1. Obviously the vaccinations are the first. Yes, there are some that are a good idea, but there are bunch that are completely unnecessary and could potentially be harmful. Plus, in nature, our bodies are meant to learn to fight off illness, why are we teaching out newborns' bodies how to NOT do that?
2. Braces. A majority of people I know with kids have been told they need braces. I'd estimate 75% of those people never got their kid the braces and all those kids' teeth are fine. I have really good teeth (straightness wise) and some of those kids who "needed" braces and never got them have better teeth than me! It's all based on "overbite". An overbite is like lower back pain, someone can say it exists and you just have to take their word for it. And it's easy to do because EVERYONE has an overbite. That's the way your teeth are supposed to go. Unless your kid has crooked teeth, and I mean seriously crooked, don't waste your money. And don't waste you money if your kids teeth are a little crooked. There is some value in individuality.
3. The Orthopedic Helmet. This is a new craze I've been hearing pop up a lot lately. Not too long after your baby is born your doctor will say, "oh, your baby's head is misshapen and he needs an Orthopedic Helmet". B-u-l-l-s-h-i-t! Every baby's head is misshapen and that's the way they're supposed to be. Nobody's head is perfectly round. Could you imagine what it would be like if everyone on the planet had a perfectly shaped head and they all looked the same? We could just shave out heads and look like aliens.
The key to the Braces and the Orthopdeic Helmet are that they get you when the child is young enough that the problem hasn't corrected itself. Of course the baby's head is misshapen, it just squeezed between it's mothers legs. But a baby's head will harden and change shape as it grows up. They always suggest the helmet before that. And the "overbite" is another thing that changes as the child grows and it's always suggested to the kid when they are young enough that the growing process isn't done. These doctors know exactly what they're doing and they know that your fear (and your assumption that the doctor is always right) will help them sell you some shit that you don't need. If you walked into a Bestbuy and the salesman told you that you really needed this little elctronic device that you could put on your kid and it would help them stay healthy or in a beauty store they try to sell you an expensive piece of plastic that will help keep your kids' teeth straight, you'd shrug it off as another unnecessary gadget. But if a doctor told you that you needed it to keep your kid healthy or keep their teeth straight, you'd be 10 times more likely to buy it. And they know that.
But the thing that really freaks me out is that these doctors can sell this shit because we as a people have decided that we need to eliminate anything about us that sets us apart from everyone else. Everybody wants to look perfect, but in looking perfect we ultimately will just all look the same. You have a couple crooked teeth, you're head is a little more pointed at the top, you have a birthmark in a visible area. Those are the things that make you YOU.
And where did nature go so wrong that man has had to step in a fix all it's problems? Nature created us with the ability to come in contact with an illness, figure it out and learn to fight it off. But you have to let the human body do that in order for a person to have a strong immune system. Nature made it possible for the baby's head to be soft so it can squeeze out of the mother. It's supposed to be that way. We have decided as a people that nature is wrong and that we can do better, but so far we haven't done anything that even compares to what nature has provided. and every time our cocky asses try, people get sick or get killed.
Besides, do you really want to put you kid through this? This kid would have hated his parents a lot less if his head were out of shape.
Your blog makes me feel I need to defend myself. It seems you always have a strong opinion on something that is going on in my life but you only share it by way of this blog. Yes, Luna is getting braces. Her top teeth completely cover her bottom teeth and her bottom teeth touch the roof of her mouth. On top of that she has something like a overbite on the left side of her mouth. Her bottom teeth are all angling inward and she has a few top teeth twisted. These things have been apparent in Luna's mouth for a long long time and only continue to get worse as she grows older. I have talked to dentists and orthodontists and even people who have braces. They do orthodontia work earlier now, because the teeth are easier to move as soon as the adult teeth come in and they hit the pre-teen growth spurt. Doing it now will be less painful and take less time and can be easily maintained while she finishes 'growing up' - teeth actually will continue moving all your life. Kind of like that gerbil we had that lost it's top teeth and his bottom teeth would just keep growing. Our teeth will continue to move up or down if there is not a tooth on the other side to stop it, causing the roots to become exposed. It is not only something we are doing for Luna for medical reasons, but also for her self esteem. Since about 1st grade she has been self conscious about smiling for pictures. This way - by the time she is 13 she will have nice straight teeth and one less thing to worry about when it comes to looking pretty. Now I have seen kids at school in 2nd grade with braces and that is just insane... we always knew we would not make any choice about Luna and braces until all her adult teeth came in. I also agree that helmet thing is crap. But I do believe there are good doctors out there who are not in it just for money and genuinely care about people and want to help you feel and live better. Sometimes it is just hard to find them.
ReplyDeleteWasn't about you.
ReplyDeleteHi, I thought you should know some infants do need the helmets. My nephew is 5 months old and his head is completely flat in the back. The helmets are not BS. It can cause medical problems if the head remains like that. It is at the point where it will not correct itself. It's nice that you have an opinion, but know the facts. Plus, would you want your kids getting made fun of for having a flat head? If you think someone would be self conscious about teeth..what do you think about the whole head...which you can't just hide?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it probably will correct itself. At least somewhat. 5 months old is nowhere near old enough to have the head reshape or to know how much it will. It was a blind guess. That doctor couldn't have used any facts to suggest a helmet because there is no way of knowing yet. All I know, is that from the more than dozen accounts from people who HAD children with misshaped heads where they DIDN'T use a suggested helmet, ALL of them turned out fine. That's a 100% success rate. Now days, a doctor sees a misshaped head and sees dollar signs. The doctor is ripping of you brother or sister.
