November NMF Holiday Meeting

Pregnant NMF Women!
Idea Swap: (See below for description)

Add-A-Pearl Necklace

Magnetic Picture Holder

1/2 of the Red Envelope Family Tree

T-Shirt Quilt

Framed Mosaic

Jen Our "Creative Crafter!" :)

Everyone working on their homemade holiday gift bags.

Maria, Danielle & Amy

Our box of children's mittens for First Step!

Our November meeting was a huge hit! We had an excellent turnout! Our meeting consisted of good food, wine, crafting, idea sharing, and great conversation!!!

Topics Included:

• Thank you so much to everyone who donated children's mittens to First Step.
• Our group voted on Make A Wish Foundation as our charity of choice for the upcoming year. Our spring walk/run will be announced at a later meeting. Fellow NMF member, Tara, had an excellent idea of a "Make It, Bake It, Fake It" fundraiser at our one year anniversary family bbq in June.
• Fellow NMF member, Andrea, gave an excellent talk on Blood Cord Banking.

From CBR: "We are always excited to share the latest advances in medical treatment using cord blood with you. A large percentage of our clients have told us they chose to bank with CBR, in part because of the advances in Regenerative Medicine - the science of using the body's own cells to repair and replace damaged tissues and organs. In the attached media clip - you can see an example of how cord blood stem cells can potentially repair damaged brain tissue associated with cerebral palsy." Click here to watch the remarkable story of one of our clients

CBR: 1-888-932-9010

Andrea, Danielle & Stephanie have coupons available for anyone interested in getting a discount off of their initial investment.

http://parentsguideblood.org/ is a great resource also.

• Congrats to the new moms-to-be!!!! Christine, Ashley, Kim, & Corey.
• Upcoming Meeting Schedule: Dec.- off, Jan.- 30 Minute Meals, Feb.- Organization
• Welcome Back Amy!!! It was so great to have you back! Thank you for your heartfelt talk and wonderful words of wisdom!!!
  
  ***Idea Swap: Holiday Gift Giving Ideas:

1) Maria- Make a framed mosaic with proof sheets from your digital photo orders, Family ABC's scrapbook, T-shirt quilt

2) Tara-Bracelets with baby-to-be's name made for mom and grandparents during baby shower to say thank you, chocolate carmel apples with pecan nuts as gifts

3) Christina-"My Own Fairy Tale" book with your child's name. Christina, send us the website for this book! :)

4) Amy- Add-A-Pearl necklace. Buy your little one a pearl every year and add to a necklace. By the time they are 16, they have a beautiful pearl necklace. Larsons in Novi sells the necklace.

5) Mel- Big tins of homemade popcorn.

6) Jen- Personalized fortune cookies. Place in oven for a few minutes to get the old fortune out and put a personalized fortune in it.

7) Holly- Framed Scrabble board with words that describe a loved one. Glue the words in place and frame the board. You can order extra letters when you buy the box of Scrabble.

8) Andrea- Personalized stationary http://www.tinyprints.com/, Diapers with baby's name on it http://www.diapergrams.com/.

9) Amanda & Kristy- Magnet strips from IKEA, cover with fabric and add magnets with a ribbon to hang in the kitchen or den.

10) Jodi- Family Fun handout describing the tradition of "Gordy" a traveling Gourd and journal that is passed between family members. Family members write stories about the gourds adventures.

11) Danielle-Personalized homemade family tree http://www.redenvelope.com/

Favorite Recipe of the Night provided by NMF member Christina:

EGGNOG TRIFLE
1-1/4 cups cold fat-free milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Filling
4 Tbsp. orange juice, divided
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg (I used a little more - you can keep adding a little bit to your liking)
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping, thawed
1 pkg. (13.6 oz.) fat-free pound cake
1/4 cup PLANTERS Sliced Almonds, toasted (spread in single layer on baking sheet, bake at 350°for 5-7 min) & 3 cups halved strawberries

POUR cold milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix, 2 Tbsp. of the orange juice and nutmeg. Beat with wire whisk 1 minute. Gently stir in whipped topping. SLICE cake horizontally into 4 layers. Sprinkle cake layers evenly with remaining 2 Tbsp. orange juice. Cut into 1-inch cubes. PLACE 1/2 of the cake cubes in bottom of 2-1/2-quart straight-sided bowl. Spoon 1/2 of the whipped topping mixture over cake cubes. Top with strawberries and almonds, reserving several for garnish, if desired. Layer remaining cake cubes and whipped topping mixture over strawberries. Top with reserved strawberries and almonds. REFRIGERATE until ready to serve. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator.

