Category: Stuff for the Littles

Getting Around: Babywearing

~ ejmcewan ~ 2 Comments

Babywearing: It’s not just for hippies anymore, my friends.

Case in point:
My parents were in town last weekend for my son’s first birthday and I took them over to Findlay Market to buy some last-minute items for the party. Because the market is only three blocks away, I asked my parents if they’d be willing to walk, rather than drive. “I do it all the time,” I assured them. (Walking to the market may seem like second-nature to me, but this was a stretch for my parents.) They agreed and then my mom asked, “So, do you usually just bring Izzy in the stroller?”

No.
I “wear” him.

The act of carrying a baby in a sling is probably as old as the human race, and is seen in cultures worldwide. In recent decades, the Western world has re-adopted babywearing as one natural extension of a more hands-on, intuitive parenting than was popularized in the first half of the 20th Century. It’s also one expression of a mother’s decision to maintain close contact with her infant and breastfeed on-demand. This is perhaps why the word “babywearing” usually conjures images of Whole Foods Market and PETA rallies and why I seldom use the term. I am, after all, only about 30% crunchy and only prescribe to some of the attachment parenting philosophy, so I’m not the prime candidate for the label “babywearer.”

For me, wearing my child is less an issue of parenting philosophy and more an issue of practicality. A trip to Findlay Market is a great example of a time when babywearing comes in handy and makes more sense then contemporary methods of child transport (strollers, carrying, etc.). At a busy, open-air market, the aisles are small and crowded, you must be able to move quickly, it’s helpful to have two hands free, and (especially when you live within walking distance) it makes more sense to just walk the few blocks and not fuss with car seats, parking spaces, and strollers.

Another case in point:
Nine days after my son was born, I had been holed-up in my apartment for almost an entire week and was desperate to get outside. It had been very cold the past few weeks, but this particular day was sunny and warm and perfect for a brisk walk. I had not yet purchased a stroller and I was not interested in loading and unloading my son into the car. So, I took the opportunity to test out my new Hotslings baby carrier and carried my baby down to the library, out for a cup of coffee, and then back home. My newborn baby stayed nice and cozy next to my body and slept the entire time, waking up only for a quick breastfeeding break at the library.

After the initial newborn stage, my son and I had a difficult time figuring out how to use the sling as he grew too large to lay horizontal, but wasn’t yet strong enough to sit upright. A few months later, though, we were right back on the babywearing wagon and have been since.

Buying a Christmas tree at 10.5 months old.

I simply believe that, apart from any physiological or psychological benefits (for which there are many valid arguments), babywearing is simply an easy and practical way to transport a small child when traveling on foot, either for a short time (while shopping, waiting for a bus, waiting in line, etc.) or a long time (running errands on foot, hiking, cleaning house, etc.). In some instances, it is actually much easier than a standard stroller, is much cheaper, and much more portable.

In my opinion, smart mothers practice the art of babywearing from birth with their newborns so that the skill is always available when needed as their children grow older. It’s up to their discretion how often and for how long they use this time-old “trick” for carrying and comforting a child, but it’s a skill that is perfectly practical for any mother who does anything other than sit on the couch all day.

So, if you want to do your friend a favor as she’s expecting a baby, you can help her purchase that super hip stroller she’s been eyeing, but you should also help her pick out a baby carrier. It will help her feel close to her baby, make sure she gets out of the house and stays active, and make her competent to take care of both her baby and herself.

If you’re new to babywearing, there’s an entire culture to help get you acclimated. And there are tons of products, for those who are interested, that run the gamut from standard, to boutique, and then just plain ridiculous. (And that’s only the begining.) You can also find books about the subject, help guides for each different carrier, and join local groups for parents who practice babywearing.

I choose to keep it simple but, heck, you can get in as deep as you’d like!

City Living: How Small is Too Small?

~ ejmcewan ~ 2 Comments
photo courtesy of bubbleinfo.com

A while back, the LA Times ran an article about a couple that was living in a 380 sq. foot home in the LA area and I saw it passed around various online sites and communities. Check out the original article here, or Apartment Therapy’s Ohdeedoh coverage here.

The article raised a lot of questions for me.

First of all, is it really necessary that my husband, son, and I share over 2000 square feet of living space?

Second, when we finally purchase or build a home, what sort of square footage is reasonable for our family?

