12 month check up
Wednesday we had Kian's 12 month check-up. We saw the nurse practitioner, whom I really liked the other time we saw her. She has kids, more experienced and is into the organics and naturals as well. He just hit 20 lbs. The scale said 20 lbs 3 oz, but I know that 3 oz was from the soggy diaper he was wearing. So they gave us the go ahead for facing forward in the car. He is a little over 29 inches. I'm kind of surprised that he's only grown 8 inches in 12 months, but then again I'm not so tall and Kevin's in the average range for height. Oh well.
They did their look over and developmental questions and did not have any concerns. Well, except for his weight. Because this child shot straight up on the growth charts by 4 months, doubling his birth weight and leveled out since then, his weight 'curve' is not so much of a curve. It's more like a sideways L. He's passed two 'lines' without really going up much so they gave me a lecture. He's in the 13th percentile for weight. I tried to explain to her that Kevin struggles to gain weight and his father's side of the family is all very tall and thin. She then suggested they all have some metabolic abnormalities and even more of a reason for me to increase his calories. I then explained that he still nurses 3-4 times a day, just started Organic whole milk, loves chicken, turkey and pork, eats as much oatmeal as me sometimes, etc. etc. etc. He's just so active. So I have to add more snacks and 'good' carbs in his diet. Funny, he eats all the time now, don't know how I'm going to add in more!
Then we had to go next door to the lab to get the lead test done. Usually it's a finger prick/stick test. Not this lady, she wanted to do his vein in his elbow. Great. Said it's quicker than squeezing blood from his fingertip. Okay, maybe it was quicker, but she missed the vein the first time and he was screaming bloody murder. I hated it. So, of course the next day they call me and tell me he's slightly anemic and needs iron drops. I asked how much is slightly anemic. His numbers were 30.5, and they like them to be 34. If he was a 32 they'd just suggest he get a multivitamin with iron. Wonderful. We don't eat much red meat, so I'm going to have to add in iron-rich foods as well as more food. He sure doesn't act anemic. And get the dumb drops for now...we'll see how well I follow along, remembering that. The first time he gets constipated from them, they're done.
Kind of annoying that I spend so much time making sure he gets nutritious food, and the right kind, and I get lectured to give him more food and iron. Blah. I don't know how much more food the kid can eat and gain weight, being so active! They weren't super worried, and I'm not really worried at all because he is growing, he is healthy and smart. So, that's that.
They did their look over and developmental questions and did not have any concerns. Well, except for his weight. Because this child shot straight up on the growth charts by 4 months, doubling his birth weight and leveled out since then, his weight 'curve' is not so much of a curve. It's more like a sideways L. He's passed two 'lines' without really going up much so they gave me a lecture. He's in the 13th percentile for weight. I tried to explain to her that Kevin struggles to gain weight and his father's side of the family is all very tall and thin. She then suggested they all have some metabolic abnormalities and even more of a reason for me to increase his calories. I then explained that he still nurses 3-4 times a day, just started Organic whole milk, loves chicken, turkey and pork, eats as much oatmeal as me sometimes, etc. etc. etc. He's just so active. So I have to add more snacks and 'good' carbs in his diet. Funny, he eats all the time now, don't know how I'm going to add in more!
Then we had to go next door to the lab to get the lead test done. Usually it's a finger prick/stick test. Not this lady, she wanted to do his vein in his elbow. Great. Said it's quicker than squeezing blood from his fingertip. Okay, maybe it was quicker, but she missed the vein the first time and he was screaming bloody murder. I hated it. So, of course the next day they call me and tell me he's slightly anemic and needs iron drops. I asked how much is slightly anemic. His numbers were 30.5, and they like them to be 34. If he was a 32 they'd just suggest he get a multivitamin with iron. Wonderful. We don't eat much red meat, so I'm going to have to add in iron-rich foods as well as more food. He sure doesn't act anemic. And get the dumb drops for now...we'll see how well I follow along, remembering that. The first time he gets constipated from them, they're done.
Kind of annoying that I spend so much time making sure he gets nutritious food, and the right kind, and I get lectured to give him more food and iron. Blah. I don't know how much more food the kid can eat and gain weight, being so active! They weren't super worried, and I'm not really worried at all because he is growing, he is healthy and smart. So, that's that.
On delayed vaccination schedules:
This is forefront in my mind right now because we just had Kian's 12 month appointment and again are (still) vaccine free. They are mostly willing to just let me be and make my decisions. They haven't really pressured me at this point to do anything, which is nice. I, straight up, told the NP that I first delayed because of my own reactions as a child, I am not in the "Autism is caused by vaccine" camp, (although I think there are connections) and now my opposition is to the chemicals, aborted fetal tissues and mouse tissues that are in vaccines. She didn't say much, just said okay, let them know where I'm at with it next visit. It's nice to not be pressured, although I'm sure they talk about the 'wacky mom' after I leave.
Anyways, I've been doing more research about the delayed vaccine schedule. Obviously, Kian would be severely delayed in his vaccine schedule even if I were to start now. That is not the point. The point is that this delay or spacing out of vaccines is wonderful and I want to share it for everyone else! It gives parents who may not know a lot about vaccines, who are nervous about them, but do want vaccines, to get some help and not overload their child's system. Dr. Sears' "The Vaccine Book" is the best bet, but others out there are sharing their schedules, based on this book, along with tips to help vaccines go smoothly with both child and parent.
First, tips for the best possible immunization outcome:
*When you do get them vaxed, dose them up on probiotics before and after. (I'll do a post on probiotics soon, Kian and I take them daily!)
*Make sure your kid is "abundantly healthy" on vax day - postpone if your kid is ill, might be coming down with something, has a fever or is recovering (within the last two weeks) from illness.
*Make absolutely sure that the vax is new and has no thimerosal!
*If your kid can take supplements, Vitamins A, C, and Zinc can be used as immune boosters, starting up to two weeks before and going up to two weeks after shots are received.
*Try for one-at-a-time (he recommends spacing the MMR, for example).
*Monitor for any symptoms of illness after vaccination carefully. (if your child was ill when they received the vaccine you won't know if it's from a virus, an allergy, or the vaccine. ANY symptom out of the ordinary should be noted and watched!)
*If your child has any adverse reactions, by all means postpone until they're older and their immune system is more developed.
*If the child is experiencing any allergy symptoms (such as seasonal/pet allergies), postpone the shots until symptoms have subsided.
*Hep B on the day of birth is only appropriate if the mom is Hep B positive. (I skipped this because my newborn was not a drug addict or promiscuous sexual being!)
*If your child has food allergies or you suspect food allergies, eggs and yeast can be present in some vaccines, which should be avoided by children allergic to those substances. (probiotics help control and regulate yeast in the intestines and body)
*If you breastfeed, by all means continue through the vax schedule - it will definitely help their immune system.
*Research! and be assertive as the parent of your child.
Symptoms of Reactions: For a child it may vary from soreness, simple rash, fever, diarrhea, projectile vomiting, lack of appetite, sleepiness, crying or malaise. In more advanced cases the infant may cry uncontrollably, scream for hours, or just stare into space. The child may lose motor control and not be able to sit, crawl or walk. In even worse cases brain damage, mental deficiency or death. *for inconsolable crying lasting more than 3-4 hours, high fever, loss of skills, any neurological symptoms, get help right away! call doctor with any oddities, unusual symptoms!
Why:
Here's why spacing them out, or giving one at a time, separating combos (separating shots like measles one time, mumps one time and rubella another instead of the straight MMR shot): if your child reacts at all, even slightly, to one of these vaccines that are a combo shot, or when he's received at least 4 pokes on the same day, HOW are you going to know WHICH one caused the reaction? It's an overload to the system. A newborn has some antibodies from mom, especially if breastfeeding, but putting 4-8 virus in his tiny 10 lb body all at once will cause his immune system to freak out.
Delayed schedules:
Dr. Sears' recommended (and very popular) schedule:
2 mo DTaP, Prevnar
4 mo DTaP, Hib
6 mo Hib, Prevnar
9 mo DTaP, Prevnar
12 mo Hib
15 mo Hib, Prevnar
5 years Tetanus booster
Recommends giving them only 1 or 2 at a time to decrease the chances of side effects, use of Vitamins A and C prior to and after the shots to help decrease the chances of a reaction.
Meningitis and Pertussis to be the most possible and most serious for infants. He considered Meningitis possible AND serious for toddlers, but rare beyond age 2.
Polio, heb b, diptheria, and tetanus as diseases that are very serious, but that your young child would NOT catch them.
Measles, Mumps and Rubella as rare and not serious for infants and toddlers.
Chickenpox to be common and not serious.
If you plan to travel outside the US, that the following shots were important, Polio- Africa and Asia: Tetanus- wounds more likely on vacation, and less access to a shot while traveling
Ask for blood tests to see if the teen had developed natural immunity already to Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox.
*Hib, rare but serious meningitis. safe ingredients, side effects minimal, no mercury, rated 4/5 score , recommended
*DTaP, pertussis serious under age 1, side effects minimal, beef extract the only worry, tripedia vaccine is low mercury in single vial dose (less than .3 micrograms). recommended for pertussis, 4/5 score recommended
*Prevnar, common and serious meningitis, safe ingredients, more chance of side effects, 4/5 score recommended
*MMR, disease usually mild in kids, fairly rare, side effects and ingredients considerable, 50 cases of Measles per year in CA, rubella shot can cause arthritis in women, this shot has the most serious side effect profile. 1/5 score (essentially saying, there's no good reason to give this to your child)
*Heb B, STD, rare in kids, but serious if caught, side effects considerable, ingredients safe, does contain residual formaldehyde, kids 2/5 score, (again no good reason to give to your child)
*Chicken pox, disease mild but common, side effects and ingredients considerable, used to have 55 deaths per year, disease waning, kids 2/5 score, (not entirely necessary)
*Polio, diseases not in Western Hemisphere, side effects safe, but ingredients questionable, 2/5 score (not entirely necessary for your child)
"SortaCrunchy" has a helpful list on her blog about the delayed schedule.
1.Hep B-Delay until the year before starting school, although we may consider starting the series as early as two and half if we are considering preschool at the time.
