Questions for people who choose/chose not to vaccinate

[RainbowSprinkles]

When was the first time that your dc got sick and was it anything beyond the common cold?

 

Did you breastfeed your baby? And if you did, do you believe it helped (not to get anything beyond the common cold) along with not vaccinating? And how long did you nurse?

[jillian]

I breastfed dd for 18 months. She had a few cases of the common cold/sniffles (seasonally which we figure was more allergy related since her daddy is severely allergic to grass). She had a super super minor ear infection after we flew during allergy season when she was 3. She's 4 now and has never been super sick. Had one case of the 24 hr tummy bug after my husband had it but she expelled dinner and was fine. She was in preschool too between 2.5-3.5.

 

eta: i do believe that breastfeeding helped. she's had a total of 3 vaccines. 2 polio and 1 hib

Edited January 12, 2012 by jillian

[Joker]

Whoops! I read the question wrong.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Horton

[regentrude]

nm

I misread the question.

[6packofun]

We have been very delayed in vaccinating because of personal reasons and other life circumstances. I did not breastfeed any of my children except the first (only 2 weeks before giving it up, though). I only remember ONE of my children getting a moderate cold as a baby and otherwise they've been ridiculously healthy. I feel very blessed about that.

 

Not an ear infection in the half dozen here; no chicken pox, either. (Which I was OK with them getting! lol) I *do* feel that in the past several years we've been more isolated due to financial constraints and I think that plays a part. But they've been around kids at least a couple times a week and we get occasional colds in the winter. A few stomach bugs over the years. No real "flu".

[TranquilMind]

.

[*Lulu*]

We have had one DC that was vaccinated exactly according to schedule. (why yes, he was our first :) )

 

Our last received one round of shots according to the schedule, but then we did a deliberate delayed vac. schedule.

 

All the others were somewhere in between.

 

Everyone was exclusively breast fed from birth until after their first birthday. (except dd#1- she weaned at 10mo and completely freaked me out!) I started purposely weaning first kid around 14mo, but left the others to thier own devices until the last one. For sanity reasons, I tried to night wean him around 15 months; he decided that he would show me, and stopped nursing during the day as well. 16 months is the longest any of mine have nursed.

 

During the first year of life none of mine had anything more serious than a cold, as far as catching things goes. I did have one with colic, one with acid reflux, one with vac. reactions, one with GI issues, and three with serious jaundice. (one spent a month on a billi-blanket) As far as I can remember, only one ever had anything before thier second birthday. When DS4 was 14 months the entire family came down with a stomach virus. There just aren't proper emoticons to express having puke repeatedly spewed down your front while trying to confine your retching to the only receptical not in use by your other offspring. *shudder*

 

ETA- I think that nursing did help. There were a few times that the whole family got ill, but the nursing baby stayed well. What I think helped as well was that, because I was home and nursing, I rarely left them with others. Except for DD#1, none of mine were regulars in the church nursery before their first birthday, or left with a sitter of any kind.

Edited January 12, 2012 by BLA5

[peachskittles]

When was the first time that your dc got sick and was it anything beyond the common cold?

 

Did you breastfeed your baby? And if you did, do you believe it helped (not to get anything beyond the common cold) along with not vaccinating? And how long did you nurse?

 

My almost 9 year old was vaccinated until he started losing speech after a five or six vaccine "catch up" by the doctor he was seeing. He's never been sick beyond a cold and was bottle fed.

 

My 4 year old I *think* got the first vaccine in the hospital and nothing beyond that. He was completely breastfed until he was like a year old. His only issues are with food. He got the "swine flu" a few years back but nothing else.

 

My 2 year old I also *think* got the first vaccine in the hospital as well. Nothing beyond that vaccine. He was hospitalized at 40 days old for "near SIDS". In other words, if I wouldn't have walked in the room when I did and his father didn't revive him at that specific time, his death would have been labeled as SIDS. He was completely breastfed for a year-ish. He hasn't been sick otherwise.

