Marla’s Journey

The old is new again!
www.marlasjourney.blogspot.com
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Here is the most recent study info published regarding BPA absorption and children. I am SO glad I have pitched much of the plastic, am using “safe” plastic when I do use it, and am moving more and more to glass storage. This is nasty stuff! Canada and Europe have been very pro-active in getting the word out about BPA dangers and taking steps to protect their citizens from this stuff!

from http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2009/02/bpa_lingers_in.html
“BPA Lingers in Babies, New Study Finds
February 20, 2009 – News Release
Get rid of Bisphenol A (BPA) in anything consumed by babies. That’s the recommendation of a University of Guelph toxicologist and a graduate whose new study found that the chemical lingers in the bodies of newborns and infants.

Compared to adults, newborns and infants may have up to 11 times as much BPA — reported to be linked to cancer and reproductive and behavioural problems — in their bodies, the report said.

“I would advise a pregnant woman to try to reduce or entirely eliminate her exposure to bisphenol A,” said Len Ritter, a professor in Guelph’s Department of Environmental Biology and executive director of the Canadian Network of Toxicology Centres based at U of G.

Ritter published the study late last year in Environmental Health Perspectives, along with senior author Andrea Edginton, a Guelph graduate and now a professor in the University of Waterloo’s school of pharmacy. The American journal is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Bisphenol A is found in many everyday products including baby bottles, liquid formula containers and food cans, and reusable water bottles. The substance may leach from containers and be ingested.

Reports have suggested that exposure to BPA can interfere with the normal working of hormones in people and animals. Earlier studies have linked low BPA exposure to cancer, early onset of female sexual maturity, male fertility problems, impaired learning and behavioural problems such as aggressiveness.

Exposure to current levels of the substance does not appear to pose a health risk for most Canadians, but children and infants are considered to be more vulnerable than adults.

Ritter and Edginton used data from adult human and animal studies to estimate how long BPA stays in a baby’s body. Their mathematical model includes information about key enzymes that break down the chemical in the body.

Those enzymes are found in much lower amounts at birth than in grownups. Assuming that BPA exposure is identical between babies and adults, says Ritter, the amount in a baby’s blood is about 11 times higher than in an adult.

Confirming their results, another EHP study published last year using human subjects found that BPA levels in children were 10 times higher than in adults. “It was exactly what we had predicted,” said Ritter, who is executive director of the Canadian Network of Toxicology Centres based at the University of Guelph.

He says governments need to move quickly to reduce or eliminate exposure as much as possible, especially in the very young, and industry needs to find a replacement for BPA. “The target in sensitive population is zero,” Ritter said.

Health Canada is currently writing regulations to ban polycarbonate baby bottles containing BPA. Canada is the first country to move to ban the substance in these containers.

Contact:
Prof. Len Ritter
519 824-4120, Ext. 52980
lritter@uoguelph.ca”

Yippee!! Happy 2009!! Yes, I do realize that the rest of the world celebrated New Year’s about 10 days ago, but TODAY is MY New Year’s Day! I decided yesterday that 2009 was NOT going my way, and I had to take drastic measures to turn things around. Let me give you a bit of an idea as to WHY I am restarting 2009…..

Dec.31, 2008 11:59pm – Spent sleeping while my firstborn was at a party at his girlfriend’s house. The same girlfriend who would break his heart (or at least dent it quite deeply!) a mere 4 days later. I’m still trying not to go all Mama Bear in this one!

Jan. 1, 2009 – 4:00am – Happy New Year – delivering papers to ALL 365 of my customers. It’s a Bonus Day – the dread of the Paper Carrier – papers for even the Non-Tipping, Put It On My Porch Each Sunday and ONLY Sunday, Wrapped and Sealed and Tied -Up Pretty customers. Yay. Happy New Year to me.

