use to drug up the laboring mother, and they wanted to prevent all of those drugs from going to the baby, which makes it even more ridiculous to carry out immediate cord clamping after a natural labor and birth. 

"Delayed vaccinations" If a baby is fully breastfed and the mother has been vaccinated or has built up immunity to the diseases in question, you don't need to be injecting newborns with aluminum and everything else in the vaccine besides the actual disease cells. I'm still researching this subject and will probably do a limited vax schedule after Chinami turns 2. 

"Delayed solids" Most pediatricians will recommend starting rice cereal at 4 months and waiting until later makes you "delayed." A baby's stomach isn't fully matured until around 6 months or when the baby can sit up and loses the tongue thrust reflex. Force feeding goop from jars or Elmer's glue (wait, that's called white rice cereal...could have fooled me, has the same texture, taste, and nutritional value and spikes blood sugar to boot) to a 4 month old that is clearly not ready is ridiculous. Also, a baby can thrive just fine being exclusively breastfed up to and beyond 1 year, food before one is just for fun, to get them used to chewing, textures, tastes, and working on their motor skills. 

"Delayed potty learning" Oh wait, this is what "normal" potty training is in Westernized societies. A 4 year old with no developmental delays or physical disabilities, who can eat, run, talk in complex sentences and has a basic knowledge of phonics shouldn't be in a diaper. It is much more logical to introduce the concept of the toilet earlier and have it be a gradual process, or if you have the energy for it and don't live in a carpeted apartment, go diaper free and work on EC. 

There are some other terms that strike me as odd too.

"Extended breastfeeding." In our society, this refers to breastfeeding past the age of 1. However, the WHO recommends breastfeeding until the age of 2 as a minimum, and beyond as long as it is desired by mother and child. However in the US many pediatricians recommend switching to cow's milk after the age of 1, either because breastmilk magically loses all nutritional value after the baby's 1st birthday (just like how spinach loses all of its nutrients after your 18th birthday, right?), or because after baby's 1st birthday, she magically transforms into a baby cow. I'm not sure what the real story is but I know that most of the world goes a little bit closer to the WHO's guidelines. So perhaps weaning before 2 should be referred to as "premature weaning."

"Un-circumcised" This implies that the baby boy is lacking something, when really, he has simply been left with healthy, fully-functioning genitalia instead of having non-consensual cosmetic surgery.

"Sleep training" I hear this a lot, and actually don't really know what it means, because to me the concept of "training" a baby to sleep is ridiculous and right up there with "night weaning" or refusing to nurse a baby during the night so they will stop waking up looking for comfort or a small drink. Because all the adults doing this have never woken up for a glass of water or wanting a snuggle from a loved one, right?

Unfortunately, once something is rooted in language it can be hard to change...but at least things in this household are getting off to a good start! 

Food blog 2: 3 day Food Diary

This is my last week of working at the daycare, from next week I am babysitting a 13 month old early mornings and evenings instead, so my schedule and eating habits are likely to change again next week, but I have decided to do a food diary for 3 days.
Keeping a food diary is a good exercise for self-evaluation of your diet. Sometimes we don't realize our bad habits until we put them in front of us in writing. People sometimes do a food diary before they start a new lifestyle.
I am kind of interested in how much I am actually taking in because I have been slowly but consistently losing weight since giving birth to Chinami. I was 128lbs when I first found out I was pregnant, I gained an even 35lbs during the pregnancy and lost all of it within the first 3 months, and then kept losing steadily for the next six months, and as of now I am 115lbs. I am not following any kind of diet or exercise regimen, but I generally try to eat healthy and not snack mindlessly, and I walk from 30 minutes to an hour each day, and do 10-15 minutes of yoga in the mornings when I can.

Here is my honest diary from Monday, May 6-Wednesday, May 9. For fun, I also put what Chinami is eating.

Monday, May 6
7:30 am  1 banana (Chinami - some banana)
8:30 am (Chinami - puffed rice, breastmilk, water)
11:30 am (Chinami - sauteed asparagus, eggplant, zucchini in olive and sesame oils)
12 pm 1 banana (Chinami - some banana)
1 pm 1 bowl Don Quai ramen noodles with cabbage and choi sum.
5:30 pm  Raw broccoli, carrot, sweet pepper, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, and Maui style potato chips with ranch dip (Chinami - tomato, broccoli, carrot, and stole a potato chip when I looked away for a minute)
12 am  Fish head stewed in ginger, shoyu, mirin, and white rice with quinoa, spring mix salad with Asian Maui Onion dressing

Tuesday, May 7
7 am  Oat squares and sliced banana with milk
8:30 am (Chinami - banana)
11:30 am (Chinami - cooked baby carrot)
12 pm a couple pieces of broccoli
1:30 pm leftover fish from Monday with mixed brown and white rice and toasted nori.
5:30 pm handful of candied dried coconut and a smoothie of soymilk, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries with 1/2 banana (Chinami - popsicle made of plain Greek yogurt and mixed berries)
9 pm small non-sugar fruit cup, potato chips
11 pm Taco night - sliced steak, spring greens, seasoned black beans and zucchini, tomato salsa, guacamole, cheese, plain Greek yogurt, and whole wheat flatbread

Wednesday, May 8
8 am Peanut butter and banana sandwich, milk with wheatgrass powder (Chinami - banana)
1 pm raw carrots, broccoli, sugar snap peas, sweet peppers, tomato, (2 cups veggies total) a handful of potato chips with ranch dressing, 1 Babybel cheese (Chinami - carrots) 1 can of ginger ale
3 pm sugar-free fruit cup
5:30 pm leftover from last night's tacos....one whole-wheat black bean/zucchini burrito with cheese, Greek yogurt, guacamole, and salsa, and 1 small bowl of rice with the taco filling and topping.
12 am  1 piece roast chicken thigh w/Costco no-salt seasoning, mushrooms, a couple bacon-wrapped asparagus stalks, and homemade tomato soup with v-8, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, chopped cabbage stalk, and whole-wheat macaroni.

Maybe in a future entry I will do a food diary with pictures! :D