Skinship

Family bikes

Do you love to bike? Would you like
your kids to enjoy the ride with you? Many years ago when I first came to Denmark as a student I got so excited about their family bikes that I promised myself to get one when I have kids. So, I think now is the time to get one. In the past days I've checked out the most common brands.

Here are two types of family bikes that you most often see in Copenhagen: Christiania bikes and Nihola bikes. And just recently a brand new design came from TrioBike.
 

Those bikes are safe and very stable with two wheels in front, they are easy to handle and provide a superbly comfortable ride for you and your children. You can easily transport two and with some models even more children and you will still have lots of load space for your grocery shopping and other stuff.

What I like the most is that the child seat is located in front and you can see your child during the ride. Both bikes come with many extra equipment, like for example rain covers, extra lights, lockers and even bar rack for the car transportation.

TrioBike has another great option- you can turn it into a normal bike and use the stroller part separately. The price is high, but if you consider it a substitute for a car it's definitely worth it. And its more healthy and environmentaly friendly. Not to mention the fantastic Danish design. With TrioBike you will definitely be noticed.I think I have to write to Santa to start saving up :-)

Enjoy the ride.

Vaccination- reading list

Vaccination- more resources

Here are more useful resources for those who want to be informed on vaccinations:

Vaccination Risk Awareness Network has a comprehensive web site covering all the main issues that parents face when deciding upon vaccination of our children. I really like the detailed list of the ingrediants in each vaccination given to children together with a direct link to the producer of that vaccination and their original description of indications, contraindications, warings, adverse reactions observed during the controlled clinical trials and much more.

I also like the Canadian Immunisation Guide which covers everything from the list and description of all vaccinations, description of adverse effects following the vaccinations, description of active immunizing agents and passive immunizations. At the end it provides a descriptive table comparing each disease with the effects of the immunization against it.

I hope those resources will help you make informed decision.

Vaccination: how to make informed decision?

There is no issue in parenting that would raise so much controversy as vaccination does. And there is no issue where it is so hard to find sources against the conventional way.

When I face decisions in life I usually collect information from both sides (pros and cons) and carefully study them.

In the case of vaccinations I soon discovered that it is quite easy to find the literature advocating vaccination but much more difficult to find scientific studies that argue against it. I was trying to think why is that?

First of all, such studies are quite expensive and someone who has interest in results has to sponsor them. From this point of view there are definitely more companies out there that want to prove that vaccinations are safe than those who want to prove against it.

Secondly, the vaccination side effects (especially long tem) can hardly be proven. It is hard to attribute any long term chronic disease (like allergies, diabetes or other diseases, disorders like autism and not to mention cancer) to the vaccination given during the childhood. There are so many variables (genetic predispositions, life style, social situation and many more) that can not be controlled for in scientific research. Additionally longitudinal studies that would follow children through their life are very expensive, time consuming and hard to conduct. Even in cases when children die shortly after vaccination there is almost impossible to prove the causal relationship.

This is why anti-vaccine debates usually come down to the vaccine ingredients (like mercury, animal proteins, etc.) and their direct side-effects. But there is always very little debate on long term effects of vaccination or even death.

And that it is why it is so hard to decide. I researched most of the available literature and I really tried to rely only on credible sources. There is so much manipulation out there theta you really have to be careful what you are reading.

One page that really covers many aspects of vaccination is The Think Twice Institute . What I liked the most is the list of scientific articles on the effects of vaccination. You will find it here.

And there is a great blog on vaccination by Barbara Loe Fisher. She is the co-founder and president of National Vaccine Information Center. You will find many interesting information on this site. She is also expert on vaccination at the Mothering Magazine. Her blog Vaccine awakening is a great resource and I am sure you will find something useful.

Later this week I will add the reading list on this topic. I will also list the pros and cons that we are going true before making informed decision about vaccinations.

