Hmm...less than others we know, but I think the fact that we eat organic mostly vegan high raw and avoid sugar plays into that a lot. We also avoid antibiotics and let fever run its course. These are things our friends do not do.
All of us got the swine flu awhile back and one child has had chickenpox. I have been on the low-vax track but my last child has had no vax at all because of autistic like behavior as an infant. I am soooo thankful for that intuiton!
My kids have no vaxes at all and were BF for 15 months each. They have each had a few runny noses. Before swine flu was spreading, DD and I both got sick. I was horribbly sick with a fever, the chills, sore body for about 24 hours and that was it... she had the same thing for 24 hours but she didnt seem like she was in pain, she just had a fever and stayed on the couch all day. That is the only time she has ever been sick with more than just a basic cold and she is 4. DS had a fever a few weeks ago but then ge cut teeth the next day so Im guessing it was just from the teeth, and that is the only time hes ever been "sick" besides the mminor cold and hes 2.
Hmm...less than others we know, but I think the fact that we eat organic mostly vegan high raw and avoid sugar plays into that a lot. We also avoid antibiotics and let fever run its course. These are things our friends do not do.
I agree, Everyone I know runs out and gets their kid right on antibiotics at the first sight of anything at all. Unless it is something my kids really needed to be on antibiotics for, I stay away from the drs. office. but then again we dont do wbv either.
We are also good about eating fresh, organic produce. They drink raw milk--when they drink milk at all. I wish I could say we are better about sugar, but we try! We do probiotics, but not religiously. But, my girls (5 & 3) are typical kids in that they are often picky eaters. They definitely love their carbs when given the opportunity. I have told my daughter to WASH her hands at school with soap and water and AVOID the hand sanitizer.
I don't think the differences in their diet can completely account for their relative health. I know it's anecdotal, but I think unvaxed kids--in general--are healthier. Clearly, there are many people who have posted here that have unvaxed kids who are frequently ill, but there are lots of variables that contribute to health, many of which we have no control over--genes, many environmental substances, etc.
All 3 kids non-vaxed completely. DD, 4.5, DS, 2.5, and DD 3 months...
Both older kids eat pretty darn well. They snack on fruits and veggies all day long. We aren't too restrictive about not allowing sugary snacks, juice, occasional fast food, etc because they eat so much good stuff usually that I don't think it matters that much.
DD is now in her second year of preschool and has *maybe* missed 3 days total. And one of those was from pink eye. She tends to get really high fevers that last a short period of time, and then shes fine. So essentially her illnesses are 1 day long in most cases. She only ever had 1 ear infection when she was 4, ironically. Thats probably the sickest shes ever been- her fever with that lasted 5 days so i finally took her in and got abx. she had abx 3 other times, once for a UTI, twice for Lyme.
DS has a lot of bronchiolitis/croup issues as a baby, but again they were super short lived. Like he would get croup for an hour and be fine. He hasnt had that issue in about a year so i think he grew out of it. Otherwise hes really healthy and hardly gets sick.
Baby is exclusively breastfed and has had a few tiny colds, which is amazing considering I had a horrible month-long bout of pneumonia/bronchitis.
So overall id say we are pretty healthy! I definitely see a lot of vaxed kids who get sick much more often and more severely. Ive become less judgemental though because its easy to say these things, and then your kid comes down with something awful and you put your foot in your mouth ;)
Hi!
I just came across this site and found this forum here about vaccination and immunisation and because I am a mommy myself (baby girl who is exactly 8 months today!) I would like to join the subject..
Here is my story:
I got pregnant in August 2009 and had a baby girl in May 2010..what a joy being in labour for over 42 hours that was without any painkillers apart from gas & air last 3 hours... it was great though ;-)
I had perfect pregnancy right from the beginning (was only nauseous for a few weeks) till the end and it was the best time of my life..I loved being pregnant..I even loved the birth...even it was painfull as hell and thought I was dying!
