Rotavirus
Eli 5.7 continues to improve. We were watching a show last night, and one of the commercials was for a doll called "Baby Alive." The doll drinks, and it, um, creates wastes.Then, like Frankenstein, it spoke.
"Tell me that doll didn't just say 'I made a stinky'," I said. "Tell me that didn't happen."
"Oh, it happened," Eli said, laughing. "Rewind it!"
So I did, several times, as doll technology reached a nadir from which it may never recover. And we laughed and laughed and laughed.
I want to share an e-mail about rotavirus that I received from Official DQ Microbiologist Brian Witte:
These viruses can be extremely durable, and persist on surfaces for weeks. There is no acquired immunity (meaning that, unlike chickenpox, getting once does not make you immune). I would recommend wiping down any potentially contaminated surfaces (including door knobs, toilet seats, etc.) with bleach. Finally, throw out Eli's tooth brush - that's a very common way for people to reinfect themselves.
The real point of this email, though, is that your story and my experience reminded me of an initiative I'd read about a year or so ago whereby various foundations were trying to distribute a newly-developed vaccine against rotavirus to developing countries. In countries without decent health care, the infection is often fatal. I know you want to keep the focus of your blog on more light-hearted stuff, but this is a chance to spread the word on a subject that apparently affected a lot of your readers.
Here's the link to a page about the vaccine (created by Merck, I think, but still with worth-while subject): http://www.rotavirusvaccine.org/.
The charities funding the distribution of the vaccine are: http://www.path.org/ and http://www.gavialliance.org/.
I'm not affiliated with any of the above - I just wanted to pass the info along.
That's all good information, and believe me, if your child is still young enough for the vaccine to be effective, it's worth considering.
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