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12/06/2005
The sacrificial ham
Yesterday Charlie went for his one year checkup. Apparently he sensed the moment of this occasion, the palpable feeling of celebration, the downright festivity of it all, because he cooperatively dropped a gigantic load into his diaper immediately before he was to be weighed.
(Its consistency was unremarkable. Despite last week's drama — the diarrhearama, if you will, not to be confused with the bad '80s band — his stool sample was ultimately uninteresting, revealing no recurrence of C. diff and no other pathogens or toxins to speak of. But before we celebrate the return of regularity to my well loved son, I must inform you that last night and this morning, the diarrhea was back with a watery vengeance, threatening both my emotional equilibrium and his attendance at day care later this week. But this, unlike most of my posts lately, is not entirely about feces or vomit, so I shall say no more about Charlie's various by-products.)
Charlie was weighed, measured, and pronounced enormous. He was palpated and auscultated. He was stuck in the toe with a lancet, a procedure that evinced lowered brows and a look of concern but no crying. And he was given his next three immunizations — flu, MMR, and chicken pox.
Now, I do not know what other babies have, but Charlie does not have mere thighs. He has hams. (He knows this, as at bathtime we wash both ham one and ham two.) They are stout pillars of brawn, firm and strong, ever flexed in this position or that as he pulls to standing, squats to retrieve the remote control, and falls ass over teakettle from overbalancing as he waves the remote in triumph.
I know those three injections deep into muscle hurt, not only because he immediately turned purple and drew a long breath preparatory to howling in rage, but because I've felt it myself. Once he'd caught his breath, he cried. And cried. And criiiiiiied. In pain, in anger, in betrayal, in outrage.
Those are my hams! he seemed to be saying. I did not say you could stab my hams!
Since the ham-stabbing, Charlie has been a giant, bitter pill — kind of a horse tranquilizer, really, but without the much-needed sedative properties. Dinner was for jerks. Overnight sleep was for stupids. And breakfast? Why, breakfast was for stupid jerks who are stupid, you big jerk, and on that the matter stands.
I can only suppose that his legs really hurt; coupled with teething, which proceeds apace, and diarrhea, which — well, I promised I'd say no more — it's not hard to understand why he's been so irritable, so demanding, so...so...unreasonable.
Listen, I've heard the arguments against vaccination. I've never been swayed in the slightest. I feel strongly about getting Charlie immunized on schedule. I think the benefits to society as a whole far outweigh the drawbacks, which I perceive to be minimal.
But just this morning, listening to Charlie's unceasable whining and the sound of my own teeth, locked in a pleasant-looking rictus as I grind them down to powdery stumps, I'm almost tempted to flip.
Good God, what it does to the hams.
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My baby got the 1-year check-up including ham jabs yesterday, too. But I guess we got lucky. The first jab (flu) did not cause even a whimper. The second jab (MMR + chicken pox) got her face all contorted, and she cried out once, but as soon as I picked her up she quieted. I could tell she was in pain from the way she so intently worked at getting that band-aid OFF HER LEG, but she didn't cry. (She DID whine at me and flail as I tried in vain to keep the band-aid ON, but whining and flailing is not unusual for her during the standard dressing/diapering process. She is already a "I do it myself" kind of girl and I can't wait to let her do just that so I don't have to be subjected to all the flailing.)
Happy Belated, Charlie!
Ooooh the one year is the worst. Caleb got the measles from it. Or a wierd version of the measles. Whatever, it sucked. Aidan had nary a symptom, though, so I'm hoping when Liam's time come that his hams will be able to withstand the jabs!
By the by, we here in Quebec have a new vaccination which Liam will be getting in January. It's a meningitis vaccine...do you have that where you are?
Any chance the diarrhea issues could be related to food allergies? We are living through that with my daughter and that is about the time she started to have trouble. Just a thought.
Poor Charlie and his hams! My son (who's a skinny mini little kid but still has some thigh rolls) was also vaccinated on schedule and is now in the beautiful lull that happens between 15 months and 4 years, when there are no more. He'll be in that one soon, and you won't have to worry about the hams being assaulted for a long time.
Oh boy, I remember that look of shock and outrage before the yell...
Didn't they tell you to give him some baby tylenol ahead of time? (Of course, they never told me until 5 min. in advance, expecting somehow that as a new mother I'd just KNOW that's what you're supposed to do...)
Hyland's Teething Tablets will help w/ the general fussiness, though. I highly recommend them.
