ScienceofMom is written by Alice Callahan, PhD.
I was a scientist first. I earned my PhD in Nutritional Biology from the University of California, Davis, in 2008. I spent 2.5 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona, where I studied the effects of diabetes during pregnancy on the developing fetus. I toiled at the lab bench, running experiment after experiment, trying to understand my tiny corner of biomedical research. I published scientific papers and wrote grants in which I struggled to make my writing as precise and concise as possible. I was also a wife, daughter, sister, and friend, but day in and day out plus nights and weekends, I was a scientist.
And then, in November 2010, I became a mother. And of course, everything changed.
Photo by Lori Cole
Day in and day out, plus nights and weekends, I was consumed by this little human. She amazed me and exhausted me, and either way, I didn’t want to miss any of it. The desire to understand a little corner of biomedical research was gone, but the skeptical scientist in me would not go away. When I had a parenting question, I couldn’t just do a quick internet search and trust some website. Instead, I found myself poring over scientific papers trying to answer my questions on breastfeeding, nutrition, health, behavior, and development. (But don’t worry – I still wing it most of the time!)
ScienceofMom began when I started writing summaries of my research. I figured that since my questions were probably shared by other new mamas, I might as well share what I was learning through my research and my own experience. I also write about lots of everyday things – about being at stay-at-home mom, about the many ways my little girl continues to amaze me, and every once in a while, about a (kid-friendly) recipe that went over well in our house. After years of writing for an academic publications, I am enjoying writing for myself and for you.
I am not selling anything, and I have no agenda or particular parenting philosophy to promote. I am interested in using science to inform the decisions I make as a parent, but there are lots of other factors in there, too: intuition, hormones, logistics, convenience, and LOVE.
For ScienceofMom, my baby girl goes by BabyC and my wonderful husband goes by Husband, until we come up with a better pseudonym. I hope you enjoy following us on our adventures, scientific and otherwise.
I welcome your ideas for blog posts! What nutrition or health related questions have you had as a parent? Please add them below in the comments.
You can find more about me, including my professional qualifications, on my LinkedIn Profile.
Disclaimer: The information and opinions on this site do not constitute medical advice. Please consult your pediatrician or other medical professional if you have medical questions.
thank you for doing this, I think it is wonderful. I appreciate you sharing what you learn.
just found your blog on the “parenting” home page. I think our blogs are a lot alike… except you do the research and the science, and I just rely on what I’ve heard from other moms and what’s worked for me =). I also have a Baby C. Maybe we can learn from each other! I look forward to reading your blog.
Me again. I wanted to tell you that I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. See my latest post for details… Merry Christmas!
I just found this blog and already love it. I found it through DoubleX Science, another great blog by a cool scientist mom. I’m not a scientist mom – I’m a journalist mom, but my focus in my writing has been health and science, so that’s the focus of the blog I’ve just started, Red Wine & Apple Sauce. I see myself linking to yours quite a bit (and I’ve added you to my blogroll). Thanks for making sense of science for other parents – I feel a sort of personal calling to address lack of scientific literacy among parents, and it seems your blog addresses this need as well!
I love DoubleXSci! They are so cool:) Glad you found me, and I’m glad to know about you, too! I’ll look forward to reading your blog, and you can certainly link away to ScienceofMom!
Hi Alice! It’s Lucy from Putney. I have a 4 and a 6 year old and I love it. Your voice is a refreshing one for me! I have been swimming in a sea of hippie moms who tune out scientists and doctors. I expect I will check in here from time to time for some balance. Best to you — you go!
Hi Lucy! I’m so glad that you like the blog. I paddle around with hippie moms, too. I learn a lot from them, but I am also a skeptic and like to see the science. It really is about balance and finding one’s own truth as a mother:) Hugs to you and your kiddos. Maybe we’ll meet again sometime. I think you are in the Pacific Northwest, right?
A breath of fresh, balanced air! I think that’s what your blog is
I was driven here because of my itchy eye–my 2-year-old has conjunctivitis, unfortunately the hemorrhagic type, and so far, thank God, none of us has contracted it. I am keen to have it stay that way! My older son once had it, and through diligence, we were able to completely avoid any further occurrence amongst other household members. That said, what I like about your blog is the balanced sensibility you bring to mothering, with the painstaking work you do to present available scientific facts and evidence, together with a sense of openness to therapies/methods outside of traditional Western medicine. Keep up the great work, and God bless your family. 
Hi Mila – Thanks so much for your kind words. It means a lot to me to know that readers appreciate the blog! Hope your little one feels better fast!
What a great blog! I am also a mom with a Ph.D. and I have the same propensity toward thoroughly researching every decision. I am glad that I can check here first to save myself a bit of work
Nice to meet you Betsy! I think having a PhD gives me a different perspective as a parent – not necessarily more smarts when it comes to parenting but a healthy dose of skepticism for sure:) Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you in future conversations:)
I just came across this blog from a retweet posted on Twitter. Great blog! I have a feeling I’ll be back.
Thanks! And thanks for sharing my post on your page, too!
