Transition to New Parenthood/Evidence Based Parenting Discussion Storified

Earlier this week I posted my contribution to this month’s Evidence-Based Parenting Blog Carnival about the transition to motherhood.

Today, several of the contributors, all evidence-based parents (many scientists, science communicators, and researchers- all parents), got together on Twitter for a live discussion of some of the issues brought up in the Carnival.  We used the hashtag #parentscience and discussed issues ranging from sleep to swaddling to pain management and bonding.

If you missed the live discussion, don’t worry.  My fellow Carnival of Evidence-Based Parenting (CEBP) contributor, Matt Shipman Storified it!

You can catch up on what you missed here.  And you can contribute to the ongoing discussion on the CEBP Facebook page here (recent topics include the debatable happiness of new parents and the difficulties facing doctors and parents when caring for interest infants).

If you are ready to trade the parenting hype for the some legit, evidence-based parenting, read up!

You might be a #scimom if… ROY G. BIV

You might be a #scimom if you notice when rainbow colored toys (or clothes) don’t conform to ROY G. BIV.

For whatever anal-retentive reason, it irks me when colors are arranged so as to be a ‘rainbow’ yet they are not in the order in which they appear in an actual rainbow.

For example- who designed this?

Roy G. Biv approved. Red then orange then yellow then green then blue.

They obviously knew what they were doing and adhered to the spectrum?

But what about this dress?  Would it be so hard to have switched the green and light blue ruffles to it would go in wavelength order?

This tunic has the colored ruffles in the wrong order.

Seriously children’s fashion designers and toy makers!  Get with the spectrum.

So, am I alone?  Do you see a rainbow and think ROY G. BIV?

 

Sex-assignment surgery in infants/young children- when will we learn?

I read this story today and my heart broke a little bit:  Couple sues over adopted son’s early sex-assignment surgery.

A South Carolina couple sued doctors and state social workers on Tuesday for subjecting a 16-month-old child born with both male and female genitalia to what they say was medically unnecessary and irreversible sex-assignment surgery while the toddler was in foster care.  The state and federal lawsuits — believed by the couple’s lawyers to be the first of their kind in the United States — argue that doctors should not have performed surgery to make the child’s body appear to be female when they knew they could not predict how gender would develop.  The child, now 8, has shown strong signs of identifying as male and recently began living as a boy, according to Pam and Mark Crawford, who adopted him after the surgery. Source.

The child in the above story had ambiguous genetalia and was “‘intersex’ / had a ‘disorder of sex development (DSD)’ which is “defined as any congenital condition in which development of chromosomal, gonadal or anatomic sex is atypical” (Source).  The child was treated with surgery to make the genitals appear female in February 2005.  In August 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a revised Consensus Statement on Management of Intersex Disorders.

While the AAPs recommendations vary based on the exact medical diagnosis, the take-home message is: do what’s best in the long run, not what makes everyone feel most comfortable in the short run, maintain function as much as possible, don’t do anything irreversible that is not required for physical health early on.  Some quotes to give you an idea of what they are recommending:

-”Emphasis is on functional outcome rather than a strictly cosmetic appearance. It is generally felt that surgery that is performed for cosmetic reasons in the first year of life relieves parental distress and improves attachment between the child and the parents; the systematic evidence for this belief is lacking.”

-Certain procedures should be delayed until “adolescence when the patient is psychologically motivated and a full partner in the procedure.”

-”Surgical management in DSD should also consider options that will facilitate the chances of fertility.” (Source)

I wonder what would have happened if this recommendation had been made prior to that child’s surgery- would the outcome have been different? Would he not be facing another surgery to undo the damage?

I may be unusual in this regard, but the possibility of having a child with a disorder of sexual determination/intersex was something I considered when I was pregnant.  From news reports, studies, documentaries, I knew that if I had a child with such a condition, I would opt to delay surgery until the child could decide for him/herself what was the appropriate course of action.  The story of the tragic and troubled life of David Reimer particularly touched me.

