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The Nutramigen Hoax

Jul 2nd, 2010
by Leah.
9 comments

Nnutramigen The Nutramigen Hoaxutramigen. If you know the name, chances are your baby is allergic to milk, soy, or both. (Mine is allergic to milk, eggs, and sesame). If you are like me, you’ve probably felt at a loss what to feed your hypersensitive baby. And if you are like me, you hate shelling out $15-30 per jar of this foul-smelling powder.

My acquaintance with Nutramigen began several months ago, while weaning my then 15-months- old. After abstaining from dairy, eggs, and tahina for over a year (the allergens pass through breast milk),  I was desperate to find a formula my baby could digest.

That’s when our dietitian recommended Nutramigen. At first, it sounded like an ingenious wonder food. Broken down milk protein, easily digested by allergic kids. How smart! Then, last week, after watching this video, I checked the ingredients panel and nearly had a fit. The VERY first ingredient – corn syrup solids!!! Followed closely by casein, corn starch, fructose, coconut and soybean oils. For this we are paying $15 a pack after the HMO subsidy?!

As one commenter has suggested, once your child has an allergy, the formula  companies have you by the throat. They charge premium for an illusion of perfect nutrition for a sick baby, while using the cheapest, USDA-subsidized ingredients – corn and soybean. The main issue is that the fructose in corn syrup metabolizes as fat (just like alcohol). In the video I had mentioned, Dr. Robert Lustig (a pediatrician from University of California) says some formulas are so high in sugar, they can be compared to “baby milkshakes.” He blames the formulas for producing the scores of obese 6-month-olds he routinely sees at his endocrinology clinic.

The problem is more acute for parents of allergic babies. What in the world can we feed our children without making them sick?


 

Parental Control – Will It Do the Trick?

Jun 7th, 2010
by Leah.
3 comments

Over at Minnesota Mamaleh, Galit has written an excellent post on the importance of boundaries, direct communications, and lots of love as the way for turning out value-centered, drug-free kids.

I completely agree with Galit’s approach to parenting. All too often, we are so concerned with letting children develop their own identities that we give up the responsibility for setting boundaries too early. This hit home a couple of months ago, when I noticed my teen going to sleep at all kinds of hours.  After putting her to sleep at the right hour for a decade, I was sure the good habits had sunk in. Apparently, I was mistaken. It wasn’t easy discussing bedtime with a 14-year-old, even though I was determined on doing it nicely. However, the message of parental involvement was worth the unpleasantness.

One thing is important to remember. There is no 100% guaranteed recipe to producing good kids. Yes, we are responsible for educating ourselves about parenting methods, for setting boundaries, and developing unconditional love for our children. However, we are not responsible for the final outcome.

The Hebrew word for child-rearing, chinuch, also means dedication of vessels or buildings as in Chanuka (the holiday on which the Temple was rededicated) or chanukat hamishkan (the dedication of the Tabernacle in the wilderness). Rashi, a medieval Jewish Biblical commentator,  explains chinuch to mean the preparation of a person or a vessel for his/its future function (Genesis 14:14). That’s all there is to child-rearing. The parents’ job is to equip the children with a necessary measure of self-esteem, good habits, and clear values for a lifetime of challenges. Once that treasure-trove is in the kids’ hands, they are free to do with it as they please.

We try so hard to do things right that, inevitably, we set ourselves up with high expectations of picture-perfect kids. We would like to think that if we do this and that and press all the right buttons, we will not be disappointed. In reality, our children have free will to follow the path we have shown them, go astray, or maybe even find an altogether different trail. I know that a terrifying thought, but we are not in control.


 

Homemade Purim Costume Ideas

Feb 22nd, 2010
by Leah.
2 comments

Yesterday, while looking through a family album, I spotted some pictures of homemade Purim costumes I have made over the years. I don’t particularly like store-bought costumes, so over the years I have gathered many original Purim costume ideas to dress up my kids. Homemade costumes are cheaper, more versatile, and more fun than the run-of-the-mill offerings available for sale. None of these costumes require any sewing, so you can make them yourself from items you already have at home. Now that’s something even moms can enjoy.