Third, why do we have so much STUFF!?

I have not always lived in large spaces.
Although my family home was large while I was growing up, my parents downsized drastically when I went away to college and I’ve lived in mostly small spaces since. College dorms, my first apartment, and my first Cincinnati apartment were all small and required a lot of creative organizing and storage solutions. (Unlike many of my friends, I wasn’t able to store my things at my parents’ house for the years I was at college and afteward; I had to find a way to either take everything with me or get rid of it.) The apartment I’m in now is really the first place where I can stretch out, put things away, and still have space to spare. It’s glorious!

But.
Is it really necessary?
Yes.
And no.

I’ve thought a lot before about small living spaces and have always been fascinated by the miracles that modern design can work in a small living space, even for families with multiple children. Japanese design has been doing this for centuries. And, In some ways, I covet both this simple lifestyle and its aesthetic. The absence of possessions is attractive and the use of space is brilliant. Simple, clean, and uncluttered.

But, like the home featured in the LA Times and those I’ve seen here, here, and here, I’ve come to the conclusion that, though small has its perks, small is not always better.

Some thoughts:

– Families like the one living in LA have the availability of an outdoor living space that offers both an escape from the home and a place for their child to play. Without that space, I would presume that the indoor space would feel more restrictive.

– Well-designed small homes with multi-use spaces and creative organizing often require money and design expertise. If not, it’s hard to make a small home look anything but cluttered. Am I the only one who wonders if some of these folks have storage outside of the home, perhaps in a garage, basement, or another facility? Where do they store their Christmas ornaments!

– Okay, I know that the Christmas ornament question is silly, but it brings up a good point. Although I think purging useless junk is a great idea and something we can all learn to do, there is a certain charm to things like family keepsakes, childhood memorabilia, and heirlooms that seem absent in a lot of super-small living spaces. I’m probably one of the least sentimental people on the planet, but I still can’t imagine throwing out my high school photos. I know, I’m probably being foolish…

– In a super-small home, entertaining is often out of the question. My husband and I like having people over for dinner and I couldn’t help but notice that many families living in small spaces have teeny-tiny kitchens with no more than 4-6 tables settings. What if they want to invite another family over for dinner? Do they have to order takeout and ask their guests to bring their own flatware? I threw a 30-person dinner party for my husband’s 30th birthday this past year. Frankly, there was no way in hell I could have done that in a 38o square foot home.

– Lastly, I know that it’s really hip to have only one child (two at the most), but my husband and I hope to be more than a “family of four.” It’s easy to share a small space with an infant, but imagine doing that with four teenagers. Not so practical. A big family, to a certain extent, necessitates a bit of privacy. I’m not suggesting something extravagant, but a little space is nice. Maybe a few doors to close?

So, how small is too small for you?
For your family?
What would you have to give up to live in 380 square feet?

Local Issues: Raising Kids in a Lead-Contaminated City

~ ejmcewan ~ 3 Comments

According to a news article from 29 Dec, 2009:

Ninety-three percent of the city’s housing stock was built before 1979, before lead was banned from paint. If the paint is intact, it does not pose a problem. However, when the paint chips and peels due to poor maintenance, dangerous toxins are exposed. Young children are particular susceptible because they touch the floor and windowsills, ingesting the poison, which can cause developmental and cognitive delays. (Read the complete article here.)

My husband and I live in a loft apartment in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in a building that was once a brewery. In many ways, the apartment is a dream: we have 15ft. ceilings, concrete floors, over 2000 sq/ft of open living space, and pay pennies per square foot compared to other folks in our city. In other ways, though, this apartment is a nightmare: it’s impossible to properly heat, the landlord neglects normal maintenance issues in the units and the building, and my husband has had to invest his own time and energy into the most basic of improvements on our place. It’s a trade-off. We get a ton of space for cheap, but we have to work to make it comfortable.

When our son was born, we considered leaving, but also made a plan for the work we’d need to do on our apartment if we stayed. Insulating the back of the apartment and building bedrooms in that section, closing/insulating the ceiling, painting the floor, and rebuilding the bathroom were all on the list. Frankly, the past year has gone by too quickly and we’ve been too tired to do all that work ourselves (not to mention unwilling to foot the bill).

