Voting is not just a right, is the way the sound we make to have our voices heard. Very grateful with Hilda Solis and Dean Logan for the opportunity to bring more voting options in to our community
Tag: help
-
Opinion: Federal Cuts May Have a Devastating Effect on Immigrant Children and Our Future
The hardships in our communities can be improved, but is important to understand what can happen to the Devastating Effect on Immigrant Children and our Future. Thank you California Health Report for this opportunity
-
Summary of week 8: Vaccines and vaccines…
For all parents: when it gets time to start the vaccines of your baby, it’s always harder for the parents for than the baby… Nobody can disagree that vaccines has been one of medicines top 3 inventions that has saved and prevented horrible diseases for human kind.
Our daughter for the first time (actually, the second time, the first was the hepatitis b vaccine at birth) got her 2 month old vaccines, and of course, we were happy to get to the milestone. I have said a couple of hundred times (at least) the short list of common side effects that the baby can have, it is my version of the “Miranda rights” that cops know by heart, but this time was a little bit different, knowing that my flesh and blood was going to be immunized (and my wife is not a fan of any needles!). She did perfectly great on her weight, height, meeting all her developmental millstones; waiting for the big moment finally, we were prepared. It’s amazing how important it is to have calm parents at the moment of vaccination, even a small infant can tell if mammy and daddy are nervous. Everything was done in seconds, and with a smile at the exit of the pediatrician’s office.
There is always a small probability that the patient (aka: daughter), can have fever, crying spells, sleeping more than usual, redness on the site and even a bump, everything controllable with general comfort measures. But, my daughter read with me all the side effects, choosing to have on that evening fever and sleepiness. You can imagine the 7 missed calls that I had in my cell phone before I left the office. If you have in your mind the question “you knew the side effects”, the quick answer is: YES, YES and YES! You needed to see this infant, bundled up, having her first fever smiling at her parents: I’m fine; it’s just a little fever. I tried 3 different thermometers, having the same answer: your daughter DOES have a fever. She continued to eat, laugh and play, having extended periods of sleep during the day, but by morning, thank G-d she was back to her old self: laughing, moving and doing her own tummy time. Every day, I learn something new, to be humble and reaffirming that when a parent tells me the fears and myths that have heard about vaccines, I will share my personal story and the peer review information regarding why it’s important, side effects and the probability of having a severe bad reaction the vaccines, my conclusion always is: I’M HERE TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE INFORMATION, I can’t guarantee 100% that everything will be perfect, but for sure this is a great choice (PLEASE PLEASE go to http://www.vaccines.com/why-vaccinate-fact-01.cfm).
Now to other matters… I can spend a lot of time watching my daughter, amazed on how they start exploring the world, finding their hands, grabbing things, smiling… No she is moving her legs, trialing objects and cooing, our “sleep, eat, move and poop machine” is actually converting into a “little person”, communicating her needs and fears. I can’t extend how important it is for any parent to be on top of this, you are the one that knows your baby best.
What I’ve learned this week for THE UNOFFICIAL MANUAL ON HOW A PEDIATRICIAN BECOMES A FATHER:
1) Vaccines are more painful to watch when you are a parent
2) Having a great time learning from my best teacher… MY DAUGHTER!
-
Thumb vs Pacifier
When we are babies, none of us were asked if we wanted to “suck our thumb or use a Pacifier (I LOVE THE NAME!), wondering right now about that decision for my daughter. Many lactation consultants and pediatricians believe that there could be a “nipple” confusion if a newborn is exposed to bottles/pacifiers in the first 3 weeks, for sure it’s a nice a idea but I have not yet seen (until now) some one that has not “exposed” their babies to them. In our debate, someone told us, “you can accidentally loose the paci, but you can’t cut out the thumb”… That got us thinking, we waited 3 weeks, limiting her contact to artificial nipples and we started to have a couple of questions in our heads:
1) Having no choice, but for sure influence in the decision, I would encourage the pacifier for my baby instead of the thumb. The entire concept was commodity, easy handling, decrease risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (AKA: SIDS; could be a topic for another day) thinking that one day in the future “Mr Paci” will go on a trip an never come back…
2) Choice two: “The Organic Thumb”, you never lose it, they know where it is, but it needs some behavioral interventions (as the pacifier) to finish with it, plus having a finger on the mouth after the child has teeth starts to push certain areas creating good business for orthodontics.
And for every one… What was your feeling? Did you choose a method? Any tips? Was it hard to “take” it out?
-
Summary of week 7: Google: your best friend or worst enemy? Child Development, vaccines and translating medical information
I love the secret smiles of some of the parent’s patients when they ask if I have a son/daughter and my answer is: YES, I do have a daughter! It’s possible to even hear the music in the background mixed with empathy. Now as part of my training, I have continued medical education at home, with my Beautiful wife and daughter.
