Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Ban soy-based infant formula?


Soy-based infant formula - not all it’s cracked up to be? Good heavens what a surprise! But then where did anyone ever get the idea that a plant-based food for babies could be anything other than a meagre substitute for human milk - and now it seems it’s not even a meagre substitute but a potentially damaging one. The evidence has been mounting, but yet another study, published in The Society for the Study of Reproduction suggests that consumption of phyto-estrogens (hormone-like substances found in soy) at sensitive periods of development of the female foetus through to puberty, have a negative impact on later fertility. So now health and medical experts in NZ have called for a ban on soy-based infant formula... so it’s back to the drawing board and that particular drawing board suggests mum’s breast can’t be bettered. And the good news is, Time Magazine’s latest cover shows a very switched on mum breastfeeding a very sassy three year old. The interesting thing - more than 25% of readers in the Sydney Morning Herald informal poll considered breastfeeding at any age totally acceptable. YAY!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012


I’ve had a rest from blogging - focused instead on a serious rehab effort. Late March, on my regular Bay Walk, I went crashing to the pavement. Didn’t even get my hands out to save myself. Somehow struggled back to the car. But I was in trouble, 2 hours later an X-ray at Balmain Emergency confirmed a badly shattered kneecap. 5 hours and an ambulance ride later the orthopedic surgeon at RPA said they would schedule me for emergency surgery the next morning. Told him “I will do ANYTHING to avoid surgery.” However complete inability to lift my right leg from the bed meant no chance of just letting it mend. A mostly sleepless night followed - thanks to my concern for the effects of knee surgery on bush-walking, skiing and other activities, but also thanks to the multiple procedures that come with a large hospital, procedures that make no concession to night or day and which culminated in my 6am connection to a saline drip in preparation for the knife and vertical and horizontal wiring! But the Gods smiled - these particular Gods appeared in the form of Saturday’s orthopedic expert, now accompanied by an equally young, equally charming, but superior orthopedic expert. Too traumatised yesterday, a further test of my kneecap’s ability to function, confirmed that the quadriceps was still attached to the tibia and I was off the hook. Now encased in a brace from mid calf to mid thigh I was free to go home and let nature take it’s course. “Better than winning LOTTO!”