As I was looking for info on mandated affordable housing units, and then reading about rising home sale activity (which, per the Sacramento Bee was up 22% for LA County April 2008 unit sales), I couldn't stop myself from clicking the link to a NY Times blog about placebos for kids. Not until I was half-way through it did I start getting excited.
First I thought about how we struggled with my now-3-y.o. to get her to take Tylenol when she was a feverish baby. Then, by making a big stink about how yummy it is, she would take it. And then want more, and more, and more! Then along came her baby brother, and we did the same schtick to get him to take it (even taking a bit of it myself, because he is not easily tricked, and he could tell when I was only pretend-tasting it! And, I will report, Baby Tylenol tastes better than Baby Ibuprofen. The ibuprofen has a stronger, bitter aftertaste. Just FYI.). Any-who...as I read this article, I thought, "If I had some fake stuff, I would have doled that out when my daughter was asking for her "medicina" instead of giving tastes of the real thing!"
You know, I like to think ibuprofen is a harmless antidote. It is the only thing that works for my headaches, backaches, etc. And then my husband had to ruin my innocent belief in this all-healing drug. He's always lecturing me about the new studies that show it really is hard on the kidneys (or is it liver?). And when I was in the hospital, post c-section, all I took was ibuprofen...but they never let me take it without eating some saltines at the same time. I guess there are some real drugs in there.
But I digress...
The next thing I thought about was my teenage, step-daughter (who's recovering from a Bone Marrow Transplant). I think placebos would be great for her, too! She has a bizarre -- but I've learned not uncommon in chronically ill patients -- love of benadryl administered via i.v. I think there's a big mental component in that *need,* too. So, in short, I think placebos for our kids are awesome -- let the power of the mind heal their bodies (and ours, too)!
I mean, isn't this what shamans and medicine-men/women have done for people for all-of-time? If our society believed in singing while dancing around a fire (or atleast carrying a little burning sage) then we could do this for our kids, and it would work because it would be a society-wide belief (kinda like the real estate bubble, ahhem). But we don't believe in this kind of healing, we believe in drugs...so let pay $5.95 for a bottle of placebos and give our kids some harmless "drugs," for their sake and ours! Brilliant. Bravo. Bravo.
P.S. This was invented and marketed by a mom who sent her husband to the store for sugar-pill placebos, and found none. Bravo, good lady.
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