Hi Alice,
Your post on baby sleep was linked on the WordPress homepage and made me curious.
I, too, am a bioscientist turned mother (my baby is nine months old now) and I found it quite hard to get adjusted to my new “job”. It is not the parenting part of it that is irritating, I feel overwhelming love for my little one and following my instincts works pretty well most of the time:) .
The hard part was being taken out of the world of science, curiosity, questioning and discussing things and trying to find the “truth” behind everything and all of a sudden being thrown into a world of dogmatic beliefs, hearsay and witchcraft. A world ruled by women (mostly, naturally) with strong opinions on alternative medicine, immunization, breast feeding, healing stones, carrying, etc. based on something that a midwife told another midwife who told a friend…
It is always a relief to find that there are other mothers “out there” who just want to be good moms – and who triple check the sources of parenting tips. I certainly will stop by again – when my baby is sleeping!
Hi! Nice to meet you! I have found a surprising number of scientist turned moms and lots of scientists + moms out there since I’ve started blogging. I completely agree with you that the parenting world is full of dogma and it can be difficult to sort through it yourself, let alone have an intelligent conversation with another parent about it. I find that I actually don’t use much science in my own parenting decisions, to be honest. Like you said, I trust my instinct and learn from others around me, using what makes sense to me and what seems to work in my family. It is when I find others claiming magical cures or that there is science backing a particular dogma that I get the urge to start digging through the scientific literature. It’s generally fun and interesting and keeps my mind working, which is what I need these days. Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you keep reading!
We are new, apprentices in the task of raising a son and us there seems to be fantastic the initiative that you show. Sharing your experiences helps us. Our mistakes are several, but not so much. By the way, we are from Spain, so, excuse my writing languaje…
Seems like this site will be a valuable resource
How refreshing! References!!! I would love to see posts on working with older kids to start eating healthier. We are a “blended” family with four kids, three of whom live in other households with different eating habits for half the week.
That’s a great topic! One thing that is kind of funny about having a PhD in Nutrition is that this background has actually simplified my nutrition advice. For the most part, I think that we should be eating a variety of whole foods, locally when possible (because they taste better and are often higher in nutrients), and that we should cook with our kids! I’m sure your blended family makes this a bit trickier, since the kids may have different expectations in terms of food. I’d say prepare healthy meals and have a “this is how we do it in our house” attitude. I know easier said than done:) Anyway, if you have some specific nutrition questions, let me know, and I’ll keep my mind open for more family nutrition articles. Thanks for reading!
Hi again–thanks for your reply! I have a Masters in Public Health myself, and have worked on a lot of “big picture” nutrition issues, such as school foods policies. It’s been a real eye-opener to be faced with trying to serve healthy, homemade, unprocessed, seasonal, vegetarian meals to older kids who don’t (yet!) have the palate for it. But just like you said in your post comparing veggies and fruits, repeated exposure is the key. Meanwhile, my daughter is happiest eating minimally prepared spinach, broccoli, beans, and tofu. It’s challenging trying to make everybody happy. Food is so associated with the sense of belonging to a community, and we want all the kids to feel comfortable in our new family. We’ve found a few things that everybody likes, but then they get bored. It’s amazing how much of our mental energy goes into meal-planning!! Anyway, I’m very happy to have found your blog. The brain needs food, too!
Really love your blog! I’m finishing my Phd at the moment, and am a mum to a 4 year old and 9 month old (lets just say writing up is slow going!). My research is in anthropology and I’m really interested in issues of reflexive methodology and epistomology. What I love about your blog is how it resolves some of the tensions that exist in connecting the findings of academic research with ‘normal’ life (for want of a better term); bridging the divide between the ivory tower and the everyday through using the medium of blogging to connect with an audience that wouldn’t read journals, and using the format of the blog post connected to a reflexive practice (your experience as a parent) to elucidate the findings of the research you gather. I find it funny that some commentators have placed you in oppositions to ‘hippy’ or ‘natural’ mothers. It seems to me that in combining a rigorous academic background, thorough research, an innovative means of dissemination and a (partly) reflexive methodology, you are allowing for the connections between science and folk-knowing to be made more obvious, and breaking down the false dichotomising between the two which only serves to muddy the waters of this parenting lark further! Thank you for your hard work! And one question – when do you write/research? You say you are a stay-at-home mum, and as a stay-at-home mum (trying) to finish a PhD, and finding it challenging to find the time, I’d love some tips!
Dominique, thanks for your thoughtful comment. I find the parenting labels that we use to categorize ourselves and each other totally unuseful! I’m interested in the truth, and my ideas about truth are strongly weighted towards things that are supported by scientific research. I think there is a lot to be learned from each other and our experiences as well, and I know I am guilty of discounting these when there isn’t evidence to back it up – something I’ve been thinking about lately. Anyway, I’m very sympathetic that you are working on finishing your PhD while juggling the many tasks of parenting. I totally understand slow going… I published several papers after the birth of my daughter, and so I know that writing in 20-30 min increments can be very inefficient. I mainly use naptimes to write, and I love writing in the early morning when the stars align and BabyC sleeps late enough and I go to bed early enough the night before:) It’s tough. I’d like to do more writing beyond this blog, but time is always the limiting factor. Writing and reading science does give me a great balance to the work of parenting, though! It makes me realize how much I enjoy both of them and want to keep them in my life!