Surgery is a permanent change, is irreversible.  What was the young child in that news story robbed of?  We cannot tell from the information being released, but at the very least, this child was robbed of a penis.

We may not discuss it much, but these types of conditions are not as rare as you might think.  Estimates of the frequency of surgeries to “normalize” genital appearance are as high as 1 in 500 (Source).

The types of conditions are varied and numerous- from chromosomal abnormalities (XXY) to enzyme deficiencies (click here for more info).

Scoring External Genitalia. A. The external genitalia can be objectively scored using the Prader staging system which provides an overall score for the appearance of the external genitalia. B. Alternatively, each individual feature of the genitalia (phallus size, labioscrotal fusion, site of the gonads and location of urethral meatus) can be individually scored to obtain the External Masculinisation Score (EMS). Adapted from Ahmed et al., BJU Int. 2000;85:120–4. (Source)

The dilemma in how to treat these children is what happens if you choose the wrong gender.  What if you get it wrong?

Numerous experts in the field have remarked on the lack of long-term data on how accurate doctors and parents are at choosing the correct gender.

More than 90% of 46XX CAH patients and all 46XY CAIS assigned female in infancy identify as females. … Approximately 60% of 5α-reductase (5αRD2)-deficient patients assigned as female in infancy and virilising at puberty (and all assigned male) live as males… Amongst patients with PAIS, androgen biosynthetic defects, and incomplete gonadal dysgenesis, there is dissatisfaction with the sex of rearing in ∼25% of individuals whether raised as male or female... In the case of mixed gonadal dysgenesis (MGD), factors to consider include prenatal androgen exposure, testicular function at and after puberty, phallic development and gonadal location. Individuals with cloacal exstrophy reared as female show variability in gender-identity outcome, but >65% appear to live as women. Source.

Look at those numbers.  In the first case, 10% of patients were assigned the ‘wrong’ gender (i.e. they did not identify themselves as the gender that was chosen for them).  In the second, 60% of patients were assigned as female in infancy went on the live as males.  The third statistic, 25% of individuals were ‘dissatisfied with the sex of rearing.’ And the last stat, around 35% of individuals reared as females live as males.

If I was a betting individual, I wouldn’t bet on those odds.  As a scientist, I see those percentages as indicating that not enough is known about the system to make an accurate prediction of the outcome.  As a human being, I mourn for those who lost a part of themselves to surgery that they cannot get back- a part that makes it harder for doctors and surgery to match their outsides with their self-image.  As a parent, I imagine how dangerous it would be to make such a decision at the risk of choosing incorrectly.

As I was researching this topic, I came across the following statement that struck me as odd:

Gender reassignment surgery is not carried out prior to adulthood in young gender dysphorics without DSD. There is international clinical consensus that the risks of early surgical intervention far outweigh the potential benefits in virtually all cases. (Source)

Gender dysphoria is when a person feels their biological sex is mismatched relative to the gender they identify as being.  The quote above indicates that surgery to bring biological sex in line with gender identity should be delayed until adulthood.  Perhaps the same caution should be applied when deciding for infants and young children with disorders of sex determination.

My heart goes out to MC (the child from the story) and his family.  May the grownups looking out for him- doctors, parents, lawyers- all do their best, and do what is best for him.  May they not fail him twice.

Wish we’d done this for Earth Science lab!

I feel the need to do some geology research- where did I put those Double Stuff Oreos?

Source: IFLS

Using common sense: you’re doing it wrong

This kind of stupidity really p!sses me off.

Kiera Wilmot. Inquisitive and felonious?

Exemplary student does science experiment that causes the cap to pop off a water bottle and make a little smoke, and she’s being charged with a felony for making, possessing or discharging a destructive device and with possessing or discharging weapons on school grounds!

Read more about Kiera Wilmot, budding scientist, and the gross overreaction of her school district (expulsion) and local law enforcement (felony charges) here and here.

