chillin'

found feet

toddler seat

Here is Chris in his sweet new toddler car seat (camo, of course!) It is a Britax Marathon. I'm going to hold off on installing it until he can sit unassisted. That way he will be able to ride in the shopping cart seat when we're out. Until then, he will stay in the infant carrier. This seat says it can hold babies from 5 lbs up to 65 lbs. However, I don't see how this would hold a newborn. Chris just barely fits into it at the lowest shoulder strap setting. Unless you have a 26 inch newborn, I don't know how that is supposed to work.

Just a reminder of how small he was as a newborn. . .

red lobster

Today Chris and I went to Red Lobster for lunch. I had gotten a $10 off coupon in the mail and figured it would make for a cheap lunch out. I hadn't been to a Red Lobster in many years. I had forgotten how much old people love that restaurant! The Greatest Generation was out in force! I have not seen that many old old people in one place since my Geriatrics rotation. The food was okay. I had pasta with bits of lobster and shrimp on it. The sauce was too salty. However, I did get to eat lobster for five bucks (eight with tip). Chris did well in the restaurant. He was getting tired and I had to hold his pacifier in his mouth for him for most of the time, but he didn't cry.

very hungry caterpillar

Here is Chris playing with his caterpillar after reading the very hungry caterpillar. Also, he had fun turning the pages of his taggies book.

little cutie 1 and 2

Since little cutie is Chris's favorite toy, I have been looking all over to find another one in case it gets lost or damaged. No luck with Target, Wal-Mart, or Babies R Us. Finally, I found one used on ebay and bought it. I'm pleasantly surprised with how good condition it is in. It looks barely used, and is not as worn as Chris's toy. Chris smiles at both toys, and did not seem fazed when I had them both out at the same time.

storytime

Chris and I went to storytime at the Roxborough library today. It was fun! There was one other baby there, the rest of the kids were toddlers and preschoolers. The librarian read several little kids books. For some of the books, she had little felt cutouts of the characters that she put out on a board beside her. We also sang songs. Chris seemed pretty excited about the songs. He wasn't scared by the noise, and he looked around at all of the kids. Chris only lasted 30 minutes before he got hungry and we had to go. Even so, it was nice to get out just for a little bit.

8 months

Chris is 8 months old today. He is getting closer to sitting independently- he needs just a little bit of help. Hard to believe that in just four short months he will be a year old!

grandma and grandpa visit

valentines

jumperoo

good morning!

Chris is very smiley in the morning!

population benefits of dietary salt reduction

I just read an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that sparked my interest. It's in this week's issue, and it is about a computer simulation of the population health benefits of reducing dietary sodium. The article's title is "Projected effect of dietary salt reduction on future cardiovascular disease." Sounds pretty bland (pun intended), but bear with me.

Here's my brief summary of the article.

Americans eat way too much salt. Medically, most adults should eat 4 grams or less of salt per day. A low sodium diet is less than two grams per day. The average American man eats 10 grams and the average woman 7 grams of sodium per day. That's just way too much. Why? Because sodium raises your blood pressure, and high blood pressure increases your risk for bad things like coronary artery disease and stroke. It is difficult to reduce sodium intake because 75% of the salt in the US diet comes from processed foods rather than salt used in cooking or at the table. I'll admit, most of the time I don't look at the label on something I buy and check how much salt is in it. If I'm eating Cheetos, I know there is salt, and I don't want to know how much.

Previous studies have shown that decreasing the amount of salt in your diet by 1 gram per day causes a decrease in blood pressure of 1-2 points. Decreasing the salt by 3 grams decreases the blood pressure by 2-6 points. A one point blood pressure reduction doesn't seem to be a big deal. . . . but it is.

They ran their computer simulation (complicated, I don't understand the details. . . a lot of math words that I did not understand) on what would happen with different interventions to decrease dietary salt in the US and came up with huge effects. With interventions to decrease sodium intake by 3 grams, new cases of coronary artery disease would be reduced by 5-10%. Myocardial infarction would be decreased by 10-15%, and stroke decreased by 5-10%. These effects would be even greater in people who already have hypertension and in black men and women, who appear to be more sensitive to salt intake. I don't understand the details of how their model works, but this article was published in the most prestigious medical journal in this country and I am assuming that some smart people understand how it works and think it is reasonable.

They did a cost effectiveness analysis on different interventions, and found large savings in healthcare costs for each of the different salt reduction intervention scenarios. The scale they are talking is 4 to 90 billion dollars of healthcare cost reduction. They assumed that a population-wide regulatory approach to salt reduction would cost one dollar per person per year, as estimated by the WHO.

In our current climate of ballooning health care costs, any healthcare cost reduction would be a welcome change. Plus people would be healthier.

However, this brings into question- should dietary salt intake be regulated by the government?

My initial gut reaction says no. If people want to eat salt, let them. Just educate people.

But then, thinking more about it, making these changes will save huge amounts of money and prevent disease. Plus, some people don't want to be educated, or are unable to be educated, and if we just make these changes for them, everyone will be better off. Other countries including Japan and the United Kingdom have been able to reduce salt intake in their countries by regulating the salt content of processed foods, education, and labeling. So I'm all for it if it can be legislated.

In the meantime, I thought I would educate any of you out there reading this post still. Eat 2 grams of sodium per day and be healthy!

Bibbins-Domingo K et al. Projected effect of dietary salt reductions on future cardiovascular disease. NEJM 2010; 362:590-9

to the presidents tune "peaches"

millions of squeakers, squeakers for me
millions of squeakers, squeakers for free

jumperoo

Inspired by the Pennocks' purchase, I looked into jumperoos and decided that Chris would like to have one. It arrived last week. Here are pictures Doug took on Saturday.

yoga class

Doug left yesterday for another trip to Cape Canaveral for work. He will be there for ten days, so it will be just me and the baby this week. My folks are coming this weekend to watch Chris while I'm at work- thank you!

Today I went with Angie to the mom and baby yoga class at belly bliss. It was relaxing, and fun to involve the babies. I learned some exercises I can do with him at home. I probably won't do more classes there since it's such a long drive to Denver, but I am looking into going to a class I found in Littleton.

i ate zucchini!

gurgling

hoodie

Here he is in his new hoodie. He looks more like a little boy and less like a baby when I put him in real clothes! After I took these pictures, he promptly threw up into his hood and I had to change him.

roll

lil cutie

grandma visits

bbh visits!