Monday, June 22, 2009

Experts and a few things they got wrong

Experts and a few things they got wrong about my families bodies and health and why we would should change how we live to one of trusting ourselves and sitting on the floor!

As a child my mother taught us that hydrogenated oils such as those in processed peanut butter were bad for us. My memory was that it was bad for your heart and joints. She learned this from an alternative source. It made sense to me.
It took the "Experts" until 25 years to except this idea and tell the masses of people. My mother also told me that prunes are good for relieving constipation. You still to this day will never read that on a label of prunes as it has not been "proven"

I have read and been told a lot of miss information. I have also not been given a lot of correct information.
In 2001 I read in a book by a doctor that my uncircumcised sons foreskin would pull back by the time he was 2 years old. It didn't. When I talked to my neighbor, who also had an uncircumcised boy she had read the same thing somewhere else and her sons also had not.

Experts also miss led me with the use of antibiotics and ear infection. when my first son was less than two I took him in for a well baby check up and the Doc told me that he had an ear infection and her was a prescription for some antibiotics. I knew about the over use of anti antibiotics so I went home to do some research on my own and found a preponderance of evidence that I would be putting my son in harms ay if I did not use the antibiotics. We then started on a long and painful roller coaster of ear infection and antibiotics that did not work until when he was 5 he finally had tubs put in his ear. We will never know if that roller coaster of infections was related to the antibiotics but since than the American pediatrics has changed what they recommend and both of my sons have had ear infections, including burst ear drums, that under the guidance of an experienced doctor we have not treated. these infections clear up easily on their own and I don't have to go to the doctor every three weeks.

Here is another one. Early potty training and diaper use in the US. An estimated 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the US, resulting in a possible 3.4 million tons of used diapers adding to landfills each year.
As of this writing you can still find all over the internet and at all the MD sites that I found that children are mostly ready to potty train between the ages of 2 and 3. Here is a quote from one site " Before the age of two, the release of solid and fluid waste is generally involuntary. Most children only BEGIN to develop control of these muscles around their second birthday. " they often also say that starting earlier is "risky" It has been suggested that they are protecting me from abusing my child incase he doesn't learn quickly. Well I am sorry but my children don't need to be protected threw misinformation.

It happens again that I have a second weird child, It turns now that this one that knew how to control his own body. He also knew how to take in fluids and some solids at this time so it was helpful that he was aware of both ends. It also happens that many children around the world are like my son and learn to control them selves be for two and most before 3. I am not sure what is in the water in the US that makes most of our children different but I guess they must be something.....!

One of the great things that happened when I was doing early potty training with my son (I don't really like the term elimination communication, it's just too.... ? "experty"
I had been putting my son, at the time around 6 month old, in cloth diapers and cotton pants with no diaper covers or liners so that I would know when he went but I was trying to catch when he need to go. I had been trying to write down when ever he went in relation to when he had slept eaten, nursed etc. I am a bit lazy and I wasn't doing the greatest at this task and was a bit disappointed in myself, when my mother sat down at the piano and started to play, I think it was a moonlight sonata and I found myself humming along right in sink SP? with her and every note. Now I do not play any instrument and do not know anything of how to read or write music, I had never made myself sit down and focus on her playing and yet my brain know every note she was to play before she even played it. Ah the epiphany " My brain is a computer, I don't need to write down the data

Chairs and back pain. Ok so here this one I have no proof about as of yet. there seems to be little to read about this either way unless I do a lot of research...which guess what? I don't want to do so: Low back pain is very significant health problems in the US. Consider these statistics from the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
* Seventy to 85 percent of all people have back pain at some time in their life.
* Back pain is the most frequent cause of activity limitation in people younger than 45 years old.
That is all the information I have except that I know a lot of americans spend a lot of time sitting chairs and unless we come from wealth most of our ancestors didn't. I see my parents as they get older having a hard time getting down on the floor with my children to play and I felt myself getting stiffer also. I also know from talking to those that have visited "3rd world" countries that many people are still very flexible and still spend much time squatting or sitting on the floor or ground. I see this mentioned NO WHERE on websites that talk about back pain. So what am I doing? Last year I put my kitchen table on the floor and I am suggesting you do it too. I also am suggesting you look at all the aspect of your and ask yourself could or did my ancestors do this or eat this? if they didn't is it ok for me. Going to the movie, my great grandparents didn't do go but I think I'll still go. Eating white bread every day? driving to work everyday and not walking no I don't need a study to tell me that isn't right and neither do you.

Here is my prescription for the vast majority of us: You need to be in a relatively safe place outside with others