Pampers Dry Max Drama

I am not sure if any of you have heard about the recent 'stuff' that has been going around with Pampers and them having changed the formula to the diapers that were previously called Pampers Cruisers and are now called Pamper Dry Max.
Well our family has been affected by this.... Brody specifically as he is the only one still in diapers (thank goodness). For the most part I kept quite on the subject, but now I feel that I must speak out on the topic. A friend of mine recently posted about the subject on her own personal blog and I commented on the post. I was on vacation at the time so I wasn't able to go back and check comments. Well a mutual friend of our stated that I should probably not read the comments that had been posted on the subject since i had posted mine... and being me when someone said "don't" I had to read them... and well now I am wishing that I hadn't. It seems that some of the commenter wanted to blame the parents for their children's rashes (in Brody's case BURNS and bleeding sores) and it was the parent's shame of having caused the rashes that is making them lash out at Pampers.
Pampers has recently flown "Mommy Bloggers" out to view their facilities ( at no cost to the bloggers) and   according to these moms Pampers just hangs the moon, I for one am not sure that this is a non-bias opinion, I mean heck I'd probably sing their praises too if I got an all expense paid, child free vacation--- oh wait no I wouldn't I can not be bought.
I used to believe that as mothers' women would stand together and fight for their children... well not so much on this matter. In fact some moms are even trying to blame the moms for these situations one person stated on a friend's blog " Sounds to me like there may have been some mommies that needed to blame a bad rash on someone other than themselves. Why? maybe They didn't want that friend they were with to know that it was her own fault for her babies bad rash."
Wow.. is all I can say. This comment in particular was the straw that broke this mama's back. So here is MY STORY of the Pampers Dry Max (Cruisers) Drama as it has affected our household.
During a shopping trip at Wal-Mart I found that Pampers had a specially packaged set of diapers that included a pretty cool cloth diaper holder, the diapers were Dry Max rather than our normal Baby Dry (see we don't hate on Pampers... they are in fact the ONLY brand of diapers we have every used for ANY of our 4 children...even when we had 3 kids in diapers at a time) but I thought, what the heck and purchased 2 of the special promotion  package for $25/each.
Because we were almost out of diapers when I purchased the package we started using them on our son the very next morning. That evening his bottom was red and irritated but I had assumed it was because he had eaten alot of clemantines (a type of citrus) and applied some diaper cream and put him to bed. The next morning he woke with his bottom even more red. I went into "diaper rash mode" which at our house means even more frequent diaper changes which include sitting in a cool bath with baking soda and also diaper creams.
Finally after 7 days of this routine and the 'rash' getting worse not better I called my pediatrician. She told us to try another diaper cream and if it wasn't better in a week call her back.... well on day 13 of the worse diaper 'rash' my son (or any of my children for that matter) has ever had rather than calling the doc I made an appointment with the doctor.
When we showed up for our appointment the doctor took one look at Brody's diaper area and the first words out of her mouth were "What burned him"... we spent over an hour WITH OUR pediatrician (sorry to parents and kids who had appointments that day) figuring out what was going on. It was actually our doctor who suggested it could be the diapers. We ended up having to spend over $100 on prescriptions to help clear up the problem and sadly Brody will have some scaring for the rest of his life.
That being said... I still use Pampers, just NOT the Dry Ma. We use the BABY DRY and haven't had a single problem with them since now that the rash/sores/burns have healed as much as they are going to.
I think is 'funny' about this is that you have all these people defending Pampers and their changes etc but not many people are speaking out for the children who have been affected by this...and in fact not only are people standing BEHIND Pampers, they are bashing fellow moms so that they can 'friend' the big wigs... WAY TO GO MOMS!!!! Protect the big companies and screw the babies!!!
Oh and not sure if I am going to listen to anyone who got an all expense paid vacation to visit the Pampers facilities....umm hello ladies... they knew you were coming, and my guess is that you were treated like rockstars to come back and tell everyone just how WONDERFUL Pampers and their Dry Max diapers are...but my closing question is this for all the folks saying there is nothing 'wrong' with the diapers.... ARE YOUR KIDS WEARING PAMPERS DRY MAX DIAPERS????

I have been trying to keep my feelings on the subject of the woman in CA who delivered octuplets a few weeks ago to myself…but the more I hear in the news the more angry I get….and we all know what happens when Kristin gets upset…she has to tell her opinion… you may not agree with what I am about to say but …it’s my blog so I get to say it anyways…feel free to comment in the comment section but remember my ONE rule…no anonymous comments are allowed… if you leave a comment without leaving your name, it will be deleted. I mean come on… if you want to state your feelings on a subject then be ‘man’ enough to sign your name to it….

Let me state that my feelings have nothing to do with the fact that the woman is not married (that would be fairly hypocritical since I have several family members who are single mothers…my own mother included), or even the fact that she had to seek infertility treatment to conceive her children (again hypocritical in my OWN case)….

