So mostly, time marching on is helpful- we learn more about how the world works and more about how we as humans work, and our lives get better. But lately, what seems like a very large amount of the advances made in science and industry have begun to have the opposite effect. Instead of learning how to do things better, we are learning how to have something else- some machine or some process- do it for us and forgetting how to do it ourselves. This lament for ways past is not a new one- every generation looks to the past as a more innocent or purer time. The good old days have been thirty to fifty years earlier for as far back as humans go, but this lament- my lament- is not so much a look at how much better the past was as a look at what we are losing. Go back two generations and nearly every grown woman knew how to cook a decent meal from scratch, go back a few more generations and that included making even those staples that we as modern consumers would never consider making ourselves like butter and bread and jams and pickles- unless we were doing it as a sort of a hobby. The same goes for skills every grown man had- how to construct and repair furniture, care for cars or horses and other essential skills.

Now, I’m not knocking the changes in our society that have allowed women to take on traditionally male professions or men to take on traditionally female responsibilities- there should be women who pursue medicine and law and automotive repair and there should be fathers who stay home to care for their children and go to the PTA meetings and make the family dinner all week- we need to share those things. But, business has taken advantage of social changes to supplant the common knowledge that used to be passed down from parents to children with convenience. Mothers and fathers stopped teaching their children how to make it themselves, how to repair it and, instead, taught them to buy it pre-made or throw the old one out and buy a new one because it is faster and sometimes- but not always- cheaper.

And, all right, it certainly saves time to use pre-made or to run to the store for a new one instead of spending time repairing the old one, but is it worth what we have lost? Is it a good thing that many in my generation have no clue how to bake anything that doesn’t come in a pre-mixed box or how to sew a button back on a blouse? Is it a good thing that many in my daughter’s generation may not know how to create school projects without the aid of a computer, may not have any clue how to find information in a physical dictionary or encyclopedia because they always work with computer programs with spell check and search capabilities? Is it a good thing that many in my son’s generation won’t be able to change their own oil or a flat tire? Certainly, these skills are recorded in how to books and/or are still practiced by hobbyist, but there seems to be something wrong with the idea that people can grow into men and women without knowledge that was once so basic to surviving just a few generations earlier.

So, what’s to be done about it? We can all try and learn a few of these types of things that we don’t already know and we can make an effort to give our children the opportunity to learn self reliance and basic skills that modern life doesn’t automatically teach them, but more than that, we should stop blindly following the model of consumerism set out by business for the benefit of business. That is to say, don’t buy a new one if you can fix the old, take the time to cook for yourself and your family once or twice a week- change your own oil with your daughter’s help, sew a ripped seam with the help of your son and take a little bit of what big business has taken from us back for your family and your community. The money saved and- more importantly- the experience and knowledge gained will more than make up for the extra time and inconvenience doing it yourself will cost.

Been writing- really I have, just not stuff I’m a gonna share here- too personal/incriminating or something. Instead here, have a wine log I’ve begun: Lushness. It’s mostly for my own entertainment because I don’t know wines, but I know what I like or something along those lines. Why yes, I did have glass today, why do you ask?

So, being that it’s October (Again? Didn’t we do this like a year ago?) my Dear Son has a cough. And, as with most children, the cough is worst overnight and into the early morning, which makes for less than restful night for him. So, like countless parents on countless nights, I give him cough/sniffle medicine to enable him to breathe and possibly sleep.

Having the annual head-chest cold season start off, got me thinking about something I read the other day. Recently, the FDA decided to review the use of over the counter cold medicines in children. Go read the link quick and come back, okay. If it’s bad, I copied it at the bottom of the post, so scroll down. Go on now. Shoo.

*files nails and contemplates navel*

You back? Good.

Now, here’s why I think this is a mistake. The FDA is just covering its big old governmental tushie- those medicines have been used for decades and every parent knows that they work. They might not work as well as we wish them to, but they do work- and that little advantage that the medicines give in helping kids to sleep and therefore get well faster can make the difference between missing one or two days of school and missing a solid week.

