What is Your Child Dreaming About?

    It has been a few weeks since I focused on a specific researcher/psychologist, so this Science Friday is going to focus on Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg was an incredibly intelligent American psychologist (he completed his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in just one year!) who became extremely interested in the work of Jean Piaget while completing his graduate degree. The majority of Kohlberg's research is an extension of work started by Piaget. Unfortunately, Kohlberg struggled with depression throughout life and drowned himself in a swamp at the age of 59.

     Those of you who have studied psychology or child development very likely have read about Kohlberg's stages of moral development.  But, for this post, I want to focus on one of his lesser own projects- his work on dreams.  Like his work on moral development, his studies of dreams were a continuation of Piaget's initial studies which established a that a child's understanding of dreams unfolds in set, pre-determined stages. Piaget and Kohlberg used the study of dreams as an extension of their work in overall cognitive development, namely in determining a child's ability to distinguish "real" from "unreal."

     Occasionally, Q-ball sleeps, and Daddy and I wonder what she dreams about. Babies are very well known for talking, crying, and moving about in their sleep. Unfortunately, infants are not well known for their ability to describe their experiences for scientific study. Thus, they are not included in Kohlberg's work which relied upon interviewing children about their dreams. But, other researchers have explored the topic of infant dreams.  It is known that newborns have much more active or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep than adults. (One-hundred percent of a fetus's sleep is REM, while only 25% of a 2-year old's is!)  During REM sleep, the brain is sorting through a person's past experiences through dreams.  Many researchers believe that newborns, then, are dreaming of being in mama's belly.  In fact, some researchers claim that SIDS is actually a result of an infant dreaming about life as a fetus as fetuses don't breathe. In very sharp contrast, some researchers don't believe that infants dream at all as some tests show little brain activity during infant REM sleep.  I've personally always like the theory in Dr. Karp's book that babies experience so many new ideas every day that they have lots and lots to process (i.e. dream) about.

    So, Piaget and Kohlberg's research starts with children who are about 4-5 years old.  Kohlberg defined an "invariant" six-stage sequence of dreaming that does not necessarily correspond to specific ages.  At first, a child believes dreams are 100% real. A 4-year old who was asked about a giant in her dream told Kohlberg, "It was really there but it left when I woke up. I saw its footprint on the floor." Soon, a child realizes dreams are not real, but happen outside of himself, as if he were watching a movie.  As time goes on, he knows that dreams are invisible, originate inside himself, and, finally, that dreams happen completely within them.  This full understanding of dreams typically occurs around age 6 or 7. (For those familiar with Piagetian theory, this corresponds to the onset of concrete operations.

Photo credit: spaciousplanet.com

    In line with other Piagetian developments, Kohlberg believed that the understanding of dreams is something that a child develops completely independently. What parents teach or explain to him about dreams, Kohlberg theorizes, has no impact on a child's understandings of his dreams.  Kohlberg supports this position by explaining that it is very unlikely that all parents would present the six-stages to their children; yet, all children Kohlberg researched experienced all six stages.  Additionally, and this was my favorite part of the study, Kohlberg conducted his dream interview of the Atayal people, an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan most known for their tattoos. Adults in this tribe believe that dreams are real.  Still, despite their teachings, the children within the tribe still experienced Kohlberg's six-stages of dream understanding.  But, when these children reach Kohlberg's final stage, the impact of the adults in their understandings starts to emerge, and they all believe their dreams are real. 

    What to take from this? Mainly, that your child will outgrow any night terrors or other thoughts of dreams. But, according to Kohlberg, it will happen in his own time. While your child absolutely needs your comfort, your reassurances that dreams are not real will not help speed up his understanding.

Sources:

Christos, G.A. (1995). Infant dreaming and fetal memory: a possible explanation of sudden infant death syndrome. Medical Hypothesizes, 44(4). 243-50.

Crain, W. (2011). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Boston: Prentice Hall.

