Anonymous wrote:If I know that a family is anti-vax, we simply do not spend time with them. Obviously excluding legitimate medical reasons. It's not even about the fear of getting sick. I don't care about your religion or your reasoning. I don't have room for that kind of stupidity in my life.

You DO know that you have no way of knowing who vaccinates or not, right?

Apparently not. Just as stupid as using the term "vax".

I'm sorry...you just don't know if anyone's vaxed or not. THAT is the reality. You can't question anyone on this and if you seriously do you have issues and still don't know if the person you are asking is even telling you the truth. If your child has immune problems of course you must be careful and keep them away from kids who have any kind of symptoms. But that's all you can do. Anything else is just you believing you are doing something more.

My father had shingles, it happened while we were on vacation at the beach. His actually wasn't very painful. One spot over his ribcage was a little tender, but it wasn't unbearable. That being said, my husbands grandmother had it really bad. As everything there are varying levels of pain/discomfort.

A lot of negative judgements against those who don't vaccinate though. After extensive research (seminars, medical journals, books, etc) we opted to vaccinate, but I know several individuals that didn't, most being very smart individuals, although I guess that depends on how you determine "smart". One is a Chiropractor (wife is a lawyer), another is a business analyst (husband is a software developer). They may be a bit more crunchy (chewy rather) than the "normal" person, but nothing crazy.

I asked them if they were ever denied a playdate (or even questioned about their vac status). No one ever has asked them, no one (to their knowledge) has denied or canceled playdates, etc. We see them and their children often, it never dawned on me to not see them just because their children were not vaxed. If they or their kids were sick, of course we don't get together, but same goes with our daughter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the focus just on the kids and not on the parents' vaccine status? Aren't the parents just as likely to transmit a disease or illness? Would you not associate with a mom friend or family friend if you knew the mom/family adult members were not fully vaxed? I never had the chicken pox vax nor did I have chicken pox as a kid--would you decide to not associate with me because of this fact? I also don't get the flu shot regularly myself.

Please do yourself a favor and get the chicken pox vaccine. Chicken pox can be fatal in adults. A couple of years Barbara Walters almost died of it.

In adults it's called shingles. At what age can you get it?

I am 47.

An older brother had shingles.
Apparently it's painful.

Shingles is INCREDIBLY painful.

Anonymous wrote:If I know that a family is anti-vax, we simply do not spend time with them. Obviously excluding legitimate medical reasons. It's not even about the fear of getting sick. I don't care about your religion or your reasoning. I don't have room for that kind of stupidity in my life.

+2

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the focus just on the kids and not on the parents' vaccine status? Aren't the parents just as likely to transmit a disease or illness? Would you not associate with a mom friend or family friend if you knew the mom/family adult members were not fully vaxed? I never had the chicken pox vax nor did I have chicken pox as a kid--would you decide to not associate with me because of this fact? I also don't get the flu shot regularly myself.

Please do yourself a favor and get the chicken pox vaccine. Chicken pox can be fatal in adults. A couple of years Barbara Walters almost died of it.

In adults it's called shingles. At what age can you get it?

I am 47.

An older brother had shingles.
Apparently it's painful.

No, adults can get chicken pox, in addition to shingles if they have been exposed to chicken pox.

There is a vaccine against chicken pox, as well as another vaccine against shingles.

Shingles is a result of previous exposure to chicken pox--possibly including through the vaccine, possibly not. That won't be answered until enough vaccinated people come of age to be susceptible to shingles. (The vaccine for chicken pox was not available until 1995.)

You can get shingles even in your twenties and thirties, but is far more likely to get it in your fifties, and even more in your sixties or older. Those who get it after sixty are far more likely to suffer from the really painful post-herpetic neuralgia. That is why the shingles vaccine is advised for those over sixty and many insurance companies pay for the vaccine only if you over sixty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the focus just on the kids and not on the parents' vaccine status? Aren't the parents just as likely to transmit a disease or illness? Would you not associate with a mom friend or family friend if you knew the mom/family adult members were not fully vaxed? I never had the chicken pox vax nor did I have chicken pox as a kid--would you decide to not associate with me because of this fact? I also don't get the flu shot regularly myself.

