Captain Trips....could it be real?

Some of you may be aware of my major love for Stephen King. Some of you may not. That's kind of beside the point. Kind of...

If you've never read Stephen King's work, first of all shame on you! You're missing out on some really good stories. Second, you have no idea what Captain Trips is. If you have read his work then you know that he's used the idea of Captain Trips in several of his stories.

Basically it's an incredibly bad flu that wipes out the entire world...

I was browsing through my news stories this morning and came across an article from Tokyo. They are suffering through a pandemic flu called H1N1 that has killed 3 people so far. They have even stopped shaking hands on the campaign trail and said that they won't allow people close enough to the podium to get "spittle" on them during their speeches. They expect it to spread further during the autumn weather.

The idea of a flu wiping out tons of people has been in my mind for many years; mostly because of Stephen King. It scares me. It scares me badly. One of the campaigners said she was carrying disinfectant to her rallies. I think I would just skip being in public all together.

The cows are at it again

You may remember a story I wrote back in January about cows attacking people in Colorado (if you don't you can click here to read it). In that story the lady was just injured by a cow that was protecting her calf. Now the cows in Britain are not only attacking, they're killing.

Four people have been trampled to death in the last two months while walking their dogs near grazing cattle in Britain's main farming area. In the last eight years, 18 people have been killed by cows or bulls in Britain. That's scary.

I know it's not a large number considering that Britain has 7.5 million cows but that's still a lot of people to me. I grew up around many different types of animals and have had first hand experience with cows but I never saw one get aggressive.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) said that "cows can become aggressive and charge, especially when calves are present and walkers are accompanied by dogs." Aren't dogs used to help herd cattle? I believe they are. I've even had a COW DOG in the past. Why would the cows suddenly become enraged by dogs? Maybe they're tired of having dogs nipping at their hooves and running circles around them. I don't know.

I do know that would be a horrible way to die; under the feet of a very large animal. My heart goes out to the people that lost their loved ones.

I also wonder if Britain has dog parks like we do here in America. I would think that would be a better place to walk your dog then in a field full of cows. I know I wouldn't be in that field.

The rules have changed again: Feeding infants

We've been blessed with taking care of our newest grandchild Alexis several times recently. She's almost 3 months old. We know how to take care of infants having successfully raised our own. We thought we knew all we needed to know. Well guess what? The rules have changed again.

Last week when she was with us I gave her a small amount of water (3 ounces). I always gave my children water when they were infants. It never hurt them. Well, when we told Timothy we gave her water he told us we could not do that again. He said his pediatrician told him NOT to give infants water because it caused seizures. My initial reaction was WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?

So I got on my trusty computer and read and read and read until I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out of my head. The general consensus is not to give infants an abundant amount of water because they can suffer from water intoxication and it can cause seizures.

According to Wikipedia, "It can be very easy for children under 1 year old to absorb too much water, especially if the child is under nine months old. Because of their small body mass, it is easy to take in a large amount of water relative to body mass. Drinking water will replace lost water and avoid a dehydration, but if the person is unable to take any other drink or food then lost electrolytes will not be replaced, which can result in water intoxication. Water intoxication (also known as hyper-hydration or water poisoning) is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water."

In other words, it's safe to give infants small amounts of water as long as they are getting the nourishment that they need. Pedialyte should be used in cases when formula, breast milk or food is not being consumed so that the electrolytes are replaced. Pedialyte will also help your infant from becoming dehydrated.

After all my research I feel a little better about the 3 ounces of water that we gave Alexis. Less guilty anyway. We would never want to hurt her and had no idea that water could do that.