Dreams and babies (2012). Retrieved from http://www.professorshouse.com/Family/Babies/Articles/Dreams-and-Babies/ 

Graz, D. (2009). Lawrence Kohlberg: An introduction. Farmington Hills, MI: Barbara Budrich Pubslishers.

Breast Milk for Your Sick Baby

  Last Saturday night, Q-ball exhibited her first signs of the common cold- lots of sneezing and a little coughing. I hoped it was nothing as her demeanor, appetite, and sleeping habits were all pretty normal.  By Sunday night, though, it was clear that we were facing our first sick baby. Fortunately, it was a mild case- mainly just congestion with a reduced appetite for solids.  Her appetite for nursing, however, definitely increased.  Sunday night she literally nursed from 11 pm until 5:30 am.  But, on Monday, she was as full of life as ever, but still rather congested.  Using an eye-dropper, I was able to get a little breast milk up her nose, and I believe that it cleared up some of the stuffiness.  She continued to mainly play with, rather than eat, solids, but showed no diminished interest in breastfeeding.  I believe that breastfeeding helped us ward off sickness until 10 months and ensured that our first illness was as mild as it was.  While I am fairly knowledgeable about the wonders of breast milk, based upon our experiences over the last few days, I wanted to look into some research to answer the following questions:

1. How does breast milk help prevent illness and heal a sick baby?
2. Do babies tend to nurse more during illness?  And, if so, why?
3. How does breast milk clear congestion?

How does breast milk help prevent illness and heal a sick baby?

     I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that this answer involves quite a bit of hard science.  Here, I've taken the hard science and attempted to break it down for the political scientist.

    Mama initially helps strengthen her baby's immune system during gestation.  Through the placenta, she provides her baby with antibodies (a.k.a- immunoglobulin, a protein the immune system uses to attack antigens such as bacteria and viruses.)  After birth, Mama continues to give baby antibodies through her milk.  Researchers have uncovered some ways in which breast milk strengthens a baby's immunity, thereby preventing illness and, should illness occur, hasten healing times.  

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

   One researcher states breast milk contains "direct acting antimicrobal factors." This might be breast milk's coolest trick (other than inducing sleep...)  Antibodies attack antigens by binding with them (see image), preventing the antigen from attaching to any bodily tissue.  Mama actually produces antibodies specific for her baby.  When she breathes in, eats, or even "catches" bacteria from baby's saliva during a breastfeeding session certain viruses and bacteria in the baby's immediate environment, her body begins to produce the antibodies needed to combat these bad guys.  She then provides baby the same protection through her milk. 

    The antibodies that Mama makes are also specially suited for baby in other ways.  (1) These antibodies know to ignore the "good" bacteria in baby's developing digestive system, but have been found to specifically attack Salmonella, E. coli, poliovirus, and rotavirus, just to name a few.  (2) These antibodies do not produce inflammation, which could cause harm to body tissue.  (3) The production of antibodies changes as baby ages, meeting his needs at the time.  So, no matter what the child's age, a nursing mother can provide the correct amount of antibodies.  For a newborn, this means that a teaspoon of breast milk has literally millions of antibodies. While an older infant has less concentrated antibodies as he likely nurses more often. In the case of a nursing toddler, the concentration of antibodies again increasing as nursing likely takes place less often. 

    In addition to antibodies, breast milk provides even more ways to prevent illness.  It contains Oligosaccharides (a type of sugar) which mimics the binding sites that bacteria use in baby's tummy.  So, instead of attaching to baby's tummy, the bad bacteria goes to this sugar chain.  Next, breast milk contains lactoferrin, a molecule that bonds with two atoms of iron.  Many bacteria live off of iron, so by reducing the available iron, lactoferrin stops the growth of these bacteria.  This method of illness prevention is especially effective against Staph. in newborns.  Finally, breast milk, especially colostrum, contains white blood cells which directly attack infections.

