Yamaarashi-chan's healthy, but King County is not.

[elfs]

So, I went to Yamaarashi-chan's doctor yesterday. I was supposed to meet her and her mother there. She was late arriving, but there wasn't much of a problem as we still had to wait for her physician. Yamaarashi-chan went through the usual routine-- height and weight down around the 10th percentile, but staying on the curve. One eye showed 20/50 vision, so I'm happy that her mother finally got around to booking an optometry appointment later this week.

While we were going through the interview with the physician, her mother again expressed her reluctance to give Yamaarashi-chan milk, but stated no religious or ideological reason for doing so. Given the twofold increase in bone fragility in minors over the past twenty years directly correlated to a drop in milk consumption and the calcium that goes with it, and given that there's no medical reason for Yamaarashi-chan not to have it, I still don't understand what that woman is thinking.

The doc also offered a hepatitis A vaccine. She said it wasn't mandated, but it would be a good idea since King County had high rates of HepA and it was available free anyway. I asked if that wasn't a problem primarily among gay men and drug users, and she agreed but pointed out that the outbreak recently from green onions was HepA. Not seeing any serious complications, I decided it was a good idea and readily gave my consent.

I was curious, so I did a little looking around. Apparently, there were two outbreaks of HepA in King County in the past few years-- one from a Subway up in Bothell, and the famous Jack In The Box case down on Broadway. "The Health of King County" report available from The United Way shows that 87% of all hepatatis A cases in King County were attributable to either homosexual contact or injection drug use, but that leaves 13% of the cases to other means. More frightening, King County is sixth in the nation for minors with hepatitis A-- and much of that, sadly, is due to a rate of infection almost twice the national average among our large Native American population.

(Hmm... looking at that twice, the rate among gay/bi/IVdu indicates a more serious problem than I originally thought. If they make up 87% of cases, but represent less than 10% of the population, that means the remaining 13% is diffused among a much larger and more diverse population. The UWKC doesn't say what "other" could be, though.)

Ick. Not that I wouldn't have agreed Yamaarashi-chan get the immunization before, but at least now I feel confident that it's not in response to an almost impossible threat, but a very real and local one.

Otherwise, she's a perfectly normal and healthy kid. I took her home and Omaha fed her a decent meal of shrimp on couscous with raisins, pineapple, and dates. We spent some time drawing together and when I showed her how one of her stuffed animals was just a couple of egg-shapes stuck together, she did a hilarious but quite good rendition of the sucker. I'll scan it in later.

Comments

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

I was doing a search yesterday (on something completely unrelated) and found several reports that seem to suggest that drinking cow's milk can significantly raise the chances of getting type I diabetes, particularly in children who have siblings with diabetes. Isn't Yamaarashi-chan's oldest sister diabetic? This sounds like a valid medical concern.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

There a conflicting story in the same journal and there are several more that seem to indicate that evidence is "controversial", at least. BTW, did you know that the "Healthlink News" link you provided originates in the website of "New England Family Health Associates", who say they are "dedicated to providing you with the best of naturopathic, Chinese and integrative medicine." If I ever saw a site tailored to tell you not to drink your milk, it's that one.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Meet your friendly neighborhood herbalist. I don't tend to view alternative medicine as being automagically suspect, since I have plenty of personal experience that it works, in some cases better than traditional western medicine.

I did see that the concept is viewed as being controversial ... and that many of those "viewing with alarm" were experts along the lines of dairy companies. It's a subject that should be researched carefully and objectively, particularly by those it's likeliest to affect. Somehow I doubt that Elf & Omaha would simply dismiss this (or anything else that has such a devastating potential) without doing significant research into it, just to try to make a point. They're concerned and loving parents, and I know that their first concern is Yamaarashi-chan's well-being.

I'm an herbalist myself

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

but I believe that a good, balanced diet is excellent medicine. Milk is the simplest and cheapest and most palatable way to get sufficient calcium into a child's bones. My beloved

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but I believe that a good, balanced diet is excellent medicine. Milk is the simplest and cheapest and most palatable way to get sufficient calcium into a child's bones. My beloved <lj="bbwoof"> has had a bullet bounce off his ribs, and his surgeon commented, "You must have been a big milk-drinker as a child".

Re: I'm an herbalist myself

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

A good balanced diet is excellent medicine, but while that can certainly include dairy products, it doesn't have to, any more than it has to include peanut butter. If a particular substance looks like it might trigger severe, lifelong problems--and diabetes is indeed severe--then it's worthwhile to look at removing it, or keeping it at low levels as a preventative measure.

Re: I'm an herbalist myself

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Y'know, it's not like I'm forcing this stuff on her or anything. I simply refuse to act as if she's under immediate, immanent danger of death if she drinks milk-- because I have no evidence to suggest that she is. I am not going to make "special" meals for her, refuse her the same oatmeal cookies I make for her sister, or tell her that she may not share in the same birthday celebrations as her friends, etc. Not without much better reasoning than I've seen to date.

Re: I'm an herbalist myself

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I think that eating certain foods is a matter of preference, and certainly we can all decide for ourselves what we want to eat, and our friends and family members will hope that we make those decisions fully informed as well.

