Hi all,

I must say that the posts of late have been quite lively and interesting.

Adding to the placenta thread:

When I was pregnant with my son Joshua, one of my OB nurses (who was a Midwife
in Hong Kong) kept on encouraging me to think about eating Josh's placenta (in
a stew form) after he was born.  She told me that where she was from, placenta
was commonly eaten by new moms and others who wanted to keep youthful.  Mind
you she was instrumental in the last trimester of my pregnancy and postpartum
(she is an amazing acupressure therapist and really helped me with all the
back and leg discomfort I was experiencing).  However placenta is one of those
borderline organic items (I rate them with eyes,brains, chitterlings- pig
intestines, mountain oysters) that I was not about to put in my mouth.  I'm a
food adventurer but just couldn't make this leap even though I knew the source
of the placenta was relatively "clean" :).

As for giving meds:

 I am very fresh in this experience.  My 23 month old Josh has severe asthma
and had an especially bad flare up this past week-near hospitalization.  Part
of the problem was that he was refusing his oral meds (steroids have an
especially nasty aftertaste).  The choice presented to me by his pediatrician
was meds at home or hospitalization(complete with IV's and other noxious
stuff).  Watching my child with grunting, nasal flaring and retractions
definitely helped me with my decision. So I have been the dutiful mom crushing
prednisone into hershey chocolate syrup and giving him the meds by mommy bear
hold (holding him between my legs and landing the goo in his mouth).  Yup I'm
sure this has been traumatic for Josh (probably will guarantee shrink therapy
time in the future) but weighing this vs a hospital stay made it worth the
try.  He has continued to nurse despite all the excitement and illness.

In my medical career, "First do No Harm" has been replaced by a more pragmatic
stance, "do the least harmful thing."  I don't know of any intervention
(medical,therapeautic or other) that is completely without risk.  So much of
what I do in daily practice is presenting safer options for the families I
work with. For example those "frightening blue bulb syringes" are in my
practice.  I show parents how to GENTLY clean the nares for secretions (along
with a little normal saline).  The parents in my practice constantly ask me
for "medicine "  for coughs and colds (even in infants less than 6 weeks old).
I am far more comfortable giving them something to take home (many of these
parents think you have done nothing if they don't leave the doctor's office
with something) that I think is more effective in removing boogers than most
of the antihistamine and decongestant preps on the market.  The babies in my
practice are not up on the current medical journals  but seem to prefer
respiration without their noses being congested

You are safe now...the Snap Diva is logging off,

Pierrette Mimi Poinsett MD FAAP
Modesto CA