CONGRATS TO JEN M. FOR RECEIVING THE CREATIVE CRAFTER AWARD!!! :) :)

Thanks again for attending!

National Marrow Donation Information

Submitted by Kelly

The following hospitals in our area collect cord blood onsite, ask you doctor or midwife before your 34th week if you would like to donate your baby's cord blood. If you are not delivering at one of these hospitals, but would like to donate, you can easily do so by printing the forms from http://www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating/ and following the fairly simple directions with your doctor. For good information on cord blood donation, visit the National Marrow Donor Program at http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/index.html.

Huron Valley HospitalCommerce Twp., MI
J.P. McCarthy Cord Stem Cell Bank http://www.karmanos.org/cordblood

Oakwood Hospital Medical CenterDearborn, MI
CORD:USE(407) 667-4842http://www.corduse.com

Hutzel HospitalDetroit, MI
J.P. McCarthy Cord Stem Cell Bankhttp://www.karmanos.org/cordblood

St. John Hospital & Medical CenterDetroit, MI
Cryobanks International, Inc.http://www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating

Thankyou to my NMF friends for all of your love and support during the past few months. I love my "Hope" angel I received last night, but more importantly, I love that it came from all of you :) We are all so lucky to have each other as an awesome support system!
Love,
Amy

Little Genius!

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4023

What now???

(Be sure to read Dr. Mercola's comments)

How Cell Phones May Cause Autism

Rates of autism, a disabling neurodevelopmental disorder, have increased nearly 60-fold since the late 1970s, with the most significant increases occurring in the past decade.The cause of autism is unknown, although theories include such potential causes as:

Genetic predisposition

Inability to clear heavy metals

Increased vulnerability to oxidative stress

Environmental exposures including mercury preservatives in vaccines

Trans-generational accumulation of toxic heavy metals

Now a groundbreaking new theory has been suggested by a study published in the Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine: electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from cell phones, cell towers, Wi-Fi devices and other similar wireless technologies as an accelerating factor in autism.

EMR May be the Missing Link. The study, which involved over five years of research on children with autism and other membrane sensitivity disorders, found that EMR negatively affects cell membranes, and allows heavy metal toxins, which are associated with autism, to build up in your body. Meanwhile, the researchers pointed out that autism rates have increased concurrently along with the proliferation of cell phones and wireless use. EMR, the researchers say, could impact autism by facilitating early onset of symptoms or by trapping heavy metals inside of nerve cells, which could accelerate the onset of symptoms of heavy metal toxicity and hinder therapeutic clearance of the toxins. Speaking in reference to the huge rise in autism rates, Dr. George Carlo, the study’s co-author, said, “A rise of this magnitude must have a major environmental cause. Our data offer a reasonable mechanistic explanation for a connection between autism and wireless technology.” They also suggest that EMR from wireless devices works in conjunction with environmental and genetic factors to cause autism. Primary researcher for this article is Tamara Mariea. Her clinic is called Internal Balance™ Inc.(www.internalbalance.com) and is a state-of-the-art Detoxification Clinic located in the Nashville, TN area. Her objective is to provide high quality and current up-to-date information on the hottest topics in the natural health industry including sound advice on how to implement a personal wellness and detoxification program that works.

One of the most successful programs offered at Internal Balance is the unique strategies implemented for autistic children. In working backward through the autistic child’s life, making changes to their environment, diet and implementing State-of-the-Art detoxification strategies, the Internal Balance team has witnessed numerous changes and improvements in the lives and families of these children. In a few cases, they have witnessed miracles that have changed lives forever, including Mariea’s team. Parents consistently report back that during and after the detoxification process and most importantly after making modifications to their home, they see huge changes in their children’s developmental progress and a decrease in the children’s general sensory discomfort.

