Vaccinations; wellness elves!

2, 4, 6, 12 -
Vaccinations; wellness elves!

I worked on that one for a while this morning, and it’s still a forced metaphor. Sigh.

This week was Beatrice’s six-month wellness tune-up and she be a big girl: 27 inches long and 17 lbs, 2 oz.

When it came to giving Bea her immunizations, we did our due diligence and researched and read and debated and decided.

The evidence against vaccinating just wasn’t substantive enough. In fact, the mysterious link between autism and a common vaccine given to children to protect them against measles, mumps and rubella was found to be unfounded.

Bea’s not old enough for that shot yet, but still immunizing your child with those vaccines listed below is enough to make any parent shudder with fear and discomfort.

Many of these are live viruses for God’s sake and the side effects can and do vary from child to child. Thankfully Bea’s have been mild if not nil, but still…

The evidence just wasn’t there to convince us otherwise. It actually convinced us to immunize.

I listened to a This American Life podcast last December titled Ruining It for the Rest of Us, and one of the stories was about the San Diego parents who didn't vaccinate their child for measles. When their seven-year-old caught the disease on an overseas trip, this decision became a whole community's problem. The outbreak infected 11 children and endangered many others.

That story convinced me to immunize, although the hardest thing for me as a new father is to wait and watch. (Mama can’t even watch.)

We’re in the waiting room, waiting and waiting and waiting after our pediatrician baby wellness check-up. Beatrice is fine at first with the waiting-playing game, but you know how baby attention spans flitter and flutter and sputter like a flames in the rain. Finally the nurse arrives (why does it take a frickin’ half hour between doctor and nurse?).

Polio is administered first. It’s easy. It’s a liquid that baby ingests. Then the shots.

I lean over and coo at Bea, hold her hands on her chest while Mama looks away and the nurse stabs the first shot in Bea’s thigh.

Wait for it. One second, two – face red, mouth wide, silent void – then BABY SHRIEK.

Second shot – Wait for it. One second, two – face red, mouth wide, silent void – then BABY SHRIEK.

(Missed the third shot this time; they were out of Hib.)

Ah, but Beatrice recovers quickly these days, and soon we were all home snuggling like little Easter Bunnies.

Public Service Announcement: Please immunize your children but don’t buy them bunnies or baby chicks this Easter.

Really. The wellness elves thank you.

Happy Easter.

***

These immunizations are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

• DTaP, to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough).
• Hepatitis A, to protect against hepatitis A, which can cause the liver disease hepatitis.
• Hepatitis B (HBV), to protect against hepatitis B, which can cause the liver disease hepatitis:
• Hib, to protect against Haemophilus influenza type B, which can lead to meningitis, pneumonia, and epiglottitis:
• HPV, to protect against human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States and a cause of cervical cancer.
• Influenza (the flu shot), to protect against influenza (the "flu").
• Meningococcal, to protect against meningococcal disease. Before the vaccine came along, meningococcal disease was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in children in the United States.
• MMR, to protect against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles).
• Pneumococcal (PCV), to protect against pneumococcal disease, which can lead to meningitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.
• Polio (IPV), to protect against polio.
• Rotavirus, to protect against rotavirus, which can cause severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and dehydration. This vaccine is given orally, not as an injection.
• Varicella, to protect against chicken pox.

***

It's time once again for Fatherhood Friday. Fatherhood Friday is hip place at Dad-Blogs.com for dads and moms to share stories, ideas, photos and movies with one topic in mind – fatherhood.

Daddy K’s favorite radio show

I didn't grow up listening to radio shows like the generations before me, but I'd argue that audio podcasts are the on-demand radio shows of the 21^st century. One of my favorites is This American Life. I may have mentioned this show before, and if I have, I highly recommend it.

The latest episode I'm listening to is called A Little Bit of Knowledge, and Act One includes some very funny stories of how we learn things wrong as children and don't unlearn them until adulthood.

One woman believed in unicorns as a child, equating them to the zebra family. Then when she was in college she was at a party and the conversation turned to endangered and extinct animals. She honestly asked:

"So, is the unicorn endangered or extinct?"

Silence, then laughter, then silence.

You can't make this stuff up. I want B to ride them.

The letter B: Daddy K’s laptop lament

Dear Baby B,

It's been a busy week and I didn't make time to blog. (I made time to talk to you and read to you, though!) I could have, one can always make time for things, but I didn't. No B, it's been another busy week in the glamorous world of hi-tech marketing and public relations – many new clients coming onboard soon. It's also been a busy baby week since last week's shower. What did you think of all those different vibes?

For the past month I've been experiencing computer problems, hi-tech hiccups that impact performance dramatically. And yesterday the blue screen of death as they affectionately call it (who's they, B?) hit me four times in less than two hours. You could say I was concerned.

But not stressed. In fact, I took the opportunity to reflect, call my folks and my nephew, and daydream of a life with you and Mama A. (Of course I had my hand iPhone to check e-mail and such. Who needs business productivity software when I've got the PhoneSaber?)

Not sure what I'll need to do with my laptop yet. However, I'm sure about love, forgiveness and acceptance.

What the heck does my computer problems have to do with love and forgiveness and acceptance? Work with me here, B.

I'm listening to a podcast from This American Life (a public radio series I highly recommend – if it's still around when you're old enough) about two babies switched at birth, and 43 years later the truth of what happens comes out and it's pretty heavy for both families (who knew each other).

The catch is that one of the mothers knew they took the wrong baby home, brought it to her husband's attention, an evangelical minister, and he told her that they shouldn't say anything as to not to disgrace their doctor.

Granted It was 1951, but still hard to believe. Forty-three years later when the truth was told, it was devastating for both families. I'm still listening to it so I don't know the conclusion yet and where the families are now.

Can you imagine? And what about our perception of the facts as presented to the listeners of the show? The show does do a really good job of revealing both sides of the stories, but stories, like us, are more multi-faceted than two-sided, so it's difficult to judge indiscriminately. Plus the fact we can be selfish in our evaluation of others, how we see them aligns with our world view and how close the person is to us. We delude ourselves into thinking our way is the only way (yes, we're guilty as well).

Your mama and I have been seen in different light over the years, and while it used to bother me more than it should, it fascinates me now. One of us controls the other, we don't' like each other's friends or family, we're selfish for not having children, we're selfish for having children, we're arrogant because we're happy - blah, blah, blah.

It's flatulent garbage that comes from the fear of the way we've chosen to live our lives – happy and direct and true to our hearts without secret or shame. We're a team and always have been. I've made mistakes just as she has and we're going to make them as parents as well.

However, there will be no switched-at-birth secrets for us, B. But you already know that, because that's why you're on your way. God's will is to be responsible and heal the heart and home, not to surrender and feed the fear and the foolhardy. It took a long time for me to get here, but I'm glad your mama waited for me by the sea...

That which you manifest is before you. You reap what you sow. Be mindful of each moment lived within and without. Not everyone has the emotional or spiritual capacity to feel these; there are multi-faceted reasons we'll never understand.

So B, after you strip away the day from a busy week and a broken laptop all you have left is love, forgiveness and acceptance.

I love you and will see you soon!

Daddy K

--

Well I guess we all have these feelings

We can't leave unreconciled

Some of them burned on our ceilings

Some of them learned as a child

The things that we're concealing

Will never let us grow

Time will do its healing

You've got to let it go

I find no absolution

In my rational point of view

Maybe some things are instinctive

But there's one thing you could do

You could try to understand me --

I could try to understand you...

--Neil Peart