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New Parents in Need of Sleep

Parents know that having a newborn sets off months upon months of stressful and sleepless nights. They rarely sleep for five hours straight, and that is bound to take a toll on any new parents that have been soundly sleeping. The good news is that there is a solution for this.

The Journal of Pediatric Healthcare advises new parents to become more educated on the natural sleep cycles of both new born babies and adults. Thre is a science to sleeping and understanding it will allow new parents to come up with some strategies they could take advantage of during those first difficult months. Knowing what is about to happen will also avoid setting unrealistic expectations about the sleeping patterns of your newborn as well as the amounts of sleep you will be able to get every night.

Anna Keppler is a nurse as well as an author who writes about parenting. She is also a consultant, and her goal is to help educate new parents. According to Ann Keppler, sleep is a matter that families need to work out as it is essentially a family issue. It is beyond obvious that new parents need to adjust to the erratic sleep patterns of a newborn baby which often continue when they grow up to be a toddler. By becoming more familiar with the sleep patterns of your child, you should be able to figure out a strategy so that you can get some extra sleep. It is very important for the both of the parents to get a sufficient amount of sleep each night and maybe sneak in a nap during the day as well. It all depends on the temperament of the baby.

Understanding the Sleeping Patterns of the Baby

Why do newborn babies have different sleep patterns instead of a universal clock? Infant biology is different than the one of a toddler or even of an older baby. Essentially, the first few months outside of the womb are the fourth trimester of the newborn. The child encounters all kinds of new sensations after its birth. While children are still in the womb, they do not experience what it is like to be cold, and they do not stay hungry. The womb takes care of all of that immediately. New born babies have to go through an adjustment period, and it is likely for that to have an effect on their biology, determining and affecting their sleep patterns.

Sleep Strategies

Parents have different sleep strategies. A few that might fit you include taking shifts. If one of the parents is a night owl and the other is a morning lark, try responding to your newborn according to those natural clocks. One other thing you might want to try out is co-sleeping. You will need a big bed for that as well as some protection. Some parents like to pull the nursing bed flush against theirs so that they can take care of their baby during the night. If you wish to try out co-sleeping, read up on how to do it safely.

New parents certainly do not have it easy. At the same time, remember, that there is always a way to make things work better for you so that you can get a sufficient amount of sleep every night. There are always things that you can try out such as co sleeping and accurate night time shifts that will fit in with your internal clock. Either way, you will still have to make compromises and sacrifice an hour or two until you figure out what works best for you and your baby.

Low-Fat vs Low-Carb – What’s to Debate?

Studies Show Cultural Differences In Dietary Advice Are Needed

The commonly held view that all fats are bad for the individual and should be removed from the diet of as many people as possible has been reported and followed across the world since the 1970s. However, new studies are beginning to look at the dietary needs of communities across the world and seeking new ways of exploring the dietary needs of people whose diets may be extremely different and diverse; respected medical journals, such as “The Lancet” are now looking at carbohydrates as an area of the everyday diet that could be damaging to the health of individuals as fats have always been seen as for around four decades.

The majority of the research completed into the damaging nature of fats on the people of the world was completed in the 1970s in North America and Europe where the common diet of the majority was seen as fatty. The food and diet industries were quick to latch on to the initial research linking fatty foods to many different medical conditions, such as heart disease and stroke; a range of new food products have been released from the 1970s onward focusing on the development of fat-free and low-fat products sold initially in parts of North America and Europe.

The damaging effects of a high-fat diet are well-known across the world, but in the new research, the major issues being faced by people looking to undertake a low-fat diet is an increased mortality rate at a lower age for those cutting the majority of fats out of the diet. One issue identified by many researchers and nutritional experts has been the development of concern about the high-carbohydrate diet many people now eat which has been linked to a higher mortality rate among humans and identified as a far higher problem for the future than was previously thought.

The comparison between switching to a low-fat diet from a higher fat lifestyle, and making a switch to a low-carb diet identifies a major difference in the longevity achieved by those eating diets low in fats and carbohydrates compared to those eating higher levels of these products. A study from McMaster University shows over the course of the seven years of the research those who ate a low-fat diet were 23 percent less likely to die than those who admitted to consuming a diet higher in fatty foods. Switching to a low carbohydrate diet appeared to have an even greater impact on the length of life of an individual which saw a more than 30 percent higher chance of surviving the study than seen by those consuming a high-carbohydrate diet.

Carbohydrates are commonly found in foods such as bread and rice consumed on a regular basis in many parts of the world outside North America and Europe; in southern Asia and parts of Africa the high level of carbohydrates in the diet has been shown to have reached around 67 percent, which is higher than the global average diet determined to have reached 61 percent carbohydrates, 23 percent fat, and 15 percent protein. In some areas of the world, the average level of carbohydrates has reached 67 percent and places the individual at risk of an earlier rate of mortality than seen in those consuming a lower carbohydrate diet.

The misunderstanding about the problem of fatty foods sees many individuals looking to live a healthier lifestyle replacing fats with higher levels of carbohydrates. A number of problems are seen with this change in the diet as carbohydrates consumed at higher levels result in greater stored glucose leading to medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.