Mother Superior

Meet Hugh, aka The Moose, The Big Hairy Boss, Chunky Monkey, Mr. Happy, and (my personal favorite) Chubkinz (distant relative of Webkinz, I think).  At his one year well baby check, he was about 34 inches tall and weighed in at a whopping 31 pounds.  Fortunately, the good people of Tennessee are as enamored of his (ahem) stature as I am.  

Besides proving once and for all that big is beautiful (or did Queen Latifah do that?  I'm not sure), he has come to this earth to be a ray of sunshine, with a laugh that could soften the blackest heart.

Unfortunately, today was not his day...typically, he does his happy baby show despite the fact that he has lung disease...severe persistent asthma, the worst kind...but today, he had an acute attack that took at least 10 years off my life and could have ended his.  Thank God, we had everything we needed on hand (including a phone to call 911), I was able to treat his symptoms, and care for him until the ambulance showed up.

It has been pointed out to me by a well meaning neighbor that breast milk is the answer!  Although she is no longer nursing her children (ages one and three), she swears that when her children pick up pinkeye or an ear infection, all she needs is to put a few drops of breast milk in the eye, or the ear, and voila!  Clear!  Apparently, nobody thinks this is weird, and her nursing friends will swoop by with a bottle when somebody gets sick.

If only I had a nursing friend today, that call to 911 could have been avoided! (note to self:  business opportunity...nipple911!!)

To be perfectly clear:  I nursed both of my children, both of whom have lung disease, and one of whom has a host of life threatening food allergies.  When she went into systemic shock after ingesting an offending substance, I'm pretty sure breastmilk couldn't have helped her.  It certainly didn't prevent the allergies, despite my good intentions and the best research.

Needless to say, when it was suggested to me that breastmilk prevents these things by this well meaning neighbor (who clearly blames me for my children's health issues, because not everything in my house is organic, and I don't make them change their clothes every time they come in from the outside world, and I don't decontaminate their toys after playdates and, and, and, and), it was all I could do not to laugh.  If only I, too, worked for a furniture company and had read a few internet articles about the value of breastmilk and organics say, instead of having my MA from NYU in Early Childhood Development, ongoing studies at Columbia and Stanford, five years of experience with asthma, allergies, and nutrition...maybe I could have come up with such a genius panacea!

But as Pauline says, there's just no talkin' to crazy.