Overdosing our babies

[MsPony]

Moolie, is tht 3-6 colds per person per year? Or for your entire family (6 of you?)

I consider one cold per person a year a lot. I got sick 3 times this year and I was about to kill my immune system.

Ill always have to have tetanus & rabies, plus chicken pox as I never got it. However, I think I might only do really big diseases for my kids.

Oh, and the strangles vax for horses is BS. My horse still got it, including every single horse that got the vax. Those that didn't never got it.

 

[patandchickens]

I am with whoever said they were not anti-vaccinations but anti OVERvaccinations.

IMO just because a vaccine exists does not mean it is necessary or smart to give it to your particular kid. So, mine are vaccinated for some things (basically "the biggies") but not others. My doctor finds this very frustrating LOL but oh well!

I think there are actually a whole lot of people in this camp. Just because there have been a lot of vaccines *approved for* kids, or allowed to be given at once, does not tell you anything about how often that is DONE.

MsPony, do you seriously get rabies vaccinations yourself, do you work as a vet or something? The rabies vaccination is rarely given to humans, as the risks exceed the statistical benefits for the vast majority of people.

And that is the thing. IMO vaccination should be looked at as, what are the risks of getting vaccinated versus what are the risks of NOT getting vaccinated.

The totally anti-vax people AND the totally pro-vax people seem to miss that.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I'm not anti-vax. Vaccines were made for a reason, and I imagine if everyone quit getting them we could see some diseases making a comeback. It's definitely a personal decision. When (or if) I have babies, I will choose to get them vaccinated. Like someone mentioned, I'm pro-vax but anti-OVERvax.

 

[kitchwitch]

I believe in less vaccines and more vitamins people!

I will say this. I was dumb enough to receive the initial dose of the HPV vaccine and the side of my right leg went numb. I don't know if it was caused by the Vx, but it happened around the same time. After having an MRI and an EMG done, it was determined that I didn't have any specific nerve issue, but now, 4 years later, my leg is still numb.

 

[moolie]

Moolie, is tht 3-6 colds per person per year? Or for your entire family (6 of you?)
.

There are 4 of us and my numbers are per person.

We are actually under what it considered "normal"--it is pretty normal for children under school age to catch a mild respiratory infection every 1-2 months, my kids averaged way less even though we were quite active with other people (weekly Mom-n-Tots group, library story hour, visiting with friends who had kids the same age).

During their first year in school it went up to the high end of 3-6, then has tapered off to 1-3 colds per year since.

Over the last 12 months I've had one cold, hubbie has had none (he has an amazing immune system and rarely gets sick), and the kids have had a couple of colds each.

Teens don't think about germs, about washing their hands before they eat their lunches at school, and they live in pretty close community with all their friends so it's very easy for them to catch things. I volunteer with kids weekly (Girl Guides) and I regularly have someone inadvertently sneeze in my face. Same thing back when I was a teacher. Hubbie takes public transit, works downtown in a building with an elevator and public coffee break room, so runs into all kinds of germs as well--and he's horrible for not washing his hands as often as he should.

Once a year is great, a few more per year is on the low end of normal, my doctor has actually told me on more than one occasion that up to 12 respiratory infections per year is considered normal so we feel like we're definitely staying well.

 

[patandchickens]

I couldn't even tell you how many colds per year we get because I don't know what to count as a cold.... is just a runny nose for a few days a cold, or do you have to be using lots of extra kleenexes, or does it only count if you actually feel awful?

I notice that my first son, when he was a baby, would catch something pretty much every time we went to indoor public play areas; but my second son almost never does, and the rate of their getting sniffles and coughs has gone down a lot over the past couple years since Harry started school. (Which is the opposite of what I expected -- I thought they'd get sick *more* once he hit school).

My guess is that since the older one was not exposed to "public germs" very often at all, as baby/toddler/preschooler, he would catch whatever he was exposed to; but now that his immune system has had all that, his basically decent nutritional/health status keeps him from coming down with very much. And his younger brother has had secondhand germs since birth, unlike the older one, so his immune system got workin' on it much earlier and has been faster in getting to deal with what comes along. Plus of course if dirt and pet dander are good for the immune system then my kids are gonna be bulletproof LOL

E.t.a. - but I ain't relying on that for protection against serious things like polio or tetanus!

Pat

 

[moolie]

We kept track of the real colds (we don't get sniffles, well except for me during allergy season ) because one daughter was formula-fed and the other breast-fed and we were seriously curious how that would affect their immune systems.

Turns out the breast-fed second-born kid got sick more often when she was little, and was the one who got pneumonia when she was 6 while the rest of us have always been a bit more hardy. She evened out with the rest of us by the time she was 10.

As I said, we hit a bit of a high at school entry, but leveled back down to normal for both kids by the next year.

And yup, exposure to everything including dirt, mud, hay, and animals is excellent for building good immune systems--especially for us in the city.

 

[Wifezilla]

If you want to reduce the number of colds you get, make sure you have good blood levels of vitamin D. Since supplementing in the winter and getting actual sun in the summer I hardly ever get colds. I used to get sick all the time. If I do get sick now it doesn't last long.

I still have allergies though

"When you think about it, the flu and cold season is indistinguishable from the vitamin D deficiency season. Every autumn, as vitamin D levels plummet, the incidence of colds and flu skyrocket. After vitamin D levels bottom out during the darkest days of the cold and flu season, vitamin D levels rise again in the spring and the incidence of colds and flu steadily decrease until they virtually disappear during the vitamin D rich summer.

It may be quite simple. Your body's innate immunity, especially the production of innate natural antibiotics called antimicrobial peptides, goes up and down every year with your vitamin D levels. (Acquired immunity is quite different, those are the antibodies you slowly develop after an infection or a flu shot.)

Maintaining summer-time vitamin D levels in the winterby taking adequate amounts of vitamin D (5,000 IU per day)may help prevent colds or the flu by stimulating innate immunity. Preventing some of the one million deaths in the world every year from flu related illnesses is exciting enough; an equally exciting possibility is that large doses of vitamin D may be useful in treating the fluas well as other infections."
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/2006-oct.shtml

 

[MsPony]

Pat- I do I work with wildlife, strange dogs that I can't trust the owners, and dabble in my local veterinary clinic.

Moolie- ok I see. Are you counting awful colds or sniffles? I work mainly in customer service in an animal setting...I'm terrible about washing my hands LOL, except after taking care of any small animal. When I start compulsively washing or using hand sanitizer, I get sick. Pre adulthood I was severel germaphobic...so I dunno if that has anything to do with it.

 

[VickiLynn]

According to my sons pediatrician, the reason they combine so many shots in one visit is because a lot of parents dont bring their kids back regularly, and they miss some. Hes doing a study where they combine different vaccines in one injection, so the kids dont have to get poked so many times.