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Wonderful!

16 pound baby born at Good Shepherd said to be hospital's biggest ever

LONGVIEW (KYTX) -- A 16 pound baby born this morning in Longview holds the new hospital record. JaMichael Brown is more than twice the weight of the average baby ... which is about seven pounds. CBS 19'S Monique Bird went by the hospital to check on the mom and baby.
Janet Johnson of Longview is the proud mother of one of the biggest babies ever born in Texas. JaMichael Brown was born Friday morning at Good Shepherd Medical Center.
"When they pulled the baby out, they could tell that he was huge," says Janet. "And then they weighed him."
Weeks ago, doctors told Janet and her Fiance Michael Brown their son would weigh 12 or 13 pounds at birth.
So for their baby shower ...
"I just said we were expecting a big baby," says Janet. "To not get any newborn stuff."
But preparing for a thirteen pound baby wasn't enough. JaMichael came out weighing 16 pounds, one ounce and he's two feet long.
"First thing I asked - was he okay," says Janet. "They said yes."
Nurse Mary Beth Smith was in the delivery room during Janet's C-section. In 20 years as a nurse ...
"This is the biggest baby I have ever seen," says Mary Beth.
Janet was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during her pregnancy, which may have contributed to JaMichael's size.
"It's a beautiful baby," says Mary Beth. "But for health reasons. We'd rather not see a baby this large ... They can have a little harder time maintaining their blood sugar."
Doctors placed baby JaMichael in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
"He's getting fed through a feeding tube and their checking his blood sugar," says Janet.
But Janet expects her baby to be just fine. And she can't wait to give her big boy a lot of love.
In Longview - Gregg County, Monique Bird, KYTX CBS 19 News.
Those at the hospital aren't sure if this is a state record -- although they can't find proof of a bigger baby born in Texas. The world's record is 23 pounds and 12 ounces.
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Janet Johnson and Michael Brown were told their son would be a big baby before he was born -- perhaps 12 or 13 pounds.
JaMichael Brown, born at 9:00 am Friday morning at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview, outweighed those predictions, coming in at a whopping 16 pounds, 1 ounce, and 24 inches long. The average newborn baby's weight is about 7 and 1/2 pounds.
Doctors at the hospital say the baby may have been bigger because his mother had gestational diabetes. JaMichael is now in the NICU.

Good Shepherd says this is the biggest baby born at the hospital.
Mom and Dad say they do have a few clothes they think will fit their son
http://www.cbs19.tv/story/15049056/16-pound-baby-born-at-good-shepherd-said-to-be-hospitals-biggest-ever?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6034714

What is Baby Led Weaning and is it the right approach to Introducing Solid Foods?

More and more parents are turning to "Baby Led" approach to weaning and introducing solid foods to baby. Many parents choose to offer their babies food that is puréed while others prefer to jump straight into "table foods".

Introducing solids to your baby using "table foods" rather than purees is what Baby led Weaning is all about.

What is a good age for Baby Led Weaning?

Babies should be at least 6 months of age if you wish to use the BLW method of introducing solid foods. They should be able to sit up unassisted, have lost the tongue thrust reflex and should be able to grasp and hold onto foods. Good starter foods for BLW are those found in the charts for the 4-6 month range and the 6-8 month age range.

What is Baby Led Weaning?

So what exactly is Baby Led Weaning as relates to solid food introduction?  In short, Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is skipping thin and runny purées and not feeding your baby with a spoon.

Baby Led Weaning means offering your baby (age appropriate) foods that are soft-cooked and cut or mashed into small easily manageable pieces. You may choose to offer your baby a large hunk of apple that she can easily hold and gnaw on or a bowl full of soft cooked mashed apples; the choice is yours. The foods are then given to your baby to eat without being pureed and without being spoonfed. You do the cooking, the dicing or mashing and the offering of the foods and your baby does the rest.  It is important to note that your baby should be in control of what he is eating and you should never actually feed him by putting the foods into his mouth!

As with breastfeeding on demand, Baby Led Weaning is a method of introducing solid foods that leaves it up to your baby to decide what, when and how much to eat.  While not necessarily a "hands off" approach, Baby Led Weaning does advocate allowing your baby to make all food choices for him or herself.

With Baby Led Weaning, Do I just give my baby the food and then walk-away?

Many who have researched BLW have the misunderstanding that the "hands off" approach means that there should never be any intervention by the parent.  This is a common misconception and one we feel is in need of clarifying. I have had many parents ask "how can I just give my baby food and then not help her eat it or feed her the food?".