Although Mariea believes that autism is a complicated condition that must have several factors at play for a child to fall to this diagnosis, she does believe that the three largest factors at play are:
Genetically determined detoxification capacity
Early insult to immune system via contaminated vaccines and
Being born with high levels of toxic burden and into a technologically advanced society riddled with ever increasing levels of radiation

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

I am absolutely convinced that the explosion of cell phone usage around the world is one of the primary contributors to the autism epidemic. The information-carrying radio waves from cell phone base stations and cell phones makes children’s exposure to vaccines and heavy metals much more dangerous than they typically are. Why? Because EMR may actually trap heavy metals inside your cells, allowing them to cause damage and hindering your body from detoxifying them.While I realize that most people will not avoid cell phones because of their convenience, I would urge you to not let your kids use them. I warned of these dangers on my Today Show interview last month, but the media blacklisted it and only showed a short section of what I had to say. So let me say it again here: the density of your child’s skull is far less than an adult’s, and their brain is far more susceptible to these information-carrying radio waves. For this reason, you should not allow your child to use a cell phone, and you should also never hold an infant while you’re talking on one -- when you are on a cell phone the radiation plume can easily reach an infant in your other arm and penetrate their skull. In October, I spent two full days with Dr. George Carlo, who is the co-author of this groundbreaking study and an undisputed world expert in cell phone safety. I was so compelled with the information I heard that my next book in 2009 will detail the reasons why I believe using cell phones is far more dangerous than smoking cigarettes ever was. Largest Study Ever on Cell Phone SafetyDr. Carlo was given a $28-million grant from the cell phone industry in the '90s to prove cell phones were safe. He is an MD, taught as a professor at George Washington Medical School, and has a degree in public health -- so he was up for the challenge. However, Dr. Carlo did not come up with the results the cell phone industry would have wanted. After his research he found that they DO, in fact, cause damage. The cell phone industry offered him a position for $1 million a year to silence him, but he refused, and started a non-profit institute called The Safe Wireless Initiative to inform the world of this danger. Folks, by the end of this year it’s expected that 4 billion cell phones will have been sold. This is a massive explosion in cell phone use, and one that is undoubtedly linked to health problems, including autism. The information-carrying radio waves from cell phones may:
Damage your cell membranes
Decrease your intracellular communication by disrupting microtubular connections that allow biophotons to communicate between cells
Increase deposits of heavy metals into your cells, which increases intracellular production of free radicals and can radically decrease cellular production of energy -- thus making you incredibly fatigued

Cell phone users are also 240 percent more prone to brain tumors, and a study back in 2004 found that your risk of acoustic neuroma (a tumor on your auditory nerve) was nearly four times greater on the side of your head where your phone was most frequently held. What is even more concerning, though, is that there is VERY solid evidence that the number of brain tumors will increase to 500,000 per YEAR in 2010 -- and this will double to 1 million every year by 2015 if the causes are not addressed. Folks, this is the real deal and represents an impending health care crisis.Can Cell Phones Ever be Used Safely? Ideally, I believe you should not use cell phones. In reality, though, I know that’s not a practical option for many of you.If you choose to use a cell phone you should use the speakerphone function whenever possible -- and keep the phone about two feet away from any body part. Do not keep the phone on your belt or in your pocket even when you’re not using it, as the radiation WILL penetrate your body wherever the phone is attached. Instead, stow it away in a purse, backpack, or your car’s glove compartment. For times when a speakerphone isn’t practical, you can use a NON-Blue Tooth headset, such as the Blue Tube headset. While Blue Tooth is certainly safer than no headset at all, it is still broadcasting its own information-carrying radio waves into your brain, just at a lower intensity than a cell phone. And there quite simply is no safe biological threshold for either of them. I feel SO STRONGLY about the dangers that cell phones pose to your health, and your children’s, that I agreed to host an event with Dr. Carlo in Chicago in the near future.

Do your children get the flu shot? Read this interesting article.

(submitted by Amisha)

FDA wants warnings on flu drugs for kids
Tamiflu and Relenza linked to abnormal behavior in some patients

The FDA began reviewing Tamiflu’s safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche’s Tamiflu and Glaxo’s Relenza. Next week, an outside group of pediatric experts is scheduled to review the safety of several such drugs when used in children. FDA began reviewing Tamiflu’s safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions.

Twenty-five patients under age 21 have died while taking the drug, most of them in Japan. Five deaths resulted from children “falling from windows or balconies or running into traffic.”
There have been no child deaths connected with Relenza, but regulators said children taking the drug have shown similar neurological problems.

