Category: Parent Talk
This is the title of an article I found on www.msn.com. The child in the example went from being a happy & healthy boy in the single digit years to a triple amputee from bacterial meningitis. Now he wasn't old enough to receive the meningococcal vaccine...I was concerned about some discomfort Mimi was having & looked up this vaccine...and your child must be at least 11 to get it. Many of the children around him were the minimum age & their "parents" failed to get it for 'em. Personally I think any parent whose "exercising free choice" spreads such a serious communicable disease to another child & hurts or kills that child should be prosecuted for child neglect. I am totally against the movement of "green vaccines", claiming vaccines made children autistic. What do you guys think?
We're not nut jobs; our daughter got all the vaccines despite the tomfoolery going around about all the stuff that was supposed to happen because of the vaccinations.
I don't remember what her mom nad done about meningococcal vaccination: thus far it's still an option I think. Either that or it was most uneventful and she just had it done
I've had all the vaccinations I needed, and I've never had nasty side effects from them. Sure, a sore muscle at the injection site, but nothing more. I think the anti-vaccination thing is blown way out of proportion, and yes, it hurts not only the child who doesn't get them, but also children around them.
I am such a nut for vaccination because quite honestly, I think it's totally selfish and neglectful to NOT do it! Things like pertusis are being spread like crazy and nonvaccinated children who get it have given it to babies who have yet to receive the vaccine (too young) and those babies have died! Some people are not vaccinated and don't get the diseases, but since more and more nonvaccinated immigrants are coming in to our country and more people are refusing to vaccinate, these diseases are coming back and innocent lives are being taken because of it. To me, I'd rather my child feel a little discomfort for a day or two from a vaccine rather than die of a terminal disease. It has been proven time and again that vaccines do not cause autism!
I'm with sister Dawn on this one. I've had all the recommended vaccines, and have experienced nothing but a little discomfort, with the exception of the flu vaccine. Ironically, I got the flu about a week after getting the vaccine. At least that one isn't usually terminal, though.
Now, I'm not a parent yet, so take this as it is...
I think that vaccines are wonderful things, that as stated above they help prevent horrible diseases. Whether they cause autism or anything like that, I just don't know. But I personally think that the medical community wants vaccines so quickly for babies that their bodies may not be able to handle it. One of my best friends has three girls, and instead of vaccinating them at 2- 4- and 6-months old, she waited until they were three months old and vaccinated them three months after that, then three months later. They are happy and healthy babies, and I think I wil do something similar when I have children - minorly spread out the vaccines so that they still get all the vaccines, just not in such a concentrated dosage.
It's one thing to delay by a month, but to skip altogether is to what I object. At first I questioned Hepatitis B vaccines for kids, as you need a sex act or a blood contact to spread hepatitis, but I got a transfusion from an unrelated individual years ago. What if for whatever reason neither myself nor Mr. Sponge could be donors for Mimi? I got that vaccination as a health care worker, and didn't experience any side effects, nor did she from this series. The only vaccination I do object to altogether is Gardasill (cervical cancer, which is a sexually transmitted disease). I plan to opt out of this one for her.
I've had blood transfusions because of surgeries before. Of course testing of donated blood is pretty stringent now, but I'm still glad I got the hepatitis vaccinations when I was young, for as many surgeries as I've had.
Maybe I should ask my wife about the menococcal one, I'm sure whatever we did we went with the doctor's recommendation.
It isn't the doctors who are weird about these things, it's the people who find less than one percent of a failure rate, exaggerate it perhaps beyond proportion, and due that nasty hybrid mix of science and emotion to make it look factual enough to placate either the woefully ignorant, or the semi-ignorant but well-intentioned.
I knew peopel growing up who had suffered Poleo and they never looked to me like they were having fun with it. Some of the anti-vaccination crowd probably aren't old enough to appreciate what it was really like before them. I'm not old enough: I just got a glimpse from some older folks when I was a kid, but still. They were all dead before these new ones were even thought of, so they can exaggerate margins of error while ignoring real problems that really did exist at one time.
Look at their attitudes about regulating foods: They blame preservatives, while a hundred years ago more people per capita by far were dying because they ate rotten food. It's called perspective.
Yeah, LeoGuardian, I knew a guy who had polio and he had a tough time getting around. I would be heartbroken if my kid got that simply because I didn't get them vaccinated. Now your child is crippled for life. Gee, what a trade-off just because you're scared of them contracting autism frm the vaccine.
I met a woman in a class I took on the Old Testament. She contracted polio not 5 or 10 years before the Salk vaccine but just one. Just ONE MORE YEAR and perhaps she wouldn't have contracted something that kept her from walking?! I'm afraid I would have been a little frustrated at least, but Darlene accepted her fate.
