Skinny Boys Rule!

We took Ladan to his 4-year doctor's appointment yesterday. He measured in at 42 inches and weighed 33.6 pounds. Well, they said 41.75 inches, but he was afraid of the thing coming down on his head, so he scrunched down a bit. If he straightened up, he'd be at least 42 inches, so we'll go with that. That puts him somewhere just under or at the 90th percentile for his height, and just under the 50th percentile for his weight. Not bad! At least until you look at the height to weight ratio chart where he shows up as being so skinny for his height that he's not even on the chart. When I look at him, I don't see him as that skinny. So I decided to play it forward a bit. If he's on exactly the same curve when he's 20 years old, he'll be about 6 foot 3 inches and about 152-155 pounds! Okay, well, that is one skinny man indeed! In any case, he's healthy, and there are no concerns at this point about his size and stature.

We also did a quick weight check on Gabe, and he gained about a pound and a half, bringing him up to the 3rd percentile for his weight. All right, little man! Again, he's much taller proportionally, so he's way off the chart (as in, way below the low end of the chart) for height-to-weight ratio... but he's healthy, and that's all I care about.

The doctor surprised me and told me that they generally do all the 5-year immunizations at the 4-year appointment. Hmmm. I had just told Ladan that he wasn't getting any shots at this appointment. They schedule the MMR, polio, chicken pox, and DTaP shots all at the same time. As a quick intro to the post I'll write later about my vaccine research, I'll say we declined the vaccines at this appointment. In short, here's why.... We know for sure that there are certain vaccines that we're not going to do, and the ones we might do will not be done all on the same visit. I need to review my research, and we need to make some decisions about whether and when we're going to get started on each of them.

We do know that we're not planning to do the chicken pox vaccine right now. It's made with some pretty gross stuff, and we'd actually rather our boys get chicken pox as children and get it over with. The childhood vaccine doesn't necessarily give them immunity into their teen and adult years anyway, and it's MUCH more dangerous for them to get chicken pox as teens or adults. I did read that the 5-year booster is supposed to make it more likely that immunity will last into adulthood, but it's obviously new, so the jury is still out on that one. So, our plan at this point is to hope that they can get the pox sometime when they're young and get it over with. If they don't actually get chicken pox, then we'll have them tested as preteens to see if they've got immunity (sometimes you can build up enough immunity even if you've never had chicken pox). If they're not immune at that point, and if the manufacturers use different stuff to make the shot by then, there's a 2-shot series we can get them to give them immunity through adulthood. Basically, if we can avoid the nasty ingredients AND give them lifelong immunity just by letting them get the pox during childhood, then that's a lot better than the alternatives in our minds. Or, better yet, if they can develop immunity during childhood from little bits of exposure without ever getting the full-blown disease, then they're in even better shape... and we will have avoided putting nasty stuff in their bodies.

There are two manufacturers of the DTaP vaccine (diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis). One manufacturer uses ingredients and a procedure that does not make use of nasty (i.e. possibly morally compromising) ingredients, so we'll just ask if we can get that one at our pediatrician's office and go for it. Both the DTaP varieties do include seemingly excessive amounts of aluminum, so this is something to consider. However, it seems like it's the case that coming down with the diseases would likely be a lot worse than the side effects of the aluminum. Hard to tell since there have been no real studies done on the way the body processes high doses of aluminum in certain immunizations. In any case, we'll probably go ahead and do this one if we can choose the one made without gross stuff.

As for the others, I need to revisit my research, and we need to think more about them. If you're interested, one book I've read recently is The Vaccine Book by Robert W. Sears, M.D. It was very well-written, easy to read, and lists all his resources in the back of the book if you want to do further research. I will say that it's fairly important to read the entire book just so you can get his full perspective on things, but it's such an easy read that I completed almost the entire book on one flight to Texas.