How many of you have heard the following myths in regards to your child??

“Wait for tummy time!”
“Put alcohol on an umbilical cord to clean it.”
“Sleeping on your belly as a newborn is fine!”
“Give your baby formula or oatmeal to make them sleep longer.”
“Your baby needs a walker to help them learn how to walk.”
“Bouncing your baby on your legs will make them bowlegged.”
“It’s okay to give your baby/child aspirin for a fever.”
“Slapping is a good way to discipline a child.”
“Every boy should be circumcised.”
“Wait until one year to give allergenic foods”
“Toddlers NEED cows milk and juice and should have milk with every meal”

On this episode, I welcome my best friend, fellow Pediatrician and momma Dr. Marie Jones to bust these myths and why these are not true. This is an episode you may want grandma and/or grandpa to hear because I have a feeling you have heard many of these from them.

00;00;06;14 – 00;00;37;11

Dr. Mona

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the PedsDocTalk podcast. I’m your host, Doctor Mona, where each week I hope to educate and inspire you in your journey through parenthood with information on your most common concerns as a parent and interviews with fellow parents and experts in the field. My hope is you leave each week feeling more educated, confident, and empowered in decisions you make for your child.

 

00;00;37;13 – 00;00;57;03

Dr. Mona

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode where you are all in for a treat because I have my friend, my work BFF and fellow pediatrician, Doctor Marie Jones here today to talk about outdated advice. Welcome, Doctor Jones, for being here today.

 

00;00;57;09 – 00;01;02;16

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh my God, Mona, I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting for this for like a year and a half.

 

00;01;02;18 – 00;01;03;23

Dr. Mona

I am so excited to.

 

00;01;03;23 – 00;01;28;04

Dr. Mona

Have you on. I was talking to Marie on what episode she could come on because she again is one of my best friends and we’re colleagues, and we thought that this would be the best one, and we’re going to be talking about outdated advice that you probably got, maybe from your pediatrician, but also from family members. So it’s going to be a really good discussion on why the following things are not always true.

 

00;01;28;07 – 00;01;31;19

Dr. Mona

And I can’t wait to get started. So thank you again for being here.

 

00;01;31;22 – 00;02;02;03

Dr. Marie Jones

You’re so welcome. Can I just say, before we start, I have to say this. I am so incredibly proud of you. And as your friend, as your colleague, to see everything that you’ve been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time, it’s it’s really so inspiring, Mona. And when you told me about starting, you know, your Instagram page about a year and a half, a little bit more than a year and a half ago, I knew immediately that you were going to rocket just because that’s who you are and that you would be super successful and that you would change lives, right?

 

00;02;02;04 – 00;02;18;00

Dr. Marie Jones

We’ve talked about this, and you totally have. You put your heart and soul into this and it completely shows. So you know that I’m your fan. I’m like a huge fan and I’m so proud of you. And this is just the beginning for you. And I’m super excited to be part of this and to be here today. So.

 

00;02;18;00 – 00;02;20;10

Dr. Mona

Oh, Marie, you’re so great.

 

00;02;20;10 – 00;02;45;29

Dr. Mona

And it’s just so great having friends and again and fellow pediatrician and mom. By the way, I didn’t even mention that you’re a mom of two who really supports me in this journey. You know, I love the support from everyone, but when I get it from someone who’s in the field, who’s also a mom also, as well, it’s just so reassuring because it makes me affirm that, you know, all the things that I’m saying you also resonate with as well, being in the same boat as I am, you know, so I, I just love that.

 

00;02;45;29 – 00;02;53;24

Dr. Mona

And you’re so sweet for saying that. And you have been such a support from the beginning, and it means so much to me. But okay, now, I’m said before the episode.

 

00;02;53;24 – 00;02;57;13

Dr. Marie Jones

Really happy, happy, happy. So sweet.

 

00;02;57;15 – 00;03;23;04

Dr. Mona

Well, we’re going to get started because we have obviously a few things. And as a heads up, this is again, just education and there’s so many more things that we probably could have gone through, but we just kind of picked, some ten things that we thought were really useful for this episode. So the first one and this is again, things that you may have heard that are not always true, is you have to wait for tummy time and putting alcohol on an umbilical cord to clean it.

 

00;03;23;04 – 00;03;28;11

Dr. Mona

So basically newborn advice that you may have gotten. So what do you think about those two things Marie.

 

00;03;28;13 – 00;03;30;00

Dr. Marie Jones

So we’ll start.

 

00;03;30;00 – 00;03;50;14

Dr. Marie Jones

We’ll start one by one. So the waiting until tummy time. So many patients I see in the office, either as newborn visits or even patients that I haven’t seen ever until they come to the office at one month. Because they’ve been seeing, you know, other physicians. We talk about tummy time right. Because that’s one of the core things that we always go through as pediatricians.

 

00;03;50;17 – 00;04;10;02

Dr. Marie Jones

And often their response is, oh, I can start tummy time now. I didn’t know I could start so early. I thought I needed to wait until my baby was older. So it’s so important to talk about this because tummy time really should be started in the hospital or as soon as you get home. Really? Day one, right? If you can.

 

00;04;10;02 – 00;04;31;20

Dr. Marie Jones

Of course, there’s some limitations, right? And to be honest, out of all of the parents that tell me they didn’t know they could start tummy time, they’re all actually already doing it. Mona. So many parents don’t even realize that practicing tummy time in the newborn period can just be chest to chest, you know, or just skin to skin in the hospital or carrying a baby, you know, tummy down.

 

00;04;31;20 – 00;04;51;24

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah. You know, and allowing them to look around. So all of those things are already doing tummy time. So it doesn’t have to be quote unquote fancy. You know, it doesn’t have to be on the mat and all this stuff just yet. But you start with a few minutes a day and then you build up and then you gradually move to being on a mat or whatnot by, you know, one month, of course, always supervised.

 

00;04;51;24 – 00;05;24;07

Dr. Marie Jones

Right? Always, always, always supervised tummy time by two months. Most of the tummy time should be done on the floor at this point, right? Because we love floor time. And then by the time the three months of age, they really are doing about an hour total a day, right? We can do them in little spurts. But this is so important because especially since the safe to Sleep initiative, you know, used to be called, back to sleep, there is a lot more positional place yourself, which for those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s just a flattening in the back of the head because babies are more on their backs now, especially

 

00;05;24;07 – 00;05;50;20

Dr. Marie Jones

when they’re sleeping. Right? And we know babies sleep a lot in the beginning. So one way to prevent this is by doing more supervised tummy time when the baby is awake. So and it also, as you know, promotes visual motor sensory developments, helps increase the neck and back strength. And all of these things will help babies eventually roll over, sit up, crawl, and lots of developmental benefits in the long run for tummy time.

 

00;05;50;23 – 00;06;09;18

Dr. Mona

Oh yeah, I, I will say that there is some belief that oh, if your baby doesn’t do tummy time, it’s not the end of the world. And I will say that yes, some babies do not do great tummy time, but I think every parent should make a solid effort in making it a priority. So what I don’t want parents to hear is that tummy time is not important.

 

00;06;09;18 – 00;06;26;12

Dr. Mona

It is. I agree with you for those two few reasons, right? The the flattening of the head, but also the the development of the motor, the motor skills and the strength in the upper arms and the chest as well, and the neck. So I don’t want it to be this pressure situation where parents like, oh my gosh, I didn’t, you know, it into tummy time.

 

00;06;26;12 – 00;06;46;24

Dr. Mona

I’m a bad parent. Yeah. But I want it to be that, hey, this is something that’s part of our developmental activities. And when they’re newborns, there’s not much you’re doing with them when they’re awake. But this is one of those big things. And like you said, perfectly on your chest, you know, carrying them face forward on your arm, you know, obviously supported all these things are developing those muscles.

 

00;06;46;24 – 00;07;05;24

Dr. Mona

And then as you, as they get older, moving to the floor. But I’m happy that you also agree that tummy time is useful. It has a lot of benefits. And you know, if firsthand seeing the benefits of it with, you know, Ryan, I was like, yeah, I mean, this was something that really helped him to eventually crawl and eventually get the strength to pull to stand.

 

00;07;05;26 – 00;07;22;11

Dr. Mona

It’s all a progression of physical and motor skills. So definitely, I agree with you that you don’t have to wait until the umbilical cord falls off. You don’t have to wait for anything. You can start it supervised again as you said. Beautifully as as soon as you come home. But even in the hospital too.

 

00;07;22;13 – 00;07;39;23

Dr. Marie Jones

Right. Exactly. And exactly how you set it to is I don’t want parents stressing out because they forgot to do tummy time. You know, in a day. This is not something, you know, if you forget to do it because you’re absolutely exhausted or whatnot, it’s not the end of the world. And honestly, you probably already did it.

 

00;07;39;24 – 00;07;40;19

Dr. Mona

Yeah,.

 

00;07;40;19 – 00;07;55;15

Dr. Marie Jones

without Even knowing that you did it, you know? So but it’s just something that I try to talk to my parents about, just incorporating in their routine and being aware of what it is that they’re doing. Like you said, they don’t. You know, there’s not much to do with newborns. So this is actually one time that you can really bond with that.

 

00;07;55;15 – 00;08;00;02

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah. You know, and do that time with them. So it’s you know, it’s important.

 

00;08;00;05 – 00;08;04;17

Dr. Mona

Yeah, definitely. And then what about the alcohol question that we had.

 

00;08;04;20 – 00;08;21;11

Dr. Marie Jones

Right. So I still you know, I get that a lot in my parents that have a child that’s much older. So they did one thing, you know with the older child. And then now they’re having a newborn. They’re like, oh well with my first one, you know, I used alcohol with this one. Now everything’s changing. And yes, everything is changing.

 

00;08;21;11 – 00;08;49;17

Dr. Marie Jones

Right? So we know even with this pandemic everything is changing. So, alcohol used to be thought that the advice from pediatrician was you have to use alcohol around the belly, the belly button, the umbilical cord, because it would help prevent infections. Right. But they did studies about this. Like is this actually true? And what they found is they did, a study and they looked at kids that we did alcohol swabs okay.

 

00;08;49;17 – 00;09;10;26

Dr. Marie Jones

Twice a day and some that we just did dry care, which is what the recommendations are now. And they actually found that kids that we did absolutely nothing with, we just left it alone though the separation time was actually shorter in those kids. And the reason for that is because the in order for the umbilical cord to fall off, it needs bacteria.

