Five for Fridays - Sep 11, 2009

It has been a while since I highlighted some of the great comments I have received from all of you. Since this week we are on vacation, I thought of posting a few insightful reader comments instead of my usual Five for Fridays.

I am constantly inspired by your comments and I learn a lot from them. I want to say thanks to those who spend time reading my posts – some on a very regular basis – and leave a comment behind with some advice, helpful tips or a question for further research. Some of them have their own blogs, which I highly recommend you to visit whenever you get a chance.

Enjoy, and feel free to leave a comment of your own.

jessyz reaffirmed her belief in breastfeeding in response to Annie’s guest post Attachment Parenting and Toddler Nutrition:

I loved this post, I am planning to breastfeed until my daughter is 2 years and then decide if she is ready for weaning. My sister in law nags me all the time that my daughter is not eating enough but I’ve been watching my daughter and she’s almost one now and is growing steadily and happily. I offer lots of food choices but she’s still more dependent on breast milk. My mother is a nutritionist and always points out that if you don’t worry too much about the quantity of food but about the quality of food offered to toddlers you could be helping them combat life long diseases like diabetes and obesity.

In response to Study Suggests Kids Who Get Vitamins Don’tNeed Them, Kayris had this to say:

My kids get a chewable vitamin when I remember to give it to them. A whole one for the 4 1/2 year old and a half tablet for the 2 year old. Our previous pediatrician was very adamant about vitamin use and insisted that if I didn’t give my infant Vitamin D drops, he would get rickets. Strangely, my doctor routinely tests *my* Vitamin D level, and she says I am one of few patients with a normal result. I assume it’s because we eat so many eggs and get morning sun.

We changed pede’s, for a sort of complicated reason, and the new doctor doesn’t seem to care either way. He asked me if I give a vitamin, and when I said, “When I remember,” he just shrugged and went on.

Both my kids eat pretty well and healthfully, but my older child is a little pickier and there are foods neither one eats well. Vitamin C foods, for example, because while both devour their veggies, they don’t really eat a lot of fruit. So I figure a vitamin a couple times per week is extra insurance against anything that might be missing in their diets.

Samantha made a very insightful suggestion for Moms struggling to continue breastfeeding upon returning to work when I commented on a survey in Five for Fridays:

I have to comment on the pumping and returning to work. I nursed my daughter for 10 months, which also included pumping at work. (She self weaned, early probably due to her heavy use of the bottle from expressed milk. She got impatient when it came to eating straight from the breast.) I work for fairly large non-profit organization, and while it has been difficult to manage, I have found support. They do not have a set private space for me to pump, but between the executive director and the billing specialist, both have allowed me to use their offices when available. The executive director is even a single man. I think if you can relay how important continuing breastfeeding is, sometimes you can make an impact in the perception of pumping.

I now have my second child and am only working part time with him, and even still my place of employment allows me to clock out and pump as often as necessary, and even lets me schedule appointments around my pumping sessions. I think their flexibility has taken the stress out of pumping, and because I am able to relax about it, the process goes much more quickly and takes less time away from being productive.

I would encourage anyone struggling with pumping to schedule a time to sit down with their supervisor and explain the importance of breastfeeding, and what their needs are in terms of a private space. You’d be suprised how willing people are to work with you. I think sometimes we are just afraid to talk about it, which leads to embaressment, stress, drop in milk production, and early weaning. Thanks for giving us a place to share!

Vitamin D deficiency is a popular topic these days. When I commented on this in a Five for Fridays, Dr. Ayala of Herbal Water provided an interesting perspective:

You’re brave to tackle the vitamin D issue. I am both intrigued and confused by the proliferation of studies finding low vitamin D in practically every disease process, from cancer to heart disease to obesity.

The questions are:

Is the low vitamin D a part of the cause of the disease, or a manifestation of an unhealthy state, i.e. just a marker of disease. It would be similar to blaming a fever for the inflammation of the ear or lungs during an infectious disease. Vitamin D metabolism is complicated, therefore low vitamin D can be a result of both unhealthy lifestyle (engaging in less physical activity, which could be related to less sun exposure and eating an unhealthy diet), but also a sign that some of the many body systems (skin, kidney, liver) that participate in vitamin D production aren’t functioning well.

Can supplementation with vitamin D improve those conditions associated with low vitamin D? This question needs to be addressed in a large randomized clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation. Other vitamins were thought to be protective against disease and trails proved that not to be the case.

At this point, all we know is that low vitamin D has been correlated with many states of disease. We don’t know it’s a cause. We don’t know if supplementation will lead to a better outcome.

That’s for sure Vitamin D is a hot topic!

Susan Gardner shared her dilemma about her daughter’s food choices in response to my post Lunch in School Cafeteria:

This is very interesting to read. My daughter entered kindergarten this year and we allow her to buy her lunch one day a week. She always picks Friday – pizza day! I do know that the school offers vegetables and fruit, but I do not think she eats them and instead opts to buy a cookie or chips (she rarely gets these things in the meals we serve). It is interesting to see what goes on as kids get older and have the opportunity to make their own food choices. I hope that the cashier at my daughter’s school is as helpful as the one you observed.