While FDA said it isn’t clear whether the problems are directly related to the drugs, it recommends adding language about the possible side effects to labeling for physicians who prescribe Tamiflu and Relenza. In documents prepared for the meeting next week and posted on the FDA's Web site, agency staff recommended that Tamiflu's label be strengthened to note: "In some cases, these behaviors resulted in serious injuries, including death, in adult and pediatric patients."

The FDA staff also reviewed Relenza, a drug in the same class as Tamiflu, recommending its label be changed to note "reports of hallucinations, delirium and abnormal behavior" observed in some patients taking the drug. The current Relenza label has no label warning related to psychiatric events. The FDA staff said the evidence is "conflicting" as to whether the events are medication-related, a manifestation of disease or a combination of the two.

Japan probe Tamiflu has been more widely used in Japan than in the United States, and there is some evidence that the Japanese are more vigilant about reporting side effects, the FDA has said. Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, is a pill, while Relenza, generically zanamivir, is inhaled. A Roche spokesman said no causal relationship between Tamiflu and these psychiatric events has been proven. "Roche has extensively investigated the issue and is conducting ongoing clinical and nonclinical studies. Roche takes all adverse events reports very seriously," spokesman Terence Hurley said in a statement.

Besides being a drug side effect, the agency said the behaviors alternately could result from an unusual strain of flu or a rare genetic reaction to the drug. About 48 million people have taken Tamiflu worldwide, including 21 million children, since approval in 1999, he said.

A Glaxo spokeswoman said a review of premarketing and post-approval trial data showed no worrying safety signals on patients taking Relenza. The drug is a not a major revenue-generator for UK-based Glaxo. FDA staff based its recommendations on a review of nearly 600 cases of neuropsychiatric events reported by patients on Tamiflu and 115 cases of such events by patients taking Relenza.

The FDA staff will present the advice to the advisory panel of experts meeting on Tuesday, November 27. The agency typically takes the advice of these panels but is not bound by them. Japan in March warned against prescribing Tamiflu to those ages 10 to 19 as more than 100 people, mostly young, showed signs of abnormal behavior after taking the drug.

Earlier this year, Japan broadened its probe of Tamiflu to look at flu drugs Relenza and amantadine, after reports of abnormal behavior among young patients.
FDA staff reviewed recent side effect reports on amantadine and rimantadine, another flu drug in amantadine's class, but recommended no label changes. Amantadine already has a strong warning about suicide attempts and an increase in seizures seen in patients on the drug, while rimantadine notes seizure-like activity and hallucinations.

Tamiflu was having lackluster sales as a drug to prevent and treat seasonal flu but got a second life when it was the first drug to show real efficacy in treating and preventing bird flu.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Question of the Week! 11-26-07

Please give your best "traveling with little ones" advice?

Question Of The Week! 11-19-07

What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Do you have a picky eater?

(submitted by Kim)

By Melanie Shay, registered dietitian

As long as your child is growing normally, she's most likely okay, even if she doesn't seem to be eating enough. The truth is, it's quite common for children at this age to have trouble sitting still for meals, to eat irregularly, and to be very picky about what they will eat.You may be tempted to try to force your child to eat more, but don't: The more pressure you put on her, the more she'll resist and the less she'll eat. Instead, offer her a range of healthy foods, eat them yourself so you're setting a good example, and then sit back and let her choose what she wants to eat, and how much. Don't worry — she won't starve.

A recent study from the American Dietetic Association showed that nearly all children will eat enough to meet their nutritional needs when they have access to a variety of foods, even those whose mothers described them as extremely picky eaters.The important thing to remember is that normal growth is the best indicator of adequate nutrition, so if your child is maintaining adequate growth in both height and weight (which your doctor can help you determine), then she is getting plenty of calories. Talk to your child's doctor at the next well-child visit (or make an appointment before then if you're really concerned) to confirm that your child is growing at the expected rate.

While your child may be getting enough calories to grow, you may be worried that she's not getting these calories from the right sources. So you may want to record what your child eats for about a week (without making a big deal about it in front of her). Then you can use the Food Guide Pyramid to help you assess her eating. You'll probably find that she's eating better than you thought. If she seems deficient in any one food group, try offering more foods from that group for a while. If that doesn't work, you can always ask your pediatrician to recommend an appropriate multivitamin to help meet your child's nutritional needs.

It is perfectly normal for preschoolers to object to the shape, color, or texture of a food — or to suddenly decide that they hate everything, even foods they loved yesterday. It's also common for them to have what experts call food jags. That is, they insist on eating the same few foods at every meal."It's a fear of new things," says Nancy Hudson, a registered dietitian at the University of California, Berkeley. "We think it's one of those quirks that humans probably developed to protect themselves as mankind evolved. You don't try new things because you don't know if they're safe." This fear of new things usually tapers off by age 4, but for some children it continues into adulthood. At any rate, whether it's his bedtime routine or his peanut butter sandwich cut on the diagonal, your child probably likes things to be consistent and familiar — so he may not be willing to try new foods until you've served them numerous times.

Picky eating can also be a preschooler's way of declaring his independence ("You can't make me eat that") and may have less to do with the actual food than a need to push the limits of your authority and assert some control over his life. Finally, because preschoolers are a wiggly lot, it may seem as though your child can't sit still long enough to eat very much at one sitting. You can try to keep your child interested in his food longer by making mealtime as calm and uneventful as possible, without distractions from toys, television, or pets.


Your child has an innate sense of how much food his body needs to grow and be healthy, and it's up to him to decide what he's going to eat. The best thing you can do is to provide a wide variety of healthy foods in a positive, relaxed environment so mealtimes will be enjoyable for everyone.

Here are some specific tips on how to handle a picky eater:
• Provide a variety of good foods for your preschooler to eat at each meal. Keep in mind that it takes numerous exposures to a new food for a child to see it as familiar enough to try. So be patient. When you do offer a new food, simply place it on the dinner table with everything else, and don't make a big deal about it. Don't put it right on your child's plate, which may seem threatening or cause him to rebel. Eventually, after he's seen you eat the food a few times, he may feel more open to trying it himself.
• Serve child-size portions. For example, two slices of bread provides the daily grain requirements for a 2- or 3-year old, and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (just enough to barely cover two slices of bread) give a young child about half the recommended amount of daily protein.
• Don't give your preschooler too many options at mealtime. If you say "It's dinnertime. What do you want to eat?" your child will probably choose something familiar, and he'll seem like a picky eater, says Hudson. However, if you say "Here's dinner," he'll have to choose from among the foods you're offering. Of course, you won't want to offer an entire meal of unfamiliar foods because your child simply won't eat them. Instead, always offer a meal that includes at least one thing you know your child likes.
• When introducing new foods, don't present them in large quantities. If by some miracle your preschooler is interested in trying a new food, give him just a taste and let him ask for more. That way he'll feel more in control and you won't feel like you're wasting food if he doesn't eat it. When you can, give him a new food to try when you know he's hungry — slices of mango when he has the afternoon munchies, for example.
• Keep in mind that some children's palates are more sensitive than others', and they simply won't like the texture, color, or taste of some foods. That's why a child might claim to dislike a food he has never even tried. Likewise, some children may reject a food because it reminds them of a time when they were sick or because they have some other negative association with it. If your preschooler complains that a particular food will make him sick, stop offering that food for a while. You can try again when he's a bit older.
• Whenever possible, let your preschooler be involved in food decisions and preparations, including shopping and making meals and snacks. (And if he can help you grow some of the family's produce in the yard, so much the better!) This will give him a sense of control over his diet. And he'll be more likely to eat something that he's chosen, or prepared, for himself. (This works best if you let your child choose from a small selection of foods you've already identified rather than just asking him to pick his supper.) Make fun, healthful treats together — like yogurt-and-fruit banana splits or ants on a log (raisins placed on top of peanut butter-filled celery sticks).
• Look for ways to boost the nutritional value of the foods your preschooler enjoys. Put some tuna or ham on his grilled cheese, or meat or tofu in his spaghetti sauce, for example.
• Teach your child (without lecturing) about good nutrition. Hang a food chart in the kitchen and have him color in the requirements as he meets them each day, and mention nonchalantly that his oatmeal will help him run and jump better this morning.
• Don't cater too much to your preschooler's pickiness. While it was fine to indulge your toddler's desire to have his cheese sandwiches cut into star or moon shapes, your preschooler is getting old enough to eat without special gimmicks.
• As your child's world expands and he begins attending preschool, his taste in foods might broaden as well. It's not uncommon for children to be more open to new foods when they're away from home.