Shulchan Arukh or Purim seuda

Here is an original costume idea. Start with a disposable tablecloth. Cut an opening for the head in the middle. Using a stapler or a glue gun attach disposable dishes, napkins, and silverware (preferably colorful).

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Game Theory Exercises for Children

Feb 6th, 2010
by Leah.
10 comments
game theory3 223x300 Game Theory Exercises for Children

Game theory for children

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up an entertaining book on game theory. Game theory studies the strategies people use when making decisions. As I was reading about the various problems considered by the theory, I thought these could make excellent games to play with the children. Here is an opportunity for a fun activity that also stimulates thinking, teaches decision-making, and creates an opening for meaningful discussions about choices and relationships.

We’ve played the games both theoretically and with props, such as pennies, chocolate chips, small candy, and Monopoly money. At the outset, each player is provided with an equal amount of “cash” to be used throughout the game. After each game, we discuss why the child has chosen to do what she did, what she had learned from her choice, and would she have done anything differently given a second chance. We also try to look for practical applications relevant to the kids’ lives. (more…)

Do We Value Children?

Jan 23rd, 2010
by Leah.
7 comments

A month ago, I visited my relatives in Russia. From the few TV programs I watched while there, it appeared that children are the number one issue on the Russian agenda. Yet, there seemed to be a cognitive dissonance between the declarations about the importance and the value of children and the fact that Russians are just not having them. Most women that decide to bring a child into the world, suffice themselves with one. Three children in a family are a rarity.

It is true that Russian women are an integral part of the workforce and that stay-at-home moms are almost unheard of in urban areas (except for the very rich of course). Getting childcare could also be tricky. (My cousin told me that in order to send her daughter to a day care center at the age of two, she had to sign up as soon as the baby was born, and it would probably take a bribe to really get in.) However, similar challenges exist in other countries as well without affecting demographics. (more…)

First glasses

Dec 29th, 2009
by Leah.
4 comments

Do you remember getting your first glasses? I do. I was six when my Mom took me into a dark office, where a doctor placed a gigantic piece of equipment on my nose and told me to read off signs of dogs, boats, and cups from a chart, as he kept changing the lenses. I had been reading for a couple of years by then and told him I could do the other chart with letters on it, too.

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Fun Chanukah Salt Dough Project

Dec 7th, 2009
by Leah.
No comments yet

Fun Chanukah Salt Dough Project

My kids came home with an assignment to create a chanukiya (chanukah menorah) for the school’s annual competition. After lots of deliberations, we decided to do it together from homemade salt dough.

We used the leftovers to make magnets, by creating shapes with cookie cutters and pasting fridge magnets on the back.

Salt dough recipe:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1½ cups water

  1. Mix flour with salt. Add water and knead thoroughly to form smooth dough. Shape into a ball and let dry for about 10 minutes.
  2. Create desired shapes.
  3. Place shapes on baking paper and bake at 200°C (320°F) for about 45 minutes (longer for very thick shapes).
  4. Let cool.
  5. Decorate with paint, sprinkles, beads and so on.

Delayed gratification linked to success in life

Dec 4th, 2009
by Leah.
1 comment

As a mother of five, fostering my children’s self-discipline is high on the priority list. Today, I came across a clip, which cites scientific evidence for something most parents know intuitively – self-discipline at a young age is a crucial predictor of success and happiness in adulthood.

To me, making a four-year-old wait 15 minutes in an empty room sounds more like torture than discipline training, but I am going to add the idea of get this now or more/better later to my parenting repertoire.

The Mystery Factor in Mother’s Milk

Nov 30th, 2009
by Leah.
4 comments

Have you ever considered why is it that mother’s milk cannot be measured? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to feed the baby and know exactly how much she has eaten?

