Just a thought -- I was going to dig a little into RSV as a possible cause of the Asthma outbreak. I mean, what the hell is RSV, anyway? Where was it when WE were kids? Was it just called "pneumonia" or "bronchitis" or "chest cold" then? Is it a new virus, or just a newly analyzed-and-renamed virus?
...but then it occurs to me that its this new culture of sticking your kids in daycare at 6 weeks of age that's probably to blame. (Yes, I know about the Australian study that showed lower incidence of asthma in daycare kids. But, hello, that's the other side of the freaking planet from here!)
Seriously, babies are meant to be with their mothers (or fathers)for the first few years. I'm a total feminist, but I absolutely believe that's true. They should be home -- not in virtual petrie dishes brimming with bacteria from other kids' snot. That's probably why so many kids are getting RSV (which, most of the time, presents like a cold) and why so many are, consequently, developing asthma.
Think about it -- most of us parents didn't leave home without our folks until age 3 or 4 for nursery school. How many of us have asthma? I knew one kid. That's it. Heck, I hadn't even heard of a nebulizer until my son got RSV.
Okay -- so that's it. I'm crucifying American culture now. It's not the daycare centers. It's US for creating the demand for them.
1 comment:
Oh my god. I've been skimming some of your posts after discovering your blog on BabyCenter's preschool asthma board. I think we may share a brain.
I, too, accept and embrace the now-maligned term "feminist." But I am a firm believer that children need a parent or at the very least a family member home with them for the first few years. For health reasons as well as social reasons -- have you spent much time with some of these daycare kids? Brings new meaning to "acting out." Anyway, the real failure of feminism, IMHO, is that we let our society turn our advances into weapons against us. Women now feel like they HAVE to work outside the home, but it was supposed to be about choices.
Anyway, I've got another RSV blame story. My twin boys were born 7 weeks early. Three days earlier and they would have qualified for the RSV vaccine. They should have qualified anyway since they share a bedroom, but the jerks at Synegis or whatever (I think I've blocked their name out of my memory -- they refused us the vaccine then continued to send us literature about what awful things RSV was going to do to our babies if we didn't vaccinate.) wouldn't budge. SO they get some of my wrath.
My dear boy also has food allergies, so I've got a whole host of people/industries/practices to blame. Doesn't matter whether it's deserved -- it makes me feel better.
Anyway, thanks for this blog -- It's useful in so many ways, practical and emotional!
Cheryl
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