Baby Babble

Milestone musings...how much do you worry?

Are you one to pay attention to milestones, such as the ones you can get from the nifty baby website The Baby Center? It's true. At a certain age, a child can be expected to smile, sit up, crawl, walk, talke, etc....and significant delays in doing so may be signs of developmental problems.  But are some of us taking these too seriously--expecting the "milestones" to be an exact sign?

Blogger Jennifer Jordan at Parent Dish notes that these  milestones are established by following thousands of babies and "averaging"--which means there's going to be a lot of variation, kid to kid.

Are you one that gets hung up on hitting each milestone at the "right" time? Do we take these things too seriously? Every kid is different. How do you deal with "not" meeting the milestone? Do you worry? Write us here with your tales of milestone woes!

What makes a population lull? Slacker fathers

In this Business Week article, it is suggested that every woman—from North America to Australia to everywhere in between—should birth 2.1 babies in order to keep the population stable. This is simply the replacement rate. The U.S. sits right at that 2.1 average. But some eastern and southern European countries have seen a drop in births—less than 1.3 per woman—giving their population the appearance that it will be cut in half within 45 years.

Why the sudden decrease in births? Is it due to families’ lower incomes? Or women’s struggles to get back into the workplace after raising her children? Nope. Interestingly enough, researchers have discovered that the birth rate is directly related to the home participation of men.

“In societies where women do 75 percent or more of the housework and child care, they are less likely to have another child than in countries where fathers share the load.”

Well, that makes sense to me. Why would a woman want to have several kids with her “partner” if her “partner” requires a mommy, too?

How are things run in your household? If you have/had/are a husband who didn’t share household responsibilities, would this affect your decision to have more children?

Pre-schooler badly behaved? Not to worry

A study just out in early November shows two good things: Pre-schoolers who show skill in math and reading early in life are likely to have academic success later in life.  And, pre-schoolers who behave badly or are lacking in some social skills at that age seem to recover nicely as they grow up...or at least their early behavior doesn't necessarily PREDICT their academic success. The study showed--and confirmed what earlier studies has said--that kids who actually had some basic math skills conquered by the time they entered kindergarten were much more likely to do well in math during grade school, and they'd also do well in reading.  Kids who showed some behavioral challenges, however, seem not to have harmed their academic success later. "Math skills were three times as strong a predictor of future success as ability to pay attention, the only behavioral or social skill to show an effect in the Duncan study," according to this article.

But, hold on.  Other experts in child development seem to disagree with this recent study, which itself contradicts a study conducted in 2000 that showed social skills affected learning. One expert argued:

"Parents can make sure their children can sit still when they need to, that they can work independently and also in a group. Those are the skills that are going to set you up to be successful in life, because you follow through," she says. "Can you work independently? Can people depend on you? To do well on a math test you have to have these skills. Parents should focus on whether their children can play well with other kids, and on whether they have some self-regulation and persistence on tasks."

Hmm...Seems like we'll be hearing more from this corner of the child development world in the future.

What do you think? Use the "comments" button just below to weigh in.

Child care settings may protect against asthma

In yet another study of child care settings, it seems that children who attend child care early in life are protected against later developing asthma.  "Huh?" you might be saying.  The theory goes that children who are cared for in a setting outside of their own home, at a critical age in immune system development, have a greater chance o developing an immunity to asthma. Seems kind of strange, doesn't it?  Researchers came to this conclusion after studying the immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the blood of very young children.  This antibody shows an allergic sensitivity. If a child had attended a child care program outside the home before the age of 3 months, the IgE level was lower in his or her blood.

Care to comment? Write us here using the "comments" button just below.

Child care has its plusses and minuses, says NIH report

Kids who spend time in child care have better vocabulary scores but more behavior problems, according to a report published by the National Institutes of Health. The report is part of the longest-running and most comprehensive study of child care in the United States. It notes that fifth graders who had received high-quality child care before they went to kindergarten had better vocabulary scores than those who received lower quality care. At the same time, sixth graders who had spent more time in child care centers tended to demonstrate "teacher-reported externalizing problem behavior"—academic talk for arguing, bragging, cruelty, bullying, meanness, and other behavior problems.

How come? The authors of the study suggest it's because child care providers lack the time and the training to address behavior problems. They're quick to note that the bad behavior falls within normal limits—you can't walk into a classroom and pick out the children who had been in child care. They also note that the vocabulary gains and the increased behavior problems were small compared to the importance of quality parenting—a much more important factor in successful child development.

What's your experience? Is child care getting a bad rap? Submit your comments below.

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Live in a college town? A "mommy mixer" might be the thing for you

For a $100 fee, a matchmaker in Austin, Texas is registering area moms for a series of Mommy Mixers. The mixers are kind of a speed-dating thing, only for matching up moms who need child care with college students who need work.  Sounds like an interesting concept to us! The resumes of the potential sitters are included a book the moms receive. The college students pay nothing to attend the gathering, where snacks are served and each can observe the other. Then all the sitters step forward and tell their credentials in front of the crowd, then the moms tell what their particular child care needs are. Most of the women already have full-time child care arrangements if they are working, but they are looking for evening and weekend fill-in help. The Mommy Mixers are now an actual business which started in Austin and is expanding to other cities.

[Photo from mommymixers.com]

What do you think? Is this a good way to find child care help? Would you attend a Mommy Mixer? Give us your opinion using the "comment" button just below.