Stressed Neurotic Mom Warning

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

My DS was vaccinated as a toddler and got the pox in 2nd grade. He had under 100 spots, which is supposedly very mild. He broke out on a Sunday (Easter Sunday, to be exact!) and he was back at school on Friday. His spots did scab over, and he has a couple of scars on his face from them.

I didn't get chicken pox until I was 21 - VERY inconvenient. To the best of our knowledge DH has NEVER had them, even though I exposed him and so did DS! It is a crap shoot no matter what. I was exposed over and over as a child and never got them. DS had almost 900 kids in his school when he got them and the nurse said he was the only one. I had to fill out a huge packet from the Dept. of Health. When he broke out it was about 2 weeks after Spring Break, and we had been at Chuck E. Cheese. That is my best guess of where he caught them.

OP - I hope all goes well for you!!

 

[maisymom]

exactly You have to be vaccinated in Massachusetts

 

[lclark0621]

Yeah, but what do you do if your school requires the vaccination? I don't plan on honeschooling my kids, but don't want them to get the vaccine either.

You check to see if your state has an "ethical" or "philosophical" waver to certian vaxs. Plenty of states do now. You can actually skip certian vaxes (while stll getting others) AND go to public or private schools. It is not hard to get, you just need to find it.

"Religious" wavers only exempt you from vaxes if you skip all of them. But if you are opposed to only a few, then you look into a "philosophical waver".

 

[bcvprincesses]

We just got back from Disney with my dd's gymnastics team. One of the girls on the team went down with the coach who is her aunt and woke up the next day covered in chicken pox. Her dad flew down and drove her home the next day. She must have picked it up in Niagara Falls at a meet 2 weeks before. We couldn't believe that happened to her. Everyone elso on the team that had the shot did not get them. She is the only one that was not vaccinated.

 

[maisymom]

We just got back from Disney with my dd's gymnastics team. One of the girls on the team went down with the coach who is her aunt and woke up the next day covered in chicken pox. Her dad flew down and drove her home the next day. She must have picked it up in Niagara Falls at a meet 2 weeks before. We couldn't believe that happened to her. Everyone elso on the team that had the shot did not get them. She is the only one that was not vaccinated.

That is good to know since my kids have been vacinated there is a chance he wont get them

 

[goobsmom]

I have to respectfully disagree with the poster who said that most vaccines are only 50% effective. Chicken pox is one of the least effective at about 75%. Most other vaccines are extremely effective (aside from the influenza, which is less effective due to the length of time it takes to create a new one each year, so they have to guess which strains will be going around). Why do you think we see so little whooping cough, mumps, tetanus? Why have smallpox and polio been eradicated (well, there's only polio in Africa). People who don't vaccinate are lucky that they still benefit from herd immunity.
Anyway, sorry to get off topic.

 

[maisymom]

HERD IMMUNITY lol lol I like that alot.!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We just got back from Disney with my dd's gymnastics team. One of the girls on the team went down with the coach who is her aunt and woke up the next day covered in chicken pox. Her dad flew down and drove her home the next day. She must have picked it up in Niagara Falls at a meet 2 weeks before. We couldn't believe that happened to her. Everyone elso on the team that had the shot did not get them. She is the only one that was not vaccinated.

Interesting, thanks for posting.

 

[goobsmom]

Herd immunity is an actual, immunological term. Means that if most people in a population are immune, even those who aren't will benefit from a general lower level of disease in that population.

 

[ozarkmom]

My youngest son had chicken pox at 3 months. Older brother brought it home from pre-school. 2 year old sister was covered and miserable. Couldn't eat for pox on her tongue had them on her head, eyes, private parts you name a spot and she had spots there. The baby had 3 spots that I could find. Dr. said he may get them again. At age 3 he had the shingles and that was horrible he was in so much pain. I did not know until then that the chicken pox virus is where shingles come from. Now I just pray that he doesn't have to go through shingles again.

 

[skent10]

I have to respectfully disagree with the poster who said that most vaccines are only 50% effective. Chicken pox is one of the least effective at about 75%. Most other vaccines are extremely effective (aside from the influenza, which is less effective due to the length of time it takes to create a new one each year, so they have to guess which strains will be going around). Why do you think we see so little whooping cough, mumps, tetanus? Why have smallpox and polio been eradicated (well, there's only polio in Africa). People who don't vaccinate are lucky that they still benefit from herd immunity.

Well said.

All four of my children were vaccinated as infants. My DD, 2 at the time, came down with a mild case of shingles (so mild I thought it was poison ivy until Dr. said otherwise). None of my other children got anything and there is NO WAY my DD could have been exposed without the other three also being exposed (all attending the same preschool and twin brother even in the same class). So is my family an example of the vaccine only working 75% of the time? If so, I'd still much rather have put up with DD's version of the pox than what I went through as a kid, which included hospitalization.

 

[Taqwus]

We are leaving for disney Feb 23 Last Friday a notice is going home in my kindergar. class that chicken pox is going around. Today my son tells me that a little girl in his speech class went home sick and had chicken pox on her(confirmed by the nurse). I hope my three kids dont get it. we are on 21 days away. Had this planned since april of last year

When I went to WDW the first time I was in your kids shoes. In my 4 visits to WDW I have been sick 3 times, 1 did actually require me to be hospitalized, I had came down with Scarlet Fever, which I wonder how many other people got sick because of me, but I was too young to realize it.
Your kids might get sick but once they see disney world they will be running on pure adrenalin for the whole trip. My parents say the only thing they noticed when I was sick was I would take naps while in line.
The other 2 trips I had I had sever allergies and one was 103 degree fever

 

[maisymom]

Well said.

