letstalkaboutsciencebaby

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

For the love of museums

When it’s raining outside and you have a fidgety toddler (is there any other kind?), nothing sounds more appealing than the word ‘museum’. Well, to be more precise, ‘family friendly, interactive science museum’. I’ve always been a fan of art museums, but with a toddler in tow, those quiet, vast spaces lined with precious and fragile sculptors don’t have the same soothing effect they used to. 

Berlin

When my daughter was 6 months old, we moved to a small German town. It was lovely, but after some time, we craved the bustle of a big city. On her first birthday (to which I am sure she was oblivious), we made the 2 hour roadtrip to Berlin, and from then on we were hooked. Our go to entertainment between meals was playgrounds (Spielplätze) and the ones in Berlin are artworks in themselves. Unfortunately, when winter creeps up, we need entertaining shelter under the sheets of rain and occasionally, even snow. 

I first read about the Science Center Spectrum after searching for ‘indoor activities with kids in Berlin’. The write-up mentioned how the displays were interactive and even suitable for toddlers. Supposedly, there were also cars inside, which clinched it for my husband. 

I neglected to take any photos on our visit because I was too busy pushing my kid out of the way to have a go on the displays myself. My memory of the visit is a bit hazy, since it was 3 years ago and that period of my life still fell under the ‘sleep deprived’ chapter. 

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The right hand side of the museum is a sprawling ground floor composed of a large car display, including classic cars and cut sections to show the insides. There were lit up information pods, which could be pulled down, so the kids can do the hard work while the parents do the reading. There were displays that were off limits to touching, but this was more than made up for by the wheels to spin, levers to pull and buttons to press. Best of all was the orange Tribant which could be sat in and ‘driven’, although you have to provide your own brrm brrm noises. 

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The ground floor of the left hand side was a look through the history of communication. Of course, since my daughter knows nothing but touchscreens and swiping, the old school dial telephone did not hold her attention for long. 

The centre of the museum consists of 4 glorious floors of interactive displays. There are experiments involving pulleys and weights, water, heat, light, lasers, electricity and more. The top floor is dedicated to noise experiments involving air and movement. My toddler loved the range of noises (again, it there any other kind of toddler?), but I also enjoyed the scientific explanations behind each ‘sound machine’. 

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It was a remarkable few hours and only nap time could entice us away. This museum triggered our love of browsing science museums on holidays. 

Liverpool 

Once we had relocated ourselves to England, our first memorable science museum experience was the World Museum in Liverpool. This was five floors of anything science related you could think of. The first floor is made up of an aquarium that rivals many I’ve seen at famous zoos. Next, was a bug house, which, despite the thick glass, had me a bit on edge. I still can’t decided if it was the massive spider dangling over my head swaying to the air conditioning or the signs that warned against eating in case the crumbs were too enticing for the creepy crawlies. (You can probably tell by now that I am not an entomologist...)

There was also a natural history center, with a range of skulls as seen below, along with plant and rock specimens.

Fatigue had set in by this point, so we raced through the next three floors of world cultures, dinosaurs and the space and time exhibit. These are probably more suited to older kids. 

The museum also runs educational workshops and has a planetarium. The collections are amazing and deserve at least a whole day of wondering around. Amazingly, it is also free, although of course donations are always welcome. 

Manchester

We had originally planned to settle in Liverpool, but life often doesn’t play along. Instead, after a few months, we moved to a small English village. Which again, is lovely, but had us craving more stimulation on the weekends. Manchester then became our new Berlin. 

Our visit to the Museum of Science and Industry was mostly due to proximity to our favourite restaurant. It was not the best scientific experience due to the antiquated ‘interactive’ displays that did not work. Thinking back to my childhood, there is nothing that puts kids off science more than “this is suppose to spin when you press the button... but it seems to be broken”. 

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I’d say the museum focuses heavily on the industry part of the title. There are displays involving printing presses, textiles, trains, planes and cars. Mostly, they were to be read and not be touched. Which I can’t say attracts attention well at any age. 

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The top floor of interactive displays is dedicated to smaller kids. Here, are your puzzles and levers to spin. Unfortunately, most were only worth a few seconds of your time. Once you had pushed the button, not much else was involved, and it was time to move on. That was the vibe of the whole museum really, glance and move on. 

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We visited The Manchester Museum on an open day, when faculty members from the University of Manchester were hosting a ‘your body’ themed day for the public. It was extremely crowded, which bodes well for future scientific endeavours. 

