Questions From an Expecting Parent Part 2 Featuring Ari O'Donovan and pediatrician, Dr. Ryan Hassan
In the final part of our conversation, we dive into what to do about prolonged crying, how to best handle frustration, what the deal is with car seats, and many more concerns. There are so many questions when you become a parent, you are sure to find some answers to your top concerns during this episode.
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Our Host
Ari O’Donovan
Transcript:
Ari O'Donovan: (00:00)
Are y'all comfortable? We hope wherever you're listening to this, you're comfortable. This show is for the Bipoc communities in Oregon, hosted by a black woman about the amazing work we do every day in this state. So let's build together, connect with our communities, add some laughter and humor even when it's a difficult conversation. Let's boost our voices.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (00:25)
Not always, and my baby is a perfect example. Olivia was preterm and she's always been very small and she wanted to sleep, I think, up to six hours at a time when she was only a few weeks old. And we talked about that together and with our pediatrician and we're like, well, you know, let's give it a try and see how she does with that. But she wasn't gaining weight with that and, and she wasn't eating as well. So we said, okay, well this isn't working. We're gonna have to keep waking her up to feed her more frequently.
Ari O'Donovan: (01:00)
I have heard of some babies who cry for six hours, six, eight hours straight and , you, you do everything. You check their diaper, they're not wet, they don't need a diaper change. You try to rock them, you try to feed them. They're not hungry. They won't, they're not interested in eating. And I, I feel like that's what a colicky baby is. Correct me if I am not getting that term right. If that is what that means, what do you do about something like that?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (01:33)
There's a technical definition, which, and I could probably look it up real quick, but I think it's essentially, um, you know, three hours at a time of crying for over, you know, three days a week for at least three weeks at a time. At least three hours a day, at least three days per week. Um, less than three months of age. So I mostly got it right. Um, and it's, it's crying for like a no apparent reason. Um, so it's an overused terms. A lot of, a lot of parents will say their baby is colicky and technically no they don't have colic. But really it's arbitrary. It doesn't really matter. The point is like your baby is fussy, there's not really a, an identifiable reason and you have a hard time figuring out what to do. Bottom line is do what you need to make sure you're taking care of yourself and your baby meeting their needs.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (02:17)
Make sure you know their diaper is clean, that they're well fed, they're not hungry, they're not too cold or too warm and that you're cuddling with them and giving them the love and attention they need. You know, if there's a fever, of course that's an emergency. You go straight to the ER if they seem sick or otherwise in some kind of distress. You know, always check with your provider. Like there are illnesses that could cause kids to be really uncomfortable. You don't wanna miss that. But generally most kiddos who are crying like this, especially if they're crying for hours and they're fine later and then they cry again and they're fine, that's probably just a normal fussy kiddo. And so if you're not sure, definitely talk to your doc about it. But the best thing you can hope for is for your provider to say, yeah, your baby has, or, yeah, your baby is fine.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (02:59)
They're just a little fussy and it'll get better over time and that means that it'll get better over time and you don't need to do anything. And actually you shouldn't do anything about it. Just keep, you know, meeting their needs. Just try and snuggle with them and be patient and hold them and talk to them and soothe them and understand that even sometimes despite your best interests efforts, they might still cry and that's okay. It's nothing you're doing wrong and it's nothing that's wrong with your baby. It can often feel like there's something wrong or something you're doing wrong, but it's not, this is natural, this is what babies do and we don't really fully know why. And there's lots of theories about it, but at the end of the day, it's just something that we kind of have to work through. And now there are plenty of kind of proposed treatments that are often recommended and I recommend against them because they are recommended against by uh, you know, you know, the, the, you know, evidence-based guidelines we have, uh, generally things like changing, like changing your diet, usually not worthwhile.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (04:00)