It isn't just here that there are ignoramuses about vaccination. I think it is the northern parts of Nigeria, where that freak who tried to explode himself on a flight at the Detroit Airport originated, where "parents" believe polio vaccines are "a conspiracy of western birth control" to wipe 'em out. I'm so rebellious if I lived there I'd be saying "So what I won't get grandkids but at least my child won't be paralyzed at best, on some kind of breathing apparatus at worst." Is the "iron lung" even in use any more? Fuck 'em! I hope the polio they don't mind their own kids getting keeps 'em from ever having any grandkids.
As far as i'm concerned not vaccinating your kids against disease is neglectful and reckless because then it's not just your own children's lives you're putting at risk. In fact I saw an episode of Law and Order: SVU that dealt with this very issue. It started out as a search for a possibly abducted baby. Of course suspicion did fall on the girl's flighty, irresponsible mother, but when the baby's body was found the autopsy confirmed the child had died of small pox. The source, it turned out, was the child of a woman who chose not to vaccinate her child because of the risk of sideeffects. Problem was the child infected quite a few other people, though fortunately they survived and recovered. But as far as I'm concerned if you don't vaccinate your child, then that child becomes ill and infects others with a potentially fatal illness you should be held responsible if one of those infected should happen to die or suffer longterm injury or complications as a result of the disease. I'm all for free choice but the line has to be drawn somewhere, and I feel it should be drawn when and where your actions could cause harm to others. It's already required by law at least in a lot of states for any child wishing to attend public school to be vaccinated. I almost feel it ought to be required by law period to hopefully cut down on issues like this.
oh i have heard all the whack job comments about vaccinations. my parents had me at age 40. both were born during the swine flu epidemic in 1917/18. my mom had both dyptheria and whooping cough. she told me stories about both that would turn your blood cold. the one i will not forget is that with the whooping cough, she coughed so much that she stopped breathing. my grandpa ran out in to the middle of a blizzard and plunged her head in a snow drift. the shock started thebrought her back. i also remember hearing about when she had dyptheria at age four they had to reach in with forceips and pull out the membranes that were chocking her. it hurt memmorably. believe you me, my kids were the first in line to get any vaccination coming down the road.
spongebob, i would discuss the Gardasill vaccine with your doctor. it is to protect against HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. Over half the population in the u.s. wil have HPV at sometime in their life. This is age 15 to 49 currently. Condoms aren't totally affective in stopping the spread of HPV. So unless you are planning to put a chastity belt on your daughter, I highly suggest looking into Gardasill more and not just totally deciding against it. Yes most forms of HPV are sexually transmitted diseases, but it doesn't take being a slut or anything like that to get it. The majority of men that carry have no clue and there is no current test for men.
Like all the other vaccines, 3 shots is way better than years of treatments, surgeries, cancer scares, having the ability to have children taken away from you, and the constant worry of your next pap showing up with more cancer cells.
Just a few thoughts. my daughter will have the shots as soon as she is old enough. I hope that they come out with one for boys soon also.
First, HPV has two strains that are not sexually transmitted, and they are as likely to cause cirvical cancer as the sexually transmitted ones. I know...Was HPV positive, and let me tell you...That can be pretty damn scary! Mine was not sexually transmittable...The doctor was certain enough to give me strain number, etc; as I am married, and I did not want to expose my husband to something...Besides, we had been married for years already, and I wanted to know how the hell I got HPV because I had not been screwing around...But, all turned out good. Also, some people are allergic to immunizations...I know, I have reacted to every type I have gotten. I do not personally get vaccenated anymore because every time I do, I get sick, but should I have a child, unless the child shows bad reactions he/she will be vaccinated properly...Though, I can understand spreading them out a little.
Yeah, Pippi is right, you should absolutely make sure she gets that vaxination. I've actually had hpv, and not the sexually transmitted sort. I was freaked out too, because I hadn't had any kind of sexual activity for over 2 years, because my partner at the time was calling the shots on when we'd do that because he was younger than me and hadn't done anything like that before.
I think most doctors in australia still space out the vaxinations on children, I know that I had mine spaced out throughout my childhood.
I don't think we can blame members of the 3rd world community as much as we do for sometimes thinking that we're out to get them, and really, it is actually a small percentage that really do think like that, most are greatful for the treatment and food we provide them.
But remember how rich the western world is, and how comparitively little we give to the 3rd world, while we allow our businesses to exploit them and their resources. I remember reading a united nations study on how much it would cost to provide adiquit healthcare for all nations, including treatments for diseases whitch we've been treating for years that still effect poorer countries. apparently it would cost 20 billion dollars to set up, and for the richest countries in the world colectively, that's actually not a huge amount of money.