Touching Story!

(submitted by kim)
Couple who lost three children expecting triplets!!!

In May, Lori and Chris Coble’s three children were killed in a car accident. But now they can smile again, because Lori is pregnant with triplets. They spoke with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira.


In an instant last May, Chris and Lori Coble lost their three young children in a horrific traffic accident not far from the family’s California home. The couple was devastated by the sudden and profound loss of their two daughters and a son, but knew even through their grief they were meant to be parents and would be again.

If all goes well, the Cobles told TODAY anchor Meredith Vieira on Tuesday, they’ll have two new baby girls and a baby boy next spring. The couple can’t help but think that it’s all connected.

“We both knew we wanted more kids,” Lori Coble told Vieira. “We’re parents right now without kids. The kids are what made us so happy in life. We knew that if we were still living that we wanted to have more kids.” Chris Coble said he can’t help but think, from a spiritual perspective, that the children he lost somehow had a hand in his wife’s pregnancy. He believes firmly they are in a better place, and watching over their mom and dad. “Your mind can’t even think otherwise. If you feel they’re somewhere watching over you, protecting you, and something like this happens, it’s hard to think that somehow they weren’t involved in crafting this,” he said.

The triplets Lori Coble is carrying — two girls and a boy — were conceived through in vitro fertilization. In the procedure, 10 of Lori Coble’s eggs had been fertilized and three became viable embryos. Chris Coble, 36, said there was just a 10 percent chance that three of the 10 eggs would be viable. The doctors wanted to implant just two of the embryos, but the couple had lost two girls and a boy and asked for all three embryos to be transferred to Lori Coble’s womb.

Tragedy on the highwayOn May 4, Lori Coble, 30, was driving home from lunch on Interstate 5 with her mother, Cynthia Maestri, 60, in the front seat of the family’s minivan. Behind them were Kyle, 5, who was playing a video game, Emma, 4, who was watching TV, and Katie, 2, who had fallen asleep. Traffic was moving rapidly in the center and left lanes, but the right lane was stop-and-go with cars backed up on the Mission Viejo exit ramp Lori Coble intended to take. She remembers looking back while the car was stopped to check on her children, and squeezing Katie’s toe to wake her up so she would be able to nap when they got home. What happened next she knows only from what others have told her.

A tractor-trailer loaded with 20 tons of electronics and traveling an estimated 70 mph slammed into the back of the minivan, killing all three children and seriously injuring Lori Coble and her mother. The funeral was a heart-wrenching affair, presided over by Chris Coble’s father, the Rev. Robert Coble, a Presbyterian priest from Pennsylvania, and attended by hundreds from the family’s community. At the service, the parents spoke about the joy their children had brought them, and Chris Coble talked about the welcome they would give him when he came home from work. “It was a stampede to the front door, screaming ‘Daddy!’ I felt bad because I couldn't hug them all at once,” he said at the time. “We don't know how we're going to move on from here.”

“I hope that some day they will be parents again, because they have so much to give,” Robert Coble told a reporter at the funeral. Chris and Lori Coble shared that desire. The couple knew they couldn’t replace their children, but hoped they could still bring more children into the world.

“It was an amazing thing,” Chris Coble said of learning that three viable embryos had survived the procedure. “We kind of took this as a sign. Even though the doctor was more conservative and wanted to put two back, we decided once there were two girls and a boy — that’s pretty ironic, and we put all three in.”

Since the accident, the Cobles have become active in the Virginia-based Truck Safety Coalition, a citizen’s lobby working for stricter regulation of the trucking industry. According to the coalition, some 5,000 lives are taken in accidents with big rigs.

“This is an industry that’s based on payment on miles driven,” Chris Coble told Vieira. “For a lot of truckers, if that truck isn’t rolling, they’re not getting paid, which really sets up an entire industry where it promotes danger and real safety concerns. These truckers are speeding and they’re tired and we’d like to get that changed.”

They’re trying to see laws enacted to further limit the hours truckers can be on the road. The man who hit their minivan, Jorge Miguel Romero, 37, had been cited for speeding in 2002 and 2006. Investigators said he had been inattentive at the time he hit Lori Coble’s van and may have been talking on a cell phone. Romero has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular manslaughter.

