Gratitude for Strange Things

Tonight I decided to make a list of the things I'm MOST grateful for today.

Because I'm tired.  Exhausted, in fact.  And really close to feeling sorry for myself.

Super funny, but the #1 thing I am grateful for as I drift off to sleep is that no one, especially John Paul or my pregnant self, got bitten by a black widow before leaving New Mexico.

Yes, I took this picture at risk of life and limb and I like it.  A lot.

Silly?  Maybe, but my good friend did confirm that lots of people in Los Alamos were finding black widows in strange places- i.e. their houses!  (They are usually much more reclusive.)  And killing them yourself is, uh, nerve-racking to say the least.  I was terrified JP would get bitten and not be able to explain it to me well enough.  Plus, the anti-venom is usually contra-indicated in pregnancy and the bite itself can cause pre-term labor because of yadda yadda, blah-blah-blah.  Er, that was what the scientific information sounded like to me...

Anyway, I didn't realize how worried I'd been over it till we were gone.

#2:  Baby is still flipping around but is 90% of the time more or less head down.  Drawback to being 6' tall is that baby never runs out of room and likes to worry and tease you by doing somersaults every day.

#3:  34.5 weeks pregnant and 6' tall!  He-he.  I'm only barely starting to feel uncomfortable.  Baby isn't even up under my ribs yet.  I can still breathe just fine.

#4:  Coconut-with-agave ice cream from the store.  Made my kids really happy today and I didn't have to clean the ice cream maker.

#5:  Leaving southern Arizona in 3 days.  I mean, I love a 111 degree day as much as anybody, don't get me wrong.  But 2 weeks of such delightful warmth... is enough for this pregnant lady.  So long, Sonoran desert!  (Hello, midwestern humidity....)


"Drag your thoughts away from your worries... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it."
-Mark Twain

32.5 and counting

 This in not my current belly!  It's Rosie in there, at about 38.5 weeks.  (I'm nowhere near this big yet, at the moment.)

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced.  Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice." 
~Indian Saying

I start to focus inwardly at about this time during pregnancy.  Externals fade into the background and what's going on inside seems a lot more real than what's going on outside of me.  (You know, homes being bought and sold, landlords trying to screw us, 3,000 square feet of packing, trading in mountain canyons for tidy square lawns....)

 I thought we were nuts just a few months ago, planning a pregnancy that would mean giving birth just weeks after a major move.  Some moments I still do.  But I also realize, as always, life's insane timing is a blessing in disguise. 

"There is no other organ quite like the uterus.  If men had such an organ they would brag about it.  So should we." 
~Ina May Gaskin

My stress tolerance is quite low.  Usually I would be a mess, a total mess, with all the logistical and financial stress we're going through right now.  But instead, I have this perfect, peaceful retreat right under my heart, where I can escape every day.  It seems easier with every pregnancy to feel the baby's... soul? spirit? personality? in utero.  And the last couple of months of pregnancy I feel like I really live in 2 worlds.  The regular day to day world, and the secret, dark world inside, where only myself and my baby exist.

(Doesn't she look big and healthy?  9 lb 6 oz!)

"Babies are bits of star-dust blown from the hand of God.  Lucky the woman who knows the pangs of birth for she has held a star." 
~Larry Barretto

My last birth was nearly perfect.  And, honestly, it was painless.  However, I attribute that equally to mental prepredness, perfect baby positioning, and really, really, REALLY high pain tolerance.  (I can't handle a lot of stress, but I can handle pain.  That's the lasting benefit of surviving a major car crash and extensive bone surgery, I guess.)

"There's time enough, but none to spare." 

~Charles W. Chesnutt

Attended homebirth is illegal in Nebraska.  This means we have to choose between an unattended birth in a hostile environment (i.e. in case of transfer/ emergency/ complication), with a lot of difficulty surrounding aquisition of a birth certificate, blood typing for Rh factor, and so on, and giving birth in a clinical setting.

(My what big hands you have!)

