Colleen and Daniel Hauser have returned home after fleeing Minnesota to escape the court’s decision to force Daniel into chemotherapy to treat his Hodgkins Lymphoma.

The Daniel Hauser who is illiterate and homeschooled.

The Daniel Hauser who is in some sort of religious cult.

The Journal has a rather brief description of what this case is about.

The case pits parents’ rights and religious beliefs versus the state’s right to protect children.

Anita of Ovolina struggles with this basic conflict in her thoughts about the case.

In this case the parents’ rights will be violated. The state’s interest in the well being of Daniel Hauser, in preserving his life, trumps the parents’ freedom of choice.

When the state is forced to act as a parent, nobody wins and our liberties suffer. But sometimes, it’s the only choice.

I only hope that even in a case like this, we remember to tread lightly and with regret whenever we take someone’s freedom away.

And of course there are always those who would encourage Daniel to run and never come back.

But is it about parental rights vs. state’s rights?  (Or the state’s interest. . .I’m not sure the state exactly has rights.)  Or is it about the child and who can best protect his rights?

I do not see these kinds of discussions when children are endangered in other ways.  A parent has the right and the responsibility to feed their children, but not the right to not feed them at all.  A parent has the right to monitor a child’s relationships for their own good, but not to lock them in a closet and hide them from the world.  A parent has the right to discipline a child, but not to beat them.  A parent has the right to oversee the health care of their children, but not to deny all treatment.

An adult has the right to refuse medical treatment, but does a child of thirteen who has been unable to demonstrate an understanding of what that refusal would mean?

Others see a different issue than one of basic rights: one of religion.

I have to say something that is heartfelt, and is also meant to offend. I do not absolve you mealy-mouthed moderates, I do not regard your beliefs as harmless. If Colleen Hauser or Leilani Neumann were in your church, you’d tell them to get medical care, but you’d also validate their belief in prayers. You would provide the soothing background muzak that says prayer is good, prayer is virtuous, prayer will connect you to the great lord who can do anything, prayer will give you solace in your time of worry. You would not raise your voice to say that prayer is useless, prayer is self-defeating, that while prayer might make you feel better while your child is suffering, that is no virtue. You pray yourselves. You think it is a noble and generous act for your representatives to prowl the corridors of hospitals, preying on the desperation of the sick. You abase yourselves before false hopes, and sacrifice human dignity on an altar built from the bones of the dead. You would spread the poison, piously excusing yourselves because you only want to administer sub-lethal doses.

The specific views in this case weren’t exactly inspired by Christianity, but I guess they considered themselves Catholic as well.  And I doubt Shamar sees much difference between one “sky faerie” and another.

And I don’t see much difference between shoving all believers into this narrow box and throwing all atheists in with other notable atheists such as Lenin and Pol Pot.

Besides, how much did religion really have to do with it?  The family submitted to chemotherapy and rejected it only after experiencing its side effects.  Perhaps religion was something to hide behind.  Perhaps it was something they were driven to in their search for an alternative.

But I suppose the question remains:  Is Daniel, a thirteen year old with disabilities related to a difficult delivery, capable of making this decision himself?

Daniel Hauser, Hauser

I find it somehow interesting that in 1918 we had a deadly flu pandemic sweep the nation and the world, infecting at least a quarter of the population and taking more lives than the killing machine of the Great War. . . and then we virtually forgot about it.  It seems less a part of our collective memories than even the Black Plague.  Perhaps we had other things on our minds.  Perhaps the censorship played its role.  But life in America hardly went untouched as whole communities fell ill and children played jump rope.

All the while chanting:

I had a little bird
Its name was Enza.
I opened up the window
And in-flu-enza.

Now we have the Great Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009 and it seems all we can talk about.  Twitter is full of people alternately sounding the alarm and mocking the concerned.  My Google Alerts for homeschooling are peppered with articles about the swine flu, and even while waiting five minutes in the office of my infectious disease doctor I listened while the receptionist fielded two calls from other doctors about whether it would be wise to treat all flus with Tamiflu.  (The answer was no for fear of it losing its effectiveness.)

