To give my child additional vaccinations

[MeridianMother]

I have opted to vaccinate my toddler against chicken pox and meningitis b (4 separate jabs) at quite a cost, but one I consider to be worth it. Certain members of my family have told me this is unfair to my child (to put her through trauma of extra injections) and unnecessary. They are implying I am some sort of cotton wool parent to do this and i need to relax a bit more. She is also about to have the flu vaccine (nasal spray), to which they rolled their eyes, even though it is recommended by NHS.

Would other people think this way of me?

YANBU. I'm just about to have ds vaccinated against HPV with Gardasil, as I feel strongly that boys should be protected against these forms of cancer, and that they should not be passing HPV onto women. The UK doesn't yet recommend it but remember the government used the wrong vaccine, cervarix, when they started vaccinating girls Don't tell your family anything, why should you?

YANBU

Chickenpox the disease is nothing at all to worry about but having to strictly quarantine for up to a week at an unpredictable no-notice timing, I find extremely stressful. So I would vaccinate if easily available for that reason alone.

Up to you, no biggie either way.

I decided that if my children hadn't caught CP by 12 I would (after talking it over with them) get them vaccinated. My reasoning behind waiting was that the evidence that the time (which may have changed) suggested that the immunity was shorter lasting than actually catching it so boosters are needed and it wasn't clear if that would be regular boosters as an adult too. If I had immunised them as children then their immunity lapsed and they caught it as an adult then they would have been greater risk of being more ill than if they had it as a young child.

I'm now trying to decide if we should get private HPV vaccines for my 15yo son, only girls are given it but there is a good argument that boys would benefit too.

YANBU. I also got both DC vaccinated against CP. I'm of the mindset that if you can get your child vaccinated against a potentially nasty disease and it isn't contradindicated for them, then get it.

Having son vaccinated against HPV is on my list of things to do when the time comes.

HappyCria - that is exactly what is happening in the US, rates of shingles has skyrocketed!

Frequent exposure to CP keeps your immunity topped up. Without it everyone will need a CP vaccine (which is what they give the elderly to protect against shingles)

Because our children are mixing far less with older people, this natural top up is greatly reduced now, anyway, though.

Oddboots - I had decided the same thing, but they both have had it. I had to be immunised when I was planning on trying for a baby (found out when I had a blood test done to check my immunities).

I'm also going to get them the HPV vaccine, but the one that immunises against 4 types rather than just 2.

Yanbu. Injections are not a trauma for most.

Vaccines, in general never offer full immunity. I don't think it has ever been said they do...

They offer some protection, that protection being that if & when your child gets the disease they are vaccinated against, the effects of that disease are of a lesser nature than they would be if said child was not vaccinated.

I don't believe any one has ever stated that vaccines offer immunity.

The only person's opinion you should be considering its the child's father. Doesn't matter what other family members think, discuss it with the father and come to an agreement that suits you both.

As for your original question - if you can afford it and have weighed up pros and cons and the pros win out, then yanbu.

We had both our child privately vaccinated for TB as it was not offered in our area. Personally, I thing vaccination is something that is the best and easiest and cheapest form of healthcare there is and in the future of your child's life when they are travelling who knows where in the World thy will be safer for it.

I really am worried about TB vaccination no longer being offered. TB is very much a killer and on the rise in the UK with so much immigration from high risk TB areas.

YANBU. Slightly different but we shunned the MMR in favour of single jabs and got many comments re they extra jabs being painful and dragging it out. Not to mention an undertone of why we thought we were opting for private jabs.

Just ignore them, vaccines are down to the parents nobody else.

Yanbu.

We have vaccinated our four dcs against chickenpox and men b and they have the flu vaccination each year (except ds1 due to egg allergy)

Can I just add (as there's a couple of wrong assumptions on this thread), that you can't 'catch' shingles. You can only develop it if you've had chicken pox already as it's the dormant virus reactivating itself. You can catch chicken pox from shingles though.