Vaccine, Schmaccine
I've been listening a lot to Jenny McCarthy.
Specifically about vaccines.
Rolo is fully vaccinated to date. Let's just get that out of the way.
I don't really question the idea of vaccines; I think kids should be vaccinated. But I have begun to question the timelines for vaccination. Rolo's first vaccination occurred when he was about 30 hours old for
hepatitis B. At the time, I thought this was odd, but since the doctors were recommending it and I was planning on vaccinating him anyway, I okay'd it. Most hospitals offer the vaccine to newborns. According the the CDC, hep B is transmitted by "
contact with infectious blood, semen, and other body fluids from having sex with an infected person, sharing contaminated needles to inject drugs, or from an infected mother to her newborn." It was already known that I didn't have hep B, so I wouldn't be transmitting it. So looking back, and given that the chance of my newborn having sex or shooting drugs was fairly small, I could have passed on that vaccine for now.
I know, I know. They offer the vaccine at birth because it can be given to a baby that young and because it ensures that children who will almost never be brought to a doctor again will have at least that vaccine.
I know, from our lovely genetic sequencing escapades, that each person can have any number genetic hiccups that they don't even know about. Would never know about unless they had extensive genetic testing. Things that don't effect anyone's day-to-day life. Variants and mutations that live outside the world of exhaustive research and studies. So, do I think it's possible that a vaccine could effect a genetic mutation or variant? Maybe jump-start something that was already there? Yeah, I do. I mean,
yeah.
I can almost see at least one of you rolling your eyes. People point to the case I linked to above and cry "See?!?!?! Vaccines DO cause autism." I'm not ready to jump to that conclusion. But I do think there are ways in which vaccines could aggravate some existing thing. It seems to be the consensus that
genetics and environmental factors play a part in autism. Depending on which statistics you look at, one in every 150 to 500 births, results in an autistic child.
According to some, it's the fast-growing disability in the U.S.
I'm not just pointing to vaccines themselves either. There are other environmental factors. Take a look again at the chemicals in half of the things we eat or products we use. Do we know how any of them might effect an underlying condition?
I don't mean to get all apocalyptic here. All I'm saying is that never questioned the safety or the timeline in which vaccines were given before Rolo was born. I never questioned a lot of things before Rolo. Find out about the timelines. Do babies need to be given 3 vaccines every 3 months for essentially their first year or two of life? Are there delayed timetables for giving vaccines? When, or do, children "have to" have vaccines? I already researched the answers to these questions.
Ask questions, do your research, make decision based on what you think is right.
Labels: CF, hippie-dippy, parenting, Rolo
The Latest Addition to the Family
I've given birth!
Well, figuratively. I've got a new site up and running called
Philadelphia Moms. I've been posting for a few weeks now, but there's lots more I need to do with it.
For one thing, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get widgets or buttons on the site, including a site meter. Granted, I haven't spent more than two minutes at a pop trying to figure it out either. I'd like to increase the readership, maybe get involved with BlogHer, advertising. Who knows? Maybe I won't have time for any of that and it'll just stay as it is.
But what I realized is there's no good site for moms in the city. No real resource on what do to with yourself on maternity leave. Most of us city moms are stroller bound and when you've got a newborn it's overwhelming to figure out which places are stroller friendly. My goal (which may be unattainable, depending on how much time I dedicate to developing the site) is to create place where moms in Philly can come, get information or ideas and maybe even have exchanges. I'm open to any and all suggestions. There's people out there who are a lot better at this than I am. Feel free to link to this new site if you're reading.
Who knows where it's all going? But check it out.
Labels: baby, baby style, hippie-dippy, parenting
More Than Just A Little Strange
Randomly, over the last few weeks, a recurring thought has popped into my brain: "If I ever have another baby, maybe I'll use cloth diapers."
I've read up on it a little bit and it definitely doesn't seem to be anything like our mothers' version of cloth diapers anymore. I'm sure there is a learning curve, but it doesn't seem very difficult. Plus the
diaper covers are so cute.
The big question is whether day care and cloth diapers go hand in hand. They do not, methinks. But I suppose I could conceivably do it while on maternity leave. And no, I'm not pregnant by the way.
Labels: baby, hippie-dippy
Tap, Tap
Is this thing on?
I'm still here and it completely escaped my attention that I haven't posted in a week. Time flies when you're busy as hell.
Work is busy, busy, busy these days. And my nights have been spent cooking baby food and letting Rolo experiment with self-feeding. I got this great book, "
The Petit Appetit" and it was just the thing I needed to get my ass in gear. I've been steaming and chopping to my heart's content. I don't how long this making-my-own-baby-food will last, but then, I don't suppose I have much of a choice since I can't feed him the jarred stuff forever.
So far he'll eat carrots and green beans steamed and chopped, even though he totally turns his nose up at the jarred versions of those very items. And he's in love with unseasoned ground turkey (bleck). Me? I spend the meals silently praying that he won't start to choke.
Speaking of baby food, know what gets on my nerves? That they don't make as much variety of organic baby food as they do the conventional stuff. And like, it doesn't really make sense. Gerber makes organic carrots, sweet potatoes and green beans, but not peas. Why no peas? (actually, I just researched this and they do make organic peas but only in stage one for younger babies--weird). And also no mixed veggies like a garden or summer vegetable like the conventional version. There are 5 varieties of both otganic fruits and vegetables, but 12 conventional fruit varieties and 9 vegetable varieties. Snap to it Gerber! I was to see more organic variety!