The one issue, though, that keeps haunting us is the open ceiling, which is basically just the floorboards of the unit above us. Not only does it mean there is no sound barrier between us and our neighbors, but that everything from water spilt on the floor above to the everyday dust from walking has the potential to end up in our apartment. Needless to say, keeping our floor clean is like conquering Goliath. As soon as our son started crawling, the open ceiling and the dust the results became our primary concern. This brings me back to the issue of lead contamination.

At my son’s nine-month doctor’s visit, he was subject to a routine blood test to check for lead contamination in his blood. As any mother would be, I was happy to comply and, as any mother living in the City of Cincinnati should be, I was anxious to hear the results. Knowing that my apartment is A) built long before 1979 and B) owned by a man who is not particularly interested in making improvements left me concerned that not only the paint on our walls but also the everyday dust on the floor could be poison for my son.

A month later, I got a very calm and courteous voicemail message from a nurse named Donna:

“Ms McEwan, I’m calling about the lead test results for your son. First of all, I would like you to know that he is NOT lead poisoned, but the test did show signs of lead contamination in his blood and I’d like to speak with you about it.”

The next week involved a lot of phone calls, internet searches, panicky floor cleanings and “what if” conversations with my husband until we were able to have our home visit from the nurse and discuss the issue of lead in general and our apartment and baby specifically.

To make a long story short, my son’s lead contamination level at the time of the test was 8.3 migrograms per decileter of blood. A level of 10 is considered “poisoned,” and the City can do very little to help us unless my son has been poisoned (i.e. enforcing lead abatement laws with my landlord, inspecting my apartment to pinpoint the contamination). Thanks to the help of the nurse who visited us and took a sample, we know that the paint on our walls is not lead paint and so we can assume the paint dust falling from the ceiling is not contaminated either (since they appear to be a result of the same paint job). Because that was our assumed source of contamination, we’re totally stumped as to how our son could have ingested or inhaled the lead.

Some thoughts:

– The nurse told us that all the rehab work being done in OTR could be producing lead dust to such an extent that my son could have inhaled it. Could this have happened just walking up and down Vine St. in the past few months?

– I would assume our building has lead pipes somewhere down below. Although the pipes “should not” produce lead-contaminated water, what if they do? We’re going to purchase a cheap (and often unreliable) lead test to see.

– We’ve been very careful about the toys we’ve purchased for our son–where they’re made, what they’re made of, etc. But we’ve let some toys slip in from friends and family members. What if my son ingested lead from a cheap, foreign-made toy? We’re seriously considering getting rid of all of them, just in case.

– When asked to compare the severity of my son’s 8.3 lead level, the nurse said that a child can ingest one single lead-contaminated paint chip and their blood be poisoned to a level 20. So, there’s a chance that my son’s lead exposure was a one-time fluke that will soon be a memory.

So, until we get connected with the Lead Clinic at Children’s Hospital so our son can be watched closely for further exposure, my husband and I are playing detective to find the source and taking extra precautions to get our baby’s blood healthy (via extra iron and calcium and lots of hand-washing).

I’m curious if any other folks out there have had experience with lead abatement in your buildings or a lead scare with your own children.
Thoughts?
Ideas about the source?

Another point of interest: There are all sorts of theories and rumors around the environmental health world that suggest lead poisoning (and not poor parenting, education, or culture) as the primary explanation for the high presence developmental delays, ADD, and behavioral problems in poor urban youth. This theory holds weight, I believe, if you consider that many families in cities live in rental properties and not family-owned homes, do not have the financial means to abate their own living spaces, and may not have the education to know the dangers of lead and how to prevent lead poisoning in children.

For further information about lead poisoning, visit the Children’s Hospital website or read this Wikipedia article.

Getting Around: Baby-Friendly Biking

~ ejmcewan ~ Leave a comment

Although I’ve never been a “serious biker,” I have enjoyed periods of my life when I commuted either to school, to work, or on errands by bicycle. Here in Cincinnati, the downtown business district is easily navigable by bicycle (although the area surrounding downtown is riddled with hills that, I’ll admit, I have dared not climb).

I would like to resurrect the bike-riding part of myself, but there is one problem: a nine-month old baby.

I’ve been told that I’m crazy to think of letting my baby anywhere near my bicycle, let alone let him ride along with me. Still, I can’t help but fantasize about strapping him in a little bike seat and pedaling down the block for a cup of coffee or to the library–it seems a bit more efficient than walking with a stroller. Heck! I could pedal that thing clear across the river if I wanted to!

