Will You Watch Jenny On “The View”?

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The news that Jenny McCarthy will be joining a show as popular as “The View” is very disturbing and distressing to me.

My whole professional life has been devoted to maternal child nursing and clinical social work. Jenny’s views on vaccinations are dangerous and deadly. She has used her “Hollywood” persona to champion her anti-vaccine cause…along with thumbing her nose at legitimate scientific research.

Barbara Walters has now given Jenny a national platform. In my opinion, Barbara is making a huge professional mistake with this choice.

Does she really want to be associated with promoting the anti-vaccination culture?

Ironically, Barbara may have lived to the ripe old age of 83 because she was vaccinated when she was a child.

Barbara’s decision to give Jenny national exposure on a daily basis on “The View” is as outrageous as Jenny’s beliefs about vaccines.

It is definitely time for Barbara to retire but her last deed before leaving television should not be something that very well might eclipse all the good that she has done for women during her career. Hiring Jenny should not be part of her television legacy!

What do you think?

Personally, I  will not be viewing “The View” nor will I be supporting any of its sponsors.

 

That’s why it is so distressing to add another first to the list of Walters’s achievements: Jenny McCarthy, who will join “The View” in September, will be the show’s first co-host whose dangerous views on childhood vaccination may—if only indirectly—have contributed to the sickness and death of people throughout the Western world. See jennymccarthybodycount.com. McCarthy, who is savvy, telegenic, and pulchritudinous, is also the person most visibly associated with the deadly and authoritatively discredited anti-vaccine movement in the United States. She is not subtle: McCarthy once essentially threatened the actress Amanda Peet, who has often spoken out about the obvious benefits of childhood vaccinations, by warning Peet that she had an angry mob on her side. When people disagree with her views on television, McCarthy has been known to refute scientific data by shouting “bullshit.”

journey-of-child-vaccine_sm

Ways to Have Fun Reading with Kids

Where the Wild Things Are

Children’s literature is one of my personal joys….

Thank you, dear granddaughter

for sharing this joy

Thank you, Toddler Approved for your “Virtual Book Club”

 

Our July Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Jez Alborough!

Each month for Virtual Book Club for Kids we feature a new author. You can find many of the posts we’ve shared over the past year on our VBC Pinterest Boards. Below are a few of the authors we’ve featured. We’ll be announcing our author line up for 2013-2014 in a few weeks!

Summer Dilemmas-Would You Ban Music From Parked Ice Cream Trucks?

good humor

All I can say is what next?

Years ago, the Good Humor truck had bells,which the driver had to manually jingle when he was approaching his stops.

He also made regular neighborhood stops near my home in a very large New York suburb.

Truthfully, I am not so sure about ice cream trucks in general with all the “safety issues” and “food issues” that plague kids today…

It did make me think however, that I do avoid the ice cream truck on a regular basis and try to make healthier choices like frozen yogurt. I may be only fooling myself but it makes me feel better.

What about you?

 

“The music is very important to us,” Zea said. “Because when we’re on the street, the kids, they listen to the music and they get excited. So they tell their mothers, ‘hey mom, the ice cream truck is coming.’”

The issue is also raised about how the ordinance may effect the safety of children around the trucks.

“If they stop playing music, then the driver is driving by (and the kids) won’t notice there is an ice cream truck and they might hit the kids,” Ice cream supplier Bob Bakshi said.

via Long Beach Looks To Ban Music From Parked Ice Cream Trucks « CBS Los Angeles.

What Real Power Looks Like

mother holding child

A beautiful letter…written by a mom, who realizes what “real” power means. I could not say it better than she has.

Please use the link to read her entire post it is lovely.

 

Dear Daughter,

I hold you close. Lithe little toddler body squirming against me as you try and settle. Small human child. One day you will be big and tall and strong. A grown woman, not the little girl I hold now in my arms as you try to relax and sleep. Not the little kid whose body is frantic to move and bursting with energy that even a whole day of play can’t consume.

I see many things in you.

via Being a Powerful Parent and Raising You With Empathy | Nurshable.

Parents, Will You Vaccinate Your Child Against “Cancer Causing” HPV?

vaccinations

New research strongly suggests that the HPV vaccine works.

 

The prevalence of dangerous strains of the human papillomavirus — the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and a principal cause of cervical cancer — has dropped by half among teenage girls in the last decade, a striking measure of success for a vaccine that was introduced only in 2006, federal health officials said on Wednesday.

 

“These are striking results,” Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Times’s Sabrina Tavernise. “They should be a wake-up call that we need to increase vaccination rates. The bottom line is this: It is possible to protect the next generation from cancer, and we need to do it.”

 

But unless these numbers change a significant number of minds, many parents won’t.

via Will Parents Still Turn Down an ‘Anti-Cancer Vaccine?’ – NYTimes.com.

 

Are you willing to have your child vaccinated to prevent cancer from a sexually transmitted disease? If I had children whose ages fell within this category I would choose to vaccinate.

After all, if my mother had not allowed me to be vaccinated in the 1950’s I might have developed polio and died or become permanently disabled.

During those years prior to the polio vaccine, I lost a friend to polio… literally overnight…he died while his parents were rushing to be by his side at an Adirondack’s hospital near where he was enrolled in summer camp. He was in an “iron lung” machine, which was all too common in those years but he died before his parents arrived.

Something for parents to think about…

the HPV vaccine is proving to be effective.

What will you do?

Accept it or deny it for your child?

How will you explain your decision to your child?

Do Your Kids Eat Everything?…Tell theTruth!

