your view on vaccinations?

[ranirani]

your view on vaccinations ? what are those? any prons and cons?

[PuzzleRocks]

Which ones? Personally I was happy for DD to have hers, particularly MMR as there is a high incidence of measles in my area, largely due to parents opting out of the vaccination.
I have friends who have chosen not to. I suppose you just do as much research as possible and do what feels comfortable.

[lilimama]

DS (13 months) hasn't had any yet and probably won't the way the research is pointing.

The only thing I still genuinely don't understand is why everyone who has vaccinated their children insist on lambasting me for taking my time/being very concerned about it when I seem to be the only one who has actually done any research.(By the only one I mean that non of the angry parents who have vaccinated seem to have done any significant research) On this subject, I encounter more ignorant bigotry than I could ever have imagined possible that I liken the situation to being gay or not-white or any other minority in that the hatred and agression aimed at me from (even close friends/fanily) and general public when none of them seem to be informed when I ask for their figures, research, information, wisdom on the matter. The only answer I get it, Everyone Knows Vaccinations Are the Only Thing To Do, The Only Way to Prevent Disease" But my question is "HOw?" How does everyone know?" Coz what exactly are they reading, coz they sure as hell don't seem to be able to tell me what they're reading. And I'd genuinely like to know..." HOW? How does anyone know that Vaccinations are good and healthy, coz I can't find the figures, the actual truthful figures"
I find this the most bizarre and worrying case of the blind leading the blind and fearmongering I've ever come across And I did not start out and and am still no an Anti Vaxer. Just an anti 'ignorant-hatred-mongerer' member of the society we all in live and all have a right to a voice in. If you can educate me, let's discuss it is what I say, like intelligent human beings trying to help each other. If not and all you want to do is huff and puff about 'Everyone knowing it's right and healthy' then please leave me in peace to do my rightful research." Good luck with your research and decision RaniRani. I hope your decision to V or not to V is a peaceful one. I recommend the book The Truth about Vaccines.

[AliceMumma]

My mother vaccinated first 4 children but with 5th decided not too and at 3 months old and baby got menangitis and nearly died so that has freaked me out,i vaccinated my first and i plan to vaccinate my second child (due in 4 days).
To me, the risk of something happening to them from getting vaccinated is alot lower then them catching a disease...

[OneLieIn]

We are vaccinated.

[purpleduck]

Alicemumma, I thought the meningitis vaccine is fairly new? And that it doesn't cover all the strains of meningitis...?

[lilimama]

Quick question....Does anyone have any experience with vaccinating and then having immunity tests and discovering that the vaccines didn't work? Just researching this particular issue right now and welcome any first hand experience.
Many thanks

[Mummyfor3]

All DSs vaccinated.

[Gemzooks]

I vaccinated DS and will do the same with DC2.

I definitely believe in people researching the benefits etc. Perhaps I am wrong in thinking that usually, vaccination is a good way of stopping people getting nasty diseases which used to kill loads of children (and still are killing them in the developing world). For example, polio. Heat gets generated around some vaccines with regard to safety, and I'd be more inclined to look into those, e.g. MMR, and even BCG (not supposed to be very effective, Americans don't believe in it). But I think there is quite a lot of proof that vaccination programmes work, doesn't the WHO agree? And if you get enough people not vaccinating, it could pose a risk. Rubella would be another one I would imagine very useful for any daughters you have. And if that cervical cancer one is available, I would definitely give my daughter that one.

So I would say do your own research, but I can see why people might react with incomprehension if you choose to avoid all vaccines as it seems clear that there are benefits to them.

[mrsfossil]

I had ds vaccinated against the big diseases ie diptheria, polio etc. because our immune system can't fight these, but i wasn't convinced with mmr. I had all the childhood diseases back in the 70s and i have always been fit and healthy. 1st time in hospital was to have ds. When we moved house local health visitor made me feel so guilty that i took ds along for the 1st jab of mmr. He was extremely poorly afterwards with his temp at 39.6. After this he was so run down he got tonsilitis. He was more sick after his jab than i was when i got measles. I never took him back for the 2nd jab. Baby 2 is due in 10 weeks and dh wants this one to have mmr so its a bit of a dilema for us.

