There have been many reports circulating about whooping cough outbreaks across the country. The standard response is that the vaccination rates are not high enough. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the answer is so straightforward.

New research reported by Reuters reveals that whooping cough outbreaks are HIGHER among vaccinated children compared with unvaccinated children. This is based on a study led by Dr. David Witt, an infectious disease specialist at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael, California.

As Reuters reports: (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/us-whoopingcough-idUSBRE8320TM20120403)

In early 2010, a spike in cases appeared at Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael, and it was soon determined to be an outbreak of whooping cough — the largest seen in California in more than 50 years.

Witt had expected to see the illnesses center around unvaccinated kids, knowing they are more vulnerable to the disease.

“We started dissecting the data. What was very surprising was the majority of cases were in fully vaccinated children. That’s what started catching our attention,” said Witt.

This same article also admits that these vaccines have never been tested for long-term effectiveness:

“GSK has never studied the duration of the vaccine’s protection after the shot given to four- to six-year-olds, the spokesperson said.

Dr. Joel Ward at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute said it’s still important for parents to get their kids immunized, even though it doesn’t provide lasting protection from whooping cough.”

The pertussis vaccine has had problems from the beginning. Initiated in 1930, the vaccine was a closer resemblance to the actual pertussis bacteria than the “a cellular” version that we have today. This original vaccine was discontinued because of serious side effects, including permanent disability. The new version was considered a safer option and was distributed in the 1990s.

Sanofi Pasteur

It appears that the newer vaccine is not very effective at preventing whooping cough because even though vaccination rates have increased 10 fold in the past twenty years, outbreaks of whooping cough are higher than ever. Higher vaccination rates should lead to a decrease in the disease right?

Now this report adds another unsettling aspect—not only is the vaccine not doing a good job at preventing the disease, it may actually be INCREASING the chance that you will get the disease.

Whooping cough is a very serious disease and seeing your child suffer through such a terrible illness is not something that any of us want to experience. We must demand better clinical testing on these vaccines before they are put in the marketplace!

Supporting your child’s immune system is always the other side of the coin when talking about vaccination. Healthy food, fresh air, and exercise are vitally important for your child while their immune system is developing. Breastfeeding, reducing exposure to second hand smoke and environmental pollutants, limiting day care, and avoiding public places during the winter months are all good practices to implement as well. In addition, probiotics (like the ones in Colic Care!) can help to support the natural development of your child’s immune system and hopefully help them recover more quickly if they do contract a serious illness.

If you have any questions about this article, or anything our our website, please feel free to just “Ask Dr. Tara“.

• Breast feed you baby for as long as possible
  • Breastmilk is perfectly formulated for infants with the perfect balance of proteins, fats, and vitamins, including “healthy” fats that promote brain development. The content of the milk changes even throughout the day, depending on what the infant needs.
  • Breastmilk provides protection for baby’s immature immune system. Mom’s antibodies get transferred to baby, protecting them from viruses that they would otherwise be susceptible to.
  • Children who are breastfed have less incidence of allergies and asthma later on in life.
  • Breastfeeding helps the bonding process, and lets baby get close to mom.
  • For more information about breastfeeding, please read my articles titled “Top 5 Tips for Breastfeeding” and “Common Breastfeeding Myths“.

• Exclusive breastfeeding for 4 to 6 months
  • Early introduction to solids increases the likelihood of allergies, due to baby’s immature GI system.

• “Wear” your baby, especially after feeding
  
  • Get a sling or other carrying device. This has been shown to lower the incidence of colic and reflux, two of the most common problems in early infancy
  • For more info about slings and wearing your baby, please read “Wearing Your Baby – Why Slings Can Be Helpful” and “How to Swaddle Your Baby“.

• Avoid extra linens and stuffed animals in baby’s bed
  • This contributes to SIDS and allergies

• No smoking, even outside, if the smoker will be around the baby within the next hour
  • Smoke sticks to clothing and can still irritate baby’s respiratory passages

• Healthy diet for mom
  • Lots of fresh veggies and high quality protein (eggs, nuts, soy, pea protein shakes, lamb, chicken)
  • Plenty of fluid, at least 8, 8oz glasses of water, diluted juices, or herbal tea, per day.
  • Supplement with high quality essential fatty acids (fish oil) and probiotics. Ask Dr. Tara for more info about types and dosages.