Anyway, as I am rhesus negative I was offered Anti-D and every time I went for a check up with midwifes I was nugged to have it but I always said no...it had no end even after I gave birth to my daughter...they kept telling me these horror storie about stillborn babies and disabled babies to scare shit out of me but I wasn`t having it..especially after one midwife came to ours to check on me and my baby and said I have to have it 72 hours after birth...and I remember I wasn`s sure about it and kept discussing it with my partner and when the same midwife said to me that I have to decide because she has got other mothers to see that day I got so pissed of that I said to her NO! , Vitamin K for newborns after my daughter was born-I said to them NO! , and vaccinations....I said ABSOLUTE NO to all of them and I am glad I did...
Vaccination is just A BUSINESS BASED ON FEAR and to my opinion it is the worst thing parents can do to their children..it may sound harsh but it is true...I lost friend over this subject...she really was out of order...even after giving her links to this subject..real stories, horrible stories about brain damaged babies, babies with severe reactions to vax and what these things contain...IT IS DISGUSTING! Do you know what she said? that they were vaccinated and there are fine so their son will be fine...She probably forgot about her headaches she has her whole life..I am not having my child being a guinea pig for some arsholes!!
Aleisha-is her name-is the healthies baby I have ever seen and it is not thanks to vaccines...she had none of that poison put into her body and she has got very strong immune system...she only had very mild cold ones that only lasted 2 days..and she had a little runny nose after for a few days but that was it...
I am glad she is completely vaccinations free and I will never doubt our decision..
So stand for what you believe..and you know that you are right...
I am so happy that there is still more people who do their research and that they don`t just blindly believe what doctors tell them to do...sometimes I feel that I am more educated that them...
Did you know that when doctor vaccinate a child or adult or whoever they will get some points for doing that and get money for it??? these so-called practitioners should be never allowed to close to any child ever again and should be locked up!
I wish you all the best..and don`t worry..it is all going good way...you did the right decision love! WELL DONE AND GOOD LUCK MY DEAR!
ALL THE BEST LUCIA AND ALEISHA
DS is 33 months and completely unvaxed. The last time he was sick was April 2010. He had some sort of viral thing that caused him to spike a temp. He was cranky for 3 days. Last summer, I thought he might be coming down with a cold, because he had a stuffy nose one evening, but the next day he was fine. He nurses a little still, and he eats very healthfully. He's the healthiest kid I know.
He was born 9 weeks early. Despite his rough start, he's had only a handful of colds ever (maybe 3?) one of which turned into croup when he was teeny tiny. He had one other short-lived viral/fever thing and one UTI. That's it. For being a 3 pound preemie, he's a super champ.
DD is 3.5 and has never had anything more serious than the sniffles.
My first dd, now 14, was fully vaxed b/c I didn't know any better back then. We had mega slow dial up in the middle of nowhere Colorado, and of course everyone bullied me into it. 4 years later, tons of research under my belt, I had another dd, and then 3 more kids every 2 years. Each child nursed for 2 years, and had NO vaccinations. DD#1 did need tubes in her ears, but not until just 2 years ago. Dd#2 also had tubes. Dd#4 had her tonsils removed due to non stop green snot and talking out of her nose. They all have seasonal allergies; which is cedar in this part of the country (central Texas). My DS, child #5, is 4 1/2 yrs old, and has only had one cold his entire life. Lasted maybe 2 days. I consider us to be super healthy! We've been exposed to pertussis, chicken pox, and the flu numerous times, but so far no one has brought any of that home. And 4 of them attend public school!
My 5-year-old DS was vaxed up to a year, while my 3-year-old DD is unvaxed. Oddly, she has been sick A LOT more than DS. He almost never gets sick, and when he does, he recovers in a day. He has never had a serious illness, never had an ear infection.
DD, on the other hand, gets sick easily -- colds, flus, stomach upsets, skin rashes and infections -- and recently she got shingles! And she is still nursing. Go figure!
My son had one DTP shot when he was 10 weeks old basically because we were made to feel we were going to be killing him if we didn't vax so we agreed to that one only. The doc wanted to do Hep B and pneumicoccal (sp?) as well but we declined. We figured if we did one and nothing happened we aould feel ok to do the rest. We were pretty nervous about vaxing as I had done a lot of research while I was pregnant.
Sure enough, our son had a severe allergic reaction and was hospitalized.
