Egg cartons or coffee filters? It’s the kind of
question a thieving raccoon asks during a midnight
garbage raid—and it’s also the debate that boggled
my mind on a recent Saturday. My only child,
Hank, will turn one in a few weeks, and I needed
an art project to entertain young guests at his The
Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed birthday party.
So, would toddlers get a bigger thrill out of
coloring egg cartons to resemble caterpillars or
folding coffee filters in the shape of butterflies?
I’m sure Hank will have an opinion on these
matters when he’s older, but that day he was more
interested in chewing his fingers.
As parenting decisions go, I know this art issue
is minor. Since becoming a mom last November—
indeed, since learning I would be a parent— I have
faced more choices than you’d find on all umpteen
seasons of “The Price Is Right” combined.
Disposable diapers or cloth? Sink-fitted bathtub or
full-size basin? Baby backpack or sling carrier?
Glass or plastic bottles…with fast-, medium-, or
slow-flow nipples? And which brand is best?
These quandaries probably sound familiar to
most parents—and many would advise not to lose
sleep over them. My husband, Eric, is a pediatric
nurse practitioner, and he has assured me that
there’s no correlation between a child’s brand of
pacifier and later SAT scores. But I’ve caught Eric
consulting the Internet on parenting questions, too,
despite his work experience. The cliché is valid:
most parents want the best for their children, and
when you’re aiming for the top, it’s easy to
second-guess.
Fortunately, there’s at least one important category
of baby-related products that doesn’t demand an
agonizing selection process: books. We put a
bookshelf in Hank’s nursery even before we
picked out a crib and changing table (more
decisions!), and we’ve gradually collected a
smorgasbord of stories. When Hank won’t sit still
for Goodnight Moon, though, we’ll recite
supermarket ads while he pulls apart the
newspaper, or we’ll fill him in on the contents of
our Netflix queue. The main ingredient, obviously,
is language—and research agrees there’s no such
thing as too much.
Lest anyone think I study verbal development
in my free time, I can assure you I’m not that
diligent. (Besides, with a baby in the house, “free
time” translates to “laundry.”) Staying up-to-date
on early learning is part of my job. I work as a
grant writer for Reach Out and Read, a national
literacy nonprofit serving children ages 6 months
through 5 years. Since 1989, Reach Out and Read
has been partnering with doctors and nurses to
prescribe books and reading aloud to families.
Currently, the program is delivered to more than
4.2 million children at over 5,500 clinics in all 50
states. At each checkup, children receive new, ageappropriate books and parents are given advice on
fostering healthy language development.
Like hungry caterpillars and fresh, green
leaves, early education and health care pair well.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan research group Child
Trends has reported that 68% of uninsured children
and 92% of insured children under age 6 received a
checkup in 2013. Attendance rates for preschool
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THE CONE - ISSUE #7 - FALL 2015