Please do yourself a favor and get the chicken pox vaccine. Chicken pox can be fatal in adults. A couple of years Barbara Walters almost died of it.

In adults it's called shingles. At what age can you get it?

I am 47.

An older brother had shingles.
Apparently it's painful.

Anonymous wrote:Why is the focus just on the kids and not on the parents' vaccine status? Aren't the parents just as likely to transmit a disease or illness? Would you not associate with a mom friend or family friend if you knew the mom/family adult members were not fully vaxed? I never had the chicken pox vax nor did I have chicken pox as a kid--would you decide to not associate with me because of this fact? I also don't get the flu shot regularly myself.

Please do yourself a favor and get the chicken pox vaccine. Chicken pox can be fatal in adults. A couple of years Barbara Walters almost died of it.

If I have children too young to be vaccinated, then I will ask and I will shun your un-vaccinated children without a trace of apology.

If I don't know, and my children are already vaccinated, then I won't ask.

If you tell me that you are a fool, then I have to treat you like a fool and will probably not encourage (but not actively discourage) my children to play with yours.

Why is the focus just on the kids and not on the parents' vaccine status? Aren't the parents just as likely to transmit a disease or illness? Would you not associate with a mom friend or family friend if you knew the mom/family adult members were not fully vaxed? I never had the chicken pox vax nor did I have chicken pox as a kid--would you decide to not associate with me because of this fact? I also don't get the flu shot regularly myself.

Anonymous wrote:If I know that a family is anti-vax, we simply do not spend time with them. Obviously excluding legitimate medical reasons. It's not even about the fear of getting sick. I don't care about your religion or your reasoning. I don't have room for that kind of stupidity in my life.

This.

If you are an anti-vaxer, I don't want your unnecessarily diseased kids around mine, nor do I care to associate with stupid parents.

What if a family delays and selectively vaccinates? Would you still shun them then?

We delay and selectively vaccinate. DH is a doctor (MD) and we don't believe in a one size fits all approach to vaccinations. We read all the research and had discussions with the pediatrician, who agreed with us and was fine with an alternative vaccine schedule. We did some vaccines on time but skipped others and delayed some. Our child did have a significant but short duration reaction to one vaccine even with spacing them out. We will have all vaxes that are required for school done by school age as required by the state.

Anonymous wrote:How do you actually put this into effect? Do you really question everyone before playdates, parties, classes, playground, etc?

I could maybe understand TDAP, MMR, etc, but the Flu? The CDC even said this years vaccine was not nearly as effective thanks to a mutation. What about just common sense? Don't let your kids around people who are sick, wash hands often, etc?

DD is fully vaxed (minus the flu) but I would never tell her she can't have a playdate with a friend just because they were not vaxed. I mean that's the point of vaccinations right? To keep the child from getting the disease, even if they come into contact with it?

That is NOT the purpose of vaccines and it's one of the reasons that anti-vax parents and their "we're not hurting anybody" arguments are wrong.

Vaccines reduce the risk that a person will be infected, (usually greatly), but doesn't eliminate it. If your child is vaccinated, there is still a chance that your child can get the virus and get sick. When I was a kid, there were some kids that got chicken pox twice, for example. If an unvaccinated child catches a virus, they can pass it to your child and there is a chance that your child will get sick.

If the entire population is vaccinated, then the risk is reduced for the whole population and there is no reservoir for the virus to live and breed. The absence of a reservoir breaks the chain of command and makes everyone safe.

Anonymous wrote:If I know someone is a non-vaxxing family, we don't associate with them. The end. But my kids are still pretty little (5, 3, and 1) so I have that luxury for a little bit longer. Choosing not to vaccinate is so stupid that it's akin to choosing to join a hate group or denying climate change.

+1

If I know that a family is anti-vax, we simply do not spend time with them. Obviously excluding legitimate medical reasons. It's not even about the fear of getting sick. I don't care about your religion or your reasoning. I don't have room for that kind of stupidity in my life.