Safely traveling with unvaccinated baby??

[petitesphinx]

Hello, all.

I am so happy to find a place where I am blasted and called a "bad mother" for opting to NOT inject poison into my baby (other three children were vaccinated as I did not know better).

Our baby is 16 months old. And she's only had part of the Hep shot at 1 month old due to her Dr telling me that unless I vaccinate her-we have to find a new pedi. We since left. She is basically wide open for anything and we're traveling from Alabama to Montana-making several stops at large airports in between for several hours.

Of course, my mind is keeping me up at night. I am aware of the low stats for these illnesses in our country, but they are active in other parts of the world. We do not ask visitors to be checked & make sure they're free of these illnesses we have wiped out before entering the states. So that ups the odds of someone bringing over Polio or any other illness we thought was dead. I read so many stories in the news from just 2009 of documented cases of all the illness I thought was gone for good in the north due to exposure from another country's citizen bringing it over. Here is the information: http://immunize.org/vaccinenews/dis_meas.asp I am shocked at how many of these sicknesses are being brought back. And scared.

What do I need to do to keep her from being exposed to whatever is lurking all over the plane and airports? She is not in daycare, I do not let her around a lot of strangers, kids...etc. But with the upcoming trip, I am getting a worried sick feeling. Do I need to put a mask over her face? What do you all do to keep your babies away from the funk? And I when I saw the same question on other message boards, the only response was to "Vaccinate your kid, horrible mother." I do not want to inject my baby with poison, but I don't want to foolishly put her at risk, either. What if the person on the plane next to us has whooping cough; turns out adults have it and don't know it-they just think it's a bad cough. But it's deadly to babies? I'm not an overly worried person-just this trip has made me question how will I protect her.

Please help.

[Marnica]

I choose not to live in fear. You child could be exposed to Yellow Fever sitting in the airport in the US because some shmoe was exposed and is incubating the illness and now your child has been exposed. We do not vaccinate for Yellow Fever here. Perhaps on the plane you sit next to someone who has TB but doesn't know it yet. We don't vaccinate for TB here. There are about a million things that your child and yourself can be exposed to that there are no vaccinations for at all. Do you worry about those things?? Probably not. What you are exepriencing is from alifetime of entrenched vaccine propaganda. They are good, they save lives, you will become ill and die without them.

I concentrate on keeping my child's immune system strong so he can fight off whatever he is exposed to, WC perhaps, measles whatever. Since I believe that vaccines supress and damage the immune system, vaccinating doesn't make sense to me. Also Pertussis is usually only really a problem for very tiny babies (who are not old enough to have received their series anyway). If your child were to get WC at 16 months, chances are he would be fine. It would probably be more of a PITA as it can be a LONG/UNPLEASANT illness. But then again living with a lifetimevaccine reaction can be LONG and UNPLEASANT too

[lauradbg]

We are a country with a population of 300 million. International airplane travel has existed now for how many decades? Where are the polio carrying travelers? Where are the HUGE outbreaks of any disease. Not just a handful of infected people, big outbreaks.

Why have we not yet seen exposure and rings of infection radiating out from all airports like a bull's eye?

I kind of think the whole "It's only a plane ride away!" scare tactic is belied by the fact that IT HASN'T HAPPENED.

People might want to add on the word "yet", but I think decades of air travel and no giant outbreaks of any kind is reassuring.

[ammiga]

Have you looked into what happens if your children catch most of the VPDs? Almost all of them are harmless, especially in bfed and otherwise healthy children. You will probably find that you feel much better if you look into the actual diseases, and not just the odds of getting them. I found "How to Raise a Healthy Child... In Spite of Your Doctor" to be a great starting place.

For my family, we think that most childhood diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hib, and others) actually serve the great purpose of strengthening the immune system and preparing our systems for adulthood. Diseases aren't all scary... don't be so freaked out by the worst case scenario that the media and doctors love to push on you. Diseases frequently help you to be stronger.

Part of not vaxing for us was to become comfortable with what happens if/when dd gets sick, because it will happen. Vaxed kids get sick too, often with VPDs. You just deal with it, and know that it is ok.

To answer your main question, if you are still breastfeeding, that is great protection. If not, the best protection you can offer is a good diet, good sleep, lots of laughter and exercise, and an overall healthy lifestyle.

[carriebft]

Originally Posted by lauradbg

We are a country with a population of 300 million. International airplane travel has existed now for how many decades? Where are the polio carrying travelers? Where are the HUGE outbreaks of any disease. Not just a handful of infected people, big outbreaks.

Why have we not yet seen exposure and rings of infection radiating out from all airports like a bull's eye?

I kind of think the whole "It's only a plane ride away!" scare tactic is belied by the fact that IT HASN'T HAPPENED.

People might want to add on the word "yet", but I think decades of air travel and no giant outbreaks of any kind is reassuring.

actually it has happened. Examples I can think of off the top of my head are measles and Hep A.

[lauradbg]

Originally Posted by carriebft

actually it has happened. Examples I can think of off the top of my head are measles and Hep A.

How big were those outbreaks? In the several decades of air travel from all over the world, are you citing just two examples of outbreaks?