While Baby Led Weaning does encourage the infant to lead the way, parents must realize that they need to help guide and direct their babies through the weaning process.  It might be easier to think of Baby Led Weaning as introducing foods that are not pureed and paying close attention to your baby's cues rather than trying to establish set feeding schedules and set portion sizes. Watch your baby as she experiments with the food and if need be, show her how to guide the food to her mouth but do not feed her.

You will not be spoon-feeding your baby, rather your baby will be feeding (or smooshing and squishing and tossing) herself. When it is time for introducing solid foods and weaning a baby onto solid foods, you must feel comfortable in the methods and the foods that will make up the introduction to solid foods.

Will my baby get enough of the right nutrients if we do baby led weaning?

Offering your baby a well balanced diet of solid foods will help ensure that your baby is eating the right amount of the right foods. It is important to pay close attention to your baby's cues as your baby's feeding patterns will change daily and may be affected by the goings-on around him.  You do not want to accidentally override your baby's ability to self-regulate his or her feeding by continuing to try and feed your baby.  The Baby Led Weaning approach is much the same as we noted above. 

Is it dangerous to skip purées and begin with table foods?

The answer to the above question is both yes and no.  If you are delaying solid foods until after the age of 6 months old, then your baby may readily accept textures and "table foods".  On the other hand, if you are beginning solid foods between the age of 4 and 6 months old, it is highly unlikely that baby would be able to handle "table foods".  You should ensure that these foods are offered in a manner so as not to pose a choking hazard. 

Please keep in mind that all babies are different and will eat textures, bits and chunks of foods at their own pace.  

Is Baby Led Weaning right for your baby?  

Only you can decide if the baby led weaning approach is right for your baby. DIscuss this method of introducing baby to solid foods with your pediatrician and visit these links to learn more:

E. Coli Outbreak in Europe

MOTHERLOVE HERBAL COMPANY RESPONDS TO E. COLI OUTBREAK
July 8, 2011 — Laporte, CO — Motherlove® Herbal Company (www.motherlove.com) issued the following statement today regarding the E. coli outbreak in Europe that has been linked to fenugreek: “We want all our customers and retailers to know that Motherlove products are not affected by the Egyptian fenugreek implicated in the outbreak,” said Kathryn Higgins, CEO and founder of Motherlove. “We do not use Egyptian fenugreek in our products and our products undergo testing before being approved for shipment,” Higgins added.
At this time, there has been no E. coli contamination linked to products used or sold in the US, only in Europe.
Motherlove Herbal Company, located in Laporte, Colorado, near Fort Collins, manufactures the bestselling herbal supplement for breast milk production in the US (according to Spins data), and uses fenugreek as a central ingredient in several supplements. “Any agricultural product carries the potential risk of E. coli if not handled properly,” said Higgins. “Extensive testing is done on both the ingredients and final products we produce,” she said.
This particular outbreak of E. coli appears to be limited to sprouted seeds, which are used mostly for culinary purposes. The fenugreek used in Motherlove products is not sprouted, but extracted from un-sprouted seeds.
Before being accepted for use in any Motherlove supplement, each ingredient undergoes quality testing. Then, the finished product is tested for bacteria, E. coli and salmonella by a third-party lab.
Manufacturing and packaging of Motherlove supplements is done in a GMP certified and FDA registered facility, and all herbs used in the products are 100% USDA certified organic.
“As the oldest company in the US specializing in herbal products for pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, we take our responsibility to provide safe products very seriously,” said Higgins. “Certification and testing, as well as insisting on only the best ingredients allows us to be confident every day about the safety and effectiveness of our products.”

