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Your Questions for Dr. Sears Answered

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for Dr. Sears! (see the original post here: Ask an Expert: Dr. Sears answers your questions http://ht.ly/46z8rOpens a new window)

He is unable to join us, but he did send me some amazingly helpful and insightful responses to share with you. 

I'll post each question and answer as a separate comment below. Feel free to discuss his responses amongst yourselves, just know he won't be available to address any further questions.

And, stay tuned in for our next Q&A session with Valerie Deneen of The Frugal Family Fun Blog who will be helping us find practical ways to eat organic on a budget!

-- Janelle

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  • Thank you for coming here to answer questions about organic foods.  I've been giving my 4 yr old daughter non-organic milk since the age of 1.  Do you think it will cause her to show signs of puberty earlier than normal?  What’s your opinion regarding hormones etc in milk?  I’ve recently switched to organic milk and other dairy products.  Should I switch to organic meats and poultry as well??  Your expertise is greatly appreciated.

    One of my nutritional goals is to help parents raise chemical-free kids.  I believe that one of the contributors to the epidemic of what I call the “D” diseases – ADD, ADHD, BPD (bipolar disorder), and ASD (autism spectrum disorder) ­– is that today’s children are being exposed to more chemicals in the air they breathe and the food they eat.  Here’s what I believe is the genetic basis of this epidemic of nutrition-related illnesses.  According to this new science called nutragenetics, some children are born with an inherited gene, say for diabetes, and this gene has an “on” and “off” switch.  Whether or not the gene is turned on, or expressed, and the child gets diabetes, or turned off, or suppressed, can be influenced by the food the child eats.  This growing science of nutragenetics is starting to investigate how food may affect genetic traits.  In the meantime, I advise parents to operate on the principle of common sense: “When in doubt, leave it out.” 

    You were wise to switch to organic milk and other dairy products.  I would advise you to switch to organic meats and poultry as well.  These are the products that are top on my list of recommendations for parents to go organic. 

    You may have heard of the saying, “We are what we eat.”  Also, we are what the animal that we eat eats. 

    During my forty years of pediatric practice, along with many other pediatricians, I am becoming increasingly passionate about encouraging parents to feed their children organic foods, again because of the epidemic of nutrition-related diseases that we are seeing. 

    One of the most compelling reasons that caused us to go organic in our own family was the realization that the brains of growing children are most affected by nutrition.  The brain above all other organs in the body is most affected, for better or worse, by what you eat.  The reason for this is because the brain is sixty percent fat and pollutants are stored in fatty tissue. 

    For these reasons, you are a wise parent to have made the switch to organic. 


  • I am having issues with our current pediatrician supporting the attached parenting lifestyle, such as cosleeping, extended breastfeeding etc.  Do you have any tips on how to find a pediatrician that would not only support but recommend attached parenting?

    I’m sorry you’re having issues with your pediatrician about the style of attachment parenting, which is the oldest way of child care, and the one that’s based most on science and common sense.  Try these suggestions:

    Choose your pediatrician based primarily on the doctor’s medical expertise in case your child gets sick.  You know what is the best style of parenting for your child more than any doctor will.  Ideally, you would want a doctor to support your style of parenting, but I wouldn’t compromise that for medical expertise.  If your doctor is a wise physician on treating your child’s medical needs, no need to switch. 

    When I began medical practice my wise pediatrician mentor told me: “Surround yourself with savvy mothers and have the wisdom, and the humility, to learn from them.”  Your doctor will learn from you.  Your child will be your best testimony to the long-term effects of attachment parenting.  I use my pediatric practice as sort of a laboratory to study the long-term effects of how children turn out based upon the parenting style their parents did.  The top quality I’ve noticed with attachment-parented children is empathy.  These are kids who care.  You can spot them as toddlers on a playground.  When a child falls, the attachment-parented child quickly comes over and comforts the hurting child.  Attachment-parented children seldom become school bullies.   Once your doctor sees how much healthier – mentally, physically, and emotionally – is your child because of the style of parenting you’ve chosen, you are likely to get more compliments than criticism.  

  • My 6 month old loves to eat, but I am worried about feeding him too much since he is already a bigger baby. How much solid food should a baby eat? I make my own organic baby food and he eats a vegetarian diet. Thanks!

    It’s nice that you have a baby who loves to eat.  When you feed your baby real wholesome food, which it sounds like you are, you seldom have to worry about your infant eating too much.  One of the reasons for this non-worry is real food is more filling because it’s high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats, all of which enjoy the nutritional principle called a high satiety factor, meaning they fill you up for less.  Yet, overeating junk food is a real concern and one of the top contributors to childhood obesity.  As a general guide for portion control, remember that your baby’s tummy is the size of his fist.  So, you might consider one fistful as the maximum to offer your baby at any one feeding. 