 

My 9month old is bottle fed soy formula and she is my healthiest so far. She hasn't had a cold and no issues beyond dairy. She did have one vaccine at the hospital and that's it.

 

As you can tell, I can't really see a correlation between breastfeeding or not and how sick my kids get. I haven't done vaccines for different reasons for each child though.

[Hannah C.]

DD hasn't been vaccinated at all as of now. She's had a couple of colds and a case of croup, but that's it. I think her first cold occurred when she was at least 3 months old - don't remember exactly. She was exclusively breastfed up until at least 6 months, after which she received sporadic solids. Now she's eating solids regularly, as well as nursing. She's 11 months old.

[Carrie12345]

My fourth got H1N1 with the rest of us when he was 2 (nursed to 11 months). NOne of my kids have had anything but common colds and one ear infection outside of that flu. Wait, one gets UTIs. Does that count? All range from no bfing to 11 months, and no vaccines to all vaccines.

 

We don't use antibacterial anything.

 

We do enjoy handwashing. ;)

[Wheres Toto]

All my kids are fully vaccinated except for flu shots.

 

My oldest went to daycare from 7 weeks old and was nursed with a lot of formula supplementation for about 9 months. She caught everything under the sun, including chicken pox at 9 months old, 3 months before she would have been getting the vaccine. Serial ear infections, stomach bugs, the works.

 

My younger two were both nursed for over a year (22 months and 18 months). Neither of them has ever had anything worse than a cold. Ds did have allergy induced pink eye. DD has only thrown up once in the past 4 1/2 years. DS gets car sick so has more experience with puking.

 

DS has an awful diet these days due to sensory issues and he did go to school from 3 to 4 years old but still didn't get sick. We are out around other people quite a lot.

[NicAnn]

Dd is unvaccinated. She was nursed for 2 1/2 years. Never been sick beyond a cold and the stomach flu. But she was nearly 3 before she'd ever been sick.

 

I DO think that not vaccinating leads to healthier kids overall, however there are a lot of other factors- Is the child an only, or does she have siblings, is she in day care, was she premature, how healthy are the parents, etc.

[mommymilkies]

We have not vaxed for 7 years. I breastfeed. My 4th child was over 1 yo before she ever got sick (swimmers ear and later a cold). Other than probably Celiac's, she's very healthy. My 7 yo was partially vaxed and was sick often, which I blame on a continually sick cousin's visits. My youngest has had one minor cold.

[silliness7]

When was the first time that your dc got sick and was it anything beyond the common cold?

 

Did you breastfeed your baby? And if you did, do you believe it helped (not to get anything beyond the common cold) along with not vaccinating? And how long did you nurse?

 

My last 3 were not vaccinated. dd#5 was breastfed for 15 mos. She was 3 the first and only time she got knocked down by a virus. I don't think she's ever had antibiotics for anything other than losing part of her pinkie a couple years ago.

 

dd#6 was breastfed maybe 10 mos. She did get bronchitis about 6 mos. and was on abx. That was the one and only time.

 

ds#7 was not breastfed but for 2 days. He had an ear infection last year (age 2) that required abx. That is it.

 

None of them have chronic issues of any kind. All of my kids are extremely healthy. Eldest has some mild hayfever. 3rd son may have ADHD and some vision issues. My vaxed kids definitely had more abx than the others when they were little. But when I got my act together when dd#4 was 2 the family got decidedly healthier all around. (that is I stopped running to the dr. for every sniffly nose and I got the vacuum cleaner out of the kid bedrooms.)

[meltf928]

DD10 was vaccinated on schedule till age 2. (though it's a little different than the current schedule, fewer at a time) She had pneumonia when she was in 1st grade. I contribute it to the pressure of standardized testing. She was in PS and got sick. They pressured us to send her anyway and pick her up when the test was over. The teacher called me each day on my cell to come get her. Whatever she had turned to Pneumonia after the 1st week and she missed 2 weeks of school. The ONLY reason that she wasn't hospitalized was because the doctor felt I was hands on enough to administer breathing treatments and I brought her in to be checked.

