Anti-vaccination friends - what do you do?

imaima

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 3:33 pm

Do you have friends that don't vaccinate? WHat do you do if their toddlers happen to be around your not-yet-vaccinated babies? IS it polite to tell a friend who is quite close (close enough to be my birth doula) not to bring her kids near my baby?
Or does it seem like I lack emunah that if HKB"H wants my kids to stay healthy, they will regardless of vaccination?
It also seems that some of those friends are just misinformed or take anti-vaccination agenda as an indespansable part of their breast-feeding baby-wearing organic-stuff-loving selves.. Confused

MommyZ

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 4:45 pm

imaima wrote:

I'm an extended breastfeeding lactivist baby wearing sometimes co-sleeping sometimes organic food eating Mommy who fully vaccinates. There are others like me.

life'sgreat

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 4:58 pm

imaima wrote:

I don't think I'd have an issue telling my friend that I don't feel comfortable having her kids around my child if I feel it can harm my child CH"V. I just never thought about the friends who don't vaccinate and how it can CH"V affect my child. embarrassed

athomemom

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 4:59 pm

MommyZ wrote:

imaima wrote:

I'm an extended breastfeeding lactivist baby wearing sometimes co-sleeping sometimes organic food eating Mommy who fully vaccinates. There are others like me.

Inspired

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 5:00 pm

life'sgreat wrote:

imaima wrote:

I am still missing how it can. If your child is vaxed they are protected from the diseases, right?

life'sgreat

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 5:01 pm

Inspired wrote:

life'sgreat wrote:

imaima wrote:

I am still missing how it can. If your child is vaxed they are protected from the diseases, right?

She wrote that her child is not yet vaxed. An infant.

Inspired

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 5:04 pm

MommyZ wrote:

imaima wrote:

I'm an extended breastfeeding lactivist baby wearing sometimes co-sleeping sometimes organic food eating Mommy who fully vaccinates. There are others like me.

There definitely are.

Inspired

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 5:10 pm

life'sgreat wrote:

Inspired wrote:

life'sgreat wrote:

imaima wrote:

I am still missing how it can. If your child is vaxed they are protected from the diseases, right?

She wrote that her child is not yet vaxed. An infant.

A newborn?
A child who is vaccinated is at risk for developing the disease as well. I am not sure that unvaxed kids would be more at risk of carrying many diseases than a vaxed child. I hope every parent does their research to understand what can happen both if a child is vaccinated and if they are not.

I am pro informed decision making in vaccines and all health care related topics.

As has been mentioned before definitely inform others if your child has been recently vaccinated. It is not fair to expose people to diseases if you know that your child could be carrying it.

AlwaysGrateful

Sun, Jan 10 2010, 5:17 pm

imaima wrote:

I am pro-vaccinations and make sure that I and my kids get all of them that our doctors recommend. At the same time, I wouldn't mind if someone brought her non-vaxed kids near my baby (any more than I would care if ANY toddler - who probably has plenty of germs - came near my baby). Why? I guess because going that far would just seem like a bit TOO much hishtadlus for me. If the kid was ALWAYS around my baby, that might be different. But the chances of the toddler having a horrible sickness at that specific point in time, and of her giving the sickness to the baby cv's, just seems relatively slim, especially if you would let a vaxed kid near the baby...since they do have a chance of getting that same sickness, just less so. Again, this would be if it were a one-time thing.

If it's all the time, I would probably ask the mother to keep the toddler away from the baby anyway, and blame it on the fact that "I can't deal with him getting sick, and somehow whenever he's near toddlers it seems he catches something..." or something like that. If true, of course. If not, water it down, but send across the same message.

gryp

Mon, Jan 11 2010, 10:10 am

Inspired wrote:

life'sgreat wrote:

Inspired wrote:

life'sgreat wrote:

imaima wrote:

I am still missing how it can. If your child is vaxed they are protected from the diseases, right?

She wrote that her child is not yet vaxed. An infant.

OP, please read this till you know it by heart.

imaima

Mon, Jan 11 2010, 3:03 pm

GR wrote:

Inspired wrote:

life'sgreat wrote:

Inspired wrote:

life'sgreat wrote:

imaima wrote:

I am still missing how it can. If your child is vaxed they are protected from the diseases, right?

She wrote that her child is not yet vaxed. An infant.

OP, please read this till you know it by heart.

when I was 4 months old I got chickenpox from my cousin who was like 20 mths old and not vaccinated. My ped is very pro vaccination and he says any anti-vacs are gonna be thrown out of his office, because he had a case of a baby catching some horrible disease in his waiting room from a toddler who was supposed to be vaccinated but was not. tHESE ARE just a couple of examples of what I meant.

I guess if a vaccinated kid meets a microbe, antibodies in his blood will kill it, so it probably won't transfer the microbe further - isn't it how the vaccine works?

I'm not saying the vaccine is 100% effective. I just think every non-vaccinating parent should realize their responsibility towards other people.

As for breast-feeding etc., I am also breastfeeding, baby wearing and co-sleeping, but it seems that some people think, they need to accept the whole package..

gryp

Mon, Jan 11 2010, 3:46 pm

It would be nice if everyone would take responsibility, including the CDC and vaccine-manufacturers.

If you want to know my personal opinion I think that the examples given of unvaccinated kids spreading diseases around don't hold much water. Those who want to wear a certain type of lens in their glasses, will, regardless of the facts.

I agree with you that people should think about what they're doing and not do stuff just because everyone else does it or because they want to subscribe to a specific lifestyle.

exaustedmom

Mon, Jan 11 2010, 8:18 pm

To answer the OP's question- No, I would not want unvaccinated kids around my kids even if my kids are vaccinated. And infants aren't vaccinated yet for all deseases.

I read in natural parenting, that a poster believes that vitamin C cures polio. POLIO!!!!!! Tell it to the thousands of parents whose children died of the polio epidemic and who bentch Jonas Salk every day.

Another thing, 20, 30, 40 years ago practically all mothers vaccinated their children since they grew up with the stories of many, many children not surviving to adulthood because of all these deseases that we b"h have vaccines for today.

gryp

Mon, Jan 11 2010, 8:22 pm

I don't know if you want your thread turned into (yet another) vaccine debate.

But since you're asking the question, the answer is that every vaccine is different and each disease is different. There is no one answer that would apply to each one. I think comparing polio to chickenpox or meningitis to mumps or tetanus to flu as a bit silly. So if you want to know who is spreading a disease, you need to be looking at the disease itself and its characteristics alone, and not looking for a general answer which would lump them all together.

I don't think it would shock your pediatrician much if you'd mention that the oral polio vaccine was a significant cause of the spread of polio. Does your pediatrician advise his patients after certain shots to be careful about physical contact with others?And he's probably heard about the undiagnosed cases of pertussis in adults and consequently spread by adults to kids.

So, there are many ways a disease can be spread, and it can have zilch to do with the unvaccinated. But they are so fun to blame because it's always nice having someone to blame your problems on and the CDC needs to have that complete trust from the population about this issue so that we keep returning to be injected with whatever they recommend.