Why I ask: Thumbsucking & Where have you lived? (pollution link)

[Guest guest]

I want to address a few things as to why I ask about this possible connection.

Kinda just a throw around of ideas I've thought of...

1. Half the world or their sibling thumbsucks/pacifiers/bites nails. All people

are different and react to different things in different ways. Just because two

siblings or children do the exact same things, it does not mean they will have

the same reaction. Think of autism, one child out of five in a family can have

it, and yet they have all been exposed to exactly the same things.

2. Tests for bacteria. Doctors, as most of us realize, do not know everything,

nor do they know of every virus, bacteria, germ - and they especially are not

able to culture everything in a lab to determine if there is something harmful

present. If is being caused by something unknown, there would have to be a

new discovery to discern it from others.

3. Cleanliness. There is no possible way to sterilize under the fingernails,

even if you wash their hands constantly. Thus hand to mouth contact can carry

germs no matter how OCD you are about washing their hands. Something I find of

interest is triclosan, which is the " anti-bac " ingredient in hand soaps and

lotions. There are links to heavy metal contamination in this ingredient, which

leads me to think of Autism and increased usage, not saying this is a link to

or autism, but just considering how much of the unknown there is in the

products we use everyday.

4. , too vague of a definition, too broad of a spectrum. I've considered

that out of 100 of us with periodic fevering children, 10 could be caused by a

food allergy, 10 could be caused by a vitamin deficiency, 10 could be caused by

viral exposure, etc. We may be trying to figure out a commonality amongst

children who truly are suffering from different ailments. So when we do find a

link, it is then broken by possibly someone whose child does not have the same

ailment as ours.

5. Throat connection. Most children have throat symptoms, tonsils, glands

swelling, etc. It would seem that this would be a major connection point. So if

you try to think of the things that go in their mouth which leads to the throat,

you are down to inhalation, foods, hands/objects in mouth. Perhaps the sucking

motion could be causing inflammation of the muscles in the jaw, ear, and throat

- this irritation in these particular children leads to the body's immune

response, and thus the fever. Who knows...it is plausible.

6. No other illnesses. I don't think this is a testament to your cleanliness

(though I'm not questioning it), but children with high regular fevers kill all

other invaders in their body during a fever - that is why they are healthy the

rest of the month.

7. No longer sucks thumb, takes pacifier. Like Autism, if this is a response

only in some children that once activated, cannot be deactivated by stopping the

action - it wouldn't matter if the cause was stopped, episodes would continue.

With this being said, I should say that Wyatt was breastfed for 14 months. He

has only been exposed to organic foods and milk, as is the rest of our family.

But there are other environmental factors out of our control. Like I said

before, inhalation could be an issue. These kids could be reacting to an air or

water pollutant. Did you know a large percentage of people are allergic to

flouride in the water...has anyone looked up instances in western Europe

where they do not pour aluminum industrial waste aka flouride into their water

supplies? Our children may be the small fraction of the population who is

allergic to some pollutant and fevering is how their body reacts to it. I think

we could narrow down more similarities by looking at the regions in which this

occurs frequently and seeing what toxicities are most common there in air &

water. (or wouldn't be interesting to see if we all eat one same brand of food,

etc. that maybe was raised in certain polluted fields,etc)

With this being said, I'd like to know where everyone on here is from and the

places you have lived and for how long in each place since your child has been

fevering?