Hib4 mo, 6 mo, 8 mo, 17 mo
IPV4 mo, 6 mo, 8 mo, 17 mo (booster at 4 years)
DtaP5 mo, 7 mo, 9 mo, 15 or 18 mo (booster at 4 years)
Pneumococcal (PREVNAR)one dose at age 2
Varicela (Varivax)Age four, if at all
MMRMumps – 15 mo Rubella – 27 mo Measles – 39 mo Booster – age 5
2.DTaP (only Daptecel brand with no cow extract and a smaller dose of the pertussis component)- 2,4,6,18 months (booster at 4 years)
Prevnar and HIB- 3,5,7,15 months
IPV-9,12,24 months (booster at 4 years)
Mumps (by itself)- 12 months
Rubella (by itself)- 2 years
Measles- (by itself)- 3 years(boosters at 5 for MMR after titers have been checked)
Hep B (and possibly A)- probably start at 2 1/2
Chickenpox- not doing until grade school
Chew on this:
If a “dirty bomb” exposed a large segment of US citizens simultaneously to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenza B, three strains of polio viruses, 3 strains of influenza viruses, measles, mumps, and rubella viruses, the chickenpox virus, and 7 strains of Streptococcus bacteria, we would declare a national emergency. We would call it an “extreme act of BIOTERRORISM”. The public outcry would be immense and our government would act accordingly.
And yet, those are the very organisms that we inject through vaccines into our babies and our small children, with immature, underdeveloped immune systems. Many are given all at the same time. But instead of bioterrorism, we call it “protection.” Reflect a moment on that irony. ~Dr. Sheri Tenpenny
Final thoughts:
1. Low infection rates and high vaccination rates should not be the cornerstone of our public health policy. Vaccine reactions should not be discounted, whatever their numbers. Further, the true cost-benefit of the vaccination program must be considered, and what has been presented is barely the tip of the iceberg.
2. Parents, and all adults, must retain their right to refuse vaccines. They are not without risk, and those “rare” complications can result in significant costs, both economic and in terms of human life.
3. Children, and all adults, who refuse to be vaccinated are being discriminated against. They are losing their rights:
a. Rights and access to a public education.
b. Rights to access to health care, as doctors discharge them as patients.
c. Rights to food because often moms on Medicaid are refused food stamps.
These rights—including the right to refuse—must be ensured.
When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us—and force us to vaccinate and medicate our children in the name “health” and “policy” and for “the greater good” we, in essence, accept that the state owns our bodies, and, apparently, our children.
Dr. Sheri Tenpenny
Anyways, I've been doing more research about the delayed vaccine schedule. Obviously, Kian would be severely delayed in his vaccine schedule even if I were to start now. That is not the point. The point is that this delay or spacing out of vaccines is wonderful and I want to share it for everyone else! It gives parents who may not know a lot about vaccines, who are nervous about them, but do want vaccines, to get some help and not overload their child's system. Dr. Sears' "The Vaccine Book" is the best bet, but others out there are sharing their schedules, based on this book, along with tips to help vaccines go smoothly with both child and parent.
First, tips for the best possible immunization outcome:
*When you do get them vaxed, dose them up on probiotics before and after. (I'll do a post on probiotics soon, Kian and I take them daily!)
*Make sure your kid is "abundantly healthy" on vax day - postpone if your kid is ill, might be coming down with something, has a fever or is recovering (within the last two weeks) from illness.
*Make absolutely sure that the vax is new and has no thimerosal!
*If your kid can take supplements, Vitamins A, C, and Zinc can be used as immune boosters, starting up to two weeks before and going up to two weeks after shots are received.
*Try for one-at-a-time (he recommends spacing the MMR, for example).
*Monitor for any symptoms of illness after vaccination carefully. (if your child was ill when they received the vaccine you won't know if it's from a virus, an allergy, or the vaccine. ANY symptom out of the ordinary should be noted and watched!)
*If your child has any adverse reactions, by all means postpone until they're older and their immune system is more developed.
*If the child is experiencing any allergy symptoms (such as seasonal/pet allergies), postpone the shots until symptoms have subsided.
*Hep B on the day of birth is only appropriate if the mom is Hep B positive. (I skipped this because my newborn was not a drug addict or promiscuous sexual being!)
*If your child has food allergies or you suspect food allergies, eggs and yeast can be present in some vaccines, which should be avoided by children allergic to those substances. (probiotics help control and regulate yeast in the intestines and body)
*If you breastfeed, by all means continue through the vax schedule - it will definitely help their immune system.
*Research! and be assertive as the parent of your child.
Symptoms of Reactions: For a child it may vary from soreness, simple rash, fever, diarrhea, projectile vomiting, lack of appetite, sleepiness, crying or malaise. In more advanced cases the infant may cry uncontrollably, scream for hours, or just stare into space. The child may lose motor control and not be able to sit, crawl or walk. In even worse cases brain damage, mental deficiency or death. *for inconsolable crying lasting more than 3-4 hours, high fever, loss of skills, any neurological symptoms, get help right away! call doctor with any oddities, unusual symptoms!
Why:
Here's why spacing them out, or giving one at a time, separating combos (separating shots like measles one time, mumps one time and rubella another instead of the straight MMR shot): if your child reacts at all, even slightly, to one of these vaccines that are a combo shot, or when he's received at least 4 pokes on the same day, HOW are you going to know WHICH one caused the reaction? It's an overload to the system. A newborn has some antibodies from mom, especially if breastfeeding, but putting 4-8 virus in his tiny 10 lb body all at once will cause his immune system to freak out.
Delayed schedules:
Dr. Sears' recommended (and very popular) schedule:
2 mo DTaP, Prevnar
4 mo DTaP, Hib
6 mo Hib, Prevnar
9 mo DTaP, Prevnar
12 mo Hib
15 mo Hib, Prevnar
5 years Tetanus booster
Recommends giving them only 1 or 2 at a time to decrease the chances of side effects, use of Vitamins A and C prior to and after the shots to help decrease the chances of a reaction.
Meningitis and Pertussis to be the most possible and most serious for infants. He considered Meningitis possible AND serious for toddlers, but rare beyond age 2.
Polio, heb b, diptheria, and tetanus as diseases that are very serious, but that your young child would NOT catch them.
Measles, Mumps and Rubella as rare and not serious for infants and toddlers.
Chickenpox to be common and not serious.
If you plan to travel outside the US, that the following shots were important, Polio- Africa and Asia: Tetanus- wounds more likely on vacation, and less access to a shot while traveling
Ask for blood tests to see if the teen had developed natural immunity already to Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox.
*Hib, rare but serious meningitis. safe ingredients, side effects minimal, no mercury, rated 4/5 score , recommended
*DTaP, pertussis serious under age 1, side effects minimal, beef extract the only worry, tripedia vaccine is low mercury in single vial dose (less than .3 micrograms). recommended for pertussis, 4/5 score recommended
*Prevnar, common and serious meningitis, safe ingredients, more chance of side effects, 4/5 score recommended
*MMR, disease usually mild in kids, fairly rare, side effects and ingredients considerable, 50 cases of Measles per year in CA, rubella shot can cause arthritis in women, this shot has the most serious side effect profile. 1/5 score (essentially saying, there's no good reason to give this to your child)
*Heb B, STD, rare in kids, but serious if caught, side effects considerable, ingredients safe, does contain residual formaldehyde, kids 2/5 score, (again no good reason to give to your child)
*Chicken pox, disease mild but common, side effects and ingredients considerable, used to have 55 deaths per year, disease waning, kids 2/5 score, (not entirely necessary)
*Polio, diseases not in Western Hemisphere, side effects safe, but ingredients questionable, 2/5 score (not entirely necessary for your child)
"SortaCrunchy" has a helpful list on her blog about the delayed schedule.
1.Hep B-Delay until the year before starting school, although we may consider starting the series as early as two and half if we are considering preschool at the time.
Hib4 mo, 6 mo, 8 mo, 17 mo
IPV4 mo, 6 mo, 8 mo, 17 mo (booster at 4 years)
DtaP5 mo, 7 mo, 9 mo, 15 or 18 mo (booster at 4 years)
Pneumococcal (PREVNAR)one dose at age 2
Varicela (Varivax)Age four, if at all
MMRMumps – 15 mo Rubella – 27 mo Measles – 39 mo Booster – age 5
2.DTaP (only Daptecel brand with no cow extract and a smaller dose of the pertussis component)- 2,4,6,18 months (booster at 4 years)
Prevnar and HIB- 3,5,7,15 months
IPV-9,12,24 months (booster at 4 years)
Mumps (by itself)- 12 months
Rubella (by itself)- 2 years
Measles- (by itself)- 3 years(boosters at 5 for MMR after titers have been checked)
Hep B (and possibly A)- probably start at 2 1/2
Chickenpox- not doing until grade school
Chew on this:
If a “dirty bomb” exposed a large segment of US citizens simultaneously to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenza B, three strains of polio viruses, 3 strains of influenza viruses, measles, mumps, and rubella viruses, the chickenpox virus, and 7 strains of Streptococcus bacteria, we would declare a national emergency. We would call it an “extreme act of BIOTERRORISM”. The public outcry would be immense and our government would act accordingly.
And yet, those are the very organisms that we inject through vaccines into our babies and our small children, with immature, underdeveloped immune systems. Many are given all at the same time. But instead of bioterrorism, we call it “protection.” Reflect a moment on that irony. ~Dr. Sheri Tenpenny
Final thoughts:
1. Low infection rates and high vaccination rates should not be the cornerstone of our public health policy. Vaccine reactions should not be discounted, whatever their numbers. Further, the true cost-benefit of the vaccination program must be considered, and what has been presented is barely the tip of the iceberg.
2. Parents, and all adults, must retain their right to refuse vaccines. They are not without risk, and those “rare” complications can result in significant costs, both economic and in terms of human life.
3. Children, and all adults, who refuse to be vaccinated are being discriminated against. They are losing their rights:
a. Rights and access to a public education.
b. Rights to access to health care, as doctors discharge them as patients.
c. Rights to food because often moms on Medicaid are refused food stamps.
These rights—including the right to refuse—must be ensured.
When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us—and force us to vaccinate and medicate our children in the name “health” and “policy” and for “the greater good” we, in essence, accept that the state owns our bodies, and, apparently, our children.
Dr. Sheri Tenpenny
A good vaccine read:
(I found this while researching and put some * and boldface in there for my own comments)
A User-Friendly Vaccination Schedule
by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MDby Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
Vaccination is a controversial subject, and many parents worry about subjecting their children to them. Readers of my article "Mercury on the Mind," about vaccines and dental amalgams, have asked what vaccines I would recommend their children receive. This article addresses that question.
In the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule put out by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 12 vaccines are given to children before they reach the age of two. Providers inject them against hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus (lockjaw), pertussis (whooping cough), polio, pneumococcal infections, Hemophilus influenzae type b infections, measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), chickenpox, and influenza (the flu).
