You may be saying, "Cord blood banking? Wha?"

My husband and I had never even heard of cord blood banking until a few years ago, when one of my husband's cousins had mentioned it after the birth of her twins.  Even now, I only know a handful of couples who have opted to save their baby's cord blood.

The idea of cord blood banking was very appealing to me from the get-go.  The cells saved when cord blood is stored could potentially save your child's life later on.  Hopefully you'll never need to use it, but it is nice to know that it is there.

According to Viacord, the stem cells collected for cord blood banking can help to treat a number of ills. Current stem cell uses range from treating various types of cancer to blood disorders, to metabolic disorders, to immunodeficiencies. If your child needs a stem cell treatment, you will already have a 100% match.  If a sibling of that child is in need of a similar treatment, that child will have a 75% chance of a match (using a siblings cord blood cells).

Here are a few things to consider when dealing with cord blood banking:

Public vs. Private Banking
After deciding whether or not to store your baby's cord blood, it is important to consider what sort of banking you'll use. This could be the subject of an article on its own, but here's a quick summary of each:

If you choose public banking, you are donating your child's cells for public use.  If your baby's cells are a match for a sick child, they can use those cells, and visa versa.

If you decide to go with private banking, your child's cells are only used for your family.  You will always have access to those cells, so long as you continue to pay the storage fee.

Cost
This is the rough part!  Cord blood banking is very pricy.  There is an initial collection and storage fee, usually followed by an annual fee to maintain the storage of cells.

The Process of Collecting the Blood
You receive your kit just prior to your due date.  You will bring this with you to the hospital. Immediately after the birth of your child, the umbilical cord is clamped and the cord blood is removed via syringe.  It is a painless and quick procedure, for both mama and baby. The doctor packs everything into a little cooler and a number is called for pick-up (Your kit is picked up that day). Easy Peasy!

What if you are having a c-section?
It is still possible to store your child's cord blood.  It is also perfectly safe. Click here for more information on collecting cord blood during a c-section.

Want to learn more? 
Visit the following links below to learn more. It's a great idea to discuss this with your OBGYN and pediatrician, too.  See what they have to say about it.

Most importantly, trust your gut.


Resources

This is a step-by-step guide to cord blood banking from What to Expect.

Cryo-cell also provides information on banking cord tissue.

Even before having my child, I was very cautious about the foods/preservatives/chemicals I put in, and on, my body.  I avoid using shampoos with phthalates and SLS (among other chemicals), I try to eat whole foods (avoiding processed), and I've always avoided sugar substitutes as a rule. It was fitting that I continue this trend with my son.

When my son was young he developed acid reflux, which the doctor prescribed a medication for.  We went to the drugstore and bought said medication.  It had a strong minty smell and you could tell that there was alcohol in it.

The strong scent led me to check the ingredients list. Yes, there was alcohol in it- That didn't really shock me.  What did shock me was the presence of sodium saccharin in the medication.

I remember my mother telling me that saccharin was carcinogenic.  She never let my sister or I chew gum containing the artificial sweetener.

Upon researching saccharin, I found that it was classified as a carcinogen in the 1970's, but has since been declared "safe." It still doesn't sit right with me and I don't like the idea of giving it to a small child.

Why is this in children's medication? Wouldn't stevia be a better choice? Heck, wouldn't sugar be a better choice if something needs to be sweetened?

We ended up using other methods of treating my son's reflux, which he grew out of quickly anyway.

Flash forward one year and we find saccharin again:  This time in our son's toothpaste. Really?! It is unfortunate because he loved the toothpaste's flavor.  Now we're using a toddler toothpaste made by Toms of Maine. The flavor isn't as good, but it doesn't have as much artificial junk in it.

Have you been surprised to find certain ingredients in your baby/toddler products?

My son LOVES his pancakes.  I usually make pancakes with a smashed banana, some flour, an egg, a bit of milk, and some vanilla.

I realized that I did not have bananas this morning and would need to improvise. I looked through what was left of the baby food in the pantry, and found apple/pumpkin/carrot puree. It looked like a good choice, so I went with it.