   Researchers have also found that breast milk serves as an "immunomodulating agent" which means that it helps strengthen and build the immune system. It seems that breast milk actually helps baby in the long-term, that is, beyond the period for which the baby is breastfed. These findings are rather recent, and research is still being conducted into the hows and whys. But, it has been seen that breast-fed babies produce greater blood concentrations of proteins which attack viruses, even after breast feeding has ceased.  Additionally, evidence has found that breast-fed babies have produce more anti-bodies as a result of vaccinations.  Finally, these babies begin to produce their own antibodies in larger amounts than non-breast-fed babies.

Whew!  Keep reading!  The other answers are not quite as long!

Do babies tend to nurse more during illness?  And, if so, why?

   Yes!  Research has found that effective pain relief for infants includes skin-to-skin contact, suckling, and sweet tastes- all factors involved in breast feeding!  Researchers found that infants who were breastfed before, during, or after receiving immunizations demonstrated decreased heart rates, less crying, and less painful expressions than babies who were not breastfed.  It seems that the fat and proteins in milk actually block pain fibers from running down the spinal cord.  Pretty amazing! 

How does breast milk clear congestion?

   Truthfully, I couldn't find anything scientific on this topic. Just stories of mothers sharing their success stories.  I guess it's a case where we have to trust mother's intuition.  I can only assume that it works in ways similar to a saline rinse. Again, I really didn't find any hard science on the topic.  Just general statements around loosening mucus in the airways. 

So, in conclusion, breast milk is pretty incredible for sick babies!  In times where I'm exhausted from nursing her every two hours, I'll be thankful that I'm working to avoid having a sick baby

Sources:

Efe, E. (2007). The use of breast-feeding for pain relief during neonatal immunization injections. Applied nursing research, 20(1), 10-16.

Goldman, A. (1993). The immune system of human milk: antimicrobial, antiinflammatory and immunomodulating properties. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal,8, 664-71.

Newman, J. (n.d). How breastmilk protects newborns.  Retrieved from http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/HowBreastmilkProtectsNewborns.pdf

Baby Hair Growth

        Thanks to my wonderful friend and (almost) Doctor K., I was able to get hold of the article that discusses infant hair growth.  I was interested in this topic because nearly everyone I see comes and tells me what a "beautiful baby boy" I have. Even when she is dressed in pink. Well, everyone, Q-ball is a girl. Apparently, her short hair leads people to assume she is a boy. Yet, when I correct these very friendly well-wishers, they are quick to tell me that their daughter also had short hair "until she was almost two!"  (Leading me to wonder why they are quick to assume that a short-haired baby is a boy..) So, I wondered, what is normal for infant hair growth?

    Here's what I learned...

Development of hair in the human fetus.

• Hair actually starts forming very early in the life of a fetus- at 8 weeks the hair bud is developing and by 10 weeks hair follicles are formed in a very, very precise pattern.  All of your hair follicles are perfectly, evenly spaced!
• No new hair follicles are formed after birth.  
• The number of hair follicles a person has largely depends on race.  African-Americans have 100,000-150,000 hair follicles; Asian-Americans have 90,000-120,000; and Caucasians have 100,000-150,000.
• At 15 weeks, the hairs start to protrude through the skin, always at a slight angle. 
• Throughout the rest of gestation, the fetus hair goes through two cycles of shedding all hair and then regrowing.  These cycles are typically slower in infants with darker complexions, resulting in more hair at birth.
• Eight to twelve weeks after birth, hair goes through its final phase, often resulting in nearly complete hair loss.
• At birth and up to about 8 weeks after, isolated areas of baldness are normal.  
• Hair typically grows from the forehead to the nape of the neck.
• At birth, infants have vellus hair which is very thin and silky and very lightly colored.  Between 3 to 7 months, intermediate hair develops.  Finally, by 2 years, terminal hair develops which is like grown-up hair.
• Hair color is the result of melanin, the same pigments that cause the color of skin.  These pigments travel down to the hair bulb and become part of the hair shaft, helping form the hair color.  
• Only two pigments are responsible for all hair color: Eumelanin forms brown to black hair, and pheomelanin forms yellow-blond to red hair.
• Infant hair growth varies a lot between infants.  But, for each infant, the hair length for the entire head should be pretty consistent .
• Most babies develop hair whorls- a clockwise spiral of hair growth.  56% of hair whorls are located left of the middle of the head, likely because the left side of the brain is slightly larger.
• I liked this quote from a medical journal, "In the newborn periods, unruly hair that sticks out straight despite attempts at grooming is normal."

