Book Review and Giveaway—"Meet Annie"

Lisa Morguess who blogs over at Life as I Know It also has another blog titled, Turn the Page where she exclusively writes book reviews. She is an excellent and fair reviewer so I was pleased that she agreed to write a review of Meet Annie by Heather J. Scharlau-Hollis.

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In this short and sweet book aimed at young children, we meet Annie who is just like you and me in all the ways that count to little kids: she likes to play with her toys, she likes to splash around in her swimming pool, and she sometimes gets in trouble. But Annie is also a little bit different - she has Down syndrome. Although the book doesn't explain what Down syndrome is, it touches on the fact that Annie looks a little bit different and learns a little bit differently, and that everyone is a little bit different in their own way, and those differences make us who we are. My favorite aspect of the book is how the author invites and encourages its audience to identity with Annie by asking a question at the end of each page:

"Sometimes my zipper doesn't zip right. I ask Dad for help. Do you ever need help?"

"Sometimes I cry when I get scared. Do you ever get scared?"

Encouraging empathy and compassion without resorting to condescension or stereotypes, this is a wonderful book that should have a place on everyone's bookshelf who is touched by a child with Down syndrome.

Giveaway
The author of Meet Annie, Heather J. Scharlau-Hollis, will send a signed copy of the book to one lucky winner. To enter the drawing simply leave a comment below by Wednesday April 18th. Good luck!

Purees, the First Foods

Stage two feeding is so exciting... it’s the introduction of real foods. Mushed up, watered down pureed foods, but cereals, fruits, and vegies just the same. Really, who isn’t totally psyched to run out and buy that first box of rice cereal and a couple teeny tiny jars of apples and sweet potatoes?

You don’t have to limit yourself to the baby food aisle though... you could make your own purees. It is easy and cheap. It is also healthier since the high heat processing in commercial baby food depletes the nutrient levels in those jarred foods. The best reason to make your own is because it tastes better and it tastes like real food... the real food your baby will be feeding herself in a few months.

A Few Guidelines
When introducing a new food, wait three to four days before introducing another. Having your baby eat the new food for three days will help you to figure out if your baby is going to react to it. Allergies will show up as a rash, hives, diarrhea, gas, congestion, or puffy, watery eyes.

Always cook vegies and fruits before you puree them, with the exception of bananas and avocados. Why? Because it makes the food easier for your baby to fully digest it.

What is a proper serving size for a baby? The first couple times you introduce a new food, do not give your baby more than two tablespoons per serving. Once you know your baby is not allergic to the food, you can feed her a serving somewhere between an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup, which is 2–4 tablespoons, or 1-2 ounces. However, if your baby turns away or acts disinterested, trust that she is done eating and do not push her to eat more. In this beginning phase of eating real food, it is more about exposure and practice rather than nutrition and calories. Your baby is still getting her nutritional and caloric needs met through nursing or bottle feeding.

To make some of these recipes it would be helpful to have a steamer basket and a food processor of some sort... a blender will work too.

5 Yummy First Purees
Baby Rice (15 servings, can freeze) B&T
1/4 cup white rice (short-grain like Basmati)
breastmilk or formula
Rinse the rice under cold water. Put it in a pan with just enough water to cover it. Bring it to a boil and stir it. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Puree the rice in a blender with the breast/formula milk until smooth.

Pear Puree (2-3 servings, can freeze) B&T
1 small, ripe pear
2 tbsp. water
Wash, peel, core and cut up the pear. Put the pear chunks in a pan with the water and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes until the pear is tender. Cool and then puree using a little of the cooking liquid.

Carrot Puree (1-2 servings, can freeze) B&T
1 small carrot
1-2 tbsp water
Wash, peel (or scrape) and slice the carrot. Steam the carrot for 10 minutes. Cool and then puree in a blender with a little of the cooking water.

First Applesauce (8-10 servings, can freeze) MM
3 Medium sized Golden Delicious apples (or other low acid mild apples)
water as needed
Wash, core and slice apples but leave the skin on during cooking. Place slices in a steamer basket and set in a pot of already boiling/steaming water. Cover tightly and steam for 10-12 minutes (add more water as necessary). When the apples pierce easily they are done. Set them aside to cool and save the cooking water. Scrape the skins off and puree the apples with a tablespoon of cooking liquid for each apple.

Avocado Puree (1-2 servings, doesn’t freeze so you can eat the extras ;-) B&T
1/2 small avocado
Peel the avocado and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh and cut out any dark spots or hard spots. Mash until it is smooth and creamy. Serve right away.

5 Combo Purees
Pear, Apple, and Banana Combo (4 servings, doesn’t freeze) HB
2 tbsp. pear puree (see above)
2 tbsp. apple puree (see above)
1/2 small ripe banana, mashed
Mix all three ingredients together and serve immediately.

