Tina Kimmel: “Apples and oranges”

I noticed there were a lot of hits last night on this post from LACTNET, a listserv for lactation consultants whose general tone caters to the earthy-birthy LLL crowd (along with all their supposedly “unmixed” issues). I traced the link back to the following discussion about SIDS, started by a poster who brought up Tina [...]

An interesting look at vaccine refusal

Liza Featherstone’s Shot Down. An observation of hers I find particularly poignant (emphasis mine):
As Susan Gregory Thomas documents in Buy Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds, this generation of parents is anxious not to be taken for dupes, yet our skepticism can be superficial and capriciously directed. We are [...]

Of sources and straw houses: The Annotated Dr. Sears Handout on CIO

I am increasingly seeing the use of this Dr. Sears handout by AP/NPers as “proof” that CIO causes all sorts of harm – implying that if you CIO, your child is in danger of developing ADHD, losing precious IQ points, and becoming an ax-murdering psychopath. Examples can be seen in the comments here and here [...]

Gender equality begins at home

What a concept!
I consider myself very blessed. My husband is truly committed to sharing parenting and housework – he’s changed the poopiest diapers, gotten up with cranky babies (if they were still cranky after feeding), taken children to doctors, stayed home with them when they were sick, the works. I also haven’t washed a dish [...]

Oh, good, so it’s not just me…

…who’s found reading online is doing a number on my attention span:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can [...]

Raw emotionalism

I happened upon an interesting website yesterday called rawfor30days.com. According to the site:
Raw For 30 Days is a documentary film that chronicles six McDonald’s-munching Americans with diabetes who switch to a diet consisting entirely of organic, living, vegan foods.

And if we’re already talking heavy metals…

…imagine how people might have debated these issues back in the 19th century, if Google and Pubmed were available. Not exactly mercury or aluminum, but close enough:

(click on the cartoon for a larger version, if you find it hard to read).

By Nearing Zero.
: : : : : [...]

Thimerosal and autism – an overview, Part III

As promised, here’s part III of the thimerosal/autism controversy. Parts I and II are here and here, respectively.

Remember polio?

Woman dies after life spent in iron lung.
Odell was afflicted with “bulbo-spinal” polio three years before a polio vaccine was discovered and largely stopped the spread of the crippling childhood disease.
Her care was provided by her parents, other family members and aides provided by a nonprofit foundation.
“Dianne was one of the kindest and [...]

Who’s Regressed First?

I’m still working on part III of the vaccine/autism Q&A, but in the meantime, have a comic look at the vaccine/autism debate on Liv’s Journey (sorta) patterned after the famous Abbott and Costello Who’s on First? routine, which has some good insights into the logic (or lack thereof) of the mercury militia.
Right…here.
: [...]