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Did You / Would You Vax Your Child?

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    On infant death rate:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/why-american-babies-die/381008/
    The effects of socioeconomic status on health have been well-documented, and infant mortality is no exception: Unsurprisingly, the states with the highest rates are also among the poorest. “If Alabama were a country, its rate of 8.7 infant deaths per 1,000 would place it slightly behind Lebanon in the world rankings,” Christopher Ingraham recently noted in The Washington Post, while “Mississippi, with its 9.6 deaths, would be somewhere between Botswana and Bahrain.”

    When the researchers took socioeconomic status into account, they found no significant difference in mortality across the three countries among babies born to wealthy, well-educated women. Lower down the socioeconomic ladder, though, the differences became stark; children of poor minority women in the U.S. were much more likely to die within their first year than children born to similar mothers in other countries.

    http://sm.stanford.edu/archive/stanmed/2013fall/article2.html
    Five main causes of mortality play into the statistics for babies under a year old: birth defects, sudden infant death syndrome, maternal health complications, unintentional injuries and preterm-related causes of death. But when scientists, including Wise and MacDorman, have crunched the numbers on infant mortality, they find that one factor is the biggest difference maker between the United States and other industrialized countries: premature births.

    The poor infant-survival rates in the United States are intrinsically linked to high rates of preterm births, those that occur when a woman is between 22 and 37 weeks pregnant, rather than full-term — 37 to 41 weeks. And the same socioeconomic divides seen in infant mortality rates are seen with preterm birth rates — mothers who are African American, live in certain states or experience high levels of emotional stress during their pregnancy are more likely to give birth preterm. And although fertility treatments and teenage pregnancies both raise the risk of preterm births, neither explains the diversity in infant mortality rates — states with high infant mortality have no higher rates of either.

    In fact, the analysis published in 2009 by MacDorman and her colleagues at the CDC found that if the United States had the same rate of preterm births as Sweden, our infant mortality rate would be 33 percent lower. Instead of six deaths per 1,000 births, it would be four, closer to Sweden’s rate of three per 1,000....

    In the United States, almost one in eight babies is born between 22 and 37 weeks’ gestation. That’s nearly the highest rate in the industrialized world — second only to Cyprus. The U.S. prematurity rate is double that of Finland, Japan, Norway and Sweden, according to the 2013 report by Save the Children.

    At any given gestational age, doctors in the United States are as good as doctors in other developed countries at keeping babies alive.

    “If you look at a baby born at 25 weeks in the United States and any other developed country, we do really well,” says neonatologist Philip Sunshine, MD, who has cared for more than 30,000 premature babies during his career at Stanford and Packard Children’s. “We have the technology and we have the resources.”...

    It goes on. Poverty is related to higher rates of pre-term births, as is being single (in the US), and diabetes. Also substance abuse, of course, and smoking.

    So if you want to blame the obesity rate, there's one connection -- diabetes.

    I think you almost certainly have to look at different access to medical care and different cultural approaches (whether pregnant women are encouraged to see a doctor regularly and know they should).
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    edited April 2016
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    People who do not vaccinate their children should be locked away for child endangerment. It's one thing to let your ignorance and massive stupidity have an effect on your own life, but quite another to make that same decision for a child.

    het.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/04/0960327111407644.full.pdf+html

    @OneHundredToLose what are we as parents in the USA doing wrong that makes us rank dead last out of 34 developed countries at keeping our infants from dying. It can not be that we are making them obese that much faster than the other 33 nations. Are you aware it is often the parents with advanced/terminal degrees in science and healthcare that have vaccination concerns of their infants?

    What point are you trying to make here? I think you should state it straight out. Are you actually taking the position that people should not vaccinate or that vaccinating has some negative relationship to infant mortality in the US (which would make no sense)?

    It was a question as to what factors may be involved. I have not read any research that vaccinations are bumping up death rates. From the news we know vaccination damage does not necessary result in death. I truly do not know why in the USA we spend so much $$$ compared to many other developed nations and have lower quality health across the board per some sources. High infant deaths are just hard to accept but they greatly improved for years.

