Changes

From Bambini

We have made some schedule changes and things have improved a little. We asked our nanny to come at 6am instead of 9am. Being Colombian, she makes fresh coffee every morning. For me, its "go to sleep and smell the coffee!"

The early morning hours are most difficult for me, so we decided to let Maria Del Carmen have those. This was the best idea we have had in three months!

After some difficult negotiation, we have settled on a pumping/Breast feeding schedule. It is just not possible for Barbara to breast feed all the time with her self imposed work schedule.

Now she gets up at 1.30am, pumps and goes right back to sleep. Then she gets up at 4.30am and breast feeds for an hour, then pumps anything left which takes us to 6am when Maria Del Carmen arrives. This allows her to get two more hours sleep and then get a few hours of work done.

This solution is not cheap, but it is worth it. In fact I think I would have sold my vehicle rather than go on the way we were. Instead we returned the new flat screen TV. We don't get a chance to watch it other than when we are eating.

There are a few reasons to own a TV, Dancing with the stars is possibly not one, but Frontline definately is. This week we were glued to the report on the medical risks of Vaccines.

Barbara had mentioned her concern about a couple of them as a result of one of her friends contracting polio from the vaccine. The Father then got it and had to leave the country until he recovered.

On our last visit, the pediatrician mentioned vaccines and, knowing absolutely nothing about this, I asked if it was a good idea to inject rather nasty diseases into brand new babies? He was sympathetic, but clearly thought vaccination was the magic bullet of the 21st century.

We talked about the controversy over the MMR shot. He mentioned the recent retraction in "The Lancet" over a study done by an English doctor showing a link between a protein in the stomach and brain damage as a result of the vaccination

He then cited the 14 statistical studies done around the world that cannot show a correlation between Autism and the MMR vaccination.

So I have begun to read and read. As Frontline mentioned, there are some online sources for information, one that even addresses the conclusions of the 14 studies in detail.

What is clear, is that some people like Rodney Peete and Jenny McCarthey are absolutely convinced that their children were perfectly fine before the shots and regressed immediately after.

The problem seems to be that there is no evidence to link these things at present. All the stories are anecdotal. So what does that mean? Are these parents just the lunatic fringe, or is there something that is not yet understood about the interaction and pre-disposition of your children to Autism.

What is known, is that one in 90 boys gets it! That is a staggering number. For girls it's around half that rate. The increase in this condition has been explosive and no one knows why.

Is it a stretch to imagine that ten years from now we will discover that vaccines we thought were safe were in fact toxic in certain combinations and doses? I don't think so. There are already studies that show problems.

Given how long it took the medical profession to actually like lung cancer and smoking, and how much money is riding on this practice, it is entirely possible that we could be looking at a modern day Thalidomide or Tetracyclin.

While they played a historical role in stamping leprosy and cholera, they were quickly withdrawn. My teeth were irreversibly stained from Tetracyclin a pain killer for prenant mothers touted as safe for years.

I cannot imagine the intensity of feeling that would come from discovering that a vaccination turned me into a heavily medicated, antisocial personality with mental retardation.

On the Frontline show they used very emotionally charged shots of children in the iron legs, and bad cases of chicken pox, but even the articulate doctor they interviewed admitted he was out of action for a year with polio. That could have given a New York prosecutor a hard time. He was obviously completely in charge of his mental faculties. I doubt he would rather be Autistic as unpleasant as that experience was.

We all had Chicken pox growing up. I think my brother had whooping cough too. Barbara had Chicken pox and Mumps. These were not pleasant, but certainly not worth the risk of Autism.

Clearly I have a lot more work to do in determining for ourselves, how we are going to balance all this. We certainly do not want to limit the kids in any way because they have not been vaccinated.

This week Nico got a mild case of flu. He had a blocked up nose for a few days and lost his voice. That was the good news. The bad news was he gave it to me and I had the shivers for a few days.

Interestingly, Luca did not get it, nor did Barbara. We went to some trouble to separate their bottles but did not pay a great deal of attention to it. I thought they would both get the opportunity to build their immunity a little. We kept a close eye on their temperature.

The most difficult moment was when Nico woke up all disconbobulated and with a blocked nose. He got really freaked out and started crying but he couldn't suck enough air in to sustain a good loud scream so he got more freaked out and... well you get the picture.

He looked like he was drowning and it was hard to recognize that this is how babies learn to breath through their mouth!

Both of them have been smiling a lot more. I even played them the Rhino song the other day and they were fascinated for at least a minute or two.

I figure if I sign up for online college and record it, I can play it to them so that by the time they are 5yo, they will know how to file a class action lawsuit in case they have a problem with the vaccine shots.

Nico is very alert and Luca is very sensitive. It's hard not to love them when they fall asleep on your shoulder and look at you with such innocence. Barbara is in heaven and it is a pleasure to watch her. She refers to us crank boo, mellow boo and big boo!