Hmm.. my son had his one year appt yesterday and they told me that they after they are one they get their shots in their arms. So they gave him his vaccines and did a blood draw from his arms. Maybe it's because he's a walker; or just something my drs office does.
Bo's been running a fever just under 103 since his shots and has been miserable so I feel your pain. oh yeah, Bo's bowels have been a mess since the vaccines too, and he's got a runny nose and congestion that didnt start til a few hours post vaccine so maybe his tummy trouble are from the vaccines. Hope he recovers quickly!
Unfortunately, every time my daughter is teething, she gets diarrhea and diaper rash. We have found no way of getting around it. We get diarrhea, diaper rash, then extreeme crankiness, then out pop 2 more teeth. People have told me that there is no scientific link between the two, but my experience tells me otherwise. Here's hoping they come in fast.
Just curious - as he was a premie, are the vaccinations on the same time schedule, or delayed?
Yes, I was going to mention food allergies as well (as said Imperfect Mommy). Of course, it's usually the staple foods such as dairy, eggs, peanuts (or peanut butter, which is a staple for MY daughter) that are most suspect.
I think vaccination is a good idea, even when it causes irritability for the days after. They don't preserve with mercury anymore, so I think there's far less to be concerned about.
For teething, we used some Children's Anbesol applied with a Q-tip (which caused major wailing, but I'm sure you've seen worse) followed by infant Tylenol. By the time the Anbesol wears off, the Tylenol has had a chance to kick in. It's not a panacea, but we generally got a few hours of sleep out of her following that.
Hi there Julie. Longtime listener, first time caller... Just wanted to say we went through hell after the 12 month vaccinations, and it turned out she had an ear infection that just *happened* to pop up right after the shots. One of those red herring things. I just figured she was royally pissed about the achy thighs, and of course, the betrayal, but no, she had dang good reason to be Little Miss Crankypants. One tip-off was the high fever -- our ped said that the one-year shots (same cocktail you got) shouldn't cause high fever.
Just thought I'd give ya one more thing to worry about. Don't mention it.
At my DD's 1 year, our clinic routienly gives 6 shots... SIX. I don't have the laundry list of uglies with me now, but my DD does NOT have hammy thighs, and I could just imagine those icky pointy needles poking her soft sweet little legs and hitting bone. We both cried that day.
Oh those poor hams! But as someone else mentioned, just wait. Future shots will most likely be in his arms. After one year old they switched. Hopefully Charlie's arms are just as hammy!
Just a quick post to mention that diarrhea could be due to teething. Not sure why. Have anyone else heard/read of this?
My DD had ham one and ham two as a baby, and now at 5 years of age she is super skinny you wouldn't recognize those legs.
Laura
"squats to retrieve the remote control, and falls ass over teakettle from overbalancing as he waves the remote in triumph."
Loving the visual.
"...as he pulls to standing, squats to retrieve the remote control, and falls ass over teakettle from overbalancing as he waves the remote in triumph."
"Dinner was for jerks. Overnight sleep was for stupids. And breakfast? Why, breakfast was for stupid jerks who are stupid, you big jerk, and on that the matter stands."
Perfect perfectly written images of babyhood. I love it when snapshots of Charlie's life ooze out of the computer screen.
At my house there is much glee over the remote control. And jammie time is for stupid jerks.
Helluva writer, that Julie.
Most opponents to the current immunization schedules are not for removing but rather moderating them. Trying to give shots individually, when the child is well, and with a few weeks between jabs. Ideally, if your child then reacts you know to what. This is of course assuming you or your insurance will cover the cost of extra Dr. visits. But I suspect you've covered this already.
All the cool moms have kids with reoccuring diarrhea.
This might be a little on the silly side, and feel free to totally disregard what I am about to write. When my little girl was in the hospital, where she was lucky enough to do most of her teething, one of our nurses in the ICU told me the reason babies get diarrhea when teething. She said that when they are teething, there is somthing in the saliva that helps to break down and soften the gums... can't remember the technicalities of it. She said that whatever is produced in the saliva during teething almost certainly hurts the bum when it comes out the other end and causes the stool to break down as well.
Anyhow, it made sense to me at the time, and to be honest, whenever they are getting new teeth, they get watery stools as well.
Hope Charlie starts feeling better.
Ugh, the one year shots are the worst because they are old enough to remember them but too young to understand them. At least there are no more (except the yearly flu shot) between now and age 4 or 5!
Hope he gets to feeling better soon. Maybe it's good that this is all happening at the same time as to not drag on throughout the winter. Or, maybe not. :)
I also sympathize with the hams and their mighty, meaty plight.
