Originally Posted by Ariana:
It is unfortunate on all sides because my child had a horrible allergic reaction to her first round of vaccines. The reaction was confirmed by two medical Dr's and an allergist when the vaccine was tested a 2nd time. Therefore she is not vaccinated and neither is my youngest. The DR's did not help me AT ALL in figuring out what component of the vaccine my daughter was allergic to. I thought that if we could figure it out I could get a vaccine made without that component. The DR in the end didn't seem to want to help me and recommended non vaccination instead.
EVERY TIME I tell a medical professional or a school administrator that my child is not vaccinated I am immediately judged. I got so much attitude from my school until I showed them my DR exempt form. Unfortunately I won't be provided one for my youngest daughter since I chose not to expose her at all. Vaccine injury is a real thing. The USA and some provinces in Canada have funds available for vaccine injured children and millions have been given since it's inception. I am just glad that in my case the severe reaction was not life threatening and didn't "injure" my child.
I believe in vaccines. I have all of mine and get them every 10 years but some parents choose not to get their kids vaccinated for various reasons and we should respect that. Look at the real numbers when it comes to "outbreaks". I was very worried about taking my 2 daughters to Disneyland in July and spoke to my DR about it. He told me that it was mostly unvaccinated adults spreading it and that the numbers were so low I shouldn't worry. Millions of people visit Disneyland each month and only 200 got infected. Not one person died! Yet the mass hysteria had me nearly cancelling my vacation!
Not arguing, just clarifying. There were nearly 200 confirmed cases in the most recent outbreak, but that doesn't reveal how many were actually infected. The number was undoubtedly much larger, but because of vaccines, serious illness in larger populations was kept at bay.
And I'm wondering if your doctor is actually an immunologist or just an MD. Because an immunologist would completely disagree with the assertion that taking unvaccinated children to an area where an outbreak is actively occurring is any kind of safe. There is a reason why more and more states in the US are implementing policies that if an outbreak occurs, unvaccinated children are not allowed to attend public schools or licensed daycares.
Globally, measles remains a LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH amongst younger populations. The risk is real and hardly hype. It's not the media, those are the facts. I suggest you take another look at those "real numbers" you mention. 16 deaths an hour on average is nothing to brush off. Just because it's no longer considered endemic as it is in the rest of the world, doesn't mean we should become complacent.....unless we want to end up back in the same boat. in 2000 Measles was considered eradicated in the US. Look at all that have become infected since. It's only a matter of time before those numbers rise exponentially based on the currently plummeting vaccination rates.....
Just an fyi, allergy testing individual components of vaccines is next to impossible at this time. It was likely not that your doctors didn't want to help sort out the what, as much as there are no current standards established to determine actual threshold. You may not be allergic to cats, but offer a dander dose concentrated enough and you absolutely will react. Anyone will react to anything if the exposure is intense enough. There hasn't been enough research done to establish those limits for vaccine components yet. Take heart in knowing your kiddos doc wasn't necessarily complacent, there just isn't a way to accurately define levels yet.
I've already gotten the attitude from others as well (and my guy is just 9 months old!). It is frustrating to be lumped in under the assumption that I'm ignorant or just don't care about the rest of the general population
