For thinking i shouldn't be getting constantly pestered by the local nurse and GP team to get my daughter immunises when i've repeatedly told them my answer is no?

[Lowla]

My daughter is 4. She got all her jabs as a baby, but i stopped at the MMR one. Since we missed the appointment, i've been getting loads of letters to invite us to the clinic for the MMR jab and now her school booster jab for some other virus. (Hib or something like that).

I've phoned the GP and asked them not to send any more letters out as i've chosen not to get her immunised any further for my own personal reasons, and worries over her last reactions to the jabs. And now i've got some nurse calling me asking to do a home visit next week to 'check on me and dd'. I asked 'is this about the jabs?' and she said, rather reluctantly, 'yes'.

AIBU for feeling like they should respect my decision?

Sorry for the bad grammar. Writing this in a rush as i have to run and get dd from school.

Coffeeinbed
Yes, do - anybody who works with animals, in the country or in the garden needs to keep up to date. Tetanus is treatable but still deeply unpleasant and totally avoidable.

Duellingfanjo I am pregnant and have decided to have the vaccine when it comes out. My unborn child deserves to be immune from such a terrible disease. I did some checking, this vaccine has been routinely used in the US and France for years.

One good thing out of this thread - I'll have to ring up my surgery and renew my tetanus shot.

Apparantly they don't do them anymore once you've had you booster at 25 as it's not necessary. At least that's what they told me when I tried to book a booster at 35.

As far as I know once you've had a certain number of shots you're lifetime immune now. :

The full course of the tetanus vaccination consists of five doses. The first three doses are given during early childhood. This is followed by two booster doses. The first booster dose is given at around four years of age. The second one is given 10 years later.
After the full course, you should have lifelong immunity against tetanus. However, if you or your child has a deep wound, it's best to get medical advice.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tetanus/Pages/Introduction.aspx

It's personal choice and you should not be hassled. I choose to have my kids vaccinated because I feel its right. However if op thinks not vaccinating is right for her child then its up to her and the nurse doesn't really need to do a home visit!

Mydogsleepsontebed

Tbh I would hide the thread.
People love a good immunisation thread.
it has all the frisson of giving someone a good kicking but with an added dollop of moral outrage. They get themselves into a veritable frenzy of righteous indignation and have a fab time doing so.
They have no interest in nuances, no understanding of how difficult it is when you have a family history or a medical history that makes vaccination a problem.
They just want to cuntshout.
hiding is the most sensible thing

Sammy
tell them you go riding - rusty horse shoes ....
I got a booster at over 40 because I have a cut on my foot that took a long time to heal which made me high risk ....

The risk of febrile convulsions is a lot less as the child leaves toddlerhood. I had one when I was a baby. My DD1, now age 17 also had one a few days after a jab. DD1, DD2 and DS have had all jabs offered. If I had known about the jab for chicken pox before they had all had it, I would have paid for them to have that too.

The doctor who was very public about his feelings that the MMR caused autism was discredited. That was not so well publicised.

Of course those told not to get their children done would be unreasonable to go against that medical advice. BUT they need to rely on herd immunity for their children, so those that an be need to be immunised.

YABU.

To get back to the original thread ..... I don't think it is unreasonable for a surgery to chase anyone up for anything that 'needs' to be done.

If there were concerns about the mental health or welfare of the child, just because the parents have asked not to be contacted doesn't make it right IYSWIM ...

Mydog, I'm not saying you made a choice not to vaccinate, I appreciate that there are children who cannot be vaccinated. But I don't think that overrides my right to decide what goes inside my body or that of my babies.

There is a risk with vaccines, however small, and no one has the right to tell someone else that they should be taking that risk. It's just wrong.

Mydog - you seem to be deliberately missing the point here. You have made it perfectly clear your child cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons therefore your child is the reason other people should be vaccinated. To protect people like your child. Nobody is aiming comments about selfishness etc. At you. Nobody. You seem to be taking offence on the OP's behalf even though your reasons for having un-vaccinated children could not be more different.

YWNBU if you are making a decision that will only harm you; that decision should absolutely be respected

YWBU to make a decision that will harm your DD - this is why HCPs are 'hassling' you.

YABVVVU to make a decision that will harm the community as a whole.

It is similar IMO to drink driving - noone cares if a drunk driver kills themselves as a result of their own decisions, it is the danger to the innocent members of the community that people worry about.

Do you think a drink driver's 'decision' to drive while drunk should be respected too? It is their choice and their life at the end of the day

Immunisations are not a legal requirement at the moment, but I feel strongly that they should be (at least if you want your DC to attend school).

