Pregnancy and Parenting Apps

Technology has changed the way we see and experience the world. Even if you are not the biggest technology advocate, you will probably agree that there are some apps that are really informative and helpful in our everyday lives. In this post we are going to be talking a little bit about some of the different free Pregnancy and Parenting apps that are available for Android and iPhone and how they can help you life a less stressful life!. 

Ovia Pregnancy Tracker (today on iOS and Android devices)
This is one of the-most used apps because of all the features it includes. It shows you baby size comparisons, with which you can track your babies growth and see how big it is compared to different fruits, toys, animals... It has its own countdown to Baby, and it also offers a comprehensive health tracker (symptoms, mood, sleep, activity, weight, blood pressure, and nutrition), appointments, notes, and pregnancy milestones (like baby’s first kick!). It can even sync your fitness tracking device!

CDC milestones app (today on iOS and Android devices in English and Spanish!)

This awesome app comes with quite a lot of features: from an appointment tracker (which you will definitely need during you pregnancy and once your baby is born!), to lots of information on Milestones and how to identify and track them! This app will also help you know if it is time to "act early" and talk to your doctors about any developmental concerns. And of course, if you have multiple children, it is able to track them individually.
external icon devices in English and Spanish!) -Milestones tracker:  It will help you identify the different Milestones by showing you pictures and videos.

Baby Story Photo Editor  (free, available on iOS and Android)
Baby Story Photo Editor is the easiest to capture and track your precious pregnancy milestones and baby pics! We love all the little stickers and filters that this app brings to the table!

BabyList (free, available on iOS and Android)

Shopping for your little one can be overwhelming, but this app makes the process super easy. Instead of having friends and family go through the hassle of searching multiple baby registries, this app syncs all of your items from different stores into one registry. Isn't that useful?



Text4baby app (free, available on iOS and Android)
If you love getting text messages, the Text4baby app  is for you. Once you type in your due date and phone number, you’ll receive text updates on your baby’s development throughout the pregnancy and notices up to one year following the birth. You’ll be able to take quizzes, watch educational videos, see your baby’s growth, and keep track of medical appointments. What’s even better is this app is backed by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

The Cozi Family Organizer app (free, available on iOS and Android)
This app will help you stay in charge of your hectic life. It will allow you to keep track of and share medical appointments with your family (there will be lots of them during and after the pregnancy), create and share shopping lists, and even store recipes.

**Please remember that the use of this apps is NOT a substitute for the use of validated, standardized developmental screening tools as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

How about you? What apps do you use? Let us know in the comments!

Sleep Patterns in Babies

Welcome to ABI digest! This section of the blog consists on informative articles that bring forward summaries of scientific papers. Of course, the topics we will be focusing on will be babies and pregnancy. Stay tuned!

Today's article is titled Sleep and sleep ecology in the first 3 years: A web-based study, and was written by Avi Sadedh, Jodi A. Mindell, Kathryn Kyedtke and Benjamin Wiegand. The focus of the article is to study the  sleep patterns during the first 3 years of life. Mainly, the study was looking at  parental interventions and infant sleep environment, and how they affect infant sleep.

The study is based on  five thousand six completed web-based online questionnaire that parents filled out about their children, where they where asked questions about their kid's sleep patterns, sleep environment, sleep- related parental interventions, sleep position, and demographic information.

What did they find out?

They found out that sleep environment and parental behavior played a big role in the variability of the child's sleep patterns, specially during night time. The key is to have parental interventions that encourage independence and self-soothing. This was one of the main factors in achieving a more extended and consolidated sleep.


What are the factors that better predict night wakings?

According to this study, there were several factors. Usually, a kid was more likely to wake up more often when s/he:

• was breastfed back to sleep
• not sleeping in a separate room
• received a bottle during the night
• was brought to parents bed
• had an irregular bedtime routine. 

These variables explained 20.55% of the variance in night wakings

What are the factors that better predict a deep, continuous sleep period?

Longest continuous sleep period was associated with:

• sleeping in a crib in a separate room
• older age
• not breastfeeding back to sleep
• not giving a bottle during the night
• a regular bedtime routine
• not bringing the child to the parents bed

General conclusions:

As was expected, sleep time decreases with as the kid matures and gets older. The main reason is the  gradual disappearance of daytime sleep and concentration of sleep during the night time. Interestingly, daytime sleep is mostly determined by age whereas nocturnal sleep is better predicted by external factors.

However, we must have into account that there is a huge variability of sleep duration during the first year of life. This suggests that there could be an underlying biologic factor (maybe genetics) or environmental factor that should be explored more.

Source Article:

Sadeh A, Mindell J a., Luedtke K, Wiegand B. Sleep and sleep ecology in the first 3 years: A web-based study. J Sleep Res. 2009;18(1):60–73.

ABI Newsletter!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our ABI newsletter!!  

Our goal with this newsletter is to create something that is informative and that will help our participants understand the impact of their involvement in research.

We will be regularly creating original content every three months. We chose a quarterly schedule to ensure that our correspondence is never overwhelming and that the content delivered is relevant.

This first issue will go over the different studies and child cohorts in the lab, and what each one of them consists of. You will also be able to read about Lexie, our ECHO study coordinator, and her role in the lab. 

Check it out down below!!

BodPod/Peapod

If you are participating in our studies, or know anyone else who is, you might be familiar with our Bod Pod device. In this post we are going to explain exactly what it is that it does and how it does it!