Now sometimes it is, it can be meaningful to make a small change to the formula or something if you're using formula, but generally not a huge issue. You know, again, that'd be something to talk with your doc about, but don't put a whole lot of faith in like making some changes if like that's gonna fix everything you generally don't want to do. You know, there's not really good data to show that something like probiotics helps. We know PRI probiotics in general are really good for a lot of different things, but the research there is still pretty new. And it's not at a place where you can say, okay, this is the probiotic you take to deal with this symptom. Um, there's some, you know, marketing that will say that and there's certainly brands you'll find at the store that will say that, but so far there's not great data to say like, okay, this will treat this so it could be worthwhile to take, but it's not, you know, technically recommended and it probably not gonna make a big difference.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (04:49)
Same thing with things like, um, gas drops, dimethicone or gripe water. Like these are things that families will often try. Um, and I think it was even suggested to us at one point when Liv was colicky and we may have tried it at some point or not, I don't remember, but you know, the point is at the end of the day, it's probably not gonna make a difference. We certainly didn't notice anything. Again, I can't even remember if we actually used it. We might've done it a couple of days, but it's uh, it's probably not gonna make a difference. Now I have families who stay, they use it and they feel like it works and that's great. I generally wouldn't bother trying to use any of these things because again, it's not, there's not good data behind it. Certainly something like gripe water, I try to avoid because it's one of those things that's not a medicine, it's one of those health supplement type things.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (05:32)
It's not regulated in the same way medicine. So there's more room for wrong ingredients and this is not a common problem, but it's something that's common enough. You know, I worry about this in terms of what I give to my baby. I don't wanna make sure if I'm giving her anything, it's either a food or an actual medication because these health supplements and things, they're not regulated in the same way. And there's been certainly cases of them being, you know, contaminated with the wrong products or not having the accurate dosage that is listed on the bottle. And so that's a common issue. So one reason I'd kind of stay away from those and you know, there are a couple things specifically you can try, but it's really things that, you know, I think most parents are gonna get already. But it's really, like I talked about already, just talking with your kiddo, holding them.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (06:16)
You could try a car ride or a walk with the, for us, Liv loved being outside. So if she was fussy, we would go outside for a walk, we had a hammock set up in the back and we would swing in the hammock. I think in general it's a lot easier to care for a baby outside when they're crying because the crying's not as loud when it's outside, doesn't feel as overwhelming. And the fresh air I think is really helpful just for families, parents and babies. So that certainly helped us a lot. You could try using a little infant swing, maybe a warm bath, maybe rubbing their tummy, pacifier, things like that. Just ways to soothe them. I think the last thing I should say on this is very, very important. That probably the most important thing is if you have a baby who's really fussy, you know they are gonna be at higher risk for being harmed by you or other caregivers because we are all human and as we've talked about, we are doing way more than we should have to when we're raising our kids.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (07:06)
And you will get irritated at your baby. Every parent gets irritated at their baby and if they cry a lot, it's gonna happen more. And the important thing to know is if you're getting to the point where you're frustrated, you're irritated, you're not able to be patient, best thing you can do is to put your baby down flat on their back in their crib, bassinet or on the floor and go somewhere else. Step outside a few minutes, go to a different room for a few minutes and take some deep breaths and calm down. Because the most dangerous thing, which still happens too much, is for parents to get angry with their baby and yell or worth shake their baby. And that is extremely dangerous. And that is the one actual risk of colic is that babies are gonna be at risk for that kind of abuse because of parents just not having support and reaching their limit and not knowing when to take a break.
