always a warm glow to being missed!
> I can't remember the status of the "avoid cabbages and greens
> that might cause gas" advice. I vaguely recall that scientific research
> indicated it was rubbish, that such thinking failed to understand how milk
> was produced in the first place. etc. That is, it's not as if the gaseous
> properties of broccoli will be delivered directly to your milk. However, I
> can't recall exactly what the deal was.
>
> At any rate, if it's true that science has discredited that one, I'll bet
> you, uh, the Lagavullen Max owes me, that 60% of parents (especially women)
> take it seriously. :)
Thing is that there's always enough of a mix of empirical truth in such beliefs that, at critical times, we fall back on them. So, maybe there's no pass through of the 'gas', but if I recall (been a long time) in the case of some greens there's a pass through of the colour -- I recall screaming in horror when I had to do the diapers (yeah, we used old-fashioned washable diapers; bad policy, as once the little terror got used to it, he absolutely refused to wear the disposables) and there was all this green shit. And as for the 'gas', all parents have had their share of troubles with the colic as to strike the fear in all; in our case, we'd one who had the daily evening colic, which lasted for three months from birth, and there was nothing for it but to cuddle the poor dear for those couple of hours as he did much better held upright than lying down.
Re problems with old-fashioned cotton diapers and disposables, the same happened with food. As he got into non-milk food, that was prepared from scratch, and then there was no choice, because in a crunch, he wouldn't touch any of the instant stuff -- just spat it right back out.
> We owe the pioneers in the tradition out of which Grace works. They forged
> a whole different way to give birth in this country which was, when I heard
> it sitting at my mother's and her friend's feet as a very little girl,
> horrifying to me. By the time my mother had my little sister, feminist
> grass roots movements had been building enough momentum to change things
> drastically.
Didn't mean any disrespect to Grace. A bit sad that it's not caught on more. Just saw a report the other day of the very high proportion of caesarean's.
kj