Are unvaxed kids generally more healthy?

[dauphinette]

I was wondering if there was any evidence or any compelling lit. to suggest that unvaxed kids were overall more healthy like less asthma, colds, allergies etc.?
Thanks in advance...

[xmasbaby7]

There are very, very few studies examining unvaccinated kids. They are small studies. The ones I have seen over the years do show a lower rate of all auto-immune disorders. I was particularly insterested in asthma and allergies. There was also a Generation Rescue study looking at autism spectrum disorders. And I recall a swiss study showing much lower child cancer rates in children who had had measles, and therefore had not had the MMR.

Most of us here go by our personal experience that our unvaxed kids are much healthier than their vaxed siblings or friends.

That is certainly the case with us.

[MyBoysBlue]

Originally Posted by xmasbaby7

Most of us here go by our personal experience that our unvaxed kids are much healthier than their vaxed siblings or friends.

That is certainly the case with us.

I've noticed this two with my kids, but the differences are minor. I think where the real difference will be noticed is not in the children but in the adults they will be. When they hit their 30's 40's and 50's I think they will make much healthier adults with less cancer and cronic illnesses. But that's just my theory.

[FernG]

I think that in general, my unvaxed DD is much healthier than her vaxed friends. However, I think that she has vaccine damage from the vaccines I had as a child and young adult. Depending on how the parents are affected by vaccines, it could take several generations to reveres the damages.

[ilovebabies]

I have 2 teens who were fully vaxed through K and three littles who haven't had any. I can't honestly say that I see a difference, but as a pp said, I think it may be more evident later in life.

The only thing I wonder about my oldest teen (who was fully vaxed during the mid 90's when I believe vaccines had the highest amts. of thimerisol if I'm not mistaken) is if some of the physical issues he has are due to vaccine injury.

There's a difference between my unvaxed little ones regarding how they respond to sickness. I have one who gets very, very sick with high fevers and gets sick more often, and one who rarely gets sick and when she does, it's very mild and short lived. The baby hasn't gotten sick yet. So, that just tells me that all children respond to illness differently even among unvaxed children and it's not necessarily a "vaxed" vs "unvaxed" reason.

[philomom]

No, I haven't seen this play out on real life.

My two were vaxed on a slow schedule. No asthma, no allergies and almost never a cold.

We have a couple of very crunchy neighbors who didn't vax their kids and they seem to have the "I'm sick" all winter long crud.

[stacey05]

Yes! I have seen this big time in my family. My youngest is unvaxed and the healthiest so far of the whole bunch. I have 5 kids and by the time the older 4 were 2 they had several ear infections, high fever viruses, diarrhea, vomiting. My 2yo has only had a few runny noses. He seems way healthier. Of course, I have also learned more about washing hands, eating healthier and breastfeeding longer. I never even made it a complete year of bf'ing with the older ones and I am still bf'ing my youngest. So, I think it may be a combination of all these things that are helping him be healthier. ) The older ones are healthier now too than when they were younger, though. We stopped vaxing about 8 years ago.

[greenthumb3]

Originally Posted by MyBoysBlue

I've noticed this two with my kids, but the differences are minor. I think where the real difference will be noticed is not in the children but in the adults they will be. When they hit their 30's 40's and 50's I think they will make much healthier adults with less cancer and cronic illnesses. But that's just my theory.

I join you in that theory.

And as for the OP's question, many people tend to think of healthy as "doesn't get sick".

To me, healthy takes into account how well the body heals during an illness and recuperates afterward. If a kid is getting cold on top of cold and never a break between illnesses, that would indicate, to me, a lowered immune response (less healthy).

My unvaxed kids have contracted whooping cough, one had RSV once and pneumonia twice, one had two different bouts of seizures. One child had multiple ear infections one season, despite being fully breastfed and unvaxed. But I consider them healthy, as those have been incidences which they have healed from very well, and in between those incidences, they do not have multiple illnesses. My two cents.

Hoping to avoid lifelong autoimmune diseases by not vaccinating, but I fully expect my children to develop natural immunity to most childhood diseases. That means that, yes, they will get sick periodically.

[Jennifer Z]

One vaxed, one unvaxed kid. They both have mild seasonal allergies, about the same severity, neither of them bad. The vaxed kid has an awesome immune system and hardly ever gets sick. The unvaxed kid gets sick often. Neither had the chicken pox vax and the otherwise (everything but CP) vaxed kid got one suspicious looking spot, the unvaxed kid, while still very, very mild, had quite a few more.

So...for us the vaxed kid has a much, MUCH better immune system than the unvaxed kid. The unvaxed one is getting vaxes on a delayed schedule, beginning this winter.

[mummy2jess]

I have three children (who have had all their vaccinations) and a friend of mine has one who has only had one or two.All the kids get ill roughly the same amount and seem to deal with it in roughly the same way, I would say other than whooping cough they have probably had all the same illnesses and no difference. I am interested in the vaccination debate as my friend is the only person I know who doesnt do all the vaccinations.

sophie

[xmasbaby7]

Originally Posted by greenthumb3

I join you in that theory.

And as for the OP's question, many people tend to think of healthy as "doesn't get sick".

To me, healthy takes into account how well the body heals during an illness and recuperates afterward. If a kid is getting cold on top of cold and never a break between illnesses, that would indicate, to me, a lowered immune response (less healthy).