Ari O'Donovan: (07:53)
You know, where I am. Everything you said is really great advice and I'm going to remember that when my baby arrives. But that last part, it's, it's really sad that some parents would get so frustrated with a crying baby that they would actually get to the point where they're willing to shake that child. And that's one of the things I heard from a class I took on for new parents that I've been taking, just like you said, if it's really getting to the point where you feel like you're not gonna be able to handle this anymore with the child down in a safe place like their crib or bassinet, walk out of the room and close the door and just breathe for 10 minutes or something, they said maybe not too much longer than 10 minutes, go back into the room and, and hopefully you're feeling better because the worst thing you could do is to shake a newborn or any baby that is just terrible. I can only imagine the deafening sound of a child crying for hours. Yeah. There's no excuse for that ever. But I can see how that sound would get to a parent who's already sleep deprived.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (09:09)
Yeah. So
Ari O'Donovan: (09:10)
Really fast.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (09:11)
Well, and the other thing to remember is, you know, I mean presume, I think something we probably had in common in our childhood that I think is common to most adults today is, you know, we were yelled at growing up. A lot of people were hit growing up. You know, our parents and grandparents and their parents. Like no one taught us how to appropriately deal with our feelings, including anger and sadness and frustration. And so it's very hard to have that skill and use that skill when we were raised to not use those skills. It's a shift we're having to make now. And you know, I think my hope is that we can at least be a little better than our parents were so that our kids can learn from that and become better than we are. And I think I am seeing that, you know, it's one of the things that keeps me going as a pediatrician is despite all of the terrible decisions that people are making every day across the world, I see kids who are, you know, so much more emotionally intelligent and aware than I was even a few years ago.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (10:12)
And you know, I have, I think I've said this before on the podcast, but you know, my own baby, she's two and a half and she knows how to take a deep breath. If she gets upset or frustrated, she'll take deep breaths and she will cue me when I'm irritated or upset. She'll recognize, she's like, daddy, you irritated dad, you need to take some deep breaths. And she helps me with that. It's remarkable. She learned that from me and my wife, but because we focus so much on it, she's now better at it than we are. And it's really cool thing to see.
Ari O'Donovan: (10:40)
That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard. . I wanna train my son to be able to do the same thing. That is so sweet. And it's just,
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (10:51)
You know, it comes from role modeling. 'cause we talked to her about like, Hey, let's take the deep breath and calm down. But I think what really helped her learn how to do that was that she saw us do it. 'cause I, you know, I've gotten mad at Liv, I've gotten mad at my wife, we've gotten mad at each other, like this happens and we've yelled in this family, we've yelled, we don't yell off as often as my family did, but it happens. But what we are very diligent about is recognizing that that is not a good choice and that we all sometimes make choices that we shouldn't. And anytime we do, we try to recognize that we own that and say, Hey, I just yelled and I shouldn't have done that. I was angry and I wasn't able to use my skills to calm down and I'm sorry.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (11:29)
And so we apologize. And then when we're able to, we do calm down to using, you know, we take those deep breaths and we say, Hey, all right, I need to, I need to take a minute. I need to walk away for a minute so I can calm down before we can, you know, come back and do whatever you're doing. Doing that yourself I think is one of the most helpful things. 'cause it doesn't matter what you say, at the end of the day, your kiddo is gonna do what you do. So if you can practice those skills and learn those things, they'll learn it. And it is one of the coolest things. I mean, I tell everyone, you know, I'm such a much better person because of my baby. She's taught me so much about how to be patient and how to be kind and how to empathize. And it's just a, a really cool, cool experience.
Ari O'Donovan: (12:07)
So it'll be here before I even know it. Yeah,
Ari O'Donovan: (12:11)
The idea and the concept of tummy time, the first time I heard about it I'm like, okay, well this is a brand new baby. Is it really ? Like I've seen videos on Instagram and TikTok where you put a baby on their tummy and they're Mm-Hmm , they're unhappy, they're crying, they're moving their head around in a weird way. . Yeah. Just like, please put me back on my back. I don't wanna do this anymore. , when should you start tummy time? Because it's important. There are actual reasons why you need to do that. Yeah. And what should you do if your child is just extremely discomfort in discomfort? I've seen people put like small pillows under the child. Is that recommended? What should you do?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (12:55)
Sure. Anytime you are not watching your newborn directly and you're not right there with them, they should be on their back flat with no pillows or blankets or stuffed animals or anything around them. Either the floor, a crib, a bassinet, a cardboard box. Not a couch, not a regular bed, not a a bunch of blankets, a comforter flatt on a firm's. But when you're watching them, you, they can be in whatever position you want and they can be on your chest, on laying on their tummy, on your chest. They can be on the ground on their chest, they can be on your bed, on their chest. They can have pillows under them. They can be face first on the ground if you want, while you're watching them because as long as they're still breathing comfortably, then there's no problem. And if you're watching them, you'll be able to know that they're breathing comfortably.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (13:38)