Originally, I was only going to use baby oatmeal as the "flour" in these, but the consistency wasn't right. I ended up adding 3 heaping teaspoons of flour.  They turned out to be really good, so I thought I'd share.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

1/2 c. Baby oatmeal
1 package baby food (I used apple/pumpkin/carrot)
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/3 c. Milk
2 eggs
3 heaping tsp. flour

Mix all of your ingredients together.  Let some butter (or coconut oil) melt in the pan. Make those pancakes!

You like that "So I Married An Axe Murderer" quote!  So good!  One of my favorite films!

Anyway...

Let's rewind to our unborn baby's five month prenatal anatomy ultrasound.  My husband and I were so excited.  We were eager to learn the gender of our child and to see how he was growing.

Everything looked pretty good, barring an echogenic focus, which I'll discuss in a later post.  The technician did mention, however, that the baby was breech.  Not to worry, they assured us.  He had plenty of time to flip around.

The remaining four months of my pregnancy flew by, and before we knew it, we were in the final countdown.  I went to one of my last ultrasounds, where I was informed that the baby was still breech.  He must have been very comfortable where he was! We needed to schedule a c-section, which I will also address in a future post.

The baby was born and we were very happy to have a healthy little boy.

As time went on, we did start to notice that our son only really turned his head in one direction. Whenever he slept, he always faced the right side of his crib.  He was also developing a bit of a flat spot from always having his head in the same position.

We brought this up with the pediatrician and he said that our boy had torticollis, which is a tightening of a muscle on one side of the neck.  The doctor also told us that the flat spot was called plagiocephaly.  He said that physical therapy could help correct both things, and that the earlier invention was sought, the better.

Plagiocephaly is basically having an asymmetrical skull.  It is becoming more common in infants due to babies sleeping on their backs.  In our case, it was likely caused from his position in utero, as well as the torticollis.

We did bring our son to physical therapy every week and worked on exercises to improve his neck. We went to CCMC, which has been wonderful.  While his torticolis continued to improve, the plagiocephaly didn't.  The physical therapist recommended getting a helmet to correct the plagiocephaly.

I was not a huge fan of my son needing a helmet.  It made me feel like I had done something wrong. I also wasn't crazy about the idea of people staring at him when we were out in public, or people asking me why he had to wear a helmet.

Like I said, I wasn't crazy about the idea, but it was not about me.  It was about my son.  It was about fixing something that could affect his confidence later in life.  We were told that infants usually only need to wear the helmets for about 8 to 10 weeks anyway.  He will not remember wearing it at all.

My husband and I agreed that we should go ahead with getting a helmet.  We had to make this decision quickly because the younger a baby is, the easier it is to correct, as the bones in the skull are not yet fused.  Now we needed to decide where to go for the helmet.  We had two choices: Cranial Technologies or Hanger Clinic.

In the end, we chose to go with Cranial Technologies.  We chose CT for two big reasons.  The first reason was that this is all Cranial Technologies does.  They specialize in correcting plagiocephaly and have a good track record.  The second reason we chose them was because their version of the helmet (the Doc Band) was open at the top of the head.  We were getting into the warmer months and we thought our son would be a bit more comfortable in the Doc Band than the full helmet that Hanger offered.

The only downside of choosing Cranial Technologies was the fact that they only have two locations in the state, Madison and Cheshire.  Both locations were about an hour away from where we lived, so the weekly drives there were sometimes a pain.

Fast forward eight weeks, and our son was out of the helmet.  He is now the owner of a nice, round noggin!

Going on a trip with an infant for the first time can seem like a major challenge, especially when it comes to packing. While packing for our first weekend away, I felt the stress level rise as our departure day approached.  I felt like there were a million and one things that needed doing.

Why was I so anxious?  I think it was just because we had never done it before.  One thing that really helped me was making lists.  Instead of listing every little thing the baby may need, I stuck to the big items that he would ACTUALLY NEED. Here's an example:

To Do:
- Pack clothes
- Pack Pump and pump accessories (bottles, nipples, lids)
- Pack jarred baby food
- Pack bowl, spoon
- Pack toys (not ALL the toys, just a few that can be hand washed)
- Pack N Play (provides a portable play/sleep space)
- DIAPERS (diaper bag)
- Bumbo (provides a portable seat for the baby when it's meal time)
- Stroller

It's pretty basic and a no-brainer, but sometimes it helps just to have a basic plan in order to ease a stressful process.

What are some baby items that you cannot imagine traveling without?