So what if your kid's diet/lifestyle ISN'T perfect?

[carfreemama]

Hello!

I keep reading these threads stating how unvaxed kids who have really healthy diets, are "truly mineral rich," etc. don't usually have any problems dealing with the common childhood illnesses. I really believe that.

But what if your child's diet isn't perfect? Don't get me wrong. Dd's diet is, I think, pretty good compared to the SAD diet. We buy organic meat, we don't eat much processed food (although she does get some at her grandparents and preschool, unfortunately). She eats lots of lentils/beans/brown rice. Our flour is home-milled and I bake our bread/muffins/cookies with it. However, we do go out for ice cream and cookies a few times a week and dd is not a big eater. We don't supplement, except for vitamin D in the winter. She's NOT one of those kids you will see snacking on hummus and red pepper strips.

So I don't really know if my dd's body is "mineral rich," but I suspect not! I feel like we're really only doing okay and so that makes me worried about not vaxing, though I'm always trying to improve our diet and health.

Dd has been SO healthy so far! At 5 yo, in preschool 3 days/week, she has been sick a total of maybe 3 days since last summer. Never had an ear infection and on abx once for 1 week.

[xmasbaby7]

Sounds to me like she is very healthy and you should feel good about what you have done.


If she were getting sick a lot and not healing quickly from various illnesses, then that would be your answer.

[carfreemama]

Thanks, xmasbaby7! It's funny; she's been sick so rarely I actually worry that I don't know how she'd react to any serious illness! She had one nasty thingy when she was about 2, with fevers of over 104 for over a week and a scarlet rash all over her body. We were at the doc's lots for that, but we rode it out and she was fine. Otherwise, she tends to spike those high fevers for several hours when something's going around and then she's fine. Maybe a cough here and there.

I'm getting a LOT of pressure to vax against the current CP outbreak. MY MIL points out that she "shouldn't have to suffer if I can prevent it" and "what if her face gets scarred for life?" She also points out that most CP complications happen in "previously healthy children." It's freaking me out a bit (and I am easily freaked out by these things). She gets really bad reactions to mosquito bites and I can only imagine how she'd scratch from CP blisters. And yet I really believe the vax is a bad idea. Yikes!

[Gitti]

In my generation everyone had childhood diseases and I never knew anyone who died. And that was right after WW2 with a lousy diet (very low calories) and cold winters.


Some kids did die of typhoid fever, diphtheria, and typhus.

[tanyalynn]

She's had plenty of opportunities to get seriously sick. I've got the kid (my 2nd) who tends to get sick all winter long. His first two fall/winter seasons, he was not-sick 4 or 5 days, in a roughly 4-month period, both years.

That said--I still think mindful parents (I include myself here) with sick-prone kids can often do more to support and improve their kids' health through other means, and that works for all the viruses and bacteria out there, not just a select few.

In a way, this whole thing is easier for me, because I've had a lot of practice supporting my son through illnesses. I wouldn't seek out a rash illness at this point, I'm not confident his vitamin A stores are great, but I'm working on that. I think if you make a toolbox of ideas to use for when illnesses come around, that should help.

And point out to MIL that the CP vaccine is looking like it's going to need at least a few boosters, I'm wondering if it's going to need to be re-boostered every 10 years or so to actually keep CP rates low, and I don't want to sign my kids up for that. She may be thinking it's more effective than it really is looking like it is. And that's with some CP still circulating in the community.

[WCM]

OP, what was your childhood CP exp like, did you get it?

The moms I know who ran to get the CP vax are those who had it really bad as kids.

Me, I remember having it, it was just annoying, life went on. I exposed my kids to CP on purpose, after much thought, at ages 4 and 6. I wanted them to catch it before teen-hood, and this was the fist time we found it going around! Then they gave it to our baby, who was 1. All went well.

I'm now in the crux of debating some vax's because my kids are older (6 and 8) and unlike CP, which gives them lifelong immunity (the vax does not), some of the things I worry about (like tetanus) you do not form immunity from it, you can get it again.

I understand your uncertainty, and we each need to be sure and comfortable with our decisions.

Your MIL has good intentions, and sounds exactly like mine. but it is your decision.

And for the benefit of lifelong immunity, my kids few days of fever and itch was worth it. Some oatmeal baths and slathering on the costy Aveeno chicken pox cream helped, and then they got better. I know everyone's experience of it is different. For us, our kids got it in the same intensity as Dh and I did, and it was fine.

[carfreemama]

I remember CP and I think my case was pretty middle-of-the road. I remember lots of crusting, but not too much sickness. I'll have to ask DH about his experience. Thanks, that's reassuring.

In light of this swine flu thing, I will DEFINITELY not be doing more vax at this particular time. But I have really bad health anxiety-not for me, just for dd! So I'm generally pretty upset right now and I can only imagine if she comes down with ANYTHING at the moment.