However, when it comes to a child, then what is in the best interest of the child is what should be followed, not what is in the desire or preference of the parents. If Yamaarashi-chan had medical issues that pointed towards milk causing her problems now, or pointing towards significantly possible complications later, I would have no problem keeping cow's milk out of her diet.

But there is no indication of anything medical that would make that necessary. And because milk does provide a number of things important to a growing child (calcium, vitamin D), and because it is such a significant part of American food culture, we see no reason to exclude it from Yamaarashi-chan's diet.

Angi has chosen to do so. Neither Elf nor I believe that is wise, but we have never told her she must feed Yamaarashi-chan milk.

What a pity Angi can't do the same thing back.

Re: I'm an herbalist myself

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

we have never told her she must feed Yamaarashi-chan milk

But you have told *my relatives* to disregard my instructions to not give her cow milk. And demanded that I stop instructing others to not give her milk.

Re: I'm an herbalist myself

[omahas.livejournal.com]

But you have told *my relatives* to disregard my instructions to not give her cow milk. And demanded that I stop instructing others to not give her milk.

You're absolutely right. That's because your doing so is a global decision according to the rules of the parenting plan. You can't make such a global decision without Elf's consent, which he doesn't give you, and by telling others...your relatives, her school, friends, people she plays with, etc...to keep her off of milk, you are doing exactly that.

According to the parenting plan, if you want to withhold milk from her in your home, so be it. But you can't make the global decision that everyone do so without Elf's consent.

Re: I'm an herbalist myself

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

You're wrong. According to the parenting plan, I have authority over "daily decisions" during the *time that she resides with me*. That doesn't mean just the time that she's physically in my house. That means *my parenting time*. If I leave her with someone else temporarily during my parenting time, that doesn't mean that she's left my authority.

[(Anonymous)]

What I know is that Yamaarashi-chan's sister (technically half-sister) has Type I diabetes running on her dad's side. Now if Yamaarashi-chan's mother has diabetes (Type I) on her side of the family, especially brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, the potential could be there.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

You have to read closely to see what's what. First, Yamaarashi-chan's eldest sister does have diabetes, but there's very strong evidence that the condition is inherited from her father, not her mother. There's no significant history of family diabetes in either of Yamaarashi-chan's parents.

Secondly, the relationship of bovine insulin exposure and diabetes, weak as it is, apparently only applies to children under the age of two, before the immune system solidifies. There is no evidence at all that exposure at six poses a threat even to high-risk children.

The JDF (Juvenile Diabetes Foundation) even issued a press release stating that there was no reason to keep a child off milk after the child was fully weaned and that doing so when there were no other medical circumstances was not in the best interests of the child. The American Council on Science and Health states that cow's milk in the first year of life is "not suitable for children," but for once a child is eating with the rest of the family "milk is an excellent food choice."

I can find all manner of kooky sites warning about milk. It causes this, it causes that. I've even seen one site claim it causes bone loss (!) without providing evidence. I found a site claiming that wheat can trigger type-1 diabetes just as reliably as milk can, but nobody's suggested I keep bread away from her.

I went and looked at the link you provided. He states that "A major finding of one study is that high intake of milk, more so than early introduction of milk to the diet, is a major risk factor for juvenile diabetes." The problem is that when I went to read the study footnoted, I found it stated no such thing. The study he cites is about whether or not vaccinations cause diabetes (they don't).

He also misstates the conclusion of the "new" study he's pounding (he can't tell the difference between 5% and 500%, apparently). An editorial in Pediatrics magazine (not available online, sadly) questions much of the paper's credibility, and the authors of the paper themselves say that much more needs to be done to reliably establish the link they're saying might exist. The editors at Pediatrics point out that too much of anything perceived as "healthy" is going to make you sick-- too much milk, too many vitamins, too much iron, whatever-- but that moderate consumption of milk, provided there are no clinical reasons otherwise, presents no discernable risk to a child who is past breastfeeding age.

So far, the link between type-1 diabetes and exposure to milk in school age children is simply not there. And until there's strong clinical evidence that there is a link, I'm not going to place my daughter in a plastic bubble and exclude her from the ordinary aspects of cooking and eating American food.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

and found several reports that seem to suggest that drinking cow's milk can significantly raise the chances of getting type I diabetes

There are some indications that children under the age of three may have an increased chance of getting type I diabetes if drinking cow's milk, especially with a sibling with diabetes. The jury is still out on that one. However, all of the evidence points towards that issue becoming non-existent after the age of three.

Isn't Yamaarashi-chan's oldest sister diabetic?

No, Yamaarashi-chan's oldest half-sister is diabetic (she is on LJ as yaoifangirl). And as far as I know, her diabetes comes through her father's side of the family. His side is rife with family members with diabetes. I don't recall anyone on Angi's side having diabetes. And Yaoifangirl's and Yamaarashi-chan's fathers are, of course, not the same. So I don't believe there would be any real risk of Yamaarashi-chan contracting Type I diabetes from drinking milk through that venue.

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

I will correct this: Elf was adopted, so you have no idea whether or not diabetes runs in his genetic line. Both of my sisters have had gestational diabetes. Both my mother and one of my brothers have had lifelong problems with sugar in their urine. I believe there is type II diabetes on both sides of my own family.