All four of my children were vaccinated as infants. My DD, 2 at the time, came down with a mild case of shingles (so mild I thought it was poison ivy until Dr. said otherwise). None of my other children got anything and there is NO WAY my DD could have been exposed without the other three also being exposed (all attending the same preschool and twin brother even in the same class). So is my family an example of the vaccine only working 75% of the time? If so, I'd still much rather have put up with DD's version of the pox than what I went through as a kid, which included hospitalization.

I totally agree with you. 80% chance of not getting them is better then a 80% chance of

 

[maisymom]

When I went to WDW the first time I was in your kids shoes. In my 4 visits to WDW I have been sick 3 times, 1 did actually require me to be hospitalized, I had came down with Scarlet Fever, which I wonder how many other people got sick because of me, but I was too young to realize it.
Your kids might get sick but once they see disney world they will be running on pure adrenalin for the whole trip. My parents say the only thing they noticed when I was sick was I would take naps while in line.
The other 2 trips I had I had sever allergies and one was 103 degree fever

The only problem is I believe they probaly wont let you fly with chicken pox.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Depending on the severity of the outbreak you might not even NOTICE that your kids have them! When DS first started to break out the spots looked like mosquito bites. We went to Easter brunch because we didn't know he was breaking out with chicken pox!

When I got them I had never been vaccinated. The first one was on the sole of my foot - thought I stepped on a shard of glass. The second one was next to my belly button and I thought it was a bug bite. Even when I was full-blown into the pox there were almost none on my arms, legs, or face. I could have gone out (or gotten on an airplane ) and nobody would have thought I had chicken pox. Not that I am saying it would be a fabulous idea to intentionally take a sick child on the plane, I am just saying you might not necessarily SEE the pox.

 

[Idroveallnight]

I find all the different facts that posters have interesting! I wonder where everyone gets their numbers? I have one who had the illness & after seeing how sick she was there was no way I would not have had the other 2 vaccinated! I fully anticipate that within the next year or two - after the health departmants track the cases for awhile - there will be a booster! They are doing boosters for pertussis now! Herd immunity does protect those children who are not vaccinated, but with all the international travel & immigration I would be afraid for my children not to be fully vaccinated. Just because we haven't had these illnesses in the USA doesn't! mean they are gone. I fully believe every parent should & can make these decisions for their children! HAving seen these some of these illnesses first hand is just very scary! Just make sure you are getting reliable info!

 

[Marseeya]

I hope everyone stays well!

Last year, over a week before our WDW trip, I came down with the CP at the age of 38! Two weeks prior to that, I'd gone to the zoo on a field trip, so I figure that's where I got it from. I was so worried we'd have to cancel the trip, but the pox healed a few days before we were to leave. However, I was SO WEAK from being sick, and the heat nearly did me in. We didn't get to do nearly as much on our trip as we would have liked, but it was still a magical trip.

DS (14) got the CP on our first full day there. He didn't want to be there anyway, so we just let him stay in the room. He stayed in that room the entire trip and was perfectly happy (AKL, who wouldn't be??). Anyway, he'd had the vaccination, so it was an extremely mild case with just a few spots that healed up within 2-3 days.

 

[vfb2girls]

For the mom who's son has shingles, it is probably likely that through out his life time he probably will have shingles again. As an adult I first got shingles 10 years ago and now everytime that my immune system is run down I develope a case of shingles. My doctor told me that this will happen especially as I age and our immune systems start to break down. In fact as I am typing this I have got probably one of the worse cases of shingles that I ever had, and of course it is always on my face so I am not a pretty sight! I have to count my blessings though because we are heading for Disney in three weeks and I would of been heartbroken to have gotten this right before we left, now with the help of some very expensive medications my face it actually starting to look less scary!

 

[YCFAN]

Sorry if I posted any misinformation (sterility) but that is what our doctor told us and that is why he said we needed to keep him quiet and in bed for rest for the first couple of days.

 

[ntengwall]

What you need to realize is that one of the reasons vaccines are not even close to 100% effective is because of HOW you contract the disease. In nature, you would contract almost all of these diseases through the air and through your nasal passages. This is VERY different from having something injected into your bloodstream.
The other thing that Goobsmom mentioned about polio and other illnesses being irradicated is that Japan did NOT vaccinate for polio at the time when they USA started to and their rates dropped at the same rate as ours did. THis is because almost all illnesses have a natural life-span. Also...most diseases that are supposedly irradicated will usually return at some point in time and be re-named. I believe one example of this is the Monkey Pox. It is VERY similar to AIDS.
The bottom line is that choosing to vaccinate or not is a very personal decision and one not to be made hastily or spur of the moment. I have spent the last 7 years researching, reading books, studies and watching videos to make my decision not to vaccinate my boys. Do I have doubts...yes. Would I have doubts if I vaccinated? You betcha! I teach natural childbirth classes and have seen, firsthand, babies who have had adverse reactions to the vaccines. Some mild, some not so mild. And I have also studied the incredible rise in auto immune disorders in children (asthma, eczema, Crohn's disease etc...) Not to mention the 300% rise in autism in the past 5 years.

If anyone is truly interested in educating yourself, you MUST get these 2 videos by Dr Sherri Tenpenny. She was a mainstream emergency room Dr who began to question our routine vaccine practices. This video is NOT just her opinions! It is based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and scientific evidence.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._1_2/102-8990838-3664938?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130