As the proud father of a four week old baby, I've discovered that being a parent can be quite the emotional roller-coaster. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, I had been warned after all, but I have to admit that when setting out on this fatherhood thing, I was more than a little naive. In the last month I've been peed on, puked on and pooed on. I've been bought close to tears with a screaming, red-faced, writhing ball of terror in my arms at 4 in the morning, pleading with her to just, please, go to sleep. Then bought close to tears again, on the opposite end of the emotional scale, gazing in wonder as two pure blue eyes peer peacefully back at mine.
The most difficult part of parenting for me though, the part which I'm sure has already tuned a few of my hairs grey, is the not knowing. There's been a lot of guess work. Does that cry mean I'm hungry, I'm too warm, I have a stomach cramp, or I've just crapped myself? So much of early parenting is trial and error. And when at a loss, often I will turn to Doctor Google for help.
The internet has proved an invaluable resource as a parent with a new-born, with a wealth of information at my finger tips, sometimes I wonder how past generations coped. On the other hand, when it seems every link I click on expresses a different, often conflicting point of view, I can see how it could have been a lot simpler in the good old days. Although there is some metaphorical gold on offer on the internet, there is a whole lot of rubbish to wade through as well.
Recently I read an article attention-grabbingly titled Dear Parents, You Are Being Lied To (Raff, J 2014) which I found very relevant and interesting.
The topic of the article was child immunisation and public perception. The author Dr. Jennifer Raff is a health professional obviously frustrated with what she sees as public misperception over immunisation practises. In short she discusses the debate over whether immunising children is safe, effective and/or necessary. She answers all these concerns with an emphatic Yes It Is.
In my opinion the worthiest point Raff makes in her article is the importance of educating oneself in the right manner. This means finding out what the scientific community thinks and learning about the immune system and how it works. She also suggest talking to older generations who lived before today's immunisation techniques existed.
In today's modern society, there is an ever growing distrust of "Big Pharma" - large pharmaceutical companies who are seen as having purely financial objectives. Calls for disregarding modern medicine for natural "alternative" remedies are becoming more common. Personally I believe both have their place. The difficult part is finding the right balance between the use of natural remedies, synthetic medicine, and the faith that the body can to an extent remedy itself. I feel this is doubly important as a parent when it is not only your own body you are responsible for but also that of a completely helpless human being.
It's true it can be hard to find the kernels of truth when wading through the swathes of information available to us these days. A great quote mentioned in Raff's article, which I will take with me is the following which comes from astro-physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson "the good thing about science is that it's true, even when no-one believes in it."
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