     

    Raise a grazer.  Small, frequent feedings is actually healthier for a growing child than a few big meals each day.  Left to their own ingenuity, babies and toddlers are natural grazers. 

    I applaud you for making your own organic baby food. You are tapping into a principle of nutrition that is top on my list: shape young tastes.  When you start your child off with a “real food diet,” he gets used to the taste and gut-feel of real food, which increases your chances of him shunning junk food later on.  One day your child will thank you for giving him a smart nutritional start.

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  • My toddler is a vegetarian and is now refusing to eat most of what he used to love. I believe that he has allergies causing him to have a runny nose and slight cough. Is there anyway that I can introduce new foods without him spitting them out? He throws them onto the floor and turns his head away. How can I make them more enjoyable?

    Sounds like your child is going through a normal stage of being a “picky eater,” which most toddlers do.  Two suggestions: First, since you suspect food allergies, keep a food diary that lists “when my child eats this…he does this…”, such as a runny nose, a facial rash, diarrhea, bloating, etc.   By process of elimination, you can then give him the foods that you believe he is less allergic to.  Bear in mind that most children eventually outgrow most of their food allergies.  Top food allergies are dairy, wheat, and corn.  If you believe your child is allergic to dairy, substitute his diet with organic yogurt, since the culturing of yogurt makes the proteins less allergenic. 

    Next, here’s a Sears’ family trick that we use for our picky eaters: make a nibble tray – an ice-cube tray, a muffin tin, or you can purchase a fun snack tray called “the nibble tray” made by Zak.  In this compartmentalized tray put nutritious nibblees and give them child-like names like broccoli “trees,” cheese “blocks,” cooked carrot “sticks,” egg “boats” (hard-boiled eggs cut up to look like canoes), and reserve two compartments for dips, such as organic yogurt and guacamole.  Set the tray on your toddler’s own table and let him nibble his way through the day.  By the end of the day the tray will be empty and his tummy will be full – without the hassles of you trying to get him to eat.  Keep in mind that between one and two toddlers eat much less than they did in the first year because they don’t grow as fast as they did the first year. 

    A final note about feeding your child a vegetarian diet: be cautious.  You almost need a Ph.D in nutrition to feed a child a vegetarian diet since vegetarian diets can be deficient in iron, zinc, vitamin B12, and especially omega 3 fats.  In my opinion, the healthiest diet is called pesco-vegetarian, or seafood vegetarian.  The seafood makes up for the possible nutritional deficiencies of a strict vegan diet.  Or, if you wish to remain vegetarian, it is absolutely necessary that you give your toddler an omega 3 fish oil supplement that contains at least 300 mg. of omega 3 DHA/EPA per day.  

  • My baby loves her formula cold out of the fridge – is this okay and does it cause colic? And/or How soon can I get my baby to start drinking room temperature formula?

    Feeding time needs to be enjoyable, for both you and your baby.  If your baby likes her formula cold, that’s okay.  Regarding your concern of formula and colic, yes there can be a correlation for two reasons:  Some infants are allergic to the protein, or lactose, in the formula and do better with a hypoallergenic, or lactose-free formula, which might be recommended by your baby’s pediatrician.  Before changing formulas, try my rule of twos: feed your baby twice as often, half as much.  Oftentimes, it’s drinking too much too fast that causes tummy upsets rather than the formula itself.  Your baby’s tummy is the size of her fist.  Next time you feed her put a full bottle of formula next to your baby’s fist and notice the mismatch.  Drinking too much too fast causes abdominal discomfort, bloating, and reflux – where partially digested formula and stomach acids are regurgitated back up into the sensitive lining of the esophagus causing pain like adults would call heartburn.  

  • I would also love to get Dr Sears’ perspective on vitamin D supplements for exclusively breastfed babies under 6 months--are they really necessary during that 0-6 month period?