[Beachcomber]

Our eldest is vaccine damaged so we have stopped vaccinating and DD2 is unvaccinated.

BTW I read up a bit about polio and so on and just for information over 90% of polio cases are subclinical. Polio for most people does not equal paralysis and death. For some reason the current attitude to this disease seems to be that to get it is to be seriously ill. This is not and never has been the case for the majority.

[pagwatch]

Ds1 vaccinated
DS2 had a few - stopped at first MMR
DD had none.
will not have any more
Quite prepared for people to react with incomprehension. Actually curious to see what that would look like.
But don't make my childs medical decisions based on how the general public may react

[laumiere]

I put a lot of weight into personal exp in this case. My personal view:

I had all of the MMR illnesses as a child (was not vaccinated for them) and have a permanently-damaged immune system from the mumps (I can't fight off a lot of viruses, am susceptible to RSV and prolonged re-infection causes an auto-immune illness).

So DS is vaccinated for EVERYTHING and DS2 will be as well.

I also had a childhood friend who nearly died from the measles, it's a horrific illness. I had a mild case at 6 and vomited blood for 3 days. We also live in Lewisham, which is measles epidemic capital, because we only have a 40% vacc rate.

[CaptainKarvol]

I work in public health. I vaccinated. I will continue to vaccinate with my next child. I have advised others to vaccinate. I have not seen any compelling evidence not to. If anyone can point me in the direction of anything, I am genuinely interested, personally and professionally.

[thumbwitch]

DS had all his first sets, but come the 12mo ones, we seem to have fallen out of the system - I must get in touch with them re. Hib and the Men C vaccines in particular, as I would prefer to get DS done with those. I am not getting him done with the PCV again as he wasn't well after both of the previous ones. And he can wait for the MMR until I am happy that he is ready for it.

[DorisIsAPinkDragon]

My father had polio as a child and aged 7 had to learn to walk again, he still has perment facial paralysis ( can not shut one eye) he also was nursed with many children who died of the disease.

I was determined to vacinate dd1 but was unsure of the MMR, so paid privately for single jabs.

DD2 has the added complication of cystic fibrosis so she had MMR as quickly as possible to reduce the risk of secondary infection ontop of childhood illness. She has also had the winter flu jab ( and didn't become unwell when dh , dd and I all went down with a flu-like bug at christmas).

DD1 is due her MMR booster tommorrow and due to a change in circumstance and the fact that she now has some antibodies in her system we are having the combined jab.

HTH

[gonaenodaethat]

As CaptainKarvol. I am health professional as is DH and we have had both DDs vaccinated. I would also be interested to be pointed in the direction of any compelling evidence not to.

[thumbwitch]

lilimama - no firsthand experience (I am a good responder) but some secondhand of people I really know - When I worked in a hospital, we were all offered Hep B jabs and tested for Rubella - if found neg, then offered a booster for it.

Two of my friends not only had no antibodies to rubella (and therefore needed the booster) but they didn't create antibodies after their first triple set of Hep B jabs either, so needed another set. And annual boosters.

(When the hospital decided to stop testing annually for HepB antibodies, but just to go for annual boosters, I refused the booster without being tested first. My antibody levels were still over 100.)

[pagwatch]

I am in the opposite camp.
I had DS2 vaccinated as I did DS1
When DS2 had his MMR at 18 months he imediately lost all attained skills, lost speech and social skills and regressed into a violent and non communicative child within a few short weeks .
When I changed his diet he improved considerably. He remains however very severely autistic.

If anyone can show me any compelling reason why I should, against this background, vaccinate my DD I would consider it.

I should stress I don't find anything epedemiological compelling

[Beachcomber]

Surely the evidence (official in the US though still being shamefully denied in the UK) that MMR is a trigger in regressive autism and the increasing concerns over allergic disease, diabetes, MS, SIDS and so on are pretty compelling evidence to at least consider the idea that vaccination is not as straightforward as the state would like us to think?