 

00;09;10;29 – 00;09;31;22

Dr. Marie Jones

So when you’re using alcohol on it, constantly, you know, a few times a day you’re actually killing that bacteria that it needs to fall off. So it’s really not recommended anymore. It’s not needed. Okay. And it was also thought in the past that it would help prevent infections. And then that was found to also not be true. There was no more increase in infection in the kids that we did.

 

00;09;31;22 – 00;09;40;29

Dr. Marie Jones

Just dry umbilical care versus the ones that we used alcohol. We really don’t recommend that anymore. And in my opinion, it’s one less thing that parents have to think about.

 

00;09;40;29 – 00;09;41;23

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;09;41;26 – 00;09;46;09

Dr. Marie Jones

So to me that’s a win win. It’s like one last thing that in your mind that you have to worry about.

 

00;09;46;09 – 00;10;05;29

Dr. Mona

So and I still find that there are some pediatricians and even maybe some hospital staff that even in modern times, like right now, are still saying to clean it with alcohol. The other day I had a newborn come in and they said, oh yeah, the hospital told us to use alcohol. And I’m like, wait, what? What hospital? So there is still this outdated advice happening now.

 

00;10;06;05 – 00;10;19;17

Dr. Mona

So I think it’s important that yes, you don’t need to do anything for them. They’ll just keep it. Obviously, if it gets wet, if it gets wet, just pat dry it again. Not the end of the world, but you don’t need to do anything for it. And like you said, that’s amazing. One less thing to do. But yes, that’s great.

 

00;10;19;23 – 00;10;37;14

Dr. Mona

And I kind of transitioning to another topic in the newborn phase, not necessarily being said by pediatricians, I would hope, but more so elderly family members or old school family members is the next one which is sleeping on the belly is fine as a newborn.

 

00;10;38;12 – 00;11;02;23

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh. I know, I know, I know, you and I are. We’re almost the same person, right? So we feel the same about this. So this is a topic that we talk about constant as pediatricians. And, you know, I know you and I both have this conversation multiple times a day with parents because it’s so incredibly important, safe keeping practice is, you know, are so important, especially in the first, you know, six months of life.

 

00;11;02;23 – 00;11;39;18

Dr. Marie Jones

And the reason for that is because it’s dangerous, right? And it’s dangerous because of sudden infant death syndrome, which is still the leading cause of death in infants, okay, in the first year of life. So most commonly obviously happening between 2 to 4 months. Okay. And that whole back to sleep, you know, safe to sleep campaign really started from like the late 1980s to early 1990s where, you know, several countries in Europe and Australia and New Zealand sort of published studies that revealed a link between SIDs and infants sleeping on their stomach.

 

00;11;39;20 – 00;11;51;07

Dr. Marie Jones

And what research found was that babies that were placed on their stomachs, their risk of dying from SIDs, increased two fold, at least two fold. You know, so this. Is how the whole.

 

00;11;52;20 – 00;12;23;17

Dr. Marie Jones

Safe for sleep campaign, formerly known as, you know, Back to Sleep, has a lot of people know it started to really help bring awareness to certain practices that increase the infants risk of SIDs. You know, and obviously, through this research, we found out that they’re actually much safer on, their backs than they are on their stomachs, you know, and it actually used to be thought to and I’m sure you’ve heard this in the, in the office as well, that you can put them on their sides, you know, and I just say definitely no to even the sides part.

 

00;12;23;17 – 00;12;43;21

Dr. Marie Jones

And the reason for that is because research also showed that children on their sides are more likely to roll over, and that becomes dangerous, right? So especially if you have a baby that’s swaddled and that baby rolls over, there is no way that baby’s going to be able to roll him or herself back. So it becomes very, very, very dangerous, to place babies on their stomachs.

 

00;12;43;25 – 00;12;55;05

Dr. Marie Jones

So I always advise in the office to please, please, please have the babies sleep in their own create their own bassinet on their backs. It’s really the safest place, for them to be.

 

00;12;55;08 – 00;13;18;22

Dr. Mona

Yes, sleeping on belly as a newborn is not okay no matter what your parents tell you. Because a lot of this is generational too, that hey, you guys all slept on your belly. You guys slept with blankets in your crib and stuffed animals, and that is still happening. I mean, we still see, you know, even on social media that you’ll see people with stuffed animals and blanket and bumpers all in that crib.

 

00;13;18;25 – 00;13;35;24

Dr. Mona

Whether that child sleeping on their back or belly, the safe sleep is so important that it really should just be a bare space with the baby on their back. No. Nothing soft, nothing at all in that crib. With baby, no matter what is marketed to you. Because there’s a lot of things on the market now still.

 

00;13;35;25 – 00;13;44;09

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh, yeah. The bumpers still come with the whole set. Yeah, the bumpers still come with the whole set, even though they’ve now changed the, you know, the cribs.

 

00;13;44;12 – 00;13;45;03

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;13;45;05 – 00;13;51;14

Dr. Marie Jones

So they still come because it’s cute. I don’t I don’t blame parents for buying it. It’s super cute but it’s very unsafe.

 

00;13;51;15 – 00;14;10;19

Dr. Mona

And I mean if you go on, you know, Etsy like Etsy has all these things that are not regulated, right? Parent people are creating their own products. So parents are so confused because they’re like, well, I’m able to buy it. If I’m able to buy it, why is it not okay? And everyone has to remember that the regulation behind a lot of these products is just not up to date and it’s not there.

 

00;14;10;21 – 00;14;31;12

Dr. Mona

So you’re going to hear recalls and you’re going to hear, oh, well, now it’s not safe. Well, it probably wasn’t even safe to begin with. And so, you know, it’s really important that people understand that when your pediatrician saying, hey, put your child back to back to sleep, or, you know, on their back that nothing should be in there, it’s because that is what is researched now to be the most safe thing for your child.

 

00;14;31;12 – 00;14;53;16

Dr. Mona

And I agree, those things look adorable. I even saw them when I was searching just for, you know, random things. And I was like, oh no, no, no. Like you can’t put your child in this sort of, you know, these sort of bumpers. And going back to what you’re saying, tummy time and play Josepha Lee. They even sell these head pillows, you know, these chafing pillows, which, you know, a lot of you listening, these are not proven to be safe in any way.

 

00;14;53;21 – 00;15;07;25

Dr. Mona

So even if they’re marketed as, you know, breathable or whatever, I would really, you know, encourage you not to buy these things because we do not know if they’re breathable. We do not know the safety regulations behind these. They’re not considered safe. And I’m sure you agree to.

 

00;15;07;28 – 00;15;23;08

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh yeah, totally. And we definitely get patients in the office to have that. And you know thankfully they they will ask you know, and then of course I tell them about my concerns at that point in time. But yeah, I mean, the first time I heard about it, I said pillow.

 

00;15;23;09 – 00;15;27;01

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Yeah.

 

00;15;27;01 – 00;15;29;26

Dr. Marie Jones

What you know, and then. I had to do my own research. I was like, oh, my gosh, there’s actually this. this is completely unsafe.

 

00;15;29;26 – 00;15;32;04

Dr. Mona

Oh yeah,

 

00;15;32;11 – 00;15;46;27

Dr. Mona

The beauty about being a modern parent myself. And for you two. Right. You have two children who are like under ten. Yeah. Is the fact that I’m able to kind of know what’s out there, you know, I think about our colleagues who are a little bit older and have older children. They’re like, wait, what? What do you mean?

 

00;15;46;29 – 00;16;04;25

Dr. Mona

They probably are so confused. But since I am a mother with the one almost one year old that is able to kind of know what’s out there, what’s being told to new parents, you know, it really does help me, obviously, on this podcast and the Instagram and with our families in the office. Right. Because we know, like what’s out there and what’s being told to parents, in this modern age.

 

00;16;04;25 – 00;16;22;24

Dr. Mona

So yes, I agree, no pillows. But yes, in this in this first, you know, definitely when the baby is home, you’re, you’re always, always placing them on their back. And your pediatrician should give you handouts about safe sleep, even if they’re not talking to you verbally about it. There should be some handouts that are given to you.

 

00;16;22;27 – 00;16;38;01

Dr. Mona

You know, either on your patient portal or, hand it out at the end of the visit. So please take a look and read that. And remember, it comes from a place of research and science. The next one is another popular one that maybe even some pediatricians are seeing, but I know it comes from family members too.

 

00;16;38;01 – 00;16;46;23

Dr. Mona

Okay, so give your baby formula or add oatmeal to their bottles to help them sleep longer.

 

00;16;49;11 – 00;17;11;25

Dr. Marie Jones

So let’s start. With the oatmeal. And and I have to say Moana, I really I really do feel for parents, right? We’ve both been there. You know, when when I had Aiden, who’s now almost ten, like. Yikes. Right? He’s making me feel so old. Yeah. You know, my husband and I were both third year medical students, right? And I naively thought, I’ve been in medical school for three years.

 

00;17;11;25 – 00;17;28;11

Dr. Marie Jones

I’ve studied, like, how many? Feels like a thousand exams, right? I can pull an all nighter, like, on the drop of a hat any day. I’ve taken my boards. I study for 18 hours a day. How bad can this really be? You know, I could handle being tired. I can totally do this.

 

00;17;28;13 – 00;17;32;19

Dr. Marie Jones

Wow, that is all I have. Oh, yeah. Wow wow wow wow.

 

00;17;32;19 – 00;17;48;14

Dr. Marie Jones

I could not have been more wrong. I was exhausted, I mean, beyond exhausted. And, I mean, there are days I don’t even know if I showered, you know what I mean? Because I was so tired. So when I say I get it, I get it. Trust me, we get it right.

 

00;17;48;17 – 00;17;50;00

Dr. Marie Jones

If there was a quick fix.

 

00;17;50;00 – 00;17;52;18

Dr. Marie Jones

To making a baby sleep longer, I.

 

00;17;52;18 – 00;17;53;14

Dr. Marie Jones

Would have used that.

 

00;17;53;14 – 00;18;13;21

Dr. Marie Jones

You know, ten years ago for sure. But unfortunately there just isn’t. And putting oatmeal in a baby’s bottle is just not the answer. And we’ve studied this, right. So we practice evidence based medicine. So we don’t say these things just because it’s a feeling. We say it because we’ve read the literature behind it and studies have actually disproven that theory.