I can’t say I’m scared of this thing at this point, but I’m a long way from mocking.  After all, the 1918 flu was not taken particularly seriously early on and the government continued to encourage huge rallies for the war effort which may have facilitated its spread.  But I still think the intense interest is mostly a diversion from, or indulgence in, our general anxiety about the economy and other issues we are facing as a nation right now.

And I can’t seem to get away from it.

Now the Charter Schools Examiner over at Examiner.com is recommending “In case of swine flu school closures talk to homeschoolers” and I have mixed feelings about the advice.  I’m all for talking to homeschoolers.  In general, we are a pretty enthusiastic and helpful lot.  If you’re stressing about what to do with your kids, a seasoned homeschooler will likely be able to calm you down and keep the situation in perspective while your children exchange germs in the backyard.

But whatever it is a public school family does during a flu-related school closing hardly constitutes homeschooling.  I picture 60,000 students (OK, probably less than half that) fumbling awkwardly through a textbook while mom asks what the teacher normally does before she sends them off to read and answer the questions at the end of the chapter with the encouragement to “just do your best.”  I picture the majority of these families walking away from the experience a little overwhelmed, relieved it’s over and reinforced in the opinion that “I could never homeschool my children.”

Two weeks is a long time to play substitute teacher for your child’s classroom teacher, and without the benefit of lesson plans or even the bag of tricks most substitute teachers acquire over the years.  And isn’t that really all these families are being asked to do:  substitute until the schools reopen?  What other option is there when the goal from the beginning is to put them back in school?

If you’re stuck in that situation, ask all the questions you want.  I’m sure most homeschoolers would be delighted for the opportunity to help you out.  Just don’t call it homeschooling.

_________________________

And for the homeschooler in you, a wonderful documentary on the 1918 flu pandemic.  You may want to watch it before sharing it with young children.  Mine watched it, but there is something eerie about mass graves and children playing on coffins.

Photo courtesy Town of Burlington Massachusetts official website

homeschool homeschooling swine flu

Well, I’m halfway through The Week I Dreaded.  One week out of the hospital, kids back to homeschooling, husband back to work and a pile of doctor appointments just to top it off.  I’m still on crutches, still am unable to carry much of anything (including my precious little baby who previously thought the sling was the only place to nap) and still have to take three hours out of every day to just sit around and wait for the antibiotics to drip into my veins through the PICC line.

Everyone keeps telling me to “hang in there.”  To try not to let this get me down.  That frustration and even slight depression is normal with these kinds of things involving a slow and sometimes painful recovery.  Even my insurance company called to tell me about my behavioral health benefits, ask me a ton of questions about my general mood and leave me with a list of signs that could indicate I should seek professional help.  That all came along with the approval for the home health nurse to come out and visit me on the only two days a week I’m not seeing a doctor of some sort.

And all I’m thinking is, “Hey! I can make myself a cup of tea now!” or “I was able to get out of bed all by myself for the first time yesterday!”  Yes, we take great delight in the little things around here.  But this is the thing.  Every day I feel better.  I feel stronger.  And compared to two weeks ago while I lay crying with the most intense pain I have experienced. . . which caused the room to swirl before me purely from the pain. . .I feel great.

And I’m blessed with loving friends in a good church who have organized meals for our family, have volunteered to take turns watching my children so I can go to appointments and are canceling a bible study to come out and clean my house.  Who can sit around and feel sorry for themselves when met with such an outpouring of generosity?

(And we just bought a house which gives me no end of things to day dream about while I sit on my little spot nestled in pillows on the couch.  But that is something else entirely.)

Back to homeschooling.  Things have been going pretty well.  We haven’t gotten as much done as I would have liked, but perhaps more than I actually expected.  My son even asked if we could start early today because he knows I have a “challenge project” planned.  After all, he was there when we bought the straws and his little mind is racing to try to figure out what on earth mom is planning with a milk jug, tooth picks and straws.  And what that all has to do with amphibians.