     So, based on this information, I assume that Q-ball will develop her beautiful, girly locks around age 2- which is exactly what Q-ball's well-wishers state!  Experienced parents could have written this article, no doubt! 

Did your newborn lose all of his hair? When did you baby's hair finally start growing?

Source:

Furdon, S. & Clark, D. (2003) Scalp hair characteristics in the newborn infant.  Advances in neonatal care. 3(6), 286-296.

A Baby's First Teeth

Are my two front (bottom) teeth! That's right!  Q-ball's bottom front teeth emerged simultaneously about 10 days ago.  So, I wanted to share some fun or interesting facts about infants' teeth.  Also, it's the holidays, so I'm taking a little bit of a break with this Science Friday post. :) 

• The technical term for baby teeth is deciduous teeth (just like the trees that loose their leaves.)
• Streptococcus sanguis (a.k.a. the bacteria that causes dental plaque and, sometimes cavities)  is only found in the human mouth after the first teeth appear.  In the infants studied, the bacteria was found in 100% of infants by 3 months after their first teeth appeared. 
• The vast majortiy of infants get the bacteria from their mamas.  This is especially true for daughters (88%  of girls share the identical bacterium as their mamas, while 53% of boys do.)  There is no evidence that infants receive the bacterium from their fathers.
• Some babies are born with teeth (these are called natal teeth), while others develop teeth within the first month of life (called neonatal.)  Natal and neonatal teeth are more common in babies with cleft palate or other syndromes that are present at birth.  But, the teeth are not always a cause for alarm.  It is not necessary to remove natal or neonatal teeth, but they may be removed if they disrupt feedings. 
• Low-birth weight babies appear to have increased problems with their baby teeth, to include being more porous and containing more "subsurface lesions."
• There is no evidence that breastfeeding causes an increase in cavities, and some studies have found that breast milk can help prevent cavities.  But, nighttime snacking can be a cause of cavities.
  

No, this isn't Q-ball- my teeth picture attempts were a fail!

Q-ball only exhibited minor pain with the emergence of these first two teeth.  However, I suspect that her one or both of her top teeth are now coming in, and she does appear to be exhibiting some discomfort.  I am currently giving her a wet washcloth that has been frozen for comfort, but I have also been debating purchasing a baltic amber necklace.  However, I can't find any hard research to support their pain relief claim. But, it seems lots of mothers have had success.

Have you used a baltic amber necklace? Do you think they work?  Do you have any other recommendations for teething pain?

Sources: 

Carlsson, J., Grahnén, H., Jonsson, G., & Wikner S. (1970). Establishment of Streptococcus sanguis in the mouths of infants. Archives of oral biology, 15(12). Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0003996970900051

Caufield, P.W. & Yi, L. (1995). The fidelity of initial acquisition of mutans Streptococci by infants from their mothers. Journal of Dental Research, 74(2). Retrieved from http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/74/2/681.short

Le Leche League International. (2010). The womanly art of breastfeeding. Ballantine Books: NY.

Noren, J. (1983).  Enamel structure in deciduous teeth from low-birth-weight infants. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica. Retrieved from http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00016358309162347

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptococcus_sanguinis

http://www.impcna.com/intranet/Nelson%20Pediatric/Newborn/NatalNeonatalTeeth%5B1%5D.pdf