What is a Bod Pod?

The BOD POD is a device that uses air movement to determine your body composition (aka the ratio of fatty mass to lean mass).  Fatty mass and lean mass have different density, with fat-free tissue being more dense than fat tissue.  

Fat mass consists of all the adipose tissue (fat) within your body. 

Lean mass consist of bone, bodily fluid (blood), organs, and skeletal muscle. 

The BOD POD test provides results of these two categories expressed as percentages of total body mass. Testing is highly accurate, safe, and quick, with a complete analysis in about 10-minutes. It's easy and appropriate for many types of people, including the obese, disabled, elderly, and children.  It provides excellent repeatability and tracking.

Why do we need to get on the scale first?

Density is defined as mass divided by volume. Body mass can be estimated from body weight, as measured by a high precision scale. Body volume must then be accurately measured to provide an accurate body density value!

Alright, but how is the BodPod able to measure body volume?

The BodPod uses a technique called Air Displacement Plethysmography (ADP). This technique relies on the physics of Boyle's Law, which states that pressure and volume vary inversely with one another. In other words, as pressure goes up, volume goes down, and vice versa. By monitoring pressure changes in the chamber, the Bod Pod allows us to calculate volume. First of all, the volume of the Bod Pod itself is calculated. Then, the participant enters the chamber and we measure the volume of air left in the chamber with the subject inside. By subtraction (First volume measurement minus second volume measurement), the volume of the subject is calculated.

The BodPod uses a diaphragm to     cause small volume changes in a chamber and then measures pressure responses.

Of course, lung volume is taken into account in order to obtain an accurate volume measurement.  (Other body composition measurement techniques require the subject to empty their lungs during a test.)

This is why we ask our participants to wear tight clothes, and put their hair inside a swim cap: to avoid extra volume that might skew the measurement!  

Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments!

Sources: 

https://www.bcm.edu/departments/pediatrics/sections-divisions-centers/childrens-nutrition-research-center/research/labs/body-composition

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/75/3/453/4689336

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/75/3/453/4689336

Hello world!

Advanced Baby Imaging Lab has a blog! 

For those of you that don't know us yet, we are a lab located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and our main interest is studying how different factors affects children's brain development. 

You can learn more about our research by clicking here. We have two main studies going on  right now and we are always looking for participants!

This blog will serve as a link between our lab and our participants. Our aim is use this blog in order to provide you with ABI digests of scientific papers, newsletters with updates regarding our research, and pretty much ANYTHING baby: from events happening nearby that might be interesting to families in Rhode Island, to books that might be interesting for parents (and for kids!), game ideas... and so on.

But primary, we want to make YOU the focus of this blog. This is why we would love for our readers to write a comment down below to let us know what they are most interested in!

MRI FAQ

Both of our main studies require MRI scans (Magnetic resonance imaging) in order to take pictures of the brain and see how it is developing. We then, link these brain images to cognitive assessments in order to track how the brain structurally matures as we develop cognitive and functional skills.

For Kids under 4 years old we do asleep scans, so as to ensure they won't be moving much during the scan. For older kids we do awake scans, where we set up a movie that they can watch while they are in the scan!

IS MRI LIKE AN X-RAY OR CT-SCAN? 

NO! X-rays and CT scans use ionizing radiation to create an image. MRI does not use ionizing radiation. Instead, to take these fancy pictures, the MRI scanner uses a very powerful magnet, more than 200 times stronger than a refrigerator magnet.

IS MRI SAFE? 

YES. There is a lot of incorrect information regarding MRI safety available on the internet. After 30 years of clinical and research imaging, no peer-reviewed study has shown any long-term negative effects associated with MRI (usage of no radiation). FDA considers MRI to be a ‘nonsignificant’ risk when performed within specified parameters. Our study meets all of these safety measures.

BUT MRI’S ARE LOUD? 

MRI scanners built for adults can be very loud, reaching more than 140dB (almost as loud as a rock concert). Through the use of sound proofing and special sequence design, we have reduced this to less than 60dB - the same as casual conversation. To reduce noise further, we use noise-attenuating head phones specially designed for infants and toddlers. As a result, infants can sleep through the scan.

CAN I SEE THE SCANNER AND FACILITY, AND MEET THE RESEARCH TEAM BEFORE AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE? 

ABSOLUTELY! We can arrange an information session during which you can tour the facility, see the scanner, meet members of the team and get a better idea of how a session will run. You can also ask questions. If you decide to participate, we will go through the consent form with you and arrange a convenient time for the scan.

WHY DO YOU IMAGE MY INFANT WHILE THEY ARE ASLEEP?

Just as taking pictures of a moving object causes blurry photos, moving during an MR scan also causes blurry images. By imaging children (under 4 years of age) while they sleep, we can be sure they will stay still for the whole scan.

DO YOU USE SEDATION TO PUT MY CHILD TO SLEEP? 

NO! We schedule scans during normal nap or sleep time. We have private rooms where you and your child can relax and fall asleep. Once asleep, we will move your child into the scanner. 

CAN I BE IN THE SCANNER ROOM DURING THE SCAN? 

ABSOLUTELY! As long as you have no metal implants, pacemaker, etc., we encourage you to be in the scanner room along with your infant. At least one member of the research team will also be in the room. 

WHAT IF I WANT TO STOP? 

You can stop at any time. If you are uncomfortable before or during the scan, just alert us and we will stop everything

A pic of our MRI Scanner!