My name is Amy Doser and I am addicted to pre-natal, post-natal, and pediatric studies and I need your help.

Being a first time mother, I’m eager to make sure I’m doing everything I possibly can for my son.   I want him to be smarter than I am, have more opportunities than I’ve had, healthier than me, and pretty much just to have an edge on society in general.   Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the world wide web is overflowing with superfluous studies to help me out.

Each day I’m constantly perusing Twitter, finding something new including the following:

• Studies show the birth order of children can impact their social behavior.
• Study suggests that two or more years between siblings is optimal, resulting in higher scores in reading and math later.
• Australian study finds that late talkers don’t experience any greater risk of behavioral or emotional problems than their more verbose pals. 
• Flu shot during pregnancy may help fetal growth.

And the list goes on and on.   It’s amazing and even somewhat overwhelming.  I can’t help but wonder what initiates the need for some of these studies?   Are moms and parents asking these questions?   Are researchers anxious to just use some grant money that may “expire” and create reasons for these studies?   Is there a true medical reason or are doctors and psychologists just filling up their spare time?   Whatever the reason, I’ve become addicted to reading them!

I spend the better part of my time on Twitter actually looking for these studies and finds and seeing how they may or may not apply to my life.   I find that I’m actually worried about some of the results and will change-up how I feed Davey, change his diaper, talk to him, bathe him, and pretty much just raise him.   After all, I want him to be the best he can be, but am I going overboard on the studies?  I think so.

So, I’m here to ask for help.  Admitting I have a problem is the first step.  Problem is, I don’t know how to stop looking for these studies and I don’t know how to stop applying them to my life.   Curse you social media sites!  

Am I the only mother who does this?  How many of you out there actually worries about the results of some of these studies in relation to your child?