Posts Tagged ‘children’
Vaccination Nation Continues
File this under “things that shouldn’t be a debate but are.” With no medical or scientific evidence to support a link between vaccines and certain undesirable medical conditions such as autism, many parents insist that they know better. Or at least that someone else knows better. (Usually it’s someone on the Internet.)
The making of a DNA vaccine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many parents are asking doctors to “spread out” the vaccines that their children receive, according to the L.A. Times.
Personally I don’t know if spreading out the vaccines is such a terrible thing, but according to the L.A. Times, citing an article in the journal Pediatrics, “87% of the doctors [surveyed] agreed that when parents delay some or all of these vaccines, they are putting their children at risk of being sickened by a preventable disease.”
In spite of their concerns, many doctors are doing it anyway.
So. To sum up. Most doctors (in a particular survey, at least) think that spreading out vaccines is dangerous. But if a parent is noodgy enough, they’ll do it anyway.
This is not good medicine. I’m not saying that doctors are always right. Far from it. (Oy, the stories I could tell you.) But if a doctor truly believes, based on all of the information available to them, that their patients, who in this case are children under 2 years old and therefore can’t decide for themselves, should be vaccinated in a particular way, they should not be swayed by a parent who complains loudly enough.
Other doctors are taking a hard line on the issue, refusing to treat children who have not been vaccinated.
Considering that measles is making a comeback (see the Related articles links below), and that Rand Paul and other politicians have made anti-vaccination a political issue as well as a medical one, I think it’s safe to say that this issue won’t be going away anytime soon. Which is annoying because, to the best of my knowledge, the entire anti-vaccine campaign (such as it is) dates to the Lancet study which was shown to be COMPLETELY WRONG in 2010. (More on that here if you’re interested.) And yet, five years later, we’re still talking about it.
Grrr.
As I said before — zero deaths. That’s the goal. And it’s an achievable one. How? Science! Cue music.
Doctors often delay vaccines for children to appease parents – LA Times.
Related articles (Note: Some of these are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
OMG Rand Paul – UPDATED
I hate politics. I hate writing about politics. It leads to nothing good… for me. But this CNBC Rand Paul interview hit me too hard for me to keep my mouth shut.
English: United States Senate candidate , at a town hall meeting in Louisville, . (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Wikipedia)
2/3/15 UPDATE: Vox.com points out that Dr. Paul’s statements regarding autism and vaccines are “even more bogus than you think.” Original post is below.
It started with this gif:
Gif of @SenRandPaul to @CNBC‘s @Kelly_Evans: “Shhh … Quiet — calm down a bit here, Kelly.” http://t.co/s5ljtYzsiN pic.twitter.com/ESj5sbvhrO
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) February 2, 2015
Shush you silly woman! The man is talking!
Now for the interview itself.
Paul tries to have it both ways about vaccines. This is not atypical of politicians on either side of the aisle. In fact, he says something that as far as I know is perfectly reasonable, which is the idea of spreading out vaccines instead of giving them all at once. OK. Sure. Why not?
But then he perpetuates the notion that vaccines are the sole cause of “normal children” (his words) turning into, well, I guess not normal children, because of vaccines. That puts him into the excellent company of Jenny McCarthy, MD. (Note: Jenny McCarthy is not a doctor. Rand Paul is.)
Then there’s this gem, which I haven’t seen anyone bloviate about yet, so let me be the first.
“The state doesn’t own your children. Parents own the children.”
Excuse me? “OWN?” I OWN my children? Am I missing something? I’m responsible for my children. But they are not, to the best of my knowledge, a thing that I own, like my television.
This is the song that comes to mind. It is called Politicians by a band called The Exploited. I’ll skip to the chorus.
Defensive? Sen. Rand Paul on voluntary vaccines – CNBC (Video)
Related articles (Note: Some of these are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
End of Game Super Bowl Fight Totally Classless
I don’t use words like classless often, because the word is judgy in a way that I don’t like to be. I’m not against being judgmental; I’ve said many times that accusing someone of being judgmental is, in fact, judgmental. But what happened at the end of the Super Bowl tonight was absolutely classless.
The San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl XXIX trophy on display at the 49ers’ Family Day at Candlestick Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Seattle Seahawks had lost the game, largely due to what basically everyone is referring to as the #WorstCallEver. (For those who weren’t watching, that refers to throwing a pass that was intercepted by Malcolm Butler instead of giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch at the goal line.) The Patriots were backed up into their own end zone, trying to avoid a safety, which would have given the Seahawks one last chance to win. The ‘Hawks jumped offsides, the Pats got five yards, and were a kneeldown away from victory.
Then this happened.
