More Reasons to Eat Fish

Moms who ate fish or seafood while pregnant have smarter kids with better developmental skills than mothers who ate little or no seafood while pregnant.

Seafood is an excellent source of Omega 3, and fetuses need this fatty acid for brain and eye development. 8000 women were followed by Joseph Hibbeln of the National Institutes of Health, and their children were evaluated developmentally on communication, social and fine motor skills.

The Results at Age 7
It turns out children of women who ate 3 or more servings of seafood per week scored higher in verbal IQ scores as apposed to their counterparts (children born of mothers who ate less than 3 servings per week) who showed less than optimal brain development.

Opposing Recommended Intakes
Pregnant women have previously been warned to limit intake of seafood to about 1 serving per month due to warnings that too much mercury (a neurotoxin commonly found in fish) may inhibit brain development in children, but "We recorded no evidence that lends support to the warning of the U.S. advisory that pregnant women should limit their seafood consumption" the study's author concluded.

"These results highlight the importance on including fish in the maternal diet during pregnancy and lend support to popular opinion that fish is brain food."


Did you eat fish while pregnant? Did the recommended limitations on fish intakes affect your eating habits?

ALERT!

BABY FOOD RECALL!

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has alerted Canadian consumers. A U.S. recall of organic baby food which some Canadians may have purchased online, may cause Botulism.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now warning consumers that certain jars of Earth's Best Organic 2 Apple Peach Barley Wholesome Breakfast baby food on Feb. 16, may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism (a life threatening illness, which may even cause death).

The FDA says the product has not been sold in Canadian stores, however the CFIA has issued an advisory, warning Canadians who may have purchased the products online (ebay anyone?) not to use the baby food.

The affected baby foods are:
Earth's Best Organic 2, Apple Peach Barley Wholesome Breakfast (4.5 ounce jars, lid PFGJ14NP), UPC 23923-20223, expiry date Sept. 14, 2008.
Earth's Best Organic 2, Wholesome Breakfast Variety Pack (12 pack), UPC 23923-20295, expiry date Sept. 13, 2008.
Earth's Best Organic 2, Apple Peach Barley (4.5 ounce jars within 12 pack, lid PF6J14 NP), UPC 23923-20223, expiry date Sept. 14, 2008.

Once opened, these products may produce a spoiled smell and show discoloration upon stiring. However consumers are still advised not to use the above products even if they do not look or smell spoiled.

Botulism
A potentially fatal form of food poisoning will usually causes illness within 18-36 hours of exposure. Initial indication of illness in infants is a decreased frequency or, absence of stools. Other signs and symptoms are poor feeding, diminished overall movement, and decreased respiratory effort. Caregivers observing these symptoms should seek medical attention immediately for those affected.

Current Update

The Hain Celestial Group initiated the recall on February 9th and it is ongoing. Production aswell as the distribution of their products have been suspended as both the FDA and the company itself are working to determine the source.

Hain Celestial Group distributed 4,072 cases of the specified individual jars consisting of 24 jars per case and 38,298 variety packs with the specified jars.

No illnesses have yet been reported.

Consumers with further questions should contact the Hain Celestial Group at 1-800-434-4246.

ALERT

This article is quoted from www.cbc.ca

FORMULA TAMPERED WITH

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has warned people to inspect cans of powdered infant formula after two cans were found to be tampered with at a Zellers store in Saskatoon.

The cans of half-empty Enfamil brand baby formula were found to have puncture holes, concealed by the label. The agency said it is investigating and will decide whether to do any testing on the cans and their contents.

"Consumers using powdered infant formula products should look under the label to inspect the cans for signs of tampering," said a bulletin issued by the agency on Friday.

There have been no reports of illnesses since the suspect cans were found, the agency said.

The agency said the cans were likely punctured while in the store, rather than being returned products that were put back on the shelf.

A spokesperson for Mead Johnson, which manufactures Enfamil, said there had been no sign that any substance was poured into the cans and the tampering appears to be an isolated case.

An inspection of Mead Johnson products at other large retail stores in Saskatoon has not turned up any problems.

The company said a consumer bought the first can in January and reported the tampering to Mead Johnson, while a company official found the second can in February.

In August 2006, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a bulletin urging the public to inspect cans of powdered infant formula after four suspect cans were found at stores in Windsor, Ont.

One of the cans was found to contain what was believed to be a detergent. But in that case, there were no reported illnesses after the tampering was found."

www.cbc.ca

CAR-SEAT WARNING

"Updated Fri. Dec. 8 2006 11:29 AM ET

From WWW.CTV.CA News Staff

A new British study is warning parents not to let their babies sleep in car seats because there is a risk they could stop breathing.

Researchers of the study in the British Medical Journal looked at more than 40 infants in New Zealand who were referred to a hospital service that studies newborns at high-risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Of those infants, nine suffered some sort of life-threatening event between July 1999 and December 2000 after being left in car seats.

According to the study, four of the babies were described as "limp and unresponsive" when they were found.

All of the babies, aged three days to six months, were described as "blue" or "not breathing."

When the researchers reconstructed the scene using the infants' own car seats, they determined that all nine of the babies had been sitting their heads with flexed forward.

"When they then went back and tried to reconstruct the situation, they found that none of these babies had any kind of abnormalities, their jaws were fine, their airways were fine. It was the positioning within the seat," Dr. Lou Francescutti told CTV's Canada AM from Edmonton on Friday morning.

They found the babies' heads tended to flop forwards, pressing the jaw into the chest. This position blocked the airways, making breathing a challenge.

