The FDA frustrates me to death

The FDA frustrates me to death. I am a board-certified lactation consultant and I counsel with many women who need a galactogogue - a medication to increase their milk supply. The most effective drug with the fewest side effects is also the cheapest: domperidone. Unfortunately, since it is a cheap drug, the manufacturers have chosen not to spend the fortune required to seek FDA approval and the drug can only be gotten from a very few compounding pharmacies in the U.S. or ordered from overseas, which is supposed to be illegal. The FDA also issued a warning about the use of domperidone based on reactions in a few people taking it intravenously and ignoring the real experts on its use in breastfeeding mothers. And so, most of the mothers I know in need of this medication take metoclopramide instead, even though metoclopramide crosses the blood/brain barrier and causes many side effects including depression.

Today I read a Lockerroom post by my friend Nancy Winter that suggested we didn't need the FDA. As frustrated as I am with them, I remember all too well what happened before the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. The Elixir Sulphanilimide tragedy taught us that the individual does not have the means to assure that the medication is taking himself, or worse yet, giving his children, is not diluted with a fatal poison. Europe learned this lesson with the birth of over 10,000 thalidomide babies in the late 50's. I want my medications tested on animals, and in people, before I use it.

So, what's a free-marketeer to do? Perhaps an Underwriter's Laboratory for drugs? An FDA that tests, labels for safety (like the use in pregnancy classifications already given), and then stands back? I'm not sure, but I suppose the FDA doesn't really frustrate me to death, that's what happened before the regulations.

Dearth and Ruin

The Bible says in the dearth of people is a prince's ruin. For as long as I can remember, though, the culture has been screaming that overpopulation is a problem, that people are like parasites on the earth, that it is irresponsible to bear more than two children. Who's right?

Europe is finding that God is right. No European country has even a replacement birthrate. The graying of Europe is likely to have dire economic consequences. Even Catholic Italy can't seem to convince people to have enough children to keep the country going. Russia now aborts more babies than are born there and will probably have too few workers to sustain their economy by 2020.

Tonight I read an article in Foreign Affairs in which the author was disturbed that the only people having babies were those that believed in God. Although he offers quite a few ideas to encourage seculars to reproduce, he misses the most critical thing: those who are selfish will do what is selfish; those who live by principle, will live out their principles.

We have seven children. We live by principle. We believe in God. Funny thing is, we seem a lot happier than those who only seek their own pleasure. Seems God had something to say about that, too.

China with Children

First, nearly everyone we talked to thought we were nuts for taking our children to China. Even the guidebooks have stern warnings that it just isn't a good idea. After travelling for a few weeks in China with our children, I just can't figure out where they are coming from. We and our children had a great time! Perhaps it is because we have so many children, but we found folks went out of their way to be kind and helpful to us. As Peter told us would happen, the waiters/waitresses in the restaurants gathered around our table and waited on no one else until we left. I'm sure the other diners were not as appreciative as we were. :-)

The Chinese we encountered seem absolutely delighted with our family. Whenever we stopped walking, people of all ages would gather around and ask about the children. They would say, "Are you all one family?" I'd crank out my paltry Mandarin and tell them "Yes, we have six sons and one daughter." (Anticipating the next question...) They would invariably say things like, "Lucky family!" "Happy family!" "Hero mother!" "Fortunate family" and "Hero father!" Then they each wanted an individual picture of us. This got a little old... my brother called my five year old "Hollywood", since everyone wanted a picture of his blue eyes and tow head. Poor Seth would be dozing in the stroller, we'd rouse him and say, "Seth, somebody else wants your picture." He'd sit up, smile sweetly, then go right back to sleep!

In high traffic tourist spots, we had to keep moving, or we were mobbed by the curious, but very sweet and friendly people. One guide said, "Who are you? I didn't know I was guide for movie stars!" It was interesting that when the crowd thinned out, someone would nearly always ask, "Your country lets you have seven children?" and be very thoughtful when we
explained how things are in America.

We discovered a few things about travelling with children in China: Carseats and seat belts are non-existent. High chairs are universal, but they usually look like a small regular chair on tall legs and are often called "baby chairs". If they don't have a high chair, they will go to great lengths to make a child comfortable in a big chair with extra pads and things to sit on. Child discounts go by height and the heights are absurdly short for westerners. My 8 year old was way over the height!