Your Baby Week 21
Your child continues to be more and more active each week. This week your little one may be more vocal than ever! As your child learns more about communication and language, you will begin to hear more and more two syllable sounds, such as “mama” or “dada” or even “poppop”
Even though moms want to hear mama first, and dads might be pulling for “dada”, there really is no particular reason for which sounds they utter first. And although the sounds may resemble words, your baby is just trying out sounds, not favoring one parent over another! These are the first exciting steps toward acquiring language. You may have heard that girls acquire language earlier then boys, and typically, this is true. In terms of development, gender can matter. In girls, the language areas of the brain develop before the areas used for spatial relations and for geometry, areas of cognition that little boys can excel at.
Similarly, you may have heard that infants raised in bilingual homes also acquire language later. Though it may take longer for these infants to speak both languages, they will speak them both well and they will quickly catch up to their monolingual peers! An infant’s brain actually has the ability to compartmentalize languages, so that learning one language doesn't inhibit a young child’s ability to excel at another. And though introducing two languages to your child as a baby may delay their speech, since they are trying to recognize and produce the sounds of words of two languages, bilingual children understand written language at an earlier age than monolingual children.
What’s the real deal with organic baby food?
It seems like more and more people are encouraging the consumption of organic foods and even organic baby foods. Is organic food actually better for your baby, and moreover, is it worth the high price tag?
Since organic baby foods are more expensive than regular baby food, it will definitely burn a hole in your pocket faster. A new baby comes with a myriad of added and sometimes hidden costs. If you can afford it, you may decide that organic foods are worth the added price.
Organic foods are grown without the use of pesticides. Organic meat is derived from animals that have been raised on organic feed and has not been treated with hormones or antibiotics. The standards for safe pesticide use in foods have been based on adult tolerance levels.
Though it would be nice to eat exclusively organic, that just isn’t practical for all families. But when selecting foods to feed your baby, it makes sense to try to avoid food with pesticides when possible, as your baby’s brain, immune, digestive and detoxification systems are immature and in a state of development. Also, pound for pound, babies eat two to four times more vegetables and fruits than adults, so they are therefore exposed to more possible contaminants. A bit of research can show you which foods are more likely to be exposed to pesticides, and which are less affected. In general, fruits and vegetables in which you eat the entire thing, like strawberries, versus those you peel to eat, like bananas, are the ones that are more worthwhile to buy organic.