It's when you're not, you won't be able to intervene and tell, okay, this, this kiddo's not, you know, having a hard time. That's why we say, you know, back to sleep is that sudden infant death syndrome where kids are suffocating 'cause they, you know, can't turn their head, they can't get enough airflow and that means not on their side. We used to say side and that's just as dangerous or maybe not just as dangerous, but it's still very dangerous. So only the back. But when you're watching your kiddo, yeah you can, and definitely I'd recommend doing tummy time as often as you want from birth if you'd like. The rationale is one is it helps build the stomach and neck muscles up. So, 'cause they're using them more. So that helps reduce the risk for SSIDs for sudden infant death syndrome. So if they get more tummy time, it helps reduce their risk for SSIDs when they're sleeping, when you're not watching 'em.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (14:22)
So that's one thing. It also helps with reducing head flattening. Babies used to have perfectly round heads, like my head was always perfectly round 'cause I slept on my tummy when I was growing up and fortunately I didn't die. But that's what we knew. That was a recommendation at the time. But now we know that's not safe so we don't do it. But as a result, a lot of babies get flat heads and that's totally fine. They will almost always round out, my baby's head was very flat and it rounded out and now it's perfect. But it can help if they're in different positions, you have 'em sitting or in your shoulder or on their tummy, so they're not always on their head. So more time in other positions helps with that too. And then generally just having them in different positions other than on their back can help with, you know, getting them used to using their body in different ways and using different muscles.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (15:05)
So it shouldn't be a chore. Like, I mean for our kiddo, she did not like tummy time at all. So we would just, you know, try it a few minutes at a time or actually really just a few seconds usually before she'd flip out. Like, okay, all right, we're done, we'll do it again later. And I see that a lot. But there's, I think most kiddos do okay with it, but just, you know, make it fun. Eventually we got her where she was able to kind of hold her head up on a pillow and she had a, a mobile that she liked or a mirror and some high contrast images and she liked reaching for those eventually. And so that made it more fun. I think as often as you're able to, as often as it works, it can be helpful And oftentimes just as I said before, just putting them on your chest, like putting them on their belly, on your chest, that counts as tummy time and that can be really helpful. And kids often like that a lot more and that's good for other reasons too. That close contact is really good for helping, as I said, brain development, immune health, uh, long-term health and, and you know, other ways we don't fully understand either. And doing that skin to skin is even better.
Ari O'Donovan: (16:02)
Is it safe, foreign infant to fall asleep in a car seat? 'cause I've also heard the only place they should be sleeping is in their crib or bassinet and it's always gotta be on their back. They should never be scrunched in any way in a car seat or anything like that. What do you do about that? If you're with your baby and they're in their car seat and you're driving and they have fallen asleep, are you supposed to wake the baby or or are they okay like that?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (16:32)
Yeah, you're right. You don't want sleeping anywhere other than a flat surface like a crib bassinet or, or the floor. And I, I said box earlier, the box is uh, also a good option. I mean in uh, there was some Nordic country, I don't remember, but they give boxes to everyone to go home in and the baby sleeps in the box and it has gifts for the family too. So that's an option. My wife vetoed that she wanted an actual crib. You don't want them sleeping in the car seat generally, but you know, they can fall asleep in the car, that's fine. You just, you know, you'd wanna make sure you get them out and when you're done driving you wanna get 'em out and and put 'em to bed. You don't want them to leave. You don't wanna leave them asleep in the car, in the car seat.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (17:07)
And you certainly don't want them sleeping in the car seat while it's not in the car. You don't want them staying in the car seat generally when it's not in the car, you know, in the car it's level position it needs to be. So they're not gonna have any airway problems otherwise that's not the case. And there are kiddos who have just died by being, sitting in a car seat while their parent was, you know, nearby but didn't, you know, wasn't directly watching. Definitely don't have them in a car seat when they're not in the car. It's not a place for them to stay, it's just the place for them to be while they're in the car. It's fine to, you know, drive around for your baby to sleep. You don't need to either, you know, that's not gonna be an issue when they're very young probably.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (17:43)
But you know, for infants and young children it sometimes can be helpful. We did that once with Liv on a camping trip I think. But I would say it's just something to be cautious about. I wouldn't want to get in the habit of doing that. I had um, at least one family I can think of who for their young child, the only way their kiddo would sleep would be they would drive around for like an hour in the car before they would fall asleep and it would be every single night. That was a bedtime routine. It was like, this is horrible, don't do this. And they're like, well they won't sleep any other way. I'm like yeah they will. You just have to help them learn to and you know, as long as you keep doing this they will keep needing it. But it's not like it's bad for the baby. It's just horrible for parents to be, have to do that. So I think that's the only other thing I would say about it is be wary of getting into the habit of using that to let your baby fall asleep.