The Cobles want the United States to adopt the same laws that are in place in Europe and many other countries that require onboard computers in trucks to track their speed and location through a GPS system. “This has dramatically cut down on truck deaths in other countries,” Chris Coble said. “I want to ask lawmakers and everyone else, ‘How come we can’t have that same policy in this country?’ We’re woefully behind.”

The couple still sees a counselor every week to help them deal with the conflicting emotions they are going through with the loss of three beautiful and vital children and the promise of three new babies next year. “That’s helped us sort through the issues about trying to deal with the grief and at the same time thinking about the happiness to come,” Chris Coble told Vieira. “It’s a two-sided coin and we deal with it every day.”

Question of the week! 11-12-07

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Feel free to share the recipe.

Baby Parenting

About nine months ago, my wife and I were blessed with a wonderful little bundle of joy baby boy! Since our other kiddos are ages 14 and 22 years, we're re–learning a lot about babies. We're also being given a lot of advice about how to proceed, as well as plenty of books on the subject.

Some books say, "Don't hold them too much! They'll get spoiled."Other books say, "Make sure they're fed on a tight time schedule. Make them wait until it's time for a feeding."Some of our friends say, "Just let him cry it out at night until he falls asleep."

Fortunately, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend eleven years of my life learning from the scientific research on child development. From this blessing, I can say without any reservation that the advice mentioned above is dead wrong.In a nutshell, here's what research really says about parenting during the first year of life:

Love them and take good care of them. Comfort them when they cry. Feed them when they are hungry. Hold them as often as you can. Don't worry for a moment about spoiling them by giving them too much attention.In our Early Childhood Package, we teach that the first year of life is all about bonding and attachment. As the second year looms closer, parents find more and more opportunities to set and enforce limits.

The more practical tools we have for doing both, the more successful we will be!

Thanks for reading.

Dr. Charles Fay
Love & Logic

Lack of Sleep May lead to Fatter Kids!

(submitted by Amisha)

CHICAGO - Here's another reason to get the kids to bed early: More sleep may lower their risk of becoming obese. Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent.

The less sleep they got, the more likely the children were to be obese in sixth grade, no matter what the child's weight was in third grade, said Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan, who led the research.

If there was a magic number for the third-graders, it was nine hours, 45 minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that lowered the risk significantly. The study gives parents one more reason to enforce bedtimes, restrict caffeine and yank the TV from the bedroom. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that are the "yin and yang of appetite regulation," said endocrinologist Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new study.

In experiments by Van Cauter and others, sleep-deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.
Another explanation: Tired kids are less likely to exercise and more likely to sit on the couch and eat cookies, Lumeng said.

Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of sleep medicine at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, praised the study and called for more research. He said children's sleep may be disturbed by breathing problems — some caused by overweight, such as sleep apnea, and some caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoids. "I'm not so sure we have enough information yet on cause and effect," said Sheldon, who was not involved in the study.

Researchers used data from an existing federal study and focused on 785 children with complete information on sleep, and height and weight in the third grade and sixth grade. The children lived in 10 U.S. cities. Mothers were asked: "How much sleep does your child get each day (including naps)?" On average, the third-graders got about 9 1/2 hours sleep, but some slept as little as seven hours and others as much as 12 hours.

Of the children who slept 10 to 12 hours a day, about 12 percent were obese by sixth grade. Many more — 22 percent — were obese in sixth grade of those who slept less than nine hours a day. The researchers took into account other risk factors for obesity, such as the children's body mass index in third grade, and still found the link between less sleep in third grade and obesity in sixth grade. They acknowledged that factors they did not account for, such as parents' weight or behavior, may have contributed to the risk.

Jodi Mindell of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Sleep Center noted there are plenty of other reasons for encouraging good sleep habits, such as success in school. "I don't want parents to think, 'If I get her to sleep, she's not going to be overweight,'" Mindell said. "I think this is a small piece in the picture."

Making The Cut!

(submitted by Kim)

Expectant parents have loads of decisions to make, from whether to find out the baby's gender beforehand to planning the birth. But recently some have taken up another debate, over a cut that used to be nearly as routine in the U.S. as that of the umbilical cord: circumcision. When Jessica Davis learned she was having a boy, she and her husband assumed that the baby's foreskin would be removed. But when asked why by her obstetrician, who is originally from South Africa, where circumcision is rare, Davis, 28, a college administrator, did research and decided that the risks trumped the benefits. She left her son Aiden, now 20 months, intact--though she says her spouse remains leery of the decision: "He's kind of like, 'Well, I work just fine.'"

