I’m afraid to eat anything that’s been in my fridge for over a few days so judging the “freshness” of pumped breast milk made me worry more than I should. I’m certain I threw out more than my share of good milk before I did my research.

As a general rule, breast milk will keep for:

Room temperature: 4-6 hours

Cooler with ice packs: 24 hours

Fridge: 3-8 days

Refrigerator Freezer: 3-6 months*

Deep Freeze: 6-12 months*

*once thawed use within 24 hours

Also some good breast milk storage tips include:

• Store breast milk in disposable freezer bags or collection bottles in two- to five-ounce portions.
• Liquid expands when frozen so leave a little extra space in your container.
• It’s normal for breast milk to vary in colour and consistency and for stored milk to separate into layers. Shake breast milk before serving to your baby.

We’ve heard that listening to Mozart can make your baby smarter, but there has been little research to back up these claims. Until now.

A study out of Northwestern University has linked music to improved language, speech, memory, attention and vocal emotion. Why? Learning music can enhance the brain’s ability to adapt and change. Also, neural connections made during musical training prime the brain for all other aspects of human communication. The study went so far as to say that the benefits of music on your brain are equivelent to the benefits of exercise on your body.

But if you want your child to have the true benefits of music, you’ll have to go beyond listening to a Raffi sing-a-long. To get the full benefits of music you need to encourage your child to sing and play an instrument of their own.

Simply put, children who are muscially trained are better at observing pitch changes in speech and have a better vocabulary and reading ability than children who did not receive music training.

Creativity is on the decline and, as parents, that should have us worried. A recent article published in Newsweek points out that while intelligence is on the rise, creativity has been steadily declining since 1990.

“With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect—each generation, scores go up about 10 points. Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling.”

The scores for creativity are particularly bad for children kindergarten through grade six.

Since the correlation to lifetime accomplishments and success is three times stronger between childhood creativity scores than with IQ we need to start addressing what’s making our children less inquisitive and less likely to come up with original answers.

You could blame the usual suspects like TV, computer, video games and poor schooling and you’d likely be correct–at least in part. We can’t ignore the fact that as electronics gain importance in our lives creativity declines. But it is up to parents to make sure their children are given a creative outlet early in life.

Creativity flourishes when parents encourage uniqueness while providing a stable and loving home environment. Help your children discover their potential and give them the confidence to explore it.

There have been so many studies lately linking children and TV time to everything from Attention Deficient Disorder to lack of brain development that I’m starting to feel guilty whenever I turn on the television set when my children are in same room.

Most recently a study published in the Pediatrics found that viewing television and playing video games are associated with increased subsequent attention problems in childhood. Will Disney now cause problems later?

I’ve always been of the opinion that moderation is the key.

Most public health officials, including the Canadian Pediatric Society recommend no screen time for children under two and a maximum of two hours for children two or older. While my 20-month-old does watch Dinosaur Train with his older brother, I am strict when it comes to the two hour a day rule and usually allow my children to watch much less. I also aim for days when the television set doesn’t go on.

Am I doing enough by avoiding extremes?

Results of the CAMH’s annual Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey found that hundreds of thousands of teens are spending at least seven hours a day in front of TV or a computer. As parents how do we best teach our children moderation now, to prevent excess later?

For me, the best I can do if offer my children is a wide range of stimulation most of the time, while occasionally allowing for some down time with a movie or tv show. Then, I can just hope that when they’re old enough to make choices on their own, they’ll be smart enough to want to balance reading and sports with chill out time.

Why are the best sunscreens so hard to find. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just posted their 2010 report of the best beach and sport sunscreens. Unfortunately most of the brands are only found at niche natural store locations in large American cities. Want to buy your sunscreen at the local drug store?

La Roche-Posay Anthelios Water Resistant SPF 15 and La Roche-Posay Anthelios 40 Sunscreen Cream score top marks. And-surprise-Coppertone makes the list with three different sun screens: Sport Sunblock Lotion SPF 15, Oil-free Sunscreen lotion SPF 15 and ULTRAGOARD Sunscreen lotion.

Click here to see the full list.

