During the crazy whirlwind that was the first 24 hours of Lyla’s life at Valley Medical Center, one of the bajillion people that came through to check on us, talk to us about things we needed before left, ask us to do this or that, take our picture and so on was a representative from the Pacific Northwest Research Institute.
I can’t remember her name, I just know it was a woman, and she asked us if we would be willing to allow them to use some of the blood taken after Lyla was born for a study on Type 1 diabetes.
I am a big fan of research. My father had Type 1 diabetes, a disease that killed him much too soon, so I am happy to help in any way that I can.
About a week and a half ago we got a letter from PNRI.
“We would like to thank you for taking part in the TEDDY Study on type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. We have the rest results for your child’s sample that was taken while in the hospital shortly after birth.
“Lyla’s blood spot tested negative for the genetic markers of type 1 diabetes. This does not promise that Lyla will never get diabetes. The good news is that Lyla’s risk is not more than that of the average child, who has a chance of about 1 in 300 or .3 percent of developing type 1 diabetes.”
It went on to thank us again, that no further participation on our part is necessary, but if Lyla is diagnosed someday with Type 1 to contact them as it would be helpful for the study.
I was definitely relieved to see that Lyla does not have the genetic markers for Type 1.
Since I found out just how important it was to have tight control over my blood sugar while I was pregnant for Lyla, I have tried to do everything I can to make sure I could minimize the potential she would get Type 2 as well, and luckily she was not a big baby.
And the more I talk to my mom, the more horrified I am by the stuff she did when she was pregnant with me, it’s no wonder I’ve struggled with my weight most of my life and that I developed Type 2 at such a young age.
Now, I have to take responsibility, too as I ate junk food and sweets without thought of the consequences and didn’t stay active when I went to college.
But, it certainly didn’t help that my mom ate chocolate ice cream daily during her pregnancy which led to my birth weight being nearly 10 pounds.
Yesterday she came to visit and was asking me about when we might start Lyla on infant rice cereal.
Mom was telling me that she started feeding it to me when I was two months old because I had such an epic appetite — shocker, I was a big baby who survived on sugar in the womb, hmm — so she had to supplement because breast milk supplemented with formula wasn’t enough.
I told her I wasn’t sure yet, since Lyla seems perfectly content to eat four ounces of formula every two hours, and she’s nowhere near as big as I was so I hadn’t really thought about making any changes to her diet. I did just put her on soy formula a couple weeks ago and that seems to be working well now so since it ain’t broke I don’t see any reason to try and fix it.
I added that we can ask our family doctor when we go in for Lyla’s four month well child check up on March 18.
Later on yesterday I told my husband about it and decided to do some research on the topic.
What I found about infant rice cereal was not comforting. From my perspective, it’s not something I want to give my daughter, who is at risk already for developing diabetes because not only is her mother diabetic, but so are both my parents. Commercially produced rice cereal apparently is just sugar and other junk I don’t want to give her. Some parent testimony I read, including from a doctor, said it is essentially a “rice brick” sitting in a baby’s tummy.
Now, some parents like that it creates a fullness which breast milk or formula can’t provide, as some anecdotal evidence from parents points to that helping babies sleep through the night.
Lyla already sleeps through night and I’m not sure I’m keen on starting her on anything before the six month mark even though plenty of pediatricians say infant rice cereal is fine for babies at four months.
Now, I’m not some kind of organic, whole food freak but growing up with an older sister who is a vegetarian that introduced me to organic and vegetarian food when I was in grade school I do enjoy that kind of thing.
Ultimately, I would like to make Lyla’s first solid foods myself. Things like mashed sweet potatoes, bananas, avocados and the like appear to be good options at the six month mark and if we want to add some kind of grain, homemade oatmeal would be a good way to go.
We do have a Cuisinart food processor. It’s totally doable.
But, maybe not all the time … so, maybe I’ll get some organic baby food, too. I’m not sure, though, since the “organic” label can be misleading. Luckily being diabetic, I am a master label reader, and I have also learned a bit about what to look for on baby food labels, too. So, I’ll be that mom in the Safeway at Four Corners standing there reading the baby food label jars. Probably not the only one, though.
Either way, I plan to add some spices to her food because I’ve read quite a bit that babies who eat flavorful food are less likely to be picky eaters as they get older. Sweet potatoes and bananas can have some cinnamon and maybe a little vanilla, for example, so that’s something we can try.
It just is so important to me that she learns to eat right from the beginning and that she enjoys eating all the good stuff. Plus I would like for her to be an adventurous eater. I don’t want her to turn her nose up at the thought of sushi or Vietnamese food or even leafy green vegetables.
For me, I was lucky that my sister is an adventurous eater and encouraged me to try things outside my comfort zone when I was young. OK, she teased me into it at first, but as I got older I was enthusiastic. I never would have had sushi at 13 for the first time, eaten Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, Moroccan or Indian food (with the latter being one of my absolute favorites) were it not for my older sister Elizabeth.
Hopefully I will be a good model when it comes to eating and that will be a major step toward preventing the health problems I’ve experienced in my life.
That’s just one of the ways I want to provide my daughter with the things I didn’t have growing up. My body started to fail me when I was 19. If there’s anything I can do to help Lyla have a healthy life, then I’ll do it, even if it is kind of inconvenient. She is SO worth it.