"Women's bodies have near-perfect knowledge of childbirth; it's when their brains get involved that things can go wrong." 
~Peggy Vincent

 I realize that to families who have never experienced homebirth, it can be quite mystifying why it is SO important to some of us.  But all I can say is, once you have experienced a homebirth...

 things will never be the same.

"Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it.  If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information. "

~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Birthing at home is safe.  Statistically, babies fare the same and mothers fare better, both physically and psychologically, compared to hospital births.  (WHO statistics.)

 Luckily, we found the almost brand-new birth center in Omaha to be fantastic.  The midwife is about as excellent as one could hope, and she herself wishes she could attend homebirths, as is passionately pursuing legislature that will allow her to in the future. 

"Birth is not only about making babies.  Birth is about making mothers... strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength." 
~Barbara Katz Rothman

(In fact, her assistant midwife was a homebirth midwife for 20 years before she was threatened out of business.)  In other words, they get it.

 So now it's only a question of whether we can actually make it the 30 minutes there before baby just *pop* arrives. 

"$13 to $20 billion a year could be saved in health care costs by demedicalizing childbirth, developing midwifery, and encouraging breastfeeding." 
~Frank A. Oski

(My recurrent dream is waking up in the middle of the night, realizing I'm in labor, and before I can even get out of bed, FER (fetal ejection reflex) takes over and baby just slides out.  And no kidding, John Paul was almost like that!)

(First nap, 12 hours old.  Isaiah stayed up till 2 am to watch Rosie's birth.)

"I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring."

  ~Liz Armbruster

Anyway, between packing and laying around with my babies, all 4 of them, blogging isn't really at the top of my to-do list these days!   

(A little bit of heaven.)

"Children make you want to start life over." 
~Muhammad Ali

I've got ice cream, vaccines, birth preparation, unplugged travel, and a number of other ideas on my blogging docket, and we'll see how many of them materialize here over the next few weeks and we head from the mountains of northern New Mexico, to the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, through our home on the Kansas range, and on to our new home in Nebraska.

Our Lady of the Way, pray for us.

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval." 
~George Santayana, "War Shrines," Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, 1922

Cranberry-Lime Refresher

Mmm... summer!  I can't drink thick, creamy green shakes in the summer.  I want something icy and light, but still full of yumminess and greenery.

Enter the Cranberry-Lime Refresher, a better-tasting green shake for hot summer days.  Won't sit like a rock in your tummy!  (If you can't find cranberries, remember this for next year.  Every year when grocery stores are closing out holiday cranberries, I buy bags and bags and toss them right in the freezer- they keep quite well.  And tart cranberries are a great summery taste.)

 If the green color is unappealing to you or your kiddos, try increasing the cranberry ratio, or use hibiscus or rosehip tea as the liquid.

CRANBERRY-LIME REFRESHER
1c cranberries (all ingredients are per person)
juice of 1 lime (peel and chop the lime if you have a Vitamix or Blentec high speed blender for the extra VitaminC)
1-3c spinach (use 1/2 this if you are using frozen spinach) or any other mild greens
water to thin
ice as desired
stevia or agave to sweeten

Blend.  Drink.  Feel the energy!

My kids and husband love this.  It's a great substitute for a green salad on lazy summer days when you might otherwise not get enough veggies in. 

Really easy, really yummy, really really good for you!

"Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall.  Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day.  Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down.  And this is all life really means."  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Omaha... somewhere in middle America

Quick update:

Bread with Honey will be quiet(er) than usual in the next days, as we are off to house hunt in Omaha.  I'm super-nervous.  

My baby is head down again, but emphatically posterior.  Yay.  Well, yay with a really achy back.

And, may I say, I just prepped 10 junk-free meals for a really long plane ride.  Just say "no" to the golden arches!  And I'm ashamed to say, I used baggies.  No bentos.  But seriously, who wants to haul empty bentos through the Denver airport?

