New born babies cries bear traits of the language spoken by their parents, a new study has found.
The study, posted in the Journal ‘Current Biology’, analyzed the crying patterns of 30 French newborn babies and 30 German babies, and found that French babies cried in a rising melodic contour and the German babies, a falling contour, mirroring the rhythyms of those languages.
The study can be found here:
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2809%2901824-7
Monday, 9 November 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Should I Vaccinate against Swine Flu?
I've generally been against vaccinations, having considered myself healthy - I was once persuaded to take the flu vacine years ago and still contracted the flu that season.
As parents, we also went through the decision of whether MMR would benefit / harm our children and after much research we decided to go ahead with having both our children vaccinated using the MMR. However, we demanded that the DTP vaccine used on my 3 month old didn't use mercury-based preservatives.
Many people, including my wife, have been lucky enough to have never suffered, what many refer to as 'full-blown' flu (as opposed to 'man-flu'). I have on several occasions, and even as an asthmatic, was still reluctant to be vaccinated. The problem I have with 'common' flu, is that it takes me weeks before I feel fighting fit again, and commonly leaving a legacy such as chronic inner ear problems, aggravated asthma, etc.
I don't fancy having swine flu despite some reports declaring it as 'mild'. It is probably more for convenience reasons than fear that this year I shall be asking for a vaccine against swine flu.
However, I won't be requesting it for my children because in the US, some H1N1 vaccines contains thimerosal, the mercury based preservative, but I can't get a definative answer as of yet as to whether this is the case in the UK. Questions were asked on this NHS website but never answered ...
As parents, we also went through the decision of whether MMR would benefit / harm our children and after much research we decided to go ahead with having both our children vaccinated using the MMR. However, we demanded that the DTP vaccine used on my 3 month old didn't use mercury-based preservatives.
Many people, including my wife, have been lucky enough to have never suffered, what many refer to as 'full-blown' flu (as opposed to 'man-flu'). I have on several occasions, and even as an asthmatic, was still reluctant to be vaccinated. The problem I have with 'common' flu, is that it takes me weeks before I feel fighting fit again, and commonly leaving a legacy such as chronic inner ear problems, aggravated asthma, etc.
I don't fancy having swine flu despite some reports declaring it as 'mild'. It is probably more for convenience reasons than fear that this year I shall be asking for a vaccine against swine flu.
However, I won't be requesting it for my children because in the US, some H1N1 vaccines contains thimerosal, the mercury based preservative, but I can't get a definative answer as of yet as to whether this is the case in the UK. Questions were asked on this NHS website but never answered ...
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