Broccoli and Pea Puree (2-3 servings, can freeze but is better fresh) B&T
3 broccoli florets
small handful of fresh or frozen peas
a little breastmilk or formula
Steam the broccoli for 7-10 minutes, adding the peas 1 or 3 minutes (depending on if they are fresh or frozen) before broccoli is done. Cool and then puree in the processor, adding a little bit of breast/formula milk to counter any possible bitterness from the broccoli.

Butternut Squash and Pear (4 Servings, can freeze) HB
1 medium butternut squash
1 ripe pear
Peel the squash, cut it and take out the seeds. Chop it up and steam the pieces for about 12 minutes. Peel, core, and chop the pear. Add it to the steamer pot and cook for 5 minutes longer, or until the squash is tender. Puree in the processor.

Mashed Banana Flambe (2 servings, doesn’t freeze) HB
1 tsp. butter
1small banana, peeled and sliced
a pinch of cinnamon
2 tbsp orange juice, fresh if available
Melt the butter in a small skillet. Stir in the sliced banana, sprinkle with cinnamon and saute for 2 minutes. Pour in the orange juice and cook 2 minutes longer. Mash with a fork and serve once it has cooled enough.

Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon (7 servings, can freeze) HB
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
pinch of cinnamon
3 tbsp breastmilk or formula
Put sweet potato chunks in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about a half hour or until tender. Drain and puree in processor with cinnamon and breast/formula milk until smooth.

Baby Cookbooks
These recipes come from a few of my favorite baby cookbooks. I can’t fully endorse any of these books because in each there are some suggestions that I personally don’t agree with for babies with Down syndrome or typical kids, but every one of them has an array of super recipes and food ideas for little ones.

Mommy Made, Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby & Toddler by Martha and David Kimmel (MM)

The Healthy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel (HB)

Wholesome Meals for Babies & Toddlers, Parragon Books (B&T)

Communication 101

Parents look forward to hearing that first word... “dada” or perhaps “mama”. And when it comes, we are thrilled because we know that our child has connected words to objects, and that the rest of our spoken language is just a matter of time. But it is important to remember that speech is just one component of communication, and usually the last piece to be mastered.

The first communications between mom and baby begin at birth with cries, rooting, facial expressions, and eye contact (and maybe even before birth since we know that a newborn can recognize his mother's voice). While these first methods of communication come naturally, for babies with Down syndrome the presentation might be fainter or appear later than expected. For example, the smile is one of the first communication signals a baby gives us and it is important to realize that babies with Ds might smile later, less frequently, and less boldly than other children. The difference between a parent’s expectations and a baby’s skills can disrupt the mom’s ability to interpret her baby’s signals, making it harder for a harmonious relationship to develop.

What’s a Mom To Do
Like we do with all new love relationships, spend time studying your baby’s expressions and movements. Become sensitive to whatever communiques your baby is giving and respond to them accordingly with both words and gestures. It won’t be long before your baby figures out that he is the cause of these positive results. And so begins what we call “communicative intent”, using communication with the intention of affecting the environment.

Irene Johansson, author of “Language Development in Children with Special Needs”, suggests tactile intervention in the form of newborn massage several times a day. This provides the opportunity for the caregiver to communicate with the baby while the baby is experiencing a physical stimulation that heightens his awareness.

Requesting/Protesting
It is imperative to encourage a baby’s desire to communicate. The best way to do this is to be very responsive to him when he initiates any of the natural communiques of requesting and protesting. Don’t let him cry it out or make him wait if you can help it. Reward him with a smile, caress, or song whenever he is looking at you, kicking his feet or reaching out. Don’t worry about spoiling your baby by always giving quick and direct feedback. You cannot spoil a newborn with too much responsiveness or attention. And patience is a virtue that can be practiced after your child learns that communication is power.

Gazing
Babies learn a lot about communicating by watching you do it. Research has shown that babies are predisposed to face watching. You can encourage your baby to look at you by keeping him close to eye-level in a carrier, or in a babyseat that is up on a table. If your baby doesn’t have the strength or coordination to watch you, hold her in a position that gives good support to her head and neck. While you are gazing at each other imitate any facial movements she makes, or stimulate her by making noises and expressions. Babies with Ds initiate less often, so take the lead and start a “conversation” whenever you get the chance.

Turn taking
Another important part of communicating is taking turns. You can work on this with your baby by pausing while speaking to him, as if you were listening to his response. You can also practice turn taking by shaking a rattle and then helping your baby to shake his rattle, back and forth several times. This builds the expectation of response, teaching your baby that communication results in response, or rather having your needs and wants met in some way.

