Vaccinated kids playing with unvaccinated kids

[kmr1763]

In my small rural Louisiana town this isn't a topic that comes up frequently. I'm a hodgepodge mom myself, I believe in attachment parenting, extended breastfeeding, but I vaccinate my children... I've recently made connections with two awesome moms, one of whom is quickly becoming a great friend. Her 15 month old is unvaccinated, and I'm not sure if she's delaying or opting not to vaccinate. And the other mom is opting out from vaccinating her 2.5 year old.

Am I endangering my children, 5 years and 1 year, by hanging out with these ladies and exposing them to these kiddos who haven't been vaccinated? I respect these moms' choices and know that they are doing what they feel is best (as am I). However, I'm not willing to endanger my children...

What do you ladies think? It's been absolute ages since I last posted on bnb!!

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

I wouldn't think so, if you didn't knows this mum's personally then you wouldn't have had a clue. Children will play with various children out and about and you can't guarantee they are all vaccinated. Plus your children have been vaccinated so if for any reason they did contract a disease they had been vaccinated against then their body will already be equipped to combat it effectively. x

 

[MindUtopia]

I wouldn't be worried, unless you knew any of them was obviously sick with something serious (then I'd probably avoid). Realistically, really all the kids who have recently died due to preventable childhood illnesses have been unvaccinated. Assuming your LO is up to date on all shots, then it's very unlikely they would get sick and even if they did, they'd have a mild case of it. I would be more cautious if you had a small baby who hadn't yet been vaccinated. But no, I wouldn't worry. The whole point of vaccines is to protect your LO against the infection, which is exactly what they should do if one of them ever came in contact with it.

 

[kmr1763]

Thank you for the input ladies! I have another friend who is adamant that her kids will never be allowed to play with unvaccinated kids, because of the higher risk... And so I started second-guessing. Rights, vaccinations are there to protect against the disease should you come in contact with it think I overreacted to her over protectiveness. Thank you again!

 

[misspriss]

Your friend seems a bit silly. If you believe vaccines protect you, then you are covered (I can see keeping a small baby away from others though for the same reason). If you don't believe they will protect you, then why do you want everyone else to get them to protect everyone? Either they work or they don't...

I was (and still am) unvaccinated. I never got anyone sick with anything more than a cold. My son is unvaccinated and has not gotten anyone sick with a disease that there are vaccines for (he could have spread a couple of colds though). Most adults are not up to date on their boosters, so they are essentially unvaccinated, does she avoid adults unless she sees their vaccination records?

I'd of course avoid anyone with a fever or rash or anything that would make me think they had anything other than a common cold, but that is just common sense.

 

[Larkspur]

If your kid is fully vaccinated, you are very well protected. Of course, if your kid has not completed the full schedule of vaccines, or you have a family history of vaccine resistance, you should be a bit more careful.

So while your older kid is probably fine, I'd be careful about your one-year-old. It's really not enough to avoid people who are showing late-stage symptoms like rashes, because most serious diseases are infectious before rashes appear. In fact, most serious diseases look pretty much like common colds during the infectious period.

Full vaccination provides a very high level of protection, but no vaccine is 100 percent effective. If your child did pick up a disease from an unvaccinated child, they would at least have a much less severe experience of it.

Not being up to date on boosters does not mean you are "essentially unvaccinated" though. It just means your protection levels may have declined.

 

[tallybee]

Vaccines absolutely do protect the vaccinated, (and, by way of herd immunity, the unvaccinated as well) but they're not 100% effective so there's still a small risk of infection if coming into contact with someone with something contagious.

It's your call what you feel comfortable with at the end of the day

 

[SarahBear]

If you believe the vaccines are effective, then they should be fine. If there's an outbreak of disease and you don't believe the vaccines are effective, that would be the time to be concerned.

 

[redneckhippy]

I have this same worry. I'm totally in the crunchy camp except for the vaccine issue. I want to be part of like minded mommy groups and send my son to a daycare that shares my values but I'm scared of him being around unvaccinated kids. He's only 2 months so will juat be getting his first set of shots this week. It's a very real worry to me because he is at a vulnerable age. I haven't figured out a solution yet, but it's something I stress about.