So this was written about a year ago, but it’s news to me. Did you know they found a correlation between tea tree and lavender oils (in shampoos in the study) causing breast growth and early puberty in boys? It had the same response on breast cells as estrogen. It also discusses the effects certain plasticizers, placenta & estrogen shampoos, flame retardants and endocrine disrupters in cosmetics and prescription drugs. It’s a really interesting read.

Now I’m going to go throw away that damn boob growing lavender baby lotion.

I made the mistake of letting Ben wear Huggies for one full day. We were fluttering between cloth and Pampers most of the time but he was this close to growing out of the Huggies, so I figured we’d use them up. By the end of the day, the poor child had the reddest bottom I’d ever seen. It was my own fault. I saw it after the first couple of changes but just lathered on the diaper rash cream and figured it was, as usual, just a side effect of the disposibles – they tend to turn him a little red whenever I use them.

The next day he was back in cloth and he still continued getting redder. I kept lathering on the cream but it was only getting worse. By the end of that week, it had spread from his bottom to his crotch to his belly to his thighs. He had his 2 month appointment with the pediatrician that Friday so we waited until then, hoping it’d go away on it’s own. We were doing everything right, letting him dry after wiping him, slathering him in diaper cream, making sure he was changed immediately. It should have gone away.

So at his appointment, the doctor took one look and said, “That’s a yeast infection.” There’s no real reason other than that he had a diaper rash and the yeast in his poo decided to take up residence in it. The excess of yeast in his poo could have come from us feeding him the formula he wasn’t tolerating so it threw off his entire gatro-intestinal tract.

We started him in on Nystatin. 5 days later, it had disappeared from his bottom but was slowly moving up his belly, up his back and down his legs, past his knees. By this time I’d started getting a raging case of thrush only on my left side. This single side thing was incredibly strange but even stranger was that I had this raging case of thrush and he didn’t. We took him back to his pediatrician and she said it was probably he and I passing it back and forth. I was to get on diflucan, she refilled his Nystatin because we were almost out from slathering it all over his body. My midwife put me on 2 doses of diflucan (normally a single dose thing, but since we kept transferring it back and forth she decided to double dose me).

It’s been almost another 2 weeks and his is barely disappearing. Mine is a raging mess. The ped told us to try Monistat on him before we try anything oral, and God knows what I’m supposed to do. I still itch like mad, it’s horribly painful to nurse and I’m actually beginnging to get scabs all over. It’s really annoying. I’m hoping that once his is cleared up, mine will be, too.

Just in case, though, I’ll be calling my midwife on Monday to see what she suggests for me and his pediatrician to see what she suggests for him. I love our ped. “I’d rather try topical treatments before we mess with his system.” I love that. I really hope it doesn’t come down to him needing anything oral but a month with yeast? Poor kid. I’m sure he’d be thankful for anything that’d make it go away.

Have you heard of TEDDY? Not the bear, The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young. They came into our hospital room when been was just about a day old and asked us if we’d like to participate in the study. They’d take some of his cord blood and test it for the genetic markers that can possibly lead to type 1 diabetes. I was half dead and was willing to say yes to anyone as long as it would get them out of the room, so off went signed papers to have Ben’s cord blood tested for type 1 diabetes markers.

I really didn’t worry about it. As far as I knew, no one in my family every had type 1 diabetes. Type 2, yes but no type 1. I assumed we’d just hear back that everything was fine, nothing to worry about, go on with our lives, whatever.

So this week, when we received a letter in the mail from TEDDY that said, “Call us soon or we’ll call you”, I got a little worried. I called once and no one was in. I figured, “Eh, they’ll call us” so I didn’t leave a message. It kept bugging me. I called back today.

Apparently, Ben has the genetic markers for type 1 diabetes. While this doesn’t mean he’ll definitely get it, he has a 3x greater risk of developing it than the normal population (1:33 vs 1:300). After a long, horrifying shpeel on what type 1 diabetes is and what it does to the body, she asked us to be a part of the continuing TEDDY study. It would involve taking him in 4x a year to have is blood drawn and height & weight measured. We’d have to keep records of his food, illnesses, pets, stresses, etc. We’d have to send in a poo sample every month. At 9 months, they’d take a sample of our tap water. At 24 months, they’d clip his toenails and test them, they’ll also test for Celiac disease. This would last for 15 years.

It’s a helluva lot to start doing but we’ve decided to do so for two main reasons. The first is very selfish. They’re going to keep close tabs on him. If he should have any problems, we’ll know immediately and they’ll be able to point us towards resources to help. The second reason is mostly because of her. This woman works everyday to keep things okay for her kids, and she works damn hard at it. Her daughter Hayleigh has both type 1 diabetes and Celiac disease. I’m in awe every moment of her attitude towards it. Cupcakes for everyone? No problem. Kris will find a way to make them both okay for Hayleigh AND tasty for everyone else. Someone being an ass at her school? Psh. Kris’ll run out and bring treats to even things out a little. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes and doing as wonderful of a job as she does. So because of Hayleigh, I’d like to participate in anything that might lead to helping find a reason for this disease and, possibly, eventually finding a cure.

They say his risk would be 2x greater than what it is if he had a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes. Luckily, he does not, but I was surprised to learn that every single one of my great aunts on my dad’s mom’s side (10 aunts in total) died of type 1 diabetes. I also found out my grandmother has it as well but has luckily never needed insulin. And, apparently, my dad’s son from his first marriage has a son with type 1, too. It was a shocker to go from thinking we had no one in our family with type 1, to having multiple people with it. It’s a little worrisome. However, at the same time, it’s pretty likely I have the same genetic markers and I don’t have it myself. I’m trying to be ridiculously unscientific and say that’s a really good sign. I’m also thinking that it’s not a ridiculous idea that most Native American’s have these genetic markers.

So, they say about 1 in 20 kids in the study develop one autoantibody (a sign that the body’s attacking the cells that make insulin) and 1 in 40 develop 2 or more. I pray Ben is in that 19 that doesn’t.

As much as I tend to agree with his point of view, he’s a complete retard when it comes to breastfeeding in public. He talks about how women in other countries don’t feel entitled to do such things as complain about being unable to breastfeed in public…because they CAN breastfeed in public without it being a big deal. Some friends of ours discussed how, when travelling Europe, no one gave them a second look when the mom breastfed. While here, you’re subject to either oogling or foul faces from everyone around you.

I don’t understand how anyone who is not a parent and doesn’t understand that sometimes you can’t “plan ahead” any more than you already do (i.e. Shocker! The kid hits another growth spurt and his normal 20 minute nap after eating turns into a 3 minute nap and a 40 minute screamfest unless you put him on the boob) can blabber on about a subject he knows diddly squat about. So what do you do? Forego going anywhere until Americans decide seeing a woman’s boob isn’t SUCH a big deal (…never…leave…your…house…ever…again…) or let your baby scream and piss the entire restaurant off?

Bill Maher is a fucktard!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa696L6M6Sw Forward to 7:13

Since when was eating intimate, btw???

The drive-in I’ve gone to since I was a child is being closed in order to build condos. CONDOS! We have one of the highest forclosure rates in the country and we’re shutting down an institution for CONDOS! So, Eric, the child and I are going to watch movies we could care less about seeing for a price we really can’t afford because this is the end of an era. How depressing is that?