Breast is milk is best when it comes to feeding baby, yet many mothers opt to bottle feed instead. The amount of research supporting the positive health benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby is astounding and the studies don’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Deciding whether or not breastfeed is a big decision, so what exactly determines that choice? UK researchers decided to find out.

The breastfeeding rates in the UK have been one of the lowest in the world and the country has put forth a great deal of effort over the past several years in an attempt to increase breastfeeding rates. The UK government recommends, along with health experts of countries all over the globe including the World Health Organization (WHO), exclusive breastfeeding for the 6 months of life. It was the WHO report of global breastfeeding rates that ranked the UK second to lowest in 2000, as only 21% of mothers were still breastfeeding at 6 months.

The University of Manchester along with Lancashire Primary Care Trust examined the effects of maternal obstetric factors, maternal socio-demographic factors, and hospital feeding practices on breastfeeding rates. The most important factors, according to the study, were ethnicity, hospital feeding practices, and mothers who had previously given birth.

Interestingly, the study did not find a significant correlation between breastfeeding duration and mothers in a peer-support program, marital status, time of delivery, length of time to initiate breastfeeding after giving birth, or socioeconomic status – all factors previously believed to play a critical role. About 50% of the breastfeeding mothers with peer support continued to breastfeed past 27 weeks. White mothers were 69% more likely to cease nursing than non-White mothers and also breastfed for shorter durations.

The study findings reveal mixed emotions. Researchers note that the association between feeding practices and ethnicity along with previous births can be much more difficult to influence through peer support programs. Yet, knowing what the study suggests, peer support programs can now focus on identifying the needs of their various clients to support them appropriately.

It is not just parents that feel baffled by infant formula ingredients these days.  From keeping harmful chemicals out to attempting the addition of nutrients shown in recent research to boost baby’s development, infant formula makers are finally seeking outside advice.  A recent report explains industry views are being sought on infant formula ingredients.

The feedback being solicited pertains to the new standards being proposed for inclusion in the Food Chemical Codex (FCC), aiming to ensure quality as well as enhance safety of key ingredients commonly used in infant formulas. 

 Published by the US Pharmacopeia Convention (USP), the FCC standards are internationally acknowledged voluntary industry standards.  These standards provide quality assurance for both the consumer and food manufacturers who purchase the ingredient for use in their products.  The proposed standards include 3 nucleotides present in breast milk as well as omega-3 fatty acids; all of which are now being added to many infant formulas.

 The USP explains that new “functional foods” being added in addition to the concern over infant formula contamination warrants a stringent level of quality assurance.  The new standards will bolster consumer confidence that the product purchases will be free of contaminants, not diluted with water or tampered with using substituted or less expensive ingredients, and will be consistent from batch to batch.  To ensure these confidences, the FCC standards also include validated test methods providing repeatable means of measuring ingredients as well as corresponding reference materials.

Comments from the industry will be reviewed by the USP’s Food Ingredient Expert Committee, a group of scientific experts that oversee FCC standards and will publish final standards in August of this year.  Baby Milk Action, a group that promotes breastfeeding and making infant formula safer, explains that not enough has been done in the past to ensure the safety of infant formula.  Even the World Health Organization (WHO) weighed in by stating that while breastfeeding is the ideal way to provide a baby nutrients, it is also important to ensure an ample supply of safe infant formula to meet babies’ needs.

Mum Mum’s recently reported on understanding a whole food based diet. Developing healthy eating habits is not as difficult as one might think, and starting children are born with a clean slate and pick up their eating habits by mirror others.  Even if you understand the lingo, but are still having a difficult time grasping how to implement a healthy diet into your family’s meals here are 8 building blocks to a healthy diet:

1. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes are the foundation of a healthy diet.  Low in fat, rich in vitamins,    minerals, and phytonutrients; these foods provide what your body needs and should represent the bulk of your diet.
2. The second principal is to eat those foods in a wide variety, as different foods provide different nutrients.  Create a rainbow on your plate of colorful produce daily and mix up the types of grains and legumes for maximum benefit.
3. The rest of the foods should come from low-fat dairy, lean meat, fish, and poultry.  Vegetarians and vegans can still get adequate protein without animal foods as long as the previous rules are applied.
4. Make sure to include dark leafy green, yellow, and orange vegetables and fruits daily as they not only contain disease-fighting antioxidants and natural immune boosters, but are also important nutrients for growing kids like vitamins A and C, as well as calcium.
5. Choose high fiber foods: this one is easy if you follow the previous steps!  Fiber is abundant in whole grains, legumes, fruits, and veggies and is basically an added bonus for the good food choices.
6. Go for the healthy fats and limit the unhealthy: opt for fish, nuts, and nut butters as well as olive and canola oils over hydrogenated oils, butter, margarine, or trans fats.
7. Get enough calcium: calcium is critical to maintain healthy bones and teeth and kids need lots of calcium to support their growing bones.  Low fat dairy is an option, but if there is a dairy allergy in the house, emphasize non-dairy calcium sources like leafy greens, almonds, soy nuts, beans, or fortified orange juice.
8. Have sugary foods, processed grains, and high sodium snacks in moderation: this is the last step because these types of food can be eaten only when the proper foundation of a healthy diet is laid.  Just like you can’t put a roof on a house until it is built from the ground up, refined or processed snack foods fit best on top of the healthy diet building blocks.

