The First of Many

Trips to the pool that is!


Devon has been begging, and begging, and begging to go to the pool for the last couple of weeks and today we finally made a trip. I'm a big wuss and I won't take the kids to the pool without Chris. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Devon can't swim yet. So I don't feel like I could keep Devon and Matthew from drowning at the same time. And the second reason is that people like to drive from who knows where to use our pool. I don't like that. It's a community pool. Meaning the people who live in our neighborhood pay a home owners association fee to get the key to use our pool. When strangers drive out here and hop the fence or beg people who already hopped the fence to let them in it irritates the fire out of me. I don't trust strangers around my kids. Call me over protective, I don't care.

Devon is finally tall enough to stand in the big pool at the shallow end (3ft). So today she got used to hopping in the water and then I taught her how to doggy paddle and kick. She hasn't combined the two together yet, but I bet it won't be long until she does and then maybe I would be comfortable taking them to the pool in the mornings on the days Chris works. We'll see.

I Mean It This Time

Yowzers!! Has it really been seven months since my last blog? Well, that seems like a long enough sabbatical to me.

Of course, it is the news irritating me that prompted this revival. I'm sure you heard about the new study that has come out linking levels of pesticide in children's urine with ADHD. And if you know me well, then you expected this blog.

First of all, I am by no means any kind of expert on ADHD. I don't know a lick about behavioral psychology. But I did take two statistics classes in college and there is where some of my disgruntledness (I'm sure I made that word up) is coming from.

With that said, the first thing I want to know is who funded this study. There have been instances where industries or organizations have had a special interest in research improving their status in the world. So that is always the first thing I ponder.

Also, I think it is very misleading for this connection to be made when even the news clearly states according to the study that this was not a 100% of the time situation. Knowing that in research this is rare, I still think that if these results were so grand why not give us some numbers? In my ethical bubble, I don't believe it is appropriate to point your finger at a particular variable and say "You are the reason for this!", when there are obviously more pieces to the puzzle.

In my eyes, there are various contributing factors in ADHD. Some may be genetic, which is way beyond my lingo. But mostly I believe it is not just something ingested (but obviously it can factor in, I'm not countering that), but the parental (or lack of) environment that kids are sometimes brought up in. Being raised in front of the tv screen seems like a big one to me.

My logic says, "hmmm this wasn't a big deal fifty years ago, what has changed?" Yes, our diet has changed, not just in the way our food is grown but also the way it is made available (which is the nicest way I can say processed). We are less physically active, and the way we spend our time has changed quite a bit too.

Now I am slowly on my way to being a health nut, emphasis on the slowly. So I completely agree that pesticides (AND processed foods) are a significant factor to many disorders and even diseases. All this is to say, ADHD is complex just like any other disorder. Rarely is there one factor to point your finger at. Always look at research critically. Just because they are doctors and specialists doesn't mean you don't get to think for yourself about these issues. And that is my mean beef with this.