Does your body good

Dear Aiwyn,
At your two week check up, your pediatrician gave your Pops and me a long speal about giving you a vitamin D supplement because you are exclusively breastfed. (She remembered that I was a lactation consultant but forgot I was a dietitian!) I've always had mixed feelings about the recommendation. Breastmilk is made for human babies and it does include all the nutrition that a baby needs. And yes it even has vitamin D. The level of vitamin D in breastmilk is much lower than AAP recommends for supplementation, but it is much easier absorbed than synthetic vitamin D. Also, humans are meant to be outside so their bodies can make vitamin D (from the UV absorbed through your skin). For a Caucasian baby it only takes 30 minutes a week of sun light on face, legs, and arms. However, our pediatrician also advised us to keep you out of the sun and when you are in the sun to use sunscreen to decrease the chance of skin cancer (even though other recommendations advise to wait until 6 months to use sunscreen). I personally think 30 minutes a week is good for you. It helps you to make vitamin D, helps expose you to natural UV light for happiness (people experience seasonal affective disorder, SAD, - a type of depression during low exposure to UV), it gets you outside which gives you fresh air, walking with you outside is teaching you healthy habits and helping me to lose my pregnancy weight.

So, to help you make your vitamin D we have been going on walks on all the nice weather days. Sometimes it's daily and sometimes it's just a few times a week (which is ok because your body can store vitamin D). We usually walk 45 minutes. I keep the sunshade on you most of the time and let the sunlight shine on you for about 15-20 minutes of the walk. I've had several comments about your skin coloring. You have more of your father's Latino coloring than mine. Even though I too have an olive complexion- it's just hard to tell with all my paleness. Maybe I'll get a little more color with our walks, too.



The above picture was taken on March 10th. You usually sleep during our walks (like the picture), but sometimes you let everyone know we are coming. One day a couple of weeks ago, the weather was so beautiful that a lot of people were out walking around the neighborhood while we were out. Yet, you started crying when we were about 15 minutes away from home. It was so funny to see how all the dogs reacted. They pulled on their leashes to come save you. Since then I have learned to bring the pacifier just in case. (We just started using a pacifier a few weeks ago and we rarely use it. I only use it if you are fed, dry, and fussy.)

Mucho,
Mama