Bubbas (aka Kaden)

You’ll notice Kaden didn’t get an update on the last post.  That’s because he needs a post dedicated to him.  I tried to get a picture of him today, but he's not easy to take pictures of!  Plus, he still doesn't feel well so his face is kind of a mess.

He is now 16 months old!  He’s so fun and so busy.  He was miserable when he was sick, and he was just getting to be pleasant again until he got sick again.  He’s not near as bad as he was, though.

Kaden is our accident-prone child.  I mean, Sadie hurts herself constantly in little ways.  She falls, she walks backwards into things.  Sometimes we don’t know how she can hurt herself so often.  But Kaden is different.  He’s full-on trying to give me a heart attack.

For starters, there were the stitches at 10 months old.  Not to mention all the times he has banged his head.  Then he got stitches again in St George.  I have pictures, but that’s going to have to wait until I post about St George.  On top of that, he has started reaching.  I’ve never had a child reach up onto the counter at such a young age.  If there ever was a child that is begging to burn himself on the stove, it’s this guy.  The other day he reached up and picked up my big chopping knife and was holding it while I quickly, but gently tried to take it out of his hands.  It’s not like it was hanging off the counter.  And this is the tall countertop, not just the table.  I’m not even sure how he can reach that far.  He requires a lot of supervision, that’s for sure.

But there are some other reasons I’m worried about Kaden.  When I took him to the Dr for is one-year visit, I remember telling the Dr that he was saying a handful of words.  More (mo-mo-mo) ALL the time.  Dada, Mama, ba (ball), sh (sh as in be quiet, and also for cheese).  Anyway, about a month later I remember noticing he wasn’t learning any new words, but he had also stopped saying the ones he used to say.  I tried and tried to get him to say ‘more’ like he used to but he would just grunt and then whine.  It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I realized that he didn’t say ANYTHING anymore.  That’s not true, he still said, “sh” or “ch” for cheese.  But that was it.  No matter how hard I tried to encourage him.  He would sit there like he was thinking about it, but gave up.  I thought, that’s strange, isn’t it?  To take a step back in his speech?  I did a quick Google search and there were a lot of people that said their babies didn’t talk much until 18 months.  And because he was still very responsive otherwise, I wasn’t worried.  He would follow commands.  If we asked him “can you give me a kiss” he would lean in and kiss us.  If we told him to go get a baby food, he would walk into the kitchen, open the drawer, pick one out, and bring it to us so we could open it for him.  He did this often without being asked too. It’s quite funny.  He will pick up a food and go to whoever is closest.  Sometimes it’s Sadie, or any of the kids.  Then Sadie will call to me, “Mom, can Kaden have a baby food?”  I’ll say yes and she will open it for him and help him squeeze it all in.  We have had to put limits though because he will eat like six of them in a day if we let him and that’s just not necessary since he eats regular food with us as well and those organic baby food squeezers are not cheap.

Anyway, the talking thing was still on my mind.  I went to my chiro/gut Dr for an adjustment because I had a bad pinch in my back/hip.  She deals with kids with behavior and developmental problems a lot so I thought I would see what she had to say.  I mentioned that he doesn’t talk, even though he used to.  She took it more seriously than I had.  She asked, “Did he have vaccines since then?”  Well, yeah.  But I hadn’t noticed it immediately following the vaccines so I hadn’t thought about it.  And he obviously doesn’t have autism.  Then she says, “did he get a fever?”  Yes, he got fevers with all his vaccines.  Out of all my kids, he has responded the worst from vaccines.  She asked if I treated his fever with Tylenol.  I said no, because I had read somewhere that Tylenol in addition to the vaccine shows a higher rate of mental problems or something like that.  I was already nervous enough about the vaccines so I just decided no Tylenol.  Dr B told me that his fevers with the vaccines are a sign that his body is having a hard time processing them.  And that she would definitely consider slowing down the vaccine schedule and splitting the vaccines instead of giving them all at once.  She also said there are things you can do to help the baby be more prepared to deal with vaccines- vitamins and probiotics, etc.  So I left her office with some food for thought, but I still wasn’t completely convinced.