That’s just not cool. I’m sure the players were pissed off. They lost the Super Bowl. I’m not going to pretend I know what that feels like; I have one career sack and it was in high school during the Junior/Senior football game. (For the record, sacking the quarterback was really fun.) There are hamsters with more athletic ability than I do. Hell, there may be pieces of furniture with more athletic ability than me. But if by some chance I ever found myself on the losing end of a big game, even the biggest of all big games, I really, truly hope that I would show more class than these guys did. Good sportsmanship.
What does this have to do with parenting? Kids watch these games. Much like I prefer to avoid using the word classless, I also mislike the phrase “think of the children.” But here, I’ll say it. It’s not about being a role model. It’s about not acting like a big baby when you lose. Not throwing punches. No temper tantrums. Behave yourselves, guys.
For the record, here is a tweet from Seahawks star player Richard Sherman.
Thank you God for giving us the opportunity…. That's all you can ask for….Thank you everyone for the support all year
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) February 2, 2015
See? That’s classy. And Sherman was far from happy. Can I get a gif? Yes. Yes I can.
Super Bowl Fight! Super Bowl Fight! (Gawker)
Related articles (Note: Some of these are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
Britax Boulevard Convertible Car Seat Lightning Deal
Again, act fast if you want this one – a Britax Boulevard Convertible 70-G3 Convertible Car Seat for $203.99, a 36% savings, from Amazon.com’s Lightning Deals. That price is only good for as long as the deal lasts. Hence the “act fast” admonition. Consume! Mass! Quantities!
Amazon.com: Britax Boulevard 70-G3 Convertible Car Seat Seat, Onyx: Baby.
Keith Richards Is Writing A Children’s Book
Keith Richards is writing a children’s book. With his daughter. It’s about the first time he played the guitar, according to the BBC.
Here’s a bit more of a description:
“Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar is a “rare and intimate look” into his early years.”
I’d read it. Here’s a bit more from the BBC:
Richards was introduced to music by his grandfather, jazz musician Theodore Augustus Dupree.
It will be published as a hardback and ebook later this year.
“I have just become a grandfather for the fifth time, so I know what I’m talking about,” said Richards.
“The bond, the special bond, between kids and grandparents is unique and should be treasured. This is a story of one of those magical moments. May I be as great a grandfather as Gus was to me.”
That’s nice. Isn’t that nice? Good ol’ Keith.
Here’s a video of Keith onstage in Abu Dubai in February of 2014. He’s still got it, fans still love him… grandpa Richards was wise to introduce lil’ Keith to the geetar.
)
BBC News – Keith Richards to write children’s book with daughter.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Kristen Bell – “You Cannot Be Stalking Six Year Olds”
Kristen Bell told a Huffington Post interviewer that children should be off-limits when it comes to celebrity photographers, or paparazzi. “You cannot be stalking six year olds,” the “Veronica Mars” star said. We agree. Read more »
Why Kids Shouldn’t Be On Reality TV
This story, if true, illustrates something I’ve said for a long time. Children shouldn’t be on reality television shows.
This Daily Mail article, taken from a report in the New York Daily News, says that Kate Gosselin told her daughters, “You embarrassed mommy,” after they didn’t “defend her” during an interview on NBC’s Today Show.
I know I’ve said it to people I know, and I think I’ve written about it and/or talked about it on podcasts. What have I said? That kids shouldn’t be on reality shows. It’s not fair to them. They aren’t able to make an informed decision about their privacy.
Now, what do I mean by “kids”? I would say “18 and under” but that’s both unrealistic and a little silly. What would be reasonable, though, is 13 years old. That’s the age used by COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
COPPA establishes rules for websites collecting information about children under the age of 13. Seems reasonable, right? Maybe we could apply the same cut-off age to whether or not a kid is allowed to be on a reality TV show.
Now, you might say, “what about child actors?” Well, there are laws about child actors — the hours they are allowed to work, what happens to the money they make so that unscrupulous parents can’t spend it all. Also, those kids are ACTING. They don’t have cameras in their homes recording their real lives.
Yes, I am aware that “reality television” isn’t reality. These shows have writers on staff, and much of what is purportedly real is staged. (I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before by hundreds of other people. If this is the first time you’ve heard it, my apologies.) Still, would you like to grow up and discover that you were a reality TV star when you were two years old?
Here’s an idea. As the Marx Brothers said, there is no sanity clause.
But maybe there should be. It doesn’t seem fair that young children should be allowed to have their lives broadcast on television, even with parental consent. Many news outlets fuzz out the faces of kids in photos. Why? Presumably because they respect the idea of a child’s right to privacy. Why not extend this same right to reality TV?
Kate Gosselin tells twins they ’embarrassed mommy’ at Today show appearance | Mail Online.
