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Health ’ Category
Monday, April 1st, 2013
2 years, 4 months.
Dear Jack,
I figure today is just as good as any for us to make a major change in our lives. Tonight, you will dine on meat for the first time!
As for Mommy and me, this will be the first time we’ve had a non-vegetarian meal in nearly a year and a half. In the least, this breaks my personal nearly-monthly long vegan lifestyle.
Not only have your parents kept you from meat, but we’ve also deprived you of soda, fruit juice, most candy, artificial colors, and fast food.
But that’s not fair to you and I realize that now.
What a hypocrite I am to say you can’t have the same foods I had growing up. The fact that some of your favorite toys are the Stomper monster trucks I got from McDonald’s Happy Meals from 1985 really started making me think.
To say that you can never know the joy and splendor of opening a hot steamy bag or box containing not only great tasting food, but also a cool toy, that’s just really not fair.
So today when I pick you up from daycare, I’m taking you straight to the drive-thru and buying you a chicken nugget kids meal.
I just sort of feel embarrassed by this whole hippy stage in my life. (I even endorsed Ron Paul in the 2012 Presidential election! Can we say overboard?)
Looking back, I made way too big of a deal about the pink slime controversy last year. I need to just stop asking where our food comes from and let you be normal.
You’re a kid, for goodness sake! Be a kid!
I realize that a recent University of Oxford study shows that vegetarians live longer, have a lower risk for heart disease, are less likely to develop diabetes, and have a lower height-weight ratio than meat eaters.
Okay, so maybe our family would live longer… but would we have as much fun?
Time to find out!
Love,
Daddy
Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
2 years, 4 months.
Dear Jack,
Mommy stayed home with you on Tuesday, the day after you had your 2nd febrile seizure. Fortunately, you had a quick recovery and were back to school by Wednesday.
Even still, Mommy kept a close watch on your temperature that day; knowing that if it spiked again, you could have yet another febrile seizure.
As she cared for you in our bed, you made this face (featured right) and asked her:
“Mommy, are my beaver gone?”
This hasn’t stopped being funny to me yet.
Evidently, you think that the word beaver and fever are the same thing. At this point, I don’t think you quite comprehend the fact that “having a fever” means your body’s temperature is too hot.
I imagine a mischievous little beaver hanging on your back, running across your legs and arms; just pestering you and keeping you from being able to go to school.
It makes me think of how last Friday I spent my lunch break with you at the park and you saw a squirrel doing his typical, paranoid, jumpy circus act on a tree. You asked, “Daddy, he gonna get me?”
So I wonder if in general you have a fear about small critters “getting” you.
As your Daddy, I will protect you against it all: Monsters underneath the bed, squirrels in the trees, beavers… not to mention- gophers, duckbill platypuses… if it’s an irrational fear, I’m on it for ya!
If it’s a rational fear, like having a 105 degree temperature and having to rush you to the ER, well, I’m good for that too.
Love,
Daddy
Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
2 years, 4 months.
Dear Jack,
Fate would have it that your parents would become vegetarians right around the time you would be old enough to start eating meat; back in December 2011.
Now that I’ve fully converted to veganism, your chances of trying chicken nuggets anytime in the near future look pretty bleak.
But here’s the thing: You really have no concept of eating animals. A vegetarian diet is all you know.
Yesterday we received some coupons in the mail for a fast food restaurant. You saw a picture of a combo meal, consisting of a burger, fries, and a soda. Your reaction:
“What this called, Mommy?”
This past weekend while you were hanging out at an indoor playground, you discovered the pretend kitchen. After toasting the plastic peas in the pink toaster, you found a plastic chicken leg.
“What this called, “Daddy?”
I quickly responded without thinking about how weird my answer would be.
You were confused, but you tried not to question it, as you are still fairly new to the human experience:
“That’s fried chicken leg? Chicken leg.” You walked away with the plastic chicken leg in your hand, trying to figure out why a human being is supposed to play with a random body part of an animal.
I am trying to put myself in your shoes, simply thinking that all those animals on Old McDonald’s farm are just his pets and nothing more.
It’s going to be weird for me the day you’re old enough to understand that certain animals are a protein source for the 97% of Americans who are not vegetarians or vegans.
I wonder: At what point in your life will you finally eat meat; with the knowledge of what it actually is. If ever.
Aside from your parents’ influence, are you still a vegetarian? I’m sure the truth will come out in your teenage years.
Love,
Daddy
Monday, March 18th, 2013
2 years, 4 months.
Dear Jack,
It seems like only a year ago that you had your febrile seizure.
And it seems like only two days ago on your 2.333rd birthday that I said this:
“You haven’t had another [febrile seizure] since; in fact, the last time you were even sick at all was last July.
As your dad, I am so grateful and thankful for your health, safety, and general well-being.
