Month: May 2017

Chace Selby was born with a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD). Related to this condition, the adorable youngster needs help getting enough nutrients to help him grow. The three-year-old doesn’t need any help with being adorable, though.

A G-Tube helps Chace grow.

“Some kids have medical problems that prevent them from being able to take adequate nutrition by mouth,” explains Kids Health.” A gastrostomy tube (also called a G-tube) is a tube inserted through the abdomen that delivers nutrition directly to the stomach. It’s one of the ways doctors can make sure kids with trouble eating get the fluid and calories they need to grow.”

“Fortunately,” the children’s medical welfare site continues, “a gastrostomy is a common procedure that takes only about 30 to 45 minutes. After spending 1 or 2 days in the hospital, kids who have had a gastrostomy can get back to their normal activities fairly quickly after the incision has healed.”

A natural star.

Chace’s father, Robert — sometimes Rosco — Selby, wants to make sure that his little boy doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on anything.

Robert and Chace document their adventures together on their own YouTube channel and Instagram account. The candid videos and thoughtful vlogs are intended to “Help Fight and Bring Awareness to CHD.” The charismatic Chace spreads that awareness wherever he goes.
“He goes into environments and he is always the center of attention because he’s so well-mannered,” Robert Selby told Today. “People gravitate toward him, and that’s just because he’s being him.”
Robert isn’t trying to slow the younger down anytime soon.

“[Chace] doesn’t know about his condition because I don’t treat him like he has a condition,” his father said. “I tell him he can do anything anybody else can do. Sports, gymnastics, anything. I tell him to never say you can’t.”

The picture seen ’round the world.

Chace “is sucking in his stomach, trying to show off his abs like his daddy but all you see are his little ribs,” wrote Robert Selby in a May 22, 2017, Instagram post. “I just cut and glued one of his G-tube on me to show support for him and bring awareness. My son was born with a Congenital Heart Defect (#chd) called Tetralogy of Fallot (#tof) and he uses a Feeding-Tube (#gtube) to help with him being underweight due to him not eating orally as much since he was a baby. But as long as I’m breathing, I’ll always support my son and he’ll never be in a fight alone. ”

Like father, like son.

“This was actually a picture from a year ago,” Robert would clarify in an interview with Today two days after posting the photo. “I did this same photo every year from when he was 6 months old, way back. Last year, he asked me, ‘Why do I have a G-tube?’ and I told him it’s because he’s so strong, because he’s Superman. He’s Super Chace. I told him he’s stronger than Daddy, and he said, ‘But you’re Super Dad,’ so I said OK, and I put a G-tube on me, too.”
The combination of Robert’s washboard abs, the adorableness of Chace, and the complete cuteness of the father’s act of solidarity has sent this image around the world through social media and news outlets.

“I’m excited and I’m happy,” Robert Selby said of the success. “I want to give people hope and be uplifting. When everything was going on with Chace, I went online and it helped to see other parents who had gone through similar situations and were doing OK, to see their sons and daughters who grew up to be married at 21, 22. So if I can help even just one person a day, I’m doing my job.”
Chance and Robert, you’ve brought a lot of attention to Congenital Heart Defects and you’ve delivered a boatload of smiles while you were at it. Keep up the great work!

It’s 2017 and let’s face it: We don’t have much control anymore over the media our children are exposed to when we’re not watching over them. There are many Internet fads that we overhear our kids talking about with their friends, but the names of these fads sometimes don’t make sense and they blow right over our heads. There are “challenges” floating around online and while some of it is harmless fun, such as the bottle flipping challenge, others are more dangerous and pose a threat to our children’s safety. Read on and be aware of what your kids might be trying with their friends.

Backpack Challenge

Two rows of people line up and everyone holds a heavy backpack.
One person tries to run through the rows without getting knocked down, but inevitably he or she is knocked down and can get hurt.