Jan. 1, 2009 – 10:30am – the year is looking up – Husband is half -dressed, standing in my kitchen, making pancakes for our brood! THIS is what Holidays are supposed to be. Except he is complaining about his foot and ankle hurting, and tingling, and feeling numb. Being in possession of just enough Discovery Health Channel-acquired medical knowledge to be an alarmist to myself and others, I begin to worry – blood clot, nerve disorder, MRSA. Who knows. I nag and cajole and convince him he needs to have it looked at. We get ready and decide the ER on New Year’s Day would NOT be fun. Decide to head to Patient First doc in a box. Thomas stays home with 3 under 5. We SO appreciate him!

Jan. 1, 2009 – 3:00pm – OK, so my diagnosis skills need some honing. Gout was NOT on my list of possibilities. Yes, gout. Wonderful. The prognosis itself is worrisome, but not nearly as scary as the description of the pain yet to come from the Physician’s Assistant: ” He’ll be in ‘Where’s an ax to chop my leg off’ pain for the next couple days. He may need pain meds, besides the Tylenol. Call if he does and we will fix him up.”  Great.  JUST what we need, and NOT our plan for his 4 days at home. We walk in the door at home to a crying Max who may or may not have broken his toe, but it hurts enough to almost earn Max the Actor of the Year award for his Portrayal of a Child in Horrible Pain. For about 10 minutes, after which he is back to normal high-speed, high energy self.  A huge to-do list, a teenager, and 3 under 5 FULL of energy does NOT need a husband and daddy in pain and out of commission. I begin to get a sneaking feeling this New Year might not be the idyllic vision I thought it would be…..

Jan. 2 – 4, 2009 – Home tending to sick, cranky, in pain husband, 3 littles who can’t really get outside in the cold, and a teenager who can’t WAIT for basketball season to start back up. NOT fun!! ‘Nuff said.

Jan. 5 – I look forward to a more normal week, a “real” start to the New Year. Until the Popcorn Incident. I will explain….

After having various children going to sleep in our bed for the last 5 years, I decided a few weeks ago, I am ready for them all to go to sleep in their own beds. I don’t mind them wandering in in the middle of the night, as they do, but I want to be able to crawl in for my 5 hours a night without contorting around 2 sleeping boys who take up WAY more room than they should be physically able to. I also am NOT above bribery. So, we had started a sticker chart and for each night they fell asleep in their own room, they got a sticker. After 5 stickers, a dollar to spend at the Dollar Tree on ANY toy they wanted! Woo Hoo! Big treat they think is AWESOME!!! Great. They get their first dollar, and spend it – one on a SWAT play set with fake gun, radio, and binoculars, and one on an Army play set, with fake gun, radio, and plastic dagger. Now, over the years, with 3 boys, we have had a number of these plastic toy daggers and had nary an incident. Not so for 2009, apparently….

Monday the 5th, we were having an after lunch snack of popcorn. Everyone had their own dish, we were eating and all was well with the world. Until Benjamin, the 5 year old, decided he wanted more popcorn, and Max, the 3 year old’s dish was right there. So he helped himself, and Max, who had the plastic dagger in hand from their games earlier, whirled around to defend his dish, and hit Benjamin with the dagger, right next to his inner left eyebrow. I look over to see Benjamin bleeding and Max looking at him, very scared. I scoop Benjamin up, stop the bleeding, comfort him, and found a small cut. All was well, til he raised his eyebrows, and it popped WAY open. Yuck. Off to Doc in a Box, for an hour, where they say they could stitch it, but skin glue would be better, from the ER. Off to the ER, where 2 hours later, it takes 10 minutes to glue the wound together, all for the bargin basement co-pay of $125. Happy New Year.

January 6, 2009 – Abby Grace is tripped by Max, falling on the den floor, and acquiring her first bleeding forehead wound. Luckily, it is NOT deep enough to need stitches or glue, but aggravating enough to her to rub and fuss with it constantly, not letting a scab form and causing me to need to apply a Scooby-Doo band-Aid to the head of my sweet Princess. Not the accessory I want her in for the New Year.

January 7, 2009  10:00am- Having been unable to attend to some “female” testing for the 4 and a half years I was breastfeeding, I head off for screening tests that involve squeezing sensitive body parts with a machine exerting pressure almost the equivalent of an elephant’s footstep. GOOD times. ‘Nuff said.

