Liquid food linked to poisoning of babies was sent to 22 hospitals

A total of 18 babies are thought now to have been affected by a contaminated batch of intravenous fluid. One baby at London's Guy's and St Thomas' hospital has died, another 17 have blood poisoning.
Parenteral nutrition is supposed to deliver a variety of nutrients intravenously when a baby is unable to eat on its own.

Liquid food linked to poisoning of babies was sent to 22 hospitals

Kids who eat the same as their parents have healthier diets

Eating the same food as parents had a greater impact on a young child's health than any other factor, including social background and snacking between meals according to research at the Centre for Population Health Sciences at Edinburgh University. Researchers said that Britain was almost alone in Europe in "dumbing down" with children's meals in restaurants and at home, rather than encouraging them to eat what the adults were eating. There is growing concern about the rise of ready meals marketed at young children, and about children being overfed with foods that often lack key nutrients.
"If children were eating what their parents eat – and, like the French, eating round the table – then we wouldn't have the iron deficiency problem we have," said Dr Colin Michie, chair of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's nutrition committee. He said children could have problems with deficiencies in iron, vitamin D and to a lesser extent zinc, and he was seeing lots of children with eating difficulties who were fed "sitting alone" by busy parents, and parents who made two or three different meals for adults and faddy children.
In light of the study, which looked at 2,000 five-year-olds, the paper recommends that government advice to families should be kept simple to help establish good eating habits early.
5th May 2013 The Guardian

Breastfeeding advice ignored by most mothers

Department of Health Statistics released

Reading the press release, 75% of children had complementary foods introduced into their diets before 6 months of age. The Telegraph chose to confuse introducing formula milk with introducing complementary foods.

Read the full press release here

Extract from Telegraph article below

Mothers are advised by midwives and health visitors to breastfeed exclusively for six months if they can, eschewing mixing in formula milk or starting them on solids until that age. But a survey of the parents of almost 2,700 babies and toddlers across the UK has shown very few indeed adhere to the official guidelines.
It discovered that 96 per cent of parents started weaning their children before six months - meaning that, at the very most, only four per cent breastfed exclusively for that period. Of the three-quarters of mothers who breastfed to some degree, 57 per cent gave up before the baby was three months old, and a further 22 per cent by six months. The report suggests parents are either not aware of the guidelines - or are choosing to ignore them.

The Telegraph 13th March 2013

First-time Mum Review: The Essential Baby Care Guide

By Claire Williams

I watched the Essential Baby Care Guide from the position of being a pregnant first time mum whose closest previous contact with babies was seeing them on pampers adverts.  I had been pre-warned that the full set of DVDs took 8 hours to watch, so that was no surprise, though I must confess that I took so long about getting through them that my husband and I watched the final DVD post-birth.

As set out in the other review, there are 4 DVDs covering 1. Feeding, 2. Care & Development, 3. Sleeping, and 4. First Aid and Accident Prevention.  Each DVD has a good menu, allowing you to either watch an entire section, or to skip straight to the information you are interested in (e.g. baby resuscitation).  Each DVD includes interviews on the relevant topic with various parents, who are happy to explain the issues they faced with their children and how they overcame them. The real value of the DVDs however is that instead of just describing something, you are show (e.g. the ‘poo’ gallery clearly shows what you might see in the nappy of a breast fed baby, a constipated baby, what nappy rash looks like, etc).  For the clueless first time parent, being able to see what I might need to be looking for was invaluable.

The Feeding DVD covers breast feeding, bottle feeding and weaning.  Most time is spent on breast feeding advice, as the DVD goes through various problems that parents may encounter (such as mastitis and latching issues) and suggested solutions.  In contrast, the bottle feeding section is very short and essentially says you should follow the manufacturer’s instructions.  While the section on weaning looked useful, it will be a while before my daughter is ready to be weaned, so it felt a bit too soon for me to watch that section.

I found the Care & Development DVD extremely useful, with basic advice on baby hygiene and care, such as how to give baby a bath, plus information on games and toys that will interest and stimulate babies as they grow.   The Sleeping DVD was also eye-opening, as prior to watching it my husband and I hadn’t given any thought at all to questions such as when we would like to set up some sort of routine, what time is sensible for a baby or toddler to go to bed, how often and for how long children need to nap…

The final DVD, on First Aid and Accident Prevention, is perhaps the most vital to watch.  It covers basic first aid from dealing with cuts and burns right through to resuscitation and choking.  Techniques are repeatedly demonstrated, which helps fix them in your memory, and I now feel a bit more confident that I could deal appropriately with an emergency. 

All in all, the DVDs were useful, although I should note that they can seem very slow – sometimes I did start thinking ‘yes, I know, please move on’.  They can be purchased as a set, or alternatively as separates (enabling parents to only pay for the ones relevant to them).    

If you wish to buy the full set, you can get £5 off  and purchase at reduced price of £30 by purchasing direct from www.essentialparent.com and entering the code ElyNCT at checkout. For each DVD set sold The Essential Parent Company will donate £5 to the branch.