Do the Duggars vaccinate?

[sidehugger]

With all the controversy about the measles outbreak in California, I wondered what the Duggars views are regarding vaccination. Does anyone know what Gothard preaches about vaccines and medicine in general?

[Four is Enough]

I'm betting they don't. Didn't they all just have chicken pox a few years ago? Now, In Maryland, at that time, the varicella vaccine was required for all children entering kindergarten. I don't know Arkansas law.

[txmommyof4]

Yes, it's required for school in Arkansas but since they don't go to school that wouldn't count for them. My 14 y/o had the varicella vaccine and got chicken pox inn 2nd grade. Now he goes around grumbling about how he will get shingles when he's old.

[MatthewDuggar]

. My 14 y/o had the varicella vaccine and got chicken pox inn 2nd grade. Now he goes around grumbling about how he will get shingles when he's old.

OMG doesn't a 14 yo have better things to worry about? :mrgreen: :pink-shock:

[txmommyof4]

OMG doesn't a 14 yo have better things to worry about? :mrgreen: :pink-shock:

:lol: he is a strange child. I suppose he would probably also stress over the fact that his birthday was last week and I am still claiming he's 14! :shhh:

[doggie]

we won't really know for sure but with all their travel they may have had too. but we do know they are as dumb about it as anything else they think they are knowledgeable about.

[Dandruff]

I doubt they want to vaccinate (the chicken pox being a good example), though I could see an exception being made for Josie.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

There are a lot of people who skip the chicken pox vaccine but don't skip the others. They just rationalize that chicken pox is a "harmless disease," so why vaccinate?

I would hope that the Duggars at least vaccinate against the big ones. But I wouldn't be surprised if they don't for "religious reasons."

Does Gothard have a specific teaching about vaccines?

[calimojo]

I remember an episode where they were getting Josie an RSV vaccine, because she was a premie

[Rescinded and Mended]

Probably not, and as others have stated, because they all had Chicken Pox. but on the other hand, Dim Bob once told his kids that BECAUSE they've had Chicken Pox, they will never get Shingles when they get older. It might eve be possible that they've had other vaccines, but he let them get the pox on purpose because he thought that he was doing them and their immune systems a favor.

Jim Bob is a special kind of stupid. :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

[txmommyof4]

I remember an episode where they were getting Josie an RSV vaccine, because she was a premie

RSV vaccine is way different from normal childhood vaccines. I delayed vaccinating my tiniest babies because it wasn't worth the risk to me until their bodies were bigger/stronger. And, like the Duggars, my kids weren't in daycare.

[txmommyof4]

Probably not, and as others have stated, because they all had Chicken Pox. but on the other hand, Dim Bob once told his kids that BECAUSE they've had Chicken Pox, they will never get Shingles when they get older. It might eve be possible that they've had other vaccines, but he let them get the pox on purpose because he thought that he was doing them and their immune systems a favor.

Jim Bob is a special kind of stupid. :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

Jim Bob is definitely stupid! However, the varicella vaccine is failing more and more. My son is not the only kid I know that was vaccinated but got chicken pox anyway. Lots do. It seems odd that all the kids did, but it could happen.

[calimojo]

I support vaccines in general, but I have to say I am not too sold on the chicken pox vaccine. Both my kids got it, even though at the time it wasn't required. But they were both asthmatic and we knew of a family in our area that had a child die from chicken pox who was asthmatic and the chicken pox spread to their lungs. She was a nurse at a local hospital and so all of us who worked in health care in our town at the time, were pretty affected by it because many knew her.

But both my kids ended up getting the chicken pox even after the vaccine. My daughter actually got them twice, though very mild the first time.

What worries me about it, is that the immunity could want just as she gets to planning her family, and chicken pox is really harmful to a fetus. So I am encouraging her to get her blood drawn soon, so she can see what her varicella IGG titer is, which would tell us if she is now immune, or if she might need a Chicken pox vaccine booster.

My son had a decent outbreak of pox, but wasn't terribly ill with it. Neither of them had any respiratory complications, so I guess, perhaps the vaccine did help with that.