"Fear not that life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning."  ~John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Black Widow Effect

When you've never seen a black widow, sometimes you see a spider and think, "Is that a black widow?"

In which case, I guarantee you, it is not a black widow!

Because once you've seen this:

You never have that thought again.  You just look and know, that is a black widow, or, nope, not even close.

Well, this pregnancy, I keep checking my baby, thinking, "Is she breech?"

And I know if I have to ask is  she breech, that she's not breech.  Till today, when I woke up on my left side, looked down at my belly and went, "Expletive, expletive, THAT is a breech baby."

Sigh.  I knew things were going too well.  I'm also sure the extremely stressful weekend I just had contributed.  First, we sold our house.  Of course, we sold it for a lot, a LOT, A LOT  less than we wanted.  And then we found out we won't get a trip to Omaha (Oh, I can finally tell you now that we are moving to Omaha, because Ed finally signed his contract) to house hunt, (which is fine, I guess, since we wouldn't be able to spend as much on a house as we were expecting, having sold our Kansas house for peanuts,)  then I spent a couple hours looking at rentals on the internet and finding pretty much nada.  Then we hosted a childbirth class, after which I let 2 doulas palpate my belly.  One went really deep causing baby and me to JUMP, and causing a uterine spasm (which I hid because I didn't want her to feel bad).  Then we went swimming and I strained a muscle in my hip.  And the next day, yesterday, I spent 8 hours packing and dragging heavy boxes. 

And I flipped out at my husband over a doughnut fiasco.

So somewhere in there, amidst the stress  and strain, this baby got uncomfortable and turned around.  (Today, baby is hiccuping and moving in a weird way she's never done before.)

Today I have spent the morning doing excercises and greedily (re)reading the Spinning Babies website.  And crying.

And now I think I will resume both activities.


"Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside." 
~Rita Rudner

Pertussis: An Unbiased Look

While I never intended to write a series on vaccines, I have been studying the subject intensely, as I do every 3 years (i.e. when I am pregnant).  Pertussis is, for me, one of the most worrisome diseases one can vaccinate against.  There have been outbreaks all over the country, it seems, over the past few years, and we saw one of our dear friends' 2-year-old go through it a few years back.

Note that this is a pro-vaccination bulletin, which outlines the problems with current pertussis vaccines:
http://www.dor.kaiser.org/external/news/press_releases/Waning_and_Less_Effective_Acellular_Whooping_Cough_Vaccines_Likely_Contributed_to_the_2010_California_Whooping_Cough_Outbreak/


"Be careful about reading health books.  You may die of a misprint." 
~Mark Twain

A Few More Tidbits on Vaccines

Ok, well, I should have known I was openeing a can of worms just by typing the words "childhood vaccines."

PLEASE, dear readers, let me reiterate that I AM A MOM trying to make the best decisions for my family, NOT A HEALCARE PROFESSIONAL nor an INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT!!!  My info is not always the MOSTest up-to-date-est stuff out there, because I do not spend evenings pouring over medical journals.  Well, not every evening.

Anyhoo, all my books are loaned out, but I would like to quote from a few online articles.  Feel free to take them with a grain- or 2 or 12- of salt.  And I wish you the best on your journey as a parent and health-care consumer :).

"Dr. Walter Orenstein, Director, CDC National Immunization Program, who will have a great deal to say about recommending chicken pox vaccine for all children, described being kept up for several nights with his five-year-old during a bout of chicken pox, admitting, "It's that kind of problem that the vaccine would eliminate rather than serious disease (6)."

"Dr. Arthur Lavin, Department of Pediatrics, St. Luke's Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio wrote in The Lancet (17) of "three concerns ... (he) believe(s) argue strongly against die licensure of varicella vaccine for healthy children."