If you have any questions about anything you read in this article, please just “Ask Dr. Tara“. You can also find more tips for new parents in my article titled “Tips for new parents“.

Andrew E. Larsen

This attitude bothers me the most when it comes to feeding our children. I always encourage parents to take advantage of the time when they have the most control over what their children are eating. Parents should be fostering tastes for veggies, fruits, and lean proteins, and explaining why our bodies need these foods. By putting good food in front of your kids and avoiding junk food, you will reap the benefits throughout your child’s life. They will happily eat foods when they are older that you have encouraged while they were toddlers.

Many parents use sweets or junk food to pacify their children into submission. This sets up a very unhealthy pattern of eating that is very difficult to break once the child gets older. Food can be the best medicine or the worst poison! Teach your children about healthy eating while you can and you won’t be disappointed later.

Check out my blog article titled “Broccoli is gross!: A mom’s guide to healthy eating for kids” for tips for getting your children to eat healthy foods.

And if you have any questions or comments, please just “Ask Dr. Tara“.

We need your help! We are trying to get All Natural Colic Care on the shelves of Walmart. Lucky for us that there is a contest that will allow us to do just that.

All we need are your votes!!

Every person that reads this can vote twice a day for the duration of the contest (March 7th to April 3rd). Voting is easy! You can vote by text (by texting 4524 to 383838) or via Facebook. Click the button below to vote now!!

Want to learn more about All Natural Colic Care? Watch our video submission to Walmart!

Please be sure to vote twice everyday and don’t forget to use the buttons below to tell all your friends and family about us.

Now, Harvard researchers have stepped up and said that dairy IS NOT a part of a healthy diet and “that high intake can increase the risk of prostate cancer and possibly ovarian cancer.” The experts also talked about the high levels of saturated fats in dairy and that there are many plant based options to get adequate levels of calcium.

I am also not a fan of dairy because of the high incidence of sensitivity to dairy that I see in my practice. In fact, I have seen numerous cases of babies suffering from colic that have had some relief from removing dairy from either mom’s diet, or from choosing an alternative formula.

It is my hope that more research will continue to support a realistic look at nutrition and that the continued emphasis on including dairy in the diet will be eliminated.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/harvard-declares-dairy-not-part-of-healthy-diet.html#ixzz1ihGfQMA6

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to “Ask Dr. Tara“.

Phyllis Buchanan

Once again, questions are raised about the potential harm from a pharmaceutical. Researchers are now looking at the link between acetaminophen use and an increased risk of asthma among children.

In the 1980’s, an association was found with aspirin use and Reye’s syndrome. This prompted health care providers to discourage aspirin use and promote acetaminophen as an alternative. Over the past 30 years, the rate of asthma has increased dramatically and accelerated around the 1980’s as well. Researchers began to wonder if acetaminophen could have contributed to the increased asthma.

More than 20 studies, including a large analysis of data on more than 200,000 children that found an increased risk of asthma among children who had taken acetaminophen. In November, Dr. John T. McBride, a pediatrician at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, published a paper in the journal Pediatrics arguing that the evidence for a link between acetaminophen and asthma is now strong enough for doctors to recommend that infants and children who have asthma (or are at risk for the disease) avoid acetaminophen.

I have long discouraged parents from using acetaminophen with their children, mainly because it blocks the production of glutathione. Glutathione is very important for detoxification, including drugs. It is a very potent anti-oxidant, and lowered levels may reduce the protective effects on airways, causing inflammation in the lungs.

What can you use instead of acetaminophen? Try to use other methods for relief of symptoms instead of a pharmaceutical. For instance, a mild fever is the body’s attempt to speed up metabolism to help fight bacteria and viruses. It is counterproductive to the immune system to suppress a fever. If the fever is very bothersome, some other things you can try are homeopathy (belladonna is usually a good start), undressing your child and/or taking a cooler bath.

Many parents give acetaminophen prior to and after vaccinations. This is counterproductive as well. Research has shown that acetaminophen lowers the antibody response to vaccines, which is what you are trying to accomplish with a vaccine. In addition, the lowered glutathione may decrease the child’s ability to detoxify some of the other ingredients in vaccines that could be harmful to the body.