My 11-month-old still has knots in his from his last go-round, plus he wants to itch them til they bleed whenever he gets the chance.
Concerned, I asked the pediatrician, who suggested that I moisturize his skin. I'm tired of all the quacks.
"I did not say you could stab my hams!"
Julie, you are a riot!
I hope Batman's hams feel better soon...for his sanity and yours.
Oh, poor kid! And Charlie too.
Man. Nothing to offer but deep sympathy.
Oh, those hams. My little O has them too, but his twin brother does not, and O alsways has a harder time with the shots. There's just more fat to get through, you know? Both boys have such a hell of a time with the shots, they're just little PITA's for days afterward. Seriously, I'm very sympathetic for the first couple of days, but after 2 days of both boys whining for hours every day, I'm on my last nerve. Thank GOD for Tylenol. We're getting ready for the nine months shots, and I'm already lining up extra help for the few days after. I feel strongly about vaccination too (are you really not getting any nasty "vaccines are evil" comments? Are you just deleting them? Because I've gotten them even on my little blog) but every time we go through this, I wonder if there could be a better way. I hope your cheerful Charlie returns soon.
As an adult who caught diptheria, I thank you for vaccinating. But there's got to be a better way to do it, rather than stabbing poor baby hams. Maybe it would be given in the form of breastmilk-flavored lollipops!
I hate immunizations. I, too, feel that they are absolutely unavoidable, but they are terrible for the babies. Both of mine had a much worse time with the ones at 12 months than with any others. It is awful when they are newborns, but it is worse when they are aware and can remember. I had to take my child in for a blood draw at 12 months, too, and that was even more horrible. He is too fat and strong to hold down, and he was furious with everyone involved.
I agree with others. I would bet that the digestive difficulties of the moment are teething related. Been there, done that. Try Hylands, as someone else suggested. They work wonders. I have used the Calm Forte also, with good results.
Poor Charlie! I hope he is better tonight, and that you all get some much needed rest.
We don't vaccinate at all, so I don't know what you're going through. (((Hugs))) to you, though, and I hope Charlie feels better soon.
Jenn
While I feel sorry for Charlie, this post was hilarious. I hope his hams recover quickly.
Julie, so sorry to hear about the pain and crying. Poor kiddo. I have always wondered why they can't space out the vaccinations more. They are definitely needed, I just wish it wasn't so unpleasant.
just a thought that is in no way supposed to be assvice- I second the food allergy testing. An allergy to gluten can be a very diarrheal thing indeed!
i hope those ham recover soon!
the MMR is brutal...my now 19-month old was off colour for about a fortnight afterwards..and about 10 days afterwards he had a sudden high temp that resulted in a febrile convulsion. After all sorts of tests to see what the temp could be related to, the ped could only blame the MMR..
That said, i agree immunisation is vital, just very unpleasant.
Was the lancet in the foot in lieu of a blood draw from the arm? Asking because my 13 1/2 month old fought off the phlebotomist last weekend and won and I would kill not to have to go through that again. (The pediatrician said I had no choice and to maybe try a different lab...)
Yum...Charlie hams!
Nah, Kate, it was just a stick for hemoglobin and lead, not a major blood draw.
All hail your kid, slayer of phlebotomists!
OK, I am laughing big, deep belly laughs that have made me squirt just enough to be embarrassing. I should know better than to read you at work, dammit.
--Bugs
Its the betrayal cry that kills me. It always seems like they give the shot right after the baby has become comfortable with the doctor and was perhaps even considering him a friend. Then the stabbing. Then the child looking back and forth between the doctor and mom saying "How could you let this happen? Why? What did I do? Don't you love me?" Oh! Pathetic!
I love your writing, Julie. You make even the most heart-wrenching situations sound hilarious! I'll never look at ham the same way again.
And just you wait until that 4-year appointment. My daughter is 8+ months removed from having had them done, and she STILL talks about The Shots.
Are you allowed to put warm compresses on the assaulted location? That might help relax Charlie's hammy muscle, increase blood flow to the area, and give him some relief from the soreness.
I hope Charlie lets the Big Stupid Jerk get some much-needed sleep tonight. LOL
My 17 year old's internist rubs novacaine cream on him before giving his flu shot. He said the childrens hospitals are doing this too. So why not the peds? Next time my little one is due, I'm asking for the novacaine cream.
drmama? Do you know anything about this?
