Immunizations

It's got me wondering, if you don't immunise your child, will you or in this case your child, suffer in the long run?

My DS4 had his 1st years worth of immunization shots but none after that. It's not that i have anything against vaccinating my child, my 2 DD's had everything on offer. I think with my DS i was just not on the ball and the longer i left it the more i thought oh it's too late to have it done, i'll not worry about it. Makes me sound like a bad mum but really i'm not! I know of kids who haven't had any immunization and they are healthy and happy. My boy is healthy and happy too, no set back or side effects from not being immunized except for this past week when he caught the Measles!
I didn't know it was the measles until the rash appeared. He'd been feverish with runny nose and weepy eyes and not eating since the early hours of Saturday morning. We'd kept the fluids up with lots of panadol to ease the fever and closely monitered him and because he had a prearranged Dr's appiontment on Tuesday i felt we'd be ok till then to find out what was making him ill. The fever broke on Monday thankfully. We get to to Dr's, he takes one look at him and says "how long has he had the measles?" I'm like "What!?!?" Lift his tshirt and sure enough, he is covered in measles rash, poor kid, i just wanted to cry! Not that anything different could have been done, there is no particular treatment to speed up the recovery, we did all the right things. It makes me wonder though, if DS had the MMR vaccine would he have contracted the measles? My DD's don't seem to have any symptoms of it yet, i would have thought being in such close contact they would have picked it up. They all share the common cold quite well!
I'm now starting to wonder what else he might pick up :(

In other health related news from this household, DH came inside Saturday night after taking a short stroll around the property and said he thought he'd been bitten by a bull-ant as he'd picked up a couple of pieces of timber to put in the rubbish pile. He applied Stingose (stop itch ointment) to his hand where he belived the bite occured as it was reasonably itchy/stingy. After 10 minutes he was soaking both hands in iced water. Then his feet got itchy and he started feeling light-headed so i took him off to the hospital. It's a 35km drive and in that time he started getting hot and his skin was crawling with itchiness. By the time we got to the hospital he had smallish welts on his back and right side. The nurse gave him an antihistamine which settled everything within the hour and diagnosed a spider bite on the right buttocks! Ever heard of the story titled 'The Redback Spider on the Toilet Seat'? Well Dh had experienced it, wether it was a redback we will never know. Just before he came in he stopped at the bathroom and well you know the rest lol. It was easy to laugh after the event but during, it was a little on the scary side. We are now armed with a few hospital strength anithisamines in case something similar should happen but i know DH will be double checking the toilet seat first!!

Until next time
-x-