Performative Communication
Performative communication is defined as the “speaker’s” deliberate, conscious, and goal-oriented use of communication (speech, signing, picture cards, body language, etc.)(Snyder 1978). Irene Johansson’s book is a week by week program for providing your baby with communication intervention that begins at birth. She makes a great case for why you would want to use her model (which incorporates massage, structured sounds, movement, and more) to help your baby develop strong communication skills.

I did not have this book when Summer was a newborn, and it wouldn’t have mattered because I do not have the discipline to follow such a structured program. However, that said, I have used some of the suggested program for the last year, and believe that for a caregiver who can do it, there would be worthwhile benefit.

Your Turn
Have you posted about a communication topic? Let me know and I will link to you.

To Love Endlessly: Communication
Face the Sunshine: Sign on...

Picture credit: Marissa from To Love Endlessly
John Michael from Monkey Musings

First Library Additions

I love books. I spend a lot of time in the bookstore and at Amazon. My kids love books too and my baby with Down syndrome is no exception. Right in the beginning I realized that I needed to be more intentional with my book purchases for her. Suddenly I could see how overwhelming the pictures were, how senseless the content was, how difficult to manage the tiny pop up windows were...

When infants can’t understand the words yet and have no schema for the pictures, any old book will not do. Here are some ideas of what to look for in a good baby book:

--A single image on a page without other distracting imagery. Pictures with high contrast, particularly black and whites, are the best.
--Pictures of baby faces, recognizable body parts, or objects/actions common to a baby’s day. Books that show babies doing things.
--Books that isolate colors, that have textures to touch, or that teach concepts like object permanence.
--Books with good cadence content (songs or rhythmic language) and books with word repetition.

Lots of times a book will meet one or more of those qualifications but have too much detracting from it...too many images on a page, blended colors, and things you don’t want to show your baby (like lots of unhealthy treat foods).

The following books make good first reads (and second, third, fourth, etc., because you know you’re gonna end up reading those same favorites over and over and over.)

Recommendations for Stage 1 Books



Brown Bear—Eric Carle 7.95  One bright picture per page (until the end) and simple repetitive language. I read this book out-of-synch so that when I am saying “I see the animal and its color” I am on the page with that animal. I think this is less confusing for a new baby.

Today is Monday—Eric Carle 6.99  Wonderful high contrast colored pictures and repetitive language. Babies love to stare at the pages in this book.

Peek-a-who—Nina Laden 6.95  High color contrast pictures, simple rhyming language, and object-permanence teaching peek-a-boo pages. Check out Ria’s in-depth review of this book.

baby! talk!—Penny Gentieu 1.29 (used)  This is one of my all time favorites. Its full of babies doing baby stuff like playing “So big”, “Peek-a-boo”, and “Patty-cake”. Each left page has a single baby doing something and each right page has a group of babies doing it. There are lots of talking points (Look at that baby drink her bottle) and lots of baby games to do. It is out of print but buy it used or borrow it from the library, its worth it.

Moo Ba La La La—Sandra Boynton 5.99  Classic Boynton when she was great. I gave our copy away in PICU one day and ended up replacing it with the super-sized version. It is just a fun, rhyming book that babies seem to really enjoy.

Rainbow Colors Peekaboo—DK Publishing 6.99  This is a great book that has simple pictures, isolated colors, textures for touching, and fold-out pages for teaching peek-a-boo. It is part of a peekaboo series and not all of these books by DK meet the qualifications of a good baby book. Another good one is Farm Peekaboo.

Hush Little Baby—Marla Frazee 7.00  My favorite lullaby. The pictures aren’t great for a baby but the words are the originals. It makes a nice bedtime song.

Look at Baby’s House—Peter Linenthal 6.99  Black and white delight! This book is only black and white and has simple content about a baby’s day. Babies are captivated by the pictures.

I Can, Can You?—Marjorie W. Pitzer 8.76  This book has pictures of young children with Down syndrome doing everyday activities. It is a little “old” for a newborn but it is important for your baby to see children in books who resemble her.

Little Angel—Sandra Magsamen 7.99  A baby should hear this (poem) story everyday. It is a beautiful message about being wanted and loved. (Heck somebody please read this to me at bedtime!) The pictures are just ok, the finger puppet is cute, but it's the words that make this a must have book.

(Not pictured) Baby Talk—DK Publishing 4.99  A simple book of babies doing everyday things like eating or sleeping. Each left page has a single picture of a baby and each right is a colored fold out that hides the same baby doing what the words say on the fold out. It teaches object permanence (can’t get enough of that) and feelings.

Your Turn
What was your baby’s favorite first story? Got a baby book review for us?