    Your above links are very helpful as to the high USA infant death rates. I had not thought about the diabetes connection. Thanks

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited April 2016
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    People who do not vaccinate their children should be locked away for child endangerment. It's one thing to let your ignorance and massive stupidity have an effect on your own life, but quite another to make that same decision for a child.

    het.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/04/0960327111407644.full.pdf+html

    @OneHundredToLose what are we as parents in the USA doing wrong that makes us rank dead last out of 34 developed countries at keeping our infants from dying. It can not be that we are making them obese that much faster than the other 33 nations. Are you aware it is often the parents with advanced/terminal degrees in science and healthcare that have vaccination concerns of their infants?

    What point are you trying to make here? I think you should state it straight out. Are you actually taking the position that people should not vaccinate or that vaccinating has some negative relationship to infant mortality in the US (which would make no sense)?

    It was a question as to what factors may be involved. I have not read any research that vaccinations are bumping up death rates. From the news we know vaccination damage does not necessary result in death. I truly do not know why in the USA we spend so much $$$ compared to many other developed nations and have lower quality health across the board per some sources. High infant deaths are just hard to accept but they greatly improved for years.

    Check out the links I gave you.

    It seems odd to bring it into this thread if that's not what you are trying to say. Insinuating a connection strikes me as irresponsible (as does the anti vax stuff in general--I don't really think it's an appropriate discussion to have on MFP).

    As for health care, kind of hard to have a non-political discussion of that although I would be open to trying.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    People who do not vaccinate their children should be locked away for child endangerment. It's one thing to let your ignorance and massive stupidity have an effect on your own life, but quite another to make that same decision for a child.

    het.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/04/0960327111407644.full.pdf+html

    @OneHundredToLose what are we as parents in the USA doing wrong that makes us rank dead last out of 34 developed countries at keeping our infants from dying. It can not be that we are making them obese that much faster than the other 33 nations. Are you aware it is often the parents with advanced/terminal degrees in science and healthcare that have vaccination concerns of their infants?

    What point are you trying to make here? I think you should state it straight out. Are you actually taking the position that people should not vaccinate or that vaccinating has some negative relationship to infant mortality in the US (which would make no sense)?

    It was a question as to what factors may be involved. I have not read any research that vaccinations are bumping up death rates. From the news we know vaccination damage does not necessary result in death. I truly do not know why in the USA we spend so much $$$ compared to many other developed nations and have lower quality health across the board per some sources. High infant deaths are just hard to accept but they greatly improved for years.

    Check out the links I gave you.

    It seems odd to bring it into this thread if that's not what you are trying to say. Insinuating a connection strikes me as irresponsible (as does the anti vax stuff in general--I don't really think it's an appropriate discussion to have on MFP).

    As for health care, kind of hard to have a non-political discussion of that although I would be open to trying.

    The links are great. Yes I agree. As we can read most places the vax questions do not come up because it has been settled politically already in many countries as is some diet considerations.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    And yes, if I had kids, I'd absolutely vaccinate them for anything required or recommended by our doctor, just as I do for myself. It's about giving them the best odds. The odds that a vaccine will save their lives or significantly improve quality of life is far, far greater than the odds it will shorten or worsen their quality of life.

    Like anything, there's no certainties. All you can do is give them the best chance, and vaccines offer better chances than not.
  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
    Yes, we did and the wife and I keep up on our own vaccinations.
    My dad had polio growing up. He (obviously) survived but it limited his physical abilities.
    And, since myself and my boys have asthma, something like the flu can turn deadly for us.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    For those who have mentioned the HPV vaccination - I will certainly have my children vaccinated for this as well. HPV causes cervical cancer, and it is so preventable. HPV is extremely common. According to the CDC, "... nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives." http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm

    Cervical cancer is a horrible cancer to have, especially in the advanced stages. It can also be difficult and painful to treat once it is contracted. It's an excruciating and slow way to go, and if the HPV vaccination lowers young girls' risks of getting it, that in itself is a huge benefit. No one should have to suffer needlessly from a preventable disease such as cervical cancer.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    I think when one mixes $$$, personal vs. community rights, religion, medical and politics we can expect confusion.

    Doctors should know what is best but there is disagreement from that department as well it seems.

    healthimpactnews.com/2014/doctors-against-vaccines-the-other-side-of-the-story-is-not-being-told/

  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    Yes. Both my kids get vaccinated at the recommended times.
  • StacyChrz
    StacyChrz Posts: 865 Member
    I don't have kids yet but when I do I will have them vaccinated. I also had a whooping cough vax when my nephew was born to help protect him from me. I do think that having multiple vaccines all at one time can be tough on an infant's immune system and may opt to spread them out a bit, but my kids will absolutely be vaccinated.
  • chelsy0587
    chelsy0587 Posts: 441 Member
    edited April 2016
    jgnatca wrote: »
    I line up for any vaccine available. It's the most natural illness prevention method available. After all, all it's doing is priming our body's natural defenses. I get the flu shot every year, got the H1N1, and vaccine to prevent bacterial Pneumonia.

