Weaning advice

Well I've just spent the day going through the department of health's weaning leaflet. Man that's a lot of information to take in. Its a great leaflet though and full of useful information for new mothers. Here's the link:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4117080

Just download the link "Download Weaning leaflet (PDF, 580K)"

I thought the information on honey and weaning was really interesting and it raised the issue of infant botulism which is a very rare condition caused by a bacteria that can grow in the babies intestine and release toxins which make them unwell. For this reason honey and corn syrup aren't recommended until the baby is 1 year old at least.

I'll try to get through the advice given by the food standards agency and NHS scotlands program "ready steady baby" love that program name. Though i think most of the advice will be the same, some of the questions asked on the FSA website however are very interesting and i think i might print some of them off and take them along to the meetings when i hand out my questionnaires incase any of the mothers are interested in them cause sometimes someone can say something that you didnt know you wanted to know.

Honours Project

Ok it’s finally started, I know what I’m doing for my honours project and I have to say I’m pretty excited about it. I’ll be evaluating a weaning video created by a local project. I won’t say where I’ll be carrying out the project or who is involved in case it breaches any confidentiality but I can let you know what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.

*going onto a tangent* I really love public health nutrition and that’s the area I want to go into as a career. I really feel like the nutritional advice out there is so mixed, you have the scientific side which is the side I’m for and the more herbal side which I feel has its place but not in the mainstream advice people are given. I think that if you want to take a more herbal approach to health that is your choice however government guidelines should be based on scientific fact.

I know this is just another blog giving an opinion but I’m not just another person who takes nutrition or fitness as a hobby I’ve studied it and I love food and how it interacts with the body. I can imagine there will be a lot of stuff put up here about weaning and child health as that’s what my honours will be about so I hope that helps anyone that is interested *end tangent*

But yeah, I’ll write again soon hopefully.

First year

This took me longer to write up than i thought so i'll just post up my first year modules for just now.

First year:-
•Biochemistry 1 – Topics covered include the structure of atoms, units, molecular mass, electrons, valency, chemical bonding, dissociation and solubility, ions, weak and strong acids and alkalis, organic chemistry, isomerism in organic chemistry, unsaturated and aromatic compounds, PH & PH scale, pKa and dissociation of acids and alkalis, buffers, chemistry of amino acids, types of chemical reactions, redox potential, inorganic molecules and metals of biological importance.

•Biochemistry 2 – Topics covered include an overall look at the structure, function etc of cholesterol, amino acids and protein, carbohydrates, mono di and polysaccharides and lipids along with an introduction to energy metabolism, lipoproteins and adreno-cortical steroids, haemoglobin and myoglobin, biochemistry and metabolism and prostaglandins and leukotrienes.

•Cell biology and genetics – For the cell biology aspect of this module we studied the cell membrane, cell signalling, a brief overview of hormones, mitosis, cellular metabolism, protein synthesis. For the genetics aspect we studied the basic cell structure, a brief look at gene therapy, karyotyping, composition of DNA, genetic diseases, cancer, genetic testing and DNA profiles.

•Developmental biology and ageing – The topics covered in this module are the reproductive anatomy, fertilisation, implantation, in utero development, maternal substance abuse, complications that may arise in utero, partuition, early human development, ADHD and the ageing process.

•Health: patterns, experiences and care – The main objective of this topic was to review societies view on body image.

•Human physiology 1 – The topics covered in this module include nerve physiology, communication between nerves, the autonomic nervous system, muscle physiology, cardiovascular physiology, respiratory physiology, eye and auditory physiology.

•Human physiology 2 – Mainly involved the study of gastrointestinal physiology including, physiology of the stomach, digestion and absorption, physiology of the large intestine, the liver, the pancreas, introduction to metabolism, renal physiology and function.

•Integrating module – This module aimed to integrate knowledge and encourage group collaboration in a problem based approach. The assignment was based on diabetes mellitus.

•Introduction to health psychology – The main aims of this module were to evaluate the aetiology of illness, predict unhealthy behaviours, the role of psychology in the experience illness, the role of psychology in the management of illness, promoting health behaviours and preventing illness.

•Introduction to nutrition – The topics looked at include the methods of dietary evaluation, the concepts of nutrition, why we eat what we eat, different dietary reference values, evaluation of surveys, reviewing the health of Scotland.

•Microbiology – This module covered the basics of microbiology with the different types of bacteria including pathogens, and the factors affecting bacterial growth.

I'll post up more later, i'll try to cover all my years at uni so far.

First Blog Post

OK I've started this blog really to keep a track of my progress through university and after. Which i admit is a little late when i tell you I'm actually in my 4th year about to start my honours project.
I Study Nutrition and love my course. I left high school in 5th year (17 years old) and went straight to college as i knew i couldn't get into university with the grades i had. So in college i got more highers and managed to get into Queen Margaret University for the nutrition course. I'd always loved home economics in high school and knew that i wanted to pursue a career in this field.
I'll use this blog to detail what I've done and what I'm doing, if i find something interesting I'll post it here.
I'll also try to keep these blogs up to date on my progress with my honours project.
That's all for now I'll write up the modules I've done on my course later including my 3rd year dissertation and what i choose to do for that.