Question for parents of non-immunized children..

[therunbunch]

This thread is NOT for debate. It's merely a question for other, like-minded, parents that don't immunize or those who pick and choose.

My question.. when is the last time your non-immunized child was sick?

We stopped all immunizations after our son nearly died of MRSA 3 years ago.. this was on our physician's recommendation. Since that time, we haven't had anything more than the seasonal allergies (sneezing) with ANY of our 4 children or ourselves. I concluded my time with the US military around the same time so I haven't had any more immunizations either. I'm just wondering if perhaps we've been lucky, or if it is something more. It seems like, in all the years I can remember, we had always been sick a couple times per year and at least one bad bout of stomach virus etc each year.

Again, not a thread to tell us how irresponsible our personal choice to not immunize is, or to criticize our way of life.

We are learning about alternative medicine and such as well and love how the natural stuff works.

[Saffron]

We stopped immunizarions a long time ago as well. Our kids have not been sick since.

Additionally, my dh used to get the flu shot every year before we married and for a few years after. And he would ALWAYS get the flu. I convinced him to stop getting the shot and see what would happen. He hasn't had the flu, or the shot, since.

We also take vitamins to help boost our immune system.

[Pam6]

My 6 yo DD was sick once with croup. She had just turned 4. She had the first set of shots only.
My 9 yo has never been sick more than belly ache type stuff. He had like 2 sets of shots and they were really delayed.
My 2 yo has had no shots and has only had flu type stuff once.
We can literally count on one hand all the times my kids have been sick. I think my oldest three kids have MAYBE been sick (flu type stuff) twice.
We home school but go to church a lot. (I think there is more germs in church than anywhere else!! LOL)

[therunbunch]

That's encouraging. I thought maybe it was all wishful thinking in my head, but I really believe stopping them helped. We really trusted our physician at the time. He used to tell me (when we WERE immunizing) which ones he though were ok to get and others he felt really weren't beneficial or didn't have enough research to back their claims. But DS1 was sick from the 3rd month of life.. on meds ALL the time for an asst of different illnesses. When MRSA came out, we battled with that for 5 months before he developed a deadly infection which resulted in emergency surgery just before his 2nd bday.

It was scary. The doc said that it wouldn't benefit him to get his next round of immunizations because the immunizations always bring down the immune system and it wasn't something he needed given what he had just gone through. So we skipped them.. and we just never went back.

DS3 will be 1 next month and all he has ever had was the newborn shots and he got a shot at his 3 month checkup I believe it was. He has never been ill whatsoever. DD (the oldest) had a horrible bout with pneumonia around the same time DS1 had that hospitalization. But like I said.. we stopped on all our children except the baby's first shots.. (wishing I hadn't gotten those either now though but wasn't in the right frame of conciousness after delivery!) and have had no illness.

The military has required shots.. and we got tons and tons of shots constantly it seemed.. every month was something or they were drawing our blood for tests. Even the flu shots were mandatory. So glad I'm not part of the needle train anymore for sure lol. My grandmother (86) swears by her flu shot.. even though she gets the flu every year as well. lol

[fetch33]

I am a nurse. We really push influenza and pneumovax vaccines (protects against a certain type of bacterial pneumonia that elderly are likely to get). Influenza kills many thousands of people a year, mostly elderly and the very young. Same with pneumonia. I never use to get the shot until one Christmas I came down with the flu, spent 6 days in bed and really thought I would die. I get the shot every year now without fail and have never had the flu since. You can't get the flu from the flu shot. You either were already exposed or you got a strain that the shot didn't cover that year.
If your children are not getting sick, you can probably thank something called Herd Immunity.... everyone else is getting their vaccines and not spreading disease. Do you not get tetanus vaccinations either? What a horrible way to die and entirely preventable.

[Betho]

I only immunized for the major stuff initially, and then I just let the kids get behind and I don't think I'll finish the immunizations... so they have had SOME. I never did flu shots or anything for the kids though, and I still hope I can find a chicken pox party before my kids get too old. I will immunize for that one if my kids hit 10 yrs old without getting it naturally.

Having said that, they haven't been sick since... I can't remember. I know my oldest was sick a lot for the first year or so after she went into daycare. And my youngest got sick sometimes too her first year, but they have been totally healthy for a long time. Every once in a while they will get the sniffles and I'm pretty sure it's from a shopping cart or what have you, but their immunity seems to be able to handle it well.

I attribute it moreso to their diet though than anything else. Like when my oldest was in daycare, that was when I was a single parent working fulltime and she was in daycare all day so her diet consisted a lot of processed food. We don't eat processed food anymore so I think that's a big reason why we don't get sick. I don't even get sick anymore and I used to get sick a lot.

