About Howard Chilton

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So far Howard Chilton has created 50 blog entries.

Breastfeeding to Sleep

By |February 11th, 2016|

Just lately I’ve had a question from a couple of mothers through email and Facebook asking me what to do as their babies are now 6 months old and they are still exclusively falling asleep at the breast.

A paediatrician to one of them told her to stop this, and the other was told that ‘feed, play, sleep’ was some kind of gold standard to work towards as early as possible.

It’s perfectly okay for babies to continue falling asleep at the breast if you are both happy with it. There is nothing essential about separate sleeping and nothing biologically important […]

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Christmas Colic Time Is Here!

By |December 5th, 2015|

OOh no, Christmas is coming! Too much food and drink,  Jingle Bells,  presents under the tree.  And lots of unsettled, howling babies. Most babies loath Christmas. Too many turkeys (like old dear Uncle Tom), parties, noise and excitement with mother’s attention sadly diverted towards feeding everyone and what to buy Auntie Susan.

New babies have emerged from a calm, dark womb where on a particularly interesting day, they will see the umbilical cord floating past. To a foetus that’s a big day!

At birth they are suddenly ejected into a busy world of lights, faces, and strange objects; of sounds and noise; […]

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 8

Breastmilk as a painkiller

By |September 15th, 2015|

“II am a breastfeeding, first time mum of a lovely and funny 7 1/2 month old. Cameron is teething like crazy (yet to get any chompers but all the signs are there) and we have been breastfeeding like crazy at night. I’m very interested in what is known about breastmilk as an analgesic but haven’t been able to find very much information on it. I was hoping you may be interested in sharing some on your blog some time.

Thanks for your science based and heartfelt based approach to baby rearing! We love it!!!”

What an interesting question! Particularly as I […]

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 4

Toxins in Breastmilk

By |August 24th, 2015|

 

II’ve had a question about the article that appeared in the ‘The Australian’ recently about the ‘build-up of chemicals in breastmilk’.

It comes from a report from Grandjean et al in the Environmental Science & Technology Journal on August 20th. See this reference for the press-release. It also contains the reference for the original article.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/…/breastfeeding-may-expose-inf…/

Prof Philippe Grandjean is a world expert on the issue of industrial toxins in our environment. After a lifetime of work in the field in 2013 he published a book on the subject :“Only One Chance, How Environmental Pollution […]

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Time to Cease Breastfeeding

By |August 5th, 2015|

Gems from ILCA 2015 (No.1)

1

As it is World Breastfeeding Week I think I should relate a gem from the International Lactation Consultants Association conference held last week in Washington DC.

  • Kathy Dettwyler, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Delaware gave a great talk about the time of weaning (meaning ‘ceasing breastfeeding’ not adding solids).

Unencumbered by culture, societal and peer pressure, how long does biology tell us to breastfeed our young?

It seems reasonable to compare the timing of weaning in non-human primates, but as they have different lifespans, growth rates and times to mature we need to look at this […]

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 11

Important Things About Your Baby’s Skin

By |May 19th, 2015|

NNow that the first few weeks of new grandfatherhood have passed, during which kissing my granddaughter was not advisable (see my previous blog “Six Guidelines for Grandparents”), after three months she became old enough to cope with germs from other than her parents. So now I can succumb to the yumminess of her chubby cheeks.

The thing is all babies are designed to be kissable, and huggable. It’s all part of the kindchenschema, a word that describes the face of a baby that we intrinsically find appealing at a very deep level. The big head, […]

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Babies and Whooping Cough

By |March 30th, 2015|

 

 

Whooping cough is a terrible disease in babies

and it is the under-1 year-olds that are the most severely affected with nearly 1% of the infected dying from it.

The incubation period is between 4 – 21 days and during this time it is highly contagious with up to 80% of the unvaccinated catching it.

The main reservoir of infection is in adolescents and young adults (whose personal immunity has worn off). But for all of us (even if we get the native infection) the antibody level (hence our immunity to the disease) wanes over a couple of years.

The […]

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 8

More Guidelines for Grandparents

By |January 30th, 2015|

 

With my burgeoning experience as a grandparent and the response to the recent ‘Six Guidelines for Grandparents’ ( www.babydoc.com.au/six-guidelines-grandparents/ ) I’ve thought of a few more, which I hope will help the older generation tread the fine line of assisting the new parents without interfering.

1)            Names. You named your babies, now leave it to them to name theirs. If they want to call him T-Kool…. smile, nod and don’t say a word!

2)            Always ask the mother whether you can touch or pick up the new baby. As a grandparent you don’t have the right (and mum’s […]

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 2
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