I don’t worry about you, but I am constantly aware of what precious cargo you are and how I responsible I need to be for you.”
With that being said, I had to take you to the ER today at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital because you were slipping into another febrile seizure.
I’m more of a romanticized, big picture, spare-me-the-technical-details kind of storyteller, so I’ll just regurgitate the highlights as best as I remember them happening over the past 24 hours:
Mommy had already left late for work due to a tornado warning, you had a fever of 105, I gave you fever-reducing medicine, we were watching Hard Hat Harry’s All About Monster Trucks, you starting shivering, I took off your clothes, your lips looked like they were going numb…
As I held you while talking to the nurse on the phone, you started convulsing like you did in last year’s febrile seizure…
When you did that it scared me, which then scared you, which caused you to wake up from the first three seconds of this year’s febrile seizure…
The nurse on the phone said to bring you to the ER instead of the pediatrician’s office, I threw your clothes in a Kroger bag, I by default imagined myself as Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies as we drove through the post-tornado warning weather to the hospital…
I remember snapping my fingers a lot to keep you awake as I drove you there, saying, “Stay with me, son! Wake up! Don’t fall asleep! Listen, I’m snapping my fingers like Hard Hat Harry does…”.
When we got there, I found out you had caught a case of Roseola, which had caused your temperature to spike, setting your body up to go into seizure mode.
Thank God, you’re okay… again.
It was scarier for me this 2nd time because I didn’t have Mommy or an ambulance. I kept telling you, “You’re going to be okay, son. Daddy’s taking care of you. Hang with me…”.
I knew what I was saying was true, but at the same time my trust was in God, not myself.
Navigating my way to the ER in post-tornadic weather, trying to find out where to park once I got there (!), and keeping you from falling into another seizure because I hated the thought of your seizing while I drove 65 mph on the interstate in the wind and rain…
Well, I really do feel like Bruce Willis in a Die Hard movie right now.
As for you having another febrile seizure, A) I’m becoming a pro at what to do now and B) I’ll going ahead and mark my calendar for next March, so hopefully I can jinx it.
Love,
Daddy
Monday, March 11th, 2013
2 years, 3 months.
Dear Jack,
Here’s the most flattering picture I’ve ever taken of you. (Sarcasm.)
There you are in the back seat on Saturday afternoon, indulging in a vegan chocolate cookie from Whole Foods Market.
You didn’t seem to notice there were no eggs or dairy in your cookie. All you knew is that for some reason, I was letting you pig out on a treat which you didn’t have to earn by going potty at the house.
As for the reason the cookie was vegan, that would be because, well… this is me officially coming out of the vegan closet.
I have suffered from severe allergies and sinus problems since 1992, when I was only 11; I’ll be 32 next month. But a week ago I decided to see what would happen if I stopped drinking milk with my coffee.
About two days into using coconut and rice milk instead, I noticed that my constant sinus pressure cleared up.
Then I became addicted to that version of life. It’s been 21 years since I’ve breathed so easily and have been able to think so clearly. The fog in my brain has lifted, in more ways than one.
I decided that if it meant going vegan (no dairy or eggs, in addition to no meat) to continue my heightened state of well-being, I would be willing to make the appropriate lifestyle change. Watching the documentary Vegucated on Netflix solidified my decision.
Granted, our family has been vegetarians for 15 months now. So I’ve been living an alternative lifestyle this whole time anyway. Here it is; the last picture of us together before I became a vegan. The following day I would become even weirder.
Just to be clear, the vegan thing is just for me; not for you or Mommy.
Though when I think about it, the only thing keeping you from being a vegan is Annie’s whole wheat macaroni and cheese and your Chobani Champions Tubes of yogurt.
You don’t like eggs. You don’t like milk. But you’ll eat cheese and yogurt so I want you to keep enjoying them.
Or at least I should say, enjoy them while you can.
I’ve already learned that you and I have basically the same medical issues. The only reason you and I don’t currently still have eczema is because A) I make sure that none of your soaps or lotions contain sodium lauryl sulfate or artificial dyes and B) other than special occasions, I deprive you of processed sugar; even 100% fruit juice.
So don’t be surprised in about 9 years when you turn 11, that you’ll suddenly get this sinus pressure that gets worse at night and any time the weather changes. It will feel like you desperately need to blow your nose, but there’s nothing there when you try.
Son, I hope the best for you. I hope you haven’t inherited my severe allergies and sinus problems, but if you have… at least you’ll have a vegan dad to help teach you have to live the peculiar life of no eggs or dairy, in addition to no meat.
Mmm… did somebody say vegan chocolate cookies?
Love,
Daddy
Categories: Health, Must Read, The Dadabase | Tags: allergies, alternative lifestyle, dairy, diet, eggs, extreme diet, food allergies, sinus, sinus presure, vegan, vegetarian
