To the right is a photo of me after a week or so of shampooing my hair with baking soda. I have to say, there is very little difference between using a cleansing shampoo and using baking soda. Perhaps there will be a honeymoon period? I guess there is only one way to find out. Some people I know who do this tend to mix up just using water and brushing their hair (100 strokes each side). They use the soda mixture only sporatically. This prevents the build-up, apparently. We’ll see.

There are about 6 or 7 I-told-you-so’s coming to me after this post goes out. I know too many people who no longer use shampoo. I had always thought I would break out. I always break out when things get too oily. I had just assumed that this would also take an oily period and while I am working and seeing students on a regular basis, I’m not all that interested in looking… oily.

This isn’t oily (and I'm not seeing students while on maternity leave).
In fact, the entire family is now using baking soda. Well, the two of us that were actually using shampoo. I was the one who used it on a regular basis, Franklin was only once a week, Dickson has hair too curly for shampoo and Eliza is only 4 months old and not using anything, really.

So that’s the shampoo issue. We are officially off shampoo.

In another area of my life, I feel like we may have come across a major discovery. Baking soda shampoo is great, don’t get me wrong, but pain management without drugs?

Amazing.

Eliza’s second round of immunizations were this week. I was dreading them. For all the chubbiness of her thighs, she was in so much pain the first time that I was sobbing along with her. Babies cry when four needles are stuck into their legs, I get that and this isn’t the problem. It was her ability to get over the initial pain that was so extremely difficult. Franklin’s skinny little legs didn’t cause him as much harm as her first dose of shots (and let me tell you, Franklin’s not one to hold back in the discomfort arena).

So yes.
I’m a firm believer in immunizations. I can have the debates with any of you if you wish. Many people I know don’t immunize. When the subject comes up and people want to try to convert me I am always game. We immunize our children. Deal with it.

However, the pain? So hard!
But! Get this! My father, the man whose heart is made of soft gooshy gold jello pudding sent me this article on pain management a few weeks ago. It’s hard to get through. I had to read it several times and then ask him a few questions later. I was still sceptical when the dreaded day came around but Dickson was gung-ho so I figured, what’s the harm in trying? I certainly wasn’t looking forward to either other scenario – watch her scream for 10 minutes or numb her down with Tylenol. The research was sound and if it worked for neo-natal infants… well, enough with the justifications, on with the show...

My father, Dickson, Franklin, Eliza and I crammed into the public health nurse office armed with a solution of sugar water and a spoon (we like to do things in groups). We brought along the article to show the nurse but hell, this is Victoria. She was all, “whatev, man, sounds cool”.

Before the shots, my father spoon-fed the sugar solution to Eliza (who, by the way thought she had won the sugar lottery) and the a few minutes later… the needles. She cried. Yes. It didn’t stop all the pain. However, neither does the Tylenol. She didn’t shake in fear though. She stopped crying by the time we got to the waiting room as well. She handled it so much better.

Now! I know what you’re thinking!
Who knows really why she was better this time, right? It could have been the extra chubbiness she has added to her body (she now weighs 14 lbs!), it could have been the fact that her brother was there or it could have been that she feels more secure in the world than she did two months ago. We thought that her quick recovery could also have been due to the fact that the sugar was given to her a bit too late. Perhaps the effects kicked in only after the immunizations?

Whatever the case, I will try it again next time as well. What I’m most impressed with is that there are people out there washing their hair with baking soda because they want an alternative to what we are expected to buy. As well, there are medical researchers (and my parents) out there giving sugar water to babies because they also want an alternative to what we are expected to use.

Edit: Seems that you will need to create a (free) account in order to see the article. Sorry, I forgot about that. Here's the holy terror of an abstract for those not interested in a subscription to a medical journal:

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the analgesic properties of oral sucrose during routine immunizations in infants at 2 and 4 months of age. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted at a pediatric ambulatory care clinic. One-hundred healthy term infants scheduled to receive routine immunizations were recruited, randomly stratified into 2- or 4-month study groups, and further randomly assigned to receive 24% oral sucrose and pacifier or the sterile water control solution. The study preparations were administered 2 minutes before the combined diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, inactivated polio vaccine, and hepatitis B vaccine. Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine was administered 3 minutes after the combined injection, followed by the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, 2 minutes after the H. influenzae type b injection. The University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital Pain Scale measured serial acute pain responses for the treatment and control groups at baseline and 2, 5, 7, and 9 minutes after solution administration. Repeated-measures analysis of variance examined between-group differences and within-subject variability of treatment effect on overall pain scores. RESULTS: Two- and 4-month-old infants receiving oral sucrose (n = 38) displayed reductions in pain scores 2 minutes after solution administration compared with 2- and 4-month-old infants in the placebo group (n = 45). Between-group comparisons for the oral sucrose and placebo groups showed lower pain responses at 5, 7, and 9 minutes after solution administration. The oral sucrose and placebo groups demonstrated their highest mean pain score at 7 minutes, with a mean pain score of 3.8 and 4.8, respectively. At 9 minutes, the placebo group had a mean pain score of 2.91 whereas the mean pain score for the oral sucrose group returned to near baseline, reflecting a 78.5% difference in mean pain score (oral sucrose - placebo) relative to the placebo mean. CONCLUSIONS: Oral sucrose is an effective, easy-to-administer, short-acting analgesic for use during routine immunizations.


I know. Crazy vocab.

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)