Infectious disease was the leading cause of death in children 100 years ago, with diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, and pertussis accounting for most them. Today the leading causes of death in children less than five years of age are accidents, genetic abnormalities, developmental disorders, sudden infant death syndrome, and cancer. A basic tenet of modern medicine is that vaccines are the reason. There is growing evidence that this is so, but perhaps not quite in the way conventional medical wisdom would have it.
A 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the CDC decides which vaccines should be on the Childhood Immunization Schedule. It calls for one vaccine, against hepatitis B, to be given on the day of birth; 7 vaccines at two months; 6 more (including booster shots) at four months; and as many as 8 vaccines on the six month well-baby visit. Before a child reaches the age of two he or she will have received 32 vaccinations on this schedule, including four doses each of vaccines for Hemophilus influenzae type b infections, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis – all of them given during the first 12 months of life. Seven vaccines injected into a 13 lb. two-month old infant are equivalent to 70 doses in a 130 lb. adult.
The schedule states, "Your child can safely receive all vaccines recommended for a particular age during one visit." Public health officials, however, have not proven that it is indeed safe to inject this many vaccines into infants. What's more, they cannot explain why, concurrent with an increasing number of vaccinations, there has been an explosion of neurological and immune system disorders in our nation’s children.** (this keeps me in a job, sadly)
Fifty years ago, when the immunization schedule contained only four vaccines (for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and smallpox), autism was virtually unknown. First discovered in 1943, this most devastating malady in what is now a spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders afflicted less than 1 in 10,000 children. Today, one in every 68 American families has an autistic child. Other, less severe developmental disorders, rarely seen before the vaccine era, have also reached epidemic proportions. Four million American children have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. One in six American children are now classified as "Learning Disabled."
Our children are also experiencing an epidemic of autoimmune disorders – Type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and bowel disorders. There has been a 17-fold increase in Type I diabetes, from 1 in 7,100 children in the 1950s to 1 in 400 now. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis afflicts 300,000 American children. Twenty-five years ago this disease was so rare that public health officials did not keep any statistics on it. There has been a 4-fold increase in asthma, and bowel disorders in children are much more common now than they were 50 years ago.
Health officials consider a vaccine to be safe if no bad reactions – like seizures, intestinal obstruction, or anaphylaxis – occur acutely. The CDC has not done any studies to assess the long-term effects of its immunization schedule. To do that one must conduct a randomized controlled trial, the lynch pin of evidenced-based medicine, where one group of children is vaccinated on the CDC’s schedule and a control group is not vaccinated. Investigators then follow the two groups for a number of years (not just three to four weeks, as has been done in vaccine safety studies). Concerns that vaccinations in infants cause chronic neurological and immune system disorders would be put to rest, and their safety certified, if the number of children who develop these diseases is the same in both groups. No such studies have been done, so vaccine proponents cannot say that vaccines are indeed as safe as they think they are. **This is exactly my point, if you can do this study and prove it to me I'll be 100% for it, but they won't do it, refuse to do this study, they're scared of the results and the money they'd lose...)One proponent, interviewed by Dan Rather on 60 Minutes, who has financial ties to the vaccine industry that he did not disclose, claims that vaccines "have a better safety record than vitamins." He neglected to mention that the U.S. government has paid out more than $1.5 billion in its Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to families of children who have been injured or killed by vaccines.
There is a growing body of evidence that implicates vaccines as a causative factor in the deteriorating health of children. The hypothesis that vaccines cause neurological and immune system disorders is a legitimate one – vaccines given in multiple doses, close together, to very young children following the CDC’s Immunization Schedule. This hypothesis should be tested by a large-scale, long-term randomized controlled trial.
Rather than obediently following the government’s schedule, there is now sufficient evidence, grounded in good science, to justify adopting a more user-friendly vaccination schedule, one which is in the best interests of the individual as opposed to what planners judge best for society as a whole.
New knowledge in neuroimmunology (the study of how the brain’s immune system works) raises serious questions about the wisdom of injecting vaccines in children less than two years of age.
The brain has its own specialized immune system, separate from that of the rest of the body. When a person is vaccinated, its specialized immune cells, the microglia, become activated (the blood-brain barrier notwithstanding). **this is important: Multiple vaccinations spaced close together over-stimulate the microglia, causing them to release a variety of toxic elements – cytokines, chemokines, excitotoxins, proteases, complement, free radicals – that damage brain cells and their synaptic connections. Researchers call the damage caused by these toxic substances "bystander injury." (Pediatricians and other professional colleagues who question this should read these two reviews by the neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock: "Interaction of Cytokines, Excitotoxins, Reactive Nitrogen and Oxygen Species in Autism Spectrum Disorders," in the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association [JANA 2003;6(4):21–35], with 167 references. And "Chronic Microglial Activation and Excitotoxicity Secondary to Excessive Immune Stimulation: Possible Factors in Gulf War Syndrome and Autism," in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons [JAPS 2004;9(2):46–52], posted online, with 54 references.)
In humans, the most rapid period of brain development begins in the third trimester and continues over the first two years of extra uterine life. (By then brain development is 80 percent complete.) Until randomized controlled trials demonstrate the safety of giving vaccines during this time of life, it would be prudent not to give any vaccinations to children until they are two years old. From a risk-benefit perspective, there is growing evidence that the risk of neurological and autoimmune diseases from vaccinations outweigh the benefits of avoiding the childhood infections that they prevent. An exception is hepatitis B vaccine for infants whose mothers test positive for this disease.
A user-friendly vaccination schedule prohibits any vaccines that contain thimerosal, which is 50 percent mercury. Flu vaccines contain thimerosal, which is reason enough to avoid them. (See my article "Mercury on the Mind" for more on this subject.)
One should also avoid vaccines that contain live viruses. This includes the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; chickenpox (varicella) vaccine, and the live-virus polio (Sabin) vaccine. This stricture would not apply to the smallpox vaccine (also a live-virus one), if a terrorist-instigated outbreak of smallpox should occur.
Finally, a user-friendly vaccination schedule requires that vaccinations, after the age of two, be given no more than once every six months, one at a time, in order to allow the immune system sufficient time to recover and stabilize between shots.
Which vaccines should be put on this schedule (among those that do not contain live viruses or thimerosal) is not entirely clear. The top four would be the pertussis (acelluar – aP – not whole cell), diphtheria (D), and tetanus (T) vaccines – given separately (not together, as is usually the case); and the Salk polio vaccine, with an inactivated (dead) virus, one that is cultured in human cells, not monkey kidney cells. Perhaps it should only contain these four vaccines. A good case can be made (for example, see Gary Null’s Vaccines: A Second Opinion) for avoiding the three other newer vaccines on the CDC’s schedule – the hepatitis B, pneumococcal conjugate (PCV7), and Hemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines.
Your pediatrician will not like this schedule. They are taught in medical school and residency training that childhood immunizations are essential to public health. As one pediatrician puts it, "Achieving adequate and timely vaccination of young children is the single most valuable thing a doctor can do for a patient." They do not question what their professors teach them, nor are they inclined to critically examine studies in Pediatrics and the New England Journal of Medicine that tell them vaccines are safe.
There were 482,000 cases of measles in the U.S in 1962, the year before a vaccine for this disease became available. Now, with all fifty states requiring that children be vaccinated against measles in order to attend school, there were only 56 cases of measles in a population of 290 million people in 2003.
These facts are well known and proudly cited by vaccine proponents. What is less known, and doctors are not taught, is that the death rate for measles declined 97.7 percent during the first 60 years of the 20th century. The mortality rate was 133 deaths per million people in the U.S. in 1900, and had dropped to 0.3 deaths per million by 1960. Measles caused less than 100 deaths a year in the U.S. before there was a vaccine for this disease (in 1963). The same thing happened with diphtheria and pertussis. Mortality rates dropped more than 90 percent in the early 20th century before vaccines for these diseases were introduced. This was due to better nutrition (with rapid delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables to cities and refrigeration), cleaner water, and improved sanitation (removing trash from the streets and better sewage systems), not to vaccines. The World Health Organization promotes mass vaccination, but knowing these facts states, "The best vaccine against common infectious diseases is an adequate diet" – fortified, one might add, with vitamin A.
Since the measles vaccine came into widespread use in this country this disease has virtually disappeared, and it has prevented 100 deaths a year. But now, instead, several thousand normally developing children become autistic after receiving their MMR shot. Termed "regressive autism," it accounts for about 30 percent of the 10,000 to 20,000 children who are diagnosed with autism in this country each year.
To put to rest concerns that MMR vaccination might cause autism (in a small percentage of children), the New England Journal of Medicine, in 2002, published a population-based study from Denmark, where its authors concluded, "This study provides strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism." The NEJM did not disclose that the "Statens Serum Institut," where three of the authors work, is a for-profit vaccine manufacturer, Denmark’s largest, or that four other authors have financial ties to this company. Only one of the eight authors is not associated with this institute, and the CDC employs him. The study compares the prevalence of autism in 440,000 MMR vaccinated and 97,000 unvaccinated children in Denmark born in the 1990s. A statistical slight-of-hand in age adjustment makes the study show no causal effect; but when unmasked and reformatted, the data actually shows a statistically significant association between MMR vaccine and autism (as Carol Stott and her coauthors make clear in "MMR and Autism in Perspective: the Denmark Story," in the Fall 2004 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, posted online).
Pediatrics and the Journal of the American Medical Association also have published studies like this supporting U.S. vaccine policy, written by authors with similar, undisclosed conflicts of interest. Looking elsewhere, however, one comes across a number of disquieting facts about vaccines. Investigators have found, for example, live measles virus in the cerebral spinal fluid in children who become autistic after MMR vaccination. Antibodies to measles virus are elevated in children with autism but not in normal kids, suggesting that virus-induced autoimmunity may play a causal role. A study published in Neurology this year implicates hepatitis B vaccine as a causative factor in multiple sclerosis.
A communitarian ethic increasingly governs health care in the U.S. It places a greater value on the health of the community, on society as a whole, than on the health of particular individuals. Public health officials have put together a vaccination schedule designed to eliminate infectious diseases to which the population is prey. These officials recognize that these vaccines will harm a small percentage of (genetically susceptible) individuals, but it is for the common good. The communitarian code posits that it is morally acceptable, if necessary, to sacrifice a few for the good of the many. Or as one observer more bluntly puts it, "Individual sheep can be sheared and slaughtered if it is for the welfare of their flock."
In this framework, health care providers become agents of the state charged with injecting vaccines into people that the central planners deem necessary. Physicians who remain true to their Hippocratic Oath and place the interests of their patient above that of the herd are considered to be out of step with the times, if not an anachronism.
