Let's talk about vaccines.

Please read this short, yet very telling, article. Click here.

I got this from my friend, who also happens to be my La Leche League leader (not that that has anything to do with vaccinations), this morning. I found it so interesting that I ran it up my virtual flag pole, just to see who would salute. I also came out publicly with the fact that Chai 100% vaccine-free. I found the comments I got very interesting.

Most of all, I was very pleased that nobody told me I was endangering Chai by not vaccinating him yet. As you can see in the article, even this very pro-vaccine immunologist states that babies can't even produce the antibodies that vaccines are meant to stimulate production of, when they're under a year old, so vaccinating prior to a year is really pointless. Seeing that I got absolutely no "You suck at life and you're crazy!" comments (of which I usually get at least a few on my more controversial posts), shows that everyone at least read the article, and that was my point in posting it anyway.

What I did get were a lot of questions about whether I would vaccinate Chai after he was a year old. These, I answered very frankly, that I am working on choosing a vaccination schedule I can feel confident in, and am currently considering using the Finnish vaccination schedule, but that my understanding of this issue is a work in progress.

Vaccines are sort of my Achilles heel as a parent. I have a very solid understanding of a lot of topics, but the vaccine issue troubles me, and always has. Even when Erin was a baby, before I knew it was my right to refuse vaccines, or to make my own schedule for them, I didn't feel right about the whole thing. I felt like there had to be a better way. Even then, my gut feeling was telling me that it wasn't right to give all these vaccines to tiny little babies. When Erin was 1, I started to refuse some of the vaccinations, most notably, the chicken pox vaccine. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bother to vaccinate for chicken pox? That's not even that bad an illness."

That brings me to my next point. Some of the comments I got were from people telling me that they knew someone who had Measles, Mumps, Hepatitis A, or Tuberculosis, so they were vaccinating on that basis. Fair enough, but even with my understanding of the vaccine issue not being quite where I want it to be yet, I see a really notable flaw in this reasoning.

First of all, the US does not administer a TB vaccine. Canada does, but we don't. The TB test that the doctors do here is not a vaccine against TB. People need to understand that even with every vaccine on the US market coursing through their veins, they are not immune to tuberculosis. I don't blame these people for their lack of understanding. I blame vaccine marketing for making people believe they're invincible because they got a needle in their arm.

Second, let's look at the other diseases mentioned above. They were measles, mumps, and hep a.

Click here for a list of measles symptoms from the Mayo Clinic.
Click here for mumps symptoms (this is also from Mayo).
Click here for symptoms of hepatitis a (Mayo again).

Of those three, Hep A is the most severe, but still not this black plague of death that people would have us believe it is. What's more, it's a rather uncommon vaccine to get, and is only routinely given in certain regions (like where I live). The MMR vaccine is pretty much ubiquitous here in the US, and in many other countries, and has been connected to all kinds of horrible health consequences, yet the diseases it immunizes against really aren't that bad. What the hell?

THIS is why I stopped vaccinating until I can make some sense of this whole issue. We are pumping our kids full of all kinds of horrible chemicals, including known carcinogens, to prevent them from getting diseases that really weren't all that bad in the first place. What's more, we're doing it when they are so young that they are particularly vulnerable to these toxins, AND the real kicker in that is that the things don't even work at that age!! So we're pumping our kids full of toxic sludge for NOTHING, and then for minimal benefit, with unknown risk. No thanks.

Will I vaccinate again in the future? More than likely, yes. I want to be sure I know what I'm doing with it, though. I don't want to get pushed around by a pediatrician like I did when Orren was a baby, and I attempted a delayed and selective vaccination schedule. I want to get it right this time, and until I do, nobody in this family is getting vaccinated against anything.

I leave you with two thoughts. First of all, the other night, a commercial came on the radio, the goal of which was to scare parents into vaccinating. At the end of it, it said, "A message from the American Academy of Pediatrics, sponsored by Synofi Pasteur." Do you see what I see? The people who make the product teamed up with the people who get paid to administer the product, to use fear mongering, to hawk the product to the masses. This is why I'm skeptical of doctors. It's an industry. They are in it to make a profit, and they are way too linked in with the pharmaceutical companies. Can I get an honest message that WASN'T paid for by somebody who's going to try to sell me something in a syringe?!!

And finally, this.

Erin hates her hair.

Erin hates how frizzy her hair is. I know the feeling. I hated my hair until the day I discovered flat ironing. I think I was like 23 then. No joke.

My first thought was that it was simple enough, I'd just flat iron her hair, too. Then I remembered, I nurse a baby for at least half the night, then drag my tired ass out of bed, make breakfast for all 3 kids and some coffee for myself, then get them all dressed, myself dressed, check all Erin's crap for school, and then get us all out the door by 7:15. I don't even have time to eat breakfast myself, far less flat iron my kid's hair.

