WWYD: non-vaccinated children & play dates

[azurely]

Jul 8, 2015 9:30:23 GMT -5 jewel said:

My local baby-wearing group is chock full of anti-vaxxers, and I don't go to any meet-ups for exactly this reason. It's disappointing, because I really want to go. I'd love to start a subgroup meet-up of only properly vaccinated individuals, but I can imagine that this would go over like a lead balloon.

Ditto this exactly. I wish baby wearing groups were less synonymous with anti-vaxxers.

[thejen626]

Jul 9, 2015 0:22:52 GMT -5 cleosprite said:

Jul 8, 2015 23:37:27 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

Anyone who is anti-science and does their own "research" on the internet is not my people.  I am not that desperate for mom friends that I would bite my tongue and pretend that everything is cool.

As for "how unvaccinated are they" - people who cherrypick vaccines in the first year with no scientific basis fall into the same category described above.  

But how do you know that they aren't cherry picking after discussions with their doctor?

As much as some people are loathe to admit it, people DO have reactions to vaccines...guillian barre syndrome is a pretty scary complication of the flu vaccine, for example. Not common, but it does happen.

And before you attack me for doing research on the Internet, this is something my pediatrician discussed with me. Before I got my kids vaccinated for the flu. But I could see how some people might choose to pass on the flu vaccine after a discussion like that.

My 2.5 year old actually HAD Guillain Barre Syndrome just a few months ago. She was hospitalized for a week, had numerous invasive medical procedures, and didn't walk for almost 2 full months.
Since she's had that, she isn't able to have any more vaccines. So now she depends on herd immunity to keep her safe. So parents who don't vaccinate their precious children because they "might get Guillain barre" place MY kid at higher risk for measles. No thank you.

[hillarywhitney]

Jul 9, 2015 0:17:07 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

Jul 9, 2015 0:09:48 GMT -5 hillarywhitney said:

I'm not sure if you are implying I'm desperate for mom friends. But, I'm not. I was honestly surprised to learn they don't fully vaccinate their children.

I wasn't implying you were desperate - I couldn't figure out a better way to express that.  Just that I would rather have no mom friends than people that made me die a little inside every time I talked to them.  

I'm glad you weren't implying that about me. I was so caught off guard when I found out. I was internally freaking out.

[origami]

I learned the hard way to dump these friends, at least for play dates. I have an anti-vax friend, whom I've known for many years. I didn't want to cause drama and lose a friend so we hung out with our kids. And then her oldest got whooping cough. My kids were 6m at the time and had JUST gotten enough vaccines in the series to be immune, thankfully. If that had all happened a month or 2 prior I might have had twin preemies with WC and then I would be in jail. I didn't make an announcement that we weren't going to have play dates anymore. we just moved on quietly. I still saw her on moms nights out but the WC incident really opened my eyes to how little we had in common. And then she became an annoying MLMer and that really sealed the deal. This is less of an issue for me now that my kids are older and have completed the series for many vaccines, but I'm pickier about the kinds of moms I want to hang out with.

[jewel]

Jul 8, 2015 7:45:31 GMT -5 runblondie26 said:

My kids are fully vaccinated, so I wouldn't care. Their kid, their decisions. I'd only care if my child had a health problem and could potentially get sick.

That's the thing. It's not just "their kid, their decisions." It's much bigger than that, and I have no interest in hanging out with people who can't see that (even if my own kids are fully vaccinated and super healthy).

azurely - it's so weird! Why are baby-wearing groups so anti-vax?

[runblondie26]

Jul 9, 2015 9:42:18 GMT -5 jewel said:

Jul 8, 2015 7:45:31 GMT -5 runblondie26 said:

My kids are fully vaccinated, so I wouldn't care. Their kid, their decisions. I'd only care if my child had a health problem and could potentially get sick.

That's the thing. It's not just "their kid, their decisions." It's much bigger than that, and I have no interest in hanging out with people who can't see that (even if my own kids are fully vaccinated and super healthy).

Even if I don't personally agree with the choice, I still firmly believe in "your body, your choice" when it comes to any medical procedure or what you put in your body.

[jewel]

Jul 9, 2015 10:45:33 GMT -5 runblondie26 said:

Jul 9, 2015 9:42:18 GMT -5 jewel said:

That's the thing. It's not just "their kid, their decisions." It's much bigger than that, and I have no interest in hanging out with people who can't see that (even if my own kids are fully vaccinated and super healthy).

Even if I don't personally agree with the choice, I still firmly believe in "your body, your choice" when it comes to any medical procedure or what you put in your body.

People are also free to keep a house full of guns. Doesn't mean I'll send my kids there.

I don't think anyone's talking about taking away a person's right to make medical decisions. But, "your body, your choice" is not the same as "I don't care - doesn't affect anyone else" here. At least, not to me.

[origami]

Jul 9, 2015 10:43:40 GMT -5 cleosprite said:

Jul 9, 2015 9:35:17 GMT -5 origami said:

If that had all happened a month or 2 prior I might have had twin preemies with WC and then I would be in jail.

Why would you go to jail if your children caught a disease they weren't old enough to be vaccinated against?

because I would have killed her.

[sillygoosegirl]

I live in pretty much the antivax capital of the country. I assume there are antivaxers in most mother/baby groups around here.