To Immunize or Not to Immunize

Chicken pox one does need consideration. I'm of two minds on it.

Having the chicken pox (the disease) gives a small edge when it comes to smallpox. It has a slight prophylactic effect and has been shown to have fewer deaths. No firm evidence but a slight indication.

On the downside, getting the cpox means if you are predisposed to them, meaning white or asian, you are ready for shingles to appear as an adult.

Sort of a 50/50 since shingles can be recurrent in some people (one worked for me and her pain was quite bad).

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

Since the OP asked about personal experiences, I will tell you that my nephew was given his first set of vaccines at 3 months. In less than 24 hrs he was dead of Crib Death.
I won't give my own personal opinion, since that wasn't asked for. Just giving the facts.

Antibiotics only kill bacteria, not viruses. There are very few, if any, cures for viral diseases. Only preventative measures. You cannot take antibiotics to "cure" a cold or the flu

My oldest were preemies born at 24 weeks. They both weighed less than 2 pounds each. They received all of their vaccinations with the first ones being before they left the hospital & before they were 5 pounds. Both of them had no problems & are very healthy. All of my kids are vaccinated as well as my animals. I feel the small risk from the vaccines is not as great as the risk of death or other problems from the diseases they might get if not vaccinated. Tetanus is one of the main ones I make sure to stay up on. I had a friend that got tetanus & years later still has joint problems. She almost died. If a shot will prevent that, then I think it is worth it.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

Hi there!

You've received an awful lot of lively responses. I'd like to add one more. I'm a preemie mom. My daughter was born at 22 5/7 weeks 11 years ago. I've also got one child with a pervasive developmental disorder and two children with a suspected mitochondrial disease (the disease from the Hannah Poling vaccine/autism case).

You have a premature infant with a cardiac problem. Both of these put your child at a greater risk for disease-related mortality. I'd be shocked if the docs don't recommend that your child receive Synagis (not a vaccine but shots of antibodies to RSV) monthly next winter.

Do I think that there's an autism/mitochondrial disorder/vaccine relationship? Yes. Do I think it's common? NO! Neither does the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (www.umdf.org).

Premature infants (even unvaccinated ones) are at higher risk for developmental problems like autism. Vaccines cause metabolic stress which might very rarely cause some developmental regression. I'd bet my bottom dollar that most of those kids would develop disease with and without vaccines.

Bottom line, for our family is this: we have all the risk factors you could think of for vaccines and problems. We get all required vaccines plus some. My daughter won't get Gardasil due to her latex allergy. My daughter nearly died from influenza. We get flu shots now. My daughter nearly died from RSV (and she stopped walking for weeks) the one year she didn't get her Synagis (which she received every year but one the first 5 years of her life). We get pneumonia shots. Again, both children nearly died from pneumonia several times. My (term) son nearly died from RSV many years before we had any prevention available.

In my opinion as the mom of children with significant issues, there is risk when you get vaccines. But I believe there is more risk when you do not.

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Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

We do not vaccinate out two children.

I simply don't trust them.

When I was a young mom, and ds (now 10) was up for the first round of shots, I consented, believing it was what one did. After the injection was the only time he ever became sick as an infant. After the trip to the emergency room, I began researching and decided to halt immunizations for my children. I have never regretted this decision...

This was also the first year he has gone to school instead of homeschooling. We live in a state that allows philosophical exemptions (yay Michigan!) so it was not an issue to get him a waiver. He has come down with both the chicken pox and mumps this year-no problems at all.

Lots of people believe that they have to get their dc immunized to go to school, but this is not the case. Every state has exemptions but you may have to claim a religious exemption. My sister in Alaska had no problems with this-it is against the law to question someone's religious beliefs.

I especially would not get a premature baby immunized. Especially if she is breast fed she will get immunity enough from mother's milk.

Be aware that mumps can cause deafness and sterileness (is there such a word?). It happened to a friend of mine. He wasn't aware he was sterile until his wife made him go to the doctor after a year of trying for kids only to find out it can cause men to be unable to produce sperm.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

If you decide to eventually vaccinate, don't let them give the baby shots for several things at once. That's hard on a baby's system. One at a time is better, with weeks inbetween.

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Marvelous Madame
Be kind to others. You do not know what burdens they are carrying.

[quote=BeWise;3794647
AND WHO TOLD YOU THIS?? THE PARTY LINE IS COMING FROM THE SAME SOURCE. YOU GUYS ARE LIKE A BUNCH OF PARROTS REPEATING THE SAME LIES OVER AND OVER [U]ONLY[/U] BECAUSE THE STATE SAITH.