Last year, stories regarding the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, were abundant for several months causing plastic bottle manufacturers to change their ways particularly baby product makers. The debate was heated as proponents of the removal of BPA from baby and children’s products claimed there was plenty of evidence BPA was potentially harmful to children, yet chemical companies argued the research was inconclusive. BPA is back in the news again this week and US Health Officials announced Friday that more research needs to be conducted.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claimed in 2008 that the ‘trace’ amounts of BPA that leach out of food packaging and plastic bottles were not harmful.   BPA is leached into food and liquids when exposed to high temperatures such as leaving a water bottle in the sun or  when parents heat their baby’s formula  or breast milk before pouring into a plastic bottle.  After scientists complained the decision was based on a small number of industry sponsored studies, the FDA stated they would revisit their stance.

Revisiting time has arrived, as the US Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that they will expand research efforts and monitor the potentially harmful effects of BPA. The announcement came as US Health officials stated that research does show cause for concern over BPA’s possible adverse health effects on children, particularly when it is used to line the cans of liquid infant formula and in the production of baby bottles.

Bisphenol A is used to harden plastic and has been used to protect canned foods from metal, plastic cups and bottles, food packaging, and many other common household items from glasses to CD’s.  Some scientists believe BPA can cause harm to the nervous and reproductive system and may promote certain types of cancers.  Dozens of animal studies using BPA have found negative health effects but the results yet to be repeated in human studies.

An American Chemistry Council statement maintained that BPA is metabolized quickly and does not remain in the body, yet 90% of Americans have trace amounts of BPA in their bloodstream.  Concerns over the safety of BPA date as far back as 1930 but remained unproven.  One thing both sides can agree on is that more research is definitely needed.  Last year’s tidal wave of concern was enough for the government to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and infant feeding cups.  Until a decision is reached, the Department of Health recommends throwing away scratched baby bottles and not pouring hot liquids into plastic containers or bottles that may contain BPA.

No, whole food doesn’t always refer to that ubiquitous grocery store chain but rather a way of eating. It has become quite a common catch phrase these days which can only add to the confusion for parents attempting to provide their kids with a healthy diet.  Mum Mum’s advocates starting kids off right with a well balanced, minimally processed diet – but what exactly is that?

Whole Foods Vs. Processed

The phrase “whole food based diet” basically means choosing foods in as close to their natural state as possible, which  provides the body with maximum nutrients a food has to offer.  Although we have made major advancements in the past 50 years with respect to food processing, research is pointing for us to go back in time and eat the way our grandparents did.  Essentially, choosing foods that go the shortest distance from the ground to your plate.

 Processed or refined foods are pretty much the opposite of a whole food.  Again, these are buzz words found all over the place but often without explanation.   A refined food may have come from nature at some point, but has been processed – chemically, mechanically, or both- into a new food.  A perfect example is white rice.  Rice, in nature, is dark (brown) because of the rich sources of nutrients.  To make the rice white, the germ and bran are removed, and the rice is polished using glucose or talc then sometimes parboiled at high temperatures.  This process removes most of the nutrients that are then added back into the food through a process called enrichment, yet enrichment cannot replace many phytochemcials. 

 The definition of processed foods is loose because even healthy foods may undergo some processing including frozen vegetables or dried fruits. It is when the processing either makes a ‘food’ from a group of chemicals or as biotechnologyonline.gov explains: “Any food product that has undergone physical or chemical treatment resulting in a substantial change in the original state of the food”.  For processed foods following the latter description, they are often lacking in nutrients and likely have added fats, sugars, and a lot of other chemicals that do not provide nutrients.  Yes, they are ok once in a while but should not make up the basis of a diet.  When it comes to children, they often eat small amounts to begin with and filling up their tummies with foods of little nutritional value may lead to nutrient deficiencies.