ReplyDeleteSecond, everybody's head should be a different shape. That's normal. We aren't meant to look the same. I've know quite a few people who have had heads that are flatter in the back and they all looked fine, never got made fun of and a couple where very popular. Surprisingly enough, not all kids are superficial dicks like you are.
Third, encouraging having a medical treatment done in order to feel better about yourself is shit. Teaching a child that they need to change they way they look because of what other people think makes you an idiot, thank you for being a part of the blog I created about you...
maybe your sister/brother should not have left the baby laying on the back of it's head for so long. I don't know anyone today that has a completly flat head... unless your nephew is missing part of his skull it WILL shape out fine where it is not even noticable without a goofy plastic helmet...
ReplyDeleteWell my daughter has a pretty flat heqad in the back she is 9 months old and the neurosergeon just told me yesterday that she needs to get a helmet, my insurance pays for it because it is a deformity wont cast me a thing.
ReplyDeleteAgain, everyone is supposed to be different. When did being different become a deformity? You need to not let your kid sleep in the same position all the time. It doesn't matter who pays for it, the doctors are selling you crap that isn't needed. There are a number of very simple answers for a flat spot. One of them being, everyone is unique. Your kids head might not end up perfectly round and that's should be okay but the fashion magazines and TV tell us that we need to all look the same and be 100% blemish free. So you get so freaked out at the thought that your kid might not be perfectly shaped that you are having your insurance pay for some crap that your kid doesn't need which is probably not helping everyone else's insurance rates in the process. Just because you aren't paying for it, doesn't mean the money isn't coming from somewhere. It's coming out of everyone else's pockets. You're talking about a device that has no real statistics because nobody really knows if they work, or if the head wouldn't have just reshaped on it's own. Seeing as most adults today have round heads and these devices didn't exist back when they were babies, basic reasoning leads me to believe they are useless and you are gullible. I would imagine that more babies today have flat spots because they are being left in their cribs for longer because we have way too many absent parents who are too busy to pay attention to their babies. And the doctor's picked up on it and are cashing in. But I forgot that a doctors word is almighty and he could never be wrong... No doctor has ever been wrong, ever. What am I thinking!
ReplyDeleteI just can imagine how much a kid (who is teased at school) could hate his parents knowing that they had a chance to improve his head, and they did not. I have a girlfriend, whose child is 2 years old now, and his head is flat on one side, it is like a triangle in the back of his head. I wish doctors TOLD her about those helmets.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wish that every book that has "back to sleep" paragraph had one about it's "side effects"...
Okay. I understand that people are researching these orthopedic helmets and stumble across my blog so they are people who are probably in favor of getting one. But I don't need anymore, "Well my wife's cousin has a kid and blah blah blah." We get it. You know some one who's in desperate need of an orthopedic helmet. But really what they need is a swift kick in the head.
ReplyDeleteTo the most recent anonymous commenter. I don't give a shit how much a kid hatews their parents. It's not your job to make your kids like you and be their buddy. It's your job to raise them and part of that is teaching them to be happy with themselves and not care what other people think. Main point right there. The argument that other kids will make fun of them is you being a fucking idiot and having no desire to instill some self esteem into your child. Second, if you had taken two seconds to read and comprehend my blog post, you have seen that I have known a number of people with head that are misshaped. Some of them where in high school during teenage years and nobody made fun of them. Why does everyone think that all kids do is make fun of each other. I was not a popular kid in high school and there was always the one kid that made fun of me occasionally. That's a single bully who picks on everyone no matter what tgheir head is shaped like. But this idea that every kid in school is going to be pointing and laughing every day. It's just not like that and you have a very low opinion of our children as a whole.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you can't let your baby sleep on the same side every night. Your girlfriend created the problem and now her kid has to live with it. It is now part of who he is and that is okay. Just because you or your girlfriend are too lazy to teach your kid some self esteem doesn't mean he should ever be ashamed of himself.
And for the record. Yes, there are some kids who get older or get to adulthood who have flat spots. My biggest problem with the doctors is that they are telling people with babies who are 3, 4, 5 months old that they need this helmet, when most of the time the head reshapes on it's oh after that (unless you put your kid on the same side every night). They are creating fear and panic in parents in order to sell this device, most of which don't need it because their head would reshape on it's own. Yes, I know that some babies heads don't, but those numbers are far fewing than the amount of people that are buyinh into the helmet BS. And those case are usually caused by the parent.
So please, teach your kid to be proud of who they are and stop arguing with me about "what if my kid gets made fun of". Your kid is much more likely to be made fun of for being an idiot (hereditary) than for the shape of his head. But hey, life sucks, you can either boo hoo about it your whole life or you can realize you're better than that and move on.
I'm teaching my kid to move on.