About this time, I came to the epiphany that this was NOT the start to 2009 that I had planned or envisioned. This was NOT the beautiful, peaceful, serene New Year that I had decided to experience.  That I had to take charge of MY life and make change happen. So, for that reason…….

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Now I have a poopy diaper to change, 2 meals worth of dishes to wash, a cranky 15 month old to console, and 4 kids to get ready to go to the country for the day….

My plan doesn’t yet seem a success…….

I’ve concluded that it will be the socks that do me in completely. I have been having visions of me, sitting in the middle of my living room, with nothing around me but hundreds and hundreds of mis-matched socks, simply shaking my head. It’s not a happy vision.

I am a fairly smart woman, I can figure percentages in my head, have read Shakespeare and Steinbeck, and can put together a mean beef stroganoff with homemade noodles. I CANNOT, however, understand how I can put 9 pairs of socks in the laundry hamper and by the time they have been washed, hung to dry, fluffed for 5 minutes in the dryer and put in the hamper to be folded, 3 of the socks are missing!! Not even 3 pair, just 3 individual socks!! UUGHH!

I have a giant wipey box FULL of lost socks, and the other day, sat down to “match them up”. Because, if you had a pair, and now have a BUNCH of singles, SURELY some of them will match, right??!! Most of them should, RIGHT??!! WRONG!!!! 4 pair, and approximately 324 individual socks that DO.NOT.MATCH. (Maybe not 324, but A LOT!!) I just do not understand how this is physically possible. AT.ALL.

I have concluded that the main problem is that there are 2 sets of 2 pair of similarily sized feet in this house. The first set are the Norman/Thomas set. These are BIG feet – sizes 13 and 15 respectively. So large, they require extended size socks (I had NO idea these even existed til I married Norman.) The other set are 2 pair of little boy feet, one slightly shorter and chunkier than the other, but still wearing the same size socks. I have, over the years, purchased a huge variety of sock brands, which all have different print, lengths, seams, etc. The problem is that, since there are SO many different kinds, you can’t match up the odd ones for a pair, so I am left with a jillion socks I can do NOTHING with – we have plenty of sock bean bags and puppets, thank you very much.

This sock issue has been taking up so much brain space this week (why, I do not know!) that I actually now have a sock fantasy that I am determined to live out. I am going to share this with you, cause that’s what I do here! I have decided that I am going to use some of my HARD earned Christmas tips this year to buy socks. Not just more, but the perfect Sock Solution. Each boy in the house will have a particular style/type/brand. NO other socks, just that one kind. Then, all I have to do is remember who’s is who’s and if they get separated, VOILA, they will STILL work with another odd sock!!! GENUIS, I tell you!! Sheer GENUIS!!

It feels quite wasteful and extravagant to consciously decide to just THROW OUT 97 (approximately) pairs and parts of pairs of socks, all for the sake of my convenience, but at this rate, with the hours spent on this problem, I will never get around to writing the Great American Novel, solving the big socio-economic issues of the day, or even folding the rest of the household’s clothes, so I am considering it an investment in the well-being of my family.

That’s all for tonight. I look forward to having sweet dreams tonight of perfectly matched white socks, a basket over here with Hanes, over here with Fruit of the Loom, Circo front and center, and Joe Boxer in the back. It really doesn’t take much to excite and entertain me these days, does it?

Those of you who have read my old blog may remember my post about car seat safety and the importance in keeping you kids rear-facing as long as possible, and then in a 5 point harness for as long as possible after that! If you missed that post, it can be found here :

http://marlasjourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/car-seats-and-my-new-mission.html

From one of my message boards today, I found out about this article:

“WASHINGTON (AP) – Several car booster seats do a poor job of positioning children to fit in their seat belts, according to a review by the insurance industry and researchers.

The Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found Wednesday that 13 booster seats don’t put children in the best position to be protected in a crash.