This week I fought against a friend called GOOGLE. For sure you have typed so many things in to that white space in order to get “the best possible answer” in the top 10 results, that most of them are “pushed” to the front due to relevance, hits (how many people actually went to that website) and an equation of Money; having all of this information in milliseconds. I came home, hanging my imaginary white coat outside of my home to embrace my family. I was bombarded with health questions, doubts and fears from the information acquired thru the internet. After a couple of minutes of hearing the case, we had a nice conversation translating the raw medical information to easy to understand facts, at the end of the conversation, all the doubts and fears became security and peace. It’s really easy to find medical information on the internet, probably in million results and in almost all languages, but reading does not mean understanding the big picture. When you get the results of the question you are searching, please have a couple of things in mind (http://safetynet.aap.org/internet.pdf), anybody can create a website with information, instead, go to known sources (American Academy of Pediatrics, Healthychildren.org, CDC.gov, etc) in order to get peer reviewed information. But the process doesn’t end there, if you have questions, doubts or comments (I have read a couple of vaccine related web sites, with old information, that creates fear and doubt…) JUST ASK YOUR MEDICAL PROVIDER; information is one of the biggest tools that we can use, AND I LOVE when parents come with questions/comments about things that they have read or heard because it actually moves the conversation to a higher level, we’ll review the information, do fact checks and after having all the information, we can take action talking about “the white elephant in the room” (I will completely recommend using: aap.org, healthychildren.org, cdc.gov and when in doubt, you can leave me a comment regarding a website, and I’ll look into it).
Now, moving to other “growing” things… When you go to your pediatrician, it’s imperative to talk about the developmental milestones of your kids, this way the parents and the pediatrician can talk about the motor (physical movements), language and social things that are appropriate for your children. This week, we noticed her different reactions to our voices, her face changes and she knows how to communicate, in an interesting way, about hunger and change of diaper. She is tracking objects, reacts to sounds and facial features, having a smile that warms my heart. My pediatric brain (usually turned off when I’m at home) measures all this little things, monitoring the growth of all areas of my daughter. It’s important if you have other children to know that every kid grows at a different pace, and could achieve the developmental milestones faster or slower that other siblings, my point with this is: IF YOU ARE WORRIED, ASK YOUR PEDIATRICIAN.
Vaccines are coming our way… My wife hates needles but loves vaccines. In the following week we will have the moment of truth: “the first round of vaccines”. I have been preparing my wife (and my heart too…) for this moment. I will keep you posted… Parents are an essential part of the equation; kids can smell, see and hear fear… Before you step in the room for vaccines, take a deep breath, smile, think about the protection and security that you are giving your kid… Never lie to them, SHOTS hurt, if we say: “it doesn’t hurt”, we are laying to them, then they will be even more scared in the future, not only at the pediatrician office, but every part of your relationship with your child.
What I’ve learned this week for THE UNOFFICIAL MANUAL ON HOW A PEDIATRICIAN BECOMES A FATHER:
1) Internet is a great tool, but sometimes you need a human to translate and filter information from it.
2) Follow your instincts, if you are worried about something from your kid, talk to your medical provider.
3) It is worth it to take a couple of minutes and have a print out of what developmental milestones to expect from your child, that way you know what to expect and monitor his growth.
-
Cultural approach to earrings for girls…
In my home country, when a girl is delivered, they give them 2 shots (standard for the world) one is a vaccine for hepatitis b (to prevent infection of that virus that can lead to liver damage and death) and the other one is vitamin K (to prevent excess bleeding). Also, before going home, the new lady is given to the parents with 2 beautiful punctured earlobes with 2 amazing hypoallergenic earrings: that’s just part of the delivery package.
You need to understand our cultural “shock” when we asked them when are they going to do the piercings at the hospital, and the answered was “we don’t do that”.
And I was shocked:
1) In my mind “the entire world” knew that baby girls will have earrings at the moment that they leave the hospital
2) We needed to find out what would the process be in order to “normalize” in our cultural standards, her ears
As per AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) Guidelines, recommends that anybody that would like a piercing be ready to take care of it, meaning, that the age and maturity of “patient” will differ on that, and having my 1 month old baby, does not even qualify as “potty trained” let alone, be ready to wash her own earrings, and kind of goes against the my cultural expectations. But imagine that I did not read that statement, I can fine the logic to it…
It’s a fact that our daughter will get her piercings… We went online, we asked friends, doctors and parents regarding what to do… Well practically there is a couple of THINGS TO CONSIDER:
- Hygiene: Of course you want to have the safest, cleanest area to do any procedure to your own flesh and blood.
- Vaccines: Many people recommend waiting 15 days after the “Tetanus” shot (2 month regular shots for the US) before doing any piercings, that way it minimize risk of contracting a horrible PREVENTABLE disease.
- Method
- options and choices:
- By piercing gun: Usually done in most places, can be self thought to do it, easy, if is in a store, the “gun” per se, in most cases cannot be sterilized, and the blunt trauma (the actual pressure from the earring to the skin
- By Needle… Using the same protocol and technique of a piercing professional. Using sterile equipment to perforate the ear lobes, having less tissue damage, but the cost is more and needs to be in a safe place.
- options and choices:
Both of the choices don’t sound attractive…
What did you do for your baby? What technique did you use? Did you waited, for how long? What was your experience after the fact?