Ari O'Donovan: (18:33)
Do you have any information about, since we're talking about car seats, the orientation of the car seat and which seat in the back it should be, should it be in the middle, the left or the right? Should it be front facing or facing the seat?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (18:50)
Yeah, the car seat needs to be rear facing until 40 pounds at least. Or again, it's also by law at least two years old. And then you can switch to front facing. The official recommendation is just like, you know, back seat. But I have read from my car seat itself, actually the middle seat is usually the safest option. If it is an option, it's not always. And our kiddos in the back, the driver's side, passenger driver's side rear seat. Yeah, I think generally as long as it's in the back and then rear facing, those are the important things.
Ari O'Donovan: (19:20)
Okay, very, very good to know. We talked about this a little bit with cribs and bassinets. There shouldn't be anything in there, it's just your baby don't put any pillows or blankets or anything like that, just a baby sleeping on their back. Is that correct?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (19:42)
Pretty straightforward. Just a baby on their back, nothing else. You know, they can be swaddled but you don't wanna a loose blanket and you'll probably want to swaddle your baby. Most babies like being swaddled because you know it's what they're used to. It makes 'em feel more like the womb. It's also why sound machines are really helpful too and break up that silence. We used to sleep without a sound machine and now it sounds insane to not do that 'cause we got used to it with Liv and the, if you do use a swaddle, you just need to make sure that it's tight and not gonna have any risk of coming up above the chin. 'cause then of course that could do the same thing. Cau could cause a ation. The swaddle also helps because infants will have a startle reflex where like they could randomly just flail their arms and they'll wake themselves up often if they do that.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (20:26)
So the, the swaddle keeps 'em from doing that. But there are some babies I've seen who prefer not to be in a swaddle and that's fine. But swaddle or not, that should be the only thing that would be in the bed. Once they start rolling, which is usually not till four to six months, typically they say four months is the front to back and then six months it's back to front. But I've seen a kiddo roll it two weeks before, but once they start rolling, that's when you need to stop swaddling. And also once they stop, start rolling over completely, you know, you don't have to go back to, you don't have to roll them back, tell everyone, put them on sleep on their back. If they start rolling under their tummy on their own, that's fine. You don't have to keep turning 'em back over.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (21:08)
Now it is freaky when they do that and when Lib started doing it, I knew she was safe, but I still had to watch the monitor to make sure she was breathing and convince myself before I was comfortable with it because it's still, it's a very scary thing to see. 'cause she liked to faceplant straight into the bed just button air face in the ground and it was terrifying, but she was fine. So once they start rolling is when you don't really have to worry about it as much. But I still recommend putting 'em on their back for the whole first year, even if they are rolling. I think it was a little after a year that we started doing, you know, um, giving like a blanket, a loose blanket and a pillow and such. But it's, it's really after they roll that they're not really at the same risk for SSIDs. And I would say at least I think around a year is a good time where you might consider adding in like a blanket or pillow if you'd like or stuffed animals. But I certainly wouldn't do it before then. And it's fine to wait till after too, you know, depending on your comfort level and of course if your baby seems to need it or not.
Ari O'Donovan: (22:02)
I had wondered that, like what do you do if your child just rolls over? It would be scary. , what am I,
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (22:10)
? Yeah, yeah, I mean they will roll over and what you do is you freak out and worry that they're gonna suffocate and you just watch 'em until you find out that they're not gonna suffocate and then you get comfortable with it and then you, you move on to the next scary thing they do
Ari O'Donovan: (22:25)
And there will always be something that's gonna worry you .
