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June 10, 2004

Nutrition for Brain Dev't

"How often do we, as adults, need to eat to keep up our metabolism? Doctors recommend "six small meals a day" to keep up our energy, to repair tissue, and we don't even have to worry about making synaptic connections or growing and developing at an exponential rate the way infants do! . . . I have a real problem with someone telling mothers that their newborn, the baby with a stomach the size of its fist (look at a newborn's fist!) is supposed to do all that work off feedings that are spaced three hours or more apart." --Dy

The size of an infant's stomach.
Nutrition and early brain development.

Posted by TulipGirl  |  06:48 PM|  TrackBack (0)  |   Words

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The point of stretching their feedings to 3 or even 4 hours apart is so that they can move into your families eating times. Obviously this doesn't happen over night, in fact it took our child several months to get to that point but it worked out fine. If your schedule is set to eat six times a day and you want your kid to eat at those times(try to keep food from them when they see it!) then do that. Either way works. You act like a child HAS to have a meal every hour and it's not so. Just because you FEEL like something is wrong doesn't not make it so.

Posted by: Darren at June 10, 2004 08:10 PM

"Just because you FEEL like something is wrong doesn't not make it so."

Would you care to elaborate?

What is "feeling" about posting the phyiscal fact of the size of an infants stomach? Or the nutritional needs of an infant, in relation to their quickly developing brains?

I think you're missing something. . .

Posted by: TulipGirl at June 10, 2004 09:43 PM

I think we're talking about infants here, and not five-year-olds, but even with older children, recognizing blood sugar problems and hunger signs can sure reduce discipline problems.

Regarding the original issue, parent-directed schedules are damaging to the natural breastfeeding relationship and can even cause malnutrition in babies.
http://www.fix.net/~rprewett/evidence.html
http://www.ezzo.info/Voices/failed.htm
http://www.ccli.org/parenting/strict.shtml
http://users.chisp.net/~lboyle/unwise.html

Posted by: Carol at June 11, 2004 01:32 PM

I knew I shouldn't have read your link to nutrition and brain development. GRRRRR!! I thought I was beyond anger at my twin sons' birth mother who did not feed them as newborns. After being hospitalized three times in their first three months of life for failure to thrive secondary to neglect, they were finally put in a foster home. These are kind, delightful boys with wonderful personalites, but they struggle in school probably as a result of malnutrition in infancy and maybe prenatal. (A nurse discovered the birth mother feeding one son diet coke at three weeks of age!) This Ezzo/Babywise thing totally shocks me because I always wondered how anyone could ignore a starving infant.

Posted by: Earth Girl at June 13, 2004 05:17 AM

Oh, EarthGirl, that is so hard to see in your children whom you love so much. It's hard to see them struggle when you can see how *if things had been done differently* those struggles would have been lessened.

They are blessed to have a mother who evelops them in love. I'm firmly convinced that a mother's love and God's grace make up for so many problems. . .

Posted by: TulipGirl at June 19, 2004 09:15 AM

I have seen God's grace and healing hand all over their lives. I'd write about it on my blog, but one boy asked me not to. He longs so much just to be like everyone else. I would be remiss not the mention how much my husband worked with them through grade school. People who have seen their growth often comment on it as a miracle. So I praise God for working in their lives and also pray for continued strength during these teen years when the emotions run rampant.

Last night as Ron was falling asleep, he remarked how horrible abortion is. I finally shared with him that, no matter what else happened in his early life, he had to thank his mother for life. She could have so easily aborted him. His eyes got big and I know he will think about that.

Posted by: Earth Girl at June 20, 2004 03:31 PM

*hug* Praise God for his faithfulness.

I think it's wonderful that you are sensitive to your son's feelings about info about him being public.

Btw, our boys are stair-steps, but the idea of your twin boys sounds like a lot of fun. (And energy!)

Posted by: TulipGirl at June 20, 2004 06:55 PM