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.

"I think perhaps you are being unfair to them - people usually have a reason for important decisions even if they are not consciously aware of it or maybe they don't wish to share it" Maybe you're right Aviatrix and that the approximately 50% of people around here who chose not to vaccinate (that may have increased since) all have good well founded reasons. I am being "unfair" based on my discussions with other mothers, some of whom had done pretty good reading on the matter and made their mind up accordingly, some who hadn't given it much though but didn't want their child to have autism and thought measles wasn;t that bad even if they did get it, and two who were choosing the homeopathic route. Some of these were very close friends so I can't imagine they were shielding me from their decision making process. I could equally say that many people who do have the vaccine often do so without studying the evidence closely - would you think that an unfiar comment becasue I think thats probably equally true.

The fact that take up rates improved again when the media hoo haa died down makes me doubt that many people are making the decision based on facts or research but the latest story in the press.

Anyway my point wasn't whether I thought it was right or not how they came to their decision but that no-one seems to have come across people who have not vaccinated for anything other than solid reasons which surprised me.

Hmm good old wikipedia

I read the nhs and bupa pages instead and certain types of tetanus are very dangerous and symptoms come on very quickly.

But hey, as long as only 11 out of 100 victims die of this agonizingly painful disease, that's ok.

I have had my children vaccinated, and have never had a go at anyone who doesn't.

I expect anti-vaxers to extend the same courtesy towards me..but unfortunately just recently I have lost a friend who is so militant in her anti-vaxing quest that she chose to call me an 'ignorant sheep' for choosing to vaccinate.

Her loss.

I am just livid that she assumes I have made my decision based on no research at all.

It's all about informed choice and weighing up the odds and your chances of getting ill or dying from various diseases are widely publised, your chances of being affected by the vaccines are brushed under the carpet and kept from people.

If you look at the figures, there does seem to be a link between the amount of coverage in the press and vaccine take-up.
So even if nobody here was personally influenced in their decisions not to vaccinate by reading the Daily Mail (or similar) - some people were.

Chickenpox can be fatal. Rare, but not impossible. Although I think the motivation in the US was primarily to reduce working days lost through parents staying at home with infectious children.

Leonie - only 11% of tetanus cases are fatal? (according to wikipedia).
That isn't odds I'd like.

Leonie Why do people assume that when I only mentioned autism that I wasn't aware of the other claims? Stop being such a patronising knob.

I presume you are bald by now, such is the stupidity that surrounds you. It must be scary inside the head of a single issue freak.

Bear in mind too that some medical universities require proof of vaccination before you can join their medical degree courses. One of our DDs is studying medicine in Ireland so I know about this.

Ok normally wouldn't post on threads like this as well it makes me want to scream. My dc are not vaccinated. There is a history of severe reactions in my family. My older sister since having her pertussis vaccine, fitting and then suffering a cardiac arrest, has been in a wheelchair,totally dependant upon carers. She has a rare form of guilliane barre syndrome from which she has never recovered and often relapses resulting in lengthy hospital stays. On a bad day she lives with constant agony, a good day she can manage to hold a sippy cup but someone still needs to wipe her backside regardless.
My mum was in her words bullied into vaccinating my other sister she suffered a severe allergic reaction. My mum lives with this guilt daily. The vaccine compensation scheme is a pittance believe me and the actual process of claiming is hell.
My gp and both peads we took advice from agreed to not vaccinate my child and even if they said go ahead its safe he will be fine we still wouldn't. To suggest that parents don't vaccinate for woo reasons is insulting walk a mile in my shoes before you judge. Its so fucking easy to preach when your child suffers no harm and so easy to dismiss the children who have suffered serious ill health caused by vaccines 'for the greated good' of herd immunity.
I wont risk my child for the sake of others you don't like it well then all I can say is jog on.

Thank you for bringing this issue up. I can't believe the utter misleading crap and scaremongering that I have found on the internet about vaccination.

It is tragic that all the media hype surrounding MMR has made everyone so mistrusting of vaccines and the health professions in general. I can't imagine why people would think the NHS would try to poison us and put our children at risk?

Leonie, lol playing the autism card are we? What a loser. I was actually insulting you for being so single issue and so intemperate with others who have the temerity to disagree with you.

You don't have to be on the spectrum to be like that you know. But I am sure you know that dear.

Somehow I lost my rubella immunity between first pregnancy & this one. I had no idea this could happen - well it can!

I can't tell which kids are immunised or not but I do believe there are lots of them in my area (West London). I'm very thankful (as I'm sure my as yet unborn child will be too, all going well) that enough parents have had the sense to get their children immunised against rubella to the extent that as far as my doctors have been able to tell me, there have been no rubella outbreaks in my area in the last 8 months or so. (though there were several rubella outbreaks in our borough the previous year).

Clearly immunisation works - my uncle was badly afflicted by polio and has coped with the disabling side effects all his life long - thank goodness polio (and smallpox and diptheria, tentas etc) doesn't affect kids these days (at least not in the UK).

havent read up all of this but..

lenak - why are there outbreaks of disease in 100% vaccinated societies then? for example the smallpox outbreak in japan.

you all sound very threatened by us 'selfish non-vaccinators' as if we are scum and responsible for childhood death. its fucking disgusting and sensationalist crap. like an above poster said (sorry cant remember name) we are basically all worried about our own children's health. if you want to go along with the mainstream nhs view then fine, no'one is slating you for it, so stay on your high horse. some of us aren't happy enough with the contents of vaccinations, and believe all of the hype of disease to be scaremongering.

it is a risk not vaccinating, as it is a risk vaccinating. you just have to decide which risk sits better with your conscience.

I have 4 children, all vaccinated.

2 children have ASDs, 2 don't. My anti-vaxer friend has put it all down to 'luck'. Yet her 3 children who don't have any ASDs, don't have any because they aren't vaccinated.

Hmmm...I find that quite bizarre as opinions go.

chocolatepuff:

''it is a risk not vaccinating, as it is a risk vaccinating. you just have to decide which risk sits better with your conscience.''

Exactly, which is why I don't take to kindly to people who haven't vaccinated saying that I have put my children at risk. Each to their own, live & let live! I don't lecture the anti-vaxers and I expect the same respect :)

Rubella vax does wear off - always has done, even the monovalent. That's why all PG women are tested.

Having the rubella jab at 11+ (when the single jab was given) has been shown normally to provide 20+ years good protection. This tended to cover the childbearing years.

Now it's given at 13 and 36 months, I am left wondering if the expected duration of protection has increased, or if we are storing up a population if our daughters who are losing their immunity as they are falling pregnant. I'd be grateful if any of the well-informed in here could provide links to any evidence.

Chocolate puff: could you provide a link for the outbreak in Japan? The last "wild" outbreak of smallpox was in 1977. There was a death following a laboratory related transmission in 1978, but I wasn't aware of any other post eradication outbreaks.

Stupid question but can anyone tell me when accines became routine? I was just wondering if there is any research that has been done to show long term damage/benefit or is it too recent a thing?