That was it for vaxing in our house.
DS is very healthy. We've given him tylenol maybe three times since he was born. Antibiotics once for an ear infection that happened right after the vaccine reaction, once for a broken tooth that got infected and had to be pulled. Never had a respiratory infection or any other that we know of. Breast fed until he was 4 1/2 years old (I was done, he could have stayed there FOREVER) Nutrition is 80-85% healthy 10 % definitley crap lol. We let fast food in the house for special occasions however I was very careful about his diet until he was about 4. And we avoided dairy for the first 3 years. We have exposed him to the chicken pox 4 times and he doesn't seem to get it, although after the third exposure he had one suspicious blister by his ear.
We were very anti vax until about last year. Now we consider it a grey area. We absolutely think the vax schedule that public health outlines is way too many however we intend to educate our son and allow him to make his own judgment about it when he is older. I do think vaccines can be a good thing in some cases but we still chose not to do any. Given our son is very healthy we don't want to fix what isn't broken.
Both DD's are completely unvaccinated.....
Both DD's have had quite a few colds. DD1 gets super high fevers any time she has a virus (103 plus) and has had maybe 10 colds in her life (32 months). DD2 has already had 3 colds and a double ear infection.
I don't avoid spending time with people who have colds (although, vomiting and diarrhea is a different story), I think it is good for their immune systems to get some work in while they are young.
I had a friend who's daughter was fully vaccinated and didn't have a cold or anything till she was over 18 months, but she avoided all germs.
My kids are now 18, 14, 12 and 10. 18 yr old had a BCG and no one had had any vax since.
To varying degrees they were BF and we eat a pretty healthy wholefood diet.
Between them they've had measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough, meningitis and scarlet fever, sounds like a lot but actually they got over everything really quickly
with minimum, if any meds and I have noticed they they almost never get coughs and colds and generic stuff that is going around. My 12 year old in particular, aside from the early childhood stuff, never, ever gets anything. ( touch wood 
)
I think getting sick has more to do with diet and lifestyle factors. I know when we were kids, we were vaccinated, but we were never sick. We ate a mostly plant based diet (my dad was a vegetarian so we ate a lot of vegetables) with very little sugar and "snack" foods. We were also homeschooled for the first few years, and we did get sick more when we went to school. I'm guessing that school sickness are not just induced by germs, but also less sleep and extra stress, and at least for us, WAY more junk food.
edited to add that my son isn't vaxed so I'm not supporting vaccinations, and he also gets sick infrequently and not severely. he's four, and nursing still.
I think what I find a bit disconcerting about this thread is that it almost takes the "pro-vaccine" approach to illness, which is "illness is bad". I don't think illness is bad or abnormal. I think getting sick is a normal part of childhood and life. It's all in how bodies handle it and the abnormal changes that are coming about from vaccines (and other toxins).
Chicken pox, the flu, Hib, mumps, etc are all normal parts of growing your immune system. What is not normal is all the asthma, allergies, auto-immune disease, cancers, cognitive and sensory disorders, the CONSTANT runny nose, etc. I would not be so concerned with how often a child gets sick, but how their bodies deal with the illness and what abnormal issues they have. Getting sick might not be fun or convenient, but it is a normal part of being a child that makes for a healthier adult.
This is how I have been thinking while reading this thread too. I am interested in knowing more about the families who have gone through the big illnesses like Mumps, measles, chicken pox and how their experiences were. Ill start a thread.
In my experience we are only close with one other family who doesn't vaccinate at all and they are sick constantly it seems. My 15 month old has had his fair share of sicknesses but all what I would think of as "normal" childhood illnesses and gotten over them quickly. He is exposed to many people at play groups, daycare, grocery store, parks... We use probiotics, vit D, regular cranial saccral treatments, homeopathics, herbs, infant massage, and as much nontoxic stuff as possible. These things will not stop the "bugs" from getting his little vulnerable body sick they just help him not get as sick I think. I don't vaccinate mainly for for the concern about autism and long term health.
That being said and lets be honest here. Some diseases can cause other problems long term just as vaxing might (probably does, but no one in charge will admit it) cause a host of other issues long term.
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