Everything Is Comming Up Bad...

From Americablog:
How's deregulation working these days? Wasn't industry supposed to self-regulate? You know it's bad when the Bush FDA gets off its butt and actually says something that alerts consumers to a problem.

A chemical blamed for sickening infants in China has been found in candy on American shelves.

Connecticut consumer protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said Wednesday that tests on White Rabbit Creamy Candy found melamine.

The candy has been found in stores in Connecticut. It was imported from China and sold primarily at Asian markets.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended last week that consumers not eat White Rabbit candy and that retailers remove it. Queensway Foods Company Inc. of California distributed the candy and says it is recalling it.

Melamine is used in plastics manufacturing and has been associated with contaminated infant formula and other Chinese products containing milk protein.

Not only is candy potentially something to make you sick, now pediatricians are requesting that the FDA recalls child's cold medicine.

Pediatricians are urging the Food and Drug Administration, which scheduled a public hearing Thursday on the issue, to demand a recall of the medicines for children younger than 6.

"Parents should know that there is less evidence than ever to support the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for young children," said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore's health commissioner. "There is nothing that is holding the FDA back from asking for a voluntary recall now of products marketed to kids under 6."

Of course this will never happen since parents spend more than $286 million on this type of medicine.

It turns out that when the FDA set standards for cough and cold medicines some 30 years ago, no separate studies were done for kids.

Cough and cold medicines send about 7,000 children to hospital emergency rooms each year with symptoms ranging from hives and drowsiness to unsteady walking. Low doses of a medicine are not likely to cause a problem; the main risk comes from unintentional overdoses.

The same ingredients usually are found in different products. For example, giving a child a cough syrup and a decongestant could inadvertently lead to an overdose.

How scary is that.
Read the rest of the story here

Update: The FDA has REJECTED the request for a ban on child's cold medicine. FDA thinks people are stupid enough to give adult medicine to kids (which do not work either - see video below). Continuing story here.

What...

While looking for something on the Internet I came across a couple of articles titled "Ten Reasons Not To Hit Your Kids". There are only 10? The way I read this is here are the ten reasons not to hit your kids and later we will talk about the reasons why you should hit your kids. This is just ridiculous. And truthfully, would anyone that is hitting their kids really look for a sight to explain why hey should not hit them?

Just a comment!

How Wrong Is This...

Kids on a Shopping Spree:

He was like a kid in a candy store - about 120,000 times over.

A 5-year-old boy in Serbia took $120,000 out of his father's safe and went on a massive shopping spree with his friends.

They purchased clothes, toys, bikes, candy, computers and games at a local mall.

The dad has asked police to investigate why shopkeepers sold the goods without asking questions. (New York Post)

So my question is how did this kid get to all these stores. He is FIVE years old. Shouldn't there be some form of adult supervision? This is wrong in so many ways.

Adoption Bill To Die In Utah...

Legislative Bill HB318, which would allow same sex couples to adopt in Utah, may never get to see the light of the legislature floor. Rep. Mark Walker (R-Sandy), believes that if you are successful, in a meaningful relationship, and gay, you should not be allowed to foster or adopt children. "It really just comes down to my belief that gay couples shouldn't be able to adopt children," Walker said. "It's probably 180 degrees from my philosophical beliefs." (Desert Morning News) Now according to the Intermountain Catholic News, there are more than 2,600 kids in foster care. Most are of Hispanic/Latino descent. Every year around 20,000 kids "age out" of the foster care system. This means that they turn 19 and are considered adults.

So with just 8 days left in the legislative session, people like Mark Walker have successfully managed to keep kids that may have been abused, neglected or coming from a separated home and need love, out of loving, caring families because of his beliefs. Now let me clear one thing up. From what I can tell, if you are a "single" gay person then you are fine to foster and adopt, but if you are in that caring loving relationship then you are evil and the legislature doesn't want to send that message to these homeless kids. Why would we want them to see that there are people that care for each other.

Now this plays a bigger part as well when we look at the a situation that happened in 2007 to one family. When I say one family, I mean just that. A women was having problems with a drug related criminal matter so she asked her uncle to take her 4 kids. The kids are aged 11, 6, 2-years, and 10 months old and since the father couldn't take them, she looked to family. This seems like the perfect solution, but there was one problem. He is gay and in a meaningful relationship and has been for more than 5 years. Neither of the couple has any prior criminal record, but the state doesn't like that that they are in a committed relationship (and not married - which is not allowed either).