Like central planners everywhere, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) promulgates a self-serving, one-size-fits-all vaccine policy. Members of this committee have ties to vaccine makers, such that the CDC must grant them waivers from statutory conflict of interest rules. Even so, and with little evidence to show that it is safe to subject young children to the ACIP’s crowded immunization schedule, states nevertheless dutifully make its vaccine recommendations compulsory.
All 50 states require children to be immunized against measles, diphtheria, Hemophilus influenzae type b, polio, and rubella in order to enroll in day care and/or public school. Forty-nine states also require vaccination against tetanus; 47, against hepatitis B and mumps; and 43 states now require vaccination against chickenpox. In order to shield themselves from any liability for making vaccinations compulsory, all states provide a medical exemption and 47, a religious exemption. Nineteen states allow a philosophical exemption. Some require only a letter from a parent and others, from a physician or church leader. (To see the exemptions allowed in your state, their wording and requirements, click here.) Parents, of course, can refuse vaccination; but if they want to enroll their child in public school they will need to obtain one of these exemptions.
Doctors who conclude that the risks of the government’s immunization schedule outweigh its benefits are placed in a difficult position. If they counsel parents not to have their children follow it, health care plans, which track vaccine compliance as a measure of "quality," will find them wanting. And if their patient should contract and develop complications from the disease the vaccine would have prevented they may find themselves confronting a lawsuit. If a child becomes autistic following a vaccination, however, the doctor is protected from any liability because the government requires it and the child’s parents, if they had chosen to do so, could have obtained an exemption. (Anti-vaccine advocates call developing autism, asthma, and Type I diabetes after vaccinations "vaccination roulette.")
Parents should have the freedom to select whatever vaccination schedule they want their children to follow, especially since health care providers and the government (except via its Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) cannot be held accountable for any adverse outcomes that might occur. But if parents elect to not follow the CDC’s immunization schedule, delaying some vaccinations, refusing others, or avoiding them altogether, then they must accept the risk that their child might contract the disease that the vaccine against it most likely would have prevented. *I fully accept this, I think we can handle measles and chicken pox and flus more easily than Autism, learning problems and neurological problems**
One consideration, which vaccine proponents do not address, is this: Could contracting childhood diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox play a constructive role in the maturation of a person’s immune system? Or, to put it another way, does removing natural infection from human experience have any adverse consequences?
Our species’ immune system – a one-trillion-cell army that patrols our (100-trillion-cell) body – serves two main purposes. It destroys foreign invaders – viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. And it destroys aberrant cells in the body that run amuck and cause cancer. Behind the barricades of skin and mucosa, our innate immune system (composed of phagocytes, natural killer cells, and the 20-protein complement system), which all animals have, is the body’s first line of defense. It reacts to invaders lightening fast and indiscriminately, but it is not very good at eliminating viruses and cancerous cells. Vertebrates have evolved a second line of defense – the adaptive immune system. It targets specific viruses and bacteria and has better artillery for eliminating cancerous cells. This system matures during childhood, and it has a cellular (Th1) and humoral (Th2) component (Th = helper T cell).
The viruses that cause measles, mumps, and chickenpox have infected countless generations of humans, akin to a rite of passage for each member of our species. Contracting these diseases strengthens both parts of the adaptive immune system (Th1 and Th2 ). Mothers who have had measles, mumps, and chickenpox transfer antibodies against them to their babies in utero, which protect them during the first year of life from contracting these infections. Vaccinations do not have the same effect on the immune system as naturally acquired diseases do. They stimulate predominantly the Th2 part of this system and not Th1. (Over-stimulation of Th2 causes autoimmune diseases.) The cellular Th1 side thwarts cancer, and if it does not become fully developed in childhood a person can be more prone to have cancer as an adult. Women who had mumps during childhood, for example, are found to be less likely to have ovarian cancer than women who did not have this infection. (This study was published in Cancer.) Could the fact that cancer has become a leading cause of death in children be a result of vaccinations? Only a randomized controlled trial can conclusively answer this question
With rare exception, a well-nourished child who contracts measles will recover smoothly from the infection. Fifty years ago almost all children in the U.S. had measles. And after contracting this disease, one has life-long immunity to it. The protection provided by vaccination is temporary. Adults who contract measles (when the protective effects of the vaccine wears off) are much more likely to have neurological, testicular, and ovarian complications. Likewise, rubella is a benign disease in children, but if a woman acquires it during pregnancy fetal malformations may develop. One can argue, heretical as such an argument may be, that it would be better to let children have measles, at an age when the infection helps the adaptive immune system mature in a balanced Th1/Th2 fashion and complications from this disease are minimal, rather than vaccinate them against this disease (especially considering the risks of vaccination).
Pertussis and Diphtheria are a different matter. These diseases are more virulent. Children who contract whooping cough (pertussis) can be incapacitated for more than a month. Polio can be devastating in susceptible individuals. And no one wants to get tetanus (lockjaw). A user-friendly vaccination schedule would include vaccines against these diseases.
Whatever vaccination schedule one chooses, mothers should breast-feed their child for as long as possible – a year or more. Failing that, add Omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA (docosahexanoic acid), to the child’s formula.
In summary, this is a vaccination schedule that I would recommend:
No vaccinations until a child is two years old.
No vaccines that contain thimerosal (mercury).
No live virus vaccines (except for smallpox, should it recur).
These vaccines, to be given one at a time, every six months, beginning at age 2:
Pertussis (acellular, not whole cell)
Diphtheria
Tetanus
Polio (the Salk vaccine, cultured in human cells)
American children are the most highly vaccinated kids in the world. This schedule is an alternative to the one that rules our "vaccine nation" (as the Village Voice terms it). In contrast to the CDC’s immunization schedule, it is user-friendly.
December 10, 2004
Donald Miller (send him mail) is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness and writes articles on a variety of subjects for LewRockwell.com, including bioterrorism. His web site is www.donaldmiller.com.
Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com
A User-Friendly Vaccination Schedule
by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MDby Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
Vaccination is a controversial subject, and many parents worry about subjecting their children to them. Readers of my article "Mercury on the Mind," about vaccines and dental amalgams, have asked what vaccines I would recommend their children receive. This article addresses that question.
In the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule put out by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 12 vaccines are given to children before they reach the age of two. Providers inject them against hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus (lockjaw), pertussis (whooping cough), polio, pneumococcal infections, Hemophilus influenzae type b infections, measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), chickenpox, and influenza (the flu).
Infectious disease was the leading cause of death in children 100 years ago, with diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, and pertussis accounting for most them. Today the leading causes of death in children less than five years of age are accidents, genetic abnormalities, developmental disorders, sudden infant death syndrome, and cancer. A basic tenet of modern medicine is that vaccines are the reason. There is growing evidence that this is so, but perhaps not quite in the way conventional medical wisdom would have it.
A 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the CDC decides which vaccines should be on the Childhood Immunization Schedule. It calls for one vaccine, against hepatitis B, to be given on the day of birth; 7 vaccines at two months; 6 more (including booster shots) at four months; and as many as 8 vaccines on the six month well-baby visit. Before a child reaches the age of two he or she will have received 32 vaccinations on this schedule, including four doses each of vaccines for Hemophilus influenzae type b infections, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis – all of them given during the first 12 months of life. Seven vaccines injected into a 13 lb. two-month old infant are equivalent to 70 doses in a 130 lb. adult.
The schedule states, "Your child can safely receive all vaccines recommended for a particular age during one visit." Public health officials, however, have not proven that it is indeed safe to inject this many vaccines into infants. What's more, they cannot explain why, concurrent with an increasing number of vaccinations, there has been an explosion of neurological and immune system disorders in our nation’s children.** (this keeps me in a job, sadly)
Fifty years ago, when the immunization schedule contained only four vaccines (for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and smallpox), autism was virtually unknown. First discovered in 1943, this most devastating malady in what is now a spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders afflicted less than 1 in 10,000 children. Today, one in every 68 American families has an autistic child. Other, less severe developmental disorders, rarely seen before the vaccine era, have also reached epidemic proportions. Four million American children have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. One in six American children are now classified as "Learning Disabled."
Our children are also experiencing an epidemic of autoimmune disorders – Type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and bowel disorders. There has been a 17-fold increase in Type I diabetes, from 1 in 7,100 children in the 1950s to 1 in 400 now. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis afflicts 300,000 American children. Twenty-five years ago this disease was so rare that public health officials did not keep any statistics on it. There has been a 4-fold increase in asthma, and bowel disorders in children are much more common now than they were 50 years ago.
Health officials consider a vaccine to be safe if no bad reactions – like seizures, intestinal obstruction, or anaphylaxis – occur acutely. The CDC has not done any studies to assess the long-term effects of its immunization schedule. To do that one must conduct a randomized controlled trial, the lynch pin of evidenced-based medicine, where one group of children is vaccinated on the CDC’s schedule and a control group is not vaccinated. Investigators then follow the two groups for a number of years (not just three to four weeks, as has been done in vaccine safety studies). Concerns that vaccinations in infants cause chronic neurological and immune system disorders would be put to rest, and their safety certified, if the number of children who develop these diseases is the same in both groups. No such studies have been done, so vaccine proponents cannot say that vaccines are indeed as safe as they think they are. **This is exactly my point, if you can do this study and prove it to me I'll be 100% for it, but they won't do it, refuse to do this study, they're scared of the results and the money they'd lose...)One proponent, interviewed by Dan Rather on 60 Minutes, who has financial ties to the vaccine industry that he did not disclose, claims that vaccines "have a better safety record than vitamins." He neglected to mention that the U.S. government has paid out more than $1.5 billion in its Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to families of children who have been injured or killed by vaccines.
There is a growing body of evidence that implicates vaccines as a causative factor in the deteriorating health of children. The hypothesis that vaccines cause neurological and immune system disorders is a legitimate one – vaccines given in multiple doses, close together, to very young children following the CDC’s Immunization Schedule. This hypothesis should be tested by a large-scale, long-term randomized controlled trial.
Rather than obediently following the government’s schedule, there is now sufficient evidence, grounded in good science, to justify adopting a more user-friendly vaccination schedule, one which is in the best interests of the individual as opposed to what planners judge best for society as a whole.
New knowledge in neuroimmunology (the study of how the brain’s immune system works) raises serious questions about the wisdom of injecting vaccines in children less than two years of age.