thanks to
http://motherloveblog.com

Why You Need Pitocin in Labor

Many women come to labor and delivery fearing Pitocin, loathing Pitocin, and swearing up and down that “over their dead body” will they have Pitocin to augment their labor.   While I have heard the rationales for this argument on many occasions, I want present a very common scenario where you will end up getting Pitocin at the hosptial (but alas, there will be no dead bodies).
Before all else, I want to stress that if you have had a healthy pregnancy and have not been told otherwise by your provider (and I will later review common danger signs), we encourage you to labor at home as long as possible, especially if you are expecting your first baby.  We want you to be in an environment where you are comfortable, surrounded  by supportive people who care about you.  We want you to be able to walk around, get into the bath, or shower, eat and drink, and remain free from the prodding hands of medical personnel who are obligated to get certain information and blood work from you once you arrive at the hospital.  Being at home in early labor will probably give you a better experience than if you came to the hospital during this uncomfortable, but uneventful latent phase.
The “problem” invariably arises and the Pitocin will appear sooner rather later in your labor when you come to the hospital during the latent phase of labor when you are uncomfortable and seeking pain control.    If this is deemed a sufficient reason for admission (and sometimes it is not and you will be sent home with pain medication), you now find yourself in a situation that is ripe for the Pitocin-picking.   You will receive either your IV medication, or epidural as you requested, but there is a good chance that hours later your cervix will not have dilated, or will have made minimal change.  Why does this happen so consistently?   It is not because of the medication or epidural, it is because you were not yet in active labor when you came in and you are still not yet in active labor. It can sometimes take hours or even days to transition from latent to active labor.
In an ideal world, we would have enough labor beds to accommodate everyone in early labor who decided to get an epidural and could be more than 24 hours from delivery, but that is not the case.  The reality is that we are often at capacity with women who are coming in 8cm dilated with their 3rd baby and need a room to deliver in NOW.  We have to have a place for them and cannot allow everyone in early labor to be resting in early labor with their epidurals.
So how can we deal with this?  Pitocin.  We have to speed up the process to get the women who are in early labor into active labor so that they will deliver.   This is when I want to reiterate that we would all prefer that moms stayed at home and waited until they were naturally in active labor so Pitocin was not necessary.  However, if you come in for pain control in latent labor, there is a very good chance you will end up needing Pitocin and the supply-demand factor of rooms and staff is the reason.  If you are adamantly against Pitocin, try to stay at home as long as possible and your chances of its use will be greatly diminished.  You have the greatest control over your delivery and your birthing experience by your decision of when you to go to the hospital.
*You need to go to immediately call the hospital if your baby is not moving, you are having bright red vaginal bleeding, you are having a long contraction that is not subsiding, your bag of water breaks and the fluid is not clear, or you are known to be GBS+, or you have any other concerns that your provider alerted you to.
How dilated were you when you got to the hospital?   Did you need Pitocin?
Thanks to http://www.momaroo.com/

Benefits of Breastfeeding

Why is breastfeeding best?

With the upcoming arrival of your new baby, there are many decisions to be made.  None more important than deciding which form of nutrition is best for you and your baby.  Numerous government and private industry associations today recognize and promote the importance of exclusively providing breastmilk to babies in the first twelve months of life.

Following are compelling, research-based facts about the importance of breastmilk that may help you to make an informed choice:

Best for Baby:

• Research shows that breastfed infants have fewer and shorter episodes of illness.
• Breastfeeding is the most natural and nutritious way to encourage your baby’s optimal development.
• Colostrum (the first milk) is a gentle, natural laxative that helps clear baby’s intestine, decreasing the chance for jaundice to occur.
• The superior nutrition provided by breastmilk benefits your baby’s IQ.
• Breastfeeding is a gentle way for newborns to transition to the world outside the womb.
• The skin-to-skin contact encouraged by breastfeeding offers babies greater emotional security and enhances bonding.
• The activity of sucking at the breast enhances development of baby’s oral muscles, facial bones, and aids in optimal dental development.
• Breastfeeding appears to reduce the risk of obesity and hypertension.
• Breastfeeding delays the onset of hereditary allergic disease, and lowers the risk of developing allergic disease.
• Breastfeeding helps the baby’s immune system mature, protecting the baby in the meantime from viral, bacteria, and parasitic infections.
• Breastfeeding increases the effectiveness of immunizations, increasing the protection against polio, tetanus, and diphtheria vaccines.
• Breastfeeding protects against developing chronic diseases such as: celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, and childhood cancers.

The benefits of breastfeeding appear to last even after the baby has been weaned.

Lack of Breastfeeding Increases the Risk to the Infant of:

• Ear infections
• Childhood diabetes
• Obesity
• Gastrointestinal and diarrheal infections
• Childhood cancers
• SIDS
• Respiratory infections
• Allergies
• NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis)

Best for Mother:

• Research shows that breastfeeding benefits the health of mothers.
• Breastmilk is always fresh, perfectly clean, just the right temperature, and is the healthy choice at the least cost!
• Increased levels of oxytocin stimulate postpartum uterine contractions, minimizing blood loss and encouraging rapid uterine toning.
• From 3 months to 12 months postpartum, breastfeeding increases the rate of weight loss in most nursing mothers.
• Breastfeeding offers some protection against the early return of fertility.
• Because breastfed babies are healthier, their mothers miss less work and spend less time and money on pediatric care.
• Breastfeeding women report psychological benefits such as increased self-confidence and a stronger sense of connection with their babies.

Lack of Breastfeeding Increases the Risk to the Mother of:

• Urinary tract infection
• Pre-and post-menopausal breast cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Osteoporosis