 

Oh, she was BF until age 1 but supplemented with formula on a weekly basis.

 

DD8. Fully vaccinated till age 2, but delayed the MMR until a little after 2. She's never really been sick but does have seasonal allergies as does my DH. She attended preschool, but has never attended public/private school. She was BF for 4 months and then FF till 15 mos.

 

DD6 ~ Delayed vaccinated till 9 mos. BF till age 3 1/2. Attended preschool, but never public. Never been sick. No allergies

 

DS4.5. ~ Never vaccinated. BF till 3 1/2. Attends preschool, but will homeschool with us after. never been sick or allergies.

 

From a BF and vaccine schedule, my children are different but their health is virtually the same. From a school perspective, I DO fault the public schools for not just allowing my sick DD to attend, but essentially twisting my arm to send her. I didn't know that it was MY RIGHT to fully exempt her from standardized testing and even though I questioned it with the schools, I was ensured that I HAD to have her tested. I now know better. I fully believe that what she had would not have turned to pneumonia if she had been allowed to stay home and recover.

[Gentlemommy]

No vaccinations for any of the kids...

 

Dd1-nursed until just before she turned 4.

Dd2-nursed until she turned 2.

Dd3-currently nursing at 15 months.

 

No one has been sick other than a cold or minor tummy bug.

 

We've been very blessed to have healthy kids.:001_smile:

[misidawnrn]

My 8yo is vaxxed up until the shots she needed for K, which I didn't get for her. My 2yo is unvaxxed completely. I exposed little DD to the chickenpox when she was 17 months and she ended up getting them (NO bashing! I have educated myself on the pros and cons of vaxxing and not vaxxing and as a couple, we have decided it is best for our children AND we wanted her to have natural immunity). Incidentally, DD-8 (6 at the time) also got the chickenpox, but a lighter case. DD-8 wasn't breastfed at all, DD-2 was breastfed (adopted) until 33 months. To my knowledge, that is the only disease that they both have gotten that could have been vaxxed for. Little DD also had the Rotovirus that I guess there is a vax for. Little DD also had scarlet fever last year, just a random happening after having strep throat.

They are generally pretty healthy, get some runny noses, coughs etc. DD-8 was hospitalized at 3 weeks old for RSV, DD-2 has never been hospitalized besides birth and was withdrawing in NICU for 3 days.

[sbgrace]

double post

Edited January 13, 2012 by sbgrace

[sbgrace]

When was the first time that your dc got sick and was it anything beyond the common cold?

 

Did you breastfeed your baby? And if you did, do you believe it helped (not to get anything beyond the common cold) along with not vaccinating? And how long did you nurse?

 

I don't think the breastfeeding helped outside of the time we breastfed and I think this is consistent with research on it? When breastfeeding stops don't breastfed babies have the same rate of illness as their peers or am I mixing up allergy information?

 

One son has major health issues unrelated to lack of vaccines or breastfeeding either one (metabolic condition affecting mitochondrial function with a host of health and developmental effects). The other child has anaphylactic allergies and asthma. The allergies/asthma are genetic related though I wonder about vitamin D status in pregnancy.

 

The first yuck illness was rotavirus at 12 months! Ick! I assume I had had rotavirus prior so my breastmilk apparently didn't protect them and a child I babysat who was being breastfed got it too at the same time. One son had nasty ear infections from around 12 months. His worst illness was an infection that resulted in mastoiditis at 3.5 that involved a long hospitalization, surgery, and IV antibiotics. Both kids had non-typeable HiB infections around age 2 but those weren't a big deal. My son has had a series of extremely nasty GI infections but we discovered an IgA deficiency to partially explain that stuff.