The brain has its own specialized immune system, separate from that of the rest of the body. When a person is vaccinated, its specialized immune cells, the microglia, become activated (the blood-brain barrier notwithstanding). **this is important: Multiple vaccinations spaced close together over-stimulate the microglia, causing them to release a variety of toxic elements – cytokines, chemokines, excitotoxins, proteases, complement, free radicals – that damage brain cells and their synaptic connections. Researchers call the damage caused by these toxic substances "bystander injury." (Pediatricians and other professional colleagues who question this should read these two reviews by the neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock: "Interaction of Cytokines, Excitotoxins, Reactive Nitrogen and Oxygen Species in Autism Spectrum Disorders," in the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association [JANA 2003;6(4):21–35], with 167 references. And "Chronic Microglial Activation and Excitotoxicity Secondary to Excessive Immune Stimulation: Possible Factors in Gulf War Syndrome and Autism," in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons [JAPS 2004;9(2):46–52], posted online, with 54 references.)
In humans, the most rapid period of brain development begins in the third trimester and continues over the first two years of extra uterine life. (By then brain development is 80 percent complete.) Until randomized controlled trials demonstrate the safety of giving vaccines during this time of life, it would be prudent not to give any vaccinations to children until they are two years old. From a risk-benefit perspective, there is growing evidence that the risk of neurological and autoimmune diseases from vaccinations outweigh the benefits of avoiding the childhood infections that they prevent. An exception is hepatitis B vaccine for infants whose mothers test positive for this disease.
A user-friendly vaccination schedule prohibits any vaccines that contain thimerosal, which is 50 percent mercury. Flu vaccines contain thimerosal, which is reason enough to avoid them. (See my article "Mercury on the Mind" for more on this subject.)
One should also avoid vaccines that contain live viruses. This includes the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; chickenpox (varicella) vaccine, and the live-virus polio (Sabin) vaccine. This stricture would not apply to the smallpox vaccine (also a live-virus one), if a terrorist-instigated outbreak of smallpox should occur.
Finally, a user-friendly vaccination schedule requires that vaccinations, after the age of two, be given no more than once every six months, one at a time, in order to allow the immune system sufficient time to recover and stabilize between shots.
Which vaccines should be put on this schedule (among those that do not contain live viruses or thimerosal) is not entirely clear. The top four would be the pertussis (acelluar – aP – not whole cell), diphtheria (D), and tetanus (T) vaccines – given separately (not together, as is usually the case); and the Salk polio vaccine, with an inactivated (dead) virus, one that is cultured in human cells, not monkey kidney cells. Perhaps it should only contain these four vaccines. A good case can be made (for example, see Gary Null’s Vaccines: A Second Opinion) for avoiding the three other newer vaccines on the CDC’s schedule – the hepatitis B, pneumococcal conjugate (PCV7), and Hemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines.
Your pediatrician will not like this schedule. They are taught in medical school and residency training that childhood immunizations are essential to public health. As one pediatrician puts it, "Achieving adequate and timely vaccination of young children is the single most valuable thing a doctor can do for a patient." They do not question what their professors teach them, nor are they inclined to critically examine studies in Pediatrics and the New England Journal of Medicine that tell them vaccines are safe.
There were 482,000 cases of measles in the U.S in 1962, the year before a vaccine for this disease became available. Now, with all fifty states requiring that children be vaccinated against measles in order to attend school, there were only 56 cases of measles in a population of 290 million people in 2003.
These facts are well known and proudly cited by vaccine proponents. What is less known, and doctors are not taught, is that the death rate for measles declined 97.7 percent during the first 60 years of the 20th century. The mortality rate was 133 deaths per million people in the U.S. in 1900, and had dropped to 0.3 deaths per million by 1960. Measles caused less than 100 deaths a year in the U.S. before there was a vaccine for this disease (in 1963). The same thing happened with diphtheria and pertussis. Mortality rates dropped more than 90 percent in the early 20th century before vaccines for these diseases were introduced. This was due to better nutrition (with rapid delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables to cities and refrigeration), cleaner water, and improved sanitation (removing trash from the streets and better sewage systems), not to vaccines. The World Health Organization promotes mass vaccination, but knowing these facts states, "The best vaccine against common infectious diseases is an adequate diet" – fortified, one might add, with vitamin A.
Since the measles vaccine came into widespread use in this country this disease has virtually disappeared, and it has prevented 100 deaths a year. But now, instead, several thousand normally developing children become autistic after receiving their MMR shot. Termed "regressive autism," it accounts for about 30 percent of the 10,000 to 20,000 children who are diagnosed with autism in this country each year.
To put to rest concerns that MMR vaccination might cause autism (in a small percentage of children), the New England Journal of Medicine, in 2002, published a population-based study from Denmark, where its authors concluded, "This study provides strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism." The NEJM did not disclose that the "Statens Serum Institut," where three of the authors work, is a for-profit vaccine manufacturer, Denmark’s largest, or that four other authors have financial ties to this company. Only one of the eight authors is not associated with this institute, and the CDC employs him. The study compares the prevalence of autism in 440,000 MMR vaccinated and 97,000 unvaccinated children in Denmark born in the 1990s. A statistical slight-of-hand in age adjustment makes the study show no causal effect; but when unmasked and reformatted, the data actually shows a statistically significant association between MMR vaccine and autism (as Carol Stott and her coauthors make clear in "MMR and Autism in Perspective: the Denmark Story," in the Fall 2004 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, posted online).
Pediatrics and the Journal of the American Medical Association also have published studies like this supporting U.S. vaccine policy, written by authors with similar, undisclosed conflicts of interest. Looking elsewhere, however, one comes across a number of disquieting facts about vaccines. Investigators have found, for example, live measles virus in the cerebral spinal fluid in children who become autistic after MMR vaccination. Antibodies to measles virus are elevated in children with autism but not in normal kids, suggesting that virus-induced autoimmunity may play a causal role. A study published in Neurology this year implicates hepatitis B vaccine as a causative factor in multiple sclerosis.
A communitarian ethic increasingly governs health care in the U.S. It places a greater value on the health of the community, on society as a whole, than on the health of particular individuals. Public health officials have put together a vaccination schedule designed to eliminate infectious diseases to which the population is prey. These officials recognize that these vaccines will harm a small percentage of (genetically susceptible) individuals, but it is for the common good. The communitarian code posits that it is morally acceptable, if necessary, to sacrifice a few for the good of the many. Or as one observer more bluntly puts it, "Individual sheep can be sheared and slaughtered if it is for the welfare of their flock."
In this framework, health care providers become agents of the state charged with injecting vaccines into people that the central planners deem necessary. Physicians who remain true to their Hippocratic Oath and place the interests of their patient above that of the herd are considered to be out of step with the times, if not an anachronism.
Like central planners everywhere, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) promulgates a self-serving, one-size-fits-all vaccine policy. Members of this committee have ties to vaccine makers, such that the CDC must grant them waivers from statutory conflict of interest rules. Even so, and with little evidence to show that it is safe to subject young children to the ACIP’s crowded immunization schedule, states nevertheless dutifully make its vaccine recommendations compulsory.
All 50 states require children to be immunized against measles, diphtheria, Hemophilus influenzae type b, polio, and rubella in order to enroll in day care and/or public school. Forty-nine states also require vaccination against tetanus; 47, against hepatitis B and mumps; and 43 states now require vaccination against chickenpox. In order to shield themselves from any liability for making vaccinations compulsory, all states provide a medical exemption and 47, a religious exemption. Nineteen states allow a philosophical exemption. Some require only a letter from a parent and others, from a physician or church leader. (To see the exemptions allowed in your state, their wording and requirements, click here.) Parents, of course, can refuse vaccination; but if they want to enroll their child in public school they will need to obtain one of these exemptions.
Doctors who conclude that the risks of the government’s immunization schedule outweigh its benefits are placed in a difficult position. If they counsel parents not to have their children follow it, health care plans, which track vaccine compliance as a measure of "quality," will find them wanting. And if their patient should contract and develop complications from the disease the vaccine would have prevented they may find themselves confronting a lawsuit. If a child becomes autistic following a vaccination, however, the doctor is protected from any liability because the government requires it and the child’s parents, if they had chosen to do so, could have obtained an exemption. (Anti-vaccine advocates call developing autism, asthma, and Type I diabetes after vaccinations "vaccination roulette.")
Parents should have the freedom to select whatever vaccination schedule they want their children to follow, especially since health care providers and the government (except via its Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) cannot be held accountable for any adverse outcomes that might occur. But if parents elect to not follow the CDC’s immunization schedule, delaying some vaccinations, refusing others, or avoiding them altogether, then they must accept the risk that their child might contract the disease that the vaccine against it most likely would have prevented. *I fully accept this, I think we can handle measles and chicken pox and flus more easily than Autism, learning problems and neurological problems**
One consideration, which vaccine proponents do not address, is this: Could contracting childhood diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox play a constructive role in the maturation of a person’s immune system? Or, to put it another way, does removing natural infection from human experience have any adverse consequences?
Our species’ immune system – a one-trillion-cell army that patrols our (100-trillion-cell) body – serves two main purposes. It destroys foreign invaders – viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. And it destroys aberrant cells in the body that run amuck and cause cancer. Behind the barricades of skin and mucosa, our innate immune system (composed of phagocytes, natural killer cells, and the 20-protein complement system), which all animals have, is the body’s first line of defense. It reacts to invaders lightening fast and indiscriminately, but it is not very good at eliminating viruses and cancerous cells. Vertebrates have evolved a second line of defense – the adaptive immune system. It targets specific viruses and bacteria and has better artillery for eliminating cancerous cells. This system matures during childhood, and it has a cellular (Th1) and humoral (Th2) component (Th = helper T cell).
The viruses that cause measles, mumps, and chickenpox have infected countless generations of humans, akin to a rite of passage for each member of our species. Contracting these diseases strengthens both parts of the adaptive immune system (Th1 and Th2 ). Mothers who have had measles, mumps, and chickenpox transfer antibodies against them to their babies in utero, which protect them during the first year of life from contracting these infections. Vaccinations do not have the same effect on the immune system as naturally acquired diseases do. They stimulate predominantly the Th2 part of this system and not Th1. (Over-stimulation of Th2 causes autoimmune diseases.) The cellular Th1 side thwarts cancer, and if it does not become fully developed in childhood a person can be more prone to have cancer as an adult. Women who had mumps during childhood, for example, are found to be less likely to have ovarian cancer than women who did not have this infection. (This study was published in Cancer.) Could the fact that cancer has become a leading cause of death in children be a result of vaccinations? Only a randomized controlled trial can conclusively answer this question
With rare exception, a well-nourished child who contracts measles will recover smoothly from the infection. Fifty years ago almost all children in the U.S. had measles. And after contracting this disease, one has life-long immunity to it. The protection provided by vaccination is temporary. Adults who contract measles (when the protective effects of the vaccine wears off) are much more likely to have neurological, testicular, and ovarian complications. Likewise, rubella is a benign disease in children, but if a woman acquires it during pregnancy fetal malformations may develop. One can argue, heretical as such an argument may be, that it would be better to let children have measles, at an age when the infection helps the adaptive immune system mature in a balanced Th1/Th2 fashion and complications from this disease are minimal, rather than vaccinate them against this disease (especially considering the risks of vaccination).