But it feels good to do a little something, to have a bit of the old routine and, most importantly, not feel like a useless bump on the couch.  A little purpose to each day, even if it is a seemingly small purpose: do just a little better than the day before.

homeschool homeschooling

Rare for me, but a firm “what she said” to Valerie over at Home Education Magazine on the recent firestorm over vaccines and homeschoolers.  Her conclusion, backed up with nifty graphs and summaries:

In any case, homeschooling is not the cause of the choice to not vaccinate.   That cause, in the noted cases, is an objection to vaccination.

Case in point:  here, we are up in arms about 131 cases of measles.  In Canada, it is mumps with 116 confirmed cases.  Traced not to homeschoolers, but to the Netherlands Reformed community.  Who, as it turns out, also seems to have been responsible for outbreaks of measles and rubella, outbreaks which were perhaps more dangerous because the students attended their own private school, thus contributing to a quicker rate of transmission.  And I wonder, if we are concerned about partial coverage of vaccines…wait…this news is somewhat older, May of ‘07, but anyone born between 1970 and 1992 are at risk because the triple MMR has been shown to not provide enough coverage for some people?  That covers most of the vaccine’s thirty year history!  But I digress.

Anyway, if we are concerned about the the partial coverage of vaccines and the small percentage of vaccinated children and adults who can contract one of these diseases despite two rounds of the injections, I would think the greatest concern would not be among homeschoolers, but among those populations who reject for whatever reason and send their children to school.

It is a topic I have been thinking a lot about recently, and I have even pondered just keeping my opinion to myself because I got somewhat tired of the emails I received after first discussing my daughter’s ulcerative colitis.  I have always supported a parent’s right to make decisions regarding prevantative health, and any time I have mentioned vaccines on this blog I have argued against government mandates.

But I am quickly learning that not all people have that view, and it is not only those who trust the government to make better decisions regarding the health of my children.  After that entry on my daughter’s ulcerative colitis, I was inundated by emails.  Most were supportive.  Even most of those which encouraged me to look at this or that alternative treatment were generally supportive.

But I also got my fair share of “You call yourself a Christian, yet…”  My faith, my parenting and my intellectual abilities were all called into questioned by an impassioned few who thought that my decision to follow the doctor’s recommendations was evidence of trusting man over God, science over faith.  It was a bit of a shock and I composed more than a few responses which vented all my frustration over my daughter’s chronic illness at these new “enemies” who were a little more tangible to me than the disease my daughter suffers from.  I did not have a lot of nice things to say, but at least I did not hit “send” on any of them.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s are not well-understood, but the best model at the moment contends that it is an overactive immune system attacking its own internal organs.  Medications, such as steroid treatments, which suppress the immune system can bring the disease under control and put it back into remission.  Mouse was on these medications for a very short time and most of that was the tapering off period.  Yes, I read all the side effects.  Yes, it made me a bit nervous when I received two phone calls from the nurse emphasizing the fact that should my daughter end up in the emergency room with suicidal or murderous thoughts, they were under no circumstances to take her off the medications or the situation would get worse.  I completely understand why parents look at that and say, “No way!”

Funny thing is, my daughter’s emotional frenzy we had been attempting to cope with prior to her diagnosis completely levelled out within a week of beginning the medications.  It was like we suddenly had our daughter back.

But this brings me back to the vaccine issue.  While on these medications, Mouse could not receive vaccinations, nor could she be around unvaccinated children.  Nor could she be around sick children because her weakened immune system might not be able to fight off an infection.  At first, I was relieved she was not in school.  After all, I wouldn’t have to worry about any and everything being passed around in her school.  But then I started realizing just how big this “pocket” of unvaccinated children is among homeschoolers.