In many other parts of the world, family bicycling is not only acceptable, but it’s perfectly normal. A quick Google search online yields an amazing array of family bikes, some homemade from unlikely and *gasp* possibly unsafe materials and others fancy, special-order types that cost as much as a cheap car. I’m interested in what other people have discovered as the best option for commuting by bike with a child who is too young to pedal along.

Have you seen or used any of the products pictured below?
Do you “serious” riders have any suggestions for those of us who are ready to get back on a bike?

Most of us are familiar with traditional rear-mounted bike seats, but I’ve recently discovered the front-mounted variety which seem to make a lot more sense to me: the iBert Safe-T-Seat

Another familiar product, I grew up riding behind my father in something similar to this trailer (although I think my dad made ours himself): the Burley d’lite ST

This is a front-mounted spin on the traditional rear-mount trailer: the Zigo Leader

And a cooler version of the front-mount trailer: the trioBike

And what is, perhaps, my favorite family bike option from what I’ve seen: the Madsen Bucket

One question, though: If I saved my pennies to buy the Madsen Bucket cycle, where would I park the darn thing? Do you think it requires a parking space? Geez…

Until I can figure out where my son and I fit into the bicycling world, I fully support making our city more bike-friendly and I try to do my part to drive with cyclists in mind. Ride on, my friends. Ride on.

Go Play Outside!

~ ejmcewan ~ 2 Comments

My son’s generation (and possibly mine before his) has a problem: kids just don’t play outside anymore.

Either they have no place to play (no public greenspace, no accessible virgin or natural spaces, fenced backyards), they aren’t allowed to play (it’s too dangerous–whether realistic or imagined), or they have simply forgotten how to make their own play (their natural creativity has been dulled by contemporary toys and play-places).

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, coined the term “Nature-Deficit Disorder” for this problem. I saw Louv speak at a conference a few years back, after his book was first published. At the time, I thought he was a bit long on diagnosis and short on cure, but I do think that his diagnosis is spot-on. (Though I could do without the hype surrounding this “disorder,” the book is good reading for anyone who is now or will ever be responsible for the life of a child.)

One evening, when my boys were younger, Matthew, then ten, looked at me from across a restaurant table and said quite seriously, Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid? – Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

This isn’t just an urban phenomenon, of course. It crosses all socio-economic boundaries and is just as prevalent in the city kids who have never been to a working farm as it is in the rich suburban kids who don’t know what grass looks like when it hasn’t been mowed lately. Unless you are intentional about the way you expose your children to the natural world, there’s a large chance they will grow to prefer an hour with the latest video game over a hike in the woods or a chance to watch a thunderstorm on the front porch.

I am not a fanatic; I do not believe the world is going to Hell in a hand basket because some kids can’t identify trees. I do, though, think we have a problem on our hands and it’s affecting our kids’ health, creativity, and the very depth of their experience of life.

My husband and I revisit this issue often: how can we give our city-raised, concrete-walking kids a love for nature?
Without a backyard or nearby forest for exploration, how can we guarantee that our children grow up with a basic understanding of natural science (something that was once considered basic human knowledge and a matter of survival) and the beauty of nature’s rhythms (which births a sense of awe and wonder)?

And while surrounded by urban crime and blight, how can we give our children the wellness and bravery that naturally rises from experiences in natural spaces?

More so, how can we cultivate their young, creative minds when all our neighborhood offers are restrictive city streets and plastic, pre-fab public parks as play places?

In the past five or ten years, with an eco-renaissance of sorts in popular culture, the tides are beginning to shift and parents are becoming more intentional about recapturing the wild, outdoor experiences that used to be the norm for all children. Although purists are skeptical of the popularity of “going green,” this popularity has benefits. Namely, the opportunities that were once reserved for “weird” and eccentric parents are now being embraced by soccer moms and public schools alike.

Because this issue is so dear to me, I want to make it a regular topic on The Walking Green. Every couple weeks I’ll be introducing an opportunity, local organization, place, person, etc. as a resource for families who care about providing these important outdoor experiences for their children or the children they care for. Let me know if there’s something that you believe deserves some attention and I’ll try to feature it!

In the meantime, shut down your computer, grab the kids, and go play outside!