The museum itself was impressive. Since it was so crowded, and many exhibitions were concealed behind the open day displays, it was not a very detailed trip for us. I do remember the stuffed animals and the giant hanging whale skeleton below. 

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There is a little bit of everything to suit all tastes: Archaeology (my daughter was surprisingly enthralled by the sarcophagus and the mummy inside), a Vivarium (the bright red poisonous frogs also happen to be the cutest), living cultures and earth sciences. We hope to go back and explore the museum in more detail. 

This is just a brief outline of some of the science museums we have been too. Some we loved more than others, but they were all interesting. And as my daughter gets older, I can only anticipate more visits and longer stays. 

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

Be nice, baby

Apart from trying to come up with fun, whilst healthy, snacks every day (”But you brought me a peanut butter sandwich yesterDAY, Mum!”), one of the biggest challenges of parenthood for me is being a nagging, hard-ass. These are some of the things I say to 4 year old daughter on a daily basis (and what my non-parent self thinks whilst saying it):

“Sit when you’re eating dinner please” (Why does it matter where she sits if she eats her dinner?)

“You shouldn’t say that man is bald, you might hurt his feelings” (But he is bald, and she doesn’t mean it as an insult)

“Watch where you’re walking to, please” (How boring)

“Shhh, not so loud” (She’s a kid!)

Sometimes even I wish I could shut up and just let her be the kid she is. After all, I’ve never met an adult who just has to run around or turn cartwheels whilst eating his/her dinner. So why do I subject my daughter (and myself) to these daily reminders? Because I firmly believe laying down an early framework of acceptable behaviour is beneficial for her in the long run, and easier than being checked as an asshole adult. 

I only recently became aware of a study published a couple of years ago that looks at the relationship between early social behaviour and adult outcomes.

The researchers collected the ratings of Kindergarten children by their teachers using the Social Competence Scale which came from a Fast Track study of low–socioeconomic status neighbourhoods. The data were collect in a bid to identify children who would benefit from early intervention to reduce their risk of becoming aggressive adults. This study followed up with 367 high-risk children and 386 children who did not undergo any intervention. The children were tested in Kindergarten in 1991 and re-assessed in 2000, when they were around 25 years of age. 

As children, the teachers rated their ability to ‘cope well with failure’ and ‘share things with others’. Whereas as adults, the outcome measures related to education, employment, public assistance, crime, mental health, and substance use. The researchers endeavoured to control for environmental factors and demographic variables, such as race and the number of family members. They also tried to take into account early childhood learning and aggression. 

The researchers could draw relationships between early social behaviour and several outcome measures in every area tested. For example, Kindergarten prosocial skills were predictive of whether participants completed higher education or were in stable employment as adults.  

As you can imagine, there are numerous variables to take into account, the impact of which can only increase over the long period this study was held over. And therefore, I would not accept with absolute certainly any relationships that are drawn. 

Nevertheless, I will keep asking my daughter to mind her Ps and Qs. 

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

Cry baby cry (please don’t)

We should all be grateful for the sleep deprivation-induced amnesia you experience in the few months (or more!) or your baby’s life. Without it, the nighttime hours of rocking and shushing a red-faced, wailing bundle of agitation would be crystal clear, and not just a vague memory of “oh yes, you don’t sleep much, but it wasn’t THAT bad”. 

To be honest, if I could vividly recall the frustration and the hopelessness of listening to your baby cry, I would probably not even conceive the idea of doing it all again. So, in conclusion, the human race marches on because parents forget how much damn crying babies do. (Admittedly, my 4 year old also cries, but to my relief, the sheer dedication she used to show for the sport has worn off).

Anecdotally, we know babies cry alot. Which makes sense, because there is not much else they can do to express themselves. But what is alot? How much is a normal amount of crying and how much is tear-your-hair-out excessive?

The term ‘colic’ has been coined to describe babies who cry for prolonged periods. According to the modified Wessel criteria, a baby has colic if s/he cries for more than 3 hours a day on at least 3 days in a given week. Whilst this may seem simplistic, it nevertheless provides a good indicator for parents and can serve as a way to intervene before the frustration of parents not coping leads to more dire consequences. However, the Wessel criteria was published in the 1940s, and family life now doesn’t quite look the way it did back then. 