That, I suppose, is why I stuck so long on this statement by Jennifer Margulis which Spunky selected for her post:

“People say, ‘You’re putting my kid at risk, but that doesn’t make any sense at all,’” she said. “If the vaccine works, I’m just putting my child at risk.” MSNBC

But it isn’t true.  Like I said, I respect the rights of parents to make these decisions for their own children, but we need to make these decisions and the resulting public arguments based on truth.  If that is the result of her own research, I am not all that impressed.  Her children aren’t the only ones put at risk.  My daughter is at least some of the time, and many more thousands of children are as well.  These numbers from the article stuck with me:

In the first seven months of this year, 131 cases of measles were reported to the CDC, compared to 42 cases in all of last year. Of that total, 112 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status, the CDC said. Some were too young for vaccination, but in 63 of those cases the patient or their parents had refused the shots.

112 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.

63 of those refused the vaccination.

That leaves 49 measles cases in unvaccinated people who did not refuse vaccinations.  Do they all fall into this “too young” demographic?  Or how many could not tolerate vaccines due to health issues, medications or a prior history of problems with vaccines?

And should my daughter have another flare up and should we again opt for the steroid treatment which worked so well for her, do we ask Sunday School teachers and homeschool groups about the vaccination status of the children in their care?  Or do we just stay home from church and other social gatherings as well?

homeschool vaccinations measles mumps

So, yeah. I’m asking for money. Except that we won’t actually ever see or touch any of it. It all just goes directly to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, a private organization supporting research and education dedicated to helping those suffering from Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis to lead healthier, fuller lives.

Our family will be participating in a benefit walk on June 7 and we are looking forward to meeting some people in person who are also living with this disease. And hoping to raise a little extra money for the foundation. It has already proven to be an excellent source of information and encouragement and we are not even actually members yet.  Oh, and since I haven’t really written that much about it here, you can read all my wishy-washy personal journey type posts over at my personal blog.  The top one looks a lot like this one, but the rest aren’t.

So anyway…if you got online today just wondering what tax deductible donations you could make to foundations you likely hadn’t heard of before at the request of someone you have never met, have I got the thing for you! Or you could just click over to see the picture of my daughter on a horse. You would not believe how excited she was to get to ride that horse. Before that, her yearly highlight was always the members’ appreciation night at the zoo when the pony rides are free.

If interested, all you have to do is click on the drop down menu at the top of the fund raising page and click on my name (it is the only one there right now since my children are all under 13). It will give you the instructions from there. And if you like donating other people’s money to foundations you have never heard of at the recommendation of strangers on the internet, they even have the paperwork for matching contributions from your employer. Thanks to my mom’s employer, we already reached our first goal. Maybe we set our sights too low.

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support. We really appreciate them!

Some things are just a little difficult to talk about with children. But some of these things can be deadly if not taken seriously. This post and the links associated contain very adult themes, but unfortunately discuss behaviors of children.

At least 82 youths have died from the so-called “choking game,” according to the first government count of fatalities from the tragic fad. CBS News

What is the “choking game?” Essentially, a game in which adolescents strangle themselves to experience the resulting giddiness associated with the sudden return of blood flow. Eighty two deaths may not sound like that many over the course of the year, but statistics on this activity are difficult to compile. Some studies suggest that the practice is a little more common than we might like to admit.

As many as 20 percent of teens and preteens play the game, sometimes in groups, according to some estimates based on a few local studies. But nearly all the deaths were youths who played alone, according to the count complied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ibid.

A danger of the public schools? Too much socialization? MomLogic received a response to the reporting of this topic that hits a little closer to home.

Thank you so much for posting this and informing parents. December 11th marked three years since the death of our 16-year-old son from this “game.” We homeschool our children and you’d think our son would have been somewhat sheltered from knowing about this, but he still found out, “played” and died. His two younger brothers found him, which has been a difficult time of healing for them. Talk to your kids about this just as you would drugs, sex, strangers, etc. It’s my daily prayer that my son’s death will help save other kids’ lives. MomLogic

I can’t imagine. A little digging uncovered Loni’s blog, and the story of her son Matthew. His story is not any more tragic because he came from a loving family, a homeschooling family, a Christian family than it would be if he came from any other kind of family. But it makes it seem more threatening, at least to me. This story brings with it evidence that there is no full-proof way to protect our children from the evils of the world.

