To be fucked off that parents not vaccinating their child is risking my childs life?

[TheGlovesAreOrf]

I never judged them before. I never cared, if they chose not to vaccinate their child I always thought it was their choice and its not for me to have an opinion.
I never used to give it much more thought that that. I vaccinate mu children and what others do with theirs is none of my business.

Until I have a child who's immune system is often (but not always, steroid use) compramised. He is more likely to pick up bugs, and not deal with them very well.

He is also allergic to many things. I know tha egg allergy isnt usually an issue, but the MMR is cultivated on egg albumin. He is allergic to egg (anaphylactic) chicken meat, and feathers. The whole caboodle. Im pretty sure his tiny body wont like egg albumin either.

He's due to have this vaccine very very soon in hospital and Im absolutely shitting myself. Every time I remember it my stomach drops and my heart races.

Im genuinely thinking, what if he dies?

I cant get the vaccines done individually because the private clinics wont touch me with a barge pole.

I cant risk leaving it (Ive left it 18 months so far) because the area I live in has a very low MMR rate.

And that really, really angers me. Probably irrationally so.

I should be able to leave it. My son should be protected by societies use of the MMR.

Instead I either have to risk him getting an illness, or risk giving him this injection.

As if he hasnt been enough already.

I know IABU, but I just feel very resentful and angry towards those who choose not to vaccine right now.

More than prepared to be flamed for this.

But you don't have to worry so much about them because most people vaccinate if that dies off you'd be in trouble

Like Saintly I just don't feel that the rates will ever drop so low to be concerned about. I'm not saying it's not a fleeting thought but in the grand scheme of things, as an immunosuppressed person, I have bigger fish to fry. Yes, lady in Starbucks with cute baby with possible whooping cough, I am looking at you.

YABU. You're anger is mis placed.

And you can't shrink wrap the world with cotton wool for you son.

Whooping cough is part of the vaccination programme

This was a young baby with supposed whooping cough.

Vaccination should be mandatory,unless there is a real medical condition involved.
I know that some private nursaries are making it so.

Mandatory for flu then? Everyone seems to have ignored my post. I'm not making it up. And shingles for 70+ - are we making that mandatory too? Or is our hysteria confined to children?

If they would let me have the flu jab I would!

I'm talking specifically about the MMR. There is no excuse not to have your child vaccinated. There is no proven link between the vacine and autism. Andrew wakefild was discredited a long time ago.
I cannot for the life of me understand why people choose to ignore facts, but will happily cite gobbleygook they have read on some half baked internet forum.

Actually the studies have shown that MMR was not responsible for the rise in autism (no- one said it was). And they treated autism as one thing, which it's not (and recent papers are recognising that).

One of the fastest growing fields in autism research is the role of the immune system for some subgroups of autism. Some of those models even consider the role vaccinations may occasionally play in specific subgroups. (Shhhh don't tell anyone).

My children have had the single vaccines for reasons that I won't go into.

All the children I know have had the MMR or single vaccine. Most parents want their children vaccinated.

I also meant to add that I think that parents who have not vaccinated their children probably have very good reasons for not doing so.

ubik,no but I think people should be a bit more aware of things like waning immunity and that some vaccines are not as effective as they should be before they start attacking others who have made different decisions about vaccination.

That's true. I was vaccinated against measles and still caught it. I had rubella as a child, was vaccinated against it as a teenager and when I was pregnant the blood test showed that I had no immunity.

Bogeyface Tue 15-Oct-13 23:10:40
But some children do get very very sick and thats why herd immunity is so important, and why I think that the CP vaccine should be made available on the NHS.

This thread is a brilliant example of why CP vaccination would be a bad thing in this country. Too many parents not willing to vaccinate their kids (for whatever reason, some medically justified, some not). Vaccinating below the level required for herd immunity pushes up the average age of infection, and CP is one of those diseases which is more severe the older you are when you get it. Herd immunity for chicken pox is particularly high, hence implementing vaccination programs isnt recommended.

Add message | Report | Message poster TheGlovesAreOrf Tue 15-Oct-13 22:04:09
Jan who has been severely brain damaged by a vaccine?