In the spirit of updating crying expectations, Dieter Wolke and colleagues from the University of Warwick catalogued the reported crying times of 8,690 babies from 28 diary studies. 

They found that the average crying time was 117-133 minutes in the first 6 weeks of life. This drops to 68 minutes by 10-12 weeks, which fits nicely with the convention that your baby outgrows their fussiness by about 3 months of age. Correspondingly, colic was much more common in the first 6 weeks (17-25%) and declined by 8-9 weeks of age (11%) and 10-12 weeks of age (0.6%). 

The study made use of data generated from Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. Notably, the authors observed country-based differences in average crying times. Colic was found to be most frequent in the UK (28% at 1-2 weeks), Canada (34.1% at 3-4 weeks of age) and Italy (20.9% at 8-9 weeks). The lowest colic rates were seen in Denmark (5.5% ) and Germany (6.7%) at 3-4 weeks. 

The researchers believe that the country-to-country differences highlighted by the study could help to identify factors that may contribute to or aid in reducing colic. My daughter spent the first 5 months of her life in Canada, and thanks to the aforementioned amnesia, I don’t remember any incidences of colic. The baby I am expecting soon will be born in the UK and let’s say, for once, I hope my experience does not mirror the findings of this study. 

Hmm, I wonder if it’s too late to move back to Germany?

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

Just vaccinate

A recent study of nearly 150, 000 newborns has shown that vaccinating pregnant women with the whooping cough booster vaccine in their last trimester is protective for the newborn. The researchers looked through the medical records of mothers who had given birth from 2010-2015. They found that of the 17 babies who contracted whooping cough by the time they were 2 months old, only one had been born to a mother who did not receive a whooping cough booster. The researcher also noted that this one baby only had a mild case of whooping cough and was not admitted to hospital. 

In line with most countries, here in the UK, the recommendation is that pregnant women get a whooping cough booster during their last trimester, so that the protective antibodies generated by the mother will be passed onto the developing fetus. This protection lasts for about 2 months after the baby is born, and serves as a safety net until the baby receives its first whooping cough vaccine at 8 weeks old as part of a 5-in-1 vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b). The baby will then have additional doses of the 5-in-1 vaccine at 12 and 16 weeks before the protection is considered complete. 

As advised, I received a whooping booster at 28 weeks into my pregnancy. What surprised me most about this study was that less than half of the mothers (46%) received a pertussis vaccine at least 8 days before giving birth.  

For me, vaccination is one of those hotly debated, in the spotlight topics of discussion that just doesn’t need to be. It is quintessentially #firstworldproblems. 

The scientific basis for vaccination is plentiful, reproducible, essentially indisputable. Hell, it has been heralded as THE success story for the field of Immunology. But since vaccination is one of those topics for which somehow the world ‘belief’ has entered the discussion, here are the anecdotal evidence that had me convinced:

1) A mentor of mine who is in his 50s once mentioned to me that when he was growing up, he knew other kids who limped because they had polio. It may not seem like a remarkable story, but it is to me. Because I don’t know of anyone my age who has had polio. I doubt most people my age (Generation Y) even knows what polio is.

2) To the best of my memory, I have had the flu twice in my life. And here, I mean the flu, caused by influenza, not a common, inconvenient cold. The first time, I was 14 and along with my mother, contracted the flu at the start of a term break. My main memory of those two weeks is my mother and I slumped on our couch, arms and legs akimbo, and my mother asking me tiredly what I wanted to eat for dinner. I can’t remember my response, but whatever it was, it did not motivate either of us to move for a very long time. 

The second time, a decade later, my partner had just started working at the hospital. Within a week, he had encountered enough sick patients to come down with the flu himself, which he of course passed onto me. Another fortnight of companionable muscle pain, malaise and exhaustion followed. After this episode, I swore NEVER AGAIN. So I always make sure I get my annual flu vaccine, and hey, the year I moved from one hemisphere to another, I even got two flu vaccines.

3) Several years ago, I remember reading about the negative impact of the Taliban on the polio immunisation program in Pakistan. In one of two countries in the region where Polio is endemic, polio eradication efforts have been hampered by militants refusing access to remote areas for health aid workers. In particular, I read a story about a boy in his late teens, who made the treacherous journey through Taliban strongholds, in order to get hold of the polio vaccine for his younger brother. He had to make the journey not once, but twice, in order to receive the booster as well. And the motivation? Because his other sibling had contracted polio, and the family did not want it happening to another child. 

