Tag: babies

Boy, do I wish someone had told me how important a healthy microbiome is for pregnancy when I was young and impressionable! Although would I have listened? …Maybe not. Years of miscarrying and fertility treatments in my mid-twenties brought me to my knees as the desire for a baby overshadowed every other part of my life. No one seemed to have a solution except to head to the fertility clinic to find out why I was "broken."

Dear Mr. Dad: My husband and I have a 1-month old. When’s the right time to start reading to her? And is there a "right" way to do it?

If there is one gift that every parent should give his or her child, it’s a love of reading and stories. At this age, you can read just about anything to your baby, from War and Peace to the installation guide to your dishwasher. The goal isn’t to educate, it’s to get her used to the sound of the language and to make a connection to a peaceful activity.

Deciding to start a family is very exciting, but it can also be filled with anxiety and ambivalence. It is basically a dive into the unknown. It truly is the only major irreversible decision you and your spouse will ever make in each other’s life.

Based on my own experiences, as well as those of countless couples I have counseled over the past 20 years, I have come up with a list of issues to think about and come to terms with prior to starting life’s next adventure.

Exposing babies to puppies and other furry pets might help them accumulate two types of bacteria in their gut that are associated with a lower risk of allergies and obesity, a Canadian study suggests.

When researchers analyzed fecal samples from 746 babies, they found having dogs and cats in the home during pregnancy and early infancy was associated with higher levels of two gut microbes: Ruminococcus and Oscillospira, which have been linked with lower odds of allergies and obesity, respectively.

"The concept of a 'dog intervention' during pregnancy as a preventive measure for allergies and obesity is not too far-fetched, but definitive studies are required to provide evidence for this health benefit," said senior study author Anita Kozyrskyj, a pediatrics researcher at the University of Alberta.

Boys conceived through a common type of fertilization procedure may produce less sperm and experience more struggles with fertility than peers born the old fashioned way, a recent study suggests.

Researchers focused on 54 men conceived by what’s known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique developed in the 1990s to treat cases when infertility is tied to problems with a man’s sperm.

Compared to a control group of similar men conceived naturally, the ICSI group had much lower average sperm concentration, total sperm count and total motile or active sperm count.

Infants who get a taste of eggs and peanuts starting when they’re as young as 4 months old may have a lower risk of developing allergies to those foods than babies who try them later, a research review suggests.

With eggs, giving babies that first spoonful between 4 and 6 months was associated with 46 percent lower odds of egg allergies than waiting to introduce this food later.

For peanuts, offering infants a sample between 4 and 11 months was associated with 71 percent lower odds of peanut allergies than waiting longer.

These findings suggest that for most babies, eggs and peanuts should be among their first foods, said senior study author Dr. Robert Boyle, a pediatric allergy researcher at Imperial College London. But that’s not what many doctors recommend, he said.

ATLANTA (REUTERS) - Women in the United States are waiting longer than ever to have babies, with the average age for first childbirth rising to a record high of 26.3 years as fewer teens give birth and adults postpone parenthood, a federal study found in January 2016.

First births to mothers under age 20 dropped 42 percent from 2000 to 2014, from 1 in 4 births to 1 in 7, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.