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Author
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Topic: Another modern myth
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garlicguy
Member # 3166
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posted October 10, 2005 08:05
For the past 10 years or thereabouts, I have been hearing and reading about all the "scientific evidence" that many foods are dangerous for infants due to potential allergy development or other bad reactions. I've always found that interesting because I can't recall any incidents of such reactions in my own generation, nor in our daughter's generation (they're in their 30's now). But I'm regularly told that our grandchildren can't have such and such until after they've reached the age of one year or two years.
Check it out, as is seems I'm not alone in my suspicions about this modern psuedo-scientific mythology.
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I don't know what I was thinking... it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Posts: 3752 | From: Pluto, no matter what you call it, is still my home. | Registered: Dec 2004
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quantumfluff
BlabberMouth, a Blabber Odyssey
Member # 450
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posted October 10, 2005 10:43
It's mostly myths. Kids are developing more allergies and reactions than they used to because we keep their environment too clean. Everything is disinfected and sanitized to the point where children are not developing proper immunological response systems. Here is just one reference http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002421.html
A related common myth is that many of the childhood vaccines are "bad" for you and should be avoided. These same parents who espouse that philosophy often justify avoiding the vaccinations because their child will be protected by the herd effect of everyone else having been vaccinated. This is doubly stupid - as our population is becoming increasingly globally mobile, we're seeing more and more people show up in the US with diseases that "don't exist anymore" here. Immigrants and travelers are importing them anew.
Have a chat with a pediatrician in any major city and you'll get an earful.
Posts: 2863 | From: 5 to 15 meters above sea level | Registered: Jun 2000
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Sxeptomaniac
Member # 3698
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posted October 10, 2005 11:16
I also often find myself baffled by the society of germophobes that seems to be growing. In the middle ages it was demons and spirits that needed to be warded off, but nowadays it's bacteria and viruses.
quote:
Originally posted by quantumfluff:
as our population is becoming increasingly globally mobile, we're seeing more and more people show up in the US with diseases that "don't exist anymore" here. Immigrants and travelers are importing them anew.
Yep. The same goes with parasites and many types of pests. For example, I always thought bedbugs were some kind of mythical creature, as I'd never heard of someone actually having them. Then a girl brought them into her dorm room in a blanket from her boyfriend, who had recently been overseas. Bedbugs were apparently virtually eliminated in this country back in the days of DDT.
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Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. - C. S. Lewis
Posts: 1590 | From: Fresno, CA | Registered: Mar 2005
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Xanthine
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 736
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posted October 10, 2005 12:20
Bed bugs are a problem in Europe, which is why the hostel I stayed at in France wouldn't let me use my sleeping bag.
quantumfluff, whooping cough is on the comeback because when there aren't enough members of the herd that have been immunized, herd immunity no longer exists. It's fscking free-loading to not vaccinate your kids and expect everyone else to get shots for theirs so an outbreak doesn't satrt. It's also echild endangerment. THere's a reason these vaccines were developed. Whooping cough kills babies. Diptheria just kills, as does tetanus. Measles can cause brain damage. Polio causes paralysis. The mumps can cause sterility. Rubella causes birth defects. And on and on we go. I had all my shots because my parents got their immunity to the measles and the mumps and rubella the hard way - they got sick. They remember lining up in the gym for their polio vaccines. They remember how thrilled their parents were. They also have scars from their smallpox inoculations. I think that part of the reason why kids aren't getting vaccinated now is it's people in my generation that are having the babies, and we never had to live through the diseases kids are getting shots for.
I think this fear of germs is replacing the fear of evil spirits because it's natural for us to fear what we can't see or know. Fearing germs is just like fearing demons, it's just the word that's different. Instead of nailing iron over the door and wearing amulets we lysol everything, but it's the same basic principle. If I do ____ then the bad things in the air can't get me.
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
- The Decemberists
Posts: 7665 | From: the lab | Registered: Mar 2001
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Serenak
Member # 2950
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posted October 10, 2005 13:42
You all gotta eat a barrel o' dirt afore ye die...
That is what my Nana used to say... never figured out if it meant it'd take a barrel of dirt ingestion to kill you or you'd eat a barrel full in your life time...
Either way I think the gist was a little bit of dirt won't kill you...
I don't think that food hygine is a trivial matter, botulism, e-coli, etc. etc. are serious and dangerous but at the same time I don't go into paroxysms if Ruth or Danielle drop a biscuit on the floor and then eat it... Most toddlers seem to feel the need to "fur coat" everything before eating it anyway...