Pertussis and Diphtheria are a different matter. These diseases are more virulent. Children who contract whooping cough (pertussis) can be incapacitated for more than a month. Polio can be devastating in susceptible individuals. And no one wants to get tetanus (lockjaw). A user-friendly vaccination schedule would include vaccines against these diseases.
Whatever vaccination schedule one chooses, mothers should breast-feed their child for as long as possible – a year or more. Failing that, add Omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA (docosahexanoic acid), to the child’s formula.
In summary, this is a vaccination schedule that I would recommend:
No vaccinations until a child is two years old.
No vaccines that contain thimerosal (mercury).
No live virus vaccines (except for smallpox, should it recur).
These vaccines, to be given one at a time, every six months, beginning at age 2:
Pertussis (acellular, not whole cell)
Diphtheria
Tetanus
Polio (the Salk vaccine, cultured in human cells)
American children are the most highly vaccinated kids in the world. This schedule is an alternative to the one that rules our "vaccine nation" (as the Village Voice terms it). In contrast to the CDC’s immunization schedule, it is user-friendly.
December 10, 2004
Donald Miller (send him mail) is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness and writes articles on a variety of subjects for LewRockwell.com, including bioterrorism. His web site is www.donaldmiller.com.
Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com
Catching up from the weekend...
Because of all that was going on, I didn't get to blog my usual Saturday Morning Post. It was quite the long week and busy weekend. There is a lot going on at work with changes in people and the job and other things we will find out soon, I hope. It's very strange so it will be nice to actually know what is really going on.
Books, books and more books. The boy loves books, so he got about 20 of them from us.
Friday I got out of work early to have a "parent-teacher conference" with Kian's teacher. It's just funny, I mean how much can you 'conference' about on a 12 month old? She just said that they are working on using spoon/fork with him and increasing the sippy cup. I am cutting out the bottles gradually. I only send one bottle, about 3 oz, then a sippy cup of Organic Whole Milk (unfortunately, he was reacting to both soy and rice milk! go figure!). Then Kian and I went grocery shopping for his party. I came home to make Grandma McKnight's famous potato salad!
Saturday, the actual birthday! Kevin worked in the morning, like a typical Saturday morning. I cleaned and baked cakes while Kian napped. Then we went to Seabreeze after lunch for my employee picnic, and of course Kian's birthday! Jon went with us, when doesn't Jon go with us? =) Here's a few pictures--
Taking Kian on the train:
Jon and Kevin waiting in line for the Bobsleds...looooong wait:
Kian on the carousel:
Kevin and Jon on the Yoyo/Swings:
Kian, chillin' after some water rides:
He did so well at Seabreeze. He rode in his stroller fine . We took him in the wave pool and on the lazy river. Unfortunately, our tube turned under this mushroom shower thing and Kian and I got blasted in our faces. I tried to shield him but he started to scream, and I my contacts went MIA for a few minutes. But, he was fine. The kiddie water activities were still a little older for him, as were the other rides. I won him a small zebra playing the 'whack-a-mole' game. He even napped for a bit. When we got home that night he was still wired so we let him open his presents from us. Jon and Kevin waiting in line for the Bobsleds...looooong wait:
Kian on the carousel:
Kevin and Jon on the Yoyo/Swings:
Kian, chillin' after some water rides:
Sunday was Kian's birthday party! We made sure to give him a good morning nap before everyone arrived. We grilled some chicken and sausage and had that famous potato salad of Gram's. Dad gave it a 98 out of a 100. I think that's the closest I'll ever come. No one can ever get it 'just right'. Even I admit, it's not 100% the same. But it came out well at least. Because Kian's cake didn't come out as I had hoped, I had to make a quick Wegmans run to buy another for the rest of the guests. Oops. He did great, he wasn't cranky, he ate, he played, he let everyone pass him around and wanted to play with all his toys. It was a great day!
He had so many presents! I'm glad I didn't turn this into a really big deal, I don't think I could take any mroe presents!
Sandbox from grandma & grandpa glor:
His mohawk, courtesy of Aunt NeeNee:
I made his cake, but it didnt' turn out as well as I'd hoped. It was a number 1 just with sugar stars all over it. We have video of Kevin and Kian ruining it. I'll try to get that up later this week.
His bike from Mema & Gramps: He looks like such a big boy here!
One year
One year ago yesterday we had just walked through the door with this tiny, wrinkly, screaming creature. Today, on his first birthday, he's cute as can be, smiley, happy, kissing, crawling, walking, talking, pointing, whistling (sigh) Toddler! How can that be?
In the first two months of his life, Kian gained 6 lbs 2 oz. Holy moly! And he hasn't slowed down his eating at all...
He started smiling a little over three weeks, and hasn't stopped....
In the first two months of his life, Kian gained 6 lbs 2 oz. Holy moly! And he hasn't slowed down his eating at all...
He started smiling a little over three weeks, and hasn't stopped....
He picked his head up off my chest the second he was born, after they laid him on me, and his determination and motivation to keep moving has only increased by the day. He is now letting go when standing for a few seconds and realizing he likes this 'walking thing'. But has always figured out how to get to things, get things to him, get attention; whatever he needs, he finds a way to do it...
I know I'm biased, but intellectually he just has always seemed so bright, so ahead. He's always thinking, always wanting to do what we 'grownups' are doing. If he is shown how to do something once, he gets it. If he watches us doing it, he'll try it too. 
He's just a joy. Pure and simple. He is the happiest baby I've known. At daycare they call him Mr. Smiley because he's always happy and smiling and even though he likes routine, he'll just roll with it. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful baby. I hate leaving him in the morning and always drive a little faster to get him in the afternoons. In one respect I can't wait for him to keep growing up and watching him change and blossom, seeing what he likes, how his personality continues to develop; but at the same time I am sad at how fast it has already gone. I know great things will come...
Happy First Birthday Kian!
In Real Life fest
I saw this on Rachel's and a few other people's blogs (courtesy of Jessica@FarmFresh) and thought "I have to do that". This is a no prep, no cleaning, no 'photo shopping', just raw footage. I'll not be afraid to show you what a working mother's house looks like by the end of the week, with minimum cleaning, maximum activity, arriving home after the dinner hour... yep it's real life alright. Don't be afraid...
First up- a look at the fridge. Kevin hates a fridge covered in magnets, so all we have is Kenny & Kiara's school pics and a card from daycare for Father's Day. On top is a different story-huge canister of protein powder, bagels and a food processor, that gets more use than you'd expect:
Inside you can see Wegmans organic rice milk, Santa Cruz organic Lemonade (best ever! tastes just like fresh-squeezed); the second shelf is full of vitamins and supplements (acidophulis, cod liver oil, etc.) organic yogurt. Then there's the mommy milk bottles and sippy cup, with a wretched pizza hut box on top because I had a dinnertime visit with a client in the city and that was the quickest thing! Ack! My poor fruit drawer is painfully empty. And in the freezer 3, yes 3 boxes of Edy's Natural fruit pops. Lord almighty are they the best ever! With real chunks of strawberries mmmm...
Next up: A closet. I chose the closet Kevin and I share because it's the most organized and has beautiful doors that were already here when we bought the house. Even though they don't match the white trim, I didn't care, I love them.
Back to the kitchen for a peek at my overflowing sink: Always a cat on there, either drinking out of it, or because it's the perfect bird/squirrel watching spot into the backyard. (Notice Rocky following me around for this picture-taking quest)
The list calls for a toilet next. I chose this one because it really irks me. It was this way when we bought it, but I didn't notice when viewing the house. I noticed when I wanted to repaint the bathroom. THE TOILET SEAT DOESN"T MATCH! Ugh. An off-white toilet and they had put a white toilet seat on it. Why?! Again...there's Rocky....
My favorite pair of shoes: Granted, I'm usually barefoot, indoors and out, even at work, but I adore these boots. I can actually walk in the heel, it's not too high and they are so comfortable! And chic, if I may say so!
On to my favorite room: Not because I spend more than 20 seconds in here, but because I alone scraped off the wallpaper, sanded, picked out the paint, flooring and accessories, then painted it. It's just a girly little bathroom. Delish!
What my child is doing now: 9:30 at night---sleeping!
And so was Kevin- (in our newly redone room, we painted all that woodwork white, from maple! excuse the toys)
And the list calls for a peek at the laundry next: My laundry is in my basement, which is essentially a mini-gym. So of course I use the benches for holding laundry.
And last on the list: A self-portrait. Sigh. Please ignore the huge zit on my forehead. After taking all these pictures, running around the house, Rocky and I stopped for a little rest in the spare bedroom...because I love the bedding in there.
And there you have it--my real life Thursday night!
*ps-I counted at least 52 items in my fridge that bear the Wegmans name. Hi, my name is Krysten, and am a Wegmans addict.
Wordless Wednesday with a twist
Ok, I'm not really participating, but I thought I'd share what I feel is "vintage" for me these days:
Size 10 pants!
Goodbye 8's and 10's, HELLO 6's!!
Now go check Rachel's other real contestants! For more Wordless Wednesday Fun: www.americanmum.blogspot.com
Kian's 1 year pictures
This past Friday we had Kian's pictures taken, like at a studio, not a department store. Much better, captured him, not the commercial backgrounds they promote at dept stores.
We had them done at Chesler's with Amanda (Schinsing) Lee, who I went to school with/graduated with. She has a few on her blog: www.amandaatcheslerphotography.blogspot.com or on the studio website www.cheslerphoto.com.
She did a great job! She was able to keep him entertained (as much as a 12 month old, teething, fever-ridden baby can be) and was willing to do whatever we wanted, went along with our 'props' and she has amazing prices!
Now the difficult is to actually decide which ones to get (I want them all) in which sizes, etc. etc. etc. and so forth....*
ps-you'll get a gold star if you can name where that is from*
We had them done at Chesler's with Amanda (Schinsing) Lee, who I went to school with/graduated with. She has a few on her blog: www.amandaatcheslerphotography.blogspot.com or on the studio website www.cheslerphoto.com.