• chicken pox "is not major in the sense of disease mortality or morbidity. In childhood, mortality is very low, and morbidity is usually minor ... Therefore, if healthy children were fully vaccinated it is unclear in what significant way the health of the children or the economic health of their families would be improved."
• Routine chicken pox vaccination in healthy children might pose a "grave danger of advancing the age of onset of chicken pox into adulthood." After bemoaning adults' poor compliance with vaccine recommendations, e.g., influenzae vaccine, Dr. Lavin asks, "What makes the proponents of universal varicella immunization believe that adults who may be susceptible to varicella as a result of their efforts would protect themselves with a booster dose (of chicken pox vaccine)?"
• Dr. Lavin has deep concerns "about injecting millions of young children with a mutant strain of herpes virus. As is well known, herpes viral DNA insinuates itself into the human genome for the lifetime of a host .... Although the risk of a deleterious effect on the human genome from an injected mutant herpetic viral genome is remote, the application of this risk to hundreds of millions of hosts increases the chance that we will see some adverse effect".

Dr. Lavin concludes:
"Humanity has been well served through efforts that have eliminated smallpox and nearly eradicated poliomyelitis and measles. However, not all infections demand these interventions (emphasis added). The Varicella immunization Program may be too much of a good thing. Until we actually know the duration of immunity and the risks involved in injecting mutated hepatic DNA into the host genome, I argue strongly against licensing this vaccine for use in all children."

"It appears that chicken pox vaccine will be mandated by law, not to benefit healthy children, but to save time and money for their parents with jobs outside the home, to protect children with cancer from catching chicken pox from other children, or for parental convenience so that parents will not have to stay up for two or three nights caring for their children with chicken pox
But, as Dr. Lavin states above (17), what price might society pay for this convenience?
By Kristine M. Severyn, R.Ph., Ph.D. "

---

http://www.all.org/article/index/id/MjUyNg

"Flu seasons are unpredictable and can be severe. It is estimated that, on average, approximately 5% to 20% of U.S. residents get the flu, and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized for flu-related complications each year. Over a period of 30 years, between 1976 and 2006, estimates of flu-associated deaths in the United States range from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people."

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm

Um, how many people died of varicella in 1994 (before the vaccine)? About 100-105.

On a side note, do you know that vomiting is called the flu, but usually isn't?  The flu is that awful, shakey, weak thing you get, maybe with a cough. 

"The decline in protective antibody against the flu that occurs after vaccination or after flu infection may be influenced by several factors, including a person’s age, the antigen used in the vaccine, and the person’s health situation (for example, chronic health conditions that weaken the immune system may have an impact).
This decline in protective antibody has the potential to leave some people more vulnerable to infection, illness and possibly serious complications from the same influenza viruses a year after being vaccinated or infected."
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm

Get the vaccine and be sure your immunity to the same flu strain will be lower later- or 'risk' getting (OR NOT GETTING) it that year.  It truly is your decision.  You get to choose the risk with which you feel more comfortable.  For now.  Until yearly flu shots are mandated by the federal government.  Enjoy your freedom while you've got it, folks.

Innocent until proven guilty?

Works for people, but did you know your government extends this concept even to synthetic drugs?

That's the American way when it comes to pharmeceuticals, and it creates a BIG cloud of confusion and doubt around vaccines.  Is this method really in the best interest of children whose organs and bosy systems are growing so fast?  In the U.S., drugs- do I even need to list exaples?- do not need to be proven safe before being administered to thousands, even millions of people, and won't be pulled from the shelves until LOTS of people have been hurt by them. 

Eli Lilly's August 1993 Prozac 20 Consumer Product Information pamphlet:

"There can be no such thing as absolute safety with prescription medicines. Individual patients sometimes react differently to the same dose of the same medicine and it is possible that some unwanted side effects will not be known until a medicine has been widely prescribed for a number of years."

(Editing to note, I never intended to publish this post with mercury info.  A draft of this post accidentally went live.  While some shots do contain mercury, they are very few now.  Aluminum is a far greater concern at this point than mercury.  You can learn more about mercury in vaccines at http://www.askdrsears.com/ and at http://www.mothering.com/.)