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (22:28)
Yeah, yeah. It never ends,
Ari O'Donovan: (22:31)
Never ending. Very good to know. It won't be something that's in an immediate concern for me right away or any new parent. But at what age can babies have like pureed vegetables or fruits and maybe also small pieces of solid food, like a little bit of pineapple or a tiny piece of baked chicken?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (22:57)
So four to six months is the bottom line. We used to say no food till six months. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics still recommends six months, but several other organizations that, I don't remember their their acronyms, but the gi gastrointestinal organization and the um, allergy one, they tend to say four to six months because we now have more robust data showing that kids can usually safely start eating foods around four months. Um, it, it's gonna vary and you're gonna want to talk with your provider because not really, you know, the age as much as the developmental skills. So usually between four and six months is when babies will be ready and that, that looks like is they will be reaching for things more. They'll usually be interested in food when they're at the table with you and they'll reach for your food and they'll be putting things in their mouth more.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (23:45)
They'll be able to hold their head up mostly on their own, really on their own and hold and sit mostly on their own with minimal support. And when that's the case, then they're probably ready to start some foods. We used to say start with with purees and work slowly up through, you know, stage one, two and three foods into solids. And that's still very much an option, but we've now recognized that the, what's called baby-led weaning is another viable alternative and it's got some decent data behind it showing that it's just as safe. And basically what that is, is you just kind of give your baby really a, a very wide variety of foods and textures and, and let them kind of feed themselves and that's very much okay to do even sometimes as young as four months. You just want to, you know, there's a few things to be mindful of.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (24:30)
Generally anytime you're giving your baby any food that you should be watching them making sure that you, you know, they're eating okay, they're not choking, it is recommended to know CPR so that you can do resuscitation if you need to. I would recommend, uh, you know, taking a look at some YouTube videos of babies gagging so you know what that looks like. Gagging is a good thing and it's not the same as choking and um, I would demonstrate it but with is a, an auditory medium so there wouldn't be much, much, uh, help. But um, it's, you know, gagging is when you get something in the back of your throat and you involuntarily uh, move it forward, uh, to the front of your mouth and usually spit it out and sometimes leads to vomiting. Babies have a really strong gag reflex and that's good because they are much more prone to potentially get something in their airway and that's what we don't want.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (25:20)
That's what leads to choking. So gagging allows them to spit out any food that might be about to enter their airway before it does. So gagging is good and they're gonna gag a lot when they're first learning to eat and that's okay. They're also probably gonna spit their food out a lot too. And if you're doing baby led weaning and letting 'em feed themselves gonna make a huge mess too. And that's all totally fine. This is normal, this is how they learn and explore. But knowing what that looks like can be helpful when you are giving foods, you know, few hard rules, you don't wanna do any honey, no honey at all for the first year that can cause botulism. So you definitely avoid it at all costs. If you're doing baby-led weaning and more solid foods, you don't wanna do foods that could lead to choking, that could easily trap in the get trapped in their throat.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (26:01)
So, you know, hopefully it's obvious but no nuts of any kind. You don't wanna do, you know, like hot dogs, you don't want to do grapes, you don't wanna do apple slices. Those are all things that could, you know, fit down the throat or apple could get, you know, a chunk could break off, go down the throat. So you wanna avoid those things. You can do, for example, like avocado, like that's really mushy. You could do banana, you can even do slices of cucumber. They can gum on that, you know, they're not gonna be able to break off the rind or anything and even let them chew on some meat too, you know, as long as it's a piece that's not gonna, you know, if it's very small pieces or if you're comfortable with it, something that they could, you know, gum on but not really tear apart.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (26:40)
