When we grandmas were having our first babies, we were in the dark ages of information about child rearing. Now we are in the era of information overload.
In my natural childbirth class, almost 44 years ago, there were approximately ten women of which only one was intending to breast-feed. Breast-feeding was just not in vogue. As a matter of fact, only one woman was intending to have natural childbirth.
You guessed it. It was the same woman who was going to breast-feed. The rest of us were looking into a new way of dealing with childbirth pain, especially the epidural. We were seeking the doctor willing or able to administer the epidural as such doctors were few and far between. As a practice then, we were given twilight sleep when we gave birth. I do not remember a thing. Formula was the way to go to feed our babies. And within just a few weeks, we started giving our formula babies cereal. The way to try cereal was a baby teaspoon, a baby sized teaspoon, of cereal mixed into the last bottle at night, around midnight, to fill the baby’s tummy to get him or her to sleep through the night, meaning more than three hours to five hours.
We started giving baby food, yes, from a jar, much earlier than you can imagine. Our only caveat was that we first introduce one vegetable at a time for about five days to see if there was an allergic reaction. Then we could add more variety of baby food vegetables from a jar, one at a time. We were never told to look at the ingredients and never knew if there was added sugar or added preservatives. To this day I do not know what was in the first foods that I fed my precious first child.
Next, if there were no allergic reactions, we could go to fruit. In this Grandma’s mind, I could experiment and remember taking a beautiful picture of my new baby, at less than two months, being introduced to cherry, via a cherry lollipop. I took beautiful videos and pictures of the smiling baby licking the lollipop, and being introduced to a fruit. Soon after, this chocoholic introduced the baby to chocolate, by the baby size teaspoon of course, one teaspoon for baby of chocolate syrup or warmed fudge and one for mommy. Asking the doctor about giving the baby chocolate, the caveat was to make sure to not introduce any other new food until I could see if the baby was allergic to chocolate. That was the level of our education as to feeding and caring for a newborn. Dr. Spock and our mothers were the source of information. No Internet.
As an aside, I specifically remember GG (great grandmother, my mother) being mortified that I was using new paper diapers instead of cloth diapers. New mothers today would be mortified at the lack of quality of those first paper diapers, and how we had to double and triple them for the baby not to immediately leak urine all over the crib during a nap or at bedtime. And, yes, we had to use safety pins, real safety pins, on the paper diapers.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were the staple of our children’s diets. Our now adult children who survived our lack of knowledge are healthy, smart, and today, looking at every ingredient of every single food that goes into our grandchildren’s mouths. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches disappeared from our grandchildren’s diets. When we grandmas try to bring cupcakes to celebrate a birthday to our grandchildren’s school, we are told that is no longer allowed. Why? Peanut allergies. To protect those children who might have a peanut allergy from possibly eating something that might contain peanuts without anyone’s knowledge and have an allergic reaction in school, school policies have changed. Our grandchildren are not allowed to bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school in case another child who might have a peanut allergy might take a bite. I don’t know if you’ve ever tasted the fake peanut butter that our grandchildren are allowed to take to school. It is vile.
This grandma has had discussions with other grandmas whose children are of the same age and era. We cannot recall anyone who had a baby or young child who was allergic to peanuts. It turns out that we mothers of those who are now the mothers of our grandchildren are not crazy. Our lack of information gave us freedom we did not realize and now appreciate.
Then, something happened in the mid 1990s where peanut allergies in children doubled. It was still a very small number of less than half of one percent in 1999, but enough to cause the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000 to issue a recommendation to parents to withhold peanuts from babies, especially those at high risk of allergies, until the children were three years old. While peanut butter and jelly sandwiches disappeared from schools, ten years later, the number of children with peanut allergies in the U.S. grew to about two percent.
What was happening in the U.S. under the no peanut guidelines was not happening in the rest of the world. New studies examined cultures around the world that were not so strict as to foods given babies and toddlers and found that, opposite to the previous U.S. guideline, withholding peanuts from a baby’s diet was detrimental rather than helpful in preventing allergies. There are numerous articles and studies available on line to see the new guidelines. “What you need to know about the new guidelines for the diagnosis and management of food allergy in the U.S.,” by the American Academy of Pediatrics can be found at this link.
“New guidelines detail use of `infant-safe’ peanut to prevent allergy,” by Scott H. Sicherer, M.D., FAAP, on the American Academy of Pediatrics Journal, January 5, 2017, can be found at this link.
There are important reasons why we grandmas should be nuts over the change in exposing our grandchildren to nuts as babies. First, it seems that peanut allergies that increased over the years are a real problem as the allergy remains lifelong. And now, Dr. Greenhawt, the chairman of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s food allergy committee and one of the authors of the new guidelines is quoted in the New York Times, January 6, 2017, in the front page article, “Feed Children Peanuts Early, Doctors Advise,” by Ronie Caryn Rabin, as saying:
“There is a window of time in which the body is more likely to tolerate a food than to react to it, and if you can educate the body during that window, you’re at a much lower likelihood of developing and allergy to that food.”
And more important, Dr. Greenhawt said that the new guidelines may face resistance:
“The nuts and bolts of getting everyone to buy into this and trust the recommendation is a big unknown.”
We are at a crossroads. We are stuck with those who have developed lifelong peanut allergies because of the previous guidelines. We are in danger of parents of new babies following the old guidelines and those babies developing lifelong peanut allergies. We do not want that to continue. So, we need greater information to everyone and greater peanut exposure to babies to avoid what we know can now be future lifelong allergy problems. As grandmas, spread the word. Quickly. Widely. Forward this post or at least the links to the new guidelines and how to facilitate exposure to peanuts to those pregnant or new mothers and fathers you know.
And, so the pendulum swings. As with other aspects of life, we seem to go from one extreme to another, and it can take decades to reach a balanced view. Peanuts and peanut butter are just one example. Feeding babies eggs early is another example gaining traction in the media. On the internet you can find so much poetry about why, how and what happens as a pendulum swings to extremes, one as far back as 1886 by John Whiting Storrs, and that we must seek balance in all things in life. You would think in this age of the internet the information mechanism would be the easy part. But, now with the advent of fake news and distrust of news, it is the buy in and trust portion of the scientific studies that are called into question.
It is frightening. How long will it take for new parents to believe the new scientific studies and trust the new guidelines? It may take a decade or more for previous ramifications of this peanut pendulum to reach balance. I will try to ask at my grandchildren’s school if I can bring cupcakes for my youngest grandson’s birthday coming up. I bet the answer will be no, and no for years to come.
This Grandma is beginning to believe we were better off with no information. So, for those chocoholics out there, a little chocolate syrup and a little chocolate fudge (heated in the microwave for better flavor) on the recommended peanut butter pureed with warm water, is a wonderful way to introduce a wonderful treat to baby grandchildren.
Wait a minute. Isn’t that Nutella?
Joy,
Mema
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