Natural food better than vaccinations?

I read the first post in this topic and cannot read further because I get so angry about this so called "debate" that my blood pressure rises incredibly high, I get pissed off, and I can't sleep.

Vaccines are a victim of their own success. It is so frustrating.

I have a sick child that isn't fortunate enough to receive all of the usual vaccines. She has a poor immune system and at the age of 1 is not allowed to get MMR because it is a live vaccine AND because she received certain blood products.

This forces me to rely on the stupidity of others to protect my child which puts me into mama bear mode and gets me angry.

Deaths/Illnesses I have seen personally that could have been preventable
1 aunt - polio. Suffered paralysis
1 uncle - polio. Deformations
1 baby - died. RSV
2 babies - died only 2 weeks after going home from NICU from pertussis (whooping cough)
1 sister in law - hospitalization due to chicken pox as an adult.

NONE of these could have been prevented by healthy eating or exercise.

That is all.

First of all, I do not have children. I have a niece and two nephews who are all young and I love them very much. I respect that you (people who don't vaccinate) believe differently than I do. I won't try to argue with you if you don't act like people who actually DO vaccinate their children are horribly bad parents.

I totally agree with the quoted post. The resurgence of pertussis in this country that is killing small children is simply a failure of vaccination. Adults with pertussis don't have the "whoop" when they cough, so don't recognize pertussis. It kills small children because their throats are smaller and the same swelling that causes the whooping cough restricts the airways sufficiently to kill the child. The CDC has changed their recommendations to include a TdaP (Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis) to replace at least one routine tetanus shot (which is recommended every 10 years) in order to address that issue.

Some vaccines, specifically chix pox and MMR are given to children because the consequences are so severe. Not so much with chix pox, but German measles can cause some serious problems, developmentally and physically. It is even more serious in an unvaccinated adult women who happens to be pregnant - both chix pox and rubella can cause serious birth defects.

For the persons who do not vaccinate their children - I would be worried about my children spreading it to ones like she is talking about above who cannot get their vaccines. Even if your kids aren't getting sick, they are still able to spread it to others. The same goes for vaccinated children. And IF a vaccinated child gets sick, they could be potentially less ill than an unvaccinated child. That might make the difference between deafness (or worse) from a communicable disease and recovering fully.

For the argument that those diseases aren't in our country right now - our horizons have expanded. You might be sitting next to someone tomorrow on your morning commute who was exposed to polio two days ago on a trip to another country. It could be right now if you're in public. All of those far-off places where vaccines exist safely isolated are not nearly so isolated as our minds tell us.

I think some of it was also stated earlier, when someone mentioned that we have little idea of what the diseases we vaccinate against can really do. Part of it is the very ego-centric attitude much of this country has adopted, and also propagates. You may see the television commercials (for the US Army, I believe) stating that we have the best health care in the world and think that if your child gets measles that it will be OK because we can treat it. This is so not the case. As a country, we spend more health care dollars for less value than many other nations. There are some categories of health care measures where the US is hardly above nations far less developed. Doctors are still taught what the diseases look like, but not all of them would be able to recognize measles in its initial presentation. So please don't assume that our "great" health care system will take care of you.

FYI, Dr. Wakefield, the man behind the "Vaccines cause Autism" hoopla did in fact lose his license to practice medicine in the UK. However, he is now practicing in Texas. Good job, America.

Just my six cents worth. Hey, I'm not cheap!

My husband is 31 he hadn't had chickenpox as a child so as a young adult he got the chickenpox vaccination (before I met him I am not 100% sure how old he was) anyway when I was pregnant with our first child 2007 he was 27 and he got shingles and they could not figure out why he got it .. and he has had it 3x since then and the last time we went to a walk in clinic since we were out of town when they hit him again and the dr. there told us it couldn't be shingles because he got the vaccination and that prevents shingles too well they scraped a sample off and we got a call a week later that it was indeed shingles ... oh and he has had shingles 4x total first time I was pregnant , second time we had a 8week old baby , third time we were in the hospital with our baby and his sleep apnea and the fourth time we had a 2 year old and a 3 month old .. each time my husband was still involved with our family we were cautious and we prevented our children from getting chickenpox now that they are both older if hubby happens to get shingles again we aren't going to be so careful I want my kids to get chickenpox its a normal childhood thing and I think it is best if they get it naturally !! My best friend was pregnant when she found out she had been neither vaccinated or had the disease and if she had gotten it the outcome would have been ALOT worse than if she had just gotten it as a child.

And just something else I have wondered about is chickenpox and the number of people who make it to adulthood without receiving a vaccination and without ever having chickenpox I would think that chickenpox would be the one disease you were LIKELY to get ... I haven't researched this so I have no clue why but just something I was thinking about

I'd like to see clinical studies on adults who have had shingles yet were vaccinated. I'm more than sure that people that have been vaccinated that don't get shingles will be in much much larger numbers than those that have. Again no medicine is perfect, but benefit outweighs results.
It seems that you correlate what may happen in your life personally to your belief in vaccinations. IMO, that would be like saying crime is high because you were held up at gun point when in fact crime is actually down statistically. Doesn't mean that crime doesn't happen, it just means that doing some of the things we have done have reduced it. You could well say that spending more money on Police did nothing for you, but it has done lots for others. Just a perspective you may not have considered.

The studies show that it prevents about 70% of the cases of shingles. Ask someone who has had shingles 10 times what they would give to have had it only 3, and I bet you would be surprised. If you've never had shingles, there really isn't much reason to get the shot. But if you're like my cousin and get it about once a year (she's in her early 20s and will probably live with it the rest of her life), it might be invaluable.

Just sayin'.

Are you talking about receiving the chickenpox vaccine or the shingles vaccine ? My husband received the chickenpox vaccine and even though he has had shingles 4x he does not qualify for the shingles vaccine according to his doctor. I dont think he would get the shot anyway but I know we were told he couldn't. I am honestly interested if others are able to get the vaccine without being older.

i had all my immunizations and turned out fine. i plan on vaccinating my children when i have them. of course, eating healthy can boost the immune system, but some people just naturally have weak immune systems as well. i am hoping to space out the vaccinations though - i know i didn't get the Hep B shot til i was 12 and it wasn't a problem.

i don't plan on them having things like the chicken pox vaccine, though. i had those when i was 5 with no ill side effects save for a few scars. same with things like flu shots and meningitis shots. i am more worried about my future children catching something life-threatening than anything.