The funny thing was the when my daughter broke out in Chicken pox, we actually had her scheduled to have a her 4 year old pictures taken. We called the photographer to cancel, but he convinced us to bring her in, if she wasn't too sick and said he had a Dalmatian that was great to pose with. So we got these adorable pictures of her, covered with her chicken pox spots, sitting next to a very cute spotted dog. She was feeling pretty good at this point, so it didn't really stress her out at all to go for the pictures.

(We made sure no one was at the photographer's studio who could catch them from her)

[eh02]

Jim Bob is definitely stupid! However, the varicella vaccine is failing more and more. My son is not the only kid I know that was vaccinated but got chicken pox anyway. Lots do. It seems odd that all the kids did, but it could happen.

A lot of people think vaccines are only intended to prevent you from getting sick, but that's not necessarily true. A lot of times, even if they "fail" in the sense that you still get ill, they still are very successful in that they dramatically lessen the severity of your illness. With a disease like measles, that is incredibly important. It could be the difference between a few sick days with full recovery and a tragic outcome (blindness, encephalitis).

You can also be less infectious yourself if your improved immune response leads to a lower viral load during your illness. That can be really significant for the densely populated areas where childhood diseases spread (schools, daycares...Disneyland...) - the difference between one sick kid infecting 20 others or 2 others.

Epidemiological guidelines for what percent of a population needs to remain vaccinated consider both the typical disease patterns in absence of vaccines (so, how many people each infected person will end up infecting, on average) and the likelihood of vaccine failure. So, if we know based on historical findings that a vaccine is about 90% effective, that will be included in the calculations.

Anyway, back to the Duggars and their idiocy...I have to admit, I am surprised that Jim Bob is so stupid, and I don't expect much from him. With 19 kids, how has a physician not explained the chicken pox/shingles relationship to him?!

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I don't think the Seewalds vaccinate. I saw on fb that michaels sister who also homeschools stated she doesn't vaccinate at all.

There is a lot of talk about the whole "vaccines are grown with aborted fetal cells" within religious anti vac groups, and the Duggars are very pro life.

[princessmahina]

Haven't they shown Josh and Anna taking their newborns for vaccines? I remember Anna having to shield her eyes and talking about how painful it was to watch her kid be injured. So, at least those Duggars are doing it, even Jim Bob and Michelle aren't.

[lascuba]

I could be giving them way too much credit, but they seem pretty on top of medical (and dental!) care, so I would assume they do vaccinate. Maybe not chicken pox because a ton people had it as children and don't think it's a big enough deal to bother with a vaccine, but everything else, yes. They showed at least one well-baby checkup before (Johanna, I think), and while I'm sure there are plenty of pediatricians in their neck of the woods who are ok with patients who don't vaccinate, the fact that they haven't said anything publicly about it makes me think they do. They'd have a ton of support for not vaccinating both among fundies and leftie hippies, so they don't have any reason to keep quiet.

[nastyhobbitses]

I support vaccines in general, but I have to say I am not too sold on the chicken pox vaccine. Both my kids got it, even though at the time it wasn't required. But they were both asthmatic and we knew of a family in our area that had a child die from chicken pox who was asthmatic and the chicken pox spread to their lungs. She was a nurse at a local hospital and so all of us who worked in health care in our town at the time, were pretty affected by it because many knew her.

But both my kids ended up getting the chicken pox even after the vaccine. My daughter actually got them twice, though very mild the first time.

What worries me about it, is that the immunity could want just as she gets to planning her family, and chicken pox is really harmful to a fetus. So I am encouraging her to get her blood drawn soon, so she can see what her varicella IGG titer is, which would tell us if she is now immune, or if she might need a Chicken pox vaccine booster.

My son had a decent outbreak of pox, but wasn't terribly ill with it. Neither of them had any respiratory complications, so I guess, perhaps the vaccine did help with that.

The funny thing was the when my daughter broke out in Chicken pox, we actually had her scheduled to have a her 4 year old pictures taken. We called the photographer to cancel, but he convinced us to bring her in, if she wasn't too sick and said he had a Dalmatian that was great to pose with. So we got these adorable pictures of her, covered with her chicken pox spots, sitting next to a very cute spotted dog. She was feeling pretty good at this point, so it didn't really stress her out at all to go for the pictures.

