Movember

Movember is a tradition originated by some men in Australia. In order to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research, they do funny things with their facial hair for the month of November. That is why it's called "Movember" -- mustache + November = Movember.

So, in light of this tradition, for the second consecutive year I'll be participating in Movember. To see what I did last year, click here. This year, however, I decided, with my wife's misguided consent, to grow only a mustache.

Since Halloween is the day before Movember began, I first had a bit of fun with my facial hair, rocking the walrus-style fu manchu. Goose Gossage would be proud!

The following day I shaved off the bottom portions, and moved my sideburns up a bit too. So now I'm sporting the "I look way too much like my dad at this age" facial hair do.

Last year I did this to raise awareness for autism (click here to read more about that). This year, however, I want to shed light on another issue: namely, child mortality. While the rates of infants and under-five children who die in the US are relatively low (6.3 and 7.8 out of 1000 live births respectively) [SOURCE 1, 2], there are many places in the world where this is not the case.

In fact, there are five countries who have under-five mortality rates at or above 20%. Those countries and the number of under-five death per 1000 live births are Mali (199.7), Liberia (205.2), Angola (230.8), Afghanistan (235.4), and Sierra Leone (278.1) [SOURCE 1, 2]. Here is a map [SOURCE] which highlights well the areas of our world that are struggling with this issue the most (dark red indicates the highest rates):

What are the causes of death for these children? Lots of things, many of which are preventable, such as infections, diarrhea, malaria, measles, and malnutrition [SOURCE]. In other words, with the provision of medication and educations, some of these deaths could be prevented.

In the remaining days of Movember I am going to be thinking about how I can get involved in the solution to this issue. I hope you'll join me on this journey!

For more information on child mortality, I recommend the World Health Organization's website as a starting point.

Movemeber - Week Four

It is amazing to think that November has already come and gone, which means that Movember has come and gone too! How sad... It has really been fun growing out my facial hair for a reason this year instead of what I normally do, which is to just grow it out anyway! Be all of that as it may, this is the last Movember post this year (check out the other posts here: ONE, TWO, THREE) and I thought that it would be beneficial for everyone to know something about early awareness and autism. Study after study has shown that children that have their autims diagnosed early have better communicative skills later in life than those who have been diagnosed at later ages.

So what are some red flags for which parents should be looking? Here are a few:

• No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter
• No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter
• No babbling by 12 months
• No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching, or waving by 12 months
• No words by 16 months
• Loss of speech
• No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months
• Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age
  

It should be noted carefully though that the fact that your child or a child you know exhibits some of these things does not necessarily mean that he or she has autism. Instead, if you think any of these things apply to your child then it would be wise to ask your pediatrician about having your child evaluated. What could it hurt? Nothing at all. But delaying the evaluation could put a parent in a position to lose a lot indeed. (Check this site out for more information about early awareness of autism.)

And in case you were wondering how I look now after a full month of beard growth (the pic at the top of the post is from the end of the third week of Movemember), then here you go:

I think it is safe to say that my beard is getting a bit unruly! Thanks for reading these Movemember posts!

Movember - Week Two

Here I am, in all my manly glory! It's week two of Movember and my facial hair is coming back in nicely. In a previous post I talked about how I was growing my facial hair during the month of November to raise awareness about autism, so this week I thought I would share some more facts with you. More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. Despite this, autism research is drastically underfunded while the costs of autism spectrum disorders (over $35 billion dollars a year) are constantly increasing. You may be thinking, "Whoa! That's too big a problem for me!," and you're right! But together we can educate one another about autism, encourage our representatives to increase autism research funding, and pray for those suffering from this range of disorders (both those directly affected by autism and those who care for them). For more information, check out this fact sheet at the Autism Speaks website.

Movember - Week One

I was piddling around on the interwebs the other day and discovered something amazing -- Movember! The word "Movember" is a combination of "moustache" and "November" and the concept of "Movember" is that a man shaves on October 31st and lets his facial hair grow for the entire month of November in order to raise awareness for a cause.

So my cause this Movember is going to be autism awareness. Today 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, so it is highly likely that you know someone with one of these disorders or someone who has a child that does. Even though I could go on and on about autism (thanks to my beautiful wife teaching me so much about it!), I'll spare you that. Instead I'd like to challenge you to get involved with the noble cause. You can do so by going to the Austism Speaks website or the Autism Society of America website. Then click on "Get Involved" and see if any of those options are appealing to you.




So here is me before October 31st:

And here is me just after midnight on November 1st: