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Monday, March 20, 2006

This Baby is Steady

When I suspect I am pregnant, I was a bit of surprise that this 3rd baby came so fast. I was thinking to try for few more months, like my previous pregnancies.... Doctors told me, normally it will happen in this pattern (easier when come to the 3rd one).

Now I am into my 4th month. Feeling normal, and I am thinner compare to the same period of my previous pregnancies. Maybe because I am first time not working in office. No air-con, no fix eating time, and not so strict on my diet. Well... i think so, or maybe because I am at different age, or maybe I am having baby the 3rd time... may be, may be, may be...

I feel that this baby is very steady. I saw the baby through ultrasound first time when the baby was close to 3 months. Well, the baby looks cool and steady, lying there floating happily...

I thank God that he blessed me with another baby. I prayed that I will have a smooth and easy delivery.


'Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.' ~ Proverbs 22:6

Sunday, March 19, 2006

No cow's milk for my baby

I learn more of cow's milk when a friend told me about cows farming there in uk.

The cows are dragging their breasts on the ground because of too much milk (cause by injection that prolong the milking period). Besides, the dragging causes scars on their breasts so some of them get infection. To avoid from getting sick, antibiotics is being injected to them...

Not until I got pregnant, before my 1st baby was born, I started to take this information seriously and went to do some research on cow's formula...

Ok, after checking... the injection to prolong or increase the milk is the thing called BGH - Bovine Growth Hormone. It is a genetically engineered hormone fed to dairy cows to boost milk production. BGH also reduces the cow's life expectancy and increases the risk of disease, contributing to increased use of antibiotics.

If we think in common sense, why God produce cows' milk? and for whom? The milk is for the calf, mainly to build the calf body, so it is strong to stand. The calf will consumes the milk only for a certain period of time. The grown cows don't drink them. So... what makes us human want to drink it and also give it to our babies? What more not only the milk, it includes the BGH and antibiotics...

The first few things come to mind are - Do we need to get calcium from cows' milk? Who telling us this? The advertisement isn't it? The industry advertise so great that, even some doctors believe it without doing their own research. Actually, most green leafy vegetables and beans have a form of calcium that is absorbed better than cow's milk. They also have iron, vitamins, complex carbohydrate, and fiber which are generally lacking in milk. Besides, cow's milk proteins are a common cause of colic.

Anyhow, mother's milk is the best (even the formula tin stated it! No matter how many DHA, etc. they claim to put in). Human milk firstly give human baby the antibodies to complete the immune system, then go on targeting on building the baby's brain (not building the body first). Now I know why breast fed baby always look slim, and cow's formula baby always look huge.

Do you know? 'Human milk is the most nutritional food in the world'. Those mom who are breastfeeding, keep up the good work! It is the best thing you can give to your baby!! For those moms that do not have enough milk, do consider goat's milk (closest to human milk, which has least allergy effect), or soy-based milk.


'Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.' ~ Psalm 86:11


Some reference:

Source: S. Epstein, 'Unlabeled Milk from Cows Treated with Biosynthetic Growth Hormones: A Case of Regulatory Abdication,' International Journal of Health Services 26(1): 173-185, 1996; PR Newswife via NewsEdge Corp., June 21, 1998.
Source: J. Fagan, Genetic Engineering: The Hazards, MIU Press, 1995, p. 113.
Source: E. G. Weinberg and M. Tuchinda, "Allergic Tension-Fatigue Syndrome," Annals of Allergy 31:209-11, 1973.
Source: Benjamin Spock, M.D. and Stephen J. Parker, M.D., Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, Little Brown, 1998.
Source: Marian Burros, 'Cows Milk and Children: A New No-No?,' New York Times, Sept. 30, 1992.