I am not one for giving medicine to kids at the drop of the hat- each of my kids have only ever had antibiotics once. Dear Daughter got them for an ear infection caught from a kid who had chronic ear infections, so it was a hearty little sucker. Dear Son got them when he was hospitalized with an infection in his neck- that was some weird fluke thing that scared the bejesus out of the pediatrician, but actually didn’t put Dear Son out that much. Still, it is good to have the option to give a decongestant or antihistamine along with the steam treatments and the honey and the herbals and the Vapor Rub in the middle of the night while my son’s cough sounds like the barking of a seal and his eyes are barely open but never seem to close long enough to sleep before another cough wakes him up again.

The reasons given for the FDA to start telling parents to stop using medicines that they know and trust are (1) that they are not tested in children and (2) that there have been deaths (115 in 37 years- which yes, any death that can be prevented is tragic, but considering the frequency of use, that number is extremely low). But, studies can be done without removing these very helpful products from the market and most of the deaths can be attributed to accidental overdose and misuse. In fact, studies should be done, since I’m sure that many parents will not give up the use of these products (I’m not planning to). The fact that new packaging will not have dosing guidelines is meant to cover the FDA and the drug maker’s legal liability, but in practice, it could lead to more accidental overdosing as parents try to remember what the old dosing structure was or do the math trying to figure out an acceptable dose using the guidelines for older children.

Thing is, the implied reason for removing the guidelines (aside from covering their butts legally) is because they think that parents are too stupid/ignorant to manage giving the medicines to children that small, so they are taking the option away from them. But, if we are uneducated about the drugs, then where are the outreach educational programs funded by the drug makers and/or the government? There’s plenty of money to advertize Viagra, why aren’t there pamphlets going out to parents about how to follow package directions effectively? Why aren’t there weigh-ins a couple of times a year where parents can take their kids to be weighed and where there are doctors or nurses or pharmacists available to talk to about dosing the way there are seatbelt/car safety seat check programs around the country? In fact, the same seatbelt/car safety seat check programs would be the perfect place for such weigh-ins, since the weight of a child is a factor in which type of seat a child should be using as well as how much cough medicine they need at 3 a.m.

And, where are the directions in Spanish? There are bilingual (and trilingual, etc.) directions about how to use appliances and program our TV remotes, but there are only English directions on how to give a child medicine? Okay maybe there are bilingual directions out there in other parts of the country, but I live in New Jersey, just outside of Trenton- we’ve got Spanish speakers here, we really do. What we don’t have is bilingual directions. And, if bilingual directions can’t be done, why not a set of universal symbols? There is a set of them used by the clothing industry to make sure that you don’t shrink your cashmere sweater or bleach all the color out of your red polka dot dress, but nothing of the kind in use here for children’s medicines!

So, yeah, I don’t like this move by the FDA- it’s political and legal Gerry-rigging in order to look like they are trying to save kids lives, but really, it will increase the chances of overdoses and increase the amount of illness suffered by kids, thereby increasing the amount of stress on parents and families.

***

I include the text of the links because the news sites are always removing stories when they get old and the link will eventually break. Included for reference only, no copyright infringement intended.

FDA urged to pull children’s cough medicine
Friday, October 03, 2008
BY CATHERINE LARKIN
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Doctors urged federal regulators to seek removal of children’s cough and cold medicines from store shelves until the products are found safe and effective.

The Food and Drug Administration should take action to stop side effects and deaths from the nonprescription remedies until companies produce studies on their use in children, pediatricians led by Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein told agency officials yesterday. If the agency lacks the power to recall the medicines, companies should at least stop promoting them, the doctors said.

Outside advisers to the FDA recommended last October that the over-the-counter cough and cold drugs shouldn’t be given to children under age 6 and said there wasn’t any evidence they worked in those up to age 12. Companies voluntarily withdrew infant formulations last year.

Doctors said the FDA has been slow to follow through on promised new guidelines for use of the remedies in older kids.

“It is time for them to be re-evaluated,” Michael Shannon, a professor at Harvard Medical School, told FDA officials at a meeting in Beltsville, Md. “If their risk-benefit ratio proves to be unfavorable, as I think will be the finding, then their use in children can’t continue.”