She did a great job! She was able to keep him entertained (as much as a 12 month old, teething, fever-ridden baby can be) and was willing to do whatever we wanted, went along with our 'props' and she has amazing prices!
Now the difficult is to actually decide which ones to get (I want them all) in which sizes, etc. etc. etc. and so forth....*
ps-you'll get a gold star if you can name where that is from*
Whistling
Here's my confession: I can't whistle. Not a lick. Not a note. Nothing. I've tried to learn lots over the years. Many have tried to teach me. But, my tongue and lips do not want to cooperate. I'm totally okay with it.
Here's the kicker: Kian can whistle. Already. Not a song, of course. But he's recently perfected his "uh OH" and lip rounding. He liked rounded lips. Then he discovered when blowing air in and out while making that "oh" face, it makes a pretty cool noise. So, he goes around the house, throughout the day "whistling".
Here's the kicker: Kian can whistle. Already. Not a song, of course. But he's recently perfected his "uh OH" and lip rounding. He liked rounded lips. Then he discovered when blowing air in and out while making that "oh" face, it makes a pretty cool noise. So, he goes around the house, throughout the day "whistling".
Saturday Morning Post
This week has dragged out (drug out? been dragging out?). Aside from the numerous trainings we have at work this month, which really put a damper on my turning in 55 cases for review by the end of the month, it's just been busy. And we have 2 more half-day trainings this week. But, I get to close 3 or 4 cases this week, which is nice. That will put me down to about 56 cases (state limit is 60). Wonderful. I'm not keeping up with them all that well, but as much as I can. Apparently there's a great influx of children needing speech therapy, physical therapy, having Autism, etc. in Monroe County lately. Sheesh.
Donated some of Kevin's extra weights and equipment to one of the men's residential rehab houses at work. Glad to get some of that out of the garage. Now to get rid of the clothes, random appliances and other household junk that's not paying rent, but taking up space in my garage!
Kian's molars are coming in, both top ones, on either side. I can feel some ridges poking through slightly, so it must be pretty painful. He's not so thrilled about it. Thursday he was just miserable and then got a sudden fever. So, I stayed home with him on Friday because he had a temp of 102. He can't go to daycare if he has a fever of 101. Like I'd send him with a fever anyways? And of course, yesterday was the day we were to get our pictures taken. Like, real pictures, not just Sears photos. I gave him some Motrin right before we left (as it was in Canandaigua) and he slept the whole way there. His fever must have broke while in the car, because he was a puddle of sweat, so was his seat. And then he seemed fine, just a little tired. But he did really well for all the pictures we were taking. They should be online soon-yay.
Then we made the rounds and visited all the broken people in my family. My grandma sprained/fractured her ankle and toes. And my sister had to have surgery on her nose (no, not a nose job!). So, we stopped by with Kian to see all of them. All of them bandaged and gory. Nice. Then I found out another cousin was all banged up and had to have surgery. Sheesh. I love how they all "had" to do it the same week =)
Kevin's killing me here with decisions about this weekend-this being his first official Father's Day. I wanted to plan something nice, maybe go out to breakfast and whatever with him. But he's hinging all his plans on the weather for fishing with his dad. Which means he can't make a real decision yet until the weather either cooperates or not. Which mean, I have to try to figure out which day he'll be around and which day we see his family? I said not both days. So, if that's what he wants to do, to wait around and figure it out, he can. I've got things to do. Like: prepare for Kian's party next Sunday, pick up a few decorations, get a new bathing suit (ew) for Seabreeze next Saturday, and pick up a Father's day gift for Kevin and my dad. (I told him now that I have to worry about him and my dad, he's on his own with his dad. I can't do all that shopping and card picking-out anymore.)
This coming week will be a little crazier (is that word?) more crazy, getting the house picked up and ready for Kian's birthday. Making his cake(s), decorating, and doing it early because we are going to Seabreeze on Saturday-his actual birthday. I've begun my list of things to do and make for the week. I like making lists and checking them off, makes me feel like I've accomplished something! I'd better go start checking things of my house cleaning list before Kian wakes up...
Donated some of Kevin's extra weights and equipment to one of the men's residential rehab houses at work. Glad to get some of that out of the garage. Now to get rid of the clothes, random appliances and other household junk that's not paying rent, but taking up space in my garage!
Kian's molars are coming in, both top ones, on either side. I can feel some ridges poking through slightly, so it must be pretty painful. He's not so thrilled about it. Thursday he was just miserable and then got a sudden fever. So, I stayed home with him on Friday because he had a temp of 102. He can't go to daycare if he has a fever of 101. Like I'd send him with a fever anyways? And of course, yesterday was the day we were to get our pictures taken. Like, real pictures, not just Sears photos. I gave him some Motrin right before we left (as it was in Canandaigua) and he slept the whole way there. His fever must have broke while in the car, because he was a puddle of sweat, so was his seat. And then he seemed fine, just a little tired. But he did really well for all the pictures we were taking. They should be online soon-yay.
Then we made the rounds and visited all the broken people in my family. My grandma sprained/fractured her ankle and toes. And my sister had to have surgery on her nose (no, not a nose job!). So, we stopped by with Kian to see all of them. All of them bandaged and gory. Nice. Then I found out another cousin was all banged up and had to have surgery. Sheesh. I love how they all "had" to do it the same week =)
Kevin's killing me here with decisions about this weekend-this being his first official Father's Day. I wanted to plan something nice, maybe go out to breakfast and whatever with him. But he's hinging all his plans on the weather for fishing with his dad. Which means he can't make a real decision yet until the weather either cooperates or not. Which mean, I have to try to figure out which day he'll be around and which day we see his family? I said not both days. So, if that's what he wants to do, to wait around and figure it out, he can. I've got things to do. Like: prepare for Kian's party next Sunday, pick up a few decorations, get a new bathing suit (ew) for Seabreeze next Saturday, and pick up a Father's day gift for Kevin and my dad. (I told him now that I have to worry about him and my dad, he's on his own with his dad. I can't do all that shopping and card picking-out anymore.)
This coming week will be a little crazier (is that word?) more crazy, getting the house picked up and ready for Kian's birthday. Making his cake(s), decorating, and doing it early because we are going to Seabreeze on Saturday-his actual birthday. I've begun my list of things to do and make for the week. I like making lists and checking them off, makes me feel like I've accomplished something! I'd better go start checking things of my house cleaning list before Kian wakes up...
52 weeks
So, Kian is almost a year old. Already. I can't believe how fast that first year went. That means the next 18 will go just as fast, if not faster. Eek. I can't think about being the parent of a teenager yet! Ick.
We are thinking about the whole first birthday and party scenario. On his birthday is my employee picnic at Seabreeze and we are going to go, take him, do the kiddie rides and water activities. I think he'll enjoy it. Plus, hey, it's free food! I wanted to do something special with just him and Kevin that day anyway, so it can be one of his many "firsts". We don't have to hang out with or even see other employees/coworkers if we don't want to, which is kind of nice.
Then we get to the birthday party. I have been going back and forth with this one. My practical side says: -he's just 1, 12 months he doesn't know what's going on, nor will he remember it; -he'll need at least one nap that day; -we have a ton of extended family on both sides which means a ton of people to feed, "house" and i don't want them to feel obligated to buy him presents/toys, which he has plenty of and I don't have room for. But, then there's the other side that's saying 'oh we should go all out'. And I think it's more because of what other people (clients, family, friends, etc.) say about the first birthday. Kevin and I do a big Labor Day picnic every year and that's a good time to get together with friends and family, without the obligation of buying a present for Kian, him having to be happy all day with people he barely sees, and be "on" all day and be cute and pose for pictures, etc.
So, what I have decided, so far, is invite our parents and our siblings (so he has his grandparents and aunts and uncles and his first cousin). I think that alone will be overwhelming for him, and me. And I know grandparents and gifts, so he'll get plenty of presents. I think I am over analyzing this too much, that I might be "jipping" him of a huge bash (even though he won't remember). Plus, it's not like he has "friends" yet, and my friends with little ones live too far away to join us.
I am going to try to make a # 1 shaped cake. I managed to turn out a decent baby cake for the baby shower, so I have some confidence that this will turn out pretty good too. Then I think I will add an ice cream cake as well for whoever. Barbecue some chicken and grill some sausage, veggies, Gram's potato salad, and chicken wing dip and we're in business. N'est ce pas?
Any other thoughts, suggestions, memory-maker things I should do?
We are thinking about the whole first birthday and party scenario. On his birthday is my employee picnic at Seabreeze and we are going to go, take him, do the kiddie rides and water activities. I think he'll enjoy it. Plus, hey, it's free food! I wanted to do something special with just him and Kevin that day anyway, so it can be one of his many "firsts". We don't have to hang out with or even see other employees/coworkers if we don't want to, which is kind of nice.
Then we get to the birthday party. I have been going back and forth with this one. My practical side says: -he's just 1, 12 months he doesn't know what's going on, nor will he remember it; -he'll need at least one nap that day; -we have a ton of extended family on both sides which means a ton of people to feed, "house" and i don't want them to feel obligated to buy him presents/toys, which he has plenty of and I don't have room for. But, then there's the other side that's saying 'oh we should go all out'. And I think it's more because of what other people (clients, family, friends, etc.) say about the first birthday. Kevin and I do a big Labor Day picnic every year and that's a good time to get together with friends and family, without the obligation of buying a present for Kian, him having to be happy all day with people he barely sees, and be "on" all day and be cute and pose for pictures, etc.
So, what I have decided, so far, is invite our parents and our siblings (so he has his grandparents and aunts and uncles and his first cousin). I think that alone will be overwhelming for him, and me. And I know grandparents and gifts, so he'll get plenty of presents. I think I am over analyzing this too much, that I might be "jipping" him of a huge bash (even though he won't remember). Plus, it's not like he has "friends" yet, and my friends with little ones live too far away to join us.
I am going to try to make a # 1 shaped cake. I managed to turn out a decent baby cake for the baby shower, so I have some confidence that this will turn out pretty good too. Then I think I will add an ice cream cake as well for whoever. Barbecue some chicken and grill some sausage, veggies, Gram's potato salad, and chicken wing dip and we're in business. N'est ce pas?
Any other thoughts, suggestions, memory-maker things I should do?
A Late Saturday Morning Post
Probably because I posted more this week than in recent weeks.
It's been the same old, same old around here mostly. With the exception of Baby Grant's arrival. Kian got to meet him on Thursday night. It went like this: 
Actually, Kian tried to give him a kiss the first time we showed Grant to him. (He gives kisses when he feels like it, not on command, so that was pretty cool!) He's used to babies and crying and such at daycare that he didn't really think much of it. He didn't care or act jealous when I was holding the baby (good sign so far). But, then we tried to get a few pictures of them together, and then Kian wanted to touch him and Grant was sliding in the couch and you know how that goes...south.
