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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want my baby to have the BCG?

204 replies

lill72 · 30/03/2015 12:16

Hi,
I went to give my 21 week old DD the BCG the other day, but then chickened out at the last moment, due to the scar. Hear me out - this is not the only reason. We live in London in what is considered a high risk area, but we are not considered high risk, according to the GP. He said he would feel comfortable not giving it. We are from Australia where it is not given, and we will most likely return within 5-7 years, ie before DD goes to sschool. As you need repeated contact with a person who has it, I just consider our risk so low, that I don't feel out individual circumstances warrant it.
Thoughts?

The GP said many parents with simialr backgrounds or are going to move out of London when their children go to school dont get it either. Thoughts?

OP posts:
MrsDeVere · 30/03/2015 20:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

foslady · 30/03/2015 20:44

Hadn't realised that seaoflove - then that makes vaccination even more important in my eyes. Why risk putting your child through such an illness as TB?

MrsDeVere · 30/03/2015 20:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sarascompact · 30/03/2015 21:17

"Every single baby in Ireland is vaccinated against TB, unless there is a medical reason not to."

Is it mandatory in Ireland, Venus?

PoppyAmex · 30/03/2015 21:50

Again, illustration of how Darwinism works.

Because of a "scar"? Words fail me.

ElizabethLemon · 30/03/2015 21:55

Yabu and a fool op. We live in a high risk area of London too and my child had it at a few months old. Yes he has a tiny scar, the same scar thousands of other children have. I'd rather that than risk him being killed by TB.

Chippednailvarnish · 30/03/2015 22:18

Poppy that made me lol!

ratspeaker · 30/03/2015 22:25

Its your choice OP

All I can say is my DS had latent TB. His treatment involved many x rays and MONTHS of antibiotic treatment. We're in Scotland. I'd have thought our risk was low.
If he'd had active TB the treatment could have taken up to a year. On a mixture of antibiotics and possibly steroids. And remember it's not just the lungs that can be affected, many other organs can be infected , it can even lead to meningitis.

But it's your choice.

pointythings · 30/03/2015 22:28

If it were offered here, my DDs would have had it - because I have seen TB at first hand in a good friend and colleague. It is devastating. Only an idiot would choose to run that risk.

tshirtsuntan · 30/03/2015 22:32

If you choose not to have it you are relying on herd immunity which in my opinion is wrong.

Salmotrutta · 30/03/2015 22:32

Get your baby vaccinated.

There were two deaths from TB and two protracted illnesses in my mothers family back in the late 1940s before streptomycin was discovered.

My mother always said the people who died suffered terribly.

I don't mean to be a scaremonger but seriously OP - get your baby vaccinated.

bumbleymummy · 30/03/2015 22:33

People often choose to have the CP vaccine because they don't want their child to have scars from CP. They don't usually get given a hard time for that.

OhGood · 30/03/2015 22:36

I live in a low-risk area but travel to a high-risk area once a year or so.

I declined the BCG for DS when he was very little (because DD's was done badly, and caused her problems, and I just could not face that when he was tiny; and because we weren't going anywhere risky) but had it done when he was 1.

CalicoBlue · 30/03/2015 22:37

If you choose not to have it you are relying on herd immunity which in my opinion is wrong.

The BCG is nothing to do with herd immunity. BCG is not part of the national immunisation programme and is only offered to parents/babies living in high risk areas in the UK. They constantly change how they offer it too. DS was never offered it and DD was, born in the same hospital, home address the same, just a couple of years apart.

They used to offer it to teenagers but this was stopped years ago.

PannaDoll · 30/03/2015 22:41

I'm an Australian living in London and went out of my way to make sure my daughter got her shot. A year on, there is still a visible mark but I'd rather she had that than TB.

PannaDoll · 30/03/2015 22:44

p.s. have heard murmurings of TB making an appearance in Australia again so you can't even rely on the safe knowledge of returning home to eradicated TB land.

MrsDeVere · 30/03/2015 22:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ouryve · 30/03/2015 22:48

DS1 had it hortly after birth as he was potentially exposed to someone who turned out to be infected, in hospital.

No idea where he had it. There is no scar to remind me. I had it as a pre-teen and ended up with a tiny scar, which has completely gone.

seaoflove · 30/03/2015 22:49

Let me just reiterate: I am not an anti-vaxxer.

However, all the posters ripping the OP a new arsehole: have YOU had your babies vaccinated against tuberculosis? Were you even offered the BCG for your children? Bet a lot of you haven't/weren't.

I just get the impression that the majority of people getting hysterical actually know very little about the NHS BCG programme and its (very patchy) coverage.

Arudonto · 30/03/2015 22:52

Its done as a matter of course in Ireland but not mandatory.It has occasionally been dropped in certain counties like Cork but its those areas that seen outbreaks in Nurserys and schools so as far as I am aware its now offered again.

My uncle had tb at the age of 21.He was sick and hospitalised for months on end.My grandmother had 4 siblings.They all died of tb leaving her an only child.

A scar is nothing!

Jackieharris · 30/03/2015 23:03

I have an awful scar from my BCG.

It's big enough and noticeable enough for people to frequently comment on it if I wear a sleeveless top. I refused to wear sleeveless tops/dresses for several years because of this.

So I don't think that's a 'superficial' reason.

If you do get it, get it in the thigj

Salmotrutta · 30/03/2015 23:08

seaoflove - I was vaccinated at birth due to my mums family and my children were also vaccinated at 12 years in the 1990s.

BCG was routinely done here at least until then.

I was actually vaccinated again at 18 because I was no longer immune.

And the only scar I ever had from vaccination was actually my smallpox jab. Which they no longer do anyway but I never had a scar from the BCG.

Salmotrutta · 30/03/2015 23:10

Jackie - well. I'm sure my Mum would much rather have had her siblings alive with a scar than dying rather horribly Hmm

QTPie · 30/03/2015 23:11

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

KatherinaMinova · 30/03/2015 23:18

YANBU to not want your baby to have the BCG, but don't make the decision on grounds of the scar. I had the vaccination as a small child - no scar now. DD does have the scar - but so does everyone else round here.

I wouldn't go on the say-so of one GP either (on anything serious, actually). Do some proper research on the pros and cons and make your decision based on that.