Kylie Lip Challenge

This one has been around for a little while, so you’ve probably heard of it.
To look like Kylie Jenner, kids put shot glasses over their mouths and suck in so that their lips swell up.
This represents the many pressures that girls feel to look like certain women in the media. It might be important to have a talk with your daughter about societal pressures on appearance. And on top of that, the challenge is dangerous. Shot glasses are not made of flexible glass. The glass can break from the pressure and cause dangerous cuts.

Choking/Pass-Out Challenge

The truth is that this game has been around for decades and continues to stay popular with each generation.
If you don’t already know it, the choking game is when children choke each other or press on each other’s chest or hyperventilate until the person feels high or passes out. Children have died while playing this game.

Salt and Ice Challenge

This is a very dangerous challenge. When you put salt and ice together, the temperature of the ice can drop to lower than 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Kids put the ice and salt on their skin, and the challenge is to see who can withstand the pain of the frostbite for a longer period of time. Doctors say this can cause permanent damage to bone and muscle.

Blue Whale Challenge

This is perhaps the creepiest challenge of them all for the sake of its anonymity and what it asks of your kids.
The blue whale challenge involves an anonymous “administrator” who gives the participant a different challenge every day for 50 days. The challenges typically involve self-harm, such as cutting.
On the 50th day, the participant is supposed to commit suicide. Some people claim there have been suicides linked to this game, but that’s most likely not true. Still, this could be dangerous for at-risk kids who are thinking of harming themselves. Apparently, there have been blue whale challenge apps that appeared but then ultimately were removed. Be on the lookout that your child doesn’t have an app like this on his or her phone.

To vaccinate or not vaccinate? That’s an important question that every parent faces.

According to the CDC, “Vaccines are our best defense against infections that may have serious complications such as pneumonia, meningitis, cancer, and even death.” They recommend vaccinations to protect against 14 infectious diseases, before the age of two years. They include: measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, haemophilus influenza type B, polio, influenza, rotavirus, and pneumococcal disease.” Other experts agree and equate vaccinating to wearing a seatbelt.

However, while science has proved that it’s safe, effective, and truly necessary to immunize, there’s an increasingly large group of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. A study showed that nine out of 10 pediatricians say that they have been asked by at least one parent in their practice to alter their child’s immunization schedule—with most of those parents claiming that the vaccines are unnecessary.

Confused? Here’s a list of seven of the dangerous anti-vaccination arguments that parents make—and why they’re bogus.

They may cause autism.

Despite clear evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, this is often a major argument of “anti-vaxxers.” The Autism Science Foundation (and other autism related groups), as well as the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all released lists of studies that show no link between vaccination and autism.

The one study that people who don’t vaccinate often cite is the one that was conducted in 1998 by physician-researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Unfortunately, his conclusions didn’t hold much water, as the research he conducted turned out to be fabricated. Dr. Wakefield admitted to falsifying the data and was subsequently stripped of his license.

Despite this, plenty of parents have shared anecdotes of children developing autism after being vaccinated. Anecdotal evidence, though, can hardly be compared with scientific fact; no direct proof of causation has been found and experts believe that those kids would probably have developed autism regardless of vaccination.

Vaccines may overload a child’s immune system.

From the day that babies are born, they’re pummeled by germs and viruses that serve to strengthen their bodies. They’re exposed to thousands of antigens (the immune boosting micro-organisms in germs) a day through eating different foods, putting their hands and objects in their mouths, and being around people who are sick.

Vaccines contain these same antigens and boost a baby’s immune system in the exact, same way—only with much less of a punch. The number of antigens that vaccines contain are equivalent to a child being exposed to a mild infection. For example, when a child has a cold, he or she is exposed to up to 10 antigens; with “strep throat,” the child is exposed to up to 25 to 50 antigens.

Each vaccine in the pediatric vaccination schedule has between one and 69 antigens. The total amount that a child may be exposed to through vaccination, by the age of 2, is a mere 315 antigens. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we pick up in our day-to-day life and isn’t something to be concerned about.

It’s only my decision and affects only me and my child if I don’t vaccinate.