My issue lies with the fact that on each attempt of this woman’s invitro procedures her doctors allowed for her to be implanted with SIX embryos… this is ridiculous to me. 6 fetuses is a medical nightmare, much less 8. Many couple who have had high order multiples (Jon and Kate are my example for this) have said “What happened to us is a medical nightmare…we sought assistance to have ONE child”… and in their cases they used follicular stimulation drugs and IUI, (which is different then IVF which is when a woman’s eggs are removed from her body and fertilized with sperm and then the embryos are put back into the woman’s uterus via a small catheter).

IVF is ‘supposed’ to be the answer to the medical nightmare of high order multiples…. And this is because most clinics will only return 2 (some times 3 embryos depending on the age of mother/quality etc…there are several factors) fertilized embryos back into the uterus….

This woman put her children (and herself for that matter) in danger because of her want to be a mother… me stating that can also be seen as somewhat hypocritical since after developing preeclampsia with Delainey, Chad and I made the choice to have just one more child, and ended up pregnant with twins…and during my pregnancy with the twins I developed HELLP syndrome. .. this was a VERY scary thing to happen. Our girls were delivered via emergency c-section (I actually had to be put under for the procedure because of how sick I was) at 34 weeks gestation… I coded on the operating table, and the doctors couldn’t pump blood into my body fast enough to make up for how fast I was losing it…. Our girls struggled with different issues for the first year of their life (while minor compared to some premature infants….RSV, acid reflux, failure to thrive, feeding issues, sleep issues, multiple ear infections, delays in motor skills etc) and they were born at 5lbs each at 34 weeks…

When I say that I certainly am not saying that these children are not capable of living ‘normal’ lives…heck my niece and nephew (www.caringbridge.org/visit/kellenandsheakrumwiede ) are wonderful examples of 29 weeker preemies who have not only survived but thrived and surpassed a lot of the ‘normal’ things set for your ‘average’ 3 year old…. And as a special needs parent myself, I would rather have my child with the problems rather than not at all…but this whole situations just breaks my heart.

But like I said… my issue is with knowingly setting your children up for a battle that they may not have needed.

Frankly I don’t care if this woman wants to have a million children (well ok.. I would care if she wanted to have a million), everyone has a different need/desire to be a mother…and I honestly don’t care if she needs to use fertility treatments to achieve her family… but I do have a problem with the ethics involved in the medical treatment that this woman received…

And don’t even get me started on the fact that this woman has no job, and her support system is her father (according to new reports her mother wants to wash her hands of the whole situation), and has no health insurance for her children…. But this woman has FOURTEEN CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 8…. I have 4 kids 5 and under and most days I want to pull my hair out (and that is with a husband (who works full time), a mom, aunt, grandparents …a large family support system to help me out daily)…

I also have to point out that in the past companies (formula, diapers etc) have given donations in situations as this, but from what has been reported this has not happened this time… I think our society as a whole is upset about this entire situation...and honestly I think that is a good thing. We as a society have to keep ourselves in check because we all knew that the day would come when science would be far more advanced then the laws/ethics and this case is a very good example of this.

In closing…all I can say is that these precious miracles children (all 14 of them) are certainly in my prayers and I hope that this woman realizes the blessings she has been given and enjoys them to the fullest extent…

Rant done…Thanks for 'listening'

Ever feel like...

Ever feel like you are not in control of your life or that someone else thinks that THEY should be the ones controlling it? I have felt that way several times over the past few weeks. I wish I could pin point why I have been feeling this way. I mean of I always felt a ‘little’ like people are always micro-managing me but it has been getting really bad lately. Hopefully I will be able to reach a sense of ‘calm’ with this and figure out what is the next step for me in that aspect…BUT to be completely honest, I really just want to stand up and scream “I AM AN ADULT AND I CAN CONTROL MY LIFE AND MY RESPONSIBILITIES!!!!”

Thanks for listening to my rant...

WARNING ...pissing, moaning and some bitching ahead..

These are just some random pisses/moans/bitches that have come to the front for me over the past few days....

• if your going to do something to 'help' do it right and not half assed
• and to go with that, don't act like you saved the world by doing something that you should have been doing all along...
• don't pretend like you are going to call someone and when you don't call them act all shocked that the person went ahead and did what they had requested your help for when they do it themselves.
• GROW THE HELL UP!!! Seriously... I mean how much longer can you act 5 and expect for people to treat you like an adult... put on your big girl panties and just get over yourself PLEASE!!!
• Apparently our health insurance company are IDIOTS... two of our four children have grade 4 acid reflux/GERD and require medication for it. Every few months (where Avery is concerned) they pull this crap that says we have to try the 'cheaper' medications *AGAIN* rather than just letting us get what works for her. Our poor little girl is dealing with some SERIOUS acid reflux issues to the point where she isn't even wanting to eat (SHOCK if you know Avery). And now they are pulling the same shit with Brody. I mean come on people... I know that some people don't want to try the medications that are cheaper etc, but trust me...we want the cheapest to us and the best for our children. We aren't exactly impressed with the co-pay difference that comes with the prevacid but it works for our kids so we want it... so tonight we have dealth with acid vomit and also a screaming because Brody is in extreme pain... gotta love health insurance companies...

more tomorrow I am sure... LOL