Hi, Julie;
Love your blog. Bad news assvice here: don't write off the C Diff. I had C diff after my daughter's birth (Oh yeah, world-class diarrhea with 10 stitches) and to diagnose it, my doc ordered THREE stool tests. Only one came up positive. I said, "What does that mean? Just a really mild case?" She said, "Nope. It means it's a good thing I ordered all three." C Diff is sneaky and nasty, and there is a strain out there that is resistant to the first line of antibiotics. It is NOT UNUSUAL for C Diff to require 2 or 3 rounds of treatment, and equally normal for it to NOT show up in a single stool sample. (Lovely, isn't it?)
The good news is, your nose knows...better than a lab test. You now know the incredible C Diff stench. If Charlie's diarrhea still has that unbelievable gag-o-matic reek, don't be shy with your pediatrician -- ask for repeated testing.
By the way, probiotics are your friend, even if the C Diff has been properly vanquished. I'm not very crunchy, but I'm now a big believer in probiotics. Health food stores carry a powder (All-Flora was the one available in my area) that you can mix in his applesauce. It'll help restore the good gut flora.
Good luck.
So honored to be actually ASKED for my assvice (ok, only by one person, but it eases slightly the sting of the doctor-bashing)! But of course I don't have much useful to say, except that the cream, while it can help with an IV placement or blood draw, does not usually penetrate deep enough to help with the pain of an intramuscular injection. Also, it needs to be applied 60-90 minutes in advance, which isn't too practical in the office setting. I think that Jill's son's doctor may be finding it useful as a placebo, which could actually work really well in a teenager afraid of shots! I should consider it in my office ...
Poor little man. Yet again I only have my childhood, not any motherhood experiences to draw on - when I was under 1, smallpox had not yet been eradicated and we were travelling overseas so I had to be vaccinated. In the thighs (which I'm sure were hams, given my baby size).
The doctor reportedly shifted my nappy as far, far up above my knees as it would go ("so she will be able to wear sleeveless tops when she is older". How thoughtful '60s doctors were). I have a huge scar about 1" above my knee...
Funny, I thought they put the 1-year shots in the ARMS instead of the legs, since most babies that age are becoming more mobile....? Poor baby! Poor hams!
Doesn't it just suck that we have to do things to our children that make them so sad and angry?! Thank goodness for unconditional love. We get hugs and kisses later, despite the crap we have to put them through. :)
My boys are all vaccinated to what the state mandates, but nothing more than that. I had them administered one per visit, scheduled at least 3 weeks apart to avoid the nasty side effects. I was never comfortable with the idea of multiple injection sites being sore and inflamed at one time. I also never felt it was "normal" for a child to get a fever after vaccinations. (Doesn't a fever generally mean something is "wrong"?) Giving them one at a time worked for us. I felt it made sense to let their bodies process each vaccination separately and the boys were never cranky or feverish when we did it like that. (BTW, you shouldn't be charged a co-payment for just showing up for a vaccination without an office visit.)
I'm not preaching at all here. I just find that some people don't realize that they can request to space the vaccines out a bit while still keeping them on schedule.
So, after you trashed the diaper with the huge load in it, how much did Charlie and his hams weigh? Oh, and I am just totally giggling my ass off at the thought of him over-celebrating the retrieval of the remote to the point of falling. He's one cute little cookie. :)
I still don't understand the logic behind vaccinating against chicken-pox, and as for the combined MMR, I won't even start on that. I know too many children (more than 5, in a motherhood "career" spanning twelve years) who have been permanently damaged by that vaccine not to have some doubts about it. One of them will have to live in full-time institutional care for the rest of his life. Suffice to say that I have many reservations about it.
The flu vaccine they use, as I understand it, (maybe an immunologist or doctor might correct me on this one), is the one they suppose a year in advance will be the one to cause problems in the following flu season, given the production times involved, and is therefore possibly the wrong vaccine strain to give by the time winter is upon us.
Wait, wait, you did start on that!
I don't share your reservations. I'm comfortable with the current general opinion on whether a link has been proven to exist between developmental disorders and the MMR vaccine, especially considering the questionable conditions the premise was established under.
Yes, the flu vaccine is a best-guess thing. Last year it was about an 80% match, which was not as good as most years.
Before the chickenpox vaccine, about 150 people (most of them healthy) died every year due to chickenpox; about half of those were children. The death rate has plummeted since the implementation of the vaccine, and the biggest drop in deaths has been in healthy children. So that's the logic.