And there are some things we just do not talk about.

When I first heard of the “choking game,” I actually thought it was referring to something else. Something I first heard about while working with children who were wards of the state. Something that I am even more reluctant to discuss in detail, but it is mentioned in the CBS article which gives some inaccurate information.

Autoerotic asphyxiation does not involve predominantly adult males. Consider the following:

• AEA is most commonly seen in males, ages 13-20.
• Adolescent victims are usually well-adjusted, non-depressed high achievers.
• AEA deaths may account for as many as 6.5% of all teenage suicide, and at least 31% of all adolescent hangings.

From: When Self-Pleasuring Becomes Self-Destruction (pdf)

Well-adjusted, teenage boys. It is a frightening thought, one that I as an adult cannot quite come to terms with. Just how do you breech such a topic with a child? Unfortunately, it may be all too necessary to figure out how…especially since silence may be deadly.

More information: GASP, Games Adolescents Shouldn’t Play, Still Loving My Gabriel.

_____

For something a little more upbeat, see how to show children love with a lump of coal.

Or visit the Carnival of Libertarians hosted at Consent of the Governed.

[tags]homeschooling, parenting, choking game[/tags]

America, it seems, is bent on blaming everyone but the perpetrator for the crimes they commit. Yes, we will put them in prison, but we frequently view them as yet another victim of circumstances, not fully culpable for their crimes. We look to the people and institutions around them, looking to assign blame and to find someone who somehow should have been able to peer into the future to see what was to happen. This sort of thought process directs policy and has victims of its own.

Jill Manges, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of severe sexual abuse and forced prostitution, was forced to choose between expulsion and a medical withdrawal after an episode in her French history class.  She chose the latter and is not even allowed to set foot on campus for one year.

Michelle Pomerleau overdosed on prescription drugs, a situation her counselor says has now been corrected with her new medication. While she was still in the hospital, however, she received a letter.

“I am concerned for your well-being, Michelle, but your behavior is impacting other students in a negative manner,” wrote a school vice president in a letter delivered while Pomerleau was still in the hospital. Chicago Tribune

Jordan Nott, who was forced to leave George Washington University after seeking help from the counseling center for depression.

Nicole D’Antonio, who sought treatment from the Eastern Illinois University’s counseling center for bulimia in 2004 and ended up on medical leave instead:

“I was told that I was too much of a liability,” she explained. She returned to Charleston the next semester, after participating in an eating disorders program. But when she relapsed a month later and confided in a counselor, she was asked to leave campus again, she said. Chicago Tribune

Washington-based Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, an organization which represents such cases, reports that they used to get about one call per month.  Now it is once per week.  The turning point appears to have been 2002, when Elizabeth Shin committed suicide by setting herself on fire in her dorm.  The case was eventually settled out of court, with MIT paying the family a whopping $27.65 million.  When it looked like the case was going to go to trial, an amicus brief describes the effects of such suits,

In 2006, when it appeared likely the case would go to trial, AACRAO joined the American Council on Education and six other professional organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) brief. The brief, filed by Boston law firm Hogan & Hartson, argued in essence that, in its ruling allowing the case to go forward, “the Superior Court found that non-clinician university employees are obliged to prevent a student’s suicide based on a ‘special relationship’ purportedly created by the ‘foreseeability’ of the student’s act. As explained in the accompanying brief, this holding has engendered the opposite of its intended effect. By imposing a legal duty on non-clinician university personnel to detect and prevent student suicides, it has fostered perverse incentives for members of campus communities to disengage from troubled students’ lives….”  AACRAO

Although the case did not go to trial, the fact that a judge allowed the suit to go forward has universities worried about what kind of liability they may have should something happen.  So they have “disengaged from troubled students’ lives,” sending those who seek help or have visible signs of mental illness away.  I cannot help but wonder if a federal law designed to protect students from such treatment may actually be making it more difficult for school officials to weigh individual circumstances.

