'Getting the Measles Is Good for You': Kids' Book Puts Pro-Vax Moms on the Warpath

child with measles Finally! Something parents on both sides of the heated vaccine debate can agree on. Shots are adult business. So what's with Melanie's Marvelous Measles, a new book pushing the dangerous anti-vaccine agenda on -- you guessed it -- little kids?

Do we really want our kids weighing in on whether or not they want a shot in the arm?

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I'm going to give that one a big fat negative! Melanie's Marvelous Measles

I am all for using books and movies to explain important issues to our kids. But there's a fine line between resource and propaganda, and Australian natural health activist Stephanie Messenger crossed it big time. She's feeding kids dangerous information -- the likes of "measles don't run and catch you or hurt you ... for most children it is a good thing to get measles" -- to get the kids to fight their parents on a decision that really isn't theirs to make in the first place!

My kid is 7. If I tell her she's going to get her flu shot this week, I expect her to whine and try to bargain her way out of it because that's what kids do. But I'm her mother; it's my job to make the tough decisions that she can't yet make.

Obviously I'm a pro-vaccine parent. This book infuriates me because it's spreading untruths about a disease that kills kids.

But let's say I wasn't. I still would expect my 7-year-old to fall in line because she's 7. She simply doesn't have the ability to read all the literature on vaccines, anticipate future issues, think beyond the pain of a needle jab in the arm. Just another reminder that just because a book is written "for kids" doesn't mean it really is!

Is there any place for this "children's" book? Or is this a topic that should be left to adults?

Images via Amazon; shutterstock