More research is pending regarding the link between asthma and acetaminophen. Until acetaminophen is proven to be completely safe, I will continue to help my parents find other ways to provide relief to the children.

For more information about acetaminophen, including a list of all the brand names that contain it, can be found here.

As always, if you have any other questions, please feel free to “Ask Dr. Tara”.

I want to share with you some of my favorite products that can help with many common infant issues. I hope you find them as useful as I have!

Colic Care^®

Of course Colic Care^® is at the top of my list. It is a supplement that has so many benefits for your child throughout his or her life. Not only does it help for colic, but it can be used as a daily supplement to provide those good bacteria that do so much for our bodies. Probiotics help with vitamin production and immune system maturation—all things that can be beneficial no matter the age of your child.

Larch or Arabinogalactin

This supplement is considered a “prebiotic”. It provides a fiber for the good bugs in Colic Care^® to eat, making them more healthy and more likely to stick around. In addition, studies have shown that larch can help increase the immune response to certain viruses. It comes in a powder form and can be easily added to bottles and drinks. Great for those times when your little one starts to get that runny nose.

Vitamin D

This is the new hot topic for vitamins. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that the daily intake for vitamin D be increased due to new research showing correlations with low vitamin d and allergies and respiratory infections. Sun exposure is the best way to get vitamin D, but sometimes this is not possible for infants, especially in the winter months. You should talk with your health care provider about the dosage you should use for your infant, but in general, you can supplement 300IU per day without issues.

Calendula Cream

There are several products out there for babies that have a calendula base to them that are great for babies that are prone to rashes. Make sure that there are no fragrances or other ingredients that you can’t pronounce in them. This type of cream can be a life saver when your little one starts having problems with dry skin or eczema.

Garlic/mullein ear drops

Sometimes, ear infections are inevitable. I discourage the practice of using antibiotics for every ear infection, because the antibiotics can decrease the body’s own immune system by killing the good bugs as well. Using All Natural Colic Care^® with probiotics at the same time as antibiotics can be a great way to mediate some of this problem. Again, studies have shown that in minor ear infections, an ear drop with these ingredients can lessen pain and increase recovery time, without the use of antibiotics. However, you should have a health care practitioner monitor this type of treatment.

These are just a few things that I frequently use for my own little ones, as well as for those that come into see me at the office. Hope they are helpful for you! If you have any questions, just “Ask Dr. Tara“.

New Study: Vaccinated Children Have 2 to 5 Times More Diseases and Disorders Than Unvaccinated Children

Preventable Vaccine-induced Diseases

A German study released in September 2011 of about 8000 UNVACCINATED children, newborn to 19 years, show vaccinated children have at least 2 to 5 times more diseases and disorders than unvaccinated children.

The results are presented in the bar chart below; the complete data and study results are here. The data is compared to the national German KIGGS health study of the children in the general population. Most of the respondents to the survey were from the U.S. (Click on the chart to see it better)

The data was collected from parents with vaccine-free children via an internet questionnaire by vaccineinjury.info and Andreas Bachmair, a German classical homeopathic practitioner. The independent study is self-funded and is not sponsored by a large “credible” non-profit or government health organization with political and financial conflicts of interest; hence Bachmair relies on Google ads and donations for revenue. Each one of the 8000 cases are actual cases with medical documentation. Three other studies had similar results according to Bachmair and are reported below.

No study of health outcomes of vaccinated people versus unvaccinated has ever been conducted in the U.S. by CDC or any other agency in the 50 years or more of an accelerating schedule of vaccinations (now over 50 doses of 14 vaccines given before kindergarten, 26 doses in the first year). Most data collected by CDC is contained in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database. The VAERS is generally thought to contain only 3 to 5 percent of reportable incidents. This is simply because only some immediate reactions are reported by doctors; but many are not admitted to be reactions to the vaccine. Most importantly, the VAERS numbers are only immediate reactions, which I would place with a few hours to a few weeks. Long-term vaccine-induced diseases and disorders are not recognized by parents or doctors when these conditions develop perhaps a few months to five years or more and would never be realized to come from multiple vaccinations. In other words, many children and adults have diseases and disorders that are vaccine induced and they never suspect they are from the vaccines, as this study indicates.