I don’t have the exact sources for the last story, but there are many others like it. It saddens me greatly, and often infuriates me too, that in developed countries, we have become so accustomed to general good health that we would turn our backs on medical solutions that work. When did we lose our gratitude to vaccination for curtailing infant morbidity and mortality? 

And if my stories don’t resonate with you, then maybe this cartoon will do the job:

For the rest of the cartoon, please see source

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

Itty bitty embryo

One of the highlights of antenatal care is the routine ultrasounds which allow you a sneak peek at your developing baby. The standard schedule is usually the 12th week ultrasound, known as the dating scan, to give you your estimated due date based on embryonic size, and the more detailed 20th week scan, where every possible organ is examined and measure. The latter scan is usually when the gender is revealed (if you want to know, which I did, because hey it’s hard enough settling on a single name, let alone have another on standby). 

During my second pregnancy, I ended up having a couple of early ultrasounds, around 6 and 8 weeks. This was due to some slightly alarming, but common enough, symptoms that required early monitoring. However, depending on your healthcare provider and their access to equipment, you may also get a quick sneak peek at these early stages anyway. 

I got to see a little blob bouncing around in my (comparatively) cavernous uterus. I could make out a bulging head, and some teeny limbs. Quite cute really. The only thing of interest to the ultrasound technician was the embryo’s length, which was measured between the two weeks to track development, since the resolution of the ultrasound is not good enough to discern any other changes. 

Amazingly, there is so much going on in these early weeks! This is when the structure of the body is laid out and the organs are planned. If we knew better what the embryo from these early weeks ‘should’ look like, we would have a better idea of normal to abnormal development from these early stages. 3D ultrasounds are available, but the intricate details can not be discerned and textbooks on human development are based on early works, some 100 years old. 

A group in the Netherlands just published a 3D embryo atlas, giving the most detailed picture of early embryonic development. The work is based on the US-based Carnegie Collection of embryos, with material ranging from 60-100 years old. Based on current computer and imaging technology, the researchers and 75 trained students looked at 15,000 stained slides over 45,000 hours.

The stained histological slides from the collection were examined and organs painstakingly labelled. The result was 14 interactive 3D models and a database of 34 embryos (2 for each of 17 developmental days) between 15-60 days old. They were able to label 150 organs and structures.

Below is the flowchart of how they went about the process: 

I’m absolutely amazed - they labelled the skeleton! Blood vessels! Nerves! The detail is astounding. I spent hours having a look and playing around. The atlas is free and available here.

To pregnant women out there, next time you are feeling nauseous or tired, just remember your body is busy making a heart or a blood vessel.

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

Brainy baby

I’m a researcher by training, so when I first learnt I was pregnant, I went digging for all the ‘right’ things I was supposed to do for the best possible pregnancy (if such a thing exists). I must admit the timing was, well, let’s say serendipitous, because I was in the middle of writing my PhD thesis, so all my pregnancy research served as an interesting, yet still science-y distraction for when the technical writing got a bit dry... 

Of course, my doctor had warned me off smoking and drinking (which I don’t do normally or for the latter, only rarely pre-pregnancy) but other than being told to ‘eat healthily’, my diet was left to my own devices. So I turned to the internet... which for a pregnant woman, can be a scary place to be. 

There’s fiction, there’s hearsay, there’s individual experiences, there’s anger, there’s doubt, there’s fear, there’s hormones and somewhere in amongst all that, there are facts. 

For instance, consuming alcohol during pregnancy puts your baby at risk of acquiring a range of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). This is a fact. The severity of these conditions depends on how often and how much alcohol you drink during pregnancy and also at what point during the pregnancy. I don’t think anyone is concerned about an odd sip from someone’s glass, but any kind of regular drinking puts your baby at risk. So, drinking alcohol when you’re pregnant is bad. 

What can be confusing is fiction dressed up as fact. Or a tidbit based on a fact that turned the tidbit into a new fact. I am referring the use of fish oil as a supplement during pregnancy. 

So here is a fact: Omega-3 fatty acids have been strongly linked to fetal brain and retina development. There are many types of omega-3 fatty acids, but Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are the most effective kinds. 

Our bodies don’t make DHA, but it is plentiful in marine life and so pregnant women are advised to eat no more (but no less!) than 2 servings of fish per week. This advice seems straightforward, but there a couple of considerations. 