We've been doing some weeding and rearranging of our flower gardens. Nothing too exciting around here really. Made plans for Kian's one year portraits and some family pictures also. That will take place this coming Friday. Starting to make the plans for Kian's birthday party. Nothing huge. I don't want to overwhelm him and don't think it's really necessary to have 100 relatives whom he sees once or twice a year and make them feel obligated to bring a gift. Lord knows he's got plenty of toys already and I know just between his two sets of grandparents he'll be loaded this time around too. *I found organic cake mixes at Wegmans, how cool is that. Now, if I have time I like to make things from scratch but it's great to know that's there! I might try them for his birthday cake(s).
I finally put Christmas pictures in albums and realized I haven't printed pictures since the end of January. So I spent the afternoon uploading and ordering pictures for the last 5 months! I didn't know i was that far behind.
Saturday, Kian and I went to Kmart for a nice kiddie pool, to try and beat this 90+ degree heat. Luckily it's not as muggy so it's easier to deal with. He loved it. He loves bath time, but I think being in the warm sun made him enjoy it even more, that or I let him go bare naked in it =)
Friday I met a cool mom, to one of my clients. There are parents I like, there are those I dislike, but of course with the job you meet all kinds and you just act professional no matter what. But, my 20 minute, release-signing visit turned into over an hour. We just kept finding things we had in common. She was about my age, with her first child and we found a lot of common ground and kept getting off the subject of the visit. Which is totally fine and acceptable. These are the families I tend to visit more in person, rather than on the phone, like the ones I am not so fond of. Oops. Bet ya I'll get a great review on that record when I turn it in!
Thursday, I think, we had a fast-moving, but powerful and intense rain/thunder storm. There was lots of lightning and I heard a huge crack. I told Kevin that I was pretty sure the lightning had just hit something. He brushed it off. Well, Friday morning around 6:30 I looked out the bathroom window and saw branches, big ones. I went outside and realized they weren't just branches fallen from the wind. They were half-of-a-tree-branches, 20 feet long and who knows how wide, that got severed from lightning. And the place the lightning hit them was only a foot or two from the power lines! Thank God the power lines were not hit, who knows what would have happened! The tree looks kind of funny, a little naked, and you can see through it more now. Oh well.
So, that's about it for now, when Kian wakes up we'll go test out his little pool again.
A "charged" week
These last 7 or 8 days have been a roller coaster, emotionally charged, full of activity. First of all, the bottom of this is work. It's highly stressful right now. We are at full capacity-ie that state limit for caseloads. Which means I have 60 cases of children who need a million things, which there is very little of at this time. And I have to turn in 56 of those cases for reviews by the end of the month. It's just very strenuous, physically-travelling to all those homes, and mentally.
Then, Kian got sick and every parent knows that feeling. You can't quite figure out what is wrong, they can't tell you yet, but they feel awful and look awful and it makes you feel awful. I always hold off running to the doctor's office because I don't want to be one of those moms, especially with all the common viruses going around, plus it's $25 every time and that adds up. Then I feel guilty when something does show up, that I didn't take him sooner. I'm not a neurotic, paranoid mom about sicknesses and things (just healthy eating).
Even at home it's been tiring trying to keep up with laundry, regular chores, good meals, and we've been gardening and planting lately, trying to be outside more. It's good, just busy. Thank goodness for the hot tub and long walks.
And of course the most exciting news is baby Grant arrived, and I get to be an aunt now. How fun will that be? Surprisingly, it was a lot more emotional for me than I expected. Excited and happy for them, for us, for Kian to have a playmate. Happy to have this little guy here to love on. Walking into the hospital brought back so many memories, it wasn't really that long ago I was there. Those same feelings, incredible, instant love, nervousness, the giddiness, the tiredness, and how they'll feel the same. It also made me remember every detail of Kian's birth and how small he was and how amazing it was. It made me sad that it's gone by so fast, that he's gotten so big already. Made me realize I want more babies soon so I can have that small, snuggly baby again. Because with all the new grandparents around here I won't get to touch baby Grant until he's about 8 months old, if I'm lucky. And I was kind of surprised that even though I love Elissa and Paul and were so excited for them to have this baby I was anticipating him a lot too and ready to love him. It's craziness. Mmm babies.
I've also been realizing recently how much time Kevin and I haven't spent alone lately. Somewhat by choice, but life happens, and there's always things to take care of and do. With working all day, all week, I feel guilty and want to spend as much time with Kian as I can too. And let's just be honest, I am paranoid about who, where, when, how I leave him. The center has rules, regulations, cameras, supervisors, strict written orders, etc. Casual sitters, even family members do not. and I honestly worry about people doing what I ask, I feel they'll do the "she's out of sight, let's do whatever" kind of thing. Kian has only been driven by Kevin or I in either of our cars. No one else has ever driven him anywhere, especially without us. I don't trust many people driving so I really don't want people driving him anywhere. But we'll figure some things out. Certain people I can "boss" around more and know that they'll do what I want while watching him, ahem my sister, and Elissa was a great "sitter" but she's out of commission for awhile.
But driving home this afternoon, anxious in the construction induced traffic to get my baby, I just was thinking of all the things going on in the last week or so. How it just seems to be an emotional roller coaster and so busy each day. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and putting a label on those emotions and airing them definitely helps. It just seems there's always someone wanting something and everyone wants their share 5 minutes ago. Can't please everyone and I don't even bother trying anymore (I used to just try to please everyone in the world, before and above myself-I learned my lesson) I just do what I can do and do my best at it, and that's that.
Then, Kian got sick and every parent knows that feeling. You can't quite figure out what is wrong, they can't tell you yet, but they feel awful and look awful and it makes you feel awful. I always hold off running to the doctor's office because I don't want to be one of those moms, especially with all the common viruses going around, plus it's $25 every time and that adds up. Then I feel guilty when something does show up, that I didn't take him sooner. I'm not a neurotic, paranoid mom about sicknesses and things (just healthy eating).
Even at home it's been tiring trying to keep up with laundry, regular chores, good meals, and we've been gardening and planting lately, trying to be outside more. It's good, just busy. Thank goodness for the hot tub and long walks.
And of course the most exciting news is baby Grant arrived, and I get to be an aunt now. How fun will that be? Surprisingly, it was a lot more emotional for me than I expected. Excited and happy for them, for us, for Kian to have a playmate. Happy to have this little guy here to love on. Walking into the hospital brought back so many memories, it wasn't really that long ago I was there. Those same feelings, incredible, instant love, nervousness, the giddiness, the tiredness, and how they'll feel the same. It also made me remember every detail of Kian's birth and how small he was and how amazing it was. It made me sad that it's gone by so fast, that he's gotten so big already. Made me realize I want more babies soon so I can have that small, snuggly baby again. Because with all the new grandparents around here I won't get to touch baby Grant until he's about 8 months old, if I'm lucky. And I was kind of surprised that even though I love Elissa and Paul and were so excited for them to have this baby I was anticipating him a lot too and ready to love him. It's craziness. Mmm babies.
I've also been realizing recently how much time Kevin and I haven't spent alone lately. Somewhat by choice, but life happens, and there's always things to take care of and do. With working all day, all week, I feel guilty and want to spend as much time with Kian as I can too. And let's just be honest, I am paranoid about who, where, when, how I leave him. The center has rules, regulations, cameras, supervisors, strict written orders, etc. Casual sitters, even family members do not. and I honestly worry about people doing what I ask, I feel they'll do the "she's out of sight, let's do whatever" kind of thing. Kian has only been driven by Kevin or I in either of our cars. No one else has ever driven him anywhere, especially without us. I don't trust many people driving so I really don't want people driving him anywhere. But we'll figure some things out. Certain people I can "boss" around more and know that they'll do what I want while watching him, ahem my sister, and Elissa was a great "sitter" but she's out of commission for awhile.
But driving home this afternoon, anxious in the construction induced traffic to get my baby, I just was thinking of all the things going on in the last week or so. How it just seems to be an emotional roller coaster and so busy each day. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and putting a label on those emotions and airing them definitely helps. It just seems there's always someone wanting something and everyone wants their share 5 minutes ago. Can't please everyone and I don't even bother trying anymore (I used to just try to please everyone in the world, before and above myself-I learned my lesson) I just do what I can do and do my best at it, and that's that.
Officially an aunt!
Baby Grant came at 12:40 this morning, to Paul and Elissa (Kevin's brother and his wife). We saw them for a bit at lunchtime, he's a peanut! Makes Kian look HUGE, and makes me sad my baby was that small 11.5 months ago! I feel baby fever coming on again... Do I hear a request for an encore? Maybe get a baby girl in this house soon? hehe....
36-40 in 18-24
More Numbers. These numbers however have greater significance. When I receive a client they are typically between 18-24 months old. This is when pediatrician's most often notice a speech delay, which is the majority of my clients, and have them referred for services.
When I receive their file it has a comprehensive evaluation, showing skills and delays in all 5 developmental areas (cognitive, communication, adaptive [self help] physical and social/emotional). It also includes a copy of their medical history and vaccination schedule.
That's where the 36-40 comes in. These children by 24 months of age already have received approximately 40 vaccines. 40! That's like giving them 2 per month since they were born, if they're 24 months old. How crazy is that? It amazes me that people, medical professionals, parents, etc. don't see a problem with that number.
*On a side note I read an article, and I wish I could remember where to post it on here, about a man willing to pay a doctor somewhere around $90,000 to drink the equivalent additives and metals and formaldehyde and other preservatives in vaccines. If a doctor will just drink that same ingredients that are in vaccines he'll give them almost 100,000 dollars! Are you surprised that there's no takers? Me neither.
When I receive their file it has a comprehensive evaluation, showing skills and delays in all 5 developmental areas (cognitive, communication, adaptive [self help] physical and social/emotional). It also includes a copy of their medical history and vaccination schedule.
That's where the 36-40 comes in. These children by 24 months of age already have received approximately 40 vaccines. 40! That's like giving them 2 per month since they were born, if they're 24 months old. How crazy is that? It amazes me that people, medical professionals, parents, etc. don't see a problem with that number.
*On a side note I read an article, and I wish I could remember where to post it on here, about a man willing to pay a doctor somewhere around $90,000 to drink the equivalent additives and metals and formaldehyde and other preservatives in vaccines. If a doctor will just drink that same ingredients that are in vaccines he'll give them almost 100,000 dollars! Are you surprised that there's no takers? Me neither.
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