Cancer-causing chemicals in baby cosmetics

The results from an independent California chemical-testing laboratory found a probable human carcinogen, 1,4-dioxane (also known as paradioxane) in children’s shampoos. A hidden cancer-causing petrochemical has been found in dozens of children’s bath products such as Hello Kitty Bubble Bath, Huggies Baby, Johnson’s Baby Wash, Scooby-Doo Bubble Bath and Sesame Street Bubble Bath. The tests also found the carcinogen in Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo, Olay Complete Body Wash and many other personal care products. In some cases at levels that are more than twice the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s lenient recommended maximum.

It is very important to understand that the total of person's exposure to all the little amount of cancerous agents in the environment may be just as harmful as big doses of few well-known carcinogens. Our chances of getting cancer reflect the full amount of carcinogens we are exposed each day including those in the air, water and food pollution, not to mention contaminants in cleaners, cosmetics, clothing, furniture, tobacco smoke and many others.

And as Devra Davis says in her article from the Newsweek Magazine (5th March 2007, p.49) »chilfdren are not simply young adults. With their quick heartbeats, fast-growing organs and enviable metabolisms, the young absorbs proportionally more pollutants than those who are older«. Knowing this parents have to take the responsibility to protect them form an unnecessary exposure to dangerous chemicals. But how can we know if paradioxane and other contaminants are present in products we use?

1,4-Dioxane is a petroleum-derived contaminant considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a clear-cut animal carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program. It is also on

California

’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known or suspected by the state to cause cancer or birth defects. Because it is a contaminant produced during manufacturing, the FDA does not require it to be listed as an ingredient on product labels.

Some information on how safe is our cosmetics can be found on “The campaign for safe cosmetics” web page.

A complete list of contaminated products can be found here.

It seems it's time to start making our own cosmetics, personal-care and household cleaners.

Rear-facing is best

Recently Jun's weight exceeded the limit for rear-facing infant car seat and we faced the dilemma whether we can turn our son to face forward in the car seat even before the age of one. It’s a common question parents face usually when your baby's legs can touch the vehicle seat. I did a thorough research of several sources and came to the conclusion that rear facing position it the safest for adults and children and we should keep our infants in rear facing position as long as possible but at least until 1 year old and weigh at least 9 kg (20 lb) to decrease the risk of cervical spine injury in the event of a crash. Infants who weigh 9 kg (20 lb) before 1 year of age should ride rear facing in a convertible seat or infant seat approved for higher weights until at least 1 year of age.

You can read more about why rear-facing is safest here. You will find a detailed explanation of reasons as well as the list of some car seats that enable extanded rear-facing. This and other useful reccommendations come from American Academy of Pediatrics and are more extensively poresented in their guidelines.

Many other safety tips for parents can be found here.

More results of scientific research on this topic can be found in:

• Weber K. (2002), Child passenger protection. In: Nahum AM, Melvin JW, eds. Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, pp. 523 –549 
• Weber K. (1995), Rear-facing restraint for small child passengers: a medical alert. UMTRI Res Rev.1995; 25, pp.12 –17.

Oxygen Desaturation

An allarming study by Joel L. Bass, MD (Harvard Medical School) and Marilyn Bull, MD (Indiana University School of Medicine) was published in Pediatrics Journal in 2002. However today most of the parents still use non-reclinable rear-facing car seats for young infants. Even more, many strollers have an option of adjusting such car seat to the stroller, which means that babies spend long periods of time in a reclined position that could be harmful ofr their health.

In the above mentioned study researchers monitored 50 term infants and documented that when properly positioned semireclined in rear-facing car safety seats, the mean oxygen saturation levels declined significantly after 60 minutes. In addition, the same report speculated that prolonged oxygen saturations while in a car seat may be associated with clinical consequences and in some cases even with long-term consequences on cognitive function. You can read more about the research here.

The research report suggests that:

• Infants born prematurely as well as term healthy newborns may experience oxygen desaturation when properly positioned upright in car safety seats. Until additional research on the potential significance of oxygen desaturation in car safety seats is available, consideration should be given to limiting the time spent in car safety seats to that necessary for transportation and ensuring children are not left unattended while in a car safety seat.
• Positioning young infants in upright position too early in devices such as swings, infant carriers, backpacks, or slings may have similar physiologic effects in susceptible infants to positioning semireclined in car safety seats.