Sign the change.org petition encouraging the local DA’s office to use common sense here.

Pop Quiz: Science and Religion, you’re doing it wrong

I read this piece on Slate’s Bad Astronomy Blog today, Lord of All I Survey.  It links to two Pew Research Surveys of Americans.  One is looking at basic knowledge of world religions (basic tenets, key players, etc) here, the other is looking at basic science (earth science, scientific method, etc.) here.

So, of course I took them.  You should too.  See how you do.  I talk about some of the questions below, so if you don’t want to cheat, take it before you read the rest of this post.

As usual, I’m disappointed by America.  Our lack of basic understanding of the religions practiced here, and of the way our world works is heart-breaking.

Here are my results from the science survey:

My results from the Pew Research Center “Science and Technology Knowledge” Quiz. I was in the 93rd percentile answering all 13 questions correctly.

Just think about the first three questions on the science survey- each were True/False questions.  That means answering by chance (say by flipping a coin) would mean that you had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.  Thus, surveying monkeys who can’t read would likely result in 50% of the monkeys getting the question right.

The first True/False question was “All radioactivity is man-made.”  A respectable 66% of respondents got that one right, it’s false, radioactivity is naturally occurring.

The second question was “Electrons are smaller than atoms.”  An abysmal 47% got it right, the statement is true.  It was True/False question, guessing randomly would have 50% of people getting it correct.  Thus, monkeys could have done better on this question than the actual people who took it.

I’m serious.  Science is everywhere.  That laser pointer, there’s a whole lot of science that went into making it.  Source: jimbenton.com

The third questions was “Lasers work by focusing sound waves.”  An abysmal 48% got it right, the statement is false.  38% of women got this question wrong.  HOW?!  Have people never seen a laser pointer?!  (Granted the 65+ group was the worst on this, with only 33% getting it right, so I guess maybe they haven’t seen one, but how do they think the doctor fixed their cataracts?!)  I could cry that only 38% of women got this question right.  Have they not seen/used a laser pointer?  Do they not watch YouTube videos of unsuspecting cats and dogs tirelessly and futilely chasing the red dot? Was there any sound to be focused from the GLOWING LIGHT?  Ugh.

I just don’t know what to say about this, except that it’s sad.  It’s sad that as a populace we are so uninformed.  It’s even more miserable that in general women did even worse than men.  Miserable.

Here are my results from the religion survey:

My results from the Pew Research Center “Religious Knowledge” Quiz. I was in the 97th percentile answering 14 out of 15 questions correctly. (Damn you Great Awakening!)

Now onto religion- which seems to have become a weapon in the US.  The Jews know the most.  Most people only got half of the questions right.

Only 23% of the respondents knew it was acceptable for a teacher to read from the Bible in a public school as an example of literature.  There were only two options for answers to that question, “Yes, permitted.” or “No, not permitted.”  Thus, yet again, monkeys would have done WAAAY better just randomly selecting an answer and getting it right 50% of the time.  That means that in our nation people are actually MISinformed as opposed to just UNinformed on a topic that impacts PUBLIC SCHOOLS!?!

So, how did I get so many religion questions correct?  My friends.  No, I didn’t call them up and ask them the survey questions.  I have friends and family who are Jewish, Mormon, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc.  I was raised Catholic.  I’ve been to temple.  I’ve worshipped at a Seventh Day Adventist Church.  I’ve meditated at a Buddhist Monastery.  I’ve broken a fast during Ramadan. I’ve celebrated Diwali and Eid and Passover and Easter and Hanukkah.

I have friends of every ilk, representing many of the world’s religions.  Part of being a friend is learning about one another.  I  just asked my friend why she wears the hijab and learned about how she made the decision to cover her head.  I’ve engaged hours and hours of conversation with with my best friend from college about Seventh Day Adventism.  As a little kid I went to temple almost every Friday night with my friend (not surprisingly, I was always the kid standing right next to the rabbi when it was time to bless the challah).  On Saturdays I went to CCD at the Catholic Church.  Every summer I went to Vacation Bible School at the Baptist Church.