 

00;18;13;23 – 00;18;48;00

Dr. Marie Jones

And and actually shown that it can come with, you know, some risks. So a lot of times, you know, parents, you know, they think that it works. They think that they start doing the oatmeal. And then, you know, a week or two weeks later, the baby is now, you know, sleeping, you know, through the night. And, and I really think that by that time, the reason for that is because, well, one of the reasons is because by the time that the parents are really, like, desperate enough to try the whole cereal in the bottle trick, it might be just about the same time that the babies start to sleep a little bit longer, because the

 

00;18;48;00 – 00;19;15;07

Dr. Marie Jones

stuff takes time, right? So this, of course, makes parents think, I found it. You know, I added cereal and then two weeks later my baby’s sleeping great. And it just perpetuates this myth when really all they needed to do is just wait a little bit longer and, you have to also think about the potential dangers of adding cereal, you know, to them, for example, it can make them more gassy, right?

 

00;19;15;10 – 00;19;38;14

Dr. Marie Jones

It can cause them to have more stools in the middle of the night. So really this can actually backfire, okay. Cause more problems in terms of sleep. But it can also teach a baby that he has to be compared lately able to fall asleep. And yeah, in my opinion, and I’m sure you share this too. One of the most dangerous consequences of adding cereal to the bottle is that it can lead to overeating.

 

00;19;38;17 – 00;20;01;20

Dr. Marie Jones

Right? And we talk about this all the time. And I know you’re super passionate about this as much as I am, and how we teach our kids to have a healthy, positive relationship with food and create good habits. And to me, this is kind of doing the opposite of that. It really teaches them to over eat, right? Because babies are born with a mechanism they know how much to eat and when they’re full.

 

00;20;01;20 – 00;20;17;22

Dr. Marie Jones

And we say this to parents all the time. Watch for their cues, watch for their cues. You know, when they’re full, they’ll spit out, you know, the the nipple, you know, and adding cereal completely disrupts that mechanism, and it actually tricks them into eating a lot more calories than what they need. That is, have been showed on this, actually.

 

00;20;17;22 – 00;20;36;14

Dr. Marie Jones

Right. Because we’re doing a lot of study on childhood obesity and all of those things, and it’s looking at the causes of obesity in children. And they found that when you disrupt that infants ability to self-regulate their hunger, or how much they eat can it can actually later on lead to obesity in childhood. So I’m super passionate about this.

 

00;20;36;18 – 00;20;51;06

Dr. Marie Jones

And I’m not saying that there’s no time for adding oatmeal. Of course there are medical conditions, you know, talk to your pediatrician. But doing it for this reason, particularly just so that they will sleep longer, it’s just not the answer.

 

00;20;51;08 – 00;21;14;12

Dr. Mona

And you said it perfectly that there are some situations where your pediatrician will say, namely like things like reflux. Sometimes we do recommend it, but your pediatrician will guide you on how to mix it, how much to add per, you know, per ounce of breast pump, breast milk or formula. But yes, it is not meant for sleep assistance and it’s just a commonly is said.

 

00;21;14;12 – 00;21;32;18

Dr. Mona

And I you know, even on my social media it’s like, hey, I want to add this or another reason people are hearing to add oatmeal is to that to gain, to gain some weight, which yes, maybe there might be some some reasoning behind that, but it’s really something that should be discussed with your pediatrician. Exactly. And they will guide you.

 

00;21;32;18 – 00;21;49;20

Dr. Mona

You know, your patrician knows your baby’s weight and your growth history, but don’t just start adding these things. Not even just like she said for the, the overfeeding comment, which I completely agree with, like you said, but also just for the risk of a little baby getting something thicker, we don’t want it to be so thick that it becomes a choking hazard.

 

00;21;49;22 – 00;22;09;07

Dr. Mona

You know, they’re not meant to have thicker liquids until much later. So we don’t want you to just do it just because you read it. Or we’re told by a family member, always clear these things with your child’s doctor and I. I agree with that. And same thing with the formula. You know, if your baby’s breastfeeding, you do not need to and you do not need to introduce formula to help them sleep longer.

 

00;22;09;07 – 00;22;27;16

Dr. Mona

Now, if you want to introduce formula because you want to introduce formula because that’s your choice, awesome. But do not think that your baby is not a good sleeper because you are breastfeeding them. And Murray said perfectly that that timing of when you know, people give the oatmeal and then all of a sudden your sleep babies, they’re their sleep rhythm.

 

00;22;27;16 – 00;22;45;04

Dr. Mona

You know, the melatonin that they produce, their circadian rhythm doesn’t really start to come into play around six weeks to about three months. Babies are so different. So in the first six weeks of life, do not be alarmed if your child is not sleeping long stretches even in the first two months of life. Three months. But by three months you likely will start to see some stretch.

 

00;22;45;10 – 00;23;06;14

Dr. Mona

If you’re not, you speak to your pediatrician, but you should start to see stretches as the baby gets older. And if you’re not, you talk to your doctor. But it’s so important to remember that baby sleep is not founded on the weight of the food, the addition of oatmeal. It’s just their rhythm, and that’s something that we can’t mess with sometimes as much as we want to.

 

00;23;07;10 – 00;23;09;26

Dr. Marie Jones

I completely, completely agree.

 

00;23;09;29 – 00;23;24;06

Dr. Mona

Now, the next one is one that I am seeing from a lot of non pediatricians. So I don’t think I, I don’t think I’ve heard any pediatrician offer this advice, but more family members or, you know, people on social media. The next one is your baby needs a walker to help them learn how to walk.

 

00;23;24;08 – 00;23;44;09

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh yeah. Yeah. So, Moana, this is just simply I know you know this, but it’s just simply not true. And this myth really concerns me because they can actually be really dangerous, right? And don’t get me wrong, babies love them, right? Because at this age, babies love to sit up. They’re curious. They want to walk. You know, they want to go places.

 

00;23;44;09 – 00;24;08;07

Dr. Marie Jones

They want to be on the move. But the harsh truth is that they’re really dangerous. And, you know, again, I know I’m like a broken record here with the studies, but it’s true. They did studies and they looked at 24 years of e.R visits. Okay. And then there is more than 230,000 kids, less than 15 months that were treated in the E.R., okay, for injuries related to Walker.

 

00;24;08;07 – 00;24;14;01

Dr. Marie Jones

So that’s literally 10,000 kids a year okay. That are being injured and walkers.

 

00;24;14;03 – 00;24;17;07

Dr. Marie Jones

That that’s a lot of kids a lot of kids.

 

00;24;17;14 – 00;24;46;25

Dr. Marie Jones

And some of these injuries are obviously, you know kids falling down stairs which just terrifies me okay. As you can imagine this can be significant head injuries neck injuries. I’ve heard of children going out onto the patio and falling into the pool and near drowning or drowning episodes and walkers, okay, because they move and the parents put them, you know, they’re because they’re comfortable and but they can move around sometimes they can reach things that they’re really not supposed to reach, things that are sharp, things that are, you know, hot.

 

00;24;46;27 – 00;25;11;11

Dr. Marie Jones

So it becomes really, really, really dangerous to put kids and walkers. And did you know that in Canada? And I, I’m saying this because I’m Canadian, but in Canada, walkers are actually illegal. Yes they did. It’s not. Wow. I was like, oh my gosh, you can actually be fined up to $100,000 and face up to six months in jail for selling these in Canada.

 

00;25;11;16 – 00;25;13;10

Dr. Marie Jones

I was like, Go Canada!

 

00;25;13;12 – 00;25;29;18

Dr. Mona

Can I be honest? Canada? Canadian medicine. Like, I actually look at a lot of Canadian pediatric recommendations along with the AP, right? Because I find that even in so many, because I could do a whole episode with a Canadian, we should about the things that are happening there that are not happening in these in the States. But I agree with you.

 

00;25;29;18 – 00;25;46;02

Dr. Mona

They ban it and they don’t even sell it. But yet they’re available everywhere in the United States because hello, it’s money and it’s marketing and it’s a business. And that kind of going back to the sleep stuff. Right, right. That people are able to market these things and sell it, but that doesn’t mean you need them, nor are they safe.

 

00;25;46;07 – 00;26;07;08

Dr. Mona

So when you talk about walkers, are you there’s two types of walkers, in my opinion. There’s the ones that they sit in, which absolutely. I agree with you as a no no. I also don’t like the ones that children push. Do you ever, you know, like the ones that like, like I don’t want to name brands, but the ones that you push, like the child standing outside, do you, do you ever, allow any of those, like, the one that they push to or you’re also a no on both of them.

 

00;26;07;08 – 00;26;32;02

Dr. Marie Jones

So it depends on where they are developmentally. Yeah. Okay. So really when they buy the ones that they sit on okay. Those are definitely a no. And to go back to the whole they think that it makes kids parents think that or family may think that a child may walk sooner. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Because the reason for that is because walking isn’t so much about them learning how to use their legs.

 

00;26;32;06 – 00;26;50;09

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s more about them learning to like, pull to stand, putting weight on their legs, developing those muscles that they need to walk, learning to balance okay, and take those steps without support. So when you put your child in a walker, they’re not really learning any of that. You know, they need to learn all of this on the floor.

 

00;26;50;09 – 00;27;15;27

Dr. Marie Jones

And this is why we’re such big advocates for tummy time and floor time, because at different stages, you know, this is how they learn to develop and how they reach those milestones. So if it’s a kid that’s already, you know, taking individual steps on their own, you know, and it’s in a safe environment if they’re push, I never allow, you know, the pushing one without parental supervision because honestly, both of my kids had it.

 

00;27;15;27 – 00;27;37;18

Dr. Marie Jones

But I was there like the entire time, because what will happen is if they’re not ready to walk, that, you know, they can’t balance themselves and they will faceplant, you know, and I’ve had teeth injuries. I’ve had lacerations in the face, you know, from these things. So they can be very, very, very dangerous. I used to have like my foot on the front of the wheel so that they couldn’t really push it, like more than where my foot was.

 

00;27;37;18 – 00;27;55;17

Dr. Marie Jones

So I was always definitely right there. If it’s a child that’s already independently walking, I think those walkers are fine, you know, because they’re already walking on their own and they can just push and play and do their little things. But a child who’s learning to walk, I still stay clear of those two. I don’t know how you feel about it.

 

00;27;55;20 – 00;28;21;16

Dr. Mona

Yes, I completely agree. And it’s, yes, the one that they’re sitting in or sitting on top of that is absolutely no, no. The pushing ones. We don’t have because, we just chose not to, but I think they’re fine. Once that child is a confident walker, and I’m actually going to be having a playdate friends with Ryan about walking, because you said it perfectly that in order for a child to walk, they need to have the motor strength, which they’re not going to develop in a walker.

