Today I had a few random thoughts that were running through my mind that I wanted to put out there for you to enjoy (or ignore). 

1.  Babies don’t have kneecaps.

The other day I received one of those emails that includes a series of random facts, but this one contained the point that babies don’t have kneecaps.  Of course, I was intrigued so I picked up my beautiful daugther and sure enough there was no patella to be felt.   Being the geek that I am, I had to look this up.

As it turns out, babies technically do have kneecaps at birth, but they are made from cartilage instead of bone so you can’t really feel them and they don’t show up on an xray.  The patella starts to ossify (become bone) at around 3 years for girls and 4-5 years for boys.  Interestingly, if the cartilage kneecap is left to grow in tissue culture it will remain as cartilage which suggests that mechanical forces must be present for ossification to occur.  What is more interesting is that, since walking typically starts long before this, it leaves the question of which forces are responsible for iniating this process.  Or is it a hormonal response that is different between boys and girls?  Is it both?

And finally, another point that this brought up is that parts of the pelvic girdle and pubus do not completely ossify until the late teens or early twenties.  If form truly dictates function (as many people suggest), then does the fact that babies differ structurally to some degree negate any or all of the assessments that use the movements of babies as their guiding principles?

2.  The Biggest Loser

If all of the people who are “inspired” and “motivated” by The Biggest Loser took the time they spent watching the show to exercise or do food prep for the week instead the world would be a skinnier, healthier place.

3.  Bowel Buddies?

The other day I had the good (or bad) fortune to receive a free sample of a product called Bowel Buddies.  If you’ve never heard of them, they are essentially a cookie that claims to taste good and provides a small dose of dietary fiber.  The bad news is that they taste like sawdust.  The good news is that in Canada all of our packaging is labelled in English and French and the product flavor was pomegranate.  You’d think that the company making a “bowel product” might be more careful about their labels.  See if you can notice which word on a fiber supplement might discourage you from giving it a try.

Any random thoughts going through your mind today?