Remembering of course that very little of the 3rd world is as educated as most of the western world, and most of the aid programs are run by people who come in from outside the 3rd world. I can't say that I wouldn't be all that trusting if I lived in that situation, at least at first.
Ok, first of all Gardasil does not protect against all or even most types of HPV, and I am very sorry I got that vaxination. There is nothing known about the long term consiquinces and there are some cases cropping up of it causing serious harm. Any person who does every single thing their doctor tells them, without question, is an idiot. Anyone who does nothing their doctor tells them, without question is equally idiotic. Not all vaxinations are good, not all are bad, many are life saving, some are pointless, some are benificial or necessary only for certain populations. Delaying vaxinations and seperating combination vaxinations like meesels mumps rubella is a very good thing to do. A polio shot? You bet my son's getting one, a flu shot, no way, especially with that H1N1 tossed in. Yes it can be deadly, but for the elderly, those with compermised imune systems or without access to proper health care, not for the average person. News flash, I got the swine flu, my nursing baby was protected because he got naturally ocurring antibodies, made by me, through my milk. My fiance, also not vaxinated against it, did not get it, neither did my mother, who was vaxinated. It wasn't fun, but it was not so bad, much less traumatic painful or difficult then recovering from child birth or a tonsilechtomy. As for food preservatives, they cause cancer, so we live longer, but die more terribly from horrible man made cancers? No thanks. Until huge industrialization took effect, raw milk was safe because the cows were healthy, not in factory farms, food was fresher, people ate local organic foods, and only slovenly or lazy or unclean people usually got sick because their homes and food were not clean. Antibacterial soap is almost never a good thing, antibiotics can be a good thing, but they are way over perscribed. To any common American sheep who does whatever your doctor or your government tells you to do, congradulations, you are an ass, to any over the top hippy who fights anything even vaguely resembling government or authority, who is equally ignorant and unthinking in your resistance, just as the sheep are unthinking in their compliance, congradulations, you are no better. Vaxinating, like everything in life needs to be done with questions asked, research done, thought given, and each vaxination needs to be considered seperately. Are vaxinations the enemy? No. Are they always appropriate or necessary? No, they are not. Be informed, think for your self.
Unfortunately the last year I went w/o a flu shot the results were disastrous, but I see your point about thinking for yourself before blindly doing any & everything your doctor tells you..or doing any & absolutely nothing he/she tells you either.
Anyone hear last week that the study which linked measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) to autism was declared a fraud? Data on subjects was evidently altered and conclusion was false. Doctor who lead the study lived & conducted it in the UK, but evidently he lives & has a following, including Jenny McCarthy, in the U S. I'd love to see some of these folks try to register for college courses w/o these shots. They'll be kept out of class as measles epidemics have spread on college campuses.
Lol, Sensually, that is one well put post.
I disagree in that I think people died just as horribly pre industrial, only from other diseases and at age 35 or 40, not 80.
So, relax, have a twinky (ok, that is one rather discusting food item), and remember the supersized Mickey Ds will exist way past the cock roaches and make sure your body is near eternal.
Sensually and Wildebrew very well put.
Only thing I would disagree with is it was not just the slovenly who ate terrible food before, it was the 90% of most populations who were living a barely-subsistance lifestyle.
Scentually put it very well regarding the Gardicil. Glad she did b/c now I don't have to say it. hehehehehe
My son gets all vaccines except for the flu shot. Neither of us gets that one because I have some sort of Auto Immune thing that causes Optic Neuritus when I get exposed to any form of Flu virus so I just don't take the chance with the shots. I don't know if my son inherited this condition or not but his pediatrician agrees with me that not giving him the shot isn't the end of the world. If I do by chance get the flu, I'll experience O.N. again but the chance is 100 percent that I'll have it if I get the shot so I'll take my chances on avoiding the flu.
My son got the Chicken Pocks vaccine and that's the only one that I think he probably could have done without. Most of us on here are probably of the age where we survived it and don't even remember it but I went ahead and let my son have the vaccine. I'm wondering if it would have been better to just let him get chicken pocks and develop the natural immmunity that comes with having had it but I guess we'll never know. lol
There is a complication with chicken pox now that probably didn't exist when I was a kid back in the '70's...with the sores that come with itching, there is the possibility of antibiotic resistant staphylococcus, or MRSA. Also, chicken pox is a risk...you might have a mild case, like mine, with oh boy four sores & was better in a week, or you may have a more serious case, like my kid brother & his friend, covered from head to toe with sores & quarantined for two weeks. Plus, if a child is more than 15 & still hasn't gotten it, they're more likely to contract shingles, so the shot should be given if they haven't contracted it by then. A former elected official from Hawaii, I believe a Senator, from Hawaii, Patsy MInk, died from shingles virus. I used to be resistant to giving chicken pox shot, but not anymore.