The Institute, which conducts crash tests of new vehicles, did not recommend: Compass B505, Compass B510, Cosco/Dorel Traveler, Evenflo Big Kid Confidence, Safety Angel Ride Ryte, Cosco/Dorel Alpha Omega, Cosco/Dorel (Eddie Bauer) Summit, Cosco Highback Booster, Dorel/Safety 1st (Eddie Bauer) Prospect, Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch, Evenflo Generations, Graco CarGo Zephyr, and Safety 1st/Dorel Intera.

IIHS President Adrian Lund said the 13 boosters “may increase restraint use by making children more comfortable, but they don’t position belts for optimal protection.”

Booster seats are typically used by children between the ages of 4 and 8. The seat belt is meant to be routed across a child’s lower hips and mid-shoulders instead of the abdomen because the liver and spleen are more vulnerable to injuries.

The IIHS called 10 seats “best bets,” meaning they were most likely to correctly position seat belts. They include: Combi Kobuk, Fisher-Price Safe Voyage (with plastic clip), Graco TurboBooster, Britax Monarch, Britax Parkway, Fisher-Price Safe Voyage (highback), LaRoche Bros. Teddy Bear, Recaro Young Style, Volvo booster cushion and Safeguard Go when it’s used as a backless booster.

Five seats were named “good bets” to provide acceptable belt fit. They include: highbacks Combi Kobuk, Graco TurboBooster and Safety Angel Ride Ryte, and combinations Recaro Young Sport and Safety 1st/Dorel Apex 65, when used as highbacks.

Arbogast suggested that parents buying a new booster seat should try it out in their car and see how the seat belt fits on their child.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issues ratings for child seats on its Web site: http://www.safercar.gov.”

The entire article can be read here :

http://www.wxyz.com/news/story.aspx?content_id=ede4205f-abd1-4e7c-85e5-e8461fc52dc2

As I have said before : PLEASE keep your kids REAR-FACING as long as possible. After that, keep them in a 5 POINT harness as long as possible. There are affordable 5 point seats that go to 65 pounds and a bit more spendy ones that go to 80. PLEASE take car-seat safety seriously and KEEP them as buckled as you can for as long as you can!

Bill Clinton Says He Understands Palin’s Appeal

NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton said Monday he understands why Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is popular in the American heartland: because people relate to her.

“I come from Arkansas, I get why she’s hot out there, why she’s doing well,” said Clinton, who supports the Democratic ticket headed by Barack Obama.

Speaking to reporters before his Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the former president described Palin’s appeal by adding, “People look at her, and they say, ‘All those kids. Something that happens in everybody’s family. I’m glad she loves her daughter and she’s not ashamed of her. Glad that girl’s going around with her boyfriend. Glad they’re going to get married.”‘

Clinton said voters would think, “I like that little Down syndrome kid. One of them lives down the street. They’re wonderful children. They’re wonderful people. And I like the idea that this guy does those long-distance races. Stayed in the race for 500 miles with a broken arm. My kind of guy.”

OK, so the idea of having the Greatest Nation in the World run by the oldest man sworn in as a new president makes you nervous. I understand. He’s had health issues in the past. I get it. I will simply say that Bill Clinton, the speaker of the above words (particularly offensive and questionable ones bolded by me!) was not only ELECTED by the American people, but elected TWICE!! HELLO!!! On WHAT planet would an ex-president caught in a huge web of lies and sexual misconduct think that “I come from Arkansas, I get why she’s hot out there, why she’s doing well,” is a good and/or acceptable thing to say?!?!?!?! UNbelievable.

Thanks, Bill! Nice to know that some things never change!!!