The FDA began reviewing the safety of over-the-counter medicines such as Johnson & Johnson’s PediaCare and Wyeth’s Dimetapp in 2006. The agency received 54 reports of children’s deaths linked to decongestants and 69 associated with antihistamines from 1969 to 2006, involving prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

The products contain ingredients that have been classified by the agency as “generally recognized as safe and effective” since the 1970s, so new mandatory restrictions would require a “cumbersome” rule-making process, said John Jenkins, director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs. The agency is seeking comment at today’s meeting about what studies are needed and whether the products should continue to be available over the counter.

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a Washington trade group that represents makers of nonprescription drugs, said most side effects are caused by accidental overdose and misuse, which can be reduced with better packaging and education. Recalling these products from the market isn’t necessary and may lead to more overdoses on adult-strength formulas, company representatives told FDA officials.

“If pediatric cough and cold products are no longer available over the counter, parents may turn to other alternatives that may result in dangerous consequences for our children,” said Linda Suydam, president of the industry trade group.

The group plans to spend more than $6 million during the rest of this year educating consumers and doctors about its products, including new public-service announcements on radio and television and information on WebMD’s website.

***
Examples of care instructions:

I took some snapshots of some of the blooms and foliage we had in our yard during the end of July. I had intended to weave a story around them. However, I have come up short on plot, so I’m just sharing the pictures with the world.

The Rose Sisters

Gladys the Gladiola

Fern

Ivy

Lily

(Rose of) Sharon

Maggie the Magnolia

Burl, the lone fella

So, along the lines of my last post, I have this fantasy hobby in which I take old chairs and repair and improve them (read decorate and maybe cushion up) then give away or sell them. In my fantasy, I use photographs, maps, other documents, pieces of fabric, mosaic tiles and paints to Improve the chair- to bring out a theme and say something- poetry in furniture form.

Yes, that’s right, I have a thing for chairs. It is strange because in a house or out in restaurants or even in furniture shops, chairs are not something I immediately gravitate towards, but driving around town on errands, I am always drawn to the old chairs and sofas and to a lesser extent other furniture that is left by the side of the road on garbage day. I always want to stop and see what is wrong with them, see if they are still useful, see if they could be made more interesting.

I think that the reason that new or even in current use chairs don’t draw my attention is that they don’t have stories yet, but old chairs- old chairs have stories to tell, even if the only story you can really get from them is how they were worn out or broken. I want to take old chairs, learn their stories and then make the story more plain – a theme on their seat for anyone to read.

My dear husband dislikes this tendency in me to look at chairs and drool as we drive past. He always reminds me of how little spare space we have in our house and, of course, he is right. That doesn’t mean I can’t keep my fantasy hobby in my head, right?

In about two weeks, my daily life is going to change a bit. I’ve been home with my kids for the last eleven years, but last year my son went to all day kindergarten. For about three weeks, I tried to figure out what I ought to be doing with the six hours of solitude this brought me- then, my neighbor, for whom I’d done before/after school care for her older daughter, got a new job and she needed care for her four year old. My days were not solitary again, so I got a reprieve from having to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up. Now, that same four year old is starting kindergarten and my reprieve is over.

I have a large number of things I should do with that time, a larger number of things I could do with that time, and also a few things I actually want to do with that time. And, it’s not as if I need to have it all worked out by the first day of school, but knowing myself like I do (better than most people, but not as well as my husband, I think) I know I should make some plans so I don’t spiral into laziness and depression as soon as the kids are out the door.

So, I start with lists (at this point, this will get boring, so I don’t mind if you stop reading- really, it’s okay- go read some of my fiction, instead).

THINGS I SHOULD DO:

* Spend some time on myself, health-wise. I need to get a physical, to see the eye doctor, and get into an exercise routine that I will actually keep up with. I am experimenting with going vegan- more for moral reasons than for health, but I also expect that it might be better for my health- doing this right will take some thought/research/package reading. I also need to spend some time on my wardrobe and will probably cut my hair short.

* Go through the house room by room to reorganize and get rid of (donate or throw out) things we neither need nor use. This house is small- not for the number of people who inhabit it (4), but for the amount of material possessions in it (eleven-ty billion give or take). Also, the number of closets is unreasonably low (5, if you include the pantry cabinet in the kitchen) so a good re-evaluation of how we store the things we do keep is in order, as well.

