Parents! Your thoughts please...

[fuzzykitten99]

Vaccination is a higher risk. Did you do that or are you going to?

higher risk of what?
and yes. I do... the benefits far outweigh the risks.

...The risks of disease outbreaks
In some respects, immunization programs have been a victim of their own incredible success. Because many vaccine-preventable diseases are now uncommon in the United States, you may feel less urgency about getting yourself or your children immunized. You might never have known of a case of diphtheria, polio or tetanus. You may feel that stringent levels of cleanliness and sanitation are enough to control disease. And you may feel that simply living in a highly vaccinated society protects you. However, these reasons are insufficient. Only after a vaccine is used widely is there a significant drop in the incidence of any vaccine-preventable disease.

In fact, many infectious diseases that have virtually disappeared in the United States can quickly reappear. That's because the germs that cause the diseases still exist in other parts of the world, making a new outbreak in the United States only a plane trip away. Travelers can unintentionally carry disease into the United States. From a single entry point, an infectious disease can spread quickly, particularly among those who are unprotected.

Those who aren't properly immunized are much more likely to catch a disease. As recently as the early 1990s, several serious outbreaks of measles occurred in the United States because of inadequate immunization. ...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vaccines/CC00013

mumps outbreak just recently:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1817842&page=1

chickenpox info:

...Most people think of chickenpox as a mild disease — and, for most, it is. Chickenpox usually lasts about two weeks and rarely causes complications. But the disease can be serious, even in healthy children.

There's no way to know which infected child or adult will develop a severe case. However, the chickenpox vaccine is a safe, effective way to prevent chickenpox and its possible complications. In the small number of cases when the vaccine doesn't stop chickenpox completely, the resulting infection is much milder than the infections that put most U.S. children into bed for a week years ago...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chickenpox/DS00053

 

[nt250]

link please...

why on earth would you give an infant raw, uncooked anything? Not only that, fruits & veggies that you do use should be washed and dried before even doing anything with them. Meat is cooked of course. You can't do either of these to honey without altering its chemical state, and heating honey to the point needed to killing the bacteria will actually start to ferment it.

And the article said 'most' not 'all' infants, so it HAS HAPPENED, and it still stated that the spores ARE found in honey. What whatever article you got that from neglected to say that because honey is actually a concentrated form of its' original state, the spores and bacteria are higher in concentration than fruits & vegetables. If the infants stated in those statistics got the disease from either fruits/veggies or meats, it is likely because the person preparing them didn't cook and/or clean the food properly or cross-contaminated from some other food source. The air has to be the lowest concentration per sq acre or mile or whatever you want to use. If it were an issue to worry about, immuno-deficient patients would be in a panic.

mayo clinic agrees: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/infant-botulism/HQ00854

Sure, the risk is low, but it is still a risk. It's like drinking wine during pregnancy. Some people say it is ok because there is a low risk with the % in the wine, but most people say no alcohol at all. Would you take the risk knowing what could come of your choice and that your child could suffer because of it?

It can be carried to such extremes, though. I'd say a good part of my generation (I'm 47 and the 4th of 6 kids) probably all had mothers who smoked and drank during pregnacy. We all turned out fine. But because some skid row bumbet gave birth to a 2 pound kid with a flat face no pregnant women can ever have a drink or a cigarette without being called Evil.

My kids first pediatrician was such a prick that his own staff was afraid of him. During one of our exams I told the nurse that I had started her on oatmeal and banana cereal. She loved it. I couldn't shovel it her face fast enough. The nurse got all flustered and said the doctor wouldn't be happy because you're only supposed to introduce one new food at a time. To me it was one new food. It was oatmeal and banana cereal. Sheesh.

The doctor walked in and asked "so how's he doing?". I said "he's a she" and I left. He didn't even bother to read her chart before he came in the room.