this is so scary...

A Belgian couple are told by the court that they cannot sue Nestle b/c the risk of contamination is, drum roll please, KNOWN AND ACCEPTED. Yes, it is known, by lactation professionals and concerned medical staff, but is it know by the parents who give it to their infant children? It is accepted by the companies who produce the artificial milk, but what about the newborn baby who has it poured down their throat? Do the nursery staff inform the parents and give them an informed consent waiver to sign when they want to pop a bottle in the newborn's mouth overnight? (They do not in most hospitals in the USA even have to tell the parents they fed the baby a bottle at all, though, theoretically they are supposed to make a note in the baby's chart. Yet another reason to not let the baby out of your arms....)

http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/10/ruling-in-belgium.html

But you know what? We aren't supposed to talk about this stuff, it might get you labeled or cast out of mommy groups. God forbid we actually educate the public about the RISKS involved in NOT giving your child the biological norm. sigh.

How frustrating can it get?

J asks me why I allow myself to focus on things that are so depressing, and I think I will try to let go more often than I do, but sometimes it takes some righteous outrage from ordinary people to make changes that need to happen.

For example, the baby Friendly Hospital Initiative which was started to try to influence the many baby factory hospitals that churn out c-secs and send home poorly feeding infants who end up on formula (after routine and horrifying interventions that often traumatize not only the infant, but their mother as well) toward a more reasonable and evidence based way of practising, but as you can see here, it is not going well.

Another very distressing news item is the formula pushing and intimidation tactics of the company reps in the Philippines., which is leading to documented infant mortality rates skyrocketing, something which the media here would be loath to mention b/c it might make some women feel bad here in the USA. There are doctors and hospitals in the Philippines. who are making much more noise and forward strides about this issue than many here would dare, and though the government agrees that the problem is the formula companies, they are unable to remove them. (!!) How sick is it that this is even a problem we need to discuss?

Petition to ask USA to stop intervening on breastfeeding issues in the
Philippines.


http://www.petitiononline.com/probf1/petition.html

I am not trying to be inflammatory here, or get into a discussion about how we use formula here, and whether or not anyone should or shouldn't, just that it should not be PUSHED on people for whom it is causing a very obvious and studied phenomenon of infant mortality that is UNACCEPTABLE. I am very distressed that a country in which this would not have happened were it not for certain party's "generosity" and self interest now has generations of women who do not even know what normal infant feeding is. How dare these companies strong arm their way into wringing parent's last pennies away for an inferior and unhealthy product?

where are they getting in?

Our bathroom for the last several nights has become filled with crickets. How? Why? I replaced the drain covers, is there a hole in an outside wall I am just missing? They only come at night, it is fairly creepy and disconcerting as I have to use the bathroom for numerous pee breaks every night and do not always turn the light on. Feeling something jump/brush past your foot at 3am while trying to sneak silently around to relieve your bladder and not wake monster (S) is no picnic. gah.

J said that he found one in the toilet last night, could they be coming in that way? I think that is actually an even worse thought than the hole in the wall, I mean, at least they don't swim through contaminated water and then jump all over the place leaving residue that way. Also, I have to remember to turn on the light and check from now on. I really don't want to have something bounce off my bum while on the toilet in the dark, still trying not to wake the ravenous nursing toddler... eek.

check them out

I'm starting to really get into 3hive, which has free, legal, music downloads, so I can enjoy alternative and interesting new stuff which I wouldn't otherwise hear. Plus, no having to explain to S about the Man and why it is sometimes ok to pirate but not always, and how that might relate to being nice and all that crap. So anyway this is what I found tonight and S swayed enthusiastically to "There's a Reason".

And also, we got a really fun new book at Daedalus called Perrier the Pig. There are lots of nicely alliterative P words like "Perrier was a miniature potbellied pig purchased from..." and referances to his ridiculous but loving owner Marbella, the rich and famous movie star. It is S's favorite book at the moment.

playground escapades

I am so fricken fed up with other people's kids. Seriously, how hard is it to NOTICE and ACT when their behavior becomes unacceptable or abusive toward other (particularly much younger/smaller) children?! I make it my job to watch S and step in immediately when she does something that is not ok. This has already affected how she interacts with other little kids, as in, if she is overcome by the need to grab another child's toy/cookie/book and I remind her that we don't do that she immediately hands it back and says "dorry" and maybe gives a hug. This didn't happen by itself people. (nor did I force her to say sorry or give hugs, I just make sure that if she grabs something she gives it back as quickly and un-traumatically as possible and explain that it hurts the other kid's feelings/is not nice, we don't like it when other people do that to us. So WHY do 95% of other parents seem to think the playground is a "drop off zone" where they get to ignore their spawn and kick back on park benches while others deal with the fallout. Oh, and if god forbid you yell at their obnoxious 4 yr old who is throwing sticks and dirt at a ONE year old, you could probably get arrested for harassment or abuse or some such b*llsh*t. (Of course, they would magically "notice" when you had to step in and deal with their kid, but somehow the kid before you stepped in was there apparently sans parental unit) ugh.

So anyway, please, if you are planning on bringing a child/ren into your lives, please expect to be responsible for said child/ren at all times, and if you are incapable fo doing so, find another adult who will be, if you have to pay them so be it. Maybe I should demand a baby sittting fee from the 2 or 3 most egregious play ground offenders... This is getting a little preachy though, so I will move on.

Hello all

So here I am. I am moving from LJ b/c I plan on taking lots more pictures of fun kid stuff and knitting, and who knows what, so there.

It has been a very great while since I last attempted to keep up to date with the blog, so I will give a brief synopsis, and more details will come up in future posts I am sure.

S is almost 2!!! She used a complete sentence yesterday morning for the first time, and totally freaked me out with her perfect pronunciation, I felt like I was talking to a mini adult very briefly, we then reverted back to mangled garble that mostly only I can interpret, but is quite impressive none-the-less.

J has been following up on the cancer surveillance and has been free and clear since January, woot.

Melrose and Richard are gorgeous and overly affectionate as always, and still not really like very smelly "big cats" (perhaps more smelly to me b/c of the next sentence.)

And, I am preggers! We should have a new baby bean sometime around March 2008. I am thankfully over the nausea (much worse than with S) and also measuring much smaller. (woot again.)