 

00;28;21;22 – 00;28;41;00

Dr. Mona

And they also need the confidence practice and balance practice, you know, the ability to feel how their body is moving. And you’ll see it when they’re learning to walk. Right. They’ll they’ll they’ll stand up and they’ll try to stabilize themselves. They’re not going to get that from a walker because the walker is helping them. Right. So they’re going to almost use the walker as a crutch.

 

00;28;41;07 – 00;29;00;04

Dr. Mona

And so I agree, though, that once a child has shown me ability to take steps on their own, walk on their own, this becomes more of a fun thing for them because they light up. I mean, they love pushing things around and so then it becomes a fun thing and not a developmental addition. It’s it’s a toy versus a okay, this is what’s going to teach you a skill.

 

00;29;00;11 – 00;29;25;25

Dr. Mona

So yeah. And you said the research perfectly that actually the using walkers delay the ability to walk. And so I see it all the time and I love I love you so much just the way you, you know, your passion for development and your passion for floor time, and your passion for just allowing children to do what they’re innately able to do, which think about, you know, I always say, like, think about if you were in the middle of nowhere with no technology, children are still developing.

 

00;29;25;25 – 00;29;42;00

Dr. Mona

Right? So all these things we don’t need any of these things, but children will learn to walk by just being on the phone. Right. Children will learn to live without any of their stuff. They’ll learn to eat the foods we eat, right. You don’t need to do special things for a kid. Just think about it from like, an evolutionary standpoint.

 

00;29;42;06 – 00;29;55;22

Dr. Mona

You know, like we add on all these extra things, you know, because we think like, oh, it needs to happen, but save your money. You know, if you want the walker, the one that we’re talking about, that you push, go ahead and get it. But if you’re like in do I want to save the money? Is it an eyesore in my house?

 

00;29;55;28 – 00;30;03;12

Dr. Mona

You don’t need to get this. It’s more of an additional thing when your child is showing the solid skills that they’re able to walk. I agree with that completely.

 

00;30;03;15 – 00;30;05;10

Dr. Marie Jones

Yes, yes, you said that perfectly.

 

00;30;05;10 – 00;30;21;29

Dr. Mona

The next one is one from I think Abuela’s and grandma is in our practice. We see this all the time. All the grandmas in my office are always telling their their children this about their grandkids, that bouncing your baby on your legs will make them bow legged.

 

00;30;22;01 – 00;30;22;28

Dr. Marie Jones

Please.

 

00;30;23;00 – 00;30;24;25

Dr. Marie Jones

Please bounce your baby on your legs.

 

00;30;24;25 – 00;30;25;19

Dr. Mona Yeah.

 

00;30;25;21 – 00;30;28;22

Dr. Marie Jones

That’s what I tell my parents. Please do it. It’s so much fun.

 

00;30;28;22 – 00;30;31;11

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s even fun for us. Yeah. You know you see them smile.

 

00;30;31;11 – 00;30;52;25

Dr. Marie Jones

Your body your laughing. You know they love it. And I promise this is now what will make them bow legged, you know, so bow leg is a condition in which a child’s leg curve outwards at the knees. Yeah. So when a child with bow leg stance with their toes, like, pointing forward, their ankles actually touch their knee and their knees remain apart.

 

00;30;52;26 – 00;31;22;15

Dr. Marie Jones

Okay. But the thing is that the thing that most parents don’t know is that bow legs is actually considered a normal part of growth in babies and in and toddlers, you know, and bow legs often develops in the first year, you know, of life as part of a natural growth for no known cause. Okay. Some babies I don’t know if you’ve ever been asked this in a newborn nursery before, but some babies are actually born with, you know, a little bit of bowing in their legs.

 

00;31;22;15 – 00;31;34;19

Dr. Marie Jones

And sometimes I have parents and the nursery be really concerned in the hospital about the newborns, you know, the little curve that they have. And what I explain is like he just he or she just got out of a really tight spot.

 

00;31;34;24 – 00;31;35;20

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;31;35;22 – 00;31;56;09

Dr. Marie Jones

So it’s normal for them to have a little bit of bowing. And it’s the same thing with, you know, the toddlers. Okay. And this is called like physiologic bowing of the legs. And it’s completely normal. And it’s not because you were having a blast allowing your baby to stand or bouncing them, you know, up and down on your leg, despite what everybody tells you, it’s completely safe to do this.

 

00;31;56;11 – 00;32;01;00

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. And is there a time when you are concerned of bowing?

 

00;32;01;02 – 00;32;21;01

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah, for sure. So usually the first two, two and a half years, I don’t worry about it. And also it depends on, you know, because we know with time, by the time kids, you know, reach three they’re like should start to straighten. Okay. So there definitely are conditions that we worry about especially if there’s an asymmetry like one looks much more fold.

 

00;32;21;07 – 00;32;41;04

Dr. Marie Jones

The kids are tripping. They’re falling. You know these kind of things. Obviously we worry about them, you know. But what we’re talking about is more, you know, the kids that are, you know, the six month old, seven month old, eight month old that they like to bounce on, you know, on everything because they like to stand. I’ve actually had, you know, during our exam we move, you know, babies around.

 

00;32;41;04 – 00;32;56;18

Dr. Marie Jones

Right. So I had one that I was checking, you know, tone and I, and I stood him up and, and grandma actually asked me to not do that because it would cause, you know, bowing of the legs. So I actually had this in the office, which was great, a great opportunity for me to educate the entire family. Right?

 

00;32;56;18 – 00;33;24;09

Dr. Marie Jones

Because I have grandma, grandmother, I have mom there, I have dad there. You know, I have the whole family that this is obviously pre-COVID when other parents were allowed to be in the room. But, you know, it’s really, really, really important. It’s not going to cause any kind of issues. And like I said, you know, yes, if this is a true bowing of the legs, then you need to if you’re concerned about any bowing, always talk to your pediatrician because we will be able to exam the baby will let you know what we think and we know when it becomes a red flag.

 

00;33;24;13 – 00;33;30;22

Dr. Marie Jones

Right? And we know when to refer. But doing this for little babies is not going to cause any damage.

 

00;33;30;24 – 00;33;49;21

Dr. Mona

I agree completely, and I agree with the when to refer when we are concerned, which is the the asymmetry which I have actually picked up a few this past, you know, since we’ve been working at this practice together. But I picked up a few and I was like, oh wow. And yes, it meaning one one leg is literally a C, while the other one is just like not as both.

 

00;33;49;22 – 00;34;07;03

Dr. Mona

So asymmetries when they’re starting to walk, obvious tripping. And I’m not talking like that, tripping that they do because they’re learning how to walk. It’s the tripping that you’re like, wait, the leg is looking is asymmetrical. And we’re also having tripping, which is rare. But yes, you are not really rare. You’re not going to cause your child to be bold if they become bold.

 

00;34;07;03 – 00;34;26;08

Dr. Mona

Like you said, it’s because of just a natural, development process, but you do not cause that. So no matter what your mother says or, grandma of the child, do not worry about that. You can bounce with your baby’s perfectly fine with them. And for the development of that, of those, like so. I agree with that. That’s a good one.

 

00;34;26;08 – 00;34;41;00

Dr. Mona

And I’m happy we talked about that, because I hear that all the time. The next one is again outdated from, I would say, not a pediatrician. No pediatrician should be saying this anymore, but more so, family members. It’s okay to give your baby or a small child aspirin for a fever.

 

00;34;41;02 – 00;35;03;25

Dr. Marie Jones

Right? And this is actually really ironic that that we’re talking about this because I hadn’t heard about this in a while of of parents giving this and, and most recently, I’d say probably in the last six months, I’ve had about 3 to 4 patients receive aspirin. So it’s definitely not something that’s, you know, not happening. Okay. So it is happening a lot more, I guess, than I thought it would.

 

00;35;03;27 – 00;35;25;24

Dr. Marie Jones

It was happening, but thankfully it’s not something that we hear super often, but it’s definitely something we need to talk about because it can be life threatening. Yeah. So the reason we avoid giving aspirin or any salicylates containing products, which includes actually Pepto-Bismol, which they still sell on the market for kids, right. Is due to the risk of them developing a condition called race syndrome.

 

00;35;25;28 – 00;35;49;20

Dr. Marie Jones

So what race syndrome is it’s a very rare, acute, potentially life threatening condition. Okay. That can really affect all the organs, but mainly the liver and the brain. And it can cause of varying symptoms from vomiting, lethargy and that can very rapidly progress to delirium, seizures and coma even within hours. Okay. So this is super, super, super scary.

 

00;35;49;20 – 00;35;55;07

Dr. Marie Jones

And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a child with race syndrome. I actually fortunately had not. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any.

 

00;35;55;07 – 00;35;56;11

Dr. Mona

Kids have done.

 

00;35;56;13 – 00;36;21;17

Dr. Marie Jones

It with you, so thankfully we haven’t. But it it happens. Okay. And it’s it’s more common in kids that are recovering from a viral illness. So especially the flu, which we do see very frequently. Okay. And versus which thankfully we don’t see as much now because of vaccinations. Okay. But it can also be with kids that have had just a common cold and parents give aspirin for, you know, malaise or fever or whatnot.

 

00;36;21;19 – 00;36;32;02

Dr. Marie Jones

And when you look at the CDC, numbers, it says that there are still anywhere from 500 to 1200 cases of race syndrome in the US every year. Can you believe.

 

00;36;32;03 – 00;36;35;07

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah, that’s a lot. A lot of kids. And it’s not.

 

00;36;35;08 – 00;36;53;08

Dr. Marie Jones

Super alarming for something that, you know, we we really need to just advise our children when we’re talking about it. You know, we could say they can use ibuprofen or cinnamon often, you know, but don’t use aspirin. You know, I I’m I’m going to start really saying that more often. Yeah. Okay. Because I don’t think that I include that part enough.

 

00;36;53;08 – 00;36;58;04

Dr. Marie Jones

And I think maybe parents just obviously they don’t know. Right? I mean, it’s called a baby aspirin.

 

00;36;58;07 – 00;36;58;26

Dr. Mona

Yes.

 

00;36;58;28 – 00;37;21;03

Dr. Marie Jones

So it’s counterintuitive that you can’t give it to a baby or a child, you know, so it’s definite. Of course, if you give your child aspirin okay. It’s still very, very, very rare to have race syndrome. So, you know, you don’t need to worry too much. I would call, you know, call your pediatrician. They can advise you about all the signs and what to look at, what to look for.

