That's what "they" say!

Just about had a heart attack this morning when I woke up at 7am and realized my daughter had slept the entire night without waking up... I jumped out of bed like a jackrabbit and raced to her crib and put my hand on her chest to make sure she was okay. Sleeping peacefully of course!

Her health and safety is never far from my mind... seems like parents today are constantly bombarded and reminded about the gazillions of dangers, diseases, and risks your baby faces daily. It's not that I doubt there are dangers, but sometimes I wish I could get it out of my head so I can just enjoy my baby, worry-free!

When Reagan started being fussy one day and nursing much more frequently, I googled "sudden increase in newborn breastfeeding" to find out what might be causing the change (turns out its signs of a growth spurt), and my google search generated link after link about SIDS! All because I included the word "sudden" in my search terms. Let me tell you that freaked me out a tiny bit. "Experts" have countless suggestions for how to prevent SIDS, although "they" have no idea what causes it (anybody else confused by that notion?). "They" tell you babies need to sleep on their backs, never sleep in bed with you, never leave them on a water bed or bean bag, and a bunch of other common sense that really just comes down to logic when caring for your child.

Yesterday I saw an ad on tv about whooping cough in babies; it starts out by saying "you might think the safest place for your baby is wrapped in your arms, but it could be deadly." After scaring the crap out of parents in the first 10 seconds of the commercial, it goes on to say 80% of babies that have contracted whooping cough got it from a parent or relative, and urges parents to get a vaccine for themselves to prevent the virus. Talk about some serious scare tactics.

The doctor gave me a shot schedule for Reagan to complete her first year. I shudder thinking of my baby getting needles poked in her every few months! I expressed this to a nurse after delivery, and received a somewhat chiding speech about the risks of not getting your child vaccinated and how any parent irresponsible enough to not get their child vaccinated should be examined.

Ironically, I was not a vaccinated baby. I'm the second child of 8, and the only one of us to receive any vaccines was my older brother. My mother told me when she was at the doctor with me they gave her forms to sign before I got my vaccines that freed them from liability if I became mentally retarded, had an allergic reaction, or had a fatal reaction to the shot. She said she couldn't agree to those terms, and researched the risks associated with child vaccines. My mother was "appalled" by what she learned, and none of us ever received a single shot since then. Myself and my 6 younger brothers are as healthy as they come, and I definitely cannot judge my mother for the parenting decision she made for us.

With so many new healthy and safety standards, and toys and items constantly recalled, does this mean our parents were bad parents? How did we all turn out healthy and okay? I don't want to go as far to say that I don't believe what the "experts" recommend these days, but I do wonder sometimes if all the things I'm doing because it's what the "experts" say is slightly overkill. I think the key is having peace about your parenting skills, you know your baby better than anybody else. The experts might be out to scare the living daylights out of me to care for my child properly, but it doesn't mean they're wrong about it either. My opinion? It's better safe than sorry.