* Spend some time on the yard to get it ready for the winter. Also, spend some time with dear husband planning for the spring- the garden is now larger than previous years and the better we plan, the more benefit we will get from it. There is also the matter of where to plant the starter seeds in February, which may be a factor to consider when reorganizing the storage and space use in the house (this is usually the same place we have the Christmas tree because soon after the one comes down, the other goes up and they both do better if there is natural light on the area).

* Spend some time figuring out what if anything I need or want to do about making money. Right now, me working is not needed, but spending a large number of hours alone each day isn’t very good for me- depression, which I have and will always have to deal with (even if it is to just keep it at bay) really enjoys creeping up on me when I’m alone. Plus, there is always the possibility that our financial situation will change. If I were better at writing on a schedule (which I am working on, but feel I still need a great deal of improvement) I’d be thinking about pursuing a writing career of some sort, but I’m not in that place now and I might never be in that place. Writing for myself is possibly all I’ve got in me.

OTHER THINGS I COULD DO:

* In lieu of (or alongside) working, I might start volunteering somewhere. There are a great number of charities that I could get involved with. In fact, there are so many I wouldn’t know where to start.

* Look for more ways to enable the kids’ pursuits and to foster them learning about the things they don’t cover in school (this is something I am already doing- I have taught my daughter to hand sew and now she is learning to cook and both kids take sports and/or dance as well as religion classes).

* Look for ways to encourage my husband in his pursuits- his gardening and his writing he’s on top of right now, but he misses the trumpet and he misses sport.

* Pursue my own bliss- spend more time on my writing, get back into art and photography, perhaps find a choir to sing in or somewhere to dance (I miss colorguard some days) or learn an instrument (guitar maybe?).

* Go ahead with our idea of a family newsletter to help our large extended family keep up with each other.

THINGS I WANT TO DO:

Really, all of the above plus eat everything chocolate in sight, sleep all day and watch endless TV. Okay, this part of the list is of the useless, but maybe acknowledging that this is what I also want to do and then reminding myself that it is bad for me to fall into that behavior will keep me from doing it.

Currently, my family of four (Dear Hubby, Dear Daughter (10) and Dear Son (6) and little old me) are ovo-lacto vegetarians, however, recent events have got me thinking about going vegan- for myself at the very least and probably encouraging my family in that direction will come into play, as well. A few months ago, I began trying to have as high a percentage of our food as possible be organically grown/produced. I did this as a way of reducing the amount of chemicals my children were exposed to, as well as in order to try not to be part of the problem of factory farms. It made me much more aware of how the animals from which our eggs and dairy products were treated (cage-less/free roaming, grass-fed/vegetarian feed, no antibiotics/genetically modified anything).

I thought I was doing pretty well on the animal treatment front, then some recent events made me think about situations in which males might be considered inconvenient. I decided not to be part of something that effects the bulls and roosters born on the farms that produce my eggs and dairy products, because what do you think happens to most of them? They don’t get to live and lay eggs or make milk, they get slaughtered as poultry and beef. So, while I might not be buying meat, by buying eggs and dairy products, I am still supporting the meat industry anyway. This is my primary inspiration to go vegan. The next bit for me to think about is how…

When Dear Hubby and I went vegetarian about ten years ago, it was a slow process- we took it in steps beginning with my husband’s lifelong dislike of seafood and extending to pork, beef and finally poultry over two something like years. We also made some changes location specific (we ate meat out at restaurants or other people’s houses for a few months longer than we cooked it at home) in order to ease the transition. As the family’s primary cook, I learned first how to convert our diet and pantry and then spread the knowledge of how (what) to serve vegetarian guests to our friends and family. I am planning to approach the change to veganism in the same way. A large part of me wants to change over quickly- now- yesterday, already! But another part of me knows that I have to learn about nutrition and cooking all over again with a vegan diet in mind, just the same way I had to with vegetarianism. This could be especially tricky since I think a vegan diet will be a hard sell for my kids (cheese is kind of their thing, while beans and nuts are really not). So, now I have a plan to follow the same blueprint I used to convert to vegetarianism twelve years ago. I have begun by changing over part-time from milk to rice or soy milk and buying vegan cheese substitute. It’s not much, but it is my beginning. Now, of course I have to figure out how to tell people about the change, which most vegetarians will know involves not just saying that they are making a change, but answering questions about why…