[artgoddess]

Basically for us, I am very comfortable with our choice not to vaccinate. If I thought there was a big risk of my child catching something so easily then I would have chosen to vaccinate.

[carriebft]

Originally Posted by lauradbg

How big were those outbreaks? In the several decades of air travel from all over the world, are you citing just two examples of outbreaks?

I can think of two examples in the USA concerning measles for last year alone. NAd of course they are not going to be HUGE outbreaks like 100+ people or something because of high vaccine uptake in the USA.

example 1:

http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...46005020080221

example 2:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...13measles.html

Again, that is just off the top of my head for last year alone and only for the USA.

[lauradbg]

Where's the polio? Or any disease that we don't vaccinate for here but is in other countries? If the "only an airplane ride away" argument were really a valid concern, we would see outbreaks of all kinds of diseases directly from ill passengers coming off of international flights.

Maybe there's more to immunity than vaccines and the antibodies they may elicit.

[petitesphinx]

Whhheeeew!

Ok, so it should be ok to have her on the plane and I don't need a mask? I know, I know..I was worked up over nothing.... You hear the horror stories and it can get to you...


I'll just enjoy the trip and not let anyone put her little fingers in their mouths (why do strangers want to touch all over and kiss your babies near their mouths?).

Thanks, all!!

[carriebft]

Recent article on polio being spread through travel in Areas of Africa and Asia:

Despite more than 20 years of eradication efforts, two strains of polio have spread out from northern Nigeria and northern India — both places where many Muslims have resisted vaccines because of rumors that vaccine efforts are a Western plot to sterilize them.

Particularly worrisome, Dr. Aloudat said, is that polio has again reached Port Sudan, a ferry port on the way to Mecca. From 2004 to 2006, pilgrims are believed to have spread polio from Port Sudan to Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Indonesia and Yemen, outbreaks that cost more than $150 million to smother.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/he...tml?ref=health

You can also find many stories of measles spread through travel in Europe, especially from Switzerland and Germany.

You can also see TB cases through travel that have come to the USA; those make the news now and then but you can get more info from the MMWR and a search from there.


The fact is, many vaccines work and outbreaks from travel are kept small because of that: see the measles examples here.

But the fact remains that outbreaks from travel do happen and some of them do become quite large, esp if you are looking at areas of eradication that suddenly become active again (for example, incidence of 0 in previous years rising to 100 is a huge outbreak in the minds of most who study these things)

[Devaskyla]

Originally Posted by petitesphinx

Ok, so it should be ok to have her on the plane and I don't need a mask? I know, I know..I was worked up over nothing.... You hear the horror stories and it can get to you...

D you think you need a mask? Unless you get boosters, you're just as unvaxed as your child, but I bet you don't even think about it, much less panic over it.

These type of threads always baffle me. I don't vax because the diseases don't scare me, I don't spend any time worrying my kids are going to catch a vpd.

[lauradbg]

In this report by the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, http://www.cdc.gov/NCIRD/annual-rpts/default.html

in the third section, on the first two pages, http://www.cdc.gov/NCIRD/annual-rpts...-ar2008-s3.pdf

it explains how the OPV (oral polio vaccine) is contributing to more polio outbreaks in Africa.

The powers that be might want to mention that when discussing polio outbreaks in Nigeria.

[carriebft]

The evidence that the outbreaks in these cases were caused by vaccine type polio...? or related to OPV...? some may have been, but the article makes it pretty plain that wild type polio is traveling.

(we may want to start a new thread on this general topic of travel of disease)

[swissmom]

We have been traveling to Europe and back twice a year since DS has been 16 weeks old (he is now 2 1/2 yo). We've also been in the Caribbean twice. My only fear in the beginning was meningitis (for no particular reason, just my own paranoia), but my doctor said that a person with acute meningitis would feel far too sick to travel. Measles - I hope he catches it somewhere before puberty.

[ema-adama]

I've been thinking about this. I remember when DS was little I would be gripped by fear when I thought of him being exposed to illness as I thought that vaccines were the only way to protect a baby. I was told as much by the ped who told me not to take my son anywhere until he has been vaccinated as only then would he he protected from disease.

Well, some reading later, I now know that there are other things that protect babies and support their immune systems. It is not only vaccines.

I personally have chosen not to use vaccines to protect my child, and I do not rely on everyone around me being immune to keep my child safe either. I feel comfortable breastfeeding my child and staying away from pesticides, sugar, processed food and making sure he plays outside in the sun wihtout sunscreen or long clothes to protect him and of course drinking the best quality water that we can. And getting enough sleep, etc

Sorry, not much of an answer - but I wanted to share what helped me break away from the grip of fear that my child is in perilous danger if they are not vaccinated and somehow safe as can be when they are. It is worth exploring for yourself just how true this is.

Have a good flight and enjoy your trip.

[japonica]

I have two unvaxed kids. We've flown overseas to Europe and to Australia via Asia. The kids have played on the indoor playground equipment at airports, hung out in the waiting areas, sat on long trips in germy planes. Both were just fine and never even caught a cold.

I guess it depends on perspective. Many of the VADs, like mumps and measles, are not panic issues for me. Others are highly unlikely to be passed along through casual contact in an airport.

There's a lot to be said for a good immune system, decent diet, adequate rest and all.