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Yeah, we get that. They are not free of illness so by definition, one is not healthy when they have measles or a cold or the flu or strep throat, etc. but there are things a person can do to lower the odds of complications while sick and get back to a healthy state. It’s well known that Vitamin A can decrease complications for measles. Cod Liver oil is high in vitamin A. There’s a lot of benefit in terms of nutrition and diet. Keeping hydrated, like you say is also very important.
Only if you're deficient. What's with this cod liver oil "thing" all of a sudden? There are many other ways to get Vitamin A.
I was born in 1947, to a middle-class family in a small town in western Pennsylvania. I'm the oldest of four children. We all contracted the usual childhood diseases, but I have no memory of being sick, except for having scarlet fever and not being allowed to go out and play with the other kids in the neighborhood.
My point is, having those diseases was completely unmemorable. It was just accepted that everyone got them at one time or another.
We knew of very few children in our town who died: one was hit by a car, one got meningitis in high school, and one baby died of pneumonia.
We did not have the healthy food lifestyle that so many other posters here seem to recall. We ate sugary cereals for breakfast, Campbell's soup and bologna sandwiches for lunch, tried to avoid eating the vegetables my mother always cooked with our meat-centered dinner. We drank soda with our dinner.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. And your diet doesn't sound too bad.
The study was on the death rate from measles, not the rate at which measles was contracted. The study found that children who already had measles who were treated with vitamin D (and A) had a lower death rate than children not treated with those supplements.
That's one of the reasons why I thought it was interesting and shared it. It's not easy finding research like this from the pre-1960s, at least not lately it seems.
Cod liver oil in particular was studied with measles. It was shown to reduce measles related deaths in children with severe cases. I also know people who had to take cod liver oil as kids. I was not one of the but I’ve heard it from a few.
Mind you, the first family was well off, and Dahl was wealthy.
Two of his daughters got measles and one of them was fine, like most children at the time:
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Even though he was present for me physically, he was not emotionally. It was just bad luck, jolly bad luck, that I had been present both for my brother’s accident and my mother’s strokes. That my older sister Olivia had been the love of Daddy’s life. That both of us contracted measles, but that she had died.
He was a great writer, but not the best model for healthy eating. I wonder how much candy and general junk his kids ate?
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'When we returned from school he’d often make us brown toast and put honey on it and then drizzle cream on the top.
'He liked to do unusual things with food: marmalade and bacon was one of his favourites, or he’d put colouring in our food to make it look alarming. I remember bright red rice pudding on one occasion.
'My father would eat chocolate and sweets himself pretty much every mealtime. He knew the history of all of them and could tell you exactly when they were invented.
I don't think any of the healthy food lifestyles we recall are much different than yours.
For me, Rice Krispies or scrambled eggs for breakfast. {that's all I liked} Bologna sandwiches for lunch, yes, almost every day. Dinner just the same as yours except for the soda, we always had milk with our meals. Snacks were an apple or an orange or some grapes, etc.Sometimes we had cake, pie, cookies, potato chips, etc., but they were treats doled out sparingly. It wasn't until high school that pop came onto the scene and I loved it, but I still drank a glass of milk with meals.
The things we rarely ate that are common today: fast food and fried greasy food. Mom took us to McDonald's 3 or 4 times a year if that. Dairy Queen, a few times in the summer.
What we considered a healthy diet back in the day wouldn't be considered that healthy today but we were pretty damn healthy weren't we?
Three or four times a year? That's pretty infrequent. I wonder how many children now go there or somewhere similar to eat every day or pretty frequently? Also, having scrambled eggs for breakfast is good, along with some of the other foods you mentioned.
It's a little hard to tell from the snippet quoted. And the source is 87 years old! That was more my point than anything else. I've never heard of Vitamin D supplementation for treating measles. If you have anything current, say in the last 10 years, I'd be interested in seeing it.
I'd like to see it too. Good luck finding any current research that's about giving children with measles a supplement or food that helps their immunity and/or general well-being. So far, all I've found is from the World Health Organization and its vitamin A suggestion.
Stop right there. Just because most of us did not get very sick with the measles does not mean we are lying or that we are against vaccines. I am for them just for the sake of children or others who could suffer a permanent disability or death.
The OP asked for our experience with measles and that is what we are doing, let's just leave it at that as the OP requested.
The OP isn't "leaving it at that". He's analyzing people's diets because he seems to think that's the key.
Along with getting plenty with rest. And not living in third world conditions, generally. That's what people's experiences here seem to be pointing to.
You could have identical twins, feed them the exact same diet, treat them exactly the same and have one of them die from measles and the other not get very sick at all. Or, one of them could get cancer and not the other one.
You could, but so far that's not what people's experiences are showing on this forum so far.
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The answer you are looking for is much more complex and beyond the knowledge we have at this point in time.
I think what people have shared is still pretty valuable and interesting! Do you know where else we can find information like this? If so, please share.
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Dinner just the same as yours except for the soda, we always had milk with our meals. Snacks were an apple or an orange or some grapes, etc. Sometimes we had cake, pie, cookies, potato chips, etc., but they were treats doled out sparingly. It wasn't until high school that pop came onto the scene and I loved it, but I still drank a glass of milk with meals.
Just because most of us did not get very sick with the measles does not mean we are lying or that we are against vaccines. I am for them just for the sake of children or others who could suffer a permanent disability or death.