Book Review -- The Vaccine Book

Today I will review The Vaccine Book by Robert W. Sears, M.D., F.A.A.P.

Let me start off by saying I'm not anti-vaccine. I'm not pro-vaccine either. Beanie is fully vaccinated, save MMR and chicken pox. She'll be getting the MMR shot soon and we're still deciding about the varicella vax. I know whether or not to vaccinate your child is a controversial and very personal decision, so let me say this. I don't really care whether or not you vaccinate your child; that is your decision. I do think that every parent should be informed about vaccinations instead of just going along with them because their pediatrician told them to. That's where I stand. I *wish* I had known more about vaccinations before signing off that Beanie would have the Hep B shot at birth, not because I definitely wouldn't have given it to her (although likely I would've delayed it a little) but because something was being injected into my daughter and I knew pretty much nothing about it. Knowledge is power. So, yea, that's where I stand so on to the book review...

While arguably Dr. Sears leans towards the anti-vaccine front (or at least pro delayed vaccine front), he does an excellent job of providing non-biased information in this book. He starts out with the AAP recommended schedule for vaccinations and then each chapter discusses a vaccine, from HiB to the new HPV vaccine. Each chapter describes the illness and whether it is common, serious and treatable. He then discusses when the vaccine is given and how the vaccine is made. He talks about the ingredients used to make the vaccine and whether or not any of them are considered controversial. There is a section titled Should you give your baby the x vaccine, but Dr. Sears never tells you yes or no; he states the reasons people choose to (or choose not to) get the vaccine and tells you the way he sees it. This thorough discussion ensues for every vaccine he goes over.

The last few chapters go over vaccine research, the ingredients, myths & questions about vaccines, and more. Sears also provides his own alternative vaccine schedule, which does result in full vaccination of your child but splits the combination vaccines up and spreads them out over a much longer period of time.

All in all, I think its a must read for every parent. He discusses vaccines in a manner anyone can understand and, like I said, knowledge is power. At the least, you should know what is recommended medically for your child before you go along with it. Just my two cents.

Book Review -- Super Baby Food

Well, I really liked writing that last book review so I think I will keep it going. Sort of makes me feel like I'm using my brain & adds a little depth to the blog :)

So, onward and upward with Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.

For those of you who don't know, I made all of Beanie's baby food. It is so easy! Seriously, if someone who dislikes cooking as much as I do and who procrastinates to no end can do it then anyone can. It doesn't take much time at all. I know people who take one weekend day and make a ton of food and freeze it. I was more the type to make one thing at a time and freeze and then do another a few days later. Worked out well for me. And, OMG, have you ever tasted commercial baby food? Yuck! The homemade stuff tastes so much better! In addition to wholesomebabyfood.com Ruth Yaron's book was my guide to homemade baby food.

By far the best part of Yaron's book is Appendix A which contains just about everything you could want to know on specific fruits and veggies, from acorn squash to zucchini. She tells you how old your child should be before trying the fruit or veggie, when they're in season, how to choose the best produce, and how to prepare and store the babyfood. This portion of the book I used over and over again.

Yaron doesn't quit with baby food recipes though. She has a whole section on healthy toddler and adult recipes too, including recipes for healthier birthday cakes. She also discusses how to make homemade yogurt (I haven't tried to do this, but I'd really like to someday), talks about baby safe cleaning products and has lots of arts & crafts ideas.

Overall its a good reference book and that is mostly what I used it for. In my opinion, Yaron pushes solid foods (and too much solid food) over breastmilk and formula, both of which are recommended to be a child's primary source of nutrition for their first year of life. The portions she recommends seem quite large for a pre-toddler, especially Beanie when she was that young. Heck, Beanie wasn't even really too interested in solid foods until after her 1st birthday so the portion sizes seemed enormous to me. And maybe the previous is my bias against the book. Seeing as how I became very pro-breastfeeding, Yaron's pushing of solid food at such a young age rubbed me the wrong way.

I would recommend the book to my friends though. I would suggest using it hand-in-hand with the Wholesome Babyfood site. I actually ended up using the website more than the book, but I was always glad when I had the book close by while I was steaming some fruits or vegetables for Beanie.