[oregon woodsmok]

My son had full immunizations, including small pox, which I had to beg for. He has no history of illness and has no allergies. He never missed a day of school due to illness.

He had an ear infection when he was 48 hours old, long before he had any immunizations, and he had a very mild bout of flu this winter that lasted 2 days and didn't slow him down.

I don't see where shots have much to do with it, except that polio has pretty much been wiped out and it was a scourge before vaccination.

[Shrarvrs88]

My oldest boy was not vaccinated until he was nine months old. I took him to a well child check that month and the dr made me feel like a horrible person, and I ok'ed the shots. He got sick for the first time, ended up with two double ear infections in two months, didn't grow AT ALL for five months. He just turned three and is finally beginning to have a normal growth pattern. He is finally overcoming the constant illnesses. He was getting sick every other week.

My one year old has never been vaccinated, and has never been sick.

[DamnearaFarm]

Not debating at all, but looking for parallels-
How many of you who don't immunize homeschool?
How many of you who don't immunize have children who are either mostly homebodies or who don't participate in group activities (like sports and such) on a regular basis?

The eating better thing goes without saying, I'm willing to bet not many of us on this forum do much in the way of commericially processed foods.

My opinion, as a vaccinating mom, is that non-vaccinating is only part of the equation.

If you are eating healthy foods, staying physically active (chores, playing), not constantly being exposed to scads of people with multiple germs (sports, schools, daycare and such)- then it's a pretty good bet, barring certain circumstances (chronic illnesses and things that happened prior to the lifestyle change), you're going to be healthier overall.


Thoughts?

[Shrarvrs88]

Well, my older boy was in a public daycare for the first two years of his life, and a little boy two weeks older was always sick. Caelin never got sick until he got his shots.

[Yvonne's hubby]

I would hazard a guess that those who are not having their kids immunized commercially are also living a lifestyle that pretty well self immunizes their kids. This is especially true for those living in the country with various livestock. Kids living in those sterilized shipping containers in the cities do not get out in the real world enough to ingest all the little microbes in small quantities on a daily basis that kids in the country do.

[CarolynRenee]

Originally Posted by fetch33

I am a nurse. .....thank something called Herd Immunity.... everyone else is getting their vaccines and not spreading disease. Do you not get tetanus vaccinations either? What a horrible way to die and entirely preventable.

OP asked:
My question.. when is the last time your non-immunized child was sick?

[stamphappy]

Measles anyone???

Our small town just had it's first case of measles since 1999 (on the news last night). I am glad my kids are vaccinated. The news doesn't give the location, name, or address of the child with measles so there is no way to stay clear of that child or the child's family---besides if we've already been in contact with them, it's a moot point.

My kids go to parks, go to the stores, go to school (are not homeschooled) play in sports, etc... They are exposed to all different types of people including those who come from other countries; countries who may not have irradicated childhood illinesses like the USA USED to be several decades ago.

This can be a very hot topic.

[stamphappy]

Oops, sorry OP. I didn't answer your question; I started replying to other's answers on the thread. And I can't answer because we do immunize. Sorry about that!

[CarolynRenee]

Our daughter has not had any of the recommended or "required" shots. We MAY get her a tetanus shot, although we are still undecided on that.

She has been sick once in her 27 months of life, and she got it from DH, who brought a bug home from work. Sniffles, and some congestion, but nothing more. One of my long-distance friends who had a daughter about the same time as I did, has gone through at least half a dozen colds, sicknesses, etc. with her daughter & she has given her all the required shots. She is a SAHM, but does all the city stuff.

I'd have to agree with both RamblinRoseRanc and Yvonne's Hubby though. It seems to me that there is a relation between those who choose not to give shots and the lifestyles they choose to live (country vs. city, healthy eating vs. fast food, homeschooling vs. public school)....not trying to stereotype, just my thoughts as well.

[Laura Zone 10]

My question.. when is the last time your non-immunized child was sick?

When I had my first almost 21 years ago, there were only a handful of vaccines.
I was young, and uneducated (I accept FULL responsibility for that) about vaccines. I just thought, "it's what you do".

For the first 10 years we ate a pretty "typical American diet". Junk from boxes, cans, and freezer meals.

I met a family that did things 'different'. She started telling me the 'evils' of vaccines, processed foods, etc. They were 'pretty out there'.
I was polite and listened.
Then I 'educated myself'.
Wow.
That's really when I began, educating myself, on everything.
Research at the library, on line, and I asked a lot of question...from a lot of different people, then *I* decided.

8 years ago, we pulled the kids out of public school, and home schooled. We stopped all vaccines. We changed our diet. We took a lot of the chemicals out of the house. We stopped using a lot of products. (Like sunscreen, etc.)