The comparisons of the health of vaccine-free children with the health statistics of the general population are the same as comparing unvaccinated with vaccinated. This is simply because the general population of U.S. children are nearly 100 percent vaccinated.

Only four of the unvaccinated 8000 responded with severeautism (0.05%) and these were said to be high mercury cases. On the other hand, I had noticed the results show about a 1% rate for autism in the unvaccinated over 3 years old–about the same as vaccinated children. So I asked Bachmair why the data does not show significantly less. He told me he had invited many autism groups and internet autism lists to participate and thus skewed the results accordingly. If the true rate is 0.5%, I calculated that only 40 extra respondents (above the true average number) responded yes to autism, it would skew the results by a factor of 2. If the true rate is 0.25%, only 60 additional respondents (above the true average number) of the 8000 responded yes to autism, it would skew the results by a factor of 4. So it would not take many respondents from these lists to skew the results significantly.

The only other bias in this study may include the fact that parents of unvaccinated children are obviously concerned about the health risks of vaccines, and are more likely to make other healthier choices such as feeding their children a much better diet and using more natural remedies and using fewer pharmaceuticals.

Now half the U.S. children suffer from chronic diseases and disorders and 21% are developmentally disabled. Yet the public health system always uses the sacred mantra “vaccine-preventable diseases” when referring to their top public health achievement of mass vaccinations. I think we should be talking more in terms of preventable vaccine-induced diseases.

The survey is still ongoing and you may take the survey here if you have unvaccinated children.

If you think this article and study is important, please use the Facebook button below and share it.–Augie

_____________________________________

Other studies were cited by Andreas Bachmair

Salzburger Study

Results: of 1004 unvaccinated children, had

Asthma, 0% (8-12% in the normal population)

A-topic dermatitis 1.2% (10-20% in the normal population)

Allergies 3% (25% in the normal population)

ADHD 0.79% (5-10%) in children

Longterm Study in Guinea-Bissau (1 Kristensen I, Aaby P, Jensen H.:“Routine vaccinations and child survival: follow up study in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa”, BMJ 2000; 321: 1435–41)

The children of 15,000 mothers were observed from 1990 to 1996 for 5 years.

Result: the death rate in vaccinated children against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough is twice as high as the unvaccinated children (10.5% versus 4.7%).

New Zealand Survey (1992) (http://www.ias.org.nz)

The study involved 254 children. In which 133 children were vaccinated and 121 remained unvaccinated.

Result:

Symptom	vaccinated	unvaccinated
Asthma	20 (15%)	4 (3%)
Eczema or allergic rashes	43 (32%)	16 (13%)
Chronic otitis	26 (20%)	8 (7%)
Recurrent tonsillitis	11 (8%)	3 (2%)
Shortness of breath and sudden infant death syndrome	9 (7%)	2 (2%)
Hyperactivity	10 (8%)	1 (1%)

 

Download and read the IAS1992study now.

By Mr. Augie, Contributing Writer

Source:

http://journal.livingfood.us/2011/10/09/new-study-vaccinated-children-have-2-to-5-times-more-diseases-and-disorders-than-unvaccinated-children/

A 2009 study, for example, found that colicky babies had gastrointestinal inflammation and traces of a bacterium in their guts that may have prompted it. Babies without colic had no inflammation and a greater diversity of beneficial bacteria.

So could higher levels of gut-friendly bacteria make a difference?

In a 2007 study, Italian researchers looked into this by examining 83 colicky babies who were breast-fed. Over 28 days, some of the infants were given simethicone, a medication that reduces gas; the others were given a supplement containing L. reuteri, one of the beneficial bacteria known as probiotics and often found in yogurt. At the end of the study, the babies who received the probiotic cried an average of 51 minutes a day, compared with about two and a half hours in the other group. A 2010 study had similar results.

“Gut microbiota changes induced by the probiotic could be involved in the observed clinical improvement,” the researchers wrote. Still, experts say they would like to see more studies.

The good news is that Colic Care^® contains beneficial bacteria and can help to make your baby’s gastrointestinal tract as healthy as possible!

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to “Ask Dr. Tara“!

Doctor: Explore Naturopathic Treatment Options – Health News Story – KHBS NW Arkansas.

If you have any questions about what she discussed, or anything else for that matter, please don’t hesitate to “Ask Dr. Tara!“