How do you feel about immunizing your children?

Question

I know there have been some fears about some of them causing autism but how founded are these fears?

I agree with Pete...I have always immunized my kids. My oldest had a liver transplant 20 years ago and has a supressed immune system, any of those diseases could kill her. Especially chicken pox. It scares me to think there are kids walking around who haven't had that varicella shot. Chicken pox can kill a healthy child and the older you are when you get them, the more dangerous it is.

I asked this question because I just read where parents are claiming religious exemptions to avoid having their kids immunized.

Can you just imagine where we'd be with small pox if we didn't get immunized against that????

Thanks Gdsmk...it would be great if the parents who are scared got that info!

The small pox vaccine is exactly what I'm talking about. We don't need it anymore because everyone got the vaccine until the threat was gone. It's still in other countries because they don't innoculate, which is why you need the vaccine if you go to certain countries. Especially the military....you guys get more shots than anyone!!!

Very well said Red!! You'll get best answer for sure!!!!!!
I agree 150%

Answer 1

Great question!

First let me expand on the military and small pox. WHO (World Health Organization) eradicated small pox from the world in the early 70's with a global effort to isolate cases and immunize populations. The United States stopped vaccinating the general population in the early 80's and the U.S. military stopped some time later. The military re-started vaccinating service members for small pox during the first gulf war and has contined mainly because small pox can be “weaponized” and used as a biological weapon. The military does not vaccinate to protect service members against populations that have small pox.

I personally have not learned of a link between vaccination and autism. In theory anything is possible and it shouldn't surprise anyone that when we introduce foreign substances into our body there could be negative results. Nearly every vaccination one can receive has some potential for negative side effects. There is a great deal written on this and the data is out there.

In the larger point though it is important to balance the positives with the negatives and risk versus reward. As far as vaccinations are concerned they have had an overwhelming positive impact on mankind.

I'll end with this. In 2002 there were approximately 1.3 million deaths world wide from malaria. 1.2 million of them in Africa alone. Imagine a vaccination was developed for malaria and all these lives could be saved. Could anyone argue against the use of it? If it could be proven that 1 in 10,000 people vaccinated will have some negative impact then should it still be used. I would say yes.

Thanks for the question.

Answer 2

first off, in the us people don't normally get immunized against small pox. we in the military end up getting it prior to deployment to areas where small pox is present.

back to the original question. the fears about autism and immunizations is due to a preservative that was present and still is, in the vaccines call Thimerosal. this is an organic mercury compound that has been used since the 30's as a preservative. later on studies were linking autism and thimerosal so the fda started regulating the use of it. any vaccines with it have just trace amounts of it now. there are thimerosal free vaccines and a great number of hospitals carry it and usually use it first. it doesn't hurt to request it either when you take your kids in for their shots.

Answer 3

I would like to know who made the possible correlation between immunization & autism. Generally, immunization has been a good thing for most of the population. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with new vaccines & all the boosters but, in the long run I believe they are worth the effort.

Answer 4

i'm all for it. keeping my kids healthy is so important to me.

5 years ago-there was a deadly strain of the flu going through my state (arizona). it claimed the lives of 3 small children and my kids were almost 2 more. my then 1 and 3 year old daughters became so sick that BOTH of them ended up in the pediatric icu for 3 days on christmas eve. i was terrified that my children were going to die (my 3 year old's temp was 106 when the ambulance got her to the hospital-they had to pack her in ice).

they are now happy, healthy 6 and 8 years old. from that day on, i vowed never to let them go w/out any shot they needed-flu shot included.

no parent should ever have to experience the loss or near loss of a child due to an illness a shot can prevent. it's so scary to go through!!

Answer 5

As a professional working with students with autism, these fears are not founded so far.

I'm cool with Rhiannon getting her shots. I was leery at first, but she has them all now, pretty much. So far, she seems not to have autism, but if she did, thank goodness I'd know what to do and how to properly take care of her needs.

Parents: Immunize your kids. Please!!

Answer 6

Please, tell me what it is that you are talking about...?
Is there a vaccine that might cause autism? Never heard of such a thing...I wouldn't be surprised though...
I think children should be immunized for all of the usual things...but I'm a little leary about these new vaccines.