Well Balanced

Just like it says, a well balanced diet is not too heavily weighted in any one particular type of food and includes all the food groups, espeically whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.   This is another media catch phrase but ironically there is no real definition of what exactly constitutes a “well balanced” diet, but perhaps the operative word here is ‘balanced’.  Kids do not need caloric restriction because they are growing rapidly and need lots of fuel, yet it is also not appropriate force feed children.  As the wise Ellyn Satter explains: parents provide the what (to eat) and kids decide how much.  Research is now correlating adult diseases with childhood diet, which is why what you are feeding your children now is so important.  While science has not yet proven for a fact what types of refined or processed foods are detrimental to long term health, what has been proven is how harmful the lack of whole foods can be in the long term.  By offering your children a variety of whole foods, with of course some treats mixed in now and then, you will be teaching them habits – and that ever elusive ‘balance’- that will last a lifetime.  Check out myPyramid for kids, a great resource for meal planning and understanding the nutrient needs for kids of all ages.

Kids and vegetables kind of go together like oil and water - or at least are certainly not synonymous. Parents and healthcare providers everywhere try (and try again) to come up with new ways to get kids to eat their veggies. One common notion is that kids will be more inclined to eat a veggie they helped pick out, but a recent study found there may be little truth to that.

Parents are not the only ones who note children’s less than favorable attitude towards veggies, as researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands set out to discover how to encourage kids to warm up to vegetables. Dr. Cees de Graaf and colleagues compared whether giving 4 to 6 year olds their choice of veggie, or no choice, had any affect on how much produce the kids actually ate.

From the 156 boys and 147 girls in the study, researchers determined which of the 8 commonly served veggies was their favorite: carrots, beets, broccoli, red cabbage, French beans, peas, spinach, and cauliflower. During a restaurant meal with their parents, 110 kids had a pre-meal choice of equal amounts of 2 veggies the kids themselves had approved.  Another 97 had the same choice but only as the meal was served while yet another 97 discovered a vegetable of their liking on their plates.

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study did not find any significant difference in the amount of veggies the kids ate. The tallies revealed the kids with pre-meal choice ate about 2 ounces, those with the at-mealtime choice ate just under 2 ounces, and those offered no choice at about 2.24 ounces. Though the consumption of veggies wasn’t very different a post meal survey revealed the kids were quite happy about being able to choose. Personality had come into play in this study as those kids who were described by parents as being “reactive”, or purposely doing the opposite of what they are told, ate half the amount of veggies in the no choice group than the more easy going dispositions.

Parents and researchers alike have known for some time that music is both a great learning tool and lots of fun.  Music has been thought to boost brain power from babies to college students, as a controversial 1993 study found college students improved IQ scores by listening to 10 minutes of Mozart; sending parents everywhere to the music store.  Although that study was found to inconclusive, a recent study brought Mozart’s music back into focus but this time for premature babies.

Conducted by Tel Aviv University, the study revealed that 30 minutes of exposure to Mozart’s music per day caused preterm infants to expend less energy resulting in less calories needed to grow rapidly.  This was compared to when infants were not “listening” to the music.

One of the main priorities for doctors treating preemies is to get the baby up to an acceptable body weight so that the infant can be sent home from the hospital.  In addition, premature babies are exposed to a host of bacteria and illness while in the hospital and a healthy body weight protects the babies from future problems.

The study was conceived through an international project by United States based consortium NIDCAP, whose purpose is to create a set of best practice standards for the health and well-being of neonates.  Several environmental factors have been proven to affect the health of premature infants including tactile stimulation and room lighting.  This study, however, was the first to quantify the effect of music on newborns.  Researchers measured the physiological responses to 30 minutes of Mozart’s music and compared the infants’ energy expenditure pre and post music listening finding significantly less expenditure after the music, which could ultimately lead to faster weight gain.

Researchers theorize the music makes the babies calmer possibly due to the repetitive melodies of Mozart’s music in particular, which bears a stark contrast to other great classical composers.  Israeli researchers planned to continue the study to find the long term effects using different types of music including rap, pop, ethnic, and of course classical music as well as surveying mothers to discover what types of music their infant was exposed to in the womb.  The correlation between infant brain development and Mozart has been around for many years with a variety of ‘Baby Mozart’ CD’s still on the market, however, many of the myths of this positive association have been debunked.  Research has shown that babies do benefit from listening, and singing along, to a variety of musical styles.

Chilly weather is here for a while, and so are coughs and colds.  Children’s immune systems need extra special care for many reasons.  For one, children’s exposure to bacteria is often significantly higher than that of adults, especially children in daycare or preschool.  Also, at a young age, children have not been exposed to as many pathogens as adults have.  Exposure to flu bugs and bacteria help your body create a specific way to get rid of those bugs, which children are often lacking.

To create a healthy immune system, it is important to provide the body with a whole foods diet full of variety.  Get back to basics by eating foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and lean animal protein.  Fruits and vegetables not only contain vitamins, but also are rich sources of antioxidants that help protect tissues from damage.  To keep an immune system healthy, it is best to aim for nutrient dense foods, especially since infants and children eat smaller portions.  Processed foods such as white sugar and flour, canned or fast foods have been shown in studies to actually weaken the immune system.