And because I've received enough questions on this to make me dread opening my inbox, let me state for the record that we'd like to keep our family's medical choices a private affair.  I'm not out to scare anyone, or sway anyone's opinions on their healthcare choices, but to ENCOURAGE INFORMED DECISIONS for families.  Because the way childhood vaccines are presented by many family practice doctors and pediatricians is, we feel, enethical.  And if your doctor has ever threatened to 'fire' you (or actually done so), PLEASE educate them on the policy of the AAP and the AAFP; both organizations discourage pediatricians and family practice doctors from "kicking out" patients who choose not to vaccinate, to delay vaccinations, or who wish to create their own schedules or who wish to use only single-disease vaccines.  (Go to the websites of the AAP or the AAFP to read about their policies.)

AND ANOTHER SIDE NOTE:  I find it really ironic how the medical community wants to turn Dr. Bob Sears into a villain!  Do you know that Dr. Bob and the other Dr.s Sears ARE PRO-VACCINE?  I've had a personal conversation with him and I've heard him speak on the subject in person.  He advocates a different schedule of immunization, but he advocates immunization!  He wants vaccines given one-by-one so- gasp- you could actually figure out which one caused a reaction, should your child experience one!  Inconvenient for pediatricians?  Yes.  Villainous?  No. 

How many vaccines are recommended at 12 months?  Your child could potentially receive 9 different vaccines at 12 months of age, looking at the CDC schedule.  If your child has a reaction, how will you know which vaccine caused it?  You won't.

That darned doctor telling those darned parents they can make informed decisions about their children's healthcare!  How dare he inconvenience us like that!  That's how all the attacks on Dr. Bob come across to me! 

"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol."  ~Author Unknown

(My version:  "We eat way to much McD's to worry about vaccine safety!")

Think about your constitutional rights:

http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/vaccines/end-of-vaccine-exemptions-in-california/

More on working with doctors who want to 'fire' you :):

http://mytwohats.com/2012/02/29/why-i-wont-fire-vaccine-hesitant-families/#more-484

Pump Up Your Oatmeal

For the record, my husband doesn't like this oatmeal.  My little people, though, loooooove it, and so do I.  So experiment at your own risk!

We use either rolled or steel-cut oats, soaked and cooked in our usual manner.  Then, in a bowl, we crack an unwashed farm egg and whip it with some hemp or sunflower or almond milk till light and frothy, then we dump in the oatmeal and stir till it is thoroughly combined.  Pop the bowl in the microwave for 1 minute, then top with raisins and cinammon, or fresh berries, and more milk.  You can, of course, drizzle on some raw honey or agave nectar.  See how mcuh they like this?

This is a great way to sneak some protein into your little people's breakfast, if they abhor a scrambled egg, an almond, or anything like that before 11 am, like mine do.  They call this oatmeal pudding, and I think it would be delicious to add carob powder or raw cacao powder to make a chocolate oatmeal pudding, too!

"Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first. "
~Josh Billings

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Italian Whatcha-ma-call-it Dinner

Look:

Doesn't that look good? 
It is.  I ate it last night.  I might go eat some more right now.  This month I've been trying out wheat-free recipes, still keeping things dairy-free, and MAN! that decreases your options for easy, quick, healthy, and inexpensive meals!!!  However, this pasta-substitute dish is an ABSOLUTE keeper.  The first time I made it,  I called it pizza.

Big mistake.

But now the kids call it pizza casserole and that makes it much better to them, mentally.  Either way, they eat seconds and thirds every time I make it.  And I triple-dog-dare you to try it even if you have no need of avoiding gluten and dairy.  Because besides being quite tasty, it is very nutritious.