According to Utah's laws, "to adopt or be a foster parent, you must be legally married - or single - and not cohabiting. It doesn't license foster couples who aren't legally married. In other words, gay Uncle Valdez could foster or adopt if he wasn't in a steady, thriving relationship. (Only) If he was 'single'." (via Pride Parenting) The kids were taken by the court when officials asked the court to remove them. Thank god there was a sensible judge who didn't see any reason that they couldn't stay where they were.

But that still doesn't take care of the bill that will die on the floor of the legislature. In the same article, "Another bill in the House would have extended workplace discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. That bill was sent to interim study after a committee hearing in which some testimony raised concerns about extending rights to gays and lesbians. That bill would have added protections against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."

This all makes me sick. So how equal do we feel? I try to tell my family that we live where we live because of all this bullshit in other states. I also remind them that if we lived in Michigan, Florida, Mississippi, or many more, we would not have Mikayla in our family. Now is that OK - NO!

Smile...

This little clip shows you what fun Mikayla is. I just love watching this video. This is the fun of having kids. They remind us that no matter what, you can stick your tongue out at the world and give it raspberries and then laugh at it. So before you go to work or start your day, watch Mikayla's video and just smile.

Toxic...

One thing that Mark and I wanted to do when we adopted was to be sure that our little baby had the best that she could possibly have. This is a concern that all parents have. We wanted to be sure the food we were giving her was the best. We started talking about how we were eating and how that had to change when we brought the little one home. We ate poorly, as most people do. We would get packaged prefab food. We would by ice cream (sometimes still do) and eat a couple of pints in one sitting. We never really looked at what we were putting into our bodies until we decided to adopt. Then things changed. We started to eat better and read ingredients. Prefab food for the most part was off the table. We tried to become healthier.

So when Mikayla came into our lives we wanted to start her off with the ideals. We bought only organic baby formula. Although we tired many, her taste was for the more expensive brand – Similac. There was rumor that some mothers produced breast milk after their kids stopped nursing and they were selling it for new parents. Breast milk is the best, but we didn’t want to go that far. We would know nothing of this person, so we decided to stay with Similac.

We also didn’t want to get anything that was made in China when it came to bottles because, well, we just didn’t trust that either. Part of our research was finding out who had the toughest laws when it came to their kids. All our findings led to England. They have stronger laws concerning plastics and they seem to care about what the kids put in their mouths. In 2004 “Trade ministers from across the European Union have agreed on a law to phase out six toxic chemicals used to soften vinyl plastic in children's toys - seven years after researchers found evidence of a link between the chemicals and both liver damage and reproductive failure”. (read article) So for the bottles we went with Avent. They are made in England and they are wonderful.

So for the last 10 months we thought that we were doing the best for out little girl. Now all the reports are coming out about Bisphenol-A (BPA), which is a TOXIC chemical that is being used in the linings of baby formula cans. I felt confident that Similac was not one of them, but to my surprise Similac is made by Abbott Laboratories. Not only the possible formula contaminations but now there are reports that the plastic bottles may also have significant levels of BPA. So were we giving our daughter a double dose? For the bottles, from what I can gather is this chemical leaches out when heated. So if you follow the instructions on the package and boil them, then you are letting this toxin leach out.

There are glass bottles out there, but we thought for safety sake why not use a plastic bottle and one from a country that seems to not use toxic chemicals in their kids products. So much for that. Advent is one of the products that the Canadians are testing. “Researchers tested 19 baby bottles purchased in nine U.S. states and Canada including Avent, Dr. Brown, Evenflo, Disney, Gerber, and Playtex. When the bottles were heated to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C), they all leached BPA at about five to seven parts per billion. They also found that because of the BPA’s chemical makeup, it may leach more in fatty or acidic liquids, such as milk or apple juice, than in water.”

Why am I so upset? Critics say that BPA, which mimics the hormone estrogen, causes hormonal, neurological, and behavioral problems. They say that the levels are not high enough to cause concern, but they also said that about lead paint, asbestos, cigarettes, and many more things that are bad now.

On the upside, “Trade ministers from across the European Union have agreed on a law to phase out six toxic chemicals used to soften vinyl plastic in children's toys - seven years after researchers found evidence of a link between the chemicals and both liver damage and reproductive failure.” Maybe the U.S. will follow suit. The only problem is that we get most (if not all) of our stuff from China, and we know what has been happening there lately.

Read all the articles:
BPA Leaching From Baby Bottles
Baby Formula Additives Under Scrutiny
Toxic Chemical Used To Make Baby Formula Cans Under Review
'Significant' Levels Of Bisphenol A
Toxic Softeners In Plastic Toys
Infant Formula Cans
Congress Asks: Is Baby Formula In Safe Cans?
Toxic Toys No More