I'd be a little more wary of that. I'd probably just stick to very small pieces at least initially. And those are the main things in terms of what kind of food and if you're not sure, you know, ask your pediatrician like what about this? But essentially just as long as it's something that isn't gonna get lodged into their airway and be stuck there, it's not the site, the site right size to get stuck there then should be okay. Other consideration is we used to say to avoid the common allergen foods for the first year or so because we thought maybe that would reduce the risk for allergies. And then we learned that it doesn't because our whole generation got way more allergies to foods because we were avoiding these things. We now have really good data showing that you probably are better off getting exposed to allergens sooner.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (27:26)
Uh, the best data is for peanuts, but there's similar data and it, it's likely we feel the same is true for other allergens. Generally, I recommend introducing kids to as many different kinds of foods as you can. Again, it's other than honey, but all of the allergen foods. So that's, you know, peanut tree nut, wheat, soy, dairy, fish, shellfish, sesame, those are the ones you wanna like introduce sooner and that might help reduce the risk for allergy later. Um, also if kids have allergy allergic reactions, they tend to be more minor when they're younger compared to when they're older. So it's generally better just to do it sooner. Now if you have a severe food allergy, especially like the peanuts in the family, then it might be worth being more cautious about introducing that. But I wouldn't necessarily wait on it. I would talk with your provider about it, come up with a strategy you're comfortable with.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (28:14)
And the other thing of course is I said no peanuts, but so if you gave, you know, if you wanted to introduce your child to peanuts you would do like peanut butter or something or powder, but not an actual peanut. Those are the main things I usually share about feeds. I think that's, um, I think that covers all the key points. Really do whatever you feels comfortable for you. Um, oh, I guess the other thing would be don't expect your kid to eat a lot or to get most of the nutrition out of their food. Like the kids don't get nutrition from solid foods when they're babies. They get it from milk, breast milk or formula. The foods are really just about introducing them to allergens, getting them to practice their oral motor skills, learning how to, you know, move food into their mouth and chew and swallow, um, and helping 'em learn that food is fun and get exposed to different tastes and textures and smells so they can be comfortable with it and comfortable with exploring foods and be comfortable trying new things.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (29:02)
So you don't have a five-year-old who only eats chicken nuggets. Now of course, even if you do everything exactly as I recommended, you still might have a five-year-old only eats chicken nuggets. So don't feel like that's your fault. These things can help. And I mean my own baby, if we're up to her, she'd have nothing but Nutella and chocolate all the time. And that's, which is fine. Those are really calorie dense food with lots of energy and nutrients that she needs, you know, it's fine. Kids tend to, that's the other thing I would say is kids, every kid loves carbs. So like I I try not to freak out about that or worry about that.
Ari O'Donovan: (29:32)
Yeah, definitely , uh, she, she and I have a lot in common. If it was up to me, that would be a lot of what I would be eating too. ,
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (29:42)
It's a good source of fat, protein and sugar, you know, so it's got all your macronutrients right there. Also good endorphins from it, so that's always good.
Ari O'Donovan: (29:53)
Definitely. I would've never guessed that about the honey either. So that's really, really important to know.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (30:01)
No, honey, for sure.
Ari O'Donovan: (30:03)
That is all of the questions that have come to my mind. Um, if people have additional questions, please email us or contact us via Instagram messenger. That's usually a little, a little easier for people and we can get those questions to you and they can be answered that way. Um, but I think this was a pretty full spectrum of questions.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (30:34)
Yeah, you had a lot of the same questions most of my patients do, so, um, yeah, I think this was great. Hope it was helpful.
Ari O'Donovan: (30:43)
I feel less afraid. I feel more knowledgeable. I feel like I'm going to do a good job. 'cause that's every parent's fear is that what if I don't do a good job?
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (30:53)
Oh, you'll do a fantastic job. Don't worry about that.
Ari O'Donovan: (30:56)
I'm excited. I'm even more excited now. And thank you for being here and answering all these, all these questions.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (31:03)
Yeah, this was fun. It was a great idea and hopefully, you know, other parents will be able to tune into this and get some some helpful tips and be a little more reassured as well.
Ari O'Donovan: (31:13)
Yes. I I want other parents to feel like, I feel right now feeling like you're, you're capable of this. You can do this, , thanks for listening to this episode. Okay. Bring the community info without the community. Appreciate you showing up. If you wanna reach out, hit us up on ig at boosting our voices or at our website, boost oregon.org. Keep doing great things, keep uplifting one another and we'll do the same. See you next time.