research | Unmotherly Insights

Really? I kind of beg to differ.

Hard to think about anything today other than the President’s speech yesterday in Cairo. Look, I’m a Jew, first and foremost. The whole wife, mother, sister, lover thing somehow always manages to take a back seat to who I am religiously. I guess that’s because for so many centuries people have hated Jews and worked to destroy us. I’m not paranoid. I feel genuinely safe in society today. But I do worry at times, and with good reason.

Statistics show that anti-semitism is on the rise in this country and world wide. As economies continue to plummet, distraught members of society often look for a scapegoat. There are multiple factions in society who believe that the rising costs of oil today are due to U.S. support of Israel. To any sane individual, this is absurd. But that doesn’t stop masses of people from calling on the US to turn against our long-term ally and join forces instead with the Arab nations who look to destroy her.

I believe in Israel’s right to exist. Hamas, the head of the Palestinian government and confirmed terrorist organization, does not. For the President of the United States to call Israel an “occupier” and suggest that Israel give back land taken in a war in 1967 is ridiculous. Returning to the ’67 borders, as President Obama advocated yesterday, would put Israel in an indefensible position while also leaving major population centers beyond those borders.

I’ve been reading incessantly on this subject. I actually watched the President’s speech on CSPAN and heard him irrefutably say that Israel should return to the 1967 borders. But as I talk to most of my liberal minded friends, who also claim to support Israel’s right to exist, they insist that the President said nothing about returning to ’67 borders. They have emails from “reputable” leaders who assert that this is just another desperate Republican attempt to destroy the President’s credibility and weaken his ever decreasing popularity.

And you can’t argue with these people. Because they refuse to believe the facts. Look, I’m all for a healthy debate. Like most people, I support a Palestinian state. They have the right to exist just as Israel does. But time and again Israel has withdrawn from areas, offered concessions and agreed to multiple conditions in order to secure peace with the Palestinians. But the Palestinian government insists on Israel’s complete and total destruction. They refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. How can that be a recipe for peace?

I am frustrated by this. Frustrated that people wont do the research and fact-finding they need to do to understand what’s going on. Trusting anyone as your sole source of information is foolish and naive. I listen to NPR every day on the radio. But I also force myself to listen to Rush Limbaugh and a variety of other radio hosts whose opinions I don’t necessarily agree with. But if you only watch CNN or read the NY Times, or at the other end of the spectrum, exclusively watch Fox News, how will you ever know what’s truly going on?

Look, believe what you want. But be honest and thoughtful about it. And don’t delude yourself into thinking that President Obama is a friend to the state of Israel, the Jews or to true democracy in the Middle East.

If you weren’t shocked by this week’s announcement from the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine about one-fifth of American 4-year-olds being obese, I’m not sure what it would take to freak you out. How about the fact that obese kids are developing type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and musculoskeletal problems (their tiny bodies can’t handle all that weight)?

I’m not a scientist. I’m not a doctor. But I can add. And by putting two and two together, I’ve come up with a plausible hypothesis as to why 1 in 5 four-year-olds in this country are obese.

Dr. Tom Robinson, from the Center for Healthy Weight at Stanford University School of Medicine, commented in a CNN interview, “It’s a very bad sign if we see obesity at a young age. When we see children obese at age 4, we’re likely to see complications – high blood pressure, abnormal lipids – which can lead to heart disease and stroke…”

Take this research and add another new study by Elsie Taveras at Harvard Medical School that shows that fat babies are at an increased risk of becoming obese toddlers and you can’t help but ask yourself if maybe feeding on demand isn’t such a good idea after all.

I know the story, your baby’s rooting. He’s crying. He’s obviously hungry. Never mind the fact that you fed him 20 minutes ago and your nipples are raw and chafed from these absurdly short feeding intervals. Guess what? Rooting is a natural instinct. It doesn’t indicate hunger. And those tears you interpret as a sign that baby wants more food, they’re probably due to reflux. The fact that your baby stops crying when you feed him is likely because it feels good and temporarily stops the reflux. But wait a few minutes after the feed, and the crying will return. I know you want to feed your baby. It feels right. It feels nurturing. But have you ever thought that maybe you’re overfeeding?

Oh no, not you. You’re certain your pudgy, ballooning babe is healthy and happy. He just has an insatiable appetite. Well, the truth is that research shows that babies who gain a lot of weight quickly in the first 6 months of life, are more likely to become part of that new obesity statistic we cited at the top of this page.

Babies need no more than 20 to 30 ounces of milk (breast or formula) during those early months. If you’re a die-hard “feed-on-demand” proponent, do you know how much milk your infant is actually ingesting in a 24 hour period? And frequency matters also. While it’s unpopular to even suggest regimented feeding periods in most mom circles today, there’s a lot of evidence that supports spreading out feedings by at least two to two and a half hours.

I know, you’ve got to go because the little one’s screaming and it’s time to feed again. So I’ll wrap it up by saying; just think about it. Baby fat may be cute, but it’s also a key indicator of toddler obesity, which leads to a host of other serious health issues. Maybe that whole moderation thing isn’t such a bad idea after all.