Answer 7

personally, i feel that immunizing children is definitely well worth it. when i was little, i brought chicken pox home from school, and passed it around the family. my younger brother and i had very mild cases, but my older sister had it so bad they had to hospitialize her. they thought she was going to die at one point in time. my older brother, only got a mild case also...but that one outta four was enough to make me realize how serious these diseases are. (and that was in 1986--only 19 years ago...not 50!)

Answer 8

Due to my avid reading and life long love of learning, I know of the many sweeps of disease, such as small pox, which killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. Small pox is not the only illness which death or deformation can result, but it is the most widely known. Many parents who vaccinate their children do so without any real knowledge of what the disease they are vaccinating against could do, but they do so anyway because it is a requirement to enroll their children in school.

I strongly advocate immunizing children. I agree it has stopped a huge number of deaths, and the suffering of their loved ones. We need to more fully and widely educate people, long before they are actually parents, why immunizations are so important and the short odds of actually aquiring the disease through the vaccination.

We wait until children are born to explain that they will need to receive these life saving innoculations. However, we fail to fully inform and educate as to why it is so important. Until we do fully inform and educate we will continue to get parents who listen to old wives tales, or fear their child becoming ill, or other vastly aggagerated stories or misinformation, and will attempt to avoid having their children immunized.

I fully understood the need for innoculations before the birth of my first child, a son. I was fully prepared to have my children receive their innoculations. However, I was unable to do so with my first child due to him being born with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. His little immune system was extremely compomised and so he was unable to receive even one innoculation in his short life. I worried that if the leukemia didn't get him, he would suscumb to one of these diseases which would have easily been avoided had he been able to receive proper innoculations. It was a huge worry.

I would like to see the population fully educated of the benifits of immunizations and the myths dispelled long before we actually have childrlen. While most of these diseases are under control, more and more people are beginning to refuse them for their children, and yes, falsly using religion to excuse themselves.

I understand some people truly do have religious foundations which exclude innoculation of their children. However, these numbers are not that high. It is only in these past ten years or so that more have discovered they can use this as an excuse and avoid the process. Some are genuinely concerned their children will be one of the few who contract the disease they are being innoculated against, but there are also those who are simply misguided and/or think they can't afford the shots.

Many do not know there are free clinics to receive innoculations for their children if they are low income or lacking in health insurance.

For those one or two who DO contract the disease through the innoculation, those families are simply devestated and shattered. However, the benifits far out weight the small risks. Society and the world are far better off than if we never used innoculations against these killer and/or crippling diseases.

I too have never heard of innoculations causing autism, but then I haven't had reason lately to stay on top of news regarding this topic because my children are now grown. I haven't had grandchildren as yet, so I haven't looked up any new informaiton. I am unable to say whether this is true information or if it is another old wives tale used to scare young parents. If it is a tale, then shame on whomever is responsible.

Our children need immunizations in order to keep disease at bay.

We currently have a staff disease which is called a Super Bug, and is unable to be treated with any current antibiotics. It currently infects over 90 million people a year, and kills more than AIDS and HIV. I recently read on the Internet News, then watched on my local news station, a story regarding this, and another related one about ear infections.

The ear infection is a form of staff, which is also considered one of these new Super Bugs and is resistant to all current antibiotics. The Dr.'s and nurses are having to relearn how to use a needle to drain fluids off the ear drum.

We have been hearing how the overuse of antibiotics could lead to resistant strains of disease, yet we still went ahead and requested antibiotics whenever our children were ill, even if it were a viral infection which antibiotics do not affect. This over use has now caused the creation of resistant Super Bugs we were warned about, and they are killing people.

We need to keep immunizing our children and stop insisting on treating viral infections with antibiotics. Dr.'s need to stop bowing to parental pressures and giving out useless antibiotics for viral infections. We are facing a crisis which is out of control, and could have been avoided.

Education is key to both of these issues and many others. We truly need to get the information out there so to dispell the myths and fears they result in. In turn, these fears cause the under utilization of proven affective treatments, and children suffer for it.

Answer 9

Very much here especially of death in Malaysia.