Choice- illness or vaccine? - Page 2

[mom2tig99Nroo03]

Originally Posted by Mand

This may sound silly- but what are the basic things you can do to keep them in optimum health?
~Amanda~

for the older ones, dont feed them junk food, make sure they eat nutritious meals anmd snacks. probiotics and excercise are very beneficial as well.

for the one you are expecting. BREATSFEED. that is the best protection from many ilnesses and disease. if i understand correctly, HIB is not a threat for exclusively bf infants.

[BetsyPage]

I'm not an expert on this by any means (still doing my own research), but just wanted to chime in that my dh and his entire family were not vaccinated b/c they were Christian Scientists (dh isn't anymore though), and they never had any infectious diseases... dh's grandma, in particular is extremely healthy at at 86 looks like she's in her 70s... DH rarely got sick growing up, had perfect attendance at school etc... only within the past year has he gotten sick, and I attribute that to overwork and a poor diet (too much junk food and soda!).

My grandmother and her sister had all the "infectious" disease of their time- they had 3 quarantine signs up at once in their childhood (can't recall for which diseases though). Even though my grandmother has advanced Alzheimer disease, at 90 she is physically healthy except for arthritis. (very sad actually- body keeps going on and the mind is GONE). It wasn't scary for her when she was sick as a child- she and her sister were actually rather proud that they had so many signs on their house! (strange, I know)

My mother, on the other hand, never had chicken pox as a child, and nearly died when she caught it from me and my brother- her entire body was covered, head to toe. It was physically and emotionally very damaging to her. I wish she had had it as a child.

[guestmama9924]

Neither one !

Originally Posted by Mand

What I am wondering is: if you choose not to vaccinate, does that mean that your child WILL get measles, whooping cough, tetanus etc?

I have passive immunity to Rubella. Never vaxed- never had it. Yet, I test immune.
Your child does not have to be directly exposed to develop immunity- perhaps if she was nursed she did develop passive immunity that stuck with her, maybe not. Even if exposed she could avoid not get immunity/catching it.
Even kids who are vaxed are not always immune- hence why most PG women are tested for Rubella during pregnancy. Most were vaxed yet many show no immunity.
There are no absolutes when it comes to passive immunity. And still some gray areas with active immunity ( having had the disease itself).
We work on having a healthy immune system, but also avoid direct exposure if I know ( I would never attend a pox party for example)
You might be interested in reading some works of Florence Nightengale. Her documentation of how disease would just spring up as if from no where led her and other past epidemiologists to come up with theories that the right conditions must be present for disease to flourish. Yes, some of that is outdated, but still facinating stuff- very homeopathic in nature.

PS as for 3rd world countries- well, they do not have access to good food and clean water and emergency care. We do. Although with most childhood diseases , emergency care is not even an issue. I did not take my child to the doc with the pox for example. I don't subscribe to the western model so I don't fall back on it either.