Thanks for your reply! And your tips are great… pretty much the approach I have adopted since baby number 2 (when the stars align!). Even with the limitations and the toughness, when I am not being too hard on myself, this statement really resonates:
“Writing and reading science does give me a great balance to the work of parenting, though! It makes me realize how much I enjoy both of them and want to keep them in my life!”
Thanks again for sharing your passions so eloquently!
I am so excited to come across this blog! I have no science background but I research and think about parenting stuff so much that I love finding impartial summaries of everything out there by people with qualifications (who can write!).
I’m particularly excited that you have a PhD in nutritional biology as my toddler’s diet is a top parenting priority for me, and he’s turned out to be a super fussy eater. I would love your thoughts on the “nutrition mix” I give him daily to try and pack in everything he currently refuses to eat, and how effective you think it would be (or not) in making up that nutritional balance. It’s explained in this post: http://mamaplus.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/my-nutrition-mix.
Just one other comment on your blog: I can’t see a follow button anywhere; have you considered adding a widget to make it easy for people to subscribe to your posts by email?
Thanks – JM
SO happy to have found your blog! I’m linking it. What a treasure.
love your blog. some really interesting stuff. happy to follow you!
LOVE your blog. I actually came across it on the wordpress dash board while not being able to sleep at 3 am! My 6 month old woke me up at 1 am and I have not been able to fall back asleep. I didnt come to wordpress at this ungoldy hour to research sleep stuff, I came to write a post for my own blog, but I think its interesting that I did find a sleep related blog post on the wordpress dashboard at 3 am! I am not a scientists or a doctor but I am an avid reader and I am one of those kind of people who wants to know as much scientific info as possible while discerning whats best for my child, especially as it relates to sleep, development, attachment etc. I am so thankful to have your blog as a new resource to add to my mix! Thank you for taking the time to share your findings and experiences with fellow mommas in the trenches!
I came here through Freshly pressed and I’m hooked. Your writings are so informative and well thought. We are planning a baby this year and I guess I’ll keep a link to your blog so I can get back whenever I have a question.
Please continue writing beautiful posts.
This blog looks fascinating. Would that it had been around when I was raising babies. I was always one to search out information. Good for you.
Great blog! I look forward to reading.
I am a new blogger and learning the world of WordPress. So grateful to have run across your blog!
I have just come across your blog! Very much enjoying it! Just thought I would say hi.
Pingback: Why Fixing Your Kid’s Sleep Problems Is Not Selfish | Craig Canapari, MD
Hello! Love your blog! Just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award!
http://mrblueskye.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/very-inspiring-blogger-award/
HI Alice,
I nominate you for the Readers’ Appreciation Award.
If you choose to accept this award, the rules are here: http://lielaylied.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/readers-appreciation-award/.
I’ve just found your blog after searching for family blogs. Hi thought I’d say hi. I’m liking it.
Love your blog!!— I have a master’s in nutrition and am a pediatrician — a mom and most recently, a grandmother. It is great that you are helping moms understand all the information that they are exposed to.
Rite on, Bro
Frank The Tank
Do you have a Facebook page I can follow? I’m terrible about remembering to check blogs, but I read things that pop up in my Facebook feed.
Yes! Join the ScienceofMom conversation on FB here! It’s a happening place:) You can also subscribe by email – look for a link on the right hand side of my home page. That way, you get an email every time I post. FB is great, but you may not see everything I post there. Thanks for asking!
Thank you!
Thank you so much. This is a wonderful resource and it helping me a lot.
This is a fantastic resource – thank you so much for all your hard work!
I love your Blog. simply awesome!!!!!!!
I have nominated you for the “Beautiful Mama Blog Award.” You can find it here: http://crankycaregiver.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/beautiful-mama-blog-award/
Hi, this is a great idea! I just started a blog on developmental psychology research too. The idea is that I describe research studies that parents can “try” at home to learn more about cognitive, language, and social development. It’s meant to be fun and enlightening! My blog is: http://www.myfirsttheory.com
Hope you get a chance to take a look!
Wow, cool blog! Thanks for sharing!
I just found this blog and already, I love it! Thank you for choosing to share!
Good news, I’m giving you the “BEST MOMENT AWARD“.
Check back here: http://myfamilybliss.com/2013/03/13/whats-up-wednesday-weve-been-awarded-again/
Congratulations and enjoy the rest of the day!
Just stumbled upon your blog…Realized we live somewhat parallel lives. I went to UC Davis in 2004 to study biochemistry, and later transferred to the University of Arizona to finish my degree in accounting…So different outcomes, but same schools. I am expecting my first baby in September and am enjoying reading your blog! I started one too! Check it out if you get a chance.
http://www.thebabydoctorswife.wordpress.com