Labels: food, hippie-dippy, Rolo, winter of my discontent
Fresh Produce
Well I missed the opening last weekend, but I'm hoping to quickly drop into the
Headhouse Square Farmer's Market on Sunday after Mass. Just for a couple of things for the kid and I the few days we'll be around this week.
Have I told you the kid loves grapes? And pears? And mango? Can't get enough mango.
On Saturday, we're going to my brother's bridal shower (hee, hee, I love saying that. It's really a Jack-and-Jill wedding shower). What's that? Have I not mentioned that I have a brother and that he's getting married? Well I do and he is. Before that I'm getting a manicure and maybe if there's time, which is doubtful, because even getting the manicure is doubtful, I may try to pop by the
Rittenhouse Farmer's Market.
Although since I really don't need much for this upcoming week, it can likely wait until Memorial Day weekend. But I'm so excited that the markets are opening. No more produce from SuperFresh! There's something about an outdoor market that's appealing to me.
Labels: hippie-dippy
Oh Canada
Well, well, well, looks like
Canada is banning that BPA stuff. Maybe the U.S. will follow suit.
Not likely, but maybe.
Labels: hippie-dippy
More With the Hippie-Dippy
I think I'm going to start two new labels for this blog: hippie-dippy and parenting. Although I wish I could come up with something more creative than "parenting".
Anyway, Clorox is introducing a new
"green" line of products. I saw a commercial for it the other day and was really excited. But then I started wondering if it was just a really big gimmick, because you don't generally hear about name-brands going all environmentally friendly. But this seems legit. Of course, the nay-sayers will still criticize Clorox because they still produce many non-green products. Whatever. I'm not looking for totally green companies (not yet anyway), just a name-brand alternative to
cleaning my entire place using distilled vinegar. Because that can't smell too good. There are, of course, other brands like
Seventh Generation, but I just don't know much about them.
Plus, there's always
Method (which I didn't really realize was environmentally friendly) that I always eye up in Target for their cool packaging. I'm getting ridiculously excited about this stuff.
Labels: hippie-dippy
On Becoming a Hippie
I think I'm becoming a hippie. Well, not really. But perhaps I'm more hippie-ish than before. I thought it started with all the toy recalls, but really, I guess it started before I had Rolo, when I decided to breastfeed. But the toy recalls got me reading about lead and BPA and all sorts of other crazy things. Now I'm buying Rolo all organic baby food and looking into making my own baby food. I'm looking into non-plastic sippy cups (I really should look into non-plastic or otherwise BPA-free bottles too, but I don't want to go overboard here). And I'm seriously considering cleaning the house with distilled white vinegar instead of my beloved assortment of Lysol products. And all my anti-bacterial hand and dish soaps? They'll be replaced with the regular pro-bacteria kind when they run out.
In the spring, I plan on starting to buy all my produce from the
Headhouse Square Farmer's Market. I've started buying organic produce in the regular grocery store for now.
Maybe all this isn't so surprising. In high school, I was sort of a hippie. I was all artistic and was part of an environmental group, in which we worked on preserving the ocean from contamination. Plus, I wore
china flats in high school with smiley faces and peace signs painted on them and if that doesn't scream hippie, I don't know what does.
I can't say that my household will ever be totally green. In fact, just yesterday I tossed glass bottles in the regular trash. But I am trying to reduce our exposure to toxins. Impossible to do entirely, but something is better than nothing.
I promise I'll get on that recycling thing too.
Labels: baby, hippie-dippy, On, Rolo
Currently On My Shit List:
BPABack in August a report came out that this chemical, Bisphenol A (BPA), was in most baby bottles. While you would think, just having a baby that very month, that I would be very interested in this information, the truth was that I was so overwhelmed that I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and thought "What are you going to do?"
Today, another report that BPA is also in cans of formula. Now, when I switch Rolo to formula, it will be to the powdered kind, which is less likely to have BPA in the packaging. But all this got me thinking about what the combined effect of the chemical in the bottles and in the formula is. The FDA, which frankly has lost some creditability with me over the years, thinks that the level of toxins in both the bottles and the formula is not harmful. But the fact remains that
there are toxins in the bottles and formula. Then came the lead in all the toys. And although it totally irked me that no one seems to be monitoring the safety of toys, I again sort of shrugged my shoulders and thought "Well I'll do some research, but really, what can you do? Every freaking toy is made in China."
I know I could drive myself crazy worrying about every toxin out there. But I've really starting thinking about what the cumulative effect is of these toxins over the span of a lifetime. I mean when you actually read the ingredients in soda and think about how much soda you drink, that alone could cause you to run screaming into the night. As I've lamented
before, it's no wonder that cancer is such a large problem in this country. We live on chemicals. The reality is that for all these recalls and reports about toxins, I could shrug my shoulders and think, "Well there's nothing I can do about it." Except that there is. I can make small changes.
Am I starting to sound like a hippie-dippy yet?
Honestly, though, I'm starting to feel like one. I've been on a campaign to limit my soda intake in the last couple of months. And I'm going to look into BPA free bottles. I think Ron and I need to make a lifestyle change so that Rolo learns to live a more toxin-free life. I'm not sure how exactly to do that or if we'll be successful, but at this moment, I'm determined.
Labels: hippie-dippy, Living, society