Then it came to me via Pinterest. Sock bun curls. Apparently, the trick every female soldier knows has now caught on in the private sector! Well, I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. You see, in the Army, we wear something called a sock bun a lot. Most people with a female drill sergeant will learn it before basic is out. I did. Well, when you take your hair down at the end of the duty day, it looks pretty good, and only needs a little bit of shaking out and poofing up before it's passable for most any cantina's happy hour. Well, now more fashion forward civilian girls have taken our old military favorite, loosened it up slightly, and made it into a wonderful styling method!!



I knew this was our answer. So here's Erin, with a loose sock bun for tonight, and hopefully lovely princess-like curls tomorrow. Who said I never learned anything useful in the Army...

Bebe Chai is ready for the farm.

On choosing a pediatrician

One of our Ft. Bliss wives asked recently on an online group, how other moms go about choosing a pediatrician. That's a fair question, and I'm glad she asked. Most military families just haul their kids on post, and then complain when they aren't a fit for whatever doctor they're assigned at random. Still others take other people's word for what doctor is good, not taking into account that they may have completely different priorities as parents. While this group does better than the former, it's not by a lot. The fact that this woman even wants to interview pediatricians before her baby is born really speaks highly of her commitment to finding the right one. I've gotta love that.

Now, the thing I found very strange was the replies. The most common things mentioned were wait time, after hours procedures, what hospital they admit patients to when necessary, and what the office looks like. My list looked freakish by comparison, not that I mind. I was just surprised that not one person actually mentioned anything about the actual practice of medicine, or the way the doctor does that, in their list of things they look for. I now understand how so many parents get really crappy advice from their pediatricians. Pretty much anyone with a pretty office, separate waiting rooms for sick and well patients, and an efficient office staff, can be considered the best doctor in town, even if their practices are based on things that haven't been considered best practice in at least 20 years. I think that's ridiculous. I think parents need to ask for more in a pediatrician than a pretty waiting room and a short time spent there. This is my list of priorities for a pediatrician:

These are my MUST HAVES:

-Breastfeeding supportive
-Not obsessed with growth charts, and aware that the AAP growth charts are based on formula fed babies. Willing to measure my babies by the WHO growth chart, if any chart at all.
-Homebirth supportive
-OK with alternative vaccination practices
-Willing to use prescription medication as a last resort
-Intact-friendly, aware of proper care and normal development of non-circumcised boys.

These are my NICE TO HAVES:

-Open to homeopathic and holistic remedies
-No formula company merchandise around the office (a doctor who is receiving kickbacks from the formula companies is a lot more likely to push supplementing)
-Doesn't mind if parents don't want to do all the standard well baby visits.
-Supports attachment parenting practices
-Promotes best practice when it comes to carseat safety


Now, I understand that not everybody has the same priorities as I have, so here is a list of general questions I think new parents should consider asking pediatricians they are interviewing:

1) Under what circumstances do you think prescription medication is necessary?

Think about what you would prefer. Do you view medication as a last resort in your own life, or do you medicate for everything? What do you feel most comfortable doing with your baby?

2) (If having a boy) What is your view on circumcision?

You want to know this if you don't plan on it because if you have some cut-happy doctor who thinks it's the greatest thing ever, they're probably not at all intact-friendly. If you do plan on doing it, please reconsider. No, but really, if you do plan on it, you probably don't want a doctor who's a card carrying member of Intact America.

3) What's your view on vaccinations?

Again, this is a topic parents need to research, and figure out what they want to do with it. It's really important that your pediatrician at least accepts your views, even if they don't totally agree.

4) What alternative medical practices do you support the use of?

Homeopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture... If any of these are your cup of tea, you want to make sure you have a pediatrician who doesn't think they're the devil.

5) Under what circumstances do you think parents should bring their sick kids in to see you?

You want to know that their opinion on this lines up with yours.

6) What's your opinion on breastfeeding? What about breastfeeding past infancy?

7) What are your procedures for after hours calls?

8) How may other doctors and nurse practitioners are in this practice?

9) What's the average time spent in the waiting room?

10) Do you have separate waiting areas for sick and well patients?

Fingerpaint: You're doing it wrong.

Erin and Orren got some fingerpaint for Christmas. I figured it would be a huge hit. What kid doesn't like to fingerpaint, right? I offered the stuff to Orren one day while Erin was at school. He wanted nothing to do with it. He didn't like to paint with his fingers, and the stuff was too thick to have much control of it with his brushes. He's a watercolor guy, plain and simple.

So, with four mostly unused tubes of fingerpaint on my shelf, I thought of an ingenious proposal this morning. "Hey, do you guys want to fingerpaint on the patio?" Oh yes, that was the right answer!! Basically, the lesson in this is that if your kid doesn't like to fingerpaint, don't dispair. They probably just don't like to fingerpaint on paper.

