Oh my aching arms

When my wife was pregnant we went to a 5 week course on becoming parents. We dicussed everything from c-sections, the role a Dad takes in the delivery room, to breathing techniques.

But not ONCE did we talk about the pain your arms, elbows and wrists will experience once the baby has arrived. I mean, I am talking RIGHT after she was born and I was holding her in the hospital, my elbow started hurting. At first, I thought, oh, I must have bumped my elbow at home or in sleep-deprivation-state in the delivery room I must have bumped the food cart or the bed side guards.

But after about two months I went to the doctor when it had not gotten any better and he diagnosed "tennis elbow", or what I like to call HADLEY elbow. It is tendonitus. And now my write has a knot in it. I think it is a combination of working on the computer and holding the baby for hours at various times during the night, while your arms are clenched and at right angles.

We recently had couple over for brunch from our baby class. They have a two-month old. I brought up the soreness in my elbows and wrist and they both acknowledged they have the same thing only not as bad.

I do feel bad complaining about this given what my wife had to go through giving birth, etc. but it is a lingering painful problem that needs to be talked about and brought to light. If you have any suggestions for combating this, or lessens the pain, please comment. I have been consciously trying to relax my arms and wrists when I am holding my bundle of joy. It has helped but I am still taking some anti-inflamatory pill so ease the pain. The physical therapy starts soon.

Safer sipping for your baby

Do you know what BPA is? Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical that mimics estrogen, found in baby bottles and water bottles. The chemical leach unhealthy amounts of the dose into our baby's milk/drink bottles. Here is a great article. These BPA-free bottles are easy to find if you know where to look and what to look for. 

Drugstore.com

Amazon.com

Try these two places for adult drinking bottles:
REI
Dicks Sporting Goods

Dads beware of harmful cleaning products.

Mom's cleaning products tied to kids' wheezing
(Reuters Health)
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children exposed to cleaning products and other household chemicals before or after birth may be at increased risk of breathing problems, results of a study published Wednesday hint.
British researchers found that young children whose mothers frequently used household chemicals during pregnancy were at greater risk of wheezing than their peers.
The more often their mothers used products like bleach, disinfectants, glass cleaner and insect sprays, the greater the children's odds of developing a wheezing problem by age 7.
The findings, published in the European Respiratory Journal, do not prove that household chemicals directly caused the children's lung problems.
The researchers tried to account for a number of variables in children's wheezing risk -- like mothers' smoking during pregnancy or household pets. But other "confounding" factors could be at play, according to lead researcher Dr. John Henderson of the University of Bristol.
"We can only state that there is an association between frequent use of this range of products, and the message should probably be 'use in moderation,'" he told Reuters Health.

The findings are based on 7,162 UK children who were followed from birth. During pregnancy, their mothers were asked how frequently they used various household chemicals, from "not at all" to "every day."
After their children were born, mothers were periodically asked about any wheezing symptoms the child had developed.
Overall, children's risk of wheezing climbed in tandem with mothers' use of household chemicals, the investigators found.
Although mothers were asked about cleaning product use during pregnancy, Henderson said his team suspects that children's exposure to such chemicals after birth, rather than prenatal exposure, may be the problem.
Mothers who used household chemicals frequently during pregnancy tended to do so over time as well. It's possible that breathing the products irritates young children's airways and causes inflammation, Henderson explained.
It's not clear, however, which home products might be the "culprit," the researcher noted.
"Until the effects are better understood, we cannot recommend substituting any particular product with safer alternatives," Henderson said.

And while "natural" cleaning products, like vinegar or lemon juice, might be safer, he noted, there is no research on whether they are better or worse for children's respiratory health.
SOURCE: European Respiratory Journal, March 2008.