News Moms Need

You may have heard it’s important to eat fish.  But then again, you may have heard fish can be dangerous, don’t eat it when you’re pregnant.  What’s the deal with that?

Fish is an easy-to-prepare food. It is high in protein, low in fat and full of heart-healthy nutrients. But pollution in our oceans, lakes, rivers and streams is leaving some fish with toxic levels of mercury, which is especially damaging to fetuses, babies and children.

If a woman is exposed to high levels of mercury before or while she is pregnant, her health and the baby’s health are threatened. High levels of mercury can cause brain damage and affect a baby’s hearing and vision.

So, how much fish can a pregnant woman safely eat?  To start with, you should not eat fish that can be high in mercury, like shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. But you can safely eat up to 12 ounces a week of shrimp, salmon, pollock, catfish and canned light tuna. It’s also OK to eat 6 ounces a week of albacore (white) tuna. All fish should be cooked to avoid any possible parasites or bacteria so, if you’re pregnant, skip the raw oysters, sushi and sashimi for now.

By following these guidelines, you can obtain the health benefits of eating fish, while reducing your baby’s exposure to mercury.

The new squiggly light bulbs (compact fluorescent lights or CFLs) are energy efficient, which is a good thing. But they contain a little bit of mercury which you can inhale if a bulb breaks and you go to clean it up – not so good. It’s not much mercury (less than 1/100th of what’s in an old mercury thermometer) so you don’t need to call the hazmat team!  You can clean it up yourself, as long as you’re not pregnant, if you follow these pointers:

First, infants, small children, pets and pregnant women should stay out of the room and not return until several hours after clean up. Turn off the heat, AC or fans that might blow particles around. Close the room door and open the windows to let in fresh air. Do not use a vacuum, broom or metal dust pan – instead, get out the duct tape.

On hard surfaces (hardwood, tile, linoleum): Wearing disposable gloves, carefully pick up the pieces of glass and put them in a zip-lock back. Using stiff pieces of paper, gently push the rest of the light bulb’s remains, including any dust or tiny mercury beads, into small piles. (Don’t do this on carpeting.) Then carefully lift each pile and place it and the paper in another zip-lock bag. Using duct tape, or other sticky tape, blot the remaining debris until everything you can see is gone. Zip-lock bag the used tape. Now take damp paper towels and blot the whole area. Put the used paper towels and gloves in a zip-lock bag and then take all the zip lock bags out to the trash can. Wash your hands and face.

If one of these light bulbs breaks on a carpet or rug, tiny mercury bits may sink into fibers where they may emit vapors for a long time. After following the cleanup steps above, seriously consider removing the section of carpet where the bulb broke, especially if this is an area often used by small children or pregnant women. (Put the carpeting in a plastic bag in the outdoor trash.)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has more information on cleaning up broken CFL bulbs on their web site. http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html

There is so much to pay attention to these days regarding food that sometimes you can feel spooked about putting anything in your mouth.  This stuff is “good,” that’s “bad,” even though it was good yesterday…  Try not to go crazy and remember the old adage, “everything in moderation.”

Still, it is important to watch what you eat because not all foods are safe for pregnant women. Some contain high levels of chemicals that can affect your baby’s development. Others put you at risk for getting an infection that can hurt your baby.  Here are some tips:

 
• Avoid swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tile fish. These fish can contain potentially risky levels of mercury. The same for raw fish, especially shellfish (oysters, clams)
• Cook all meat, poultry and seafood thoroughly to kill bacteria. 
• Cook all eggs well and avoid soft-scrambled eggs and all foods made with raw or lightly cooked eggs (does that Caesar salad dressing have raw egg in it?)
• Avoid soft cheeses made with unpasteurized milk. Examples are Brie, feta, Camembert, Roquefort, blue-veined, queso blanco, queso fresco and Panela. Check the label to see what kind of milk was used to make the cheese. 
• All milk and any foods made from it should be pasteurized. So should juices.
• Raw vegetable sprouts, including alfalfa, clover, radish and mung bean might be sources of salmonella, so don’t eat them.

Yesterday, a U.S. federal court dismissed cases from parents who claimed that vaccinations caused their children’s autism. According to NBC Nightly News, ”the parents failed to show that vaccinations played any role at all in causing autism.”

While some families still fear that there may be a connection between autism and vaccines, a large body of well-done research has found no link. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the March of Dimes all recommend that children be vaccinated.

While expressing concern for children with autism and their parents, the court said the research used to support the claims was severely inadequate. In the court’s view, the medical experts testifying for the parents were poorly qualified and lacked sufficient experience. In making its decision, the court reviewed over 5,000 pages of expert testimony and 939 medical articles.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and other organizations continue to support research to better understand the causes of autism. In a statement, DHHS said that it hoped the court’s decision “will help reassure parents that vaccines do not cause autism.”

To see an earlier post and discussion on this topic, click here.