Parents who don’t vaccinate their kids not only jeopardize their own children’s lives, but also the lives of those who surround them. Lives at risk include the ones of those who aren’t vaccinated or medically cannot be, including newborn babies, the elderly, people with lessened immune systems (like immunocompromised cancer patients on chemotherapy) and pregnant women.

With every non-vaccinated life, the ability of people to be protected via association becomes increasingly more compromised. “Herd” or “community immunity” occurs when the vast majority of people are immunized in a population; those who aren’t able to be immunized are still offered protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained—sort of like an immunity umbrella.

However, this homeostasis is jarred when the numbers of non-immunized children rise above a certain percent. It’s believed that in order to maintain herd immunity, 83 to 94 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated. With every family that chooses not to vaccinate, this precarious balance is in danger.

Natural immunity is better than vaccinations.

Natural immunity of a child can occur in different ways.

Maternal passive immunity occurs when antibodies are passed from the placenta to the fetus in order to protect a newborn. This immunity has a short shelf life and only lasts a few months. Immunity against bacterial infection is also provided through antibodies found in breastmilk, and serves to protect the baby until she can build these defenses on her own.

Natural immunity can also be acquired when a baby is exposed to a pathogen (germ or virus). Research shows that the immune response of people who have been vaccinated against disease is just as good as the immune response of people whose immunity comes from an infection.

However, a vaccine-acquired immunity, especially in the case of a child, is preferred because the child needs not tolerate the actual infection in order to be protected. With natural immunity, a baby can become sick, suffer the illnesses side effects including possible death on her way to becoming immunized.

The illnesses we vaccinate for are in the past and no longer affect us.

This is true so long that most people are immunized and herd immunity is present. When a large majority of the population can inherently fight off the pathogens that invade their systems, everyone is protected and a disease can never establish itself and spread like crazy.

However, if larger percentages of the population don’t vaccinate, an increased percentage of the populations will be vulnerable (eventually making everyone vulnerable). This gives viruses and bacteria the opportunity to attack, get stronger, and stay longer. Even though the threat of certain diseases seem to be gone in the U.S., they are quite prevalent elsewhere.

International travel is great in terms of life experience, but not so great if you bring back a disease. Combine the dissolution of herd immunity with the introduction of a foreign disease and the potential for an epidemic rises.

Vaccines are filled with other unhealthy material.

Most vaccines are made of antigens (dead or dormant disease), adjuvants (to enhance the immune system response), antibiotics (to prevent bacteria and other contaminants during the making of the vaccine), preservatives and stabilizers (albumin, phenols, and glycine), and suspending fluid (sterile water, saline, or fluids containing protein).

Many anti-vax parents are concerned about the use of thimerosal as a preservative, as it contains trace amounts of mercury. The type of mercury that’s found in thimerosal is ethylmercury. It differs from methylmercury, the type of mercury that’s found in fish and that is known to be harmful to kids in certain amounts. Ethylmercury is broken down in the body and excreted much quicker than methylmercury, and has not been shown to cause autism or any other harmful effects.

As a precaution, manufacturers have stopped using thimerosal in the making of vaccinations any way—it’s now only used in the influenza vaccine and thimerosal-free options are also available.

Vaccines are a good way for large companies to make money.

Look, we live in a capitalist society. That means everyone needs to make money—even pharmaceutical companies and pediatricians. However, to say that these individuals push vaccinations to make a profit is not only incorrect, it’s grossly irresponsible. Looking more closely, pediatricians and drug companies are not only not getting rich on vaccines, they often lose money on vaccine administration.

At one time, the financial profits of vaccine business were so bad that many pharmaceutical firms actually sold their vaccine divisions to other companies so that they could concentrate on more profitable drugs. They found they could make more money selling the medicines that people took daily than the vaccines that were administered only once a year—and sometimes only once in a lifetime.

It may seem astounding to learn that the vaccine industry is valued at over $24 billion, however, it only makes up a mere 2 to 3 percent of a trillion-dollar worldwide pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, it’s important to note that pharmaceuticals rarely receive funding by the federal government. Most of the money goes to vaccine research by the National Institutes of Health.