I have four children. Each and every day, I am reminded more and more how very different they each are, one from the other. Max is my “spirited”child. Certainly the most challenging, up to this point. He can go from happy to screeching outrage to docile and complacent quicker than any child I have ever seen. As I was thinking about him this morning, the word “mercurial” leaped to mind. I thought, “YES!! THAT’S the word for him!!” According to www.merriamwebster.com, the definition is as follows :

“Main Entry:

¹mer·cu·ri·al

Pronunciation:

\(ˌ)mər-ˈkyu̇r-ē-əl\

Function:

adjective

Date:

14th century

1 : of, relating to, or born under the planet Mercury 2 : having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury or to the influence of the planet Mercury 3 : characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood <a mercurial temper> 4 : of, relating to, containing, or caused by mercury”

YES, mercurial he is. He really changes moods SO fast that I often find myself a step or two behind in responding to him. It is something I am working on! I can still be in “calm, manage his tantrum and stay cool” mode when he has moved on to ” emotionally spent, cuddle me” mode. This can cause some misunderstandings and missteps, but we are working on it! I am learning that when Max is in the middle of a tantrum, he REALLY cannot be reasoned out of it, you just have to calmly and quietly try to refocus him and wait it out. I don’t think Thomas or Benjamin ever threw a tantrum. Really. Max has a couple most days. I totally believe kids are wired differently and that is just how Max is! I understand that and am pretty much unfazed when he has his challenges. I truly believe there is a reason he is my third child and was NOT my first! I am also SO glad that I do NOT subscribe to any of the garbage I read about “child training” and “molding” that involves all manner of basically beating the “spiritedness” out of you child and making them subdued and cowering little pawns of their parents’ warped idea of “good behavior.”  I am continually shocked and saddened by the amount of whack-job advice out there about making children “behave” and fit some imaginary mold that too many parents, especially Christian parents, unfortunately, think their kids are to conform to. It is maddening and so very frustrating to see such POOR parenting touted as the “right” way to raise children. Parents of High-Needs kids, especially, can get made to feel SO wrong about the way their child is. HELLO! God MADE them the way they are, and has ENTRUSTED you to care for, nurture, love and raise them. NOT to squash their spirit and make them drones! UUGGGHHH! Makes me CRAZY!  (rant over!)

On the “Challenging Children” front, Target yesterday was a doozy!

First of all, taking all three of the little people ANYWHERE that requires quiet and stillness is just ASKING for trouble! Thomas had the luxury of staying home to play on the computer and enjoy being 16. As for the rest of them, 4, 3, and 1 are NOT ages know for quiet docility! We were there to pick up an particularly elusive web-cam for Thomas’ birthday and wanted to get it, a couple other things, and leave. HA!! NOT going to happen!! We haven’t been anywhere quickly in 3, maybe 4, years! After packing the diaper bag, and loading 3 kids into car seats, and stopping so Norman can buy a Diet Pepsi and Bug Juice for the boys, and stopping to get gas, and cleaning up the Bug Juice that gets spilled (EVERY TIME!!!!!) in the van, and FINALLY getting to Target, I am DONE! No need to go inside, let’s just relax in the van. But no, we must shop. So, we load kids into the cart – two in the “facing each other so they can hit each other while safely strapped in” section, and Abby Grace in her baby bucket so my hands can be free and she can stare dizzily at the ceiling tiles. All is well til we get to the Electronics section.

Max has, apparently, a keyboard/key punching addiction. He LOVES to “type” on all manner of calculators, keyboards, and the like. Fine in everyday life. NOT good when strapped into a cart and unable to touch anything!! Commence screeching. I crouch down, explain that if he will calm down and behave, he can get out and try the keyboards. After the longest 3 minutes in recent history, he is settled and gets to get out and touches each of the display keyboards once. I see an older woman watching and shaking her head. OK, whatever. All is well, we find the camera we are looking for and head toward the cards and wrapping paper. Problem is, we have to pass by the Halloween section.

Benjamin has a love/hate relationship with spooky, scary things. He SO wants to see them, but it FREAKS him out when he does. A slight problem. Most bothersome are the “creepy hand in the candy bowl that tries to grab you when you take a piece of candy out” bowls. Norman put his keys in one of these bowls the Halloween Benjamin was 21 months old, and let him try to get the keys. BAD idea!! Benjamin SCREAMED and was SO scared. Norman felt really bad, but still the scar remains. Benjamin HATES those things. To the point that seeing them in the section as we walked by started him in on “I don’t like this. Can we go? I don’t like this. Can we go?” over and over and over and over as we walked by. Fine, until Max sees that the hand bowls are there. Max LOVES the hand bowls and has NO problem playing with them. I take Max over to look at them as Norman pushes a sad Benjamin and increasingly loud Abby Grace on toward the card section. Max and I line up the 6 bowls, realize if you wave your hands near them, they all bend and straighten up, looking like a minature version of the wave. 2 or 3 times of this and we head off to meet the rest of our crew.

