Vaccinating young children against the flu appeared to have no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons, a new study shows.
That’s not to mention that flu shots are the last early childhood vaccines to continue to contain the preservative thimerosal, a form of mercury. It seems that the vaccine doesn’t have to contain thimerosal, but the manufacturer uses it so that they can package the vaccine in multiple doses. (It seems you can make a special request of your doctor for the single-use, thimerosal-free vaccine.)
Beyond the mercury issue, should we be injecting our children with dead viral strains that have been grown on raw eggs when the efficacy rate of protecting them from getting the flu is somewhere between 7% and 52%? Those don’t seem like very good rates to me.
The natural health community believes that bodies in balance do not offer an appropriate breeding ground for viral infections like the flu. Rather than vaccinating, they would rather see everyone eat healthily, digest cleanly, assimilate fully, and eliminate regularly. While practicing good hand washing and other other hygene habits. Here are 7 tips for staying healthy this flu season.
I mentioned last month that I hadn’t made up my mind about getting my family flu shots this season as we have for the last 5 or 6 years. This morning my sister called from her pediatrician’s office, wondering if she should get the flu shot for her 1-year old daughter. Her husband, who completed his medical studies both here and in Russia (where alternative health practices are more accepted by allopathic doctors), advised against it. He pointed out that he wasn’t vaccinated against the flu as a child in Russia, and neither was my sister as a child growing up in the US. He wasn’t convinced that the vaccine was effective, and why put a foreign substance in your body if it didn’t make any difference as to whether or not you caught the flu?
My medically-trained brother-in-law and I often see eye-to-eye on health matters and value each other’s opinion and advice.
At this point, I have no plans to vaccinate my children against the flu this year. I know I will receive the most parental pressure to get myself the vaccine, since a case of the flu, or any viral infection, can trigger a multiple sclerosis exacerbation. Still, I think I’m going to pass on the flu shot this year for myself, too.
6 Comments on “Flu shots for kids?”
How about some more family pressure!! I had the flu once. It was so bad it took 2 months to recuperate. Since then I have never missed having a flu shot and so far, knock wood, it has worked!!!
My husband and I get the shot, but our daughter does not because of her allergy to eggs. We get it to minimize passing the flu on to her.
I am not sure if I would give her the shot or not if she were able to get it. I haven’t had to make that choice yet.
Lisa
I will be getting to flu shot for me and my daughter. My local Whole Foodsy Pharmacy is administering “Preservative-Free” flu shots. Welcome, the “organic” flu shot! They cost more, but the good things in life do.
My pediatrician also purchased Preservative-Free flu shots as well. And with the economy being what it is, I cannot afford to be home with a miserable sick kid with a two-week flu. How would I afford all that organic produce?
And no we didn’t get vaccinated as kids. But we were sick a whole lot more often. Since my mother didn’t work outside the home until I was seven, this wasn’t a major issue. But afterwards it was.
I am convinced the flu shot works. In the last almost ten years of getting the shot I have only had the flu twice. And since prior to the flu shot I would get it twice a year, this is good enough proof for me.
p.s. I offer to pay for the flu shot to my staff as well, should they choose to get it. (They are not required to get it.) Even the more expensive “organic” shot.
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