Around the Web…

Some mid-week stories to click:

• Pregnant women ill with the swine flu face serious risks — New York Times
• ModernMom.com relaunches with Brooke Burke as its co-CEO — ModernMom
• Nine ways to lose your baby weight — lilSugar
• Why moms need to stop obsessing about the decisions they make — Newsweek
• Juice Box Jungle reports: Chicken Pox Parties — Juice Box Jungle

Comments

I tried for years to have my children get chicken pox the natural way. It did not work. So When our third child was in K4 I was told I had to have them all vaccinated. Our older children were 12 and 14 at the time. And as of that time they never had the shot nor did they get the ‘pox’. So I vaccinated all four kids at their birthday checkups. This shot was spread out through the year, so it’s not like it was a bad batch. The shot only worked for one child out of four. My children came down with chicken pox about 1-1/2 years after they received the shots. The 4 year old had the pox so bad in his eyes, throat, even on his privates. Our 3 year old got a lot of them too. The 12 year old did not get as many. I don’t know why the shot failed or why my children did not get the ‘pox’ when they were exposed to them naturally. Unfortunately our now 16 year old just came down with shingles two weeks ago. She was the only one that did not get the ‘pox’ after having the shot. Coming from a huge family of doctors I’m not sure what’s best. Natural or vaccination. My brothers and sisters are split on that. One says if they have not had chicken pox by their 7th birthday they should get vaccinated. So like everything else I believe this one is left up to you, your partner and your doctor.

- mary on May 13th, 2009

I purposely exposed my 2.5yo to CP. She was still nursing and ended up with only a slight fever and about 9 spots. Not enough to give her an immunity so she contacted it again in Gr1 when it went around the school.
The vaccine doesn’t always work! A friend’s son had the vaccine when he was around 15m. He ended up with a mild case of CP in Kindergarten and then a full blow case in Gr4 (same time my DD had it).
I prefer the regular way of getting CP as complications are rare when you’re a young child. I believe the ideal age is between 2.5-6 years. I’m worried about the future of all these vaccinated children as I don’t really know many people who keep up with their boosters as an adult. CP is a lot more serious when contacted as an adult.

- Lorus on May 13th, 2009