What on earth is wrong with vaccinating children ffs?

[poshsinglemum]

I'm sure this has been done before a million times.

A friend of mine who has gone all woo recently isn't vaccinating her dd because some quack gave a lecture on the evils of vaccinating. My ex boyfriends mum was a complete quack/chrystal healer and begged me not to vaccinate against typhoid, encaphalitus, rabies etc when I went to the third world. She gave me a homeopathic kit. Needless to say I got the jabs anyway.

I think that the ''evidence'' not to vaccinate is coming from the woo crew and is fuelled by paranoid conspiracy theories concerning the pharmeceutical industry. I am not completely convinced by the industry myself but I'd rather take a chance on them than my dd getting polio etc.

I just read the MIL thread but I have been meaning to discuss this for ages.

yanbu - but I have a gripe with those quacks and homeopathy anyway. my mother took me off my asthma meds and gave me homeopathic medicine sugar pills for my acute asthma attacks. I am lucky that I have only minor lung damage as a result.

there is nothing at all wrong with vaccinating children op. some of us have just chosen not to for said quacky reasons. we all just do what we believe is best.

I would rather immunise Ds than risk the illnesses, that said I can understand people being reluctant when it comes to things like mmr because of the negative press. Ds is 14 months and due his mmr in a couple of months and I have researched that more than the others for my own peace of mind

Its just bollox...mad people

Theres never ever going to be people agreeing about this, it seems to be rather a contenious issue here lol. Personally I think its stupid not to - but at the end of the day its a particular childs parents own right to do what they like with their own child, so I would never criticise that per say, but I do have an opinion that it can cause so much problems for other people unfortunately and the spreading of easily preventable by vacination diseases, which is why I think its selfish not to. Its not the same as choosing some parenting "thing" taht just effects the family concerned for example and not others.

And Im sorry mousymouse for your problems taht were outwith your control.

sorry that twice over, typing too quick lol.

My sister almost died from measles. (she wasn't old enough to have the jab at the time). Luckily she hasn't had any lasting problems from it. Very scary at the time though.

YANBU... and I think the 'real' problem is that we have no actual experience any more of what it actually means to have polio, whooping cough, measles, TB etc. They've gone from public consciousness. The vaccines can therefore frighten some people more than the diseases itself because they don't think they're a real possibility any more. Sadly, they are - and ironically will become more possible again if enough people fail to immunise.

My mil lost a child to having rubella in pregnancy. Baby was born but died after a few hrs. This was in the 60's. VAccines have prevented this tragady happening more reguArly in our child bearing yrs and I'm glad! Would I want to go through that? My dAughter to go through that? No!

I never understand this either.I wasn't vaccinated as a child and had post rubella immunity problems resulting in 2 transplants in later life.the thing is as my consultant says before antibiotics and vaccines the average life expectancies were half what they are now and they increase every 15 yrs or so because medicine advances.I never understand why all the people who object don't refuse all conventional medicine and see how they go!Up until very recently streptococcus was a killer and still can be but is now treatable.

It should be needless to say you're not being unreasonable. I can only think people who use homeopathy rather than proper medicine don't understand a) what homeopathy is; b)what science is and c) what proper illness is.

To "respect" people's choices when they are ill-informed, poorly researched and influenced by scare tactics is beyond my capabilities.

It's illogical unscientific and irresponsible not to vaccinate children.

I'm a bit lentil weaving, I (still) co sleep, I'm vegetarian, breastfed DS's for 18months and 2 years but vaccinated them when the time came.

It always makes me laugh when the anti Vaccination lot say that they are informed when they believe all sorts of rubbish from bad researchers.

However this thread will descend into s bun fight and so I'll bow out nowx

It's really dangerous as well... people forget the simple things like Chicken pox and measles can be life threatening... if there is more than one person in a class with it who has not been vaccinated then it can cause real probs. I know a school where as a result of not being immunised one child caught measles, got it badly and lost their sight. Really sad.

The first person I met who had unvaccinated children was a cutting-edge medical researcher in a relevant field. She know, and still knows, much more about the science of it than most of us could hope to.

That really made me think.