The CDC's vaccine site is here:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/default.htm
In my first post I chose not to share why I opted to space out the vaccines for my child in fear of differing opinions on the subject turning into a cyber-riot on your blog. This isn't a message board, it's your personal space used for what you feel the need to express. Since reading the last few comments, now I feel the to share.
One of my children is "vaccine damaged". My seemingly typically-developing little boy went for his one year well visit and was inundated with multiple vaccines in one visit. He was never the same again. He stopped babbling, lost fine/gross motor skills, lost eye contact, stopped smiling, couldn't stand to be touched (he'd scream like he was in pain), rocked himself incessantly, banged his head on things, lost muscle tone which made him similar to that of a wet noodle and regressed in all areas of oral motor skills which affected his ability to eat solid foods. This was after a few days of high fevers following the vaccines.
After taking the 'wait and see' approach for a few months to see if he would catch up again (which he hadn't), we had a multidisciplinary evaluation done to seek a diagnosis and start proper treatment. He was found to have the developmental skills of an 11 month old at the age of 17 months. His social skills didn't even register on the charts. At all. They were virtually nonexistent. Intensive therapy started immediately. He spent the next four years with in home therapy 6 days a week and attended a special school 5 days a week, as well. He didn't say "mama" again until he was 2 1/2 (when he had already been saying it before the one year shots). At 3 years old he was diagnosed with Autism, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, OCD, and a Motor Planning Disorder. This was a full-term child who was ahead of the norm for milestones in rolling over, sitting up, standing, etc. before the vaccinations. There isn't any real proof that the vaccines caused it, but the coincidence was pretty obvious.
I do believe that all children should be vaccinated. I continue to vaccinate my children but I choose not to bombard their tiny little bodies to so many foreign substances at one time. The MMR concerns me the most. It is three live viruses being injected into the child at one time. Some (most) children can process the vaccinations just fine, but obviously, some cannot. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing that until the worst happens.
You'd be hard pressed to find a doctor that will admit to the risks of multiple jabs per visit. My theory, is that they think the parents won't come back for repeated visits to keep the children on the proper vaccination schedule. It's just more convenient to do it all in one visit. The risks don't seems to outweigh the convenience factor in their eyes. That is why I took matters into my own hands and spaced them out. Even when it came time for his MMR booster, I had an immunity titre done instead. It showed that he was already immune to measles and rubella but only needed the mumps vaccine. My doctor didn't stock the vaccine so I had to order a whole tray of 10 vials just to have the one that he needed.... paid for out of pocket, of course. It turns out that only about 5% of children do not get full immunity from the MMR and require the booster but titre tests are the exception, rather than the rule. Why? Again, I think it's a convenience issue. Why send a parent and child to a lab for a blood-draw when you can just reinoculate them for "just in case" the immunity didn't stick? I think that's just bizarre that possibly as many as 95% of the children that receive the MMR booster may not even need it or may only need single doses of it's components.
I have very little faith in the fact that the medical community really knows the what vaccines may or may not do to certain children. Or, maybe they do know. But letting the public know this would cause more people to not vaccinate which would cause the spread of some heinous, deadly diseases. It would also put them in the line of fire admitting that there are children out there that have been damaged by vaccinations. They would be sued from all angles from people claiming that their children's disabilities were caused by the vaccines that they once deemed "safe".
I do not judge. I do not preach. Everyone has their reasons for choosing to vaccinate or not vaccinate. It is just my hope that my son's story may help another child. Doctors won't tell stories like these. It is up to us, as parents, to keep one another informed on this and other sensitive subjects.
BTW... my son is doing wonderfully now thanks to proper diagnosis and treatment. He is even enrolled in a typical first grade class. This is something we were told would never happen. We are very, very lucky. :)
the poor baby.
we do the vaccinations even earlier here. thats cos my kids are more advanced than yours
The "I'm hurting you for your own good" aspect of motherhood is a hard one. Just wait until you're dragging a reluctant and frightened ten year old to the orthodontist. It gets somewhat harder when the kid has the size and strength to resist.
And it's great to see someone actually interpreting scientific data correctly. All the pseudoscience on the web makes me wish a person had to pass real science tests to procreate.
I remember at least one of my courses of shots and stuff, but only because (this is in the late '70s) our Pinto was hit from behind and I fell off my seat and into the space between the seat and the dashboard. Mom got whiplash, but everyone survived. I thought I'd gotten lucky and the shots would be postponed, but not so much. I didn't cry, but I did punch the nurse giving the shots, so didn't get the lolly.
I feel for ya, Charlie. Just wait 'til you're coordinated enough to punch someone pricking you with needles. Then the fun really begins.