-
Summary of week 3: Reality start to set in: YES WE ARE PARENTS
After 3 weeks, more than 200 diapers changed, having cleaned all types of bodily fluids from clothes, hands and other places, I’m starting to understand a famous quote “Aliza, I am you father” (Star Wars…) It’s amazing how many things you can do for you own son/daughter… But you know what I was actually forgetting, OUR OWN MOTHERS that created that opportunity for us.
This week I had a nice telephone conversation, and the bottom line is: “You become selfless and devoted your life and soul to the new life that has been created”, and every letter of it is real. That’s why EVERY DAY IS MOTHERS DAY!
Everybody tells you: the first month is the hardest! But I think (on my 3 weeks of experience), that every stage will have it’s on twist. First it’s lack of sleep, changing diapers… In a couple of years we’ll be installing the GPS tracking device and training the “friendly dragon” to patrol her/him.
There are so many books, opinions and of course stories telling us how to cure “the hiccups”, clean diapers and avoid having bad dreams… In the end of the day, consistency from the parents, having an open communication, setting goals and milestones, ARE THE REAL SMALL ACHIEVEMENTS THAT WILL DO A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR SON/DAUGHTERS LIFE… Consistency is the name of the game.
What I’ve learned this week for THE UNOFFICIAL MANUAL ON HOW A PEDIATRICIAN BECOMES A FATHER:
1) My diaper changing skills are changing, I’m faster, but the ratios of “diaper changed vs accidents when using diapers” are still high.
2) Hiccups are common in newborns, it is more a distress for the parents than the real baby
3) We just got some electronic hardware to make life and interaction easier with our family, the hard thing is making the software work
4) There are millions of APP’s out there… We found (MY WIFE…) an amazing app to follow/track/measure/time every important aspect of our daughters needs (not including college… heheheh) and you can track (and will remind you) when is the next feed, oz’s, times, diapers (pee/poop), length etc etc… And the most amazing thing is that “Daddy” (AKA: ME) can see the %, numbers and times on his phone to feel less OCD.
-
I’m pregnant… Do I get my baby Stem cells, do I buy it or not?:
Have you ever thought of getting your future baby cord stem cells? Do they Work? Is it worth it…
Well, for disclosure purposes, we did… I will walk you up our, thoughts, ideas and of course the bottom line. On a daily basis we here about all this weird diseases, and how they start from nowhere and they would be saved by stem cells… First of all, stem cell are the type of cells that can potentially be converted to any cell of the body, technology and medicine has been advancing to cover and to be used for more than 70 diseases, and the potential is limitless , but sadly, we are not there yet. Making this point, you can potentially, at birth , have a little assurance that in the future, the list will grow and you will have in a storage somewhere, blood and/or tissue of your baby that could save his/her life. The idea is incredible, but not that simple. We ask ourselves:
1) Do we want to have it? The answer was simple (and probably all parents will say the same thing) YES YES YES AND YES! Even that the possibility is really low, it’s worth it “to protect your baby” (I imagine that is part of why these companies marketing, they got us…), is like buying life insurance… You aspect not to use it but it’s good to have it.
2) What’s the cost? It was a decision “make it or break it” moment… There are a couple of big names… From public to private companies, with different plans, offers and guarantees. And with monthly plans … My advice: call every company, ask them to send you information, look at the numbers (how many times the clients have needed the cells and how many times they actually worked, how long have they been in business, ask for everything… And If you need more questions to ask just send me a msg, I can gladly help you out) .. We found a nice price, that was the number that we had in our minds, and we chose a company that had good numbers, good quality, long-standing, and a nice $ package… You need to consider that if doing this, if your household budget will be painfully affected, DON’T DO IT… I will explain why later on…
3) Ok… Now, we want this, we have a nice company and a payment plan, do I need to pay for the “special offer” to prepay 20 years for storage? I don’t think it’s worth it, at the speed that technology is moving forward, this technology will be obsolete , my best guess is more or less 10 years, when the medicine nobel price will be “how to create tissue, organs and fix disease with skin cells” (I chose skin cells because they are relatively easy to collect… It could be anything…). For this reason, we chose NOT to pay the 20 year something prepaid package.
After you sign up, they will send you a kit, it has everything that you need to know, and the human salesperson, that will be in contact with you will explain everything, and most Obstetrics doctors will know what to do with it… IT’S IMPERATIVE TO HAVE IT IN YOUR “WAY OUT BAG” for the hospital.
4) AND WHAT DO WE DO IF WE DON’T, FOR ANY REASON DO IT, WOULD WE BE BAD PARENTS AND OUR BABY WILL DIE FROM A HORRIBLE DISEASE BECAUSE WE DID NOT DID IT? The real answer is NO. Now there is new technology to extract from the “baby teeth” cells that could be potentially used for most of the diseases.
G-d willing, we would never need to use it… But it will be stored, somewhere safe and in our mind will have a check mark, right there with life /disability insurance, looking only to protect our family
Dr Shap's 