IMG_4193Cooking for kids…always a challenge

I love to cook…but over the years my “go to meals” have changed…

and

become somewhat boring…

enter

Jennie Perillo, InJenniesKitchen and her book Homemade with Love.

I was losing my edge especially now…

that I very often am cooking for three generations in one house.

This morning, I read this piece from Jennie’s recipes in Relish Magazine

and

I  smiled…as I adore pesto…

I have decided to try using parsley instead of my usual basil, omit the pistachios since….

there is a “nut allergy” in our family

I will add cheese to liven up the flavor.

 

I’ll be the first to admit that when I think about cooking for kids, pesto isn’t the first recipe that comes to mind. Yes, there are adventurous eaters out there, you know, those kids whose parents’ claim they eat everything. To that, I say spill the beans. No one likes everything, including myself, a professional food writer and recipe developer—and that’s okay. This is perhaps the most important tidbit of advice to remember when you approach feeding your children.

via

Relish Blogs – Fresh Homemade Summer Pesto.

Who Do You Trust When It Comes to Car Seats and Baby Gear?

carseat

“Do not try this at home”

A baby car seat is, in my opinion, the most important purchase a parent makes…

Do your homework when making your decision.

You definitely want to consult “The Car Seat Lady”

If you are a Facebook user, then her page is also a must

Another person to involve in your baby gear decisions is,

The Baby Guy NYC“, Jamie Grayson…

Jamie is also on Facebook…

So, if you or anyone you know are about to purchase a car seat or baby gear of any sort…

Run to your computer and check out these two …

They have done all the work for you!

THE BABY GUY

and

THE CAR SEAT LADY

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post.

What You Need to Know About Baby Amber Teething Necklaces

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Do you or anyone you know use amber necklaces to relieve teething pain?

As a mother-child nurse, I am always skeptical about such claims when it comes to putting a child at risk.

What do you think about product claims that have no scientific evidence when it comes to children and baby items?

I am very leery, especially if there is any possibility of harm when using these necklaces even if they do “work”.

 

Conclusion

This is an easy call.

 

The complete lack of any good evidence that amber necklaces relieve teething pain means that there is absolutely no benefit to offset the risk of wearing them.

 

Remember that in risk assessment, the size of the risk depends on two factors –

 

  • the likelihood of the event happening,

and

  • the severity of the consequences.

 

In this case, one consequence could be death by choking, and in my book, that rules them out completely. I’m disgusted that they are sold in some pharmacies (here).

 

via Amber necklaces and teething babies | Science or not?.

How Do Parents Go On When Their Child is Murdered?

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The neighbor looked at the clock and saw it was almost 8:30, time to walk her daughter to the bus. “I have to go,” she said, hugging the Bardens, leaving them at the kitchen table. Jackie poured more coffee. Mark checked his phone messages. Jackie walked outside to get the mail and brought it into the living room. Mark opened a package from Minnesota that contained a Sherpa blanket and a note that read: “We will never forget.”

 

The school bus came. The school bus went.

 

“What do you want to do?” Mark asked, and in that moment, the answer to both of them was clear.

 

“What can we do?” Jackie said.

 

“Nothing,” Mark said, and he sank down next to her on the couch.

via After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the

lonely quiet – The Washington Post.

 

I hope you will read this entire piece from The Washington Post and commit yourself to making difference when it comes to gun ownership in the United States.

There must be stronger gun regulation…not that it will prevent all of the violence but it hopeful could certainly prevent some.

The Bardens fight for gun controls will be a long one that will constantly remind them of that horrible day in December, 2012 when their beloved son died at the hands of a mass murderer in what was supposed to be a safe haven ….his first grade classroom.

I am not sure I could be as strong as they have been in their efforts on the political scene…it just seems so painful, futile and frustrating in many ways, reopening a wound that will never really heal.

This type of fight is truly never ending…it is a battle that leads to more frustration on some days than any parent, who has lost a child should have to endure.

Remembering back to 1981, when President Reagan and Jim Brady were shot outside a hotel in Washington, D.C….there was outrage…Jim Brady and his wife battled long and hard to have the Brady Bill passed.

It was finally signed into law by President Clinton in 1993!

The Brady Bill was a start, but over the years it has not proven to be all that effective.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Pub.L. 103–159, 107 Stat. 1536, enacted November 30, 1993) is an Act of the United States Congress that instituted federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.

It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993, and went into effect on February 28, 1994. The Act was named after James Brady, who was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

via Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

I worry for the Bardens, that without the clout of many of us they will continue to suffer more and more as they attempt to have an effect on the gun lobby.

How can any of us help?

How do you really feel about guns?

The Barden family’s pain should not go unnoticed when it comes to this issue..

the loss of their beloved son Daniel is a horrible tragedy

that should never have happened…

I am heartsick after reading their story in the Washington Post…

knowing that nothing can soothe their pain…

if I had the opportunity I would wrap my arms around them

but they would be easing my sadness not the other way around…

there is nothing that can justify the death of a child…

to surviving parents and family…

Nothing

 

If Your Child Was Drowning…Would You Recognize It?

Poolside

I have read this before but every summer it really is something that I read over again to refresh my memory of how easy it is for anyone to drown even when there are a lot of people around…like in a crowded pool with lifeguards present.

If you and your children are around water in the summer months please take time to review what drowning actually looks like…it can be a very quiet, silent accident. When your children are in the water they need your attention…so it is not a time to be on a cellphone or to be in a deep conversation poolside.

Little ones can drown so easily and get into trouble in the water so quickly that taking your eyes off of them even for a second can make a dangerous difference in being able to rescue them or not.

Review water safety with your children and have a safe summer.

 

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine; what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their 9-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

via Rescuing drowning children: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water..