My SIL.

She went for a routine DPT vaccine, and was under the weather. MIL took no notice; it happens.

She went for the 2nd one, and SIL was ill for a week; they ended up taking her to the hospital. When MIL asked if it was the vaccine, the dr laughed her off and told her not to be so silly.

After the 3rd one, within 30 minutes, SIL had overheated so much she lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness a week later, she was left permanently brain damaged. The high temperature had caused it.

Doctors now say that the DPT vaccine given in the 80's has now been changed, because of 'some issues'. My GP knew about it too. But these same doctors told my devastated MIL that it was just 'one of those things', for 20 years.

Even though it has been acknowledged to MIL that SIL's reaction came from the vaccine; it's cold comfort. SIL is 31, and still lives at home and requires 24 hour care.

It isn't all black and white. When my DH was born, MIL (obviously) refused to give him the DPT. It was met with disbelief by her local children's clinic, who said she was just being bloody minded and neglectful , and even when he later joined the armed forces, it was highlighted that he'd not had it. The doctor running the medical told him that MIL had obviously bought into the hype of the times, and would he like it now? There needs to be more sympathy and belief of people who's children really do have problems with vaccines. Because it happens. That is a fact.

Did anyone ever find out why the government won't allow single vaccines? It seemed to boil down to "because we say so" but maybe they have come up with a better reason since that I've not heard.

It seems that more people would be vaccinated against more diseases if it were allowed so perhaps complaints and searching questions should be directed to them.

That still seems to pretty much still be the case BackOnly. Apparently re-introducing it now would undermine the MMR. They shouldn't have taken it away to begin with. Particularly just after some concerns had been raised.

Didn't they say that it was because they didn't think people would turn up for six separate appointments (assuming they were going to give two doses of each) so we wouldn't achieve herd immunity?

There's that, and it's probably more expensive for them, but I don't see why they couldn't charge people for the extra appointment times if they chose singles.

Thing is, they don't actually need to give Mumps and Rubella at the same time as measles. So the 6 separate appt thing is a bit of a non-issue. If people want to protect their kids against certain diseases - they will show up for the appt. They manage it for all the other ones!

LaurieFairyCake Just wanted to say that as an older poster I find the whole thing a bit puzzling too. I had all the childhood illnesses when they did the rounds and everyone treated them as a nuisance rather than anything to worry about. I remember being quite uncomfortable, but it wasn't a big deal.

Maybe people were dying left and right back then from measles etc and no one told me, but if so you'd think parents would have been more concerned. We didn't even bother the GP for the standard illnesses and no attempt was made to avoid other infected kids. I wonder if something could have changed so that what was inconvenient back then is extremely dangerous now?

Of course people with damaged immune systems would be in much more danger, but they must have existed back then too.

I'm not against vaccination either. Though a bit confused by the government pushing it and then making it difficult for some people.

I can see then threads moved on quite a bit since I last posted, Im barging back in with a slight update/quandary.

I spoke to two private clinics today. One no longer has single vaccines. The other, who on no uncertain terms, said he would not vaccinate my child in -what was- his own home/clinic, now works in a GP practice, has an egg free measles vaccine but isnt happy to do it there still.

So, I have to try and persuade the paeditrician on Wednesday (when we get the CP vaccine) to either someone how (?) get the single vaccine from the private clinic to their hospital and administer it during an appointment, or give this private doctor the go ahead to travel to the hospital with said vaccine and give it to my son in the hospital/safe place.

It seems very simple on paper.

I dont think it will be in practice.

Oh Im the OP by the way, I changed back to my 'usual' username.

bumbleymummy Yeah 'undermining the MMR' is one of those explanations that sounds like it means something.

BrokenSunglasses I could sort of see that, but all they'd need to do is make the MMR really easy to get and let those parents with concerns or in special situations have the singles. And as you say they could even charge them for the extra appointments. They'd still be better of then having people say "in that case we can't have any at all".

OHforDUCKScake hope you can make that work.

YANBU

Ducks, I hope you can work it out. Keep us posted. It seems awful that they are making it so difficult for you when you clearly have a need for it!