Unvaccinated children around newborn

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I don't want to clog the other post here but I wondered what peoples thoughts are.

I'm currently pregnant. My closest friend chooses not to vaccinate her children aged 2 and 6 and has done this since pregnancy, both children attend nursery. Although I wouldn't make the same decision I don't want to debate her reasoning or the pros and cons of vaccination, there has been plenty of that on the other thread.

I have tried to research the possible risks but feel I'm stumbling in the dark on google. AIBU to not allow her / her children to have contact with my DS until he is able to receive his immunisations or am I being PFB?

Do not take any chances with your babies, you don't want to be in my shoes

I thought that even if a person has had a vaccine they could still spread that disease though as the vaccines are not always 100% effective.

YANBU to keep newborn away from all children if at all possible. We have scarlet fever, hand foot and mouth and slapped cheek circulating at the moment. Also you should stay away from all baby groups which again I don't consider unreasonable as my DD2 caught so many bugs from being taken along to toddler groups for her big sister. DD3 and I stopped going because I got so fed up of permanent infections.

At least she has made you aware they're not vaccinated. My nephew had mumps when my kids were 2 and 3, he's a few years older. I was shocked he had caught it, to which my MIL said that SIL hadn't had her kids vaccinated as "she didn't want them to catch autism". I wanted to bang my head against the wall after hearing the stupidity. Thanks for frigging telling me!!!

YANBU. In the country where I live doctors actually recommend you don't see anyone in the first six weeks who hasn't been vaccinated. As everyone else said - she's made her decision, you've made yours.

Hum. My newborn DD was exposed to measles by her half brother (my DSS) when she was literally days old and the dr we called in a panic did reassure us that because of my immunity she would in all probability be fine - and she was (I have loads of immunity it seems, I've been immunised against measles at least three times and actually had measles as a baby pre-MMR).

Having said that, I was absolutely apoplectic that my baby was put at risk because of DH's ex's inability to carry out any form of critical thinking faith in what she'd read in the paper.

I don't think you're being unreasonable to say that you don't want unvaccinated children around your DS. Children are generally much more germy than adults, and exposed to far more of these childhood diseases.

Ollieplimsoles, you are calling irresponsible the parents who don't vaccinate, that's your opinion and that's fine, many will agree, some won't.

Knowing you didn't have the Mmr at 15, you could have checked out your immunity before becoming pregnant and held off. It was in your own hands to go into a pregnancy knowing you were not protected against rubella.

Why is it the responsibility of a parent to vaccinate their child to protect someone like you? a child doesn't need to protected against rubella, it is not dangerous to a child, only a pregnant woman.

To me, you are as irresponsible to go into a pregnancy unprotected against rubella as you obviously think I am, for not vaccinating my child!

I think yabu - children will catch lots of things throughout their childhood, you cant stop it all as much as you want to. you also only know about your friends kids - what about all the others you don't know about? are you going to stop these people touching/breathing your baby? how will you know the nurses are vaccinated?

I think your overthinking vaccinations and illness and need to think about talking to your doctor about it rather than worry about your unborn baby catching things.

You don't know which adults have been fully vaccinated either and as others have said, they'll come into contact with lots of strangers germs in public. If she had kept it secret that they weren't vaccinated you'd be none the wiser. My best friend wasn't vaccinated as a child, I didn't even think twice about letting him near my DC TBH.

Likewise my grandmother and father actually.

side

So you haven't vaccinated your children?

I'm not getting into a argument with you over this, I had a smear test before getting pregnant and I mentioned it to the nurse as she knew we were ttc, she told me they test your immunity and i would be offered a jab when pregnant. She said its fine to go ahead as I probably had some immunity, I did but not full. What happened to me was highly unlikely and I was unlucky.

Just like your child would be unlucky to catch it. You do realise that if you haven't vaccinated, rubella is the least of your worries though don't you?

YANBU

Ollie, fully aware of that, thanks!

3 of my DC were late with their vaccinations, think school age for various medical reasons. None saw my DN when she was born until her vacs were done The area we live in has a high non take up rate. I think I was one of the few parents pushing for a hosp bed so the DC could be immunised. wierd parent
OP you are NBU, your baby your choice

Yanbu, and it's irrelevant whether they look healthy when they visit or not. They could be incubating anything.

There needs to be less pussyfooting around parents who don't vaccinate their kids for no good reason. Some kids can't be vaccinated for valid reasons of course, but the drop in herd immunity is real, and caused by idiots who would rather believe something they read on the web than epidemiological evidence. We live in crowded societies, we cannot afford to let herd immunity lapse.

In some countries you can't attend school unless you can prove you've been vaccinated- I agree with that (valid medical exemptions ofc.)

Parents need to understand the consequences of not vaccinating - their kids, and other kids who are too young/can't have jabs, are at risk because of their gullibility. So are pregnant women, the very young/old/immune compromised/cancer patients/transplant patients etc.

Measles etc are nasty, nasty diseases.

So no, yanbu. Stand your ground.

Mrsdevvere why is it a daft argument? Why have people on here started to take an unhealthy interest in vaccinations and disease all of a sudden - Why are people so anxious about it?

IRL I don't know anyone who mentions vaccinations and diseases or what their kids have and haven't had. No one asks if kids are vaccinated or stops they're children playing with others for fear of vaccinations or possible diseases.

Why have people on here started to take an unhealthy interest in vaccinations and disease all of a sudden - Why are people so anxious about it?

Maybe because there has been a trend lately towards not vaccinating. For example, in the US, with measles. Kids are starting to catch some of these preventable diseases again. I don't think it's unreasonable to be anxious about a disease than can (and has) take the lives of small children.

skiptonlass thank you!

Currently pregnant, and I won't be letting my kid around any unvaccinated kids. I've seen how bad measles can be.. No way is that happening.

The child mortality rates in the western world pre sanitation/vaccination were staggering. They still are staggering in countries which have poor health infrastructure. You don't see women in war torn sub Saharan countries refusing vaccines because they see, first hand, what these diseases can do. Polio, measles, rubella... All nasty, nasty things that kill or maim.

And yet we have anti vaxxers. We can't accept that autism is complex, caused by the interactions of a network of a couple of dozen genes interacting in subtle ways. We have to look for a single cause we can crusade against, because that's simpler. It's "burn the witch" for the 21st century...

The degree of ignorance and scientific illiteracy I see every day just in some of Facebook groups for mums where I live... It's stunning. It's a weird mix of gullibility and paranoia.

Vaccinate your goddamn kids, people, or they don't get to participate in society.

Peggy are you in Scotland?

I think coverage rates are higher here than in England and within England there are hotspots were the vaccination levels became quite low for mmr. I think rates have picked up again in recent years. (The non vaccinated for mmr I know are 18/ 19 years now.)

Yep I get babies are fragile and they are precious.

Rupert I would think there is more people than ever get vaccinated nowadays - is there a trend towards not vaccinating in the UK? I genuinely dont know because I don't know of anyone who talks about it and assume most people do vaccinate.

Tiny yes I'm in Scotland.