Federal law permits a school to remove a mentally ill student for disruptive behavior, but only if the institution would act against other students for similar conduct, according to the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.  Chicago Tribune 

To protect themselves from law suits, university officials are being forced to distance themselves from any student who has displayed evidence of mental illness, resulting in the expulsion of those who seek help and fear in those who have not.

Right now, at least, universities must rely on behavior and the type of help sought  by students.  What, do you suppose, might happen if TeenScreen becomes more widely available and accepted as a means of detecting mental illness in adolescents?

[tags]education, mental illness, teenscreen, suicide university, college, higher ed[/tags]

Update: It looks like my initial concern regarding the shooter’s religion and his mental health may not have been totally unfounded (emphasis mine):

Gothard’s teachings have been criticized by other conservative Christians who allege that he has deviated from true Bible teaching. He takes a stand against rock music — even Christian rock — and is suspicious of modern medicine, believing in spiritual roots of disease. He is against women working outside the home, and certain toys. Gothard warned followers in a 1986 letter that Cabbage Patch dolls can cause “strange, destructive behavior.” STLtoday

I do not think that homeschooling had anything to do with this, nor even strict religious beliefs. But I do have a concern that his mental illness was not being properly treated. We can blame the music if we want, but if you read his postings and if they have any accuracy whatsoever, he tried Jesus first. And when that didn’t work, he turned to the occult. He sounds much more like a young man with serious mental health issues, seeking an answer no one could give him.

And back to the original post…

An interesting discussion has begun in response to my post about the shootings in Colorado. Julie of Shanan Trail brought up a question about how Christians in particular view mental illness in light of her experience with her daughter.

What I have found in the homeschooling and Christian community is almost a denial that mental illness is real. Behavioral problems are all blamed on sin. I cannot tell you how often people who have never walked in my shoes take issue with my medicating my child or how often I have read blog entries in the homeschooling community addressing the issue of medication for childhood behavioral problems.

It is a view I have seen as well, although it is generally expressed as a general disdain for mental health professionals and any medications designed to aid the mentally ill. An article posted on the Internet by the Kingdom Baptist Church expresses this view well. It is summarized perfectly in the opening sentence of the third paragraph:

I do not like the counterfeit religions of psychology and psychiatry.

He goes on with typical divisiveness, accusing those who disagree of replacing God’s word with a lie:

Christians everywhere need to stand strong against this lie! Christians are intimidated to embrace the new religion of psychiatry with its new “biological, medical model”, just like many embraced psychology decades ago. Psychiatry, with its drugs, pills, diseases, and brain chemistry terminology, is too much for many to contend against. Why not simply embrace it, give in to the monster, and let it share a place beside our Christianity? It is a trick! Even many secular leaders can see through the scam. Replacing God’s truth (as revealed in the inspired Scriptures) with psychiatric brain dope is to embrace a broken cistern…

I do not know how pervasive this type of thinking is, and I suspect it isn’t really necessarily a uniquely Christian viewpoint. Mental illness is difficult to understand. I have run into this thinking most often among fundamentalist Christians, but I heard it first from the Scientologists. After each of these types of tragedies, my email box begins to fill with speculations about what kinds of psychotropic drugs the perpetrator was taking and how the field of psychiatry is to blame.

An article by WorldNet Daily which exposes the “shocking link between psychiatric drugs, suicide, violence and mass murder” connects several shootings with the medications the murderers were on and has been emailed to me more times than I can count.

But I have two very simple questions regarding this hypothesized connection. With “tens of millions of Americans” taking these medications and the extreme rarity of mass murder, how can we be so sure that the medication has any connection to the crimes? Is it not more likely that the underlying mental illness which presumably prompted the prescription is to blame?

This question is impossible to study in a controlled laboratory. It would require too large a sample size, given the rarity of these sorts of events, even with the prevalence of psychotropic drugs being used to treat the mentally ill. And it would involve leaving people with known problems untreated to see if they were any more likely to commit murder.

