Going to be as quick as I can with today's blog. With the recent changes in regards to our children's health and safety, I am left wondering 2 things; a) how did I ever make it to adulthood? and b) since when is it the government's, or doctor's or anyone else's right to tell me how to raise and take care of my own child? Am I not the parent? It seems like anymore, they are trying to take away our parenting rights. What's next? Obviously some intentions are good ones, and some rules/laws need to be in place. Obviously a parent or guardian who is abusing their child, in any form, deserves to be punished and that child removed from that situation. That's not what I am talking about it here. I'm referring to the parents who are doing right by their kids, doing every we can do for them based on our own beliefs and values.
Let me explain. This week 2 major things have happened that I became aware of. One was the announcement of the AAP (American Academy of Pediatricians) changing their recommendation on when to change a child from a rear-facing car seat to a forward facing car seat, and the other was a bill in the New Jersey about making it harder for parents to obtain vaccine exemptions for their kids when entering school. Here, I'll provide you the links. NJ Vaccine Exemptions / AAP Update on carseat Safety
Let's delve into the latter first. The former recommendation was to change a child to forward facing at 1 year or 20 lbs. Most infant car-seats (the one that you see people carrying around) have a weight limit of 20 lbs. You had to also factor in the height of the child. My doctor had actually suggested I change my son to forward facing about a month before his 1st birthday since he had already met the weight and exceeded height. It was for the simple fact of his legs having nowhere to go. So I did, and I switched my doctor shortly after her 1st birthday. They now want you to keep them rear-facing until age 2. That means you need to buy a carseat that will accommodate the larger child and still be designed to be rear-facing. These convertible type seats have a weight limit Rear-Facing, of up to 35 lbs. But what do you do if your child is larger than the average 2 year old? My son was always off the charts for height. I understand their concerns, but I don't really know that this safer? So what if everyone does this...will the childhood death rate caused by car accidents go down? The verdict is out if you ask me, they can't know those statistics yet. What exactly leads them to this conclusion? Perhaps it's not a matter of rear or forward facing that we should be looking at. How about just better car-seats? Or better still, better roads and lower speed limits, and stricter punishments for exceeding them, and better monitoring on the roads...I'm not sure that changing the car seat recommendation is really the solution. People are still going to drive like idiots...accidents will still happen...is a child's head really better protected being rear facing? Even if you are hit in the rear?
When I was a baby - preschooler - their were very little laws or suggestions on car seat safety. I think after the age of what, 2 or 3, I no longer even had a car seat. I was never in the car for any car accidents my parents had, not that I know of. What I still try to figure out is how they think that keeping a child in a car seat booster until they are aged 8 or 80 lbs is better or safer than them sitting on the cars own seat? My son uses a car seat booster, he's 6 and about 50 something lbs, and as tall as an 8 year old. With his booster seat, which does not attach to anything in the car at all, causes his legs to dangle over the seat edge. If he was not in a booster seat I think his legs would touch the floor...in my mind, that is safer. Am I wrong? How so? How does him being in that booster protect him better than just sitting on the seat itself? My daughter was in her convertible car-seat for a while, but she is now also in a booster. I really wasn't ready to switch her into that, but I felt I had no choice because she kept un-buckling the 5 point harness system and basically then was not strapped in at all. I tried to use the cars seat belt with it as a high-back booster, but seat belt did not sit right acrossed her doing that, and it does with the backless one..but is she safe? The manufacturer of the seat says she's able to use it based on her height and weight. Personally I think their safety depends a lot on the operator of the vehicle. Are they following the rules of the road? Are they alert and keeping an eye on any idiot drivers? There is so much un-predictably when driving a car because you can't trust other drivers...it just shouldn't be that way. And why is that my son does not need a car seat or even a seat belt on his school bus?? Hmmm....I don't understand.
When I found out about this topic via Facebook, there was a comment made by someone I do not know who intends to keep her children rear-facing until the age of 4 or 5...now tell me...how does that make any sense or even going to work? Is that really safer? Why not just make car seats themselves rear facing so that anyone at any age, even adult, has to seat facing the back window? Sound ridiculous? So does keeping a 4 year old rear-facing.
So on the other matter..vaccines...well, I don't like them, but I am not gonna get into all that in this blog post or I'll be writing a book. Are my kids vaccinated? Yes they are. Do I like it? NO. Why then are they? 2 reasons - I didn't know enough about their safety or lack of until it was too late. I've done a lot of research since on them. Did I want my son to get the 3 vaccines he needed to enter kindergarten? No...and at that point I had already done the research. So why then? Because I was afraid he'd be denied entry. They really make a big stink about them when putting them in school. I can't tell you how many papers have been sent home in the course of this school year about making sure they are up to date on them. I wasn't vaccinated for NEARLY as many thing or as many times as my kids. I'm still alive...and I've never to date been that terribly sick. I hate vaccines. I think the vaccines are causing more harm than good..but again..another topic for another day. So the other reason is simply because I just wanted him to get into school without a fuss...and it sucks that it happened this way. I wasn't too aware at the time either on getting exemptions..and I am still not sure the process on how to do it, but NJ legislators now want to make the process harder and stricter in their state.
Should this not be up to the parents of the kid? How or why can out state politicians tell us if we need to get our kids vaccinated? Can they guarantee their safety? No, they can not. The fact is that many vaccines have very serious side effects and are loaded with toxic preservatives like formaldehyde and mercury. Their are studies being done on the rise of autism and the increase in vaccine protocols. I think there should also be a study done on the amount of vaccines kids are given and this very high cancer rate epidemic. Vaccines can not be looked at as a miracle solution. So if you're a parent with concerns and you don't want to take the risk, as sorry, but ALL vaccines carry a risk, now they are telling you that you are not being a good parent and if you don't do what they say your child will not be allowed to attend school. How many children are going to be home-schooled if this actually happens? I know it's only a matter of time until this is seen statewide everywhere and even worse than this. It's terrifying to me. We as parents are now having our control over our own children stripped away from us.
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