I’ve lived in the world.  I’ve made friends.  I’ve come to love people from all these religions.  In getting to know them, in coming to love them, I’ve learned about their religions.  That’s how I scored well on that quiz.  That’s why it’s nigh impossible for me to fall prey to prejudice and bigotry in this regard.

These surveys always depress me.

Please, take the surveys and tell me in the comments how you scored so as to bolster my spirit- I’m sure you will do better than a monkey.

To take the surveys or see the analysis of results, click on the embedded links above.

Grad Student’s Worst Nightmare

Grad student’s worst nightmare:

Source.

Apparently this happened to a Rutgers student.  You can read the full story here.

When I read it, my stomach got a knot in it.  I remember as a grad student and post-doc having nightmares about losing data.  I backed stuff up often- on Zip discs, later CDs or DVDs, external hard drives, servers, lab computers, email attachments, etc.  It’s kind of odd how academic labs vary dramatically in their data back-up approaches.  Some are totally DIY and up to the student.  Others are standardized- with university back up servers and such.

Now that I’m in industry and data is literally the work-product I’m responsible for producing, there are rigid and advanced protocols for backing EVERYTHING up.  From computer files to actual lab notebooks.  My entire hard drive is backed up in almost real time.  On days I’ve forgotten my laptop at home, I get a loaner from IT, log in, and I have access to my exact hard drive on a server- I don’t even miss a beat.  Old-school lab notebooks (for which there is no replacement and are still used despite existence of computers) are routinely collected and scanned so there are digital backups.  The company has onsite servers and backup servers.  They also have two different offsite servers for backing up the back ups.

When I posted the above image and story on Facebook, I was regaled with stories of lost/destroyed/damaged computers.  Unzipped backpacks seem to be common.  As are spills (root beer and nail polish remover amongst them).  I also got comments like, “I’m backing up right now…”

I feel horribly for that student.  However, I’m really hoping his raw data is backed up elsewhere and he’s just hoping to not have to reanalyze it or remake/rewrite figures/chapters of his thesis.  I know when I was working on my thesis I saved it on my hard drive and on a flash drive every single day- so I had every change each day.  There were also less frequent back ups to an external hard drive and the various chapters I emailed to myself or my advisor.

Another grad student (or any researcher) nightmare:

Imagine going to your animal facility and finding this? Source.

NYU Langone Medical Center was heavily damaged by SuperStorm Sandy- you can read about it here, here, and here.  While the news was filled with images and stories of medical staff evacuating patients, researchers everywhere were also wondering about the research labs.  Precious samples, genetically engineered mouse colonies, years of work, all in peril.

NYU’s entire animal facility, located in the basement, was flooded by the storm.  Almost all of their colonies were destroyed.  Years and years of work were destroyed along with them.  In addition to the lost colonies, without power, everything else in the labs that were not flooded was also in jeopardy- since the back up generators were swamped.

A friend and researcher on the Upper East side made room in the lab freezers for trash bags full of materials from colleagues at NYU.  Students, techs, and post-docs had basically run into the damaged buildings to dump armloads of samples (cell lines, cloning vectors, strains of bacteria and yeast, etc) from thawing freezers, clearing their bench tops with a sweep of the arm into garbage bags in the hopes of salvaging years of their lives spent constructing all of them.

Another friend who is a sales rep reported that a client (an industrial lab) busted out the walls of their building to load -80 freezers onto flat beds and move them out of lower Manhattan when it became clear how bad the flooding would be.  Holes in the building would do less damage than losing those samples.

I cannot imagine the sense of loss these researchers must have felt (or still be feeling), having years of their life’s work destroyed.  I cannot image being a 4th year grad student and being instantly back to square one- 4 years of work undone.

These are the things my nightmares are made of.  My heart breaks for colleagues living those nightmares.

