more manba babies

Many thanks to Vanderbilt med student and amateur photographer Meghan who shared her talents to take these portraits of some of our 9-month-old babies with their moms

the trash can that changed my life

What do a trash can, a multifuction laster jet printer and 82 one-inch binders have in common? They are relatively small things that are making me very very happy these days. For the last 11 months I've been running across the large clinic compound each and every time I want to print a single page. I've been walking to the office next door to throw out my trash and since July, I've been cramming piles of data collection forms in two overstuffed binders. Those days are done.

It's so often the small things that can feel like the biggest victories here. I had been asking for a trash can since I arrived last October - but it never materialized until a week ago. Delivery of the 1-inch binders to hold each child's data forms required a month of almost daily visits to the clinic's purchasing department. Once I decided to buy it, the printer was a relatively quick acquisition. I carried it from Chicago a couple weeks ago but had to do a bit of negotiation / playing dumb at the customs counter to avoid paying crazy high taxes on it.

I can't believe how much better I feel about facing the work day knowing that things are just a little more organized and efficient. This should probably give me some hope for the future. If a trash can can change my life, who knows what something a little bigger might do?

Tumblon.com

I've had a link to the trial version of Tumblon.com posted on this blog for the last six months or so. The full Tumblon.com site is now up and running. I encourage you all to head over and take a tour of what it has to offer.

You may be asking yourself "Why is a very single woman with no children of her own promoting a website aimed at parents of kids age 0-5?" Well, let me assure you that it's not some strange almost 30-year-old's maternal fantasy in same spirit as the Christian college girl who buys wedding magazines even though she has never had a boyfriend.

Here's why:

1. Because it's a great idea....and a free one at that. At tumblon.com you can track your children's developmental milestones, receive suggestions on books, toys and activities that are right for their stage, share photos with family and friends and use a simple template to create a family blog.

2. Because I love and respect the people behind it. Tumblon.com was developed by my college friend Graham along with another classmate of ours, Jon. Graham spent several years as a elementary school teacher in the New York public schools before becoming a "stay-at-home" dad for the last 3 years.He is passionate about promoting healthy environments for child development - from improved educational opportunities to practical parenting advice. Graham also happens to be married to one of my dearest friends and fellow Rebecca who is currently doing a fellowship a behavioral and developmental pediatrics in NYC.

3. Because I'm now the kind-of-official Tumblon.com nutrition blogger. Every few days I'm posting about infant and young child nutrition at Something to Chew On, one of the three featured blogs on the Tumblon.com site. It's a fun way for me to bring together three of my favorite things - nutrition, writing and giving advice. Of course, I need all of my friends and loved ones with actual parental experience to read and give constructive feedback on my somewhat theoretical postings.

While you are there you should check out the other two featured blogs - Essential Questions by Graham on parenting, child development and education and Honey for a Child's Heart by Glady's Hunt - a grandmother and well known advocate in certain circles for the importance of literature in family life.

Manba Babies

For more beautiful manba-eating babies click here.

a nutritionist, a rabbi anld a monk walk into a bar....

I've often told people that at parties I feel like a priest - once people hear that I'm a nutritionist they stop talking, look down at their plate, and then start to confess all of their diet-related "sins". More recently I've discovered that being a nutritionist also makes for interesting conversations on airplanes.

Yesterday when I was flying from Chicago to Miami, I got drawn into two nutritional counseling sessions with total strangers. The first was with a woman sitting across from me in the O'Hare food court. Not quite sure how it happened but we started talking about local food and buying organic. Our talk ended with me "referring" her to this helpful guide to the 12 best and 12 worst fruits and veggies in regard to pesticide load to help her prioritize her organic shopping. A couple hours later, as my plane was landing, the women next to me heard about my work in Haiti and asked if I had any advice about feeding her autistic son. Unfortunately that's an area I really know nothing about.

The most interesting on-board discussion I've ever had about my work was on another flight to Miami two years ago. I could feel the eyes of the man seated next to me looking over my shoulder at the proposal about nutrition and HIV/AIDS that I was writing on my laptop. Soon he started making some very specific comments about nutrition and HIV that made me wonder whether he had any personal experience with the disease. By the end of the flight he had shared the full story of his HIV diagnosis, of watching his closest friends die terrible deaths, of riding the ups and downs of new drugs and their side-effects, and about how being HIV-positive continues to affect his self-perceptions and overall health. He offered me the gift of a small glimpse of the realities of living with HIV/AIDS - something I see every day but don't even begin to understand.