Real facts. Do not fear them.

I am often disheartened by the way other parents view things. It's not that they're bad or malicious. It's that misinformation is so rampant, and people these days equate any attempt to educate, as judgment. Then add to that, that so many people are so much more concerned with defending their choices, than making good ones in the future, and the cycle just continues on and on. The day that information becomes cool, and people are not afraid to be taken out of their comfort zones, and objectivity becomes mainstream, we will see major steps in a better direction.

Here are some FACTS about some important parenting issues:

On birth:
-C-sections carry a 4x higher risk of death for mother and baby than any vaginal birth.
-Every intervention that exists carries some risk.
-Every hospital in the US has time limits on how long a mom can labor, and many have policies on what interventions they do routinely, such as monitors and IV's. These things DO impact the progress of labor.
-IV fluids during labor have been shown to make breastfeeding more difficult due to latch issues from engorged tissue.
-Epidurals are associated with a slowed progress of labor.
-Often, one intervention leads to another.
-Cytotec inductions have killed hundreds of women and babies.
-The World Health Organization has stated time and time again that homebirth with a trained midwife is at least as safe as hospital birth for low risk women and full term babies.
-When you homebirth, you are not without help if something goes wrong. Midwives are trained for YEARS before they practice on their own, so that they will know what to do when things go wrong.
-US C-section rates are 3x higher than the World Health Organization thinks they should be. This is often attributed to the amount of intervention that is done in hospital births.
-The US has some of the most interventionist obstetrical customs in the world, and one of the worst maternal/infant outcomes in the industrialized world. Coincidence? You decide.
-A cord around the neck is not indication for a c-section.
-Uncommon presentations (sunny side up, breech, brow presentation, etc) are not automatically indication for c-section either.
-ACOG does not consider women to be postdates until after 42 weeks, so a doctor who induces for postdates before 42 weeks, is going against the recommendation of his/her own professional organization.
-Even so, there is no great increase in mortality or morbidity at 42 weeks, although there is a slight uptick at 43. Some midwives are working to get ACOG to adjust its definition of postdates to 43 weeks.
-True cases of cephalo-pelvic disproportion (CPD, a "too big" baby) are pretty much unheard of in the industrialized world. If you have never suffered malnutrition, or applicable severe injury or disease, and you were told by your doctor that your baby was too big, he/she was probably wrong. If it's because they wouldn't come out when you were laboring on your back, the position is the problem, not the baby, and not you. The pelvic opening is the narrowest in the lithotomy position that most American women are forced to birth in.


Vaccines:

-The number of vaccines children receive today is double the amount we received growing up in the 80's.
-Vaccines contain additives such as lead, formaldehyde, and other known carcinogens and toxins.
-Many of the diseases we vaccinate against are not generally deadly. Chicken pox, measles, and mumps, just to name a few.
-A breastfed baby has immunity to any disease his mother has antibodies against, for as long as he gets most of his nutrition from breastmilk.
-Vaccine injury is real, and it happens thousands of times a year. Sometimes it is mild and temporary, like a rash. Sometimes it is severe and debilitating for life, like fibromyalgia. Sometimes it is death.
-Doctors are often compensated by the vaccine manufacturers for how many doses they can administer.


Circumcision:

-Circumcision rates are falling nationwide. Most boys in our sons' generation are intact.
-There is no way to properly anesthetize a baby and have him still be awake, and general anesthesia is too risky at such a young age. All babies undergoing circumcision feel pain, a lot of pain. A study done in Toronto on the stress hormone and brain wave patterns of babies during circumcision, was discontinued for ethics reasons. The findings were that telling.
-Over 100 babies in the US die of complications from circumcision every year.
-A study in Finland showed that only six out of one thousand intact males will require medically necessary circumcision later in life. That's 0.6%.
-Most problems that can necessitate circumcision later in life are caused by improper care as an infant or child. Learn proper intact care at www.drmomma.org.
-Circumcision rose to popularity in the US as a cure for masturbation. (Please google "Dr. Kellogg on circumcision" if you doubt me.)
-The US Navy released a study last month which showed NO correlation between STD transmission and circumcision status.


Carseats:

-A rear-facing passenger is 5x safer than a forward-facing passenger because she shell of the carseat absorbs nearly all of the crash forces, especially in front or side impact.
-96% of crashes with injury are front or side impact.
-There has never been a documented case of broken legs due to rear-facing. Broken limbs are far more common among forward-facing passengers, who are flung against the front seats on impact.
-In Sweden, where children rear-face to at least 3 years old, often 5 or 6, child traffic fatalities are nearly unheard of. In the US, where our laws only require rear-facing for one year, traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for children under 14.
-There are seats on the US market that will keep even the tallest kid on the block rear-facing until at least 2, probably longer. You won't find them in your neighborhood Walmart store, but they exist.
-Most pediatricians are not Child Passenger Safety Technicians, and there is absolutely NOTHING taught in medical school about carseat safety. When your pediatrician advises on the subject, he/she is more than likely advising you based on his/her own views as a parent.
-The law DOES NOT say that you have to turn your child around at a year old and 20 pounds. It says that at that point, it becomes your choice.


