Apparently children who have had good nutrition would just 'shrug it off' if they contracted measles. Why don't they say that in the UK?

[bumbleymummy]

Article is here discussing the impact that poor nutrition has on children in developing countries.

Considering that the majority of children in the UK have no problem with good nutrition (fruit shoots and Greggs aside ) why aren't parents being reassured rather than terrified into having their children vaccinated with images of coffins plastered over the promotional material?

OK - found this on the BF/FF thing - maybe there should be more 'risk of FF' slant then.

However, doesn't seem too much evidence there that would warrant a coffin among the other graphics... the excess mortality associated with FF versus BF is related to SIDS (for which 'factors associated with breastfeeding, but not breastfeeding per se, were associated with a lower incidence of SIDS') and 'injury-related death' -presumably not in any way a causal relationship.

I do hope you're not referring to me in 'people are agreeing'. If you can show me something as clear as 'death from measles was caused by measles' then we'll talk.

Twiceover "But a man did sadly die in the recent measles outbreak in South Wales so a coffin is not necessarily scaremongering?"

Did he? Do you have a link to this? Last I heard on the news they were investigating whether or not measles played a part in his death then I heard nothing more. They seemed to let everyone assume this was the case - unless I've missed something.

Surprise surprise! news.sky.com/story/1083054/mystery-remains-over-measles-death-man

You know what, before it gets any stranger, I'm out of this thread. I don't think I'm going to agree with the OP's opinions.

I think everyone who can be should be immunised, I don't see any problem with that NHS Wales leaflet produced, I'm not keen on smoking and I don't have a problem with FF but think mothers should be helped to BF where possible.

Can't see how this has got so complicated.

That may well be my first flouce :)

A lovely polite flounce it was too Oddsockmonster.

And some healthy well nourished children do shrug off measles. Trouble is, you don't know until too late whether your child isn't of the news that does, or one of the ones that ends up in hospital for two weeks.

Using completely anecdotal information and no statistics, both my brother and I shrugged off mumps and German measles (vaccinated against actual measles). That does not mean that many people didn't suffer very serious complications from both, or that vaccination isn't a good idea.

Children in developing countries without basic nutrition and medical care, I would imagine, tend to do rather worse than I and my brother did in the seventies.

Were parents panicked during the recent scare? I thought they were just encouraged to check jabs were up to date.

No, Adora, I'm not confusing it with the common cold. No one is arguing that it can't be serious in some cases but over 95% of deaths occur in low-income countries with weak health infrastructures (WHO).

Grimma, yes, I think I posted that link earlier. [[https://mywic.org/uploads/Risks_for_babies_who_are_not_breastfed.pdf Here's an example that has gone for the 'risk of formula' approach.

Oddsock, Was your 'people are agreeing' post directed at me? I'm not sure where I've said that...

merry, well the ones who were interviewed certainly seemed very worried and parents were queuing outside pop-up vaccine clinics. Maybe 'panicked' is too strong a word but they were certainly very worried and worked up about it. Isn't there actually a bit of a questionmark over the extent of the outbreak now too? Something to do with over reporting and only a small percentage of cases being sent to the lab actually being confirmed as measles?

Sorry Grimma, here's that link again

God,I didn't shrug measles off,I was off school for 6 weeks. Weirdly was talking to a friend today who told me she'd lost her hearing in one ear due to measles as a child.

Seriously? Eat your five a day and you'll (probably) be fine?

What a load of reckless rubbish.

The thing is it's not 'serious in some cases' it's serious in LOTS of cases, kids can go deaf, have eye problems all sorts of complications. So you might not actually die but you might end up with pretty serious complications.

Hmm. I happened to be staying in Wales with IL's when this was in the news. Off the telly it all seemed pretty normal.

Personally I find that BF leaflet rather scarier than the vaccination one. (Maybe because I know BFing can be hard to achieve even if you want to do it. Maybe because I'm more influenced by words than graphics)

"Children in developing countries without basic nutrition and medical care, I would imagine, tend to do rather worse"

Yes. 28% of them die.

And drawing attention to the effects of malnutrition was what those in link to OP were hoping to achieve.

Which it did but I also noticed the comment about measles and it got me thinking...hence thread :)

The gov't's agenda is to promote vaccination. One way to do that in an outbreak is to use propaganda that will frighten people into vaccination clinics. It obviously worked.

Incidentally, why do so many get complications?

Personal experience is not data ... but I know my experience is normal for my generation, so it makes a kind of data! I was breast-fed to six months, had a near-perfect diet (pre-fast food, home-grown veg and mother a nutrition geek), and was very ill with measles. Had mumps and chicken pox, too, as did all my sibs and school friends. We did not 'shrug them off' although we didn't die, obv.

OP, if you think good nutrition renders vaccination unnecessary, why don't you talk to some older women about watching your well-fed child suffer with a series of potentially fatal or debilitating diseases?

Where have I said that 'good nutrition renders vaccination unnecessary'?

That leaflet is utterly ridiculous and you could probably find other studies that have totally different stats.

Scaremongering nonsense.

And I have seen mad pe

I have seen mad people on here claim bf protects against childhood illnesses even if you're not saying that in so many words.

Your attitude is not going to help improve bf rates.

Second sentence of your op.

Where you suggest that parents should be reassured.

Unless 'don't worry, children have never died from measles in the uk on the same scale as in developing countries, but should they develop measles, they might well end up in hospital and there is no guarantee that they wont suffer a life limiting disability' is reassuring.