One, alot of people don’t eat fish. This is obviously a highly generalised statement, but in the countries I have lived in (Australia, Germany, Canada), fish is not a staple of most Western diets. Second, not all fish is good for you. Large fish is high in mercury, and so pregnant women are advised to stay away from shark, swordfish, ahi tuna to name a few. Third, raw and smoked fish is not recommended, because of the risk of Listeria poisoning. And a personal four, the smell of fish during pregnancy makes me want to vomit.

So, a seemingly easier alternative to navigating all these restrictions whilst doing something good for your baby (and your own health) is to take supplements. I am already currently taking vitamin D (the sun is rather elusive here in England) and folic acid supplements. Surely, then, it seems effective to just take fish oil supplements to help baby’s brain development?

However, a study published this week in JAMA by Australian researchers, Jacqueline Gould and colleagues, showed that DHA supplements had no effect on brain development of the offspring. 

Pregnant women were either given 800mg of DHA daily or a placebo during the second half of their pregnancy and the children were tested in follow up studies. In previously published studies, they saw no differences in cognitive, language and motor development in the the 18-month old babies nor differences in intelligence, language or higher level thinking in the 4-year pre-schoolers. In the most recent study, 543 7-year olds from the original study were tested and the researchers found no difference in the average IQ scores between the two groups.

Numerous studies have suggested that the body does not absorb nutrients from supplements as well as compared to when they are available in food. It is also possible that the mothers were already getting enough DHA from their diets so that the extra DHA did not make any difference. 

Looks like I might as well save myself the money from popping DHA pills and buy some nice salmon steaks instead. If only I can find a volunteer to cook the smelly things for me.

[letstalkaboutsciencebaby]

(oh so close to) Lambing

It’s finally spring here in northern England, which means the daffodils have sprouted, the sky is blue and grey is not the predominant colour in my day:

Spring is also baby season (myself included), and we were informed that the nearby land-based college, Reaseheath, hosts an annual lambing event. I didn’t really listen to the details because all I could see happening was this:

Look at their little faces!

I had been anticipating this event for some months now (on behalf of my 4-year old daughter, of course) and when March arrived, I hopped over onto the Reaseheath College website to purchase tickets. I learnt that the event was more, shall we say, detailed, than I had originally thought. In addition to the petting of cute lambs, we would witness live births. I was impressed with the scale: some 500 ewes expecting to give birth to approximately 1200 lambs (I had always been under the false impression that sheep were mostly single birth animals). However, just before I could purchase tickets, I saw this:

Say what? Why? Surely, it can’t be because expectant mothers are renowned bundles of hormones... Were they worried we would burst into tears and try to ‘accidentally’ put one of those lambs in the car (fine, the thought had crossed my mind). Or..? Seeing live births would remind us of our own labour to come? 

I was exceedingly puzzled and so turned to my guru, Google:

huh, it was actually a thing:

This is my second pregnancy, and I had heard about avoiding kitty litter, soft cheese, alcohol, bending at the waist, to name just a few. But I had never been warned about these cuties:

(Yes, I admit that picture wasn’t necessary. It was just an excuse for more cute lamb photos, because, not to spoil anything, but I DIDN’T GET TO PET ANY LAMBS!).

So in part, the ‘no-lambing’ advice is based on the same infectious agents that leads to the ‘no kitty litter’ and ‘no soft cheeses’ recommendations. Namely, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii (which causes Toxoplasmosis, and found in cat faeces) and the bacteria Listeria (which causes Listeriosis, and found in foods such as soft cheeses and cold cuts). Exposure can also lead to chlamydiosis and Q fever, both caused by bacteria found in sheep and other livestock. All of these conditions can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or congenital defects. 

Basically infected sheep can transmit infections to other animals and humans. These infectious agents can be found in the afterbirth, birthing fluids and of course on the newborn lambs themselves. These infections are rare, but the farmers/agricultural institutes are responsible for protecting pregnant women against possible risks. Hence, why I was not recommended to see the adorable lambs. Of course my husband and daughter went, and had an amazing time watching lambs drop. My daughter even petted a 5 second old newborn lamb and I’m sure if I had been there, would have later grabbed my face with said hand. As recommended, when they came home from their spring adventure, their clothes went straight into the washing machine and they both showered before coming anywhere near me. 

All in all, I am glad I was informed of (well, stumbled upon) the risks and took the necessary precautions to protect my unborn baby. But next year, I am definitely going to be in the front row hugging one of these little guys: