A doctoring question.

[elbows]

Consider that today is a different world from the one our parents raised us in. Back then the doctor said vaccinate and our Mom’s did. Life was easier as there was only one opinion.

But in todays world many parents are much more suspicious of all things medical, and, not without cause. I won’t debate the issue, I believe every parent has to do what they believe, in their hearts, to be the right thing. And I am aware that some parents choose not to have some of the vaccines for their kids.

So my question is, if you choose not to vaccinate your child, and your child develops something the vaccine would have prevented - what then?

I mean suppose you end up in emerg. and your 5 yr old ends up in ICU for a few days, in hospital for a week, with say Bacterial Sepsis. Not without risk but curable, treatable etc. Antibiotics are administered, child recovers, crisis averted.

My question is what will the medical team say to the parents? Will they be all judgemental and pressure them to get the vaccine? Or will they accept that this is the parents choice to make, and leave it at that? Or will they gently make a few comments and feel them out? Will the doctors feel the need to chastise them?

[Mama_Zappa]

@elbows

I mean suppose you end up in emerg. and your 5 yr old ends up in ICU for a few days, in hospital for a week, with say Bacterial Sepsis. Not without risk but curable, treatable etc. Antibiotics are administered, child recovers, crisis averted.

My question is what will the medical team say to the parents? Will they be all judgemental and pressure them to get the vaccine? Or will they accept that this is the parents choice to make, and leave it at that? Or will they gently make a few comments and feel them out? Will the doctors feel the need to chastise them?

This is probably more of an IMHO thing than a GQ one, really, but I’d expect that many doctors would be judgemental and pressuring. My pediatrician sure was, when I insisted on giving Moon Unit her vaccinations on a slower schedule than the “standard” one due to Dweezil’s autism. My gut feeling is that most medical professionals are strongly pro-vax.

And of course, not all illnesses are easily treated with antibiotics - virals aren’t touched by them, for example, and even bacterial illnesses might not respond well to antibiotics. So the crisis might well have serious, long-lasting repercussions. And of course once the child has a particular illness, the vaccine is generally rendered moot at that point.

All that said, the concerns over automatic vaccinations are (IMO) not to be entirely discounted, I do think they push too much crap on the kids far too fast. Yeah, the illnesses are prevented but I believe that in some cases, not without a price.

[elbows]

I know what you mean, it could have been IMHO. But I have opinions my ownself.

I figured General Questions, as I was more interested in actual procedure rather than opinions.

I figured maybe one our resident doctors or nurses might have dealt with this very situation.

[Canadjun]

@elbows

So my question is, if you choose not to vaccinate your child, and your child develops something the vaccine would have prevented - what then?

I mean suppose you end up in emerg. and your 5 yr old ends up in ICU for a few days, in hospital for a week, with say Bacterial Sepsis. Not without risk but curable, treatable etc. Antibiotics are administered, child recovers, crisis averted.

My question is what will the medical team say to the parents? Will they be all judgemental and pressure them to get the vaccine? Or will they accept that this is the parents choice to make, and leave it at that? Or will they gently make a few comments and feel them out? Will the doctors feel the need to chastise them?

There’d be no point in the medical team pressuring the parents to vaccinate the kid for a disease he’s just had; having the disease “vaccinated” the kid the hard way.