 

None of this would be vaccine preventable--there was no rotavirus vaccine at the time of our infection.

 

We do have some vaccines now. My son's geneticist "runs" his vaccinations because his metabolic issues put him at higher risk of adverse reactions. This year (age 7) he got MMR because measles is in our state and the geneticist felt risk of infection now outweighed risk of vaccines for him on that one. He got DpT too this year because of the known pertussis risk. His brother had DpT earlier (5 I think) because he had an accident that had clear tetanus risk. He got MMR too this year when the geneticist recommended it for his brother. He receives flu vaccines to try to protect his brother as well. I will do chicken pox vaccine when we're at an age that infection becomes dangerous or if the geneticist suggests sooner though I don't expect him to want it until necessary by age.

 

A very large unvaccinated family in our homeschooling group got pertussis this past year. They gave it to an infant in their church. That's scary but the infant did ok. I'm imagining breastfeeding was protective for the infant. My unvaccinated son got DPT after this in the hopes it might at least lessen the severity of pertussis should he be exposed. I keep intending to get my husband and I vaccinated for it too. I don't want to experience what that family had!

Edited January 13, 2012 by sbgrace

[Embracing Grace]

Besides several mild to moderate bouts with cold/flu: 7yo unvaxed ds had a very mild chicken pox like illness a couple of years ago. It didn't entirely follow the course of regular chicken pox, so it's hard to tell what it was. 2yo ds had some kind of a crazy all over body rash last year, and we could figure that one out either. Eventually we will test their titters to see if they have developed immunity to anything. The 7yo nursed until he was 3, and the 2yo is still nursing.

[MrsJewelsRae]

Our children were all exclusively breastfed hand self weaned at 2 yrs, 2.75 yrs, and 2.5 yes respectively. None of them have ever been vaccinated. None of them have ever had illnesses requiring antibiotics, however my younger 2 do have health issues. My dd has asthma (strong family history) and my youngest has anaphylactic allergies to peanuts, milk, soy and eggs. I think their health issues would be worse if they weren't breastfed and possibly if they were vaccinated. I personally would wonder if I contributed to the asthma/allergies if I had chosen to formula feed, as it is I have musings of what I could have done differently, but for the most part I'm satisfied I did what I could to give them a healthy start. My kids did catch Whooping Cough in 2010, but it was only scary for my youngest, who was 1.5 at the time. They were never hospitalized, and we treated them with high doses of vitamin C, as the inhalers the doctor prescribed were not helpful and it was too late for antibiotics to be effective. They all recovered just fine. Other than run of the mill colds and stomach bugs they get sick less than most of my friends kids, but that could also have to do with homeschooling, at this point, and I expect my dd with asthma will likely suffer from more illnesses in the future than her friends due to her condition. I'm really praying my youngest ds with anaphylaxis does not develop asthma, it really scares me, it increases the risk of death during anaphylaxis. :(

[mommaduck]

Each child is different. I don't attribute any of it to vaxing or not vaxing (their vax status varies from fully to not at all...including one definite vax reactive child). I nursed them all.

[happypamama]

Only one of my children has been sick enough to need a sick visit/antibiotics, and that was the child who received most of the vaccinations, but on a delayed schedule. (That child also has multiple semi-serious allergies; the immune system is clearly wired differently in that child.) The others haven't had more than a cold or minor stomach bug. Yes, they were all breastfed; no, I don't really think that matters all that much. I think a lot of little things we do have helped a little bit, but in general, I think their good health is mostly luck of the draw and things out of our control (like, we live a fairly isolated existence; we live in the country, DH works in a very small office, etc., so we can limit our exposure pretty heavily).

[Mom24bz1g]

I do not vaccinate for medical reasons. My dd, now 8, was born with grade 4.5 reflux, has since had a nephrectomy. I breastfed her for 5ish years strictly to give her a better immune system. Normally I would stop when they are between 2-3.