Cool science fair idea/ DIY experiment: Dancing Oobleck

Saw this on IFLS, shared from Housing a Forest.  I totally want to try it!

Source: IFLS via Housing a Forest

An oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning that in some cases it acts like a liquid and in others a solid.  You can make it at home with water and cornstarch!  See instructions and great pictures on Housing a Forest.

See it dance!

How to calm a baby and/or a baby mouse

Saw this article in The New York Times: “In Parents’ Embrace, Infants’ Heart Rate Drops“

As I mom, I can attest to the fact that there have been numerous occasions where my children were crying- either in their bed, on the floor, or in the arms of another person- and the moment I took them into my arms, the crying ceased.  It’s often insulting to the person who has been holding them, but that is what they’ve done.

I’ve written before about research showing just how calming a mom can be for children of all ages- even just that mom’s voice, here.

It’s always oddly fascinating to me when research proves what we’ve always known/felt/believed to be true.

Turns out that human babies, and lots of other mammalian babies, respond similarly to being carried by their mother (or perhaps caregiver in the case of humans), by calming down.

Image from Esposito et al of the ‘behavioral task of maternal rescue’ wherein Mother Mouse rescues her pups from a cup.  This is similar to humans rescuing an infant from under the coffee table or a toddler from the monkey bars at the park.

A recent paper by Esposito et al entitled “Infant Calming Responses during Maternal Carrying in Humans and Mice” published in Current Biology looked at the responses of babies (of the human and murine variety) as well as dissecting what signals actually contribute to those responses (in the murine babies).

By monitoring babies movements, crying, and heart rates (electrocardiograms) the researchers found that within seconds of being carried (not just held, but picked up and moved around) by their moms, infants’ heart rates declined, their movements slowed, and their crying diminished.  Compared to an infant laying alone in a crib, just holding the infant while the mother was seated did elicit some calming effects, but not as strongly as carrying the infant.  (I’m pretty certain that further study would show this is primarily responsible for many a parent pacing up and down the aisles of an airplane to placate a cranky baby)

The same happens to mice, and since we can do experiments on mice that we can’t on babies, researchers looked further into the murine response to see how it worked.

Turns out, mice babies cry too (Ultrasonic Vocalizations, USVs).  Just like humans, when a mouse mom carries her pup, it calms down.  In a mouse, that means the pup stops crying/making USVs, adopts a compact posture (drawing up its hind legs and being still), and its heart rate drops.  The researchers used several different techniques to figure out what cues were causing these behaviors and figured out that it was a combination of actually feeling the mother grasping its skin and proprioception (basically sensing that it is being carried).

It’s fascinating to me how behaviors and responses are shared between species. It also reminds me how primal newborns are.

However, the paper had one CRITICAL flaw.  MAJOR.  As in I don’t know how the reviewers and editor missed it.

See here:

A scientific understanding of this physiological infant response could prevent parents from overreacting to infant crying. Such understanding would be beneficial to parents by reducing frustration, because unsoothable crying is a major risk factor for child abuse [26]. Source.

To this I say, “HAHAHAHA!  Are any of you even parents?!  At 3 am when you haven’t gotten any sleep and your kid just WILL NOT SHUT UP- does the knowledge that “the identified effects of carrying on parasympathetic activation and cry reduction were significant and robust” make one damn bit of difference?!*  I think not.

If I had been the reviewer, I might have responded, “If you want those two sentences in the paper, you gotta include a figure on whether that knowledge actually mattered to any parent in the dead of night with a colicky infant.”

 

 

*I’m only partly joking.  When my kids were infants and being difficult/impossible to soothe, I did remind myself that they weren’t intentionally trying to piss me off.  I suppose this understanding of what soothes them might similarly serve as a reminder that babies aren’t out to get you on a personal level at 3am by refusing to sleep and/or let you stop pacing around and/or nursing them.

Creativity is intelligence

Saw this on IFLS and loved it.

Source:  IFLS