(We made sure no one was at the photographer's studio who could catch them from her)

That's actually super cute! I got chicken pox in first grade (so 1997, which was just after the vaccine became available, IIRC), and it was NASTY. I broke out in spots in the middle of a Brownie troop meeting (cue all the other mothers yanking their children away from me), and then I was out of school for three weeks (well, two weeks plus I spent Christmas quarantined from all my cousins) because I got a double ear infection on top of the pox. Not a good time. I hope they make the vaccine more effective somehow, because chicken pox, while not normally deadly (though it can be), is just twenty kinds of unpleasant. But if they pay less attention to chicken pox vaccines and instead focus on getting parents to realize how important the MMR immunizations are and perfecting the vaccine for Ebola, I'm OK with that.

[Kak]

Chicken pox can be a very serious illness. My son contracted encephalitis as a complication of chicken pox. We were very lucky; he responded very well to the anti virals used to treat him and made a full recovery. I live in the UK, where we don't vaccinate against chicken pox, therefore everyone pretty much gets cp. He is the only person I ever heard of having such a serious complication, but still, I know if I had any kids who hadn't had cp, I'd vaccinate them for sure.

[nomoxian]

Probably not, and as others have stated, because they all had Chicken Pox. but on the other hand, Dim Bob once told his kids that BECAUSE they've had Chicken Pox, they will never get Shingles when they get older. It might eve be possible that they've had other vaccines, but he let them get the pox on purpose because he thought that he was doing them and their immune systems a favor.

Jim Bob is a special kind of stupid. :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

I remember hearing that when I had chicken pox as a kid, but that was in the 1980s...

[Rescinded and Mended]

That's disheartening, hearing about so many kids that still get it even with the vaccine. But for those who can handle the vaccine, it is good to get it since, even if an outbreak did occur in the child, it often does mean reduced symptoms.

I remember having chicken pox as a child, and it was pretty hellish. No complications, but the itching, fever, and oatmeal baths were no fun. My mother actually sent me over to someone's house to get infected, since that was how parents handled chicken pox back then. Once, your child got sick, they usually wouldn't get it again.

I bugged my son's pediatrician incessantly after the vaccine came out, wanting to know when he could get it so that he wouldn't ever have to go through chicken pox.

[Rachel333]

For all their faults they don't seem like the anti-vax type to me. You have to get some vaccinations to be able to travel a lot of places too, so I would think they probably have them.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

That's disheartening, hearing about so many kids that still get it even with the vaccine. But for those who can handle the vaccine, it is good to get it since, even if an outbreak did occur in the child, it often does mean reduced symptoms.

I remember having chicken pox as a child, and it was pretty hellish. No complications, but the itching, fever, and oatmeal baths were no fun. My mother actually sent me over to someone's house to get infected, since that was how parents handled chicken pox back then. Once, your child got sick, they usually wouldn't get it again.

I bugged my son's pediatrician incessantly after the vaccine came out, wanting to know when he could get it so that he wouldn't ever have to go through chicken pox.

I remember my brothers school had an outbreak of chicken pox due to a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated kids. There was definitely a difference though. The kids who were vaccinated bounced back quickly and had milder outbreaks than those who weren't vaccinated. But, a majority of those who were vaccinated were spared. Of the roughly 300 kids at the school (it was a private k-8), only about 60 kids were infected from all 9 grade levels.

[busdrivingmom]

I would think the M&JB kids are sort of vaccinated. I think they have the ones needed for travel and nothing else. I remember something a while back about kids actually having chicken pox and not getting the vaccine.

As for chicken pox vaccine, it was optional in Illinois until a couple years ago and then it became mandatory. I got it for my kids when it was optional because I had chicken pox and 15 and it was one of the most miserable times in my life, having bacterial pneumonia was first.

The whole aborted fetus cell thing has been debunked in modern vaccines. Even the Catholic church supports vaccines and these were people who advised not doing the Ice Bucket challenge because the group getting donations supported stem cell research.

[Ellimenopy]

Chicken pox can be really serious. I almost died from it in second grade. I was in the hospital for a week. It was about a year before the vaccine became available. Before the vaccine, 10,000 people were hospitalized every year because of it and almost 300 died. Now, about 300 people are hospitalized each year from varicella and around 2 people die. That's an enormous difference!