Freddos
But I don't think that overrides my right to decide what goes inside my body or that of my babies
Does that include the shed load of antibiotics, antivirals and painkillers that will be needed if you CATCH one of those diseases (all paid for by the rest of us in the UK thanks to the NHS)

YABU to expect the GPs to stop hassling you. Plenty of children miss their vaccinations for whatever reason, and need reminders. It's better that they annoy ONE person (you) in order to sweep up any others left behind.

And as someone else pointed out, if she reacted to a mild form of the virus, think how much worse it would be if she got the actual disease.

The point of vaccines in that yes, while there is always a small risk, the risk of the disease it is preventing is far higher.

And the more people with an anti vacc viewpoint, the more measles etc outbreaks there will be.

If "all vaccines wear off" as some people are claiming here, how is it possible that when my blood was tested at age 33 at my midwife booking appointment for immunity to rubella I still had immunity? Amazing! I'm just pleased I was vaccinated as a child.

I'm pregnant and I'm having the flu jab and I'm happy to have the combined jab against whooping cough when I'm able. I'm not interested in putting my unborn child at risk from these diseases. Whooping cough deaths are rising worldwide among newborns.

Cake is spot on - YABVVVU

GP's & Nurses have a responsibility to the community as a whole, that's why they promote immunisation. As a member of that community you have a responsibility too.

There are very few medical reasons to refuse vaccinations, and doing so 'on principle' is not one of them.

A genuine question to those who haven't had their child vaccinated (not to those children who are immuno suppressed etc...)

What do you do when you go abroad, especially to high risk areas? Would you vaccinate then?

Would you pay to have your children's immunity tested later in life? Thinking here of rubella for girls and mumps for boys?

I think we have forgotten how serious these diseases can be because we don't come into contact with them any more. A friend of the family suffered from polio as a child. He is now confined to a wheelchair because of the effects of polio. You rarely (quite rightly) if ever, see this today.

I would consider it a step back if preventable diseases made a comeback.

tell them you go riding - rusty horse shoes ....
I got a booster at over 40 because I have a cut on my foot that took a long time to heal which made me high risk ....

Aye, well yeah I could do that. On the other, being a firm believer in following the doctors advice re vaccinations, once he says I don't need the nasty jabby spikey thing, I'm outta there like a rat up an aquaduct.

*On the other HAND.

There is a risk with vaccines, however small, and no one has the right to tell someone else that they should be taking that risk. It's just wrong

Yes there is a risk, but there is also a risk in not vaccinating and imo the risk of not vaccinating is greater than the risk of vaccinating.

I think that parents should have the freedom to choose options for their children I just urge those parents to take responsibility for their decisions and talk to the children when they reach an age where they can understand the research themselves.

There is a risk when you take kids out in the car but if a parent decided to keep their child in the house to avoid the risk of taking them out in the car I would say the risk of social isolation and the negative impact on their development was greater than the risk of taking the kids out in the car.

I think what is selfish is when people say their child's health is more important than the health of the greater population.

IvanaHumpalot on a similar thread a while ago, the use of homeopathic anti malarial tablets was recommended :(

LOL
its your choice - because of the cut on my foot I had so many antibiotics I got black spots on my teeth. Tetanus jab was light relief!

Polio : Watch film of Ian Dury, Lord Snowdon or others of that generation to remember WHY we try to get rid of these disease.

I have to say that, 50 years ago, measles killed people - not just children - and immunisation of any sort has been a life saver so we must keep it.

I have an eye condition which has rendered one eye almost useless and the other is not much better. My mother always put it down to the whooping cough that I had as a child. I don't know if the 'side effect' is true or not but whooping cough was also a killer.

If any vaccination is available, take it.

Having said that, I have to admit that I am one of those a bit suspicious of the MMR and, if people prefer the individual vaccinations, they should be allowed to have them. If the NHS won't provide individual ones, do it privately. If everyone did it privately, the NHS might bring back the individual ones.

Talkinpeace, yes it does. But you don't need to go down the 'rest of the UK paying taxes' road with me. I pay more than enough of my fair share of tax thanks.

Ivana, I chose not to give my dc the MMR. I was lucky, I could afford the singles. If I couldn't have afforded the singles I would have still, at the time, have been very very reluctant to give the MMR. I have recently had my children vaccinated to go to North Africa, so yes, and I paid for the immunity tests after the singles had been given, so yes again. My child was immune sooner than he would have been if we had gone down the MMR route, and he didn't have extra injections unnecessarily.