When people asked us ten or twelve years ago why we chose to stop eating meat, we gave various answers- to eat healthier, to lessen our impact on the environment due to factory farming, to not be contributing to the needless deaths of animals, but really it was all of those and something more. The something more that inspired us to go vegetarian was the sum of those reasons as well as a feeling- some kind of indefinable inkling that vegetarianism was just the right choice for us. For the most part, those same reasons will suffice when I explain a choice to be vegan, but I wonder sometimes how hard and far to push my explanations. I have always taught my kids that we think our choices about diet are good for both our family and our planet, but that they should not judge or push others about their diets (and they have both faced being questioned by their peers about what weird food they brought to lunch at school, so they understand why we don’t want them to make other people feel bad about their food choices- especially other kids). Do I give the gentle answers about personal health and environmental responsibility, or do I go into my personal feeling that the oppression of animals, whether I eat them myself or not, should not be something I contribute to? That I can’t stand the idea of contributing to the meat eating culture in any way?

How great this looks together on a plate.

I come from a large family and we were raised pretty traditionally when it comes to diet- that is to say, we all ate meat and sea food and wheat and nuts and dairy and- the thing is, we were the standard American Omnivores. Over my thirty-seven years many of us have made changes from the old square meal/food pyramid to more untraditional diets. Some of us had to make these changes for health reasons- my mother developed a nut allergy, one sister eliminated wheat and some other grains to reduce her eczema, another sister became diabetic, had gall bladder surgery and found that she had a persistent problem with yeast (she also chose to become a vegetarian)- her diet is very far from the American standard diet. Others of us made changes to prevent problems- my cousin, who was raised like a sister to me, her family gave up beef after the Bovine Encephalitis scares, diabetes runs in my husband’s family (as well as high cholesterol) and those things did figure in with our decision to become vegetarians (though there were so many reasons). We also include in many family celebrations some close family friends who keep kosher. Still others of us remained in the mainstream and continued to eat meat and wheat and nuts and dairy and eggs and don’t much seem likely to budge from that diet. The point is, we are all over the map.

The nice thing is that we all try to accommodate each other’s dietary quirks, whether they are health restrictions, religious requirements or personal choices. There has, of course been a learning curve for each of us (Is fish meat? When is Passover, and what can’t you eat for that week or so? Do you eat this grain, instead? Which nuts are on your okay list?) but with some flexibility and understanding, we deal with it fairly well. The somewhat surprising thing that has come out of it is that all of these restrictions have resulted in family get-togethers that often have a much wider variety of foods available than they ever did when we were kids. Not only that, but the variety is much healthier than it used to be, too. And the really great thing about it is how it is giving the next generation open minds about food. Even the children whose immediate families do eat the American Standard diet get the chance to try less mainstream foods at meetings of the larger family. Some of them are more receptive than others to those foods (which is at least partly temperament), but those who are willing to try seem to find at least a few things they like from among the weird foods that are made to accommodate other family members’ diets.

This all leads me to the dinner we had tonight- one that has become a favorite at our house. Whenever one sister, who is both a vegetarian and currently on a yeast-free diet, comes over we have some version of this highly enjoyable meal.

Cubed Super Firm Tofu (usually spiced with garlic, pepper and basil or rosemary and fried in olive oil)
Mixed Greens
Olives (as my dear husband says, “Make anything better- add olives.”)
Jersey Tomatoes (two heirloom varieties- orange and calabash- fresh from our garden)
Green Peppers (also fresh from our backyard garden)
Brown and Wild Rice
Baby Carrots
Cucumbers
Almonds
Sunflower Seeds
Pecans
Macadamia Nuts
Plain Yogurt

This meal is currently going by the clunky name of Nuts and Tofu and Stuff, but we are taking nominations for a catchier one.

Nuts and Tofu and Stuff

Mixed Greens, Olives, Orange and Calabash Jersey Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Green Peppers, Baby Carrots, and Brown and Wild Rice

Almonds, Pecans, Sunflower Seeds, Macadamia Nuts, and Pan Fried Tofu

AugNoWriMo Day 15 word count 12,146(48.5 words over goal).