My unvaxed kids have contracted whooping cough, one had RSV once and pneumonia twice, one had two different bouts of seizures. One child had multiple ear infections one season, despite being fully breastfed and unvaxed. But I consider them healthy, as those have been incidences which they have healed from very well, and in between those incidences, they do not have multiple illnesses. My two cents.

Hoping to avoid lifelong autoimmune diseases by not vaccinating, but I fully expect my children to develop natural immunity to most childhood diseases. That means that, yes, they will get sick periodically.

Exactly.

When my child and my husband and I all get the same viral or bacterial infection, it is astounding how little she falls ill compared to us, and we think of ourselves as healthy adults who can be exposed to more things than we "catch" and we have no chronic illness. We were both very sickly and fully vaccinated as kids.

[felix23]

I haven't found that to be true. My vaxed kids don't get sick a lot, but when they do, they bounce back with very little problems. Even my former preemie. I have a friend who doesn't vax and her kids are just like mine, pretty healthy. But then I have another friend whose unvaxed dd stays sick all the time. She is almost always sick. But her mom, who also wasn't vaxed, was the exact same way, so I think it runs in the family. It doesn't help that they don't eat very healthy either. I think it is a combination of diet and genetics. Some people are just more prone to be sick.

[ZoeyZoo]

I don't know of definitive studies that really make a lot of sense. There have been some analysis of populations that don't vax like the Amish and they have lower autism and other problems. I don't know if I trust this completely because you are also taking into account a better diet, small gene pool, etc.

In my situation my unvaxed dd has never been sick. I have brought home a few things like pertussis that she never caught. I have dogs that have been vax damaged pretty badly and have suddenly come down with some horrible allergies, hot spots, lumps, etc. My previous dog came down with unexplainable seizures at 3 years old. Many of these reactions were right around being vaxed. I believe it is likely to experience some reaction if you vax enough.

[serenbat]

But her mom, who also wasn't vaxed, was the exact same way, so I think it runs in the family.

There have been some analysis of populations that don't vax like the Amish and they have lower autism and other problems.

I see far more that has to do with genetics than vacs - long and short term health.

[MyLilPwny]

My unvaccinated daughter is rarely sick and recovers quickly and has mild symptoms when sick. The very first time she was sick was when she was 17 months old and it was just a runny nose and fever for a half a day, thats it, no big deal and thats the worst of all her sickness so far and she'll be 2 years old next month. Nutrition plays a big part in strengthening the immune system as well as other environmental factors, so if an unvaccinated child is getting sick a lot I'd suspect those other factors. We eat a nutrient-dense traditional foods diet with high quality organic foods, so I believe that is why she would be healthier than an unvaccinated child who does not eat a nutrient-dense traditional foods diet.

What you put into the body will create health or will create disease. Put proper adequate nutrition, proper rest, sunshine, etc. into the body and a healthy body is created. Put toxins, half-killed viruses, bacteria, and bad food into the body, and create disease in the body.

[erinsmama]

It's genetics in my opinion. Vaccinated or not. Everyone is healthier in one way or another. If the vaccine that saved someones life causes illness to another, i feel is completely dependent on that individual.

[Cristiaz]

Originally Posted by ThereseReich

My unvaccinated daughter is rarely sick and recovers quickly and has mild symptoms when sick. The very first time she was sick was when she was 17 months old and it was just a runny nose and fever for a half a day, thats it, no big deal and thats the worst of all her sickness so far and she'll be 2 years old next month. Nutrition plays a big part in strengthening the immune system as well as other environmental factors, so if an unvaccinated child is getting sick a lot I'd suspect those other factors. We eat a nutrient-dense traditional foods diet with high quality organic foods, so I believe that is why she would be healthier than an unvaccinated child who does not eat a nutrient-dense traditional foods diet.

What you put into the body will create health or will create disease. Put proper adequate nutrition, proper rest, sunshine, etc. into the body and a healthy body is created. Put toxins, half-killed viruses, bacteria, and bad food into the body, and create disease in the body.

[THBVsMommy]

I can't compare kids yet as I'm just now pregnant with #2 but my unvaxed DS very rarely gets sick. The worse he's had is a mild cold.

[MountainMamaGC]

I dont believe that we are slaves to our genetics. I think certain events and factors can trigger our body to get sick. The Amish dont have autism because they eat a whole foods diet and dont vaccinate. There are are group of people in Africa who never got autism until they moved to America. Their rate was 1 in 86. They felt it was caused by vaccines and some of the families moved back to Africa because they couldnt believe how corrupt the system here was. It may be their genetics but if they were not vaxed they would probably be fine.

As for the OP. My DD got vaxed till 4 months and then I stopped. I do notice she recovers faster than her friends when they catch the same illness. My next child will not get a single shot.

[cadejaxellamom]

My 8 year old was fully vaxed and my 5 year old was vaxed until he was 2 (we didn't do any "kindergarten" shots) and my almost 2 year old has never had any vaccines. While they are all pretty healthy, just minor colds once or twice a year, my daughter (the baby) gets over her illnesses much faster; a cold or fever that last 3-5 days in the boys will last about 12 hours with her. So far that is the only difference I have seen; not sure if it has to do with vaccines or not. But like a pervious poster had said, we live healthier now than when my boys were tiny; we take cod liver oil, probiotics, vit D in the winter and don't ever eat high fuctose corn syrup, any hydrogenated oils, mainly a diet of organic foods, ect, and I am still breastfeeding my daughter (she'll be 2 next month) and the boys both only breastfed for a year.