It is spring and I am always excited to plant things, and the most satisfying place to plant things for me is in my garden.  It is exciting for me to go out before a  meal and pick all of the home grown ingredients for a salad or to make delicious home made salsa.  I found some ideas on ways to improve my garden soil and ways to test my soil so hopefully I can grow bigger, tastier vegetables this year. Who knows the state fair might be in my future!

Do a home soil test

• In a glass pint jar
• Add 2 cups of soil, and fill with water
• Add 1/2 cup of powdered dishwasher detergent
• Shake and watch for the layers settled
• After 1 minute what is settled is sand
• After 2 hours what is settled is silt
• After 2 days what is settled is clay
• If you have 3 defined layers you have a good balance of dirt.

Test your soil drainage

Dig a 12″ hole and fill it with water, Allow it to drain, immediately refill it with water if it does not drain completely within 1 hour you need to add sand and other compost to your soil for improved drainage.

Add Compost

The cheapest way to repair garden soil is to add  compost.  An easy method to remember for composting is to add 2 parts green to 1 part brown and then you have to mix the soil regularly. This explained to me why my leaves or grass clippings do not compost on their own.  When adding ingredients to your compost pile make sure that there is no oils or animal products on your kitchen waste or it will halt the compost process.  The more diverse the ingredients in your compost pile the more nutrients it will add to your soil.

http://www.composters.com/composters-article.php?id=28

http://www.sustland.umn.edu/implement/amending_soils.html

I am not a doctor, I am a parent and I am my kids advocate and protector with their medical treatments.  To be an educated advocate, I believe in researching current practices and treatments to make sure that I am comfortable  with my pediatricians care.  The medical field has changed practices and what was once commonplace 50 years ago is considered outdated and possibly dangerous today.  Doctors no longer use Thalidomide for morning sickness because it caused birth defects, or tetracycline to pregnant mothers or young children for risk of damage to their adult teeth, practices change and evolve and I prefer to question the status quo.

Today one of my close friends shared with me her scare from her child having a horrible reaction to her 15 month immunizations.  Her daughter developed a high fever and became lethargic and unrousable the evening of her shots,  she had to bring her little girl to the emergency room to be monitored.  I asked my friend what immunization she reacted to?  She said she did not know because she was given three immunizations at that one appointment.  Her Doctors office suggested that for the next round of immunizations they give her one immunization every two days to see if they can figure out what one she reacts to. I asked my friend if this was the first time she reacted, and she said she had a high fever at her three month shots as well.  I then shared with her my alternative schedule to the routine CDC immunization schedule and suggested she try it with her child and told her to start researching which immunization could have caused this type of reaction.

With my daughter I would have never considered not following the CDC’s schedule for immunizations.  My daughter was right on track with the CDC recommendations, she had all of her cluster of immunizations and concoctions on her standard well baby appointments.  It did not occur to me to delay her shots weather or not she had a cold.  Looking back I am unbelievably grateful she ended up not having any reactions  to her shots, and is a healthy, animated and intelligent four year old now.

My awareness of the risks of immunizations was raised when I worked at the high school.  I started to do research on  the increase of immunizations over the last 25 years, autoimmune disorders, asthma, ear infections and allergic reactions that are possibly linked to reactions from immunizations.  I also noticed students in special education, there were approximately 10% of the total student population at our local school district receiving special services.  I began to hear stories about students that were born normal, had autoimmune response to a childhood vaccination and became mentally disabled.  The majority of students with Autism and ADHD were boys. When I started learning about these conditions I felt guilty for not adequetly protecting my daughter during her immunizations, and I decided I wanted to do everything in my power to protect my son.

Protecting my son started when I refused to get a flu shot while pregnant, I ate little to no fish or seafood that had a chance of containing mercury, I did not drink more than 1 cup of coffee or beverage containing caffeine, I did not drink or smoke of course, I did not eat soft cheeses, processed meat more than once every few weeks, I did not dye my hair or breathe any harmful fumes.  You name the pregnancy precaution, I followed it.  The protection of your children during pregnancy is just practice for how you will need to protect your children as they grow.

The easy thing to do would be just to refuse to get immunizations for my son but I believe that there is value in protecting my child and protecting society from preventable common diseases and outbreaks.  I researched, I spoke with parents of children with autism and adhd, I read books, magazines, research papers and online articles and from this research, I chose what made the most sense to me, to create my own alternative immunization schedule.

Since birth for my son’s immunizations, I have only allow him to receive one shot at a time and each shot is given one month apart. I make sure he only receives an immunization when he is completely healthy, no fevers, no colds, no sniffles.   I request that he does not receive concoctions.  I shared my plan with his pediatrician, I told her that I was not only concerned about autism, but also stressing his immune system with multiple shots and that I am more comfortable doing it my way and by my schedule not by the CDC’s.

I let his Pediatrician pick which immunization she believes is most important to get at each visit, and I schedule an appointment one month after the first shot, to receive his next shot.  Even though I have cancelled and rescheduled shot appointments due to illnesses, my son on his monthly schedule will be caught up to the immunizations on the CDC’s cluster schedule, by the time he is 28 months old.

I will attach some interesting articles, graphs and schedules below for the beginning of your research and so you can make up your own plan about how you want to advocate for your child.

Please don’t let your pediatrician guilt you into following the CDC’s immunization schedule.  If it makes you nervous that your child’s immune system might be stressed by multiple shots, an extra copay is very cheap in comparison to your child suffering from a possible lifelong condition or a bad response to an immunization.  Until every immunization is proven 100% safe, I choose for my children only one immunization at a time.

Dr. Sears website posts information regarding an Alternative Immunization Schedule by Dr. Bob Sears

70% of autistic children have tested positive for having the measles strain and gastrointestinal disorder.

Autism Dr. Andrew Wakefield fixed data regarding MMR-

Look at the increase of immunizations from 1983 to 2005 to 2009.

Current 2009 Childhood immunization schedule-

Childood immunization schedule from 2005–

Childhood immunization schedule from 1983-