    I often wonder what it is about vaccine specifically that scares people. Is it the white lab coats? Approved of by mainstream medicine and science? The very idea of a NEEDLE?

    Not the lab coats, not the needle... for whatever unexplained reason I have this idea that what they say is in that shot isn't really in it... or what if the dose is stronger than what they think... I don't know.. BUT I understand it is pretty irrational for me to think that way and I get vaccinations and flu shots anyways because I have young children and they attend daycare so we all need to be as protected as possible. Plus my boyfriend/kids dad has a compromised immune system so if we get ill he could get very sick quite easily.

    My children are vaccinated also.
  • mjwarbeck
    mjwarbeck Posts: 699 Member
    All three of mine have their main vaccinations...no concerns.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    edited April 2016
    daryan1203 wrote: »
    They amount of vaccines given to children has dramatically increased over the last 20 years

    This gets thrown around a lot with the implication that it's a bad thing, but I really don't see why. I guess it just sounds bad so people assume it is bad. But ultimately this kind of thinking is dangerous and leads to people being anti-vaccine.

    Every vaccine you get has the potential for causing a nasty reaction. So you don't want to be getting things you don't need or aren't particularly effective if the disease is not a particular risk to you.

    Where I live, I'm not going to be exposed to Chagas disease. The vector doesn't live here. If there were a vaccine for it (there's not) I wouldn't get it.

    I'd prefer not to get the flu vaccine either because it's not terribly effective (relatively poor sero-conversion rate, and can be designed for wrong strains that year), I haven't gotten the flu in so long I can't even remember the last time, I have no risk factors for the flu being anything more than a couple of days of yuck, and I don't associate closely with anyone who is immunologically impaired. Plus, most forms of the vaccine give me a mild but painful reaction. But, it's required at my job so I get it regardless. And, I recommend it for the young, elderly, immunocompromised, and those who are in close contact with populations for whom flu would be particularly dangerous, etc.

    I get all recommended vaccines for my region of the world if I'm in an at risk population and my kids would, too if I had any.

    I wonder how many of the people who are anti-vax have pets. There are very definite negative consequences for certain vaccines in cats and dogs - vaccine associated sarcoma (feline injection site sarcoma) - that don't seem to have an analog in humans. Though I'll admit to never hearing 'I'll get cancer' as a reason to not vaccinate. Yet.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    chelsy0587 wrote: »
    jgnatca wrote: »
    I line up for any vaccine available. It's the most natural illness prevention method available. After all, all it's doing is priming our body's natural defenses. I get the flu shot every year, got the H1N1, and vaccine to prevent bacterial Pneumonia.

    I often wonder what it is about vaccine specifically that scares people. Is it the white lab coats? Approved of by mainstream medicine and science? The very idea of a NEEDLE?

    Not the lab coats, not the needle... (1)for whatever unexplained reason I have this idea that what they say is in that shot isn't really in it... (2)or what if the dose is stronger than what they think... I don't know.. BUT I understand it is pretty irrational for me to think that way and I get vaccinations and flu shots anyways because I have young children and they attend daycare so we all need to be as protected as possible. Plus my boyfriend/kids dad has a compromised immune system so if we get ill he could get very sick quite easily.

    My children are vaccinated also.

    (1) What would they have to gain from lying? IF that were the case (which it is not), if they were to be found out (which they would), it would be a huge deal and could risk the reputations of the companies that produce the vaccines as well as the scientists who study them. That would be detrimental to everyone's health, since more people would distrust ALL vaccines and we would have even more outbreaks of these diseases and more deaths as a result.

    (2) Vaccines are possibly the most studied medicines on the planet. They are administered in meticulously measured, controlled doses. Why on earth would you think they would be more potent "than what they think"? That idea is a disservice to the people who have dedicated years of their lives to researching vaccines and the diseases they prevent.

    Your concerns are needless and spread fear and suspicion around something that should not be feared.
This discussion has been closed.