There has been a recent recall on a number of Infant and Children’s Motrin and Tylenol products. If you live in Canada and have purchased any of the products listed below you should stop using them and contact McNeil Consumer Healthcare (Canada) at 1-888-222-6036 for more information. You can also log onto jnjcanada.com for more information.

RECALLED PRODUCTS INCLUDE:

PRODUCT NAME                                                                             DIN

Infant’s MOTRIN* Suspension Drops Dye‐Free 30ml                        02238626

Infant’s MOTRIN* Suspension Drops Dye‐Free 15ml                        02238626

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension Dye‐Free 120ml                             02242365

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension 120ml                                            02242365

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension Grape 120ml                                  02242365

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension Grape 30ml                                    02242365

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension Bubblegum 120ml                          02242365

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension Tropical Punch 120ml                    02242365

Infant’s MOTRIN* Suspension for Fever due to Colds/Flu 30ml        02238626

Children’s MOTRIN* Suspension for Fever due to Colds/Flu 120ml  02242365

Children’s TYLENOL* Cough & Runny Nose Suspension 100ml        02292122

I want to have a third child but I’m afraid. Sure, I wonder if I will have the time to devote to yet one more child, but my biggest fear is giving birth again.

I’ve written about my troubled delivery with my second son Beckett. Although everything turned out, I don’t know if I can withstand the trauma of another possible ordeal in the NICU.

I also wonder if I would have had to go through my experience at all if Beckett had been born vaginally.

My first son Bode was a Frank Breach baby, making a C-section a necessity. Beckett came along 21 short months later and a second C-section was strongly recommended by my OB-GYN. In fact, many hospitals refuse to perform VBAC’s (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). I was lucky that my doctor gave me a choice, and the decision to have a second Cesarean was a choice we arrived at together.

Our decision to opt for a second Cesarean was a popular one. Fewer than 10 percent of women who had Cesarean births have a successful VBAC. Could this number be higher?

Unfortunately after two Cesarean section births, my options for a third birth are limited. A C-section would be imminent should I get pregnant again.

Ultimately, my fears of having another child with respiratory distress will likely lose out to my desire to have another child.

In my case, at least the first C-section was a necessity, but I wonder if countless other mothers are being subjected to Cesarean births when natural would have been a viable option. The Cesarean section rate is at an all-time high with almost one in three North American women having a C-section to give birth. In other countries, the rates are even higher. C-section rates in China and Puerto Rico are close to 50 percent and a recent study published in The Lancet suggests that some hospitals in China are doing unnecessary operations for profit. Are doctors performing too many C-section births? And, if so why?

A rising parenting trend is causing more parents to submit their children to random drug testing. What are your thoughts?

Earlier this month The Lancet retracted a 12-year-old article linking autism to MMR vaccines. The landmark study turned tens of thousands of parents against a vaccine designed to protect our children against measles, mumps and rubella.

The study was based on just 12 children.

The autism and vaccination study found that eight of the 12 autistic children studied first saw symptoms after receiving the MMR vaccination. Recent research confirmed that the group was specially selected to have an extremely high number of children who had symptoms occur around the time of the MMR vaccination. It also found that research was funded by lawyers acting for parents who were involved in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.

Experts say the retraction by The Lancet is long overdue and the autism and vaccinations piece never should have been published. But this brings up the question: Are we too eager to trust information simply because it was published in a medical journal?

The link between the MMR vaccination and autism debate garnered so much media attention that no parent could have known the findings were based on a lawsuit-biased study with just 12 children.

“Why The Lancet published it is completely beyond me,” state Dr. Suzanne Lewis, a pediatrician and clinical professor of medical genetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Lewis also stated that tens of millions of dollars have been spent on additional studies attempting to validate the original autism and immunization shots findings–none have succeeded.

The truth is autism has a genetic cause and undetermined environmental triggers. The pressure to come up with a reason for the drastic rise in autism has set off a completely unfounded fear over autism and vaccinations.

Forget flowers, and high hopes for romantic surprises. All of us know the best part of Valentine’s Day is the chocolate.

This year you can do good by your chocolate cravings. Just log onto Chocolate Boob Tax and make a donation to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in the name of chocolate.

Each dollar you spend goes directly to funding life-saving research.