Healthy Foods

There are also many foods that naturally contain immune boosting nutrients such as vitamin C and zinc:

 Vitamin C rich foods:  bell peppers, dark leafy greens, kiwi, grapefruit, strawberries, tomatoes, cantaloupe,  apricots, and broccoli

 Zinc rich foods: oatmeal, yogurt, legumes, peas, lentils, potatoes, and brown rice

Some foods actually good “bugs” or beneficial bacteria called probiotics. These good bugs can also help the immune system as immunity predominately resides in our digestive systems.  Yogurt and kefir are excellent sources of beneficial bacteria that can help improve digestion as well fight the growth of illness-causing bacteria.  Be sure to avoid yogurt brands that contain added sugar or food colorings.

Keep Moving

Our bodies tend to slow down in the winter, but a little movement goes a long way for child’s immune response.  Be sure to make time to get your toddler’s body moving by spending less time in front of the TV.  Physical activity increases white blood cells which help a body fight off infection.

Supplements

If your child is a picky eater, a good quality age appropriate multivitamin might be a good option.  There are also many immune boosting supplements for infants and children on the market.  Please be sure to consult your pediatrician before taking any supplements.

As a health conscious parent you view the latest news on the internet, avidly read food labels, and are choosy about the restaurants you take your family to.  Food labels are not just for people who want to loose weight, but are also for those simply trying to make good food choices- especially when feeding young children. What if those labels we have come to trust were incorrect?  Unfortunately, as a new study found, that may be the case.

Researchers from Tufts University discovered that some commercially prepared foods contained more calories than the nutrition fact label indicated.  The measured caloric (energy) value of 29 quick-serve and sit down restaurant foods was on average 18% higher than the label indicated.  Ten common supermarket frozen meals were also found to be 8% higher in calories.

The goal of the study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, was to find the accuracy of the stated energy value of foods commonly chosen for weight control.  Foods were chosen based on the following criterion: 1. represented typical American foods, 2. among those with the lowest stated calories on the menu, and 3. contained less than 500 calories per serving, as per the nutrition label.  The frozen meal foods chosen for the study were complete meals that would be an alternative to dining out and the restaurants were chains with locations throughout the United States.

Further complications were found with restaurant meals; 5 restaurants provided side dishes at no extra cost providing an average of 471 additional calories to the 443 calorie entrees they came with.  The discrepancies did not stop there as 3 supermarket purchased complete meals and 7 restaurant foods contained double the stated amount of calories.  Authors note that the US Food and Drug Administration allows up to 20% excess energy content yet weight must be no less than 99% of the stated amount.  This could potentially have lead to food manufacturers adding more food to the package thus increasing calorie content.

 The results of the study have caused disappointment and doubt not only to those trying to watch what they eat but also healthcare professional who encouraged clients to read food labels. What can be done in the meantime? Of course cooking at home is ideal, but it is best to become familiar with what a serving size –especially for a child- is supposed to look like so if given an oversized portion, you will know to save some for later.  As the saying goes, everything in moderation: if a frozen meal or dinner out is only occasional than the extra calories won’t be that detrimental.  If it is a frequent occurrence, this only provides more incentive to switch to a diet based on fresh, whole, minimally processed foods.

The tendency to reach for disinfectants, stringent cleaners, and hand sanitizers is high this time of year for cold and flu prevention.  During pregnancy women tend to be extra careful to reduce exposure to bugs of any kind.  It appears, however, that a little exposure can go a long way as a new study found it may help prevent allergies in utero for kids later in life.

The Phillips-University of Marburg, Germany researchers found via testing on pregnant mice that exposure to environmental bacteria resulted in allergy resistant offspring.  According to the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, expecting mice who inhaled barnyard microbes gave birth to pups that were protected from allergies.

Microbe exposure elicited a mild inflammatory response in the mothers characterized by an increased expression of “Toll-like” receptors (TRLs), which are microbe-sensing, as well as an increased production of the immune system cells cytokines.  The maternal TRLs were necessary for the mother’s own protection but exactly how that translates to the next generation remains unknown.                                       

The rate of childhood allergies have been on the rise for some time, along with new strands of illness causing bugs resulting in the propensity to keep kids too clean- the basis for the hygiene theory.  According to the hygiene theory, exposure to environmental microbes conditions kids’ immune systems to withstand allergens and microbes later in life.  

In fact, previous studies have found that children raised in rural areas, particularly farms which are microbe laden, have fewer allergies than their city raised counterparts.  Yet it appears it is not just the child’s exposure that matters because children of farming mothers also fare better when it comes to allergies regardless of their own exposure.  It is still unknown if this protection can span a broad range of allergens, including food allergens, until then much more research is needed.