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5:03 AM

Vexing VAXes

Wrote: American Muslima Writer |

Vaccines are hot topic Number One when it comes to parenting. To get them and watch your child suffer a reaction to them and of course the trauma of being needled, and have possible complications and die, OR to not get them, be needle free, sure your child wont have a bad reaction to something he didn't get, and pray he doesn't catch what the vaccine is for and die.
The main point both sides have in this great debate is: Reaction/Suffering AND Death.
Both of these Mommies and Daddies fear.
I for one as a new Mommy in Lebanon dutifully got my daughter VAXed. Right on schedule and wrung my heart out watching her suffer painful injection sites for weeks. It would swell badly and no amount of cold or warm compress eased the pain. I loaded her with paracetamol and still the fevers came. I was a Mother in Misery (yes capitol M's). Yet next VAX time I dutifully marched her back to the clinic. Don't get me wrong she's a healthy girl masha'Allah but it was torture to get her VAXed and watch her suffer "slight" reaction as the doctors called it. Then my son was born and I dutifully allowed the first "mandatory" shot at birth here in UAE. Then i got to reading on the net all kinds of things about VAXs and how they can cause deadly reactions in some susceptible children. How they can cause brain problems and who wants really to pump their children full of odd chemicals? So I became anti-VAX! No way were they gonna stick another needle in this cute chubby thigh. But as the day passed when I was supposed to get the next VAX I stared at that card really hard and tried to weigh basically the life of my child. Because it's the child's life in essence that is on the line either way. At this time my boy was screaming his head off at diaper changes in a way that pierces your ear down to your heart. I couldn't imagine what scream he'd make getting VAXed and any reaction to it. It didn't feel right. My Mommy Meter said NO WAY! SO I put it off and convinced my husband that VAXs might not be so safe as others once thought. It wasn't easy but he agreed to put it off. I kept putting it off and off until one day little Boy bonked his head really hard and it swelled super fast. Rushed to the doc, Doc said he needs a test to test for a rare blood disease that runs in families where girls carry it but it harms the boys. An expensive test that had to be flown to Germany. Aha! My Mommy Meter said, it was good to wait. So we did the test. Something happened to the blood sample and it coagulated too fast and was ruined so a few weeks later (no rush i don't want VAXes anyways....) I made him take it again (his first needles to draw blood ugh...). Then I had to wait a week or two for results and a month later I got around to finding results (again no hurry).
But by then something happened to make me change my mind. Husband got Malaria. This made me realize how no where is safe on the whole Earth from ANY disease. Where ever Allah Wills to strike will be struck. I felt my innocent VAX free boy was a sitting duck. Had I been in America I think I would have felt a little safer because although travel is widespread world-wide there are more restrictions to enter America from contaminated countries. Where-as here in UAE you have people coming literally from every Nation on Earth because Dubai is a "hot-spot for making money" and they need lower class workers to fill in the basics jobs and they come from poorer nations mostly that have bad problems with disease controls. And everywhere you go in UAE you brush with them or with someone who has brush with them. My poor sitting duck.
So we took him after finding out he's cleared from this test from Germany to get a VAX to one of the free clinics to get him VAXed. I was a nervous wreck. He has to play catch-up now. So they shot him three times, one in each thigh and one in the arm. I admit the nurse was Class A+ in insertion, it was painful for him yes but there was no lumping after. No swelling or tenderness really. I was impressed. She lifted the thigh with a pinching motion before inserting it and it seemed to help. Boy of course screamed his head off and took the strength of Distraught Daddy and Mother in Misery to hold him down. But unlike Daughter, who whimpered for days after, not a single peep was heard after we left the office. What a tough boy masha'Allah. He had slight fever and runny nose (which of course worried us) after but we fought it with Paracetamol. I was relieved that we had waited until now when he was stronger and probably more able to handle fighting the diseases. UNTIL..............

My son started having spots. I ran to my Baby books and frantically searched page after page and was semi-relieved that sometimes after MMR there is spots but then there were more spots and more spots. They grew pimple looking with fluid inside. Not typical M or M or R looking. So off to the docs. She said it's either a reaction to the VAX or Chicken Pox..... I was stunned of course... Because they were fluid filled it turns out they are CHPox. So I dutifully applied Calamine Lotion and gave oral anti-histamines but poor boy was still screaming at the itchiness all night fora few nights. Then I found out when fully clothed in moderately restrictive clothes and socks it helped the itching stop so I did that to help over the Calamine Lotion. Alhamdulliah now he is better but he looked like he was wearing Pink War Paint all over his body.
Because he had CHPox though and my daughter never had it and I didn't think I could mentally handle two screaming itchy kids at the same time I caved and finally got daughter the Chicken Pox VAX. She was so brave this time and had only slight fever after for a few days. My friends I've talked to recently have told me Chicken Pox as an adult is torture and can be life threatening so I was relived my Husband's Mother had him VAXed in Lebanon and I had HAD the Chicken Pox as a child. I still remember the itching and all the odd spots.
So after this long journey of illness in the past month I've realized every child should be weighed individually before undergoing the Vexing VAXes. As a parent you have to weigh the life of your own child personally and do your own research to decide what is best for your child for the area you live in. I don't believe VAXes are perfect for every child but I think in some cases especially in epidemic areas and areas that could easily become epidemic suddenly (LIKE UAE!) there is a greater benefit to outweigh the possible risk*except those who have weak immune systems and should be seen by the doctors first and tested*

So weigh carefully and with thoroughness.

6 intelligent thoughts:

Katherine said...

Timely topic!We eventually quit vaxing anybody as they all reacted and one had a seizure collapse within an hour of being vaxed.It has gone on to be classed as an"atypical seizure disorder"Did have to get a tetanus shot for ds recently when he almost took off his finger using the wrong sort of tool to install a cd player in his car.

So I'm wary of vaxes and I guess for our family we'll pick and choose.

American Muslima Writer said...

Subhan'Allah!!!
I do hope your kids are ok though after these problems!!!
See some kids cannot get VAXed.

Lazeena Umm Yusuf said...

Wow subhanAllah! I live in the states, we also debated with this. We held off on my sons shots for a while and then decided to get him vaccinated. With all the vaccines so far, maybe twice he ran fevers and nothing more than a half a day thing. That's it, no swelling or any other reactions. The shots are all for diseased which are more likely to go from person to person in other countries, not so much in the US, but I havent seen any severe reactions from anyone I know here in America. Each child is different though subhanAllah. Whether we get them vaccinated or not, we just have to continue to make Du'a that Allah gives them good health, always!

Unknown said...

May Allah protect us. My brother had a severe reaction to the DPT in America 35 some odd years ago. We suffered with him and his medical problems all of his life. He died two years ago now. There was a handful of kids his same age who all were affected with a bad batch of vaccines at that time. I started to vaccinate my eldest despite this but later quit. My last child got nothing and subhanAllah wa alhamdulillah, he has had the least of issues with childhood illness. He is really my healthiest child. So, there is much to be said for it but in the end it is all in Allah's hands. InshAllah khair.

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