Abby is seemingly getting mad at being in her seat so long, so I strap an unhappy Max back into his seat, and get Abby out. SOAKING WET, of course. Her BIG diaper of the day, which usually happens around 3-4pm, at 11:30am in Target. With the diaper bag in the van. Of course. I take Benjamin the Cooperative and Abby the Sopping Wet and head for the van, leaving Max the Cranky crying in the cart with Norman as we pull into the  checkout line. The same older woman from Electronics is gathering her purchases in front of us at the checkout, and as I am starting to head out, she looks at crying Max, shakes her head and says, ” A few good swats will stop THAT behavior.” I looked at her and I simply said, “Yes ma’am, hitting someone to get them to stop crying is TRULY enlightened! Thanks!” , shake my head, and walk on toward the door. She looked shocked, but I just have NO patience with people offering unsolicited parenting advice, especially such truly ignorant advice as to HIT a child to get them to stop crying. Brilliant! I am proud to say I managed to NOT hurl any one of DOZENS of MUCH nastier one-liners her way. I was tempted, but resisted!

After all the drama, things ended just fine. I got Abby changed and cleaned up, and Benjamin into his car seat. Max was happy again, thanks to a couple Tic Tacs, and we had everything but lunch fixin’s in hand. We headed out from Target, kids were happy, and all was well. So well, in fact, that we headed to Wal-Mart. To buy lunch stuff. Because we’re brave like that. (or stupid!)

I went in with the boys. Norman stayed in the car with a sleeping Abby. I think we exceeded his “Outings with Small Children” quotient for the day. The boys were perfect….Wal-Mart gives away a free cookie to the littles. And we wonder why they are taking over the world…..just ask the mommies!

The only other episode from yesterday worth mentioning is Max the Midnight Artist…what happens when your nocturnal 3 year old gets up at 12:15am and decides he needs a creative outlet. Using diaper cream. All Natural, expensive stuff, of course. Because it “feels good and slidey on my hands, mama.” And on mama’s legs, and arms, and the bedpost, and doorknob. “But why on mama, Max, and not you?” “Cause you’re bigger to draw on, mama.” Great. Thanks. Really. Thanks.

OK, once I posted, I realized the time setting on my new layout was wrong!! ggrrrr…Yes, his birthday is TODAY, the 20th!! NOT the 21st, as blogland time might indicate! I haven’t TOTALLY lost my mind…not yet, anyway!!!

Of course, Mr. Smarty McBirthday Boy just came and showed me how to edit the time…after I told him 3 or 4 times “You CAN’T change it!!” Trumped again!!  )

There is a part of me that is in complete denial about the fact that I could POSSIBLY be old enough to have a CHILD that is now 16 years old! The wrinkles, sore knees, and 6′5″ “child” that now has to BEND DOWN to hug me tells me otherwise. It defies explaination that he has turned out so well (so far!) given how UNprepared for parenting I was when I had him 16 years ago this morning at 9:47am. He is an awesome kid and a true blessing, though he has his moments, as do most of us! Thomas is an AMAZING big brother, and SO sweet with Abby Grace. Thus far, he is the ONLY one who can get her to sleep without nursing her or giving her a bottle. He turns on YouTube music videos and rocks her and out she goes! He is patient with Chaos and Mayhem (Benjamin and Max) most of the time, and shows them important guy stuff like burping, throwing things in the house, and how to scream at the top of their lungs when startled. Important stuff. We are fortunate to have an amazing kid like him, and I love him so very much! Happy sweet 16 Thomas!

I can’t cut and paste it here, but my new favorite online toy is Wordle -http://wordle.net/

Here is a link to my first….

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/196031/my_life

check it out..it’s cool!