Since when do parents just keep antibiotics around so they can dose their kids indiscriminately? If a doctor prescribes antibiotics for a specific problem–follow her instructions. If you wonder at the prescription–ask questions!
“The common cold” is a virus–antibiotics are useless. But you don’t get colds from rain.
Your family’s experience is called “anecdotal.” Yes, it’s a bad idea to use antibiotics carelessly. But that’s not the reason your kids “never get sick.”
(And what does this have to do with vaccines–with or without thimerosol?)
You couldn’t find it anywhere but on an antivaxer’s site? I found a good discussion here.
Major points are 1) this is not a classic case of autism, but involves an apparent genetic anomaly which, after vaccination, led to an encephalopathy with symptoms overlapping with autism.
2) government standards for compensation in these cases require a much lower level of proof (51% probability) than scientific standards for causation.
3) the government is not declaring that vaccines, or preservatives formerly used in them, cause autism.
As for the theory that vaccines somehow “interfere” with immune responses and are some kind of bad artificial intervention compared with the “value” of getting the actual infections: kids are bombarded with all kinds of immune system challenges on a daily basis, of which vaccines are only a small part. And anyone who thinks it’s a good idea for kids to get the “real thing” (measles, mumps, rubell, H. flu etc.) should take a look at this site.
My family’s experience is anecdotal. So is the fact that doctors do hand out anti biotics like candy. But lets leave it to the non parents to always tell parents they don’t have a clue what they are talking about right?
I know that you don’t get colds from rain, but the only time my son gets sick is when he’s out in the rain and its cold. That’s it. But that’s just more anecdotal evidence I’m sure.
The problem with vaccines and anti biotics is that the needs of the community outweigh the needs of the individual. Its a risk to the public not to vaccinate. But as individuals we as parents can make that call ourselves. That seems to piss a lot of people in the medical field off for some reason.
Hard to imagine why parents with no medical training ‘judging’ that their kids are better off without vaccines, thereby putting themselves and others at risk, piss off trained medical professionals who actually know what they are talking about. :rolleyes:
Um. Maybe medical professionals get angry about parents telling them things because they have spent years being educated about, I dunno, topics pertinent to treating sick children, and then have have spent time after graduation further educating themselves? So when a parent comes into their office with the god’s honest truth, harvested from the internet, and refusing treatment for a sick child, while still holding the expectation that the doctor will make their child better, a saint could lose their temper. Or refusing something that could prevent the child from one day being sterile or disfigured, for reasons that aren’t backed up in medical literature. Or if a parent questions the doctor’s every decision in a hostile way, hey, pissed-off doctor. (I’m not saying you do this, but people I know personally are irrational about this.) The average parent does not have the resources and training to assess a situation like a medical professional.
Also, improperly administering antibiotics, resulting in super germs in no way weakens someone’s immune system, according to the cites you provided. That’s something you made up.
I got the same reaction when I was on a cruise. I kept warning the Captain not to get too close to the edge of the earth, 'cause I didn’t want us to fall off. He refused to discuss the matter with me.
I’m a parent. I’m not a doctor, nor am I biologist. I don’t know all that much about how vaccines work, but I do know that they do, and that whatever side effects the vaccines may have are a hell of a lot better than the side effects of most “childhood” diseases.
I don’t know about your doctor, but mine, and my son’s pediatrician, are very reluctant to prescribe antibiotics unless they’re sure that the problem is, in fact, a bacterial infection. Most doctors are now wise to the issue of resistant bacteria and are more cautious about prescribing antibiotics.
My son has had a constant cold all winter. He has not been given antibiotics for it; I know they won’t work and will probably make things worse. Consequently, “no antibiotics” doesn’t equate to “never gets sick.” I’m also reasonably sure that no responsible physician will prescribe antibiotics just so the parents can have some on hand just in case. Parents will, on the other hand, keep leftover meds to avoid the inconvenience of having to take the child to the doctor. Which just brings my point full-circle: Most parents aren’t physicians or biologists, and will act out of ignorance. They mean well, but they’re still ignorant.
My next door neighbor the pediatrics nurse got extremely pissed off when she had to care for a tiny baby on a respirator from whooping cough because dumb ass mommy and daddy decided against the DTaP vaccine.
:rolleyes:
You might be just a little peeved if you had to care for a baby that was desperately ill for no reason at all.
Hmmm seems I’ve touched a nerve.
I’m pointing out that in my experience mothers with heavy handed doctors that over prescribe antibiotics (read most pediatricians) wind up with sick kids all the time because their body doesn’t form natural antibiotics to fight disease.
I’m sorry its so annoying but these drastic sob stories of little Timmy strapped up to the respirator with Lassie whimpering in the back ground because Ma and Pa didn’t give him the shot is a reach for the extreme. Most kids aren’t in this situation but rather in the situation I wrote about, they get sick very easily and have a hard time fighting infection.
That’s the norm. Not Timmy. How typically like a woman to reach for the extreme to win a point.
I’m sure many doctors think they know all there is to know about a child that sits on a paper sheet in their office for 15 minutes (being seen and 30 waiting to be seen) but it might shock you to know that just because you went to medical school and are all learned doesn’t mean you have magic diagnosing powers and cure all drugs.
Half the medicines on the shelves for children don’t work. Two drugs of choice for me with kiddies Vicks vapo rub and tylenol. If your kid is chronically getting sicker than that there’s something wrong. And its not magic doctor man to the rescue.
There is a need to vaccinate of course. But what I’m talking about is the way we live in a capitalistic society which runs everything iin pretty much an institutional way. And it often times causes more problems that it solves.
Obviously if your kid is sick you should do whatever it takes to help them get better. But letting their body heal itself as it can without drugs is my first choice. If that’s not going to work then I’ll move on to something else.
The problem with this line of reasoning is that you’ve got a pretty strong survivor bias at work. Where are all the folks who didn’t survive polio? They’re dead, of course, and are no longer sharing their stories. The diseases in we vaccinate for were once scourges, and now they’re so rare that one case will make the news.
Lawyer and "environmental advocate’ robert Kennedy wrote an article claiming that thimerosol in vaccines caused autism. No doubt, he feels bad (seeing that no link has ever been proven). Do people of his ilk ever issue retractions?
Just wondering-what does “MOTHER JONES” have to say?
That is some kind of nonsense you’ve got going there. Why should anyone on this board listen to the ramblings of an individual who doesn’t know the difference b/t a virus and a bacterial infection?