On Davis' side are the small but vocal, and growing, forces against circumcision, so-called intactivists: young parents who don't want to alter their perfect babies, men who feel their circumcisions left them psychically scarred and sexually disadvantaged ("I always felt something was missing, not functioning properly," says David Wilson, whose Stop Infant Circumcision Society marches on Washington annually) and even some medical professionals who consider the procedure genital mutilation. And at least in some parts of the country, opinion is shifting in their favor. According to the National Health and Social Life Survey, the total proportion of U.S.-born males who were circumcised peaked in 1965 at about 85%, dropping to 77% in 1971, the last year of the study. The National Hospital Discharge Survey, which began tallying newborn circumcisions in 1979, shows a downward trend, from 65% that year to 57% in 2005. Much of the decline is attributed to immigration from Latin America and Asia, where the procedure is rare. Additionally, in more than a dozen states, Medicaid no longer covers the surgery routinely, leaving many poor children without the option. But intactivism is also gaining traction among educated, middle-class whites. As University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox observes, "It's these new parents that are unwilling to let kids suffer."

But circumcision partisans say a foreskin causes suffering too. Intact boys are at greater risk for kidney infection as infants, and for penile cancer, foreskin disorders, HIV and other STDs like human papillomavirus later in life, leaving female partners more likely to get cervical cancer. The cost of prevention, proponents say, is the brief trauma of the procedure. Says Edgar Schoen, former pediatrics chief at Kaiser Permanente, who led the 1989 American Association of Pediatrics circumcision task force, which came out neutral on cutting: "A newborn baby is programmed for stress and recovers quickly." Opponents, on the other hand, say foreskin-related afflictions are rare, condoms block STDs, and circumcision has its risks. Michelle Richardson, of Fort Worth, Texas, says her 5-year-old has two genital disorders due to his botched circumcision.

The debate has even extended to the religious practice of Jews. Instead of opting for a bris, the rite in which a boy's foreskin is removed at 8 days old, Theo Margaritov's family welcomed him in April with a brit shalom, a cut-free ceremony. "That's the way God made him," says his mom Deborah, 33, a raw-foods cooking teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Still, religion and health aren't the only concerns parents weigh when making the decision to cut or not to cut; tradition is also a factor. Liz Arnaiz, 30, a Brooklyn architect whose son Lucas was circumcised when he was born last November, says her husband is circumcised, so it made sense for the boy to be like his dad. Besides, she adds, "to imagine your kid in the locker room the odd man out is tough."

Great Holiday Website!

(submitted by Jodi)

Looking for holiday recipes, activities, etc.?

Check out Northpole.com

Question of the week! 11/5/07

As a mom, what do you worry about the most?

Development? Sickness? Nutrition? Your child's happiness? Etc.?

Being a Mom!

(submitted by Andrea)

We are sitting at lunch when my daughter casually mentions that she and her
husband are thinking of "starting a family."

"We're taking a survey," she says, half-joking.

"Do you think I should have a baby?"

"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.

"I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous
vacations...."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide
what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth
classes.

I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but
that becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that
she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without
asking "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash, every house
fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she
will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no
matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the
primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of "Mom!"
will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moment's
hesitation.

I feel I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in
her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might
arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important
business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have
to use every ounce of her discipline to keep from running home, just to
make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that everyday decisions will no longer be
routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather
than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right
there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of
independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a
child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself
constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she
will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about
herself. That the wants and ambitions of her life, now so important, will be
of so much less value to her once she has a child. That she would give up
her life in a moment to save her offspring, but that she will also begin to
hope for more years - not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her
child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become
badges of honor.

My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way
she thinks. I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who
is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child.
I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for
reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout
history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I hope she will understand why I can think rationally about most issues, but
become temporarily insane when I discuss the threat of nuclear war to my
children's future.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child
learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby
who is touching the soft fur of a dog or a cat for the first time. I want
her to taste the joy that is so real, it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my
eyes. "You'll never regret it," I finally say. Then I reach across the
table, squeeze my daughter's hand and offer a silent prayer for her, and for
me, and for all of the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this
most wonderful of callings.

This blessed gift from God that of being a Mother.