It's True-- Pregnancy Changes Taste!

Pregnancy really does make women more sensitive to certain flavors and odors. One really interesting study asked a group of women-- some not pregnant and others in different stages of pregnancy-- to rate the intensity and their preferences of salty, sweet, citric and bitter flavors. While the women who weren’t pregnant varied a lot in how intense they thought the various flavors were and how much they liked them, pregnant women in the first trimester were united in ranking the bitter and salty flavors as more intense and less appealing. And, the farther along the pregnant women were, the more they liked the salty and citric flavors, and the less intense they found the bitter flavor.

Researchers theorized that pickiness peaks in the first trimester to help protect the fetus from poisons at the most sensitive stage of development, then preferences change to encourage a balanced diet closer to delivery. Pretty interesting!

Crackers worse than caramels?

Researching toddler tooth care today!
According to the AAPD, crackers are actually worse for children’s teeth than caramels! The starches in crackers are just as harmful to teeth as the sugars in caramels, but the sugars in caramels actually dissolve more quickly.
Also surprised to learn that the bacteria that cause tooth decay can be spread by sharing utensils.

Bed-sharing by accident

Our new book, Baby Sleep is going off to print as I type, and in the meantime, this year's AAP convention is kicking off in DC.

As we wrote the section on bed-sharing, we really agonized over what stance to take. Bed-sharing can be very dangerous, and babies can and do die when parents roll over on them-- as shown in this horrible story from Wales the other day. A lot of the deaths that in the past had been attributed to SIDS were most likely accidental rollovers while bed-sharing.

On the other hand, bed-sharing is on the rise.
Here's the stat from Widener U in PA:

Ninety-four women were enrolled ... 70 were interviewed at 1 month and 54 at 3 months. At enrollment none of the 94 mothers were planning on sharing their bed with their infant. At 1 month 47% reported sharing their bed with their infant the prior month and 17% at 3 months.

I know we did the right thing by presenting all of the pros and cons of bed-sharing, and explicit safety information. The most dangerous scenario of all is what's going on here: parents who don't plan to, but end up bed-sharing out of exhaustion, without making the bed safe for baby.


ps. "SUIDS" is the new "SIDS" - Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Syndrome.