I don't think there's anything wrong with opting out of vaccination (and I suspect that in 100 years or so people will be as horrified at the way we jabbed so much). Or in adapting the available immunisation programme to suit your individual circumstances (eg by having the jabs when somewhat older, or seeking monovalent jabs).

It would however be equally wrong to rely on unproven alternatives for serious illnesses.

Those of us with slightly older children are often surprised by the current infant vaccination schedule - we used to agonised over the trivalent jab, and now it's 6-in-one.

The authoritarian (and premature?) removal of the single measles jab -one of the first acts under the Labour administration in 1997 - did more to set back the immunisation cause than anything else in recent years (even the DPT scandal). It sowed the disquiet which undermines the vaccinations programme even now.

I like to refer to rights and responsibilities when these debates come up.

It is everyone's right to decline vaccines.

But in order to have those rights, you must also accept the responsibilities that go with it. The responsibility to the wider society that may be damaged by your actions.

Children with compromised immunity, and the very young, can be harmed by these preventable illnesses. If you want the right not to vaccinate, you also must face the responsibility of not inadvertently infecting someone vulnerable. THat means you should not take your unprotected child to play centres and preschools and toddler groups (unless you set up a toddler group for the unvaccinated).

If you do reserve the right to not vaccinate your child, you must accept responsibility if your child infects another, and that child suffers convulsions, pneumonia, meningitis, encephalitis, hepatitis, eye damage, including blindness, heart problems and brain damage. Or even death. So you should accept responsibility by carrying insurance so that you could compensate a family whose lives you may ruin in the application of your "rights".

The day will come (if it hasn't already) where someone who has suffered complications from a preventable illness will successfully sue their parents for failing to vaccinate. IMO it is hugely irresponsible to refuse vaccinations.

ok feel a bit of a need to defend my choice now...
the reason i have not vaccinated my 17mo dd is because i feel the vaccines pose a greater risk than the diseases themselves. im not going to list my reasons cos im sure you dont want to hear it. But i took my decision seriously, spoke to an excellent paediatrician at my surgery who was in full support of my decision.

so some people dont vaccinate, so what? its their choice. there are more important causes to get angry about. why are you worried anyway if you've vaccinated your children then surely you should feel happy that they will never get ill. and its pointless to say "if everyone vaccinates then we could illiminate the disease, so its selfish not to" that would never happen so its a pointless arguement, people will always have different opinions and views of things, just the way it is.

I know this is slightly different......and I avoid these discussions normally....but for those of you with children in schools who hear rumours about x child not being vaccinated.........before you judge why......can you at least accept there is a minority of the population who cannot have jabs for medical reasons. One of my 4 children is not vaccinated for this reason, and oh my- do I get lectured about it- even from the medical proffessionals who don't understand, but I have been advised by two consultants NOT to immunise- so please be gentle on us folk! I would much rather dc was as the siblings are!

I think it's a really difficult one, because of course people have the right to make their own decisions about their children. But in the case of vaccination, they're actually relying on it being relatively low risk as the 'herd immunity' is high due to most other people vaccinating. Which is outrageously selfish IMO.

Countries with immunisation programmes = low levels of disease.
Countries without = lots and lots of disease.

It's a no brainer.

Homeopathy is a crock of shit imo, btw.

Imnvho it's not about the parents' rights to decide for their child but about herd immunity, which needs to stay at a certain level to protect the community as a whole. For me, getting my son vaccinated was a social act as well as a personal one. Not getting him vaccinated would, for me, have been on a par with deciding I wanted no part of this modern "refuse collection and sewage works" mumbo jumbo and that I was going to go back to the traditional system of having a midden in the back yard and flinging poo out of the window.

But I'm opinionated like that.

It is hugely selfish as it is easy not to vaccinate when the majority do as this herd immunity minimises the cases and so makes the chances of contracting it lower.People who don't immunise are relying on teh masses to in order to protect their own.

agree with OP....maybe if some people had immunised any eligible children last yr against swine flu, we might be hearing fewer reports in the media of kids dying. I actually think everyone should have been offered it last year as some of the cases of pregnant/new mothers dying is also heartbreaking.

As I have stated earlier though, my sister caught measles before she was old enough to be vaccinated.
From someone who had not been vaccinated.

M44, your family has an honourable exception. It's the ones who decide to opt out that bug me.