I have my children vaccinated, I observe reasonable food hygine (don't mix raw and cooked meat etc.) but i don't go round disinfecting everything all the time... You need a certain level of exposure to common or garden mild microrganisms to keep your body on its toes
As to don't feed baby (fill in as applicable); most of it is worse than old wives' tales... at least those usually had a grain of truth in them... not some trendy pseudo scientific techno/psycho babble aimed to sell you the book or the latest "best for baby" feeding plan...
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"So if you want my address - it's No. 1 at the end of the bar, where I sit with the broken angels, clutching at straws and nursing my scars..."
Posts: 1918 | From: Suffolk England | Registered: Sep 2004
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garlicguy
Member # 3166
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posted October 10, 2005 13:55
quote:
Originally posted by Sxeptomaniac:
society of germophobes that seems to be growing.
I wonder... shouldn't that read colony of germophobes? ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I don't know what I was thinking... it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Posts: 3752 | From: Pluto, no matter what you call it, is still my home. | Registered: Dec 2004
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Xanthine
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 736
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posted October 10, 2005 13:58
And so the infection spreads...
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
- The Decemberists
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Grummash
Gold Hearted SuperFan!
Member # 4289
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posted October 10, 2005 14:17
I think that vaccination is sensible, and basic food hygiene is important, but I am definitely in the camp that believes we over-sterilise everything nowadays.
And talking about micro-organisms, what's with these "friendly bacteria" digestive products??? You don't need a Yakult every day, gut flora reproduce mmmkay?
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...and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes...
Posts: 2335 | From: Lancashire,UK | Registered: Aug 2005
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The Famous Druid
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posted October 10, 2005 14:28
quote:
Originally posted by quantumfluff:
A related common myth is that many of the childhood vaccines are "bad" for you and should be avoided. These same parents who espouse that philosophy often justify avoiding the vaccinations because their child will be protected by the herd effect of everyone else having been vaccinated.
What really annoys me is the people who are actively running a scare campaign against vaccinations.
I was having a go at a friend for not vaccinating her kids, and she dragged out a mountain of literature from the 'vaccination is evil' lobby. Very professionally done, these people could run courses in black propaganda. They twist statistics to make it look like you're putting your kid in dire peril if you let the evil doctors fill them with their vile concoctions. Nowhere in the literature was it mentioned that in my parents day, just about everyone had a sibling or classmate die of one of the then-common childhood diseases. It's not surprising that people who don't know better could be frightened off by that sort of stuff.
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If you watch 'The History Of NASA' backwards, it's about a space agency that has no manned spaceflight capability, then does low-orbit flights, then lands on the Moon.
Posts: 10313 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Oct 2002
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GameMaster
BlabberMouth, a Blabber Odyssey
Member # 1173
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posted October 10, 2005 14:49
You sent your friend to the DHMO site right, TFD?
I think we over sterilize too. I also think there is something to be said for state of mind. Those who think they will get sick (and stay sick), get sick and stay sick... Those who think they won't, get sick less often and it's durration is shorter lived.
Posts: 3038 | From: State of insanity | Registered: Mar 2002
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Sxeptomaniac
Member # 3698
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posted October 10, 2005 15:32
quote:
Originally posted by The Famous Druid:
I was having a go at a friend for not vaccinating her kids, and she dragged out a mountain of literature from the 'vaccination is evil' lobby. Very professionally done, these people could run courses in black propaganda. They twist statistics to make it look like you're putting your kid in dire peril if you let the evil doctors fill them with their vile concoctions. Nowhere in the literature was it mentioned that in my parents day, just about everyone had a sibling or classmate die of one of the then-common childhood diseases. It's not surprising that people who don't know better could be frightened off by that sort of stuff.
It reminds me of something I read years ago called "The Great Tomato Conspiracy" (IIRC), which was a parody of those types of statistics. It basically used statistics to "demonstrate" that tomatoes are the source of all the world's troubles. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it again, despite my best efforts, and I don't remember who wrote it.
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Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. - C. S. Lewis
Posts: 1590 | From: Fresno, CA | Registered: Mar 2005
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freewaybear
Newbie Larva
Member # 4488
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posted October 17, 2005 10:23
I wonder how much of an overall effect (on babies immune systems) feeding them baby formula over the last few generations has had...
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Posts: 9 | From: Las Vegas,NV | Registered: Oct 2005
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