Failure To Thrive
« Previous EntriesWi-fi and the potential health risks
Monday, May 21st, 2007When Ben was about four months old he became poorly. As the months passed and he failed to thrive we considered every possible cause while the hospital continued to test him without any success. I had been using the internet while I breastfed and it crossed my mind, fleetingly, that the wi-fi in our house might be a suspect in causing his failure to thrive so I stopped using my laptop. Because, you know, I felt so hopeless about the fact that the hospital could find no underlying cause. And I felt a bit desperate.Then Ben was diagnosed with IgA deficiency of his blood, which is, in itself, minor but has some potentially serious long-term consequences. In researching his IgA deficiency I was contacted by a couple of people who found that when they removed their exposure to wi-fi their IgA deficiency disappeared. Normally a sceptic about things like this it nevertheless got me thinking about our exposure to wi-fi.
Then there were stories in the media about wi-fi exposure and the lack of research into long-term effects from exposure to it, particularly as wi-fi technology was being increasingly put into our schools. Even though the World Health Organisation says it is safe, with Harry being homeschooled and using the laptop at home more I felt increasingly concerned about his exposure to wi-fi.
On Friday we took a backwards step in our technological setup at home and got rid of our broadband wireless router and replaced it with a standard, wired router.
Tonight’s Panorama on the BBC is looking at the potential effects of wi-fi, particularly the use of wi-fi technology in our primary schools. As the programme says:
Readings taken for the programme showed the height of the signal strength to be three times higher in the school classroom using Wi-Fi than the main beam of radiation intensity from a mobile phone mast.
The findings are particularly significant because children’s skulls are thinner and still forming and tests have shown they absorb more radiation than adults.
Whatever research in the future may show, I am concerned enough now to adopt the precautionary principle, at least in our home. So we are no longer wi-fi. Having a wire connecting me to the wall when I’m surfing the net seems a small price to pay until I know whether there are actually any long-term health consequences from wi-fi.
And I will be getting Ben re-tested for his IgA deficiency in a few months in the (admittedly unlikely, I know) hope that he will no longer be IgA deficient. Because us mothers, we like to fix things for our children. And I so wish I could fix this for him.
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Posted in Toxic Childhood, Reports and Research, Failure To Thrive
Failure to thrive: epilogue
Thursday, April 19th, 2007I haven’t written much about my son Ben’s medical problems because they are his, not mine, and I am mindful of his future privacy. I have, however, been writing over the last year about my worries about him and my increasing sense of desperation as he continued to slip down the weight charts.
So it with an incredible sense of relief and gratitude that today he was officially signed off by the hospital and turned back over to his doctor regarding his failure-to-thrive.
My son is thriving. He was anyway, of course, in a personal sense but now he is physically thriving. Really thriving. And I couldn’t be more grateful.
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Posted in Failure To Thrive
Onwards but not upwards
Friday, February 9th, 2007One month ago today my dog died. Today I got a call from the vet telling me that our surviving dog is showing signs of having the same disease that Brin died from. On Tuesday I will be taking her to the same referral vet in Bristol that called me with the devastating news about Brin just before Christmas.
Meanwhile my parents’ dog remains critically ill with us. I took her to the vet today for a steroid injection that alleviates her depression and deterioration temporarily but will cause long-term problems for her. Irrelevant, she will not live that long.
My husband’s father is telling us that he is refusing treatment that will prolong his life by a couple of weeks because he doesn’t feel it is worth it. There’s nothing I can write about that except to say that we will be making our way to see him in the next couple of weeks.
Oh, and that thriving baby? When I got him weighed today it turns out his weight has slipped downwards across another centile.
I honestly don’t know how much more bad news we can cope with at the moment.
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Posted in Failure To Thrive, All Gone Wrong, Dog Days
Overcoming failure-to-thrive
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007Every year Matthew is home for the twelve days of Christmas. It’s a tradition in our household and we spend it doing family things, visiting friends and family and on twelfth night we take down the Christmas decorations and put up our eldest son’s birthday party decorations. It’s a good way to round off the holiday.This year had added benefit, in that Ben, our failing-to-thrive eleven month old, decided that he would start to eat and - at the same time - start to sleep. I am still at a loss as to why he decided that he had had enough of the starvation thing, even though I know and have been repeatedly advised that babies often ‘grow out of it’ - ‘it’ being whatever problem they suffer whether sleeplessness, eczema, reflux, diarrhoea, constipation (and of course at twelve months then develop picky eating, night-waking, tantrums, toddler diarrhoea, constipation and all manner of toddler related things) - but I have my own suspicions as to why he started to eat:
1) With Matthew home I got him to feed Ben in the highchair. There was no hint of milk (as I was the other end of the house with my feet up. Or, more likely, cleaning the loos). Ben didn’t know whether I would be back. So he ate.
Not certain about this one because, let’s face it, my boobs are just not THAT great.
2) I only offered him formula at night in an attempt to discourage him having milk at night. There was every hint of milk (as I was lying right next to him and if he could have got into my pyjamas he would have). Even when I was desperate for sleep I didn’t give in.
Also not certain about this one because actually he drank the formula anyway and went straight back to sleep. The same week he started eating so this made no difference. But I can pretend I was doing the good mother thing and refusing him milk that he didn’t need.
3) We put a television in the kitchen. I know, I know.
So I could remove the television and see if he stops eating. But, really, why would I?
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Posted in Failure To Thrive, All Gone Wrong
Obstruction
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007The baby starts screaming. I pick him up quickly, holding him in our practiced way under his thighs, feeling his body convulsing and shaking as he cries in pain into my shoulder. I reassure him, swaying gently to soothe him, knowing that trying to distract him will make him cry more. We stay like that for ten, fifteen minutes, his body trembling against me.
Three hours, two suppositories and four dirty nappies later he starts to cry out in pain yet again. I pick him up and wonder what the hell can make a baby have such trouble getting rid of what his body needs to get rid of. I dread the answers the hospital may provide but I need to know.
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Posted in Failure To Thrive
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