You learn something everyday, and what I learned late last week was that I apparently have strong feelings on vaccinating your children. Who would have thought?
It started with a post from a mother in the email list I joined:
"Anyone interested in a pox party or posting and having a party when you know your kids have it. I have 2 under the age of 4 and would love to get them exposed before too late. And at that, anyone have pox right now?"
And for all intents and purposes, it ended with a post from another mother to invite local mothers to a yahoo group for local pox parties:
"This group is designed to help bring together people in Colorado who have chicken pox or other childhood diseases and people who would like to expose their children to those diseases in order to gain immunity. This group is not a place to discuss or debate purposeful exposure or vaccination. Any discussion along those lines will be deleted."
I will try not to go into details on how I feel about the topic, but please believe me that I sent out some strong worded emails late last week. It took me by surprise that in this day and age people are still having pox parties, especially when there is a vaccine for it. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why one would want to spread out vaccinations, but I fail to fully understand the argument against vaccines. It just baffles me that people still go out of their way to intentionally infect their children with diseases when it's not necessary. And the group? Bringing together children with chicken pox or other childhood diseases? Well let's just say I'm probably not really invited.
Ugh. I need to stop. Honestly it makes me stomach churn and that takes me by surprise. I'm usually so good at standing back and accepting that people have different opinions on topics. Apparently it's not all topics. I wonder why that is. Do I really care how these people decide to care for their children? Or is it that I'm upset about how it could potentially cause my own child harm?
Ack. Stop it, Niffer. Stop rambling on and on like a mad woman.
12 comments:
Oh, Jen. I am TOTALLY on your side. My Master's in Public Health has put me solidly on the side of pro-vaccination. I'm all about giving kids the chance to develop their own immune systems and build antibodies (McDonalds playland - perfect place for that!) - but to expose them to actual viruses that are unnecessary and, frankly, dangerous, is outrageous. So, rant away!!!
:) Joey
whoa! People have POX parties? I'd never heard of this. I guess being a non-parent, I'm immune to a lot of the lingo. I'm completely with you. Side effects from the illness could be dangerous. I'd much rather opt for a vaccine instead! Unbelievable. Good for you for taking a stand even if it's not popular among the "pox party" crowd.
Ok fine, you asked for it, but I will try to keep it to the basic main points because I could go on and on.
The good:
The internet is a great place to find information on anything you want.
The bad:
The internet is a great place to find information on anything you want.
On the topic of vaccines, but really the same is true for anything, you can find information from credible sources for both pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination. Given this, I feel like it is impossible for the average person (who does not have an appropriate health-related degree) to come to an educated decision on the topic.
The best you can do is gather information on what the debate is really about so that you are armed with the right questions to ask your doctor. Ideally you have chosen your doctor because you respect their knowledge and know that they share the same general values as you regarding your child. Then ask the pediatrician. No one is going to be better educated on the topic, and worse case scenerio, they're definitely more educated than you.
Many mothers (and I'll be honest, it seemed like I was alone on this topic) claimed that chicken pox is always going to be around. We all had it, right? Well, duh! They didn't have a vaccine back then! It doesn't mean future generations need to get it! And how the heck do you expect a disease to disappear unless everyone gets vaccinated and it slowly goes away. I know that vaccines aren't 100%, but neither is the immunity you get if you obtain pox naturally.
All I can say to this is that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that chicken pox is the number 1 "Vaccine-preventable" killer of children. What? Who dies of chicken pox? Who has ever heard of such a thing? Does it matter? I didn't make that statistic up (though I can't seem to find the link right now... lol, go figure)!
I'm sure that when small pox was around, everyone thought similar things like "it's just a way of life" or "everyone has to get it".
I was even told by one mom that the combination of parents who do choose to vaccinate and those who do not create this perfect balance. Those who do not will keep the disease around enough to give enough exposure to maintain life-long immunity. Uh, what? You're telling me that I should be GRATEFUL to you for keeping this disease around my child? I don't think so.
My wonderful husband found the link. It is in a journal that the CDC puts out weekly.
Here's a link:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00052600.htm
The key sentence:
Although commonly viewed as a benign disease of childhood, serious complications and death can occur following varicella. Varicella is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in children in the United States.
Here's a more recent article:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5411a2.htm
Take a look at Case #3. That could be Lorielle.
I think that the anti-vaccine crowd are really quite nuts. However, in consultation with our pediatrician, we did *NOT* get the chicken pox vaccination. A kid getting a case of chicken pox is not really that hard for them. However, a kid who doesn't build up a strong enough immunity to chicken pox can develop shingles as an adult, which is a *MUCH* worse experience. Our pediatrician suggested that the research on the chicken pox vaccine was not decisive on the subject.
So, the plan was this:
a) Try to get each of them infected at a young age. We attended chicken pox parties. We asked all of our friends to let us know when their kids had the pox so that our kids could go be exposed.
b) If our children did not get the chicken pox by age 10, then we would have them vaccinated.
All of our children got a case of the chicken pox through the pox parties. So, none of them got the vaccinations.
Remember, we did this with the consultation of our pediatrician. And it was *only* for chicken pox. We're not in the anti-vaccination crowd. Our 4 children were otherwise fully vaccinated. But our pediatrician seemed to think that this was a better way to achieve lifetime immunity compared to the vaccine.
You know, now that I think about it for a second, I seem to recall that it was our pediatrician who recommended that we consider delaying the chicken pox vaccine.
... but I could be wrong about this. However, I'm sure that, whoever brought it up, both we and our pediatrician thought that our plan (see above comment) was the best one.
I have heard the argument on "life-long" immunity, but isn't that what boosters are for?
As for shingles, I have heard that argument as well, but I personally do not believe it. I know a handful of people who have gotten shingles as adults and it certainly isn't pleasant. However, all of these people had chicken pox naturally.
Similarly, I do not think I believe the argument that getting chicken pox gives you a better immunity. I have known too many people who got chicken pox mulitple times. One friend of mine actually got it 3 times - the 2nd and 3rd time being from the hospital where they roomed her with someone who had the chicken pox and was sick enough to need hospital care.
I'll be honest, I'm torn on my thoughts on those who choose not to vaccinate because of the advice from the pediatrician. I guess in that case, you are going through all the steps I mentioned and getting advice from your pediatrician. So in that regard, it's an educated decision and I can not fault anyone for that.
The emails I have gotten from this set of moms did not indicate that anyone's pediatricians recommended NOT vaccinating. In fact, most of the responses I got were along the lines of insulting me for blindly trusting doctors when Western medicine has only been around for a couple hundred years and it wasn't long ago that we used to blood-let as a cure for many illnesses.
Yeah, like I said in my previous comment, you're the first person I've heard from that went that route because of the advice of your pediatrician. That's an interesting twist on the topic. I wonder how many parents get second opinions on medical advice if they trust their main doctor? I know I didn't, but if I did, what would the next doctor say?
Remember that our pediatrician was not recommending against the vaccine. She was recommending that we simply delay the vaccine in favor of attempting to get the chicken pox first.
In the worst case scenario, our children would get vaccinated.
How old were your children when they got chicken pox?
I'd have to ask my wife for the exact details. I think the older two got them before the younger two were born. Maybe at 5 & 2... ? Then the younger two got them last year. They were 4 & 1.
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