Pregnancy Info HOME

no not sarcastic just the truth and not something people should toy with this is very serious stuff .

to Immuni-yuksion, cleanliness is a good approach to prevention of disease. In the healthcare industry, we are stressed to wash our hands in between every patient contact, wash our hands when we go home, wear over garments while we are at work, wear gloves at all times, etc... But did you know that only some bacteria, and viruses, the ones that don't form capsuls are killed by normal household cleaners??? In laboratories and hospitals all over the US, 10% bleach is the cleaner of choice because it kills non-capsulating and capsulating bacteria and viruses??? Of course, how many people do you know that are willing to wait 10 minutes for a disinfectant to take effect??? Not many. Furthermore, I do have an understanding on how the human immune system works. I'm about to get technical, so hold on... When an alien protein (this could be a virus, bacteria, etc), called an antigen, is introduced into your body, your body makes a reciprocating protein called an antibody. The first antibodies produced are called IgM. These are pretty big brutes that pretty much pulverize anything in their way. After awhile, your body produces IgG antibodies. These are much slimmer (on a molecular scale) and more specialized. They attack only the antigen they were made for. Antibodies attach to the antigens which corresponds to them, and then signals to your WBC's (that's White Blood Cells) your WBC's, usually Monocytes, phagocytize the offending protein (antigen) and carry it to your spleen or lymph node, where the whole cell is destroyed. After the infection is over, your circulating IgG antibody never drops to 0. It stays circulating in low amounts, usually for the rest of your life. In fact, the ability to make this particular antibody is ingrained in your T lymphocytes. This is why vaccinations are so important. It sensitizes the baby's/child's immune system to a disease, well before they come into contact with it, so that their body will know what to do with it. It does not always prevent infection, but it definately reduces the longevity and severity. The modern world can attribute the radication of several illnesses such as small pox to vaccination. When you refer to making someone a walking killer, I hope you are refering to making someone a walking killer of microorganisms. As for the autism, the doctors that I work with usually look for genetic, or metabolic defects for the cause of autism, rather than immunizations. As to the comment about antibiotics... Antibiotics are a sore subject when it comes to the medical profession. They are only used to treat bacterial infections. The problem is that bacteria are one-celled organisms, and thus, do not take long to evolve to survive. If you subject a person to one type of antibiotic over a period of time, eventually the bacteria they harbor (yes, the human body has hundreds of strains of bacteria that is completely natural and healthy) and even the ones that are pathogenic (this means they can harm you) can build a resistance. This makes problems when your doctor has to treat you for a wound infection, or a Urinary tract infection, or a bacterial meningitis, etc. It's not so much "can the patient handle it" as it is "what will kill the bug with the least amount of adverse reaction?" Yes, some people are allergic to penicillin, so there are other alternatives. Yes, there are some that will react adversely to vaccinations, but, I would rather risk the 1 in 10,000 chance than watch my child have a disfiguring disease like measles, or an illness like pneumococcal meningitis, which could turn her into a vegetable. My child goes to daycare, there is no telling, even at the most reputable daycare, what little buggies she is getting, and giving to those other kids. I want my child protected in the only way I can protect her. If that means making her immune system more able to respond to an intruder, than so be it. This is not garbage. I have simply weighed the pro's and con's and decided what is best for my girl. If you don't agree with it, this is your perogative. But, if you talk to any doctor, nurse, lab tech, radiology tech, CNA, or whatever, they will tell you that it is a GOOD thing to get your kid vaccinated.

What is the chance that a child who does not go to day care and parents do not work in health care industry will come in to contact with these diseases? Is it less than 1 in 10,000? About the same or greater? Is your 1 in 10,000 figure based on some stats some place? If so can you list the source? Thanks in advance.

To chelsey and Amaya's mommy aka Stephanie thank you so much for your thoughts I too wouldnt want you or anyone else to know firsthand what my life is like now and I have no real words to try to tell you, in answer toy our question I would have def got her immunized but I never got the chance she was still too young I live with constant guilt and never ending pain and hate myself for taking her out into public/letting people come by I thought I was doing a good job protecting her but it wasnt good enough and I will forever live with that. Thank you both so much again.

Lucy~ I know you have heard this a million or two times but God never gives you more than you can handle and I think that by you sharing your story you are actually helping other people. You are obviously a great mom because you are raising your husbands children and that takes a very strong person to take in children that are not theirs and love them like they are. You are an inspiration to all of us! Just remember that your babies are beautiful and they will not be forgotten! Take care...