I don't know who you are or where you come from, but I have to say you are the rudest person I have met on this forum in a LONG time.

Whether one chooses to vaccinate or not is a personal choice and people here have given their reasons pro and con. I vaccinated my kids, all three of them including my preemie twins (but my doctor AGREED to wait until they were older and we spaced their shots out till they were finally finished at age 7. My son got his on the recommended schedule. So far so good, no reactions from any of them.

I have a cemetary on my property, back in the day, it was common to write WHAT the child/person died of..I have a lot of children's graves that say died of diptheria, one woman lost both her babies to it, and it is said she lost her mind over the grief of losing two babies in three years to the same disease. It's a family cemetary and goes back to 1795 to 1969. Many graves, More children than adults but the women didn't last all that long either.

On another note..my son, age 19..is finishing his first year of college. No admittance without the vaccinations. Well he had all except a tetanus (within the past ten years) and chicken pox vaccine (he had the chicken pox when he was 5). In order to do summer work as a transient student, he had to go yesterday to get a tetanus shot and a chicken pox test..if the test does not show sufficient antibodies, then he has to have the chicken pox vaccine in order to attend this college.

When I called the summer college to inquire..they were NOT flexible in regard to vaccinations, more to the point it was stated to me: for the protection of our students we require all childhood vaccinations as well as tetanus and chickenpox (either vaccine or shown immunity to)..no exceptions for any student. If you cannot meet these requirements we suggest you seek alternate educational opportunities.

This was a public university that my son attends one branch and wanted to transfer to another branch just for the summer.

So that is something to consider..most public universities and colleges require mandatory vaccinations in order to protect the student's health. So being a minority (not vaccinating) won't get you very far..in other words, be prepared to be turned down for MOST public universities if you do not vaccinate and plan to save a lot (up to twice as much) money for a private, perhaps secular college that does not require it.

Just my experience, I do know that all my grandchildren are vaccinated and none have had any reactions, the sickly baby boy was given a pass to start his vaccinations at age 1 (but he doesn't go out in public much, my daughter is a stay at home mom so the doctor agreed to wait (he just had tubes put in his ears due to so many ear infections over the past 4 months.

I think one key is to find a doctor who is reasonable..I'm sure you might have to go to the next town over or something, but in my experience, I had two different pediatricians deal with my children and grands and neither was adverse to putting off vaccinations if the child was preemie or "sickly" in infancy.

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Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

I would weigh each illness and spread the vaccines out. Whooping cough often causes lung damage that means they are more likely to get pnemonia with each cold etc. so I would give that a higher priorty than say chicken pox which doesn't usually have serious side effects.

I didn't really know any better and just got my kids the shots on schedule and never had any problems. They were full term healthy babies though. A friend though had kids severly allergic to the whooping cough vaccine so by the 4th one they didn't even try to get it. They do say with whooping cough that even 1 dose can improve the outcome if they turn out to be allergic to the shots.

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Give Blood it saves lives.

None of my step children have been vaccinated. They have also never been to a doctor. (they have never been sick either)
My son from a previous marriage was vaccinated and he never had any problems.
If I would have known then, what I know now, about vaccinations, I would have never let him be vaccinated.
There are opposing opinions on this, just as there is everything else in the world.
You have to use your best judgment for your children.
I have researched this quite a bit, and I personally don't believe vaccinations are necessary, and there is a chance that it could be harmful.
I am glad you stuck to your guns and didn't let them force it on your baby. They do like to make you think you are doing the wrong thing when you say "no thanks".
Most physicians don't vaccinate their own kids, so that should tell you something right there.

I vaccinated all of my children but I didn't do it until they were todlers instead of infants. I did not get the Hep series. I never take a flu shot though my dr wants me to since I am ashtmatic.

I was vaccinated for everything under the sun when I was a toddler by the Army because we were going overseas. I dont' know that it caused me any health probs but I do have poorer health than my sisters. But I was born with several problems that can not be related to vaccines.

I am for vaccines but I think it is safer to wait until your children are a little older to do it. In other words, if you aren't putting them in daycare or other public places I would wait a while. I did not know drs were refusing to treat unvaccinated children. Mine told me to go to the health dept and since my kids weren't sick I rarely saw him. When they are sick my dr wouldn't vaccinate anyway. So delaying was not a problem for us. I had done no research it was just something I decided at the time.

