Children's Health Index
Compiled by LLM
Also see Parenting
Articles and the Breastfeeding
Page.
On this page:
General Health Issues
Flu Natural
Remedies Jenny Hatch, Mormon mother of five,
discusses the many ways she has combatted a particularly
nasty flu season in Colorado. Included: recipes
for keeping families hydrated and healthy, and
how she has tried to keep herself sane and healthy.
Also- headlines about the extent of the flu season,
dangers of the flu vaccine, and how essential
oils have helped her family. Note that Jenny sells
essential oils as well.
* * * * *
Vitamin K in the
Newborn
"Peer reviewed journals have linked large
doses of vitamin K to childhood cancers and
leukemia. Animal studies have linked large doses
of vitamin K to a variety of conditions that
include anemia, liver damage, kidney damage
and death." -Don Harkins
Should Vitamin
K be Injected into the Newborn? -a compilation
of articles and references that show that routine
injection really isn't a very good thing. Note
from Leilah, site editor: my three home-borne
babies (youngest of of eight children) have not
had vitamin K injections and are in robust health.
Also see Vitamin
K in the Gentlebirth site by midwife Ronnie
Falcao.
* * * * *
About Cord Blood Collection
"It's important to never underestimate how
much money can be bilked out of North American
parents in the name of wanting the best for their
children. This is another area where I would be
a betting woman- I bet, in a few years, we will
have a great big scandal because people- l. paid
money for storage and now the storage place has
gone out of business and didn't notify anyone,
2. someone got the vials mixed up and now no one
knows whose blood goes with whom, 3. some kid
gets HIV or Hep from what was supposed to cure
it of cancer--oops the vials got mixed up, 4.
there is a power failure and no one realizes all
the blood thawed and now they don't know what
to do. . . . need I go on. Didn't we go through
all this with the sperm banks that any Tom, Dick
or Harriet could open up with no control whatsoever.
I think that, as teachers and wise women, we
need to share this experience with the public.
I have never been asked about this by clients,
but I would tell them to invest their $1500 (that's
what it costs here) in a midwife and/or doula,
a new home freezer where they can freeze their
whole placenta if they want, or their child's
education fund.
I would then tell them the things that I know
"might" help reduce their child's chances
of getting cancer:
- Compost, recycle and clean up the environment,
- eat organic,
- breastfeed,
- don't take drugs in birth or Vit K after,
- don't have ultrasounds (including dopplers)
or x-rays,
- don't sit watching TV all day and too close,
- don't vaccinate.
This cord blood banking thing is another drive-
through/fast food solution to the cancer scare
by a continent full of people who don't want to
do the hard work of really keeping our earth and
children healthy. Midwives could cause an interruption
in this escapism mentality by speaking up about
these types of scams."
Also see in the British Medical Journal:
Doctors
object to companies offering to store cord blood
* * * * *
PKU Screening
Expanded
Screening Stems Retardation in Infants A single
drop of newborn blood can screen for at least
twenty diseases, which would be a wonderful change
from the current newborn screening practices that
call for babies' heels to be "bled"
far more (a process potentially traumatic for
both parents and babies). The downside is the
relatively high rate of false positives associated
with the procedure.
Comments about the PKU newborn screening
Comment: "At my son's birth I declined
the PKU test. Months later I began to realize
that I wasn't REALLY all that well-educated
on PKU so I researched it. At his 12-month well-baby
visit I had it done."
Response by Gloria Lemay: "Doing
a PKU test at 12 months old is not useful because
if the child has one of the three metabolic disorders
(hypothyroidism, galactosemia, or phenylketonuria)
which are tested for he/she will already have
suffered brain damage or death from the diseases.
The whole point of the testing is to pick the
diseases up early and start medication or special
diet before damage occurs. I think it's a shame
that we have to be so suspicious of the medical
profession that every test has to be researched
and thus delays happen.
The PKU test is something I do recommend to parents.
My thinking is that it's relatively easy to do
it in a humane fashion (warm the heel, have the
babe in Mom's arms and at the breast, kiss it
better after) and it is taking a small of blood
out NOT putting anything into the baby's body.
I have probably done 1,000 of them and so far
have never had a positive one come back but I
would never forgive myself if I didn't do it and
a baby died or was brain damaged as a result."
* * * * *
Miscellaneous
Treating Club Foot
"In the highly unlikely event that the scan
is correct and the baby has a club foot, Talipes
Equino Vares is the medical term. It is usually
easily corrected by careful massage which the
paediatric physiotherapist will teach the parents
how to do. More severe cases need the baby to
wear little padded splints to realign the foot
these are worn for a time each day. Very severe
cases (rare) need surgery from a paediatric orthodaedic
surgeon." -Mary Cronk, UK Independent
Midwife
Children's Health in the British Medical Journal:
Vaccine Issues
Quotes
and Letters Regarding Vaccine Safety On this
page are quotes from respected doctors and scientists
regarding vaccination; and afterwards are letters
written by activists Michael Belkin, Jock Doubleday,
Brent Rooney and LLM.
Vaccine
Scene 1999- Overview and Update by Harold
Buttram, MD. This is the most persuasive anti-vaccine
literature I have ever read.
Immune To
Reason Startling information about the
Hepatitis B vaccine.