We live on a well, and drink bottled water. When the kids are at friends or relatives homes, they drink bottled water, but never out of the tap.
When they eat over at friends and relatives homes, the next day their systems are in a tizz!! They fully understand the consequences of eating 'carp' food.

They are very social. Sports, 4-H, working with the public in the food industry, did youth group for a while...so yeah, they did have a lot of opportunities to pick up all kinds of sickness.

They, by the Grace of God, have not.
10 kids on my son's hockey team came down with swine flu. Two were hospitalized.
He never caught so much as a cold.
My girls were running around playing with the siblings of the sick kids on the team, who got sick also........but my girls, not so much as a sniff.

We eat healthy.
We exercise.
We drink a lot of bottled water.
We do not do fast food.
We are outside, a lot....
We do not drink city water.
We do not eat carp food (processed, microwavable, frozen, can, box...etc)
We are not over weight.
We stopped vaccinating after 6th, 5th and 3rd grades.
We don't touch handrails. We don't touch ANYTHING in a doctors office.
Again, it is the Grace of God.

We 'cured' our 'seasonal' allergies (me and 2 kids) by eating raw honey, from a hive, within 20 miles of our home. Our bodies have built an immunity to the pollens that cause the irritation, by eating it in miniscule doses in the raw honey. Seriously, not one sniff out of any of us for 6 years. Now, my dh, who will not eat raw honey?
He takes Alegra May-Oct.
Hmmmmm.

I don't know if vaccines 'cause' autism. I doubt it.
I am more inclined to blame it on the chemicals they put in the drinking water. The carp they call food at the grocery, and worse the sub-carp they call food at fast food joints.

My kids, do not get sick.
My dh gets sick more than the kids.....and he's fully vaccinated.
He also eats like carp when he's at work, and not around me!! Which is fine and his choice.....but though the facts are RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE, he chooses to ignore them!

To each his own I suppose!!

[Laura Zone 10]

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

I would hazard a guess that those who are not having their kids immunized commercially are also living a lifestyle that pretty well self immunizes their kids. This is especially true for those living in the country with various livestock. Kids living in those sterilized shipping containers in the cities do not get out in the real world enough to ingest all the little microbes in small quantities on a daily basis that kids in the country do.

AMEN sir!

[thesedays]

If nothing else, you MUST be immunized against tetanus because while it is not transmissible person to person, it is ubiquitous in soil bacteria. The one tetanus case I've encountered was on a ventilator for a month. Don't do this to yourselves or your children.

Pertussis can kill a baby, and is a nasty disease for people of any age.

I live in an area with a sizable Amish population; they are not required to immunize, and many are not. Most of the vaccine-preventable diseases encountered around here are in this population. I do not have children.

Someone on another website has a daughter who contracted measles before she reached the age of 15 months, when the shot is usually first given, and she is now totally disabled and will eventually die from a rare long-term complication of this disease called SSPE.

[therunbunch]

Laura Zone 5.. you were too long to quote but you mirror our lifestyle as well. We started adapting to the "Levitical" way of eating.. seemed pretty practical to me for several reasons.

My children and I are extremely active. My DD is in public school right now (3 schools in the past 2 years actually because of our moves) and we will be going back to homeschooling after this session lets out.

I try to watch what we eat and though we're learning to adhere to this diet, we do have processed foods probably once a week. Other than that it is fresh produce, chicken, and so on.

And tetanus I'll have to read up on etc for when and how often. Our doc wasn't against all vaccines.. and neither are we, we just noticed that it seemed like no one has been sick since we've stopped. Was wanting to compare with everyone else. And our DS1 was not growing normally either the first 1.5 years of his life. He was very small and sickly.. part of the reason the MRSA took him down so quickly (he picked that up in daycare).

We aren't one of those crazy families that wipe down shopping carts or pour alcohol on our kids hands after they touch a railing or anything like that... they are exposed to lots of germs but we're practical and we do normal handwashing.

DH and I got swine flu on one of his business trips before they knew it was swine flu.. seriously thought we were going to die. Thankfully nothing more after that.

[D Lynn]

Both of my children are adults now but...

My eldest had a couple of vaccines as a wee one, but when she GOT the measles FROM the measles vaccine I started doing some reading and the vaccines stopped for her.
My second got the oral polio vaccine because my doctor GUILTED me into it, and he had a horrible week long reaction to that. End of vacc's for him.

Needless to say, they have had no shots since and have been healthy happy children/young adults.

As for my animals, they only get what is required to be spayed or nuetered, then, only rabies once every 4 yrs and thats all.