A couple tips from science for setting your child up for a happy, healthy, and successful old age

I've been reading a handful of interesting articles that look at the long term effects of childhood decisions. It is so fascinating to me to know that choices I will make about my diet and what my child is exposed to will continue to effect my son or daughter for his or her whole life.

The most obvious has to do with maternal diet.  The fuel you provide your growing baby with as it is forming impacts the way its mind and body form.  One thing I found really interesting was that omega3s in your hips go to the babies brain development in the third trimester!  Once I read that I went right out and bought a big slab of wild Alaska salmon, chopped it up, and I've been eating it bit by bit. I want to make sure my baby's brain is a well oiled machine. There are lots of different vitamins and minerals that the baby will pull out of my bones and fat when he or she is developing. I'm working hard now to develop great vitaminy fat stores by eating nutritionally dense food! I would like to once again recommend 'Real Food for Mothers and Babies' by Nina Planck if you are interested in maternal diet.

Another really really interesting study linked low rates of Alzheimer's Disease in elderly men with having has a nurturing and emotionally available mother. WOW!  Life long happiness and resistance to some other diseases also were linked to caring, loving, nurturing mothers. By loving, nurturing, and being available to my child I can help him to grow into a healthy man and possibly help him avoid Alzheimer's.

Things like this are why I am so passionate about arming myself with information before I start my breeding program. I have many goals and wishes for my children and I hope to make the choices that will help those goals and wishes to manifest.

I want my children to be kind, curious, and persistent. I want them to care about other people in an active way. I want them to love to pursue knowledge. I want them to set goals and work towards their realization, even if its hard.

So now I just have to continue to see what other people have done to help shape their little people into kind, curious, persistent people.  I know my children won't be exactly what I want them to be. I know they will have their own personalities. They will have some genetic dispositions. I just want to try to guide them towards being ethical people and those are the ethics I've chosen to highlight in our family.

On another note, I read and really interesting article that says that maternal exposure to farm work (while baby is in utero) helps reduce allergies in children. Sorry baby Maze, you are going to have allergies. I love you but I'm not going to work on a farm.


Annotated Bibliography

Eternal Curves. Will Lassek, Steve Gaulin, Hara Estroff Marano. Psychology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201206/eternal-curves 3 Jul 12

75 Years In The Making: Harvard Just Released Its Epic Study On What Men Need To Live A Happy Life. Brent Lambert.
http://www.feelguide.com/2013/04/29/75-years-in-th-making-harvard-just-released-its-epic-study-on-what-men-require-to-live-a-happy-life/ 29 April 13

A longitudinal study of the lifestyles, trials, and successes of a group of men. The results were surprising. A good childhood relationship with a caring mother was a huge indicator of lifelong happiness, resistance to dementia, and a healthy old age.


http://www.parenting.com/article/the-new-science-of-mother-baby-bonding?page=0,3
More evidence about the long term effects of child-parent bonding.


A cute for allergy epidemic. Moises Velasquez-Manoff.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/a-cure-for-the-allergy-epidemic.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1384108233-3ky/t6pbhSr8kwlptJLpqA 9 Nov 13

How you can help your child with allergies, starting in the womb.