I continued to try and get Kaden to say “mama” at least.  I tried and tried.  He would jabber sometimes but he didn’t use a lot of different sounds.  The more I sat with the information, the more it made sense.  It WAS after the vaccine that he stopped talking, I just didn’t notice right away because he hadn’t really been talking all that much before and I am busy and apparently just a bad mom for not noticing right away.  But it is what it is, and he did take a step back in his speech.  It’s not the same as the babies I read about online who just didn’t start talking until later.  He was talking, and then something happened that made him stop.

Let me clarify that I’m not an anti-vaxxer.  Not at all.  With my other kids I didn’t really worry at all.  I also hadn’t learned about toxins and chemicals as much.  I had a little more with Sadie, but I think maybe because she was a girl I wasn’t as worried.  Autism and ADHD are much more prevalent in boys.  I have always been nervous when it came to Kaden’s vaccines.  I have had a bad feeling and have looked for excuses to postpone them or skip them.  I haven’t found any good excuses so he has gotten them all.  And he has reacted very poorly.  He gets fevers and he is miserable and sleep is thrown off for at least a week.  That’s probably why I had such a bad feeling about all of the following ones.  At one-year he got the MMR.  Which is known for being the scariest and causing the most problems.  I’ll be honest, I kind of held my breath.  But of course he did not seizure, he did not turn autistic. 

I know, I KNOW there is ALL sorts of research out the saying there is no correlation between vaccines and autism.  I call BS.  I’m not saying they are the cause.  But they certainly contribute.  There are too many stories out there of children changing.  My neighbor’s son had a seizure following the MMR (which she claims was given at 6 months back then, I don’t know) and he was diagnosed with autism.  Before that he had been a happy, normal child.  But I had three children who handled the vaccines just fine.  Why would this one be any different.  I don’t know.  All I know is that some kids don’t handle them as well as others.  My other kids rarely got fevers from vaccines and they simply made them extra tired that day and then they were fine.  Kaden obviously reacted more.  I’m sure there are a hundred factors.  I believe a big one is herbicides/pesticides.  But vaccines are a big one too.

The more I thought about it and stressed about it, the more I wondered if there is damage done in his little brain already.  Will he have a harder time learning than my other kids because of this?  Do ALL kids with learning struggles and behavior and social disorders have them because of vaccines?  What are the long-term affects going to be?  And HOW am I going to give Kaden another dose of MMR when he’s 5?  What if that one tips him to autism? 

All I know, is that I need to be careful with this precious boy and his little brain.  Obviously he’s more susceptible to problems than my other kids were.  I’ve already been sticking to organic baby food 95% of the time with him.  Less toxins to build up in his little brain.  So I will keep doing that.  And I haven’t yet, but I plan on taking him to see Dr B and doing whatever she tells me to do to help give Kaden a fighting chance against the following vaccines.  Because I can’t just not vaccinate him.  As much as I want to.  I will.  I just might wait a little longer and I will certainly spread them out. 

It was back in February that I noticed this and talked to Dr B.  Since then he has started talking again and he tries hard.  It’s not super easy for him yet.  He still has to think sometimes.  He says, mama, dada, bubba, bum-bum (when I’m changing his diaper), cheese, ball, dog, fish, wa (for water) though that one he really has to think about.  He will say ball, cheese, and dog spontaneously when he sees those things.  He only says the others if he’s repeating me or we are asking him to say it.  We are trying to get him to say the kids’ names and it sounds like he tries sometimes but it’s not very clear.  I am praying that he is fine and there will be no long term effects and he will learn it all again and catch up.  But I’m certainly nervous for my next visit to the pediatrician where I get to tell them my opinions and they tell me that I’m most likely wrong, and I tell them I don’t care what they think, and I get to be looked at like I’m crazy.  I hope it doesn’t go that way, but I’m prepared for it.  I seriously feel like I’ve had a bad feeling about the vaccines his whole life- for a reason.  Maybe I should’ve listened to my gut earlier but I didn’t know I had more options than vaccinate or don’t vaccinate.  Now I know.  He’s wonderful and he’s going to be wonderful no matter what.  I just hope he doesn’t have any extra unnecessary struggles in his life.