Okay, this review turned out a little less review-ish and a little more talk about me and talk about the book. Hmmm...we'll let it slide this time ;)

Book Review -- The Happiest Toddler on the Block

I've been thinking I should review the parenting books I read (and maybe others eventually) on the blog, so here goes nothing!

So the first book I'll review is The Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.

In the beginning of the book Karp describes toddlers as little cave people. He says that we, as parents, often assume toddlers are little adults but they are far from it. In fact, they are far from being even little children. I really liked the metaphor of toddlers as cave people and Beanie totally seems to fit the bill!

Since I have a big interest in psychology and neuropsychology I really enjoyed (read -- devoured) the section describing how toddler's brains are out of balance. Karp discusses how toddlers are slave to their right brains and how, due to the fight or flight response all of us experience, when they are upset the left half of the brain basically shuts down and the already dominant right half takes complete control. Karp describes the right half of the brain as "distractible, impulsive, and emotional." Yup, sounds like a toddler to me.

Karp focuses a lot on learning to communicate with your little cave dweller. When we, as parents, talk to our toddler as though they are little adults, or even little children, their primitive brains can't understand. We use too many words. Karp introduces the fast food rule and Toddler-ese. The fast food rule is "before telling an upset person your point of view, first repeat back how he's feeling." You know, like when you go through the drive thru at McDonalds and order the employee repeats back your order and then tells you the cost and to pull through to the first window. Toddler-ese is "a special language that's supereffective with upset toddlers made up of 3 simple steps: short phrases, lots of repetition and mirroring a bit of the child's feelings." And, yes, Toddler-ese does feel like a foreign language to me! It does make sense though so I am continuing to try.

Since the beginning of Karp's book was so interesting to me, I was really excited to see how he proposed dealing with what he calls green -, yellow -, and red-light behaviors. I was, however, sort of disappointed with his techniques, especially for yellow- and red-light behaviors.

I'll start with the green-light (or good) behaviors though, because I did think he had some pretty good ideas there. To promote green-light behaviors, Karp talks about time-ins. I really liked his ideas of star charts (a plus since Beanie is a huge fan of stickers and stamps). And what better way to promote good behavior than to reward it with a little time-in of play, praise and extra attention? He talks about giving options, playing the boob (basically acting like a dork...nothing to do with boobies for real!), teaching patience, creating routines, and planting seeds of kindness. I really enjoyed the green-light chapter of the book and thought there were plenty good ideas to take away from it.

But what do parents really want to know? How to curb bothersome or bad behavior, right? So, like any parent, I was pretty excited to move on to the yellow- and red-light chapters. This is where I got pretty disappointed though. I liked Karp's ideas for curbing yellow-light behaviors before they even start but his approaches to dealing with them when they do occur didn't sit too well with me. The first is the clap-growl. The clap-growl is "several loud claps followed by a low growl that is both a warning and a mild consequence that all cave-kids understand." The funny thing is that Glenn had been clap - no- ing to Beanie and it rubbed me the wrong way. After reading about it in Karp's book I asked him if he had too. He said no, so I guess clap-growl is instinctual to some extent, just not for me?! I guess the clapping doesn't bother me as much as the growling. It just gives me the wrong feeling in the pit of my stomach. The second technique is kind ingnoring. I agree that sometimes kiddos are doing annoying behaviors just because it is grabbing your attention, but turning your back and ignoring them gives me the idea that you are letting them think they are bad not that the behavior is bad. I did really like when Karp talked about forging win-win compromises with your toddler. He states that, in a toddler's mind, "fair" is not them winning 50% of the time, not even 60 or 70% of the time, but more like 90%. So, if you give in on the smaller things (like Beanie wanting to wear her water shoes all the time), then you can "win" on the bigger issues.

Red-light behaviors are dangerous behaviors that need to be stopped immediately. Dangerous or just breaking some important rules you have set as a family. Karps' techniques for dealing with red-light behaviors are time outs or giving a fine. As you can imagine from my "issues" with kind ignoring I don't really like the whole time-out idea. Giving a fine sits a little better with me, but Karp does say it works best for toddlers over age 3. I did like Karp's section on toddlers and saying "I'm sorry." He says that you should ask your toddler to say they're sorry, but not to insist on it.

Overall, I think it was a worthwhile read. You take some, you leave some...like with any parenting advice, right? I'm still on the hunt for some better techiniques for curbing bothersome and bad behaviors....