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elfsSo, 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-11 11:24 pm (UTC)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12447934&dopt=Abstract
Prostate cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10383480&dopt=Abstract
Ovarian cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9883790&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2567871&dopt=Abstract
I know a couple of those don't apply directly to Stormy, but they add to my feeling that cow milk causes far more harm than good to anyone. As does the prevalance of lactose intolerance -- further evidence that humans beyond weaning age are just not suited to handle milk.
Other associations that I don't have study or abstract links for at the moment: early puberty in girls (which may be due to the hormones naturally present in *any* milk, and/or may be due to the hormones given to cows, and/or may be due to other factors in cow milk), various other cancers, diabetes, autism, celiac disease, anemia...
And then there are my own lifelong problems with cow milk and the positive results of eliminating it from my own diet, which lead me to feel even more strongly that *whatever* reason it is that cow milk has been a problem for me, it *could* very well be genetic, and there is no reason whatsoever to put Stormy at risk for developing similar problems -- some of which can be subtle and not understood for years, or ever -- in the first place. *Especially* coupled with Stormy's *clear* reactions to cow milk in her first two years of life, from which we already know that she has *some* sort of predisposition to be sensitive to it.
As for the idea that cow milk is "important to American culture", the typical American diet is associated with *so many* health problems that are not seen in other parts of the world -- or that weren't seen until our diet was introduced to them -- that I can't for the life of me imagine why you would advocate conforming to that kind of diet in the name of "culture".
Besides which, many people we know are vegan or vegetarian or kosher or restrict their diets in other ways by choice, and many others have food sensitivities or health reasons to restrict their diets. Dairy-free foods are available in abundance. And people on restricted diets of whatever sort are not in any kind of cultural disadvantage. The idea that anybody has to eat cow milk -- or anything else -- in the name of "culture" is just ridiculous.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-12 01:34 am (UTC)However, I would like to know why it is that if all of this is supposed to be so medically valid to you...why didn't you bring it all up to the doctor when she asked you why you had issues with giving Yamaarashi-chan cow's milk in the first place? I mean, all you said to the doctor was that you just didn't want to give it to her. Why not tell the doctor all of your medically valid reasons?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-12 01:49 am (UTC)