Pizza Casserole
2-3T extra virgin olive oil
4c cooked brown rice
4 eggs (if you need to avoid eggs, just leave them out- they make the texture a bit nicer, but don't do anything else for the dish, so no biggie)
1 lb grass-fed ground beef, or sub ground turkey, browned
24 oz. pasta or pizza sauce of your choice, here I used Tader Joe's Organic Marinara
1/2c nutritional yeast flakes

In a large bowl, add the eggs to the rice and stir and whip with a fork till evenly blended.  Oil your 9x13 pan witht he evoo then spread the rice mixture on top.  Bake at 415 for 20 minutes, or until eggs are set (do this even if you are leaving out the eggs, to dry out the rice a bit).  Then top with ground beef and dump on your sauce.  Bake another 15 minutes.  (Or just leave it in there till you get back to dinner prep.  It's pretty forgiving.  I left mine in the oven last night for about 30 extra minutes and everyone liked the crunchy but not burnt stuff arond the edges!)  Remove from oven and sprinkle with the nutritional yeast flakes; this is your "cheese"- it really does taste cheesey.  Or serve the yeast on the side in a shaker jar, which kids will love.  If you want to really make it parmesan-y. mix the nutritional yeast 1/2 and 1/2 with ground walnuts and a teeny pinch of salt.  Soooo yum.  Serve with a nice green salad or a mound of quick-blanched brocolli for a quick and easy dinner.

This dish makes my kids and I miss pasta and homemade pizza a lot less.  Plus it is far more delicious than the gluten-free pastas we have tried, not to mention far cheaper.

Buen provecho!


"They claim red meat is bad for you.  But I never saw a sick-looking tiger." 
~Chi Chi Rodriguez


On a side note, my sourdough starter is dead.  In case you were wondering.  Since we are moving in 5 weeks and having a baby another 7 after that, I decided to let it go for awhile.  However, http://www.culturesforlife.com/ sells a spelt sourdough starter that I'm going to buy once I am settled into our new home, uh, wherever that may be, and I will resume my experiments then.  For now, we are enjoying our sprouted spelt in other ways!

The Chicken Pox Vaccine: Let's Call a Spade a Spade

(Editing to add:  This blog post is my opinion and understanding of information gathered by myself, for myself, over the last 9 years.  Your health and your child's is your own to read up on, decide on, and make peace with.  Here is anexcellent article with more info on the history and statistics involved with chicken pox and shingles, before and after the intro of the vaccine(s):
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/02/chicken-pox-vaccine-creates-shingles-epidemic.aspx )

How long can you write a blog on natural living and children and avoid the vaccine issue?  As long as you want, I guess! 

In my opinion, the issue of vaccination is not cut and dry by any means.  That's why my favorite vaccine to discuss with folks who get up in arms when anyone questions vaccine at all, is the chicken pox vaccine.  (And btw, this information is not esoteric, repressed, or secret in any way.  There are a number of places you can look it up.  One of my favorite, balanced books on vaccines is What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About(TM) Children's Vaccinations . It is on sale right now for $6- a serious bargain- and I can't recommend it highly enough.)

Let's start with what the chicken pox vaccine does for your child.  Does it prevent your child from getting the pox?  Many parents think it does.

It doesn't.

The vaccine, simply put, decreases the amount of time your child is contagious during the chicken pox.

Really?  Yup. 

(Editing to add: This info is based on the old recommendation of a single dose- now children get 2 doses which supposedly "fixes" this problem and gives better- but never 100%- immunity.  It is up to you to read the info from various- aleays conflicting- sources and make decisions based on your knowledge!!!)

Interestingly, your child will receive this vaccination AFTER the extreme 'danger zone' for chicken pox is past.  Why?  Because your infant's immune system is too immature to handle the vaccine before. 

Why then, does your child receive the chicken pox vaccine?

Well, Merck went to the federal government and said, hey, did you know that the economy loses about 5 billion dollars a year due to parental time off for chicken pox?  If we develop this vaccine, parents in 2 parent working homes or single parent homes will only need to take off 1/2 to 1 days versus 4-5 days of work for each incidence of chicken pox. 

And our government said "COOL! Go ahead!"  and now your child receives the vaccine, even if you stay at home and the time-off-work thing wouldn't affect you at all. 