The idea hit me while responding to comment on my posting about my baby’s feeding troubles. All of a sudden I realized that common advice to stop nursing, given by doctors whenever a baby doesn’t seem to follow textbook development patterns, is not rooted in opposition to Mother Nature. It is simple: formula can be measured in grams (or pints), making it possible to know just how much the baby has eaten. Armed with this knowledge, a doctor can analyze the data in terms of calorie, vitamin, and mineral intake and develop a treatment plan.

All of that is impossible with breast milk. How many grams are in a 5-minute feed? And how many calories? Unless you resort to weighing the baby before and after every feeding, as my mother had been instructed to do when I was a baby, the exact amounts remain a mystery. And what is in that breast milk anyway? It has not undergone chemical lab analysis, so who can vouch for its quality?!

There used to be a time when doctors could make diagnose an illness using just their five senses. Today, with the advent of futuristic technologies, this ability is gradually becoming extinct. So too with breast milk; if you can’t see it, measure it, take it apart in a lab, it is as if it doesn’t exist. Is it any wonder then, that when faced with a possibility of a problem, doctors prefer to play it safe and rely on quantifiable formula, rather than something as amorphic as breast milk. At least this way, there is a measure of control.

To me, surrounding breast milk with a bit of mystery makes perfect sense. From the Talmud we learn that, “[divine] blessing is not found not in that which has been weighed, not in that which has been measured, not in that which has been counted, but in that which is hidden from the eye.”  In His infinite wisdom, g-d has taken care of every detail of nursing, including leaving weights and measures out of it. This way, mothers can rely on their babies to eat as much as they want, without worrying about “filling the quota” and comparing their babies’ feeding needs with those of others. By keeping parental neurosis over food out of the equation, babies are given a chance to develop healthy eating habits from the start.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no intention of undermining doctors’ expertise or opposing the use of formula when things do not work out. That said, there is more to the decision than control over variables. After all, mother’s milk is not only immeasurable, it is also irreplaceable.

The financial sense of aliyah

Nov 28th, 2009
by Leah.
1 comment

This week, our close friends are coming on a pilot trip in preparation for their planned aliyah in the summer. Although the move will involve many challenges, there is one thing they’ll be glad to leave behind – spending over one half of their annual income on kids’ education.

While visiting family in the US in recent years, we have met a fair share of professional couples, who told us they could hardly make the ends meet even on a six digit income, because of huge tuition costs. That seems to be a common experience, judging from this discussion of yeshiva tuition and comments such as this:

Parents are taking their kids out of the orthodox schools and putting them in public schools. The Jewish Federation in this city has never seen the kind of numbers doing so, and believe it will only increase … I think all of us are beginning to see the future, in which we return to the 1950s and go to public school, with an after school Talmud Torah program. It’s already starting in many communities.

All of this has gotten me thinking. For years I have heard people say that can’t consider aliyah, because it is too hard to manage financially in Israel.  With lower salaries and higher prices, they argued, Israel just was not an option.

I understand that the decision to move to Israel is complex. However, people who would like to make aliyah, but are held back by financial considerations might want to check the facts. Moving to Israel can offer a financial break for two major budget items of a Jewish family – education and medical care.

Jewish education – Top-notch yeshiva education is free or very affordable. Many religious public schools are superb, but even private elementary schools charge only $50-80 a month. Yeshiva high schools cost approximately $1,500 annually (unless you choose a dorm, which should cost $3000 a year).

College fund – Despite availability of financial aid, US university tuition is prohibitively expensive. In Israel, on the other hand, college tuition amounts to $8000 for the entire degree! I actually know of people who got their degrees in Israel and then got licensed in the States all for a fraction of the cost.

Healthcare – From conversations with friends and family back in the US, I know this is a painful subject. I keep hearing stories about young couples deferring marriage to remain covered by parents’ health plans, people losing benefits, and overwhelming medical bills not covered by insurance. In Israel, medical coverage is universal and quality of care is very good. We pay a 5% health tax and nominal co-pay and can access private care by purchasing supplementary insurance ($50-100 a month for the entire family).

So, if you’ve always dreamed of moving to Israel but thought you could not afford it, do your math. The results may surprise you.

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