But the rising concerns of suspected over use of such strong medications has led the Food and Drug Administration to issue warnings about prescribing these medications which resulted in a dramatic drop in their use in 2004 and 2005.

The warnings led to a broad decline in SSRI prescriptions for all patients younger than 60, [Professor of psychostatistics and psychology Robert] Gibbons said. Prescription rates continued to rise among those older than 60, and this was the only group in which suicides dropped between 2003 and 2004, his study found. The Washington Post

With what is described as a “precipitous drop” in the prescribed use of medications such as Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil, suicide amongst American teenagers soared, rising 14% in a single year, the largest since the government began collecting suicide statistics. The phenomenon was more striking in the Netherlands. With a 22% decrease in the use of anti-depressants, they saw a 49% increase in teen suicides between 2003 and 2005.

While other bloggers have looked at this case and postulated the involvement of psychotropic drugs (see the comment section on Why Homeschool’s entry), my first reaction was the opposite. Particular with his involvement in a fundamentalist church, founded by Ted Haggard (made famous by his involvement with the youth camp better known as “Jesus Camp” because of the movie), I questioned first whether his mental illness was being treated at all. Or was this troubled young man being treated with only the laying on of hands, prayer and admonitions to read the bible?

Please do not misunderstand me. These medications are strong, with a list of side effects that is frightening. And some of the more common side effects of these medications are often the very symptoms they are designed to relieve. Little is known about their effects in children and their use should always be monitored by trained professionals who can chart their progress. Parents need to be well-educated about what to watch for. But mental illness is equally as frightening, both for the victim and the victim’s family. Unfortunately, children can suffer from these serious diseases, as well.

If we shun the use of all psychotropic drugs, how are we to treat mental illness? And will our children suffer as a result?

[tags]pharmakia, mental illness, fundamentalism, Christianity[/tags]

The New York Times is reporting that that the New Jersey Public Health Council will be voting on a new rule today (Monday) that will require the addition of four new vaccines to the schedule, including one for any child entering school or daycare.

The flu vaccine is one of four that the council will consider. There is a vaccine that would be given to children entering day care or preschool to protect against pneumonia, and two others that would be given to those entering sixth grade: one to guard against meningococcal disease, a fast-killing strain of meningitis, and the other an additional booster of a three-part shot already administered at a younger age against tetanus, pertussis and diptheria. The New York Times

I am probably more neutral on the whole vaccine debate than your average homeschooler, but there is one thing in this discussion I am not neutral on: who should make the decision.

It concerns me that so much of our children’s health decisions are being made by bureaucracies which are not directly responsible to anyone, yet subject to the pressures of lobbyist organizations. What vaccinations my child is subject to should be between me and our family’s pediatrician without the pressure of health insurance companies, government agencies and pressure from vaccine manufacturers.

I do believe that a number of these vaccines have played a large role in improving public health in America and that you are safe in opting out of most or even all of them due to the fact that most Americans are vaccinated. Because of these and other health factors such as nutrition and clean water, some childhood diseases are now virtually unheard of, introduced only by unvaccinated immigrants.

On the other hand, there is the concern with mercury levels and other potential side effects of vaccines. There are questions about the long-term effects of vaccines, both in its proposed link to autism and in its overall effectiveness against the diseases they are designed to prevent. Chicken pox, for example, is an uncomfortable illness but is not generally fatal. It can be considerably more dangerous to the elderly, however. Is the immunity from the vaccination as long-lasting as it is from contracting the disease? Is the slight benefit to children worth the potential risk as they age?

The overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobial cleaners and hand sanitizers has been linked to the development of “supergerms” such as MRSA and other antibiotic resistant diseases. Treating every infection with a round of antibiotics has proven to have unintended consequences. Is it possible that the same could be true of the overuse of vaccinations?