I will not vaccinate my child because I know a little girl who got vaccinated when she was around 4 or 5 and she stopped talking afterwards. I know that my child is a very healthy baby now, why risk his health if autism is a possible outcome? Everyone feels differently. If you do decide against it, don't let the dr. make you feel guilty. Doctors can be cruel like that.

How many times do you go shopping in a week? Do you put your child in that shopping cart that other kids have been slobbering on? Maybe they weren't slobbering on it, but putting their germy little hands all over where your childs hands are now. Maybe it wasn't a kid at all, but an adult who has a child at home who's child goes to daycare, and caught measles from some kid that missed his vaccine? Now your kid has measles. Or mumps, or chicken pox... has anyone ever seen a child with teta__s??? You can get that from stepping on a nail, getting a splinter, getting a cut... teta__s is a bacteria that lives in our normal world, outside, in the gra__s, on plants, on your family dog. I'm not saying it's time to panic, but be smart and protect your children. We have the benefit of modern medicine, which mankind has never had before. Small pox has been eradicated from the world due to vaccination. Has anyone ever wondered what that wierd circular scar on their parent's and grandparent's shoulder is? That was the smallpox vaccine. Measles, mumps, and rubella is well on it's way to eradication because of vaccination. Hepat_tis A is now given to children to prevent food borne disease. Hepat_tis A is transferred from fecal-oral route. This means that the next time you go to McDonalds, you had better hope that the 16 year old cooking your child's chicken nuggets washed their hands after wiping their bottom. The Hepat_tis A vaccine makes your child almost impervious to a disease that causes diarrhea, cramping, vomiting, and dehydration. You know that if your child is dehydrated, and can't keep anything down, you take them to the E.R. and that usually ends up in a bill of at least $700.00, if not more. The idea of vaccination is to prevent disease, and the a__sociated healthcare costs. Yes, there is a suspected connection with the mmr shot and autism, but nothing has been proven, or disproven as yet. Due to the healthcare situation of our nation, not everyone has adequate health insurance. Many parents take advantage of the "shots for tots" programs offered in many states, whithout their child getting the appropriate physician checkups, and as such, if a notable change is noticed in the child's behavior after a vaccination, they are a) not always reported, and b) the child's behavior is not adequately doc_mented prior to the vaccination, so there is no standard for healthcare professionals to make a comparison to.There has yet to be determined a definate cause for Autism. Environmental, and genetic factors are currently to blame. (Courtesy www.cdc.gov, search "Autism") My point is, maybe you use "Purell" or another brand of disinfectant. Read the ingredients. The active ingredient is most likely ethyl alcohol. Alcohol only kills bacteria. Not viruses, or fungus. Most of the vaccines your child will get are against viruses. Also, imagine that you are a newborn baby, and you have just gone from a sterile environment into a world where the very air seems to attack you with various bacteria, viruses and fungus. The only defense you have against this attack are the few antibodies which your mother gave to you during your time in her womb, and through her b___stmilk. Keep in mind, ladies, that most antibodies are too big molecularly to fit through the fine mesh of a placenta, which means that many of them never make it into your child's system. Your child cannot produce most antibodies until they are almost 3 months old. Giving them these shots gives their immune system a "wake up and smell the coffee" smack, and preempts them to produce antibodies and blood cells that are specialized to fight these illnesses. The immunizations later on, at 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, etc, are like stepping stones. They are teaching your child's immune system what is bad so that it can fight it off with higher efficiency. Of course, we can never immunize against everything, but at least we can immunize against what we know. As for the statistics I came up with "1 in 10,000", I have to admit that they were fabricated to prove the slim chance your children may have of catching one of the illnesses which are commonly vaccinated for. The actual statistic is 1 in 272,000,000 for measles, 1 in 1,359 for Hepat_tis B, 1 in 8,500 for Hepat_tis A, 1 in 2,254 for Chickenpox (Varicella Zoster Virus), 1 in 100,000 for pneumococcal meningitis, and 1 in 6,800,000 for teta__s. Some of these numbers are very low, which most medical professionals attribute to the comprehensiveness of vaccinations in recent years. All of these statistics courtesy of www.wrongdiagnosis.com. I am sorry to be so long. I simply wanted to state my point. I hope that you all will take it into consideration, but above all, make the decision that is going to be right for your child and your situation.