For example on allergies there is plenty of evidence pointing to a link. It took me about three minutes to find the following examples;

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10436392?dopt=Abstract

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2889487?dopt=Abstract

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10714532?dopt=Abstract

[lilimama]

Compelling evidence?

Watching my niece develop perfectly until MMR then immediately developing week by week regression from loss of speech to loss of eye contact to loss of physical contact to violent head banging on walls requiring restraint by three adults. Aged three and a half this family member has been diagnosed as severely autistic and previously pro vaccine public health working parents are being encouraged by GP to look into the vaccine damaged children's fund for a payout. This is enough compelling evidence for me to take this matter seriously. So is listening and reading the first hand experiences of thousands of parents who have been through similar and sometimes worse experiences following jabs, where there was a healthy child immediately prior to vaccinating.

Can you point me in the direction (real stats/research please) of compelling evidence to vaccinate? Can you show me that the vaccines themselves are responsible for decline of disease and not general improvement of hygiene and healthcare allround over the last 100+ years. There are many professionals who believe that several of these diseases were already well and truly gone by the time vaccination programs began? My file is somewhat lacking in this kind of information and I would genuinely welcome such evidence. Many thanks.

[Astarte]

I'm a health professional and do not vaccinate fully.

2 of my children have had early jabs and singles for mmr.
3rd and 4th child (due any day) have not been vaccinated at all and will not be vaccinated until at least 2.5 yo.

Single jabs where available and greater time lapses between each ones will apply.

[Beachcomber]

ITA with lilimama. I'm so so sorry to hear about your niece.

My daughter is not autistic but she shares many of the gut problems and nutritional deficiencies that autistic children have. I started learning about autism because so many of the biomedical therapies that can help autistic children have been of use to us in nursing my daughter back to health after being vaccine damaged. Coincidence? I don't think so.

It is shameful, outrageous and sickening that the eye witness accounts of thousands upon thousands of parents and their families is being dismissed by the government.

One anecdote is an anecdote, a few anecdotes are an indication and thousands of anecdotes are a pattern. A pattern of anecdotes is evidence (the sort of evidence normally accepted as indicative of causation in science just bizarrely not when it comes to do with anything related to vaccines).

It can only be a matter of time before this shameful story in the history of medicine comes to light now that the vaccine/autism link is official in the US. Anyway too many people know now and they won't be shut up because they want justice for their children.

[Beachcomber]

Actually I don't think we need look any further for compelling evidence than the autistic children who are suspected of vaccine damage.

If the government would examine these children and actually listen to their stories and try to find out what happened to them then they would find all the evidence we need.

But they won't do that. They have continued to refuse to examine these children for years. This refusal speaks volumes. They won't do it because they know what they will find and it doesn't suit their agenda public health policy.

Oh and they won't let these children have their day in court (unlike the US) and be forced to listen to their stories there because they withdrew their legal aid (in dubious circumstances).

How anyone who really tries to be informed about this issue could doubt that vaccines are a factor I just don't know.

And this is only autism. The list of devastating conditions that vaccines carry responsibility for is long and frightening.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Vaccines sound just dandy on paper but the fact is that we haven't got a clue what we are doing by playing around with the human immune system (about which we actually know very little) and bacterial and viral ecosystems (about which we actually know very little).

[CatchaStar]

I had all of my jabs as a child, as has my dd.

There was never any question for me, she was getting done. Again, like another poster said, the risk of dd getting sick after having the jabs was far less then if I didn't get her jabs done. If I hadn't vaccinated her and she caught any of the above, I'd never have forgiven myself knowing that I could have prevented it and opted out.

I know of some cases in my family and amoungst friends, whose children have caught measles and menangitis and the outcomes of that, well, not nice and completely heartbreaking.

However, it's a personal choice and as parents, we do what we feel is best for our children.