"All but one case occurred when the infants had been left in the car seats indoors, allowing them to fall asleep unrestrained in an upright position," said a report by the researchers, led by Dr. Alistair J. Gunn, an associate professor of physiology and pediatrics at the University of Auckland.

Because "the infants (in the study) were very young (and their) head control is not well developed," the study authors suggest that this position is a potentially life-threatening one.

Francescutti, an expert in the field of injury control, explains that infants have not yet developed the head control or the muscles to reposition themselves when they have trouble breathing.

All of the infants survived but the parents were warned about leaving their babies in car seats for prolonged periods of time.

Parents should not be tempted to leave their sleeping babies in the car seat once they take them out of the vehicle, the study warns.

Allowing babies to fall asleep when they are restrained in a relatively upright position could be fatal, the authors said.

"It's tempting to leave them there because they're sleeping. You're probably better off waking them up and repositioning them either in a crib or some other safe area," Francescutti said.

But the authors say other factors could also have played a contributing role. Half of the mothers in the study were smokers and smoke exposure is known to increase the risk of SIDS.

The authors of the study say that infant car seats could be modified to prevent baby's heads from flopping forward.

"What they're saying is that car seats should actually be redesigned so that they have a little bit of hole in the back so the baby's head can fall backwards and open up their airways," Francescutti said.

However, experts were keen to emphasize that parents should not stop using car seats.

Car seats can reduce injury by up to 90 per cent to 95 per cent when used correctly, said Dr. Michael Hayes, of the Child Accident Prevention Trust, who wrote a letter accompanying the study."

Single-Sex Classrooms

Though only a handful of schools in Canada offer Single Sex Classes, it is a growing trend that seems to be paying off, and by the time today's babies and toddlers get into school, we as parents may need to face an important decision. Co-education or not?

So why should classes be divided up by sex? At the James Lyng High School in Montreal, the number of students passing provincial exams has jumped 15% since the single-sex program began 5 years ago. The dropout rate is down almost 10%, and the number of students continuing their educations after high school has almost doubled.

In an effort to help boys do better academically, two middle schools in Abbotsford B.C. are separating the girls and the boys in both math and English classes. Abbotsford's assistant superintendent says much of the disparity is the result of boys wanting to impress girls in class. At the end of the first year, they found boys in single-sex classes on average scored 10% higher than those in mixed classes. "The tendency is that in a mixed gender class boys are not as likely to ask for help," says Bruce Ivany. "They've got this macho image, and in an all-boys class that's just not an issue. Boys are easily distracted by the girls". Read why the experts think these methods of single-sex teaching are working and neccessary, and why some still disagree.

Boys and girls develop differently
Some say single-sex classes are needed because boys' and girls' brains develop differently. By dividing them up teachers can design teaching plans in a manner best suited for each. Leonard Sax of The National Association for Single-Sex Public Education says studies have proven this.

In girls, the part of the brain associated with verbal fluency, fine motor skills, social perception, memory for sequential details, and the simultaneous discrimination of objects, colors, and faces, develops fastest. On the other hand, the part of the brain associated with, mathematical and mechanical reasoning, and skills needed for the coordination of motor movement in decisions related to visual targeting, develops faster in boys.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently
Another study found that boys and girls learn differently on almost all aspects of educational instruction. Boys will jump to a conclusion and then find the evidence to support it, while girls will gather a lot of information, then make up their minds. Boys tend to like abstract arguments, conundrums, moral debates about abstract principles while girls find it easier to work with concrete facts. Boys work silently during the learning process as girls tend to need to talk it out. Boys hear less, and more often ask for clear evidence to support a teacher's claims. Girls are generally better listeners, hear more of what's said and are more receptive to instructional meandering. Boys get bored more easily than girls and this often requires more, and varying stimulation to keep them attentive. Girls are better at self-managing boredom during all aspects of education and less likely to "give up" on the learning process, or act out. Boys tend to focus on performing tasks well without as much sensitivity to the emotional needs of others. Girls generally learn while attending to a code of social conduct, aware of the emotional needs of others around them. Both boys and girls like pictures, but boys rely on them more in learning. Girls often prefer written text. Teachers find that boys make a great deal of an author's symbolism, while girls ponder the emotional working of characters.

Sax also says that girls need encouragement, need things to be put into context, and work best in small groups. Boys need discipline and confrontation. In addition, he says it works best when speaking loudly with boys and softly with girls.

Gender Stereotyping
Others argue that everyone learns differently. Paula Bourne from the Ontario Institute for Studies In Education says she doesn't approve of this kind of "stereotyping". She mentioned a study done in California that introduced single-sex classes to public schools over a period of three years. The researchers concluded that the program reinforces gender stereotypes.

Bourne argues boys and girls need to work together so boys can see girls as their "social" and "intellectual equals". She also argues that separating sexes avoids addressing issues in co-ed classes that need to be addressed.

Sax however says that single-sex classes, don't mean single sex schools, and children are allowed to socialize with the opposite sex during lunch and recesses, not to mention any other time out of school. "Co-ed schools reinforce gender stereotypes" he says. In single-sex environments, kids take on roles the opposite sex may normally take on. "When kids in a certain school were co-ed, girls always chose to play the flute in the band and boys always chose to play the trumpet. But now that they're separated, there are girls who play trumpet and there are boys who play the flute." Girls and boys in single sex classes have also been exploring education in other areas. Since the change in some school girls been taking more science and physics classes, and others that would normally be left to the boys. While boys are taking more arts, and language classes rather than normally in mixed settings which shows a high girl to boy ratio.

Thought there are no single-sex classes in Fredericton let alone N.B. that's not to say there won't be in the future. What will you decide if you're faced with the option and what will be your deciding factors?