no vax and nursing home visits

[flowgently]

Hi, I have been reading the forums here for a while and finally decided to join to post to get your thoughts on a particular issue that has been bothering me.  For various reasons, I ceased with the vaccines after my childs 4 month round of shots.  (Child is now a year old).  We visit my grandmother regularly at a nursing home, and I recently have started to get worried about exposing my child to a vax preventable illness during one of those visits.  Just looking for some feedback from you all on this...am I crazy for taking my no vax child to a nursing home?

[Arduinna]

Are you planning on keeping her in a bubble? Don't you already take her to the park? The grocery store and shopping? We never did anything different just because we are no vax. 

[flowgently]

No, I dont plan to keep her in a bubble. I was just specifically worried about taking her to a health care type facility, but I guess thats just as risky as anywhere else.  Just wanted to get some thoughts from other no-vax parents as vax parents would tell me im crazy for taking her anywhere.

[miriam]

I 

Edited by miriam - 5/29/12 at 8:18am

[nurse2be]

I worked in a nursing home for two years and from what I've seen and heard, the only diseases you might have to worry about would be the flu and chickenpox (from shingles). If the flu (or any type of gastrointestinal or respiratory illness) is going around, I believe nursing homes are required to post signs on the door notifying all visitors that there is an outbreak of illness. As for chickenpox, unless your grandma or her roommate has active shingles, the chances of her contracting chickenpox from them is very low. And most nursing homes keep their residents up-to-date on vaccinations. I've never heard of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like mumps, measles, etc. in nursing homes although I'm sure it's possible. And if there was an outbreak of something, I'm sure they would have to post it and it would probably also be happening in the general population. So, you would know before your daughter got exposed at the nursing home.

In my opinion, keeping your immune system strong has more to do with it than anything. I worked 20-30 hours a week in that environment with residents and coworkers getting sick around me and the only thing I ever had in two years was a bad case of allergies. But I took multivitamins, cod liver oil, oregano oil, vitamin c, tried to avoid sugar, etc. to protect my immune system. And I didn't get a flu shot either.

Good luck

[LisaSedai]

I wouldn't take the baby (vaxed or non vaxed)  to visit if s/he has any signs of respiratory illness because the elderly are at risk to catch it. I work at a hospital and I cringe when I see little ones visiting, playing on the floor -  knowing what healthcare workers shoes walk through on a daily basis. So I wouldn't  let the kid roll all over the floor and I'd wash hands before and after the visit. I think it is great that you are taking the kid to visit though, so many older folks are placed in a facility and the families just forget about them.

[lokidoki]

Here is our general rule of thumb ~ we do not go out in public sick and we try to avoid sick people in general. That being said ~ we also work hard at having a healthy immune system so that when we do encounter something we can fight it off successfully. What makes not vaxing hard is that you are constantly hit up with the fear that is out there put into the heads of people convincing them to vax...and you are constantly fighting off that fear.

Knowing how to treat VPDs successfully helps alleviate the fears too ~ knowing that getting a VPD does not equal death is important to remember. Getting a VPD actually equals healthier immune system and life long immunity FAR more often than it equals death : )

But I do know what you mean...I made my decision regarding vax status when my first son was 4 months old and there are still times where the fear gets to me.