 

00;37;21;04 – 00;37;29;29

Dr. Marie Jones

Okay. In terms of this okay. But really ibuprofen or cinnamon often is is really much safer and it’s just not worth the risk to give aspirin to a child for fever.

 

00;37;30;01 – 00;37;44;07

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And you said it perfectly. It’s a risk. It doesn’t mean an automatic. You gave aspirin. You are going to have race syndrome. But it has a it has a lot to do with the virus that a child may be fighting, which we don’t know always if is it flu or what other virus. But it’s a virus that they’re fighting.

 

00;37;44;13 – 00;38;02;09

Dr. Mona

Plus the addition of that aspirin can cause a sort of metabolic process that leads to this syndrome, and it’s just not worth it when there’s other options available so that if you have Tylenol and you have Motrin and again, Motrin is over six months, Tylenol is over two months. But you can always talk to your pediatrician on the dosing and make sure you do that.

 

00;38;02;16 – 00;38;20;22

Dr. Mona

But it is so nice that we have other options that why are we giving aspirin if it’s a risk there of the syndrome? And so I actually never really recommend aspirin. I don’t know if you have an age that you say that it’s okay, but in the pediatric world I don’t even bring it up. I just say no, do turn on Motrin.

 

00;38;20;27 – 00;38;27;14

Dr. Mona

There’s no age that I say to do it just because of race, but also because we have other options. Is there an age that you say it’s okay or no.

 

00;38;27;17 – 00;38;40;15

Dr. Marie Jones

No, I never recommend either. And I’m totally with you. I mean, race syndrome can happen all the way up to 16. So to me that’s like our whole population. But even my young adults that are 19, 20, I never say aspirin. I always say ibuprofen or Tylenol.

 

00;38;40;18 – 00;39;06;05

Dr. Mona

And, you know, sometimes aspirin is recommended for certain medical situations like Kawasaki. I mean, I don’t know if anyone listening has ever had a child with Kawasaki disease, but sometimes a cardiologist will prescribe aspirin. But of course they’re out there looking at benefit versus risk. So if you’re being prescribed it by a cardiologist or for some particular condition by your doctor, you know, especially something like Kawasaki, don’t say, well, no, someone told me not to take aspirin.

 

00;39;06;06 – 00;39;11;29

Dr. Mona

There are very rare situations that you may be prescribed it, but then that benefits outweigh the risks.

 

00;39;12;01 – 00;39;29;27

Dr. Marie Jones

Absolutely. And definitely if it’s being prescribed by a physician, you know, obviously listen to your physician because they’re looking at that, you know, what we’re referring to is more, you know, you have aspirin, you know, because, you know, somebody in the house is taking aspirin. You just give it to your child. You know, prescribed.

 

00;39;30;00 – 00;39;50;00

Dr. Mona

Yeah, that’s a really important medical one, because, again, these are all things that we don’t want any harm. And again, it’s not that you’re going to get raise race syndrome, but it’s that we don’t want any increased risk. And that’s why, you know, us pediatricians do this all day with the sleeping, right? All this stuff is that, yes, we hear stories of babies sleeping on their belly and turning out fine, but there is risk of doing all these things.

 

00;39;50;04 – 00;39;52;09

Dr. Marie Jones

We probably slept on our bellies and we were fine.

 

00;39;52;09 – 00;40;12;24

Dr. Mona

We were 80. Yeah, but it’s with the risk. And as a pitcher, when you start to tackle all this, we don’t want you to do anything that may increase the risk of harm. And so that’s why we are kind of fun killers sometimes, you know. And I know we have to do, the next one is also kind of a generational thing that, oh, hey, slapping is a good way to make your child behave.

 

00;40;12;26 – 00;40;14;27

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh, I so.

 

00;40;14;29 – 00;40;17;00

Dr. Mona

Yes, that is a big. Oh, I agree with you.

 

00;40;17;03 – 00;40;18;16

Dr. Marie Jones

This is a very big.

 

00;40;18;19 – 00;40;19;00

Dr. Mona

Really.

 

00;40;19;00 – 00;40;44;04

Dr. Marie Jones

Really tough topic for me, Mona. Honestly, I mean, this is as tough for me as to talk about, you know, vaccination or why vaccines are so important. So because culturally, you know, spanking, slapping, corporal punishment is a method of discipline that’s widely accepted in many parts of the world. You know? And on our clinic, we see such a diverse group of patients that this becomes a topic that we talk about pretty often.

 

00;40;44;07 – 00;41;09;20

Dr. Marie Jones

And, you know, a lot of parents, you know, we settle on a form of discipline method just because that’s how we were raised. Like, this is all that we know, right? But disciplining children is one of the most important and at the same time, challenging responsibilities that we have as parents and really at every stage, it’s hard. Okay, so the toddler years, you’re going to hit that pretty soon.

 

00;41;09;23 – 00;41;14;14

Dr. Marie Jones

Right? That’s not a walk in the park. Yeah, okay. The school age years is also.

 

00;41;14;14 – 00;41;22;20

Dr. Marie Jones

Really difficult is when they start to talk back and then the dreaded, you know, teenage years, which personally I’m really terrified about.

 

00;41;22;22 – 00;41;26;08

Dr. Marie Jones

Don’t tell my kids, okay. But it’s really hard.

 

00;41;26;08 – 00;41;48;18

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s really, really, really hard. And unfortunately there’s just no shortcuts to it, you know, and it’s going to take a lot of patience. But we know now, okay. We know a lot about the effects of different methods of disciplining. And we also know that hitting or spanking or, you know, using things to hit your children, it promotes fear, Mona.

 

00;41;48;18 – 00;42;08;27

Dr. Marie Jones

It doesn’t promote respect, you know. So is it effective maybe in that particular moment, if you’re threatening, you know, you’re startling them. It will stop them from doing whatever it is that you don’t want them to do. But long term, there’s not a chance that this is really going to be effective. And again, there’s documented evidence that support this.

 

00;42;08;27 – 00;42;23;03

Dr. Marie Jones

We know that spanking, you know, is shown to create anger and resentment and fear and aggression in and children. And I show my parents all the time remember they’re sponges right. They they mimic everything that they see at home.

 

00;42;23;06 – 00;42;25;01

Dr. Marie Jones

So if they get hit.

 

00;42;25;03 – 00;42;47;25

Dr. Marie Jones

Every single time that they do something wrong, what does that teaching them? You know, it’s just teaching them that hitting is okay when someone is doing something wrong and then they in turn start behaving this way with you, okay, with their siblings, with their families, with other children, with their pets. I mean, it’s just, you know, a downward spiral.

 

00;42;47;28 – 00;42;49;14

Dr. Mona

Oh.

 

00;42;49;16 – 00;43;07;14

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. I mean, there’s so much about it. I mean, just thinking from a common sense perspective, like, just think about it. If what we how we would feel like when we’re upset, right? Like me and you having a conversation as adults, think about how ludicrous it sounds. If me and you are having, you know, discussion and I’m really angry and you start slapping me.

 

00;43;07;17 – 00;43;09;20

Dr. Mona

Yeah, think about it like how stupid that.Sounds,

 

00;43;09;20 – 00;43;11;03

Dr. Marie Jones

 that that would.

 

00;43;11;04 – 00;43;11;26

Dr. Marie Jones

End our friendship.

 

00;43;11;27 – 00;43;31;05

Dr. Mona

Yes, but think about it like how, you know, whenever I talk about parenting advice, I always say, think about how you would feel as an adult if you did the things to your child that if you were in that same situation. Right. How ludicrous that sounds. That if your child’s upset or does something wrong and you got and they got slapped in the face or slapped on the bush or whatever, it doesn’t do anything for that child.

 

00;43;31;05 – 00;43;47;09

Dr. Mona

So you said that already. It leads to them being more aggressive, which I completely agree. It can also lead them to hit other people because that’s the way they have been taught. But it also leads them to be afraid of their caregiver. And that serves no purpose, because two things are going to happen when that child does do something bad.

 

00;43;47;09 – 00;44;07;14

Dr. Mona

And remember, they’re human beings. They’re going to do bad things. And it’s not always an intentional, intentional thing. They’re learning. They’re learning about the world. They’re learning what’s right and wrong. And if every time they do something wrong, if they’re hit or they’re afraid to come to you, they’re going to grow up being afraid of you. They’re going to grow up thinking, well, I don’t have a safe space in this home to talk about my feelings.

 

00;44;07;14 – 00;44;22;25

Dr. Mona

And what we’re trying to teach children is that it’s okay to be upset. It’s okay to not love everything, but you do not hit, you do not do certain things. And there’s different ways of doing it. Talking. Oh my gosh, have we ever thought about talking to a child about this stuff? And you know, hugging them when they’re upset?

 

00;44;23;01 – 00;44;41;20

Dr. Mona

I know it’s stuff that we sometimes forget, but I always say, think about how you would feel if you and your partner got into an argument and they started hitting, or you started hitting and or getting upset and how you would feel if you just basically, you know, it doesn’t do anything. We wouldn’t do it as adults. So why do we do it to our children?

 

00;44;41;23 – 00;45;02;28

Dr. Mona

It’s not a form, it’s not okay with me to say, oh, well, you know, this is a very common parenting strategy and I see it way too much for us to not talk about this on this episode even now, like in The Office. It it brings up this anxiety piece because, you know, I’m just like, sitting there and I’m like, the parents are yelling at the child and the parents are putting their hand up and saying, you know, I will when we leave here, you’re going to get it.

 

00;45;02;28 – 00;45;25;02

Dr. Mona

And I’m like, oh, my. Like, I’m like, you know, and I have I have to step in and say something, you know? And sometimes it’s pulling the mom aside or saying, you know what? I am just saying it because I want you to understand where I’m coming from. And most of them are so receptive to it. Some parents are like, well, I know, I know how to parent my kid, but it’s important for us to talk about this on this episode because of the research and just the commonsense way we look at this.

 

00;45;25;09 – 00;45;31;05

Dr. Mona

No one wants to be hit. No one wants to be in fear, and fear is no way of disciplining a kid. I agree with that.

 

00;45;31;07 – 00;45;49;01

Dr. Marie Jones

You know, and I say this all the time to my parents that the foundation of effective discipline is respect. Yeah, okay. And I bring this up over and over again. And my dad used to tell me this all the time growing up regarding respect, he would say, you have nothing without respect. He would say, you know, love passes through respect.

 

00;45;49;03 – 00;46;05;27

Dr. Marie Jones

And it’s just been something that’s been ingrained in me for as long as I can remember. And even now, as a parent, I see what he meant because it goes both ways. If I respect you, I will not put my hands on you. Yes, right. So it’s the same thing. We have a friendship. I would never put my hands on you.

 

00;46;05;27 – 00;46;21;22

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah. You know. So. So why do it to children? And positive discipline is really teaching your kids and guiding them, not forcing them to obey out of fear. Kids have to be taught that there are consequences to poor decisions. And that’s okay, Mona.

 

00;46;21;27 – 00;46;23;20

Sounds,

It’s hard, but that’s life.

 

00;46;23;25 – 00;46;26;09

Dr. Marie Jones

I mean, this is how they learn right from wrong.

 

00;46;26;14 – 00;46;28;11

Dr. Marie Jones

but our job as.

 

00;46;28;11 – 00;46;49;12

Dr. Marie Jones

Their parents is to teach them that and make sure that they understand that. But when you resort to violence and when you hit them, you’re teaching them to react. You’re not teaching them to think. But yes, disciplining is hard and it’s exhausting, and it often will tug on your heartstrings. But you have to stay consistent no matter how hard it is, you know?

 

00;46;49;12 – 00;46;52;13

Dr. Marie Jones

And like I said, there’s really no shortcuts to this.

 

00;46;52;15 – 00;47;08;15

Dr. Mona

There isn’t. I mean, that’s why we are parents, right? If it was so easy, then, you know, just it just wouldn’t be this way. I mean, you, you grow. You grow from the most hardest experiences in the hardest moments, right? So you learn what works. You learn what works for your child. But what will never work is the hitting.

 

00;47;08;15 – 00;47;24;20

Dr. Mona

What never will work will be the slapping. I mean, you can try every other method in the book with parenting and I’m okay with it. But do not put your hand on your child. I really encourage you to also remember, you know, I’m trying it so hard to. It’s not always going to happen about our voice, our raising, our voices, which is the hardest thing.

 

00;47;24;20 – 00;47;43;10

Dr. Mona

Seriously, working on that already, right? Because I, I’m anticipating the toddler years. But it’s if anything, it’s the physical act. Like if you can avoid that, that is the most important thing. And of course, you may make a mistake, especially if you are raised in a family that there was slapping and hitting. Remember that it is okay to make a mistake.

 

00;47;43;12 – 00;48;00;19

Dr. Mona

It’s. And then you can apologize to your child. Like, you know, I’m big on that. You know, like you were saying that respect is two ways. If you do lose your cool on your child, whether it’s yelling, whether it’s slapping, it’s okay to tell them when you’re in a calm state, you know, earlier, you know, Ryan, I, I was upset and I yelled or, you know, I shouldn’t have done that.

 

00;48;00;24 – 00;48;16;28

Dr. Mona

That can happen. And you can apologize to your child, as you know, for the things that you do that’s not showing signs of weakness, of showing signs that you’re human and that you’ll do better, you know, and I think parents, parents forget that they can be vulnerable with their children while still keeping a boundary. Yeah.

 

00;48;17;00 – 00;48;32;15

Dr. Marie Jones

Oh, completely. And I have definitely had to apologize to Aiden in the past for yelling or, you know, losing my cool and I think that’s what makes us human. You know, at the end of the day, we have to remember we’re we’re parents. I mean, you and I were pediatricians, but we’re also parents.

 

00;48;32;18 – 00;48;37;15

Dr. Marie Jones

You know, we lose it, too. You know, it’s it’s.

 

00;48;37;15 – 00;48;40;24

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s it’s normal part of just being a human being.

 

00;48;40;27 – 00;48;41;22

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;48;41;25 – 00;48;56;23

Dr. Mona

Oh, this is a good one. We have a few more. So I want to get a few more because these were a have all been so good. But the next one. Oh this one’s a good one because I’m sure everyone’s all over the place on what to do, what to do with their child. Every boy needs to be circumcised.

 

00;48;56;25 – 00;48;57;05

Dr. Marie Jones

Okay.

 

00;48;57;07 – 00;48;58;13

Dr. Mona

One’s a tough one. Yeah it.

 

00;48;58;13 – 00;49;01;02

Dr. Marie Jones

Is. And I really think it’s still controversial.

 

00;49;01;03 – 00;49;02;06

Dr. Mona

Yes it is controversial.

 

00;49;02;07 – 00;49;14;23

Dr. Marie Jones

Because I mean circumcision is still definitely the most common procedure done on newborn males here in the United States. There’s, there’s many countries that actually don’t recommend circumcision for otherwise healthy males i.e. Canada.

 

00;49;14;26 – 00;49;17;09

Dr. Mona

Yes. I’m not. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

 

00;49;17;12 – 00;49;30;15

Dr. Marie Jones

So Canada in England actually their rates of circumcision is they’re pretty low too. I think they’re like 15% versus ours. I was like 60, 75%. So you know I I’m, I go with Canada on this one.

 

00;49;30;18 – 00;49;31;01

Dr. Marie Jones

You know.

 

00;49;31;04 – 00;50;01;14

Dr. Marie Jones

Healthy males. It’s it’s going to be a personal decision. Are there studies that show that there are some benefits to circumcisions. Yes. It can, you know, lower the rate of UTIs, in the first year of life. But really, when you look at the numbers, UTIs are already so rare. Okay. And boys, that when you look at the numbers, it means that they would have to circumcise 50 to 100 boys in order to prevent one UTI in one boy who may have not otherwise developed an infection.

 

00;50;01;16 – 00;50;20;00

Dr. Marie Jones

So to me, I still I, I will help them, I will guide them. But it’s really up to the parents and their cultural and religious beliefs and what they want to do in regards to that. And of course, this is when we’re talking about, you know, healthy males, okay, not males that have potentially other issues going on.

 

00;50;20;03 – 00;50;39;20

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. I obviously love you for that reason, is that it is 100% of parents choice, and there is still some stigma for people who go either way. You know, a parent does circumcise their boy or not. I mean, social media is where it’s at, where people are like, well, how could you you violated it’s it’s kind of exhausting that people are so worried about the what a parent is doing with their child’s penis.

 

00;50;39;24 – 00;50;46;08

Dr. Mona

I’m like, don’t you have other things that need that you need to focus on in your life, that you’re so worried about what a parent is doing with their son’s penis? I’m like.

 

00;50;46;13 – 00;50;47;14

Dr. Mona

So confused.

 

00;50;47;20 – 00;50;48;10

Dr. Mona

I’m so there’s.

 

00;50;48;10 – 00;50;55;03

Dr. Mona

A lot there’s a lot of like, obsession about those things. I to say that even in clinic, you know, I’m like anyways.

 

00;50;55;03 – 00;51;14;24

Dr. Mona

But you’re right that it is a choice. But a parent needs to remember that it is a personal, cultural, religious choice and it’s not a medical need. So when you when you take that out of the equation that it has to happen because my child will end up having some major complications if I don’t know it is we see like I in my practice, I think it’s a 5050 split.

 

00;51;15;01 – 00;51;31;27

Dr. Mona

I see 50% that are 50% that are not. And a lot of that, all of them have great outcomes. Now, if you are uncircumcised, you have to teach your child as they grow up about proper hygiene, you know, eventually as they get older, you know, if they if the foreskin is able to retract, you have to teach them how to clean properly.

 

00;51;32;02 – 00;51;51;06

Dr. Mona

But in the newborn period, you’re not pushing anything back. You’re not, you know, having to retract out of, discomfort or anything like that. You’re literally just cleaning the tip and hygiene with proper hygiene, that risk of UTIs, the other risks that there was reported of, you know, in the future, STDs, things like that, cancers, these things are so rare.

 

00;51;51;06 – 00;51;54;16

Dr. Mona

And if with proper hygiene and protection. Hello.

 

00;51;54;17 – 00;51;58;27

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah. Hello. That’s the most important thing I tell parents, because, I mean, at that.

 

00;51;58;27 – 00;52;01;10

Dr. Marie Jones

Point, you just need to practice safe sex.

 

00;52;01;13 – 00;52;03;14

Dr. Mona

Yes, because even if you’re uncircumcised.

 

00;52;03;19 – 00;52;04;13

Dr. Marie Jones

Which I would be telling.

 

00;52;04;13 – 00;52;04;18

Dr. Marie Jones

You.

 

00;52;04;18 – 00;52;05;28

Dr. Mona

Anyways. Exactly.

 

00;52;05;28 – 00;52;29;06

Dr. Mona

So the whole debate on mold. Yeah, they’re going to like. No, but you need to be focusing on protection because even if your child circumcised, you know, there is still a risk obviously, of STDs. So there are some small percentage of medical conditions. You know, there are some situations where the foreskin becomes very tight. That then if that’s happening, then we do recommend maybe doing a circumcision, but it’s very rare that these things happen.

 

00;52;29;08 – 00;52;47;05

Dr. Mona

And there’s no way to predict it. So yes, I agree with you. Parental choice. You don’t have to. Oh, you don’t know anyone. An explanation on what you did with your child’s penis. Just decide for yourself. Maybe talk to your pediatrician if you need some guidance. But the reality is, sometimes you have to make that decision before you meet your pediatrician, you know, in the hospital.

 

00;52;47;05 – 00;52;57;14

Dr. Mona

So decide with you and your partner and that’s it. That’s all you need to decide. You know, and no one you don’t owe anyone else an explanation. And your pediatrician should not judge you either way. Hopefully.

 

00;52;57;14 – 00;52;59;19

Dr. Marie Jones

Absolutely. Yeah, definitely not.

 

00;52;59;21 – 00;53;11;09

Dr. Mona

So the next one has to do with food. Okay. And this is actually happening a lot with pediatricians still. And I’m shocked that some pediatricians are still recommending this. Okay. Wait until one year to give allergenic foods such as peanuts.

 

00;53;11;29 – 00;53;19;10

Dr. Marie Jones

Definitely not true. So we think it’s not true. And, you know, you and I were actually lucky. I think this changed in 2015 or 2013.

 

00;53;19;14 – 00;53;21;14

Dr. Mona

When we were still working with residents.

 

00;53;21;14 – 00;53;40;18

Dr. Marie Jones

So we got this whole thing change, right? Because back before then they were actually delaying obviously cows milk until one, which is still the same, right? But eggs until two and then peanuts, tree nuts, fish, all this stuff until three. Right. So back in, back in the days, back in early 2000. And then that started to change. Right?

 

00;53;40;18 – 00;53;57;17

Dr. Marie Jones

So it’s definitely not true. You can introduce the allergenic foods as early as, you know, 4 to 6 months depending. Obviously talk to your pediatrician about those things. But you do not need to wait until one year to start to introduce those things.

