Parent Extremis

Earlier this year the news story broke announcing that Melamine had been found in infant formula made and sold in China. The result was over 50,000 ill babies and sadly, a few dead babies. Melamine is a chemical with many uses, among which is the ability to appear as a protein when dangerously and illegally mixed into food substances.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says there is NO SAFE LEVEL of Melamine in infant formula. A contradiction indeed, they are also telling parents not to overreact or change their baby’s diet at this time. The levels found are extremely low, however, you be the judge. The FDA has established a section of their website for Melamine information.

Yahoo! Reports from the Associated Press:

According to FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product — Mead Johnson’s Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. An FDA spreadsheet shows two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.

Three tests of Nestle’s Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct.

The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that meanwhile it is “prudent” to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine.

And while the FDA said tests of 18 samples of formula made by Abbott Laboratories, including its Similac brand, did not detect melamine, spokesman Colin McBean said some company tests did find the chemical. He did not identify the specific product or the number of positive tests.

Questions and Answers to you questions about Melamine. What is Melamine? What do I do if I think my infant formula contains Melamine? Melamine Information? Symptoms of Melamine poisoning?

Enfamil released a statement today saying that the FDA testing was inaccurate.

I took over this site back in February and I have always felt a little guilty for not posting more about, oh … those controversial parenting issues, you know, like bottle versus breast feeding and attachment parenting and the dreaded sleep-issues. I haven’t been living up to the TITLE of this blog, writing about parenting EXTREMES. Personally, I don’t parent in any of the extremes, at least I don’t think. I have my nuttiness, as my husband likes to remind me, but for the most part I dabble. I make some baby food, I buy some baby food, Noah sleeps alone, in his crib and he does get a little fussy sometimes and I don’t rush in to grab him, I do use Tylenol for those teething moments and post-vaccine fevers, I do use a sling and a carrier but only BEFORE he reached 20-pounds and mostly for convienence, not because I thought we weren’t bonded enough. So, I don’t really fall into any of the strong beliefs about attachment parenting and authoritative parenting and cry-it-out (Ferber/Weissbluth) versus Sears-method sleep training.

But! Some of you do! And I’d like to get some of those debates out in the open here at PARENT EXTREMIS. It’s what we’re all about, when I’m not writing about nose-picking and Cabernet play dates.

TypeAlice recently had a down and dirty comment war with another blogger about letting a baby cry and where to draw the line at ABUSE and WRONG. It is hard to hear your baby cry but sometimes when they are really tired they cry for like 30 seconds before they fall asleep, after you have fed and comforted and rocked them. Is that BAD? To me, that isn’t crying, its more like, fussing. Each parent has a different tolerance for hearing their baby cry and only each parent knows the line of a distress cry versus an I’m-annoyed-come-entertain-me cry. And to some parents, it doesn’t matter, a cry is a CRY.

I think the problem comes when one parent thinks THEIR way is better and RIGHT for someone else. But, who am I to judge? I buy baby food and put my baby in a stroller??

What are your thoughts on these extremes? Food, sleep, etc … do you dabble in the “methods” or do you follow one more than another?

Attend any gathering of a group of mothers and you sense a great divide among the breast fed and formula fed. I suppose the divide is inevitable; mothers, sleep deprived and convinced that they are doing what is best for their family. Regardless of what you choose, there are differences among the formula options. The wide variety available allows you to choose what is best for your situation. There are formulas specially made for premature babies, babies with sensitive stomachs, milk allergies and much more.

According to a CNN article, found here, with information gathered from the Mayo Clinic …

You have probably heard a lot lately about BPA, Bisphenol-A, a chemical used in plastic water bottles, some plastic bags and storage containers, baby toys and baby bottles. There isn’t one hundred percent conclusive evidence of how bad it is and why but does seem to be some reason to avoid it if at all possible. You can read more blogs about BPA here, and here.

BPA is thought to mimic naturally occurring estrogens in the body produced by the endocrine system. These hormones effect brain development and reproductive-organ development. The chemicals are thought to increase the risk of developmental problems in a fetus.

I am not trying to alarm anyone or even take sides in this matter. The facts are this: plastics are great products, plastics are made from chemicals, there are a number of potentially harmful chemicals in plastics and the long-term effects are not all known at this time. It is usually best to use any product, especially one whose full effects are unknown, in moderation. Therefore, there are some plastic bottle alternatives, and ways to use plastic safely. (Don’t reheat food in plastic containers.) Click here to read all that you never wanted to know about plastics.

The obvious alternative is glass baby bottles but having glass around my baby and the risk of breakages does worry me a bit. With the numbers of bottle-fed babies growing these days parents have a big decision to make. Even many breast-fed babies get occasional bottles too. It seems to me that an occasional feeding with a plastic bottle is nothing to worry about, but, repeated prolonged use of plastic products with unreliable facts as this point is reason enough to consider a BPA-free plastic or glass bottles.

Evenflo and Dr.Brown make a variety of glass bottles, but you do pay a premium for the plastic alternative. The chemicals leach out of the plastic when it is heated. Because baby bottles are heated for each feeding, you can see the potential dilemma.

Born-Free makes BPA-free plastic bottles. 2-5 ounce bottles retails for $17.99 a whopping triple the price of ordinary plastic bottles.

Momo, 6 ounce glass bottles come in a package of three for $13.99 from Amazon.com.

Greetings!

I’m the new writer for Parent Extremis. I’m no more qualified to write for this site than I am to care for my own seven week old baby. So it should be a fun ride! No, really, I plan to use this site to evaluate and discuss a variety of parenting issues. I hope you will stay tuned for some potentially riveting, or at least mildly interesting discussions of all the issues I can dream up including breast versus bottle feeding, sleep issues (co-sleeping vs. crying it out), the effect of pregnancy on the family, dealing with pediatrician visits and vaccination controversy, dealing with toddlers, heading back to work, discipline methods and much more.

I recently became a stay at home mom, or a work at home mom who does some freelance writing, to Noah, born December 21, 2007. He is almost eight weeks old and I love him more than life itself. We live with my hardworking and devoted husband, Marc, four cats and a yappy little dog.