Breastfeeding:

-Breastmilk is THE biologically appropriate food for human babies. This is why breastfed babies have fewer health issues.
-Moms who breastfeed for at least two years reduce their risk of breast cancer by 57%.
-Formula fed babies have a higher risk of SIDS than breastfed babies.
-Formula fed babies have statistically lower IQ's than breastfed babies.
-Formula feeding is associated with obesity, diabetes, and other health problems later in life.
-97% of the women in the world are totally capable of breastfeeding.
-The World Health Organization ranks baby feeding methods as follows:
1) Breastmilk directly from the breast
2) The baby's mother's own breastmilk in a bottle
3) The milk of another human mother
4) Formula



These are facts. To me, the facts present a very clear standard to aim for in parenting. Does that mean I do everything perfectly? No way. However, it is only because I am not defensive about the things I have done in the past that were not the best, that I am able to consistently improve, and keep getting closer and closer to the standard I have set for myself. In all but one of these areas, I have been flawed. I have never cut a baby, but I have failed at breastfeeding twice, had one crappy birth, forward-faced one baby at a year, and fully vaccinated one. Only when we realize that we don't always know best, can we move into more progressive ways of thinking, and act accordingly. Most activists I know have really screwed up a time or two. That's how they (we) end up so vocal about this stuff in the first place. It isn't because we think we're perfect parents. It's because we're not.

Random Monday Awesome...

Here is some random awesome from today.

The best article I have ever read on public breastfeeding is right here. <---- Click it. It's awesome. It's sarcastic, just in case you couldn't pick up on that (hey, I wouldn't be saying it if it hadn't happened), and basically, an awesome response to all the stupid comments people make about nursing in public.

Speaking of nursing in public, here's a picture Thak took of me and Chai on New Years Eve. We were at the mall to get Thak some new contacts (hey, who loves civilian vision insurance?! They actually pay for contacts!) Anyhow, we were having some gelato while we waited for Thak's contact prescription to be ready, and of course, Chai is a growing boy who needs to eat, so he had his snack while I had mine. I was impressed with the lack of dirty looks. Good for you, El Paso. That's one good thing I can say for this place. They've been good to us as far as nursing in public goes. Oh, and dark chocolate and coffee gelato is divine. Highly recommend. The gelato is its own awesome.



This is how I finished my day. When you both have iPhones, you can do FaceTime, which is basically like those video phones Weekly Reader told us we'd all have in the future. 1989 me finally thinks 2012 me is cool. Score!


In other awesomeness, just when I got off the phone with my mom this afternoon, and had mentioned in said conversation, that Chai had not cut any teeth yet, I noticed that Chai had, in fact, just cut a tooth. He had to have cut it this morning, because it wasn't there when he went to bed last night. He's been really fussy all day, and he was hard to get to bed tonight. I even gave him a dose of tylenol, his first ever, just because he was so uncomfortable. He's ok, though, and I'm glad he has a tooth now. It looks like he'll have another one within days, too. My little boy is growing up so fast... Even though he's the slowest one out of all my three to get teeth, it still seems fast.

I also find it pretty awesome that we might be within days of finding out where we're going. The assignment manager said that he would more than likely have assignments figured out while the guys are in Utah. If that is the way it actually works out, then we will know something within the next three weeks.

This is both awesome and completely lame. Chai has been sleeping very well in his own room. He sleeps until like 3 am and then he gets into bed with me and nurses the rest of the night away. I don't sleep well without him, though. I can't really fall asleep very well at all until he comes in. I resist the urge to go and get him before he wakes up, but the minute he wakes up, I'm there, and when I bring him into bed with me, I'm out the second he latches on. So many people love when their babies sleep for a long stretch at night. After so long of Chai not doing that, it kind of freaks me out that he does now, and in another room. It feels unnatural. I guess it's because we spend most of our day with me either wearing him, holding him, or playing with him, it's really strange to sleep apart from him. I liked having his crib sidecarred to my bed, where he was just an arm's reach away. I wish it had worked out to keep it like that for a little longer. As long as Chai's happy, though, that's really all that matters.

Orren has a piggy bank (ok, so it's a tomato sauce jar that I'm going to paper mache the outside of and let him paint, but it does the job). He got $5 for his birthday, and has found random change around the house and yard, and has put it all in his bank. He informed me today that he's saving up to buy Woody and Buzz action figures, from Toy Story. He might actually have enough when you factor in the gift card he got for Christmas. I think it's awesome that he's saving money, though. What a smart little boy he is!