The Sweet Taste of Rotovirus

Yesterday's pediatric appointment for Kayla went better than I'd expected. After I'd explained the research I'd done and what my concerns were, our doctor was fine with us holding off on pretty much all of the vaccines. When we asked him what would happen if we refused all of the vaccines, he said two things:

First, that he would want to come up with a plan of action in the event of an exposure. I was so happy to hear that instead of something like, "then you'll have to find another doctor."

Second, when it comes time for her to go to school, he told us that he has written notes in the past for parents that refused the vaccine. The note would usually describe the research done by the parent and the reasons for their refusal, and he's never had anyone come back to him saying it didn't work.

He gave us the brand names of each vaccine he has available so that we could look up the ingredients of each of them specifically. In the meantime, we already knew we were fine with getting the drops in her mouth for Rotovirus, so we did that yesterday.

I held Kayla while he squeezed this clear liquid out of a tube into her mouth, which she promptly spit out. Most of the liquid went down her cheeks onto her neck, but the doctor said that was to be expected, and the amount that did stay in her mouth was enough.

It was enough alright... enough to get her screaming her head off. I had never seen her cry so hard before. I asked, "Why is it bothering her so much? Is it just the taste or does it burn or something?" He replied, "I'm not sure, but some babies do cry a lot. It's probably just because she's not used to the taste. Subsequent doses are usually a lot better."

So I did what any good mom would do and licked the remaining rotovirus vaccine off her neck so that I would know exactly what she was experiencing. Had I thought of it, I probably would have asked to taste the stuff before she had any. It didn't burn or hurt my mouth in any way, but it did taste NASTY. It was sweet, but not sweet like fruit or even sugar... more sweet like putting a whole pack of nutrasweet in your mouth and nothing else.

I tried to nurse her but she wasn't having it. I can't say I blame her; I wouldn't trust anyone to put anything in my mouth after that either. But a few minutes later after she calmed down we went outside and she nursed for about 10 minutes and calmed down. She's spitting up a little more than usual today but other than that, seems fine.

Vaccines, Religion, Philosophy, and Science

I'm still trying to sort out this whole vaccine business, trying to find a happy medium between "do whatever the nice doctor tells you" and "don't let anyone near your kid with a syringe, it's all a scam."

Here's what I thought was a reasonable approach to deciding whether to get a particular vaccination for the Treefrog:

I will do some research. If the vaccine is shown to be safe (ie, the side effects are less likely and milder than contracting the disease it's supposed to protect against) and effective (ie, people who have been vaccinated don't subsequently get sick) then I will say "yes" to it.

Then I find out that most of the vaccinations have aluminum in them. In some cases, pretty large amounts. In studies done on metal toxicity, a safe amount is something like 5 micrograms per 2 lbs or so of body weight. Let's say a two month old baby weighs about 12 lbs... that would put the "safe" amount of aluminum at about 60 mcg.

The vaccines scheduled to be administered at two months old have anywhere between 130 to 640 mcg of aluminum. Each.

I'm not a doctor or a medical researcher or or a genius, but, WHAT THE SHIT?

Then when you look for justification for such large amounts of aluminum, you're told that they help the vaccines work better (which I'm sure is true). Look for reassurance that there are no long-term side effects, and you find that there haven't been any studies done to measure them. (Edit: Or have there?)

When I raises these questions with educated friends, they insisted that since the introduction of the various vaccines, the disease-related deaths have dropped dramatically, and continue to drop. That NOT vaccinating your kid is an irresponsible thing that only a Bad Parent would do.

So I did some more research... and I found that yes, the mortality rates for these diseases have been dropping ever since the introduction of the vaccine. But... they had been dropping at the same rate long BEFORE the vaccines were introduced:





So that tells me that it's not the vaccines themselves that are causing the mortality rate to decline, but something else, like maybe improved hygiene & medical care overall. (Remember soap?)

Then there are the vaccines against things which are not deadly. And this, I believe, is a gross misuse of the technology. Polio, yes. Hepatitis B? Maybe not for a newborn, but sure. But a vaccine for chickenpox? Seriously? Chickenpox is annoying, but not deadly. Hell, when I was a kid it was practically a right of passage. But now it's part of the standard vaccination schedule and it seems that we've traded the relatively benign Chickenpox for the much more serious Shingles.

Then I started looking into the implications are of refusing vaccines altogether, at least until I'm reasonably convinced that each one is safe, effective, and necessary.

If I want to send my child to school, my only option would be to try to claim a religious exemption. Some states have philosophical exemptions as well, but not New York.

So let me get this straight. My neighbor can walk into a school and say, "My religion forbids vaccines" and she's clear. But I can do hours upon hours of research, crunch numbers, gain as thorough an understanding of the manufacturing process and final ingredients of each vaccine as my limited training and background will allow and make an informed determination that it's not in my daughter's best interest to get them, and THAT'S NOT FUCKING GOOD ENOUGH???

AAAARRRRGHH!!!!

Bed Wetting Alarm.... Seriously?

I came across this product while searching for some unrelated stuff for Kayla, who is now 7 weeks old.

My first thought was, are you fucking kidding me? After all alarms are usually meant to alert us of things like break-ins where the appropriate response is to pounce on and arrest/beat the person who set off the alarm. Being completely ignorant to how this product is supposed to work, I have this image in my head of some poor kid wetting the bed in his sleep, the alarm going off and his parents bursting in saying, "Ah-HA! You just wet the bed! Shame on you!"

But research confirms that I'm an idiot, because this is how it really works:

Child wets the bed, and the alarm detects the wetness and goes off. This may be a sound but it can also be set to vibrate. You use whichever is more likely to wake the child up as quickly as possible. Child, upon waking, stops peeing and goes immediately to the bathroom to finish. Over time it trains the child to recognize his elimination cues in his sleep so that he stops wetting the bed sooner than he would have otherwise grown out of it.

Oh! That... actually sounds like a really good solution. Yay, I learned something!