NOw, I do believe that some people have rxns to vaccines. WARNING: this is a "worst case" story. My cousin had a son who was fine and then developed all sorts of physical probs including becoming partially paralyzed. He died at 6 years old. My cousin and wife split during this. He remarried. had another son. At about age two the second son started having same symptoms. Actually had a newborn daughter at the time. Doctor was on the ball and delayed vaccinations of daughter as son was treated. Timing of both sons' illness was after vaccinations. Decision was made by doctor not to vaccinate daughter because they just didn't know.

Second son died, also. Daughter is perfectly healthy and around 21 now. Obviously there was something genetic for two sons to die of same unknown illness. could be that it was males only. Couldn't take the risk to figure this out.

This was painful for the entire family BUT his 5 brothers and sisters continued to vaccinate their children - mostly as late as possible - and had no reactions.

I understand wanting to protect our children but we just can't knwo everything. Chicken pox CAN kill but it is rare.

Educate yourself and make the best decision for you and your child.

Just one thought for the non vaccinators: I fully understand your desire to make decisions based on what is best for your child. I believe you should have that right.

But I also believe society should have the right to isolate your unvaccinated children. Not just from school, but from any and all excursions outside the home whenever that society deems it in society's best interest.

Case in point: we all know the possible devastation polio causes. My own dh suffered it as a kid pre vaccine. We know now vaccines are not a guarantee of lifetime immunity. And we know infants can get it pre vaccine. We know it is not eradicated world wide.

So you might pick up aunt tillie at the nearest big city airport. In doing so you might come in contact with a traveller from a polio risk area. There is the chance your child might contract polio (sad and devastating for your family, but your decision.) But you and your child might pass it on to someone else's too young to vaccinate child, or to someone who vaccinated but who's immunity has declined.

Now the decision YOU wanted the right to make for your family has possibly killed or damaged someone else's family.

The same scenario can play out for all the major vaccine diseases. So while I don't think anyone should be vaccinated at gunpoint so to speak, I also believe non vaccinators better plan an isolated lifestyle. Otherwise not only do they rightfully claim the right to decide for their own family, but also make decisions they have no right to make for other families.

Truly, a conundrum and no offense meant to either side. Just considering a bigger picture than "what is right for me and mine."

But if vaccines are so effective, why would you be concerned about your vaccinated child catching polio from my non vaccinated child. Perhape you don't believe they are that useful?

I read somewhere that the only cases of polio in the us for the last 25 years have been cause by the shot itself. I think kids are vaccinated from polio at a quite young age. Should we isolate all infants who haven't recieved the shot and make adults line up for titters? Where does it end?

Very well said, maple.

Maybe polio wasn't a good example, however Measles, mumps and all kinds of things can be passed to a child who, for reason of age, aren't yet vaccinated. And there have been 2 instances (and I'm not sure if those were finally prosecuted or not) where children not vaccinated and ill were brought out in public to infect others, which unfortunately, they did. And while mumps may be fine for some, it does still cause long term damage for many, including infertility.

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

A HIB outbreak in Minnesota last year killed one child and the disease lived up to its reputation of killing about at least 5% of those infected with 30% of the ones survivng suffering permanent brain damage. Prior to 1987 this disease infected 1 in 200 children and with the introduction of a vaccine the incidence of that horrid disease dropped to the point where this outbreak in 5 children is a rarity. The child that died ( a 7 month old) was not vaccinated because the child was to young for that vaccine. Three of the children who contracted the disease were not vaccinated due to parental refusal.

You roll the dice and take your chances on what gamble you think wise for your children. The children most certainly suffer the burden of these decisions.

Since October 2008 Penna. Dept. of Health reported 7 additional cases of HIB (all in children under the age of 5 years old and all unvaccinated) and 3 of those children died as a result of contracting this vaccine=preventable disease.

Yuppers should did, that is why life expectancy was so short in days gone by. Now that people are living well into their 90's and beyond, ALL thanks to our wonderful health care system in the USA. And that includes the giving of vaccines. One should never look back to the past as anything but archaic. and living only a few years compared to today.

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Very good post Nodak3.

It's too bad we now have to worry about serious diseases slowly making a comeback. What's that expression: those who don't learn about history are doomed to repeat it.

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Wise enough to know I'll never be wise enough to know it all

OR go back to very short life expectancies. I am sure many would like that. NOT.

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Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

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