A Visit To The Vampires

First off, let's just say that I'm posting now so that I don't have a repeat of last night's "almost missed it" incident.

Last Wednesday, The King and I took the girls to see the vampires. You know, those blood-lusting fiends at the doctor's office. We had to get the girls checked for lead poisoning. The very short story of what happened there would simply be "Not Fun."

All things considered, the girls handled the blood-letting rather well. The part that killed them was the fact that they each needed to get one shot (one immunization for The Dragon and one flu shot for The Princess) immediately after the blood draw.

Can you imagine the chaos?

It took both of us to hold down one girl at a time. And there were two nurses in the room. And I'm pretty sure that the rooms aren't sound proof.

Well, anyway, the doctor called today. The test results are back. The Princess is fine. The Dragon actually shows some lead in her blood (probably from licking the plates, Dubby!). The levels are low enough that no medication will be required, nor will they require a treatment plan. So I guess that all is well... but, this leads me to the question of what is The Dragon being exposed to that her sister isn't?

It's an interesting question... and I'm just hoping that it's not going to cause too many sleepless nights.

And The Test Results Are...

... positive.

And no, I'm not referring to a pregnancy test.

I took my dinner plates in to be tested for lead content, and one of my sets tested positive. The other set was negative... go figure.

Anyway, I've been told to stop using the plates and to have my kids tested for lead poisoning.

I really feel that my kids are OK, but we are going to have them tested anyway. I hate putting them through this, but I talked to several people at our pediatrician's office and they all recommended doing it, even though everyone acknowledges that it's probably not a big deal, and that if it was only trace amounts there isn't really anything they can do other than increase the kids calcium and iron intake. I guess this is just one of those situations where the risks could be bad really bad, so it's better safe than sorry.

They'll have the blood test on Wednesday.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I'm frustrated. We do so much to try and keep our kids safe, and who would think that dinner plates were the unseen danger? Seriously! A few people have mentioned to me that "the levels were not that high" - but that just begs the questions - what levels are safe? What risk are you willing to take when it comes to your kids? Especially for a stupid set of dinner plates? My situation was not as bad as the families whose experience sparked this investigation -- no where near as bad -- but does that make it less of a concern? I don't think so.

You take away a toy that has lead in/on it because a child might put it in his/her mouth... but dinner plates are OK because kids eat off of those EVERY SINGLE FRIKKIN' DAY. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

We're gonna be OK. I'll get a new set of plates, and the kids will be tested, and they WILL be fine. ('Cause I'm the Mom and I said so!) Plates are replaceable. Kids are not. I'm pulling for a RECALL - with MONEY BACK - 'cause I'm not buying plates from Gibson ever again.

As a side note, the testing that was done did not test how much lead was leeched out of the plates during normal use - only that lead was present. Still... how much is that plate worth to you?

Lead Poisoning From Dinner Plates

Phew! I barely made it! I just got back from an all-night shopping spree (on a VERY small budget, mind you), and told The King that I had to hurry and post on my blog before it's "tomorrow."

And I made it!

I did A LOT of folding of laundry today. I also gave The Dragon a bath. Beyond that, I'm not sure I accomplished much of anything today.

I stopped at my Mom's house and watched "Get Gephardt" today. I'm sure you are aware of all the toy recalls due to lead recently. Well, apparently, it's not just toys - though there is NOT a recall currently in place for this danger! A little girl in Utah was very sick from lead poisoning - she got it from the breast milk of her mother, who got it from -- get this -- their dinnerware! We're talking PLATES here. The company is "Gibson" and their plates are sold at Wal-Mart and a variety of other places. Under federal law, the amount of lead that comes from these plates meets the regulations currently in place, but obviously, this is a big problem. If we're not supposed to have ANY lead in our bodies, well, getting lead from the very plates we eat off of is NOT OK.

Ironically, I own plates made by this company. We're not sick (or at least, not obviously sick), but, it's still rather disconcerting. We're going to try to get our plates tested through "Get Gephardt" but nothing is definite yet.

For the full story, visit KUTV's website.

I'm tired, so I'm going to go put some clothes away (so I can sleep on my bed) and then go to sleep!

Good night, everybody!