    Whether or not breastfed babies routinely need a vitamin D supplement is still somewhat controversial.  The Committee on Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that exclusively breastfed babies be given a vitamin D supplement of at least 400 IU per day.  Yet, I believe that Mother Nature scientist does not make nutritional mistakes.  It’s hard to imagine that mother’s milk, so perfect in every nutritional way, would be deficient in a vitamin.  On the other hand, the way we live has changed.  Once upon a time most babies lived in warm climates and enjoyed the recommended fifteen minutes a day of exposure to sunlight with bare limbs and trunk.  Many mothers and babies have a “sunlight deficiency.”  Studies have shown that when a mother takes vitamin D supplements and/or gets more sunlight exposure, the level of vitamin D in her breastmilk goes up.  Dark pigmented infants are particularly at risk for vitamin D deficiency.  Even though current studies are being done to definitively answer this question, the general recommendation at present is, when possible, infants should be exposed to fifteen minutes of direct sunlight on bare skin (no sunblock) of arms and legs and/or supplement the breastfeeding infant with 400 IU of vitamin D per day.  Studies have shown that mother needs to take 2000 IU/day of vitamin D supplements to raise the baby’s serum blood level of vitamin D to sufficient levels.  Because of this high level, and the uncertainty of the effect of this high dose, the current recommendation is to supplement the baby directly with 400 IU of vitamin D per day.  I also wish to add that there is a growing number of vitamin D specialists who are concluding that we have overemphasized sun protection to the extent of contributing to vitamin D deficiency.  Over the next year or so I think you will see the recommendation to value sun exposure more and fear it less.  

  • When a baby turns twelve months, how much milk do they need and what is the best way to wean them from breast milk.

    As a general guide, a twelve month old needs around 1.5 to 2 ounces of milk per pound per day, depending on how much solid food your baby eats.  So, if your baby weighs around 20 pounds, 30 ounces of milk would be fine – again depending on how much solid food your child eats.  Unless you have a compelling reason to wean, I suggest you continue breastfeeding as long as baby is willing and you are able.  There is a lot of science supporting long-term breastfeeding.  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends breastfeeding for at least one year, and longer is preferable.  The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends two to three years.   Thinking of breastfeeding in terms of years may surprise some Western mothers, but science supports extended breastfeeding.  Studies have shown the longer babies are breastfed, the smarter and healthier they tend to be for two reasons: breastmilk contains more healthy brain-building fats, and it helps boost your baby’s developing immune system.  Imagine each drop of your milk containing over a million immune-building white blood cells.  Extended breastfeeding gives your baby the best nutritional start.  

  • My 11 month old has had chronic constipation since we started feeding him solids at around 6 months. He gets home made food mostly organic and I stay away from the big known constipators, rice, bananas, apples etc. He eats a lot of sweet potatoes, prunes, apricots, peaches, pears, corn, broccoli, squash, oatmeal. He drinks about 4oz of water a day on top of 4 sessions of breast feeding or expressed milk, so about 24oz of milk is my guess. I don't eat eggs, dairy or soy but my diet hasn't really changed. At the height of his problems the dr. said to give him 1/2 tsp of milk of magnesia and I have been doing that for some time now. Seems to help some but I am constantly worried about what he is eating. Any suggestions how to help him get off the meds and normalize? Could this be a sign of a larger problem?

    It’s unusual for breastfed babies to be constipated, and when they are most of the time it’s due to too much solid food too fast, as seems to be the case with your baby.  It sounds like your baby’s intestines are advising you to slow down on the solid feeding.  One of the top simple “treatments” of constipation I use in my medical practice is what I call my rule of twos: eat twice as often, half as much, and chew twice as long.  Too much food entering the immature intestines too fast is a setup for constipation.  Try blending the foods into a more pudding-like consistency.  Blended food is easier to digest.  When you do more work at the top end, it’s easier on the bottom end.  Blending is like pre-chewing the child’s food.  What we did in our family to help heal our constipators was to introduce smoothies beginning at a year of age.  A fruit and organic yogurt smoothie is very intestinal-friendly.  As a natural laxative, add a tablespoon of flax oil to your baby’s daily smoothie.  Encourage your baby to sip on that smoothie throughout the day, and you are likely to notice improvement in your baby’s constipation.  Smoothie are also a way of increasing the amount of daily fluids your baby needs.  Sounds like the diet your baby is on is excellent, but keep a food diary to document which foods, prepared which way, are most intestinal-friendly.

  • Is organic clothing really better for the baby's health?

    One of my preventive-medicine mantras is “raise chemical-free kids.”  There is a lot we don’t know about the effect of chemicals on clothing, such as flame-retardants and dyes, on children’s health.  We don’t know how much of the fumes from chemical clothing are inhaled or how much of these chemicals is absorbed through the skin.  The skin surface area of a baby is proportionally greater than that of an adult, so that’s a large surface area to be exposed to chemicals.  We do know that surface chemicals can be absorbed through baby’s skin.  While it’s unlikely that a high dose of chemicals from clothing will bother your baby, the fact is we don’t know.  So, when in doubt, leave it out.  Raising healthy kids is basically a checklist starting with organic foods and clean air.  While organic clothing may be farther down on the worry list, if you are able to provide your baby with organic clothing it may be better for baby’s health.  

  • nice...i wish he would have given variety to the questions, they all seem to be the same type of question!

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