Thanks for the info lab tech. I really appreciate the effort you put in to find the stats. As for the shopping thing we have a "shop and play", it also doubles for the high chairs at restaurants. Every little bit helps.

two questions 1) Can you get pregnat by four play? 2) what are the affects after a teta__s vaccine for women

I read your story and i as well was crying. I am so sorry for your loss. But it really made me think. I was wondering where her rash was? I have a family member and her young son staying with us and they went out for a couple of days and came home with colds. now everyone in the house has it. Including my 5 week old. He sounds a little congested and has a little cough and i took him to the docs today and she gave him some advil and antibiotics for myself. I am definetely goin to keep an eye on this one.

It IS NOT a law that children have to be vaccinated before entering school. Public schools are given $500.00 for every fully immunized child that enteres school! PLEASE do your research before injecting your child with any foreign substance! Don't be fooled into believing everything you hear just because it came from your Dr. Be active in your childrens health care. Read everything you can so you can make an educated decision.

I'm desperate to get my baby vacinated. I can't relax until I know she is safe from things like whooping cough. I know it's rare these days, but it is making a comeback, due to the amount of people deciding against vacinations. I remember when I was about 10 years old, they showed a baby on TV suffering from whooping cough, and it was so distressing to watch, that I've never forgotten it. My baby has a cold already at only 6 weeks, and I'm terrified that her cough will turn into something more serious. I really am scared. I can't even sleep, because I have to make sure she doesn't stop breathing! She won't get her first jabs until mid November, and I've decided not to let her mix with other people until then. Can't wait!

Lucy, it was agony just to read your story. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your babies. It's bad enough to lose something so precious but to have to sit by and watch them suffer so much is to awful for me to imagine. I'm still in tears now. I hope people will learn from your experience and do the right thing. Thanks for sharing.

I am a CNA in a nursing home, and both of my kids are vaccinated, getting vaccinated, and will continue to get boosters. My aunt, who recently died from lupus, contracted Hep. B from eating in a restaurant where the cook was infected. We had no idea, he looked fine, and the business was a nice establishment. But she got it, and it made her lupus flare up worse, and she pa__sed away. In my nursing home. You don't have to be working in a medical field to be exposed to some of these diseases. As to the chicken pox vaccine, when you get c.pox the active virus stays in your system, hiding in your nerve endings. Later in life, if for some reason it decides to flare up, you get shingles. Very painful, and very dangerous to older people and pregnant women, also those who never had c. pox or the shot. Shingles can cause severe birth defects. Youc could shake the hand of someone with shingles and never know it until you had complications with your pregnancy or baby. I am allergic to the pertussis vaccine, and never got it. I wish that I could take it, because right now, there is whooping cough being reported in towns 50 miles from where I live. And I am scared that my little 6 wk old is at risk because his mommy isn't fully protected. But he will be.

Firstly, It IS possible to get shingles even if you have been vaccinated. The unvaccinated and those who never acquired it naturally may contract Chicken Pox from a person with Shingles. A person with Shingles does not pose any greater risk to pregnant women who have been vaccinated or those who acquired chicken pox naturally. Shingles is only contagious to those who have not had chicken pox and even then the person does not get Shingles but Chicken Pox. You get Shingles from YOUR OWN Chicken Pox virus, not some else’s. Since you can not get Shingles from someone else it CAN NOT cause birth defects. Please, please don't get on talking about you have a CNA, when you obviously have no clue about the basic transmission of the virus. It can be misleading to those who know no better and a__sume some with a CNA does. I suppose it helps to know what a CNA is and does, but most people do not.

I vaccinated my child and plan to vaccinate my other child when she is born. I got the measels when I was 5 months old and almost died. I developed a SEVERE case of chicken pox that I needed to be hospitalized. I will not have my children go through that. When my father's internship in Australia ended when I was 1 1/2 years old, we went to Africa. I was taking malaria pills and I had the small pox vaccination. Nothing happened to me. I just find it interesting that 3rd world countries and begging for vaccinations and mothers are weeping in joy when receiving them that there are parents in Amercia who refuse them. Also, I believe the rise in autism rates are due to the fact that more people recognize the symptoms and they are diagnosed as autism. My mother, who was around before mandetory vaccinations had a boy in her cla__s who was said to be "slow and have behavior issues" would sit all day and rock back and forth in his chair, not participating in any discussions not responding to any other children in his cla__s. Today, he would be diagnosed as autism. What caused his Autism if there was no such thing as MMR at that time?