THEREFORE, in the case of the chicken pox vaccine, if one parent stays at home already, the chicken pox vaccine carries 100% risk (medications always carry some risk) because as designed, the vaccine benefits you 0%.

So, let's see here.  A vaccine was developed to save us all money?  Hmm.  (How much of that 5 billion saved is funneled directly into the pockets of pharmeceutical giants like Merck?)  I thought vaccines were developed to safeguard the health of our children and the population at large?  Well, many were, but not all. 

(Obviously, the posters on the doctor's office wall aren't advertising the history of each vaccine!  You have to dig, but just a little, to find some of this info out.)

This is how I personally like to get informed about different vaccinations:

The first question is WHY was this vaccine developed?  You might find that question especially pertinent to any vaccine developed in the last 10-15 years, (ahem), and very especially in cases of vaccines like HepB, Hib, HPV, and HepA.  (You really might want to ask yourself if vaccinating against sexually-transmitted diseases is appropriate for newborns as opposed to, say, 20 year olds.  Then you might want to ask yourself if you find it appropriate to vaccinate against sexually-transmitted diseases if you are opposed to handing out condoms on college campuses and such... see the connection?  It's part of the same mindset.)

The second question is, when is the vaccine administered as opposed to when is the danger zone for the disease?  In the case of chicken pox, your child is already mature enough to handle the disease (assuming you are a loving, responsible, and reasonably-informed parent with competent healthcare) by the time the vaccine is generally administered.  Is there a more appropriate time to vaccinate against this disease?

The third is a more difficult to answer question, because many health care providers don't know or won't want to tell you- if I delay this vaccination, will the whole series be required?  Is there a more appropriate time to vaccinate against this disease, when my child is older and a single dose will be as effective as a 3 or 4 dose series now?  (Remember, most vaccines are the same dosage whether your child weighs 12 or 50 lbs, so vaccinating 3 times on an infant is exponentially more foreign material in his system than 1 dose at age 3 or 4!)  For instance, my John Paul recently nearly severed his big toe when a very dirty bench fell over on it.  I wanted a single-strain tetanus vaccine, but it couldn't be gotten in time.  So I agreed to the DTaP.  I asked both the ER nurse and doctor several times about the need for boosters and both very clearly explained that boosters were unnecessary.  I asked why infants receive several doses of the shot, then?  (The doctor thought the shot wasn't absolutely necessary, but the nurse kept emphasizing it was hospital policy.)  No one was willing to answer me on that!

The fourth is what does this disease do, how common is it, and what risks will it incur for my child if he or she contracts it naturally?  Is there any documentation of factors that increase natural resistance or better ability to withstand the disease?  (I'm forgetting where this came from, forgive me, but in the case of polio, it was noticed that many people had the virus but no symptoms.  Their common factor seemed to be a diet especially low in sugar.)  Your children or child may have particular issues that make it sensible to vaccinate against certain diseases.

One big criticism of non- or selective-vaccination is that the more people who do not vaccinate, the more some diseases now rare will reoccur.  However, there have always been large pockets of the population who have never vaccinated.  Think some Christian sects like the Amish (apparently many sources claim the Amish vaccinate so I will stick with the 2 groups of whom I have more first-hand knowledge), traditional Mennonite,  and Christian Scientists.  (These sects do not NOT vaccinate because they are Christian sects, but because they have beliefs as groups that make them less likely to choose an artificial drug over a natural alternative.)  These groups often live en masse, in their own communities, but with lots of co-mingling with outside populations.  Do these communities have higher incidences of the diseases we usually vaccinate against?  Do you know the answer to that question?  If you don't vaccinate, or you feel threatened by those who don't, then you SHOULD know the answer to that question!

I could probably write more on this topic, volumes and volumes more, but I hear little people stirring upstairs.

Happy reading-up and have a great day!


"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." 
~World Health Organization, 1948

"The... patient should be made to understand that he or she must take charge of his own life.  Don't take your body to the doctor as if he were a repair shop." 
~Quentin Regestein