 

00;53;57;19 – 00;54;15;08

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. And, I, I was job searching when I left residency and as you know, like you said, we both trained at a time when we knew that this wasn’t real and that you can introduce earlier and earlier is better. And when I was job searching, I was looking at their website and on the website, you know, on the educational platform, on a website for a podcast.

 

00;54;15;11 – 00;54;23;11

Dr. Mona

It said like introduction of food. I was looking at their advice, wait till one year to introduce peanuts. And I was like, oh my gosh, I cannot work here.

 

00;54;23;11 – 00;54;24;17

Dr. Marie Jones

Because if that’s the case, maybe.

 

00;54;24;17 – 00;54;37;29

Dr. Mona

I should work there so I can change their their have changed it and I ended up not going to that practice to work, but it was so it boggles my mind that there are some pediatricians out there that are not up to date on the recommendation. But if you’re a pediatrician saying to wait, you need to ask why?

 

00;54;38;00 – 00;54;55;01

Dr. Mona

Because again, if your child has some sort of medical condition that warrants a delay, like just say, severe severe eczema or something going on that warrants a delay. But even if they’re telling you to delay, I want you to ask your pediatrician why are you asking me to delay? Because I don’t want it to be that. I want them to know what the reasoning is.

 

00;54;55;01 – 00;55;16;01

Dr. Mona

Because for even for family history of food allergies, there’s very rare situations that we’re recommending to delay the introduction of allergenic foods. So you really need to, you know, encourage that. In terms of the peanuts, you know, and also egg too, right? You when do you say eggs? So when do you allow eggs and peanuts to be.

 

00;55;16;03 – 00;55;16;21

Dr. Marie Jones

Whenever we.

 

00;55;16;21 – 00;55;17;11

Dr. Marie Jones

Start. Yes.

 

00;55;17;11 – 00;55;35;26

Dr. Mona

Perfect. And I say something like, some parents are waiting for eggs until nine months. I’m like, what is this magical rule that it has to happen at nine months? Once you start feeding your baby solids 100%, they can start with eggs, peanuts, tree nuts. Any food is okay except for honey up until the age of one, and raw and raw fish.

 

00;55;35;26 – 00;55;37;21

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah, thousand times a day.

 

00;55;37;25 – 00;55;38;15

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;55;38;18 – 00;56;02;17

Dr. Marie Jones

You know what I mean? And and, you know, I think sometimes with the egg is that they don’t know how to introduce it. You know, they’re like, oh, eggs in their mind. They’re thinking, you know, scrambled eggs. But I mean, you can boil them, you can puree the eggs, you can make it into a little paste. You can introduce, you can put a little bit of egg in the food and like, vegetable that you’ve already introduced.

 

00;56;02;19 – 00;56;20;10

Dr. Marie Jones

You know, there’s a lot of ways that you can introduce these things. You definitely don’t have to wait until nine months, ten months, one years old or or whatever the case is. You can introduce all those things, you know, whenever it is that we start solids. And the only thing that is still definitely a no no is, you know, honey.

 

00;56;20;16 – 00;56;21;02

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah.

 

00;56;21;05 – 00;56;38;09

Dr. Mona

And the, you know, with the egg, I not there’s not sponsor, but I use a little mix and it’s available at target and online and they have like the, powdered egg, powdered trina, powdered peanut. And so I used it mainly for the egg because when Ryan was a little, you know, we just started puree first before we went to baby led weaning.

 

00;56;38;12 – 00;56;58;26

Dr. Mona

He wasn’t able to obviously sell feed, so I would I would mix it in with avocado, you know, and I would I would mix it in with other things so that he would get the egg exposure because he wasn’t able to really, you know, chew with his gums yet, like scrambled eggs, things like that. But you’re right, there’s so many different ways kind of going into, the introduction of allergen foods, you know, the, the three day wheat with, you know, different foods.

 

00;56;58;26 – 00;57;03;16

Dr. Mona

What’s your kind of opinion on introduction of the foods when you finally do start?

 

00;57;03;19 – 00;57;21;22

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah. So, you know, back in the days I say this, they used to say cereal, then, you know, veggies, then fruits. Right. We’ve talked about this before. And I think the reason for that is because they thought, well, if I give them enough fruits first, they won’t want the veggies. And really and truly that’s not true. Okay. There’s a ton of, you know, sugar in breast milk.

 

00;57;21;22 – 00;57;44;00

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s not going to you know, they’re not going to develop a sweet tooth. They actually already have a sweet tooth. So no matter which way you introduce it, they probably most of them actually do prefer the fruits regardless. And it’s not because you said fruits first. It’s just because babies are babies. Yeah. You know, but my main thing with food introduction is that I do do in the beginning, a single food at once.

 

00;57;44;03 – 00;58;02;19

Dr. Marie Jones

That that’s my biggest thing is that I don’t do, you know, a blueberry banana mix? Yes. Okay. The first time I definitely do single foods. So that’s my biggest thing. And I mean, the app recommends 3 to 5 days. I never do five days. To be honest, I think delayed reactions are really, really, really rare. So.

 

00;58;02;19 – 00;58;13;20

Dr. Marie Jones

But I do try and do single foods and I do say, I do say the three days, single foods. But like I said, this is not something that we need to stress about.

 

00;58;13;27 – 00;58;14;18

Dr. Mona

So if you’re.

 

00;58;14;18 – 00;58;19;17

Dr. Marie Jones

Like on sweet potato and then grandma comes the next day and she’s doing carrots like, don’t freak.

 

00;58;19;17 – 00;58;20;13

Dr. Marie Jones

Out.

 

00;58;20;18 – 00;58;29;05

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s not the end of the world. Like, you could do this. However it is that you want to do it. You just have to know what to look for. Right? And that’s the things that you talk to your pediatrician about.

 

00;58;29;08 – 00;58;42;21

Dr. Mona

And I think it’s going to be this sort of comfort thing. So obviously as a pediatrician, I know what I’m looking for and I get that. So, so, you know, we did do Single Ingredient, so I didn’t, you know, I would introduce avocado or banana, right. And maybe I did a couple days of avocado and a couple.

 

00;58;42;21 – 00;58;57;18

Dr. Mona

Then I would do banana once I’ve introduced a few, just say once I’ve introduced avocado a few times, then maybe I’ll add the egg powder. Does that make sense? Because I’ve introduced avocado a few times and now I mean, I do mix and then once I got comfortable with that, then I would introduce another meal with something else, you know?

 

00;58;57;23 – 00;59;05;25

Dr. Mona

So it really is sort of this comfortability that you’ll get. And like Maria said, we I have another episode about, allergenic foods and food.

 

00;59;05;25 – 00;59;07;06

Dr. Marie Jones

Allergies and it’s less.

 

00;59;07;08 – 00;59;07;18

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;59;07;19 – 00;59;10;08

Dr. Mona

Oh, good. Yes, I love break. I listen to my stuff.

 

00;59;10;08 – 00;59;25;24

Dr. Mona

And as a fellow mom and pediatrician, I just value her so much for her feedback and stuff. But that episode, we’ll go over the how you know, the signs of allergies because as long as you know the signs and then you can kind of go back and say, yes, I you know, I noticed this reaction for breakfast. My child had avocado, an egg.

 

00;59;26;00 – 00;59;32;13

Dr. Mona

As long as you’re able to narrow down. Right, well, we don’t want is that you’ve introduced ten different things and you’re like, I don’t know what it was, but if you’re.

 

00;59;32;13 – 00;59;33;29

Dr. Marie Jones

Doing and now there’s this huge rash.

 

00;59;33;29 – 00;59;34;21

Dr. Marie Jones

Right?

 

00;59;34;23 – 00;59;47;16

Dr. Mona

But if you’re doing like a couple we don’t know, you can say, you can say, okay, well yes, I you know, I introduced avocado an egg or I had but you know, banana and peach or whatever it is. But if you’re doing like a smoothie with ten different things as a first introduction, you may not be able to know.

 

00;59;47;16 – 01;00;03;28

Dr. Mona

But if you’ve it’s a comfortability thing. It’s also as you progress. And then the other reason why we there is no reason to do so much in one day is that you’re getting the baby used to it when you’re starting food. It’s not it’s not a it’s not a rush. It’s literally like trialing different things. So in my opinion, I waited the cup.

 

01;00;04;02 – 01;00;19;00

Dr. Mona

I waited like I waited two days like 2 to 3 days. I wasn’t really even counting. Like, okay, Monday and Wednesday I’m like, okay, well, it’s been a couple days, let’s do something different. But more so we did it because I food prep one thing and I’m like, well, this is what we’re going to this. Yeah. And then and then also there was no rush.

 

01;00;19;00 – 01;00;31;09

Dr. Mona

And then once we did that, there was something else available. So like Maria said, don’t beat yourself up if you accidentally or decided to do something sooner, but just know that, hey, what did I give them in the small chance that there is a reaction?

 

01;00;31;11 – 01;00;32;09

Dr. Marie Jones

Exactly.

 

01;00;32;12 – 01;00;44;29

Dr. Mona

The next one and our final one and I, we could do this forever, but there’s so many more we could have done is the the comment that I hear is toddlers need cows milk and juice and they should have milk with every meal.

 

01;00;45;02 – 01;00;46;28

Dr. Marie Jones

Yeah, so not true.

 

01;00;49;15 – 01;00;55;06

Dr. Marie Jones

I don’t know about you how you feel about this, but I actually don’t even recommend juice unless kids are constipated.

 

01;00;55;06 – 01;00;59;18

Dr. Marie Jones

Yes, yes, that’s the only time I say do do like I do. Prune juice are.

 

01;00;59;18 – 01;01;04;19

Dr. Marie Jones

Pear juice if I’m giving it for constipation. But really internally they need water.

 

01;01;04;22 – 01;01;05;04

Dr. Mona

They need.

 

01;01;05;04 – 01;01;26;26

Dr. Marie Jones

Water. They don’t need juice. I mean, I much rather them eat the actual fruit, you know, than drink the juice, which is for us, you know, sugar. And, and in regards to the cows milk portion, I’m definitely not a pediatrician that believes that, you know, toddlers have to be on cow’s milk. Okay. Because really, when you think about it, where the only other animal that drinks and other animals milk.

 

01;01;26;28 – 01;01;27;08

Dr, Mona

Yeah.

