To not want my baby to have the BCG?

[lill72]

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?

MrsDV - I have seen some people on here say that they wanted to get the CP vaccine because they were worried about scarring. That was the reason they gave - not because they were worried about their child dying from CP. They don't get a hard time for it.

Ultimately this is the OPs choice and it doesn't really matter what it is that influences her decision. We were offered it for our DC (family members from country with TB) but declined. I had a horrible reaction to mine which took months to heal and has left me with a huge scar.

I have a family member who caught TB and they did not have repeated exposure to it, so it can happen to anyone. The whole family had to be tested. I spent the whole weekend enclosed in the house with this person while they were contagious; we didn't realise what it was at the time. Luckily, I was vaccinated as a child.

We don't live in a high risk area but we were offered the vaccine for DD as some family members were working abroad in a high risk area at the time of her birth and were coming over to visit. We are glad we had the opportunity to give it to her as we regularly visit a high risk area in the UK. She has a tiny scar.

I'm pregnant and would really like this baby to have it too but we have no reason to qualify for it this time. I might mention that we regularly visit a high risk area in the UK, and see if that's a good enough reason.

I have a scar from my bcg. It's a round one about 1cm across. I also had a friend whose mum died of TB. Believe me the scar is worth it.

Mine all had it at two weeks and have tiny white scars. I had it at 13 as we all used to and have a massive scar that hasn't faded 30 years later...

Quangle my DC all had BCG shortly after birth in Westminster - was strongly recommended by hospital and GP.

Much as I'd like to continue to bang the drum for getting your child vaccinated against TB I'm just going to post this last thing.

My mum still gets down (decades later) at the time of year her siblings died of TB - it was nearly 70 years ago when she was about 10 - because she remembers how traumatic and awful it was.

Yes, I know that modern medicine is better at treating it but we also now have resistant TB and just listening to my mum's memories of that awful demise of her siblings would be enough for me to urge everyone to take the ofer of vaccination.

My DC (now teenagers) were both given BCG as small babies as my OH and both worked in hospital wards and were considered at a higher risk of contracting Tb. There were no problems with the injection and no scars on either of them that I'm aware of.

We are in Eastern Scotland. My son spent the last year in school sitting beside a girl in his science class who was recently diagnosed with Tb. He's fine and the girl is recovering but the disease is still out here.

offer

I had my two DC have the BCG within a month of birth and the scar is minimal especially in light of the effects TB can cause. I too am from Australia and returned to Oz in the last few weeks permanently. Whilst BCG isn't part of the standard immunisations here it can still be given if travelling to at risk countries. Also are u considering getting them immunised for Hep b which is part of the Australian schedule (they actually give it on the day of birth here and then it's 2 more injections). TBH whether u plan to come back to Oz or not it's no justification for refusing to protect ur child from a disease they can currently be exposed to IMO- unless u don't plan to catch public transport, spend anytime in a GP or hospital waiting room or attend community groups. The NHS offer this injection for a reason and that's because the rates of TB is increasing in so many boroughs. Someone's child is the statistic of getting TB in the UK do u want it to be yours?

This is a bonkers thread. Your children are yours on loan. One day they will leave home and perhaps hopefully travel the world. This is not just about immunity for 5 years. This is about their next (one would hope) 90-odd years. My husband was in a non-vaccination cohort and has been vaccinated this year as we live in an extremely high risk country. It was annoying, expensive and painful and he wished he'd had it years ago.

My maternal grandparents both died of TB, that was before there was a vaccination or antibiotics. I bet they would have gone for a scar if they would have had the choice.
I have scars from my pox vaccination on my upper arm. I always rather liked them. I like them even more since I saw a TV show which explained how we got rid of small pox.

In Australia they do give it in high risk areas, so just maybe not where you were living (country Australia wouldn't be a risk). I'm living in an Australian city and was aware when I had my baby 2 years ago that there was a questionnaire to determine whether it was necessary or not and my baby didn't qualify but I would have surely done it if recommended, what about the supermarket, the doctor's surgery etc - isn't TB airborne?.

Ridiculous. Have your child vaccinated.

Yes Mutley you are right that they do a risk assessment in Australia (just back from my first antenatal appt) for TB. They also ask all potential applicants for visas (beyond normal tourist visa) for a clear x-Ray and documentation that they don't have TB (among other illnesses) in order to be allowed into Australia which I think demonstrates how much of a serious illness TB is.

Only once of my DC were offered it.....because a grandparent was born in a particular country. We have absolutely no links to that country now. He was the only child in his class "qualifying" to be offered the vaccination. The whole thing seemed a bit half hearted. Either offer it to everyone, or don't bother.

I can't believe a scar is a consideration in not having a life saving vaccine.

The BCG is offered in Ireland as part of the free vaccination programme as we have a long history of TB in this country.

Obviously you can opt out if you choose.

My DS had it at 2 days old.

Never heard of it bring dropped in Cork by the way, it's still routinely given there.

As I understand, if you want to become a HCP in this country (Ireland!) you will need to have had the BCG.

Only one of my three children has had the BCG.

We used to live in Camden (currently high risk), when DS1 was born though it wasn't given routinely only to high risk groups. DS2 had it at 3 months. DD was offered it, but as we were moving out of London at the time, it didn't seem as necessary.

We certainly would have had it if we'd stayed in London though.

The thing is OP - maybe look at this from a more long term perspective.

At the moment you aren't in a low risk area - therefore you are already taking a chance from now until you leave back for Australia (assuming of course in five years time you still plan to go back). That's a pretty long time to have an unvaccinated child in a part of the world where TB is prevalent.

Secondly, even if you go back to Australia, when you're children get older, they are probably want to travel at some point. The BCG is a pretty big injection, and will cost money to have when older. You would be doing them a big favour by giving it to them now - free of charge, and when they are too young to remember it.

I had to have mine as a teenager. I passed out three times. If it had been possible to have had it as a baby I would have been furious at my parents for withholding it from me!

Then again I literally cannot fathom why anyone would knowingly withhold a vaccination from their children, unless there were specific medical reasons why it wasn't possible.

Your child will be an adult one day and may travel extensively. It makes such sense to give life time protection against a potentially fatal disease now. The reason TB is so much less common is because of BCG. If everyone stopped having it the disease would be back with a vengeance.

The vaccine doesn't give lifelong protection.

And? What sort of non-point is that?

Someone asked why the vaccine is no longer given to teenagers. Here's the answer on the NHS site:

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/bcg-tb-vaccine-questions-answers.aspx#teenagers

"TB is a difficult disease to catch because it requires prolonged exposure to an infected person. For example, you are very unlikely to catch it by sitting or standing next to someone who is infected. Also, rates of TB in the UK population have fallen to very low levels over the past 15 years.

"The BCG vaccination programme was changed to reflect this and is now only given to people in at-risk groups.

"If your child does not come into one of the higher-risk groups, the current advice is not to give them the BCG vaccination on the NHS. There are private clinics that parents can approach for a BCG vaccination, but the NHS does not keep a list of these clinics."