To wonder why on earth you would not vaccinate your DCs?

[olimpia]

I hear from another thread that some people choose not to vaccinate their DCs at all and I'm genuinely interested to hear why because I can't think of a single reason not to. I can perhaps understand opting out of the MMR if someone believes the bad press (not that I do) but all the other vaccinations? Why, oh why?
(not a troll! Just relatively new to MN)

Because some people mistake anecdotes for statistics?

Because your children can't be vaccinated for medical reasons.
Because you have a history of vaccine damage in your family.
Because you believe the risks outweigh the benefits.

None of these apply to me and my children are fully vaccinated, I do however accept that they are valid reasons.

This ole chestnut, again.

The risks outweigh the benefits?
Surely not?

There are some children for whom it would be very dangerous because of allergies. That's one reason. Or there are lots of others here

And that's before you get into individual views, feelings or fears.

And so I don't get accused of an agenda mine are vaccinated. They didn't have the mmr because they were due at the same time the mmr link to autism story was first out, so I took no chances and paid for the single vaccines. If you look on my profile, you'll see why I'm grinning!

It's a 'hot topic' and something a lot of people feel very very strongly about.

DD1 and DD2 all vaccinated.
DS 1 born at time of MMR scare and has not been vaccinated. Yes, it worries me. But so do lots of things.

Some might be allergic to components of the vaccine eg egg or gluten, others may have kids with a weakened immune
system or on immune suppressants after transplants and therefore can't have live virus vaccines and other parents may genuinely believe that some vaccinations can cause various conditions and choose not to. It can be hard to find genuine truthful accurate information and statistics :)

I accept because of vaccine damage in the family and because of medical reasons but surely those must be very rare occurrences? I somehow picked up from the other thread that it was a life style choice sort of not to vax? I may be completely wrong.

For some children the risks do outweigh the benefits. Only the parents can make a final decision on that.

Hecate

Can I just say, that you are so luffley and reasonable.

I haven't vaccinated because of various reasons including a history of adverse reaction.

But yabu to find it really shocking that some people may make different choices to you.

And yabu not to just ask on the thread.

So now I have two shit fest, arse wanky threads on my active convos instead of one.

because people can - some will have valid reasons as outlined above - some will believe dubious websites and scaremongering

but all have the absolute RIGHT to not vaccinate

Mine all are but that was may informed choice

because whilst the link has been "supposedly" debunked in this country the vaccine/brain damage/autism debate is ongoing in others court case payout here

Ds has autism. he had the MMR in the period of time when wakefield was being pilloried. If I had another child, knowing that statistically that child had a higher chance of having autism anyway, I would give the risks a lot more consideration

I think its one of those things that each family has to do what is right for them and in some cases parents will feel that the best thing for the child is to not vaccinate, in other cases the child may not be able to be vaccinated for whatever reason.

That said although I did my research before DS had vaccines (especially the MMR) really not giving DS vaccines wasn't really an option and he also has his flu jab annually.

Ha ha OP!

Wonder away why doncha?

Vaccines are like all medicines, risky for certain people. Your child may be one of those people.

Fair enough if there is medical reason or adverse reaction. Otherwise I don't get why you wouldn't do something so important to your DCs' health.

We paid for single vacs for our 2 DCs, instead of the mmr. This was not because of autism, but because bowel problems were also reported. As bot my mum's and dad's families have a history of bowel disorders, I wasn't taking any chances that the mmr could trigger a potential bowel weakness in the children.

As it turned out I feel glad we did this as DS does have bowel issues and requires Movicol now and again. He needed it a lot when he was younger, but seems to be growing out of the problem.

apart from the medical/reaction viewpoint, there is a case to be made for catching certain diseases 'wild', rather than vaccinating against them.

in some instances, it would appear that vaccinating is pushing diseases into ageing populations (where the vaccine has worn off), and those diseases (chicken pox, mumps to name but a couple) are more serious, and have higher complication rates among adults than among children.

bear in mind that the mmr, when it was brought in, was a 'one jab for life' vaccine. which was found not to be as effective as originally stated, and so the booster was brought in, to 'mop up' those who did not gain immunity fromt he first jab.

it is now being discussed whether a further booster should be added, and indeed there are some doctors who believe it shoudl be 'topped up' every 4-8 years. a far cry from 'one jab for life'.

meanwhile, assuming that the boosters are needed - that leaves a lot of peopel wandering around thinking they are immune when in fact they probably aren;t, hence the risk to the ageing population.

This thread isn't about the MMR.

Last post to dawn

I now Starlight - was just using mmr as one example of why people might not 'trust' (for want of a better phrase) vaccinations, and may decide to go with catching the disease wild instead.

ffs. Know

and x-post

If you have a reason to not give say, the whooping cough jab, then you have to forego diphtheria, tetanus, and two others (forget which), even if you wanted them.

Very strange.