Seattle Mama Doc™

A blog by Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson.

A mom, a pediatrician, and her insights about keeping your kids healthy.

Sleep Through The Night

Posted on January 27, 2012 in: General Pediatrics | 10 Comments

Getting your baby to sleep through the night is a major milestone for baby and for you. If I had to distill down the best sleep advice I’ve ever heard it would be these 4 things:

  • Your consistency with the sleep routine is far more important than what method you choose to help get your baby to sleep. The ritual at bedtime (reading, bath, rocking, etc) is one of the most important daily activities you establish for your child from day 1 (or day 30).
  • Letting your baby learn to fall asleep all on her own at 1 to 2 months of age will serve you and your child again and again. Research shows that infants and children who are allowed to learn to self-soothe and get themselves to sleep will often be far better sleepers, even as adults. Consider letting your baby learn to self-soothe and “cry it out” in the middle of the night after 4 to 6 months of age.
  • If you’re concerned about your baby’s sleep challenges, talk directly with their doc. Recent research found that 1 in 10 children under age 3 has a sleep challenge, and often sleep trouble persists from infancy to toddlerhood.
  • Sleep needs to be a priority (for us all). Making sacrifices to support routine bedtimes and sleep routines will always be worth it.

To Make Time Stand Still

Posted on January 26, 2012 in: Mama Doc Philosophies | 4 Comments

It would be nice–every once and a while–to make time stand still. To catch the blades of a propeller mid flight and have the ability to hover effortlessly.

Just for a moment so that we could look over, savor our children…their beauty and all that they are all in one precious moment…all to ourselves. The march of childhood moves quickly. And what a thing to be weightless and into the air without the distraction of aging and the ticking clock of time. Innocence preserved, our unconditional love packaged, and our children just as they are. Because we all know tomorrow will look different. To get them in a gasp of time, beautiful and unique, even if only for a moment. Wouldn’t it just be so nice–every once and a while–to make time stand still?

What Does TV Do To My Kid’s Brain?

Posted on January 23, 2012 in: General Pediatrics | 14 Comments

If you want to understand more about the effects of television on the brain, you need to watch this TEDx talk by Dr Dimitri Christakis…the science around television and its effect on children and concentration astound me. Not because any of it is counter-intuitive, but because television is as powerful as it is. Television is a [large] part of most children’s lives here in the US and this presentation of fact and observations may change what you do at home. Although it seems like there is no controversy here, last week I stumbled upon one mom proclaiming the benefits for TV at bedtime from infancy up.

We gotta get the word out.

A few take-aways on media and early learning:

  • Early experiences condition the mind. Connections between brain cells change based on experiences our children have while their brain triples in size between birth and age 3.
  • Initiation of television viewing is now (on average) 4 months of age.
  • Prolonged exposure to rapid image changes (like on a TV show designed for an infant) during critical periods of brain development may precondition the mind to expect high levels of stimulation. This may then make the pace of real life less able to sustain our children’s attention. The more hours a child views rapid-fire television, the more likely they will have attention challenges later in life.
  • Cognitive stimulation (reading books or going to a museum) reduces the likelihood for attention challenges later in life.
  • What content your child watches on TV matters: the more frenetic or violent the TV show, the more likely your child will have attention challenges later in life. Television shows that move at a typical pace may be far better for our children.
  • New studies (using mice) may demonstrate that learning suffers with excess TV viewing.
  • We need more real time play for children. (Get out the blocks or get outside!)

I’d suggest the 15 minutes or so it takes to view this video might profoundly change your thinking about TV. Direct from the mouth of a father, pediatrician, and researcher, Dr. Dimitri Christakis explains how the brain develops, what television may do, and theorizes why ample time in front of the TV as an infant and/or toddler may reorganize how a children thinks and solves problems. More than anything, watching this made me want to reverse time and go back to do even more for my little boys and their developing brains. If only the daily museum trip was plausible…

Enjoy, leave any comments or questions, and I’ll wrangle up Dr. Christakis for specific answers, as needed.

How To Pack A Healthy Lunch: Mama Doc 101

Posted on January 19, 2012 in: Seattle Mama Doc 101 | 4 Comments

Although you’ll see these lunch ideas don’t look exceptionally fancy, I think the point is this: you don’t have to spend a ton of time or money giving your children healthy lunch choices. But you do have to spend some. After the pizza debacle (“a slice of pizza still counts as a vegetable”) bubbled up when congress blocked proposals for changes in school lunches, I was reminded we still have to have a significant responsibility to watch over our children’s lunches. Don’t leave lunch in someone else’s hands unless you’re reviewing the menu. At our sons’ preschool we sometimes feel they do a better job than we do (!) so this is not a post to trash school lunch programs. Some schools really are doing an exceptional job. Is yours?

Trouble is, sometimes I look at example lunch ideas for parents and I feel overwhelmed. Read full post »

Snow Day

Posted on January 18, 2012 in: Mama Doc Philosophies | 6 Comments

It’s a snow day. Snow day is a word combination in the English language that has two meanings, divergent and separately defined only by age. To a 5 year old–”snow day” sounds a little bit like “Nir-va-na”–a day that is one of life’s greatest gifts. To a 37 year-old with a few jobs, it sounds a little bit more like “stresssssss.” Snow days, of course, often leave us without child care, without a school system, and without a back-up plan. And when our work doesn’t stop, we’re left juggling a set of very cold knives.

It would be nice to exist in a culture where snow day meant the same to all of us—a perfect reason for a big gasp in the productivity machine. Play and a little more unrestricted, unscheduled time outside is good for all of us. But that’s the onerous and stark reminder we get on days like today: we really are grown-ups and there is work to be done. And since snow days aren’t a national phenomenon, those of us that collaborate with others outside of our community, “snow day” sounds a little like a fake cough when it comes to an excuse for extending a deadline…

Don’t get me wrong, safety should always remain a priority. We should fiercely protect our children from driving and walking on roads with moving traffic when it’s icy and snowy; we should stay off roads when we are urged to do so. I’m not saying schools and routine businesses shouldn’t shut down. I think we need help juggling and understanding the multiple demands on our attention even when weather intervenes. We need a plan. Our work doesn’t stop demanding our attention and sometimes our bosses’ priorities aren’t aligned with our own. Read full post »