Feeding Yourself, Feeding Your Baby

Feeding your baby is such a special time in your family’s life! I have four children. When my daughter was born, she weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces. Today, as I write, she is 11 years old and weighs over 80 pounds. All of the materials for this dramatic increase in size have come from the food she has eaten.

When you give children good nutrition, you are giving them something very tangible. You are giving them the nutrient building blocks that literally become the eyes you look into, the knees that get scraped, the bones that support their growing bodies, their inquisitive, curious brains, and the hearts that pump quietly night and day down through the years. Good childhood nutrition is a powerful, positive gift that helps to prevent coronary heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer (in fact probably cancer of every kind), high blood pressure, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, kidney failure, blindness, and a host of other diseases.

To help illustrate how important this is, I’d like to mention something jarringly different: cigarette smoking!

With all that we know about tobacco, how can someone still smoke? Easy. They’re enticed by big business, they enjoy it, it’s cool, and it’s very, very habit forming. Now for the shock — poor nutritional choices cause every bit as much cancer, death, disability, and chronic disease as do cigarettes. The modern American diet is public health threat number one. With all that we know about junk food, how can someone still eat it? Easy. They’re enticed by big business, they enjoy it, it’s cool, and it’s very, very habit forming.

This month I’m leading a course at   WebMD University called,   Feeding Yourself, Feeding Your Baby. Joining me are such notable experts  as Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD, author of   The American Dietetic Association’s Pregnancy Nutrition: Good Health for You  and Your Baby, Ellyn Satter, MS, RD, CICSW, BCD, author of Baby  of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense, Marilu Henner, author of  , Healthy Kids: Help Them Eat Smart and Stay Active — for Life! Barbara  Luke, ScD, MPH, RD, author of   Program Your Baby’s Health, Paula M. Elbirt, MD, author of   Dr. Paula’s Good Nutrition Guide for Babies,  Toddlers, and Preschoolers:  Answers to Parent’s Most Common  Questions Plus Help for Coping with Fussy Eaters, and others. I will  be answering questions on a   special discussion board and on   chats held April 16, 23, 30 at 9 a.m. PT / noon ET.

Already the year 2002 has brought some of the biggest advances in infant nutrition I’ve seen in my entire career. I’m looking forward to sharing those with you, as well as discussing whatever questions you may have.