 

01;01;27;14 – 01;01;41;29

Dr. Marie Jones

You know, like we weren’t really made to drink cow’s milk. I mean, it definitely has a good amount of protein for us, a good amount of fat. And it’s great for, you know, brain development, those kind of things. But they could do dairies in other ways. There’s there’s milk substitutes that they can use for parents that don’t want to give cows milk.

 

01;01;41;29 – 01;02;01;19

Dr. Marie Jones

And that’s just something that I always say, talk to your pediatrician about it, you know, and see what other options there are. If you don’t want to give cows milk, you definitely don’t have to. Okay, so the thought that you have to do it, you definitely don’t have to. There are other ways for them to get, properly balanced, you know, nutritional in nutritious meal.

 

01;02;01;22 – 01;02;21;25

Dr. Marie Jones

Okay. With that has enough calcium and vitamin D and all those things that you can incorporate. And in there, you know, daily, intake. Okay. That will still be beneficial to them. They definitely don’t need use. They, they don’t have to do calcium. Okay. If parents want to we talk about it. Right. We talk about it. We talk about what kind of milk do you want to use?

 

01;02;21;25 – 01;02;33;14

Dr. Marie Jones

Are you what you drink at home? That’s often the question I ask my parents. Right. What do you guys drink? If they’re drinking cow’s milk, I’m okay. Obviously, with them having cows milk. But they don’t. They don’t necessarily have to do it.

 

01;02;33;19 – 01;02;48;20

Dr. Mona

Oh, and I’m so happy. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about our juice, our juice advice, but I agree with you there. Yeah, I, I’m still boggled by the sort of like when they come to me, they’re like, oh, you know, so-and-so told me that I needed to have juice. I’m like, wait, what? And I do know this is outdated advice.

 

01;02;48;22 – 01;03;06;22

Dr. Mona

A lot of older pediatricians are still recommending juice and maybe family members. Your child does not need juice. They can have the natural fruit, meaning a water, you know, piece of watermelon apple if they’re older enough to chew whatever. But they do not need that in a juice form. I mean, it’s it’s not needed. They don’t need it.

 

01;03;06;22 – 01;03;24;05

Dr. Mona

I just it still boggles my mind that this is being recommended. If they’re eating fruits and everything else, even the even if it’s market is 100% fruit juice, just give them the actual fruit. It’s like I’d rather have them know that even as adults, we shouldn’t be drinking juice. You know, the sugar content, even if it’s natural 100%.

 

01;03;24;08 – 01;03;41;06

Dr. Mona

They don’t need it. And especially the added sugar versions. Right. Sugar is, people are not going to like hearing me say it like this. Sugar is a drug, and we need to stop this obsession with juices because I mean it. It’s like a gateway drug. I mean, they literally have it. I’ve seen it in my office, Marie.

 

01;03;41;06 – 01;03;41;27

Dr. Marie Jones

Like, they want juice.

 

01;03;41;27 – 01;03;57;14

Dr. Mona

Just like, literally. I’ve seen children pounding juices, and it’s almost like I see their eyes. They have one. They throw it to the ground and the mom is giving them another because it’s a fix. And I’m like, whoa, like it’s a drug. And let’s be honest, milk also has sugar. Milk is also in a way, a little addictive.

 

01;03;57;18 – 01;04;12;23

Dr. Mona

So like you said, I also think, I think you know this for a long time the AP did recommend milk with meals, a long time. And this was back in the day. And I think they obviously change their ways that you don’t need to do that anymore. But no, you do not need to have milk with meals.

 

01;04;12;23 – 01;04;31;01

Dr. Mona

Absolutely not. Water with meals. Water, water, water with meals with water especially. Yeah. After six months they’re drinking water with meals. Breast milk obviously. And formula is still primary. You know, in between. But water with meals and the milk is going to be replacing the formula. Or if you choose to stop breastfeeding, that’s going to replace it after the one year mark.

 

01;04;31;08 – 01;04;43;09

Dr. Mona

But you do not need cow’s milk, like you said beautifully, that we’re the only species that is drinking another, animal’s milk. But it’s not dangerous to give milk by any means. Don’t don’t believe that. It’s it’s a bad thing.

 

01;04;43;09 – 01;04;44;01

Dr. Marie Jones

But definitely, if.

 

01;04;44;01 – 01;04;59;26

Dr. Mona

Your child is not drinking cow’s milk but is eating well, having yogurts and cheeses and some sorts of some way of getting calcium and vitamin D, there’s no minimum milk intake. There is a maximum, you know, I usually say 20 to 24oz Max. 24. Yeah. Max, because,

 

01;04;59;29 – 01;05;03;14

Dr. Marie Jones

And that if they’re not taking any other foods of, you know, dairy.

 

01;05;03;14 – 01;05;21;03

Dr. Mona

Right. But there’s no minimum. And so don’t believe that your child needs a minimum of milk. Unless, of course, there’s some nutritional thing that your Peterson’s going to, but you serve water with meals. Milk is just an additional thing, Max. It cap it out at 24oz. And just please try to reduce the juice or don’t give it altogether.

 

01;05;21;03 – 01;05;36;08

Dr. Mona

If you are a parent listening to this and you have not entered the juice phase, don’t even introduce it. Like don’t even bother because it’s it’s one of those things like screen time. Like once you introduce it, trying to okay, what it is, is like trying to remove a drug. You have to do a weaning process. It’s a fix.

 

01;05;36;08 – 01;05;53;06

Dr. Mona

And I, I sit in my office with the eyes, like when I see the child’s eyes look dazed. And I mean, I’ve seen it, so I mean literally pounding it to the ground like they literally had some sort of drug and I, I don’t, I know, I don’t I’m not this anti sugar person. I’m not saying that your child can’t have a cookie or like an ice cream.

 

01;05;53;06 – 01;06;10;13

Dr. Mona

Don’t get me wrong, it’s the liquid form of sugar that I get concerned about because they can consume volumes of it without even realizing it. Do not feel ashamed if you gave your child a little bit of your treat right, but limit the sugar intake via liquids. I agree with that completely. Yep, absolutely. Oh, we could talk forever.

 

01;06;10;14 – 01;06;15;19

Dr. Mona

We could literally I love this. You are amazing. I’m go another hour and talk to you know.

 

01;06;15;19 – 01;06;37;00

Dr. Mona

You’re going to be on again in some way. We have to do something else. I definitely we need to do that one about myths like not this is obviously, outdated advice, but there’s one that I had talked to Marie about in terms of myths that you hear like, you know, you have you get sick if you have, wet hair or if you go out in the cold, we have to do a fact and a fact in fiction one, in the future.

 

01;06;37;00 – 01;06;48;08

Dr. Mona

But, Marie, thank you so much for joining us. Now, would you have any, like, closing advice for anyone listening? You know, as a mother and as a pediatrician, as a take home message.

 

01;06;48;10 – 01;06;58;09

Dr. Marie Jones

Keep in mind that, you know, your family means well, right? But they don’t always have the the best advice. And it’s okay for you to ask your pediatrician about those things. Okay?

 

01;06;58;13 – 01;06;59;20

Dr. Marie Jones

And also.

 

01;06;59;23 – 01;07;10;21

Dr. Marie Jones

You know, parenting is really difficult, right? So don’t beat yourself up, okay? We all make mistakes. Mona and I have made oh, my God, make mistakes every day.

 

01;07;10;23 – 01;07;12;15

Dr. Marie Jones

You know? So so these are just.

 

01;07;12;15 – 01;07;22;26

Dr. Marie Jones

Guidelines, opinions. You know, things. Things that we want you guys to, to think about. But definitely, you know, forgive yourself. And, you know, every day is a new day.

 

01;07;22;29 – 01;07;41;00

Dr. Mona

And my my advice would be what you just said that if, you know, obviously your your family members, meanwhile, if you go into your pediatrician’s office and they give you advice and you’re unsure of it because you’ve heard something else or because you weren’t sure of that advice, ask them. Say, hey, I love that. I love that you said that.

 

01;07;41;00 – 01;07;48;28

Dr. Mona

But can you explain why you’re asking me to do this? Yeah, sometimes I think parents forget that they can ask us questions on the whys, right? Why are you recommending you’re.

 

01;07;48;28 – 01;07;50;04

Dr. Marie Jones

Not questioning us?

 

01;07;50;06 – 01;07;53;08

Dr. Marie Jones

It’s okay. You know, it’s not where they come off like that.

 

01;07;53;11 – 01;08;09;18

Dr. Mona

And we know the answer. We’ll tell you the answer. The. Hey, we’re recommending this because. But if you don’t ask us, we don’t always have the time or know that, hey, maybe you’re unsure of this or that. You’ve been told X, Y, and Z. So if you’re getting advice from many different places and you are unsure, ask your pediatrician.

 

01;08;09;18 – 01;08;26;25

Dr. Mona

We are here for you. And sometimes we understand. Me and Marie are both doctors and we are in a busy practice. We know sometimes we we are kind of busy answering the questions and getting through what we have. But we are there for you and your pediatrician is there for you to answer your questions. So definitely don’t be afraid to ask us, okay?

 

01;08;26;28 – 01;08;31;11

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. Well, not us, because we’re not your pediatrician, but you’re being a person. When I say us, I mean pediatrician.

 

01;08;31;11 – 01;08;32;20

Dr. Marie Jones

Pediatricians can ask us to. And Mona’s.

 

01;08;32;20 – 01;08;35;28

Dr. Marie Jones

Ball. Oh, that’s so funny. Yeah. So my question. Yeah.

 

01;08;36;02 – 01;08;40;20

Dr. Mona

Oh, my gosh, Marie, I’m going to have to have you back on again. This was amazing. I can’t wait for Covid to be done so we can go.

 

01;08;40;20 – 01;08;44;04

Dr. Marie Jones

Back to getting brunch together. I know, and we have to get the kids together too.

 

01;08;44;05 – 01;08;55;26

Dr. Mona

Yes. And we need for both days in our life, you totally. Thank you again for joining us. I know this went a little bit all over everyone, but I’m sure you got so much out of it. So thanks again, and she’ll be back soon.

 

01;08;55;28 – 01;08;57;08

Dr. Marie Jones

All right. Bye.

 

01;08;57;10 – 01;09;16;04

Dr. Mona

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode. I hope you guys enjoyed it. As always, please leave a review, share it with a friend, comment on my social media, and if you’re not already, follow me at PedsDocTalk on Instagram. I love doing this for all of you. Have a great rest of your week. Take care.

 

01;09;16;06 – 01;09;17;00

Dr. Mona

Talk to you soon!