 

When she was 3, her brother got chicken pox. She did not get it. She was completely exposed to him. I wanted her to get it. When she was 6, her friend came over with a fever which turned out to be chicken pox. She then came down with chicken pox. Had to be that she was nursing at the time that her brother was exposed.

 

I don't know if it is the Lord saving my sanity, but any time any of us get sick, she gets a mild case of it and I can't tell you how thankful I am because she's been through a lot and it scares me when she gets sick.

 

Her brother was hospitalized with Rotavirus when she was 2. We all got a mild case of it, except her. I'm sure she had it but we couldn't tell.

 

The boys were all breastfed, besides the rotavirus, and other weird stuff (that I now know is from chemicals) they are fairly healthy. Would be healthier if I had known about their sensitivity to chemicals earlier. The oldest was 6 before I figured it out so it had taken it's toll on their immune systems.

 

I'm glad I breastfed so long. I definitely think it helped my kids.

 

Michele

[jar7709]

My two kids are both fully vaccinated and both were done with bf'ing by 10 months. They've never had anything more serious than colds and the rare ear infection. I think that's luck, clean living, and general good health.

[annandatje]

Each child is different. I don't attribute any of it to vaxing or not vaxing (their vax status varies from fully to not at all...including one definite vax reactive child). I nursed them all.

 

:iagree: I attribute our children's stellar health to hardy pioneer genes and to giving their immune systems lots of practice.

[smilesonly]

When was the first time that your dc got sick and was it anything beyond the common cold?

 

Did you breastfeed your baby? And if you did, do you believe it helped (not to get anything beyond the common cold) along with not vaccinating? And how long did you nurse?

 

dd became severely ill after her one year shots and stayed moderately ill for a couple of years. she had an adverse reaction(duh) and hasn't received another vax since.

 

ds is of course, not vaxed.

 

 

i BF both our dc just past their(gasp!) 4th BDs. i believe it was my super awesome BM that kept dd out of the hospital after her reaction.:) sadly, she remains the physically sicklier(word??) of the two.

 

ds was a healthy baby and tot with the exception of 4 ear infections. two burst his eardrum and he was given anti-Bs, the other two were healed by my......Super amazing BM via eye dropper.:D

 

:auto:

[StaceyinLA]

They have had some shots as teens (DT and meningococcal).

 

All of my dc were breastfed between one and two years.

 

None of my children took an antibiotic before their teenage years with the exception of ds who was bitten by a brown recluse and took abx to ward off staph in the wound area (so not a sickness issue).

 

I can honestly think of very few times they were sick with anything other than a cold or maybe a stomach bug, and none as young babies. Oldest dd has more allergy issues than the others at certain times of the year. She has had strep once which required an antibiotic, but I believe that is the only time she has taken one (she's 22). Second dd has issues with UTIs since becoming a teen but it's possible she has a very narrow urethra (she hasn't done further tests to determine this). She has taken antibiotics a few times for these. Youngest dd has had a few illnesses as a teen (pneumonia once, strep a couple times and mono) that have required antibiotics. Ds has still never taken an antibiotic other than for the spider bite issue and he's 16.

 

All in all, I'd say pretty healthy. I think bf, no daycare and no school are all factors.

[Mommy_of_4]

DS: Received all vaccines on schedule besides chicken pox and MMR. He was BF until 6 months. He didn't get so much as a runny nose while he was BF. Two days after I weaned him he got a bad cold and then a month after that got a bad ear infection. He was going to the doc every month for something after I weaned him.

 

DD1: We delayed and selectively vaxed her. I weaned her at 7 months and she got her first cold within a week. She gets sick maybe every 3 months or so.

 

DD2: No vaccines at all. I just weaned her 2-3 weeks ago and she still hasn't been sick.

 

For me personally I do attribute how sick they get to BF and vaccines.