Summer coffee, please

A dad walks in the coffee shop in bare feet about 6:30 a.m., pushing the baby stroller. The clerk mentions the bare foot rule, but he says he can't leave the baby, so she gives him his coffee and he goes outside. While he waits, he unwraps a package of cigarettes. Soon Lakeside will be removing that choice from all public places too, even outside. I hope he doesn't smoke in the car with the baby strapped down and unable to get away from the smoke. In some states that's illegal too.

Secondhand smoke is responsible for an estimated 150,000-300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year, and riding in a vehicle is one of the main ways children are exposed, the CDC says.

We shouldn't need laws for that "choice," but some parents/adults don't care that the rest of us don't want to stink or breathe their smoke.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/08/1568478/proposal-ban-smoking-in-cars-with.html#ixzz0pc7mUtB0

Procter & Gamble Says Pampers Dry Max Don't Cause Rashes

Silly me. I used cloth diapers. A chemistry teacher was explaining at the coffee shop the gel in the diapers that holds the urine and makes them feel dry. She uses them for lab experiments. Look, mommies. If a product gives the baby a rash, change products. Everyone has allergies to something. And don't make that poor kids sit around 2 hours in a urine soaked and absorbed diaper.

Procter & Gamble Says Pampers Dry Max Don't Cause Rashes - WSJ.com

Same baby, 14 days older?

Maybe it wasn't the same baby. The mother said it was 30 days old, and the one I saw two weeks ago was 24 days. Anyway, too tiny to be out and about. This time, Dad came along.

Yesterday packing away some things I came across my son's immunization and well-baby pediatric booklet. I think at first it was once a month, then every 6 months, then once a year. They do grow up, and I do mean up, very fast. I doubt that I took him anywhere except to the doctor when he was that small. Might have had a few people stop by the house to get a look at him, but I didn't have a car, so we probably stayed home until it was stroller weather in April and May.

Just 24 days

Things have changed since my first child was born in 1961. The thought then was that they needed some time to build up immunity before meeting the world and its bacteria, viruses and contaminants. When I was on my way out of the coffee shop this morning I stopped at a table and asked, "How old is your little one?" "Three and a half weeks," she said. So I looked it up at several web sites thinking perhaps there was new advice. Doesn't seem to be.

"During the next several months, the antibodies passed from the mother to the infant steadily decrease. When healthy babies are about two to three months old, the immune system will start producing its own antibodies. During this time, the baby will experience the body's natural low point of antibodies in the bloodstream. This is because the maternal antibodies have decreased, and young children, who are making antibodies for the first time, produce them at a much slower rate than adults. Once healthy babies reach six months of age, their antibodies are produced at a normal rate."