I believe there is a strong case for the routine vaccination of children against diseases such as pertussis, diptheria and polio. But the flu? Chicken pox? Rubella? Every few years, it seems, new vaccinations are added to the schedule as we seek to stamp out all disease, all discomfort. But not all the questions regarding the increased use of vaccines have been answered and they are not likely to be so long as so much of the money for research is coming from those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Hat Tip: The Not Quite Crunchy Parent, who shares some more interesting links. A User Friendly Vaccination Schedule is also an interesting read. And this one from the Huffington Post raises a few questions, but without any sources, I am not sure how to follow up on any of the information.

[tags]health, vaccines, CDC, education[/tags]

Yesterday, I got my hair cut and, not being well-versed in idle chit chat with complete strangers, I was relieved that my hairdresser did not have much to say. A neighboring patron, however, more than made up for our silence. As she pried into the social lives of everyone in the room, I wondered why it was that we were the ones made uncomfortable by her breaking the unwritten code of hair salon conduct.

Are your parents still married?

Um, no.

Why not.

(no answer)

Why not? (louder)

Um, my dad is an alcoholic. Mom got tired of it.

Said customer then launched into a lengthy rant about alcoholics and how she did not blame the stylist’s mother one bit. Even as the stylist became quieter and more noticeably agitated. I thought she was about to burst into tears, but another customer spared her with a question and a topic change.

Amidst offending my stylist to the point she had to leave the room for a moment and ruffling the feathers of even the elderly lady next to her who seemed the only one willing to set clear boundaries as to what conversation was appropriate, she said one thing which stuck with me.

The elderly lady had just gotten her hair colored. While they chatted about that, the stylist asked if that was something she was considering.

Goodness, no. I’ve earned every one of these gray hairs.

An interesting perspective. I have always hoped I would be able to grow old gracefully. Take wrinkles and gray hairs in stride. I suppose it helps that I have never particularly prided myself on any aspect of my physical appearance, but I still wonder if it will all be as graceful when it strikes. My first gray hairs I discovered in college, for me, merely added one more color to the interesting rainbow that is my natural hair color. I’m not so sure I will be so amused when they turn to visible streaks.

The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head. (Proverbs 20:29)

Our culture venerates youth. Beauty, vigor, spontaneity, impulsivity and a lifestyle devoted to the here and now are held in high regard by a society fearful of growing old. In a recent email exchange, someone made a slightly condescending statement about “those of us who were able to maintain a childlike view of the world…” I know what is meant in that, and frankly the person did not know me well enough to judge my view of the world based on what little I had revealed. But it left me wondering why this “childlike view of the world” is so highly esteemed by adults. Are we not to be raising chilren to adulthood, not regressing ourselves back to childhood?

But we hate the thought of getting old, either physically or mentally. In My Generation by The Who, lead Vocalist Roger Daltrey sings,

Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

In 1965, Daltrey even vowed to commit suicide before he reached 30 because he did not want to grow old.

And everyone in my generation should remember this one:

I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys R’ Us kid.
A million toys to choose from, that I can play with.
From bikes to trikes and video games,
It’s the biggest toy store there is…Gee Wiz!
I don’t wanna grow up,
‘Cause baby if I did…
I wouldn’t be a Toys R’ Us kid!

Why don’t we want to grow up? And why do we seem to have so little respect for the experience and wisdom which comes with aging? We prefer to depict our parents and grandparents as dottering old fools, teetering on the edge of dementia then afford them the honor earned by their years. At the same time, we identify with teenagers in our dress, activities and speech, denying to all (and most especially ourselves) that we will ever be like the generations which precede us. When that fails, and we are confronted by our age, we hold on to the notion that we are still “young at heart.”

When was the last time you thought that the beauty of any person rested in a gray head? And as we look forward to each gray hair with increasing dread, do we not take away some of the joy of the life we have been given? I’m not sure what he was referring to exactly, but La Bruyere apparently once said,

Most men spend the first part of their lives in making the latter part miserable.

Excessive fixation on trying to defeat the effects of time seem destined to ensure us of just that.