Smallpox
compensation fund proposed Excerpted: "The
smallpox vaccine is made with a live virus called
vaccinia, which is related to smallpox and can
infect the body...as 50 people out of every 1
million vaccinated for the first time will face
life-threatening complications, and one or two
will die. The most common serious reaction comes
when vaccinia escapes from the inoculation site,
often because people touch the site and then touch
themselves or someone else...The virus transferred
to the eye, for instance, can cause blindness.
More deadly is encephalitis, which can cause paralysis
or permanent neurological damage. Also fatal though
very rare is progressive vaccinia, where the vaccination
site does not heal and the virus spreds, eating
away at flesh, bone and gut."
Mercury
in Vaccines Blamed for Illnesses A little
Vancouver, Canada boy is harmed by the Hepatitis
B vaccine, and his father participates in a class
action suit against the manufacturer.
Girl Gets
$4.7M for Vaccine Injuries A nine year-old
girl was severely injured due to her vaccinations
at two months of age, and receives a lifetime
of help.
Mothering
Editor Calls for Boycott of NBC's ER
MMR Vaccine Dangers Exposed in the United
Kingdom An English doctor finds that 1 in
250 children today are autistic, compared to 1
in 10,000 a decade ago., and loses his job due
to his unpopular findings. See the following reports
from the Telegraph for more:
Warning:
New Hepatitis Vaccine Recommendations Can Devastate
Newborn's Health A must-read for pregnant
people!
Four Oregon
families sue 12 drug companies over mercury in
vaccines
Quotes
and Letters Regarding Vaccine Safety
First
Mercury Poisoning/Vaccine Case Filed
The
MMR Vaccine This page includes medical journal
citations of the dangers linked to this vaccine-
including autism and death
Circumcision
The BirthLove Newsletter:
Intact Penises are Beautiful -a summary of
info on BirthLove about circumcision, as well
as LLM's BirthLove Column: "Luscious
Beauty and Sadness Beyond Words (love song for
the intact penis)".
Male Circumcision:
Radical Sexual Surgery. What Is Lost? Gary
Harryman lists all that boys lose when they are
circumcised. And oh my, it is depressing reading-
but crucial reading for anyone who thinks routine
infant circumcision is a benign thing. (Please
read this, everyone!)
Women's
Stories of Cutting Mothers talk about the
circumcision choices they made- and almost made-
and the pain they have brought.
The
Foreskin has a Function: Circumcision of Multiples
= Multiple Mistakes This is part of the book
excerpt, "Having Twins...and more" by
Elizabeth Noble.
The Bible speaks against unwelcome circumcision:
- Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and
do not let yourselves be burdened again by a
yoke of slavery."
- Galatians 5:2 "Mark my words! I, Paul,
tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised,
Christ will be of no value to you at all."
- Galatians 5:6 "For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing
itself through love."
Protect
Your
Uncircumcised Son: Expert Medical Advice
for Parents by Paul M. Fleiss, MD, MPH. A
must-read for all parents of boys; it addresses
doctors' ignorance and misconceptions about the
human foreskin. Originally appearing in Mothering
Magazine.
Complete,
As Nature Intended by Karen Squires of
the Wise Mother Newsletter. This article exposes
the realities of newborn circumcision; an excellent
resource for parents considering circumcising
their boys.
Human
foreskins used to find chemical weapon antidotes
Man
Sues for Being Circumcised as an Infant
Circumcision articles
by J. Steven Svoboda
J. Steven Svoboda is a former astrophysicist
and a Harvard-educated human rights lawyer who
is Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights
of the Child, which he founded in 1997. Activists
are working to stop this act of violence against
children: for more information, contact NOCIRC
(www.nocirc.org)
or Attorneys for the Rights of the Child- ARC
(web
or email).
- Boy Wins
$1.4 Million for Circumcision A first year
resident butchered a little boy, and his parents
sued. Note that the hospital had no consent
to perform the surgery... and even tried to
get the parents to sign the consent form after
the botched circumcision was done.
- Swedish
Parliament Scrutinizes Male Circumcision as
a Violation of Human Rights "The Swedish
Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a new law
to regulate male circumcision with the purpose
of protecting the human rights of the child."
- United Nations
Criticized for Sex Discrimination Against Males
ARC are concerned that female genital mutilation
is denounced, but male genital mutilation is
not even an issue for the UN.
- Circumcision:
A Violent Ritual in Search of a Rationale
This discusses how deeply so many men are hurt
by the loss of such an important part of their
genitalia, as well as the history behind this
common and incredibly invasive procedure.
- Circumcision
of Boys: A Serious Male Health Problem This
excellent article discusses the legal issues,
domestic and international, surrounding infant
circumcision; it also speaks of what little
boys actually go through in the act of infant
circumcision, and cases where boys were terribly
harmed as a result of their surgeries.
- Sixth Symposium on Genital Integrity Breaks
New Ground, and Washington DC Events Start Construction
of a New Era (View
article here) Svoboda talks about activism
around the world, and mentions that "$35
million is spent annually by the federal government
to pay for a procedure that the American Medical
Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics
agree is unnecessary".
Circumcision Links
-
-
Foreskin
-beautiful photos of intact penises.
-
-
-
-
-
Intact
-on the site is a video of a circumcision
that any parent considering circumcision for
their child should see first.
- A
Petition to the World Court, the Hague Endorse
and sign the Universal Declaration on Circumcision,
Excision, and Incision and The Ashley Montagu
Resolution to End the Genital Mutilation of
Children Worldwide.
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