To ask if you decided not to vaccinate your children

[Mintpepper]

Do you regret it? Did they catch any of the diseases that they could have been vaccinated for and what was the outcome?

And anyone who did get their children vaccinated - did they catch any of the diseases anyway? And do you regret vaccinating for any reason?

This isn't intended to start a debate for or against vaccination generally as that's been done many times, I'm more just interested in your personal experiences if you'd be willing to share them. Thank you.

I'm not a journalist and I'm not basing my decision on few anecdotes, no, I'm reading all the research and books on the subjects I can get hold of too. I believe in researching and questioning things myself, and a part of that is by asking for other people's experiences. I'm not an anti-vaxxer nor am I necessarily pro vax, I'm currently on the fence until I feel like I've got as much information as I can.

I chose to vaccinate both of my children.

There will always be a small risk linked to any injection or medication but I think in balance it is better to take it as the protection they offer far outweighs the risk.

The other thing to bear in mind is how selfish not vaccinating is to the rest of society. You will be increasing the risk of spreading the illnesses to - elderly people, other small children - cancer patients undergoing chemo are also at risk.

My son has a boy in his year who has just had a kidney transplant, in my daughter's year, there is a girl who has cancer. If they came into contact with a child who had measles, mumps etc they would be massively at risk.

In my opinion, it is irresponsible not to immunise.

Lazy journalism

Most of the older members of my family have lost someone, or have lifelong complications from a now preventable disease. I had all my vaccinations but when I was pregnant I discovered that the MMR hadn't taken, and I regretted not having this tested for before I got pregnant, as I had to worry about German measles particularly. My friend had a baby who couldn't be vaccinated until her immune system improved, and couldn't use public transport for over a year.

I have discussed this at length with people I know who have been very keen to 'educate' me into not vaccinating, and found that a lot of people feel 'attacked' if you don't validate their choices.

Mine are all vaccinated against everything.

When I was growing up, my Mum had a friend with a severely disabled dd because she had caught rubella whilst pregnant.
I also remmeber the story of Helen keller well, who was bkind and deaf due to measles.
When we were small and my mum was wondering about the whooping cough vaccine (which was considered to be less safe at the time) he GP friend told her about the children she had seen with brian damage due to whooping cough.

Now my Mum is 76, and has to take steroids, so her immunity is compromised. I have a good friend whose son has Crohns and his medication compromises his immunity too.
I would hate to be the person that made either of them sick as I sat on a bus with them and an ill, unvaccinated child.

I vaccinated my child and have absolutely no regrets about doing so.

I'm sorry but there should be no question in your mind about this. If you don't trust scientific research, what not waste your time investigating whether the earth's flat or if there really were dinosaurs rather than something which could kill your child.

Hmmm I'm thinking journalist too....

But giving the OP the benefit of the doubt, my two have had (and will have) all vaccinations going. I honestly think people that don't vaccinate their kids are shockingly selfish and thick as pigshit (genuine medical reasons excepted).

The autism 'link' was discredited years ago so if you're choosing not to vaccinate based on that you really need to bring yourself up to date.

The reality is that most people who choose not to vacinate their children do so safe in the knowledge that they are unlikely to ever catch the diseases in question. Then when there is an outbreak they all stampede to the nearest clinic in panic.

Vaccine damage does occur but I think most people would be willing to risk it if the alternative was a high probability that your child then caught measles/whooping cough/meningitus etc. The risk of death/damage from the diseases themselves is far, far higher than the risk from the vaccine - if you catch them.

I have had measles, German measles, mumps etc. It was shit. I wish I'd been able to be vaccinated.

vaccinate your child. don't be selfish. your child would probably prefer not to suffer preventable diseases because you took medical advice from internet randoms instead of the nhs.

If this offends you, it's because you know it's true. fuck about with your own health not your child's.

I'm flattered that you think I write well enough to be a journalist. I'm not but if it makes you feel clever to accuse me of being one then go ahead. I think as pp said, people get so irate (and they would say justifiably so) when people have an alternative view that it makes them scared to say anything. I want to hear both sides as well as do my own research before I make decision, simple as that

As demonstrated already by people becoming furious because someone has even expressed hesitation or a wish to find out more!

My sister had Whooping Cough. It was so horrible and awful and every other descriptor. I have a shit memory, but even I remember the sound and how ill she was.

I didn't have my kids get MMR until they were 14.

My son had whopping cough despite being immunised.

My DDs had all of their vaccinations. My youngest did get chicken pox, but it was a very mild version and didn't impact her in any way.

Why don't you go and read one of the other millions of MN threads on this very topic which weirdly always have a huge majority of parents who are happy to listen to their doctors and NHS advice? This is one of the few things you don't need to research because actual medical researchers have done it for you. Have you got nothing better to do?

Yes, vaccinated against everything. I do not regret protecting them.

I work at a university and we had mumps outbreaks among the 1990s un-vaccinated cohorts. It can leave 1/4 of the boys infertile.

I'm a 'cautious' vaxxer, so we give the recommended vaccines (well, most of them) but on a spread out schedule. We started off on the schedule but ds is prone to very strong immune reactions and suffered a lot with the early ones, so from then on we've always spread them out to minimise his suffering. He's never caught any of the diseases they're designed to protect against, but then most of those are so rare that in all honesty he probably wouldn't have done anyway (although of course the maintenance of herd immunity plays a role in that).

Incidentally, I have also never caught many of them despite either not being vaccinated (too old) or being vaccinated so long ago that any protection will most likely have worn off, including whooping cough, meningitis, Hib, PCV and so on. I did catch Rubella and Mumps as a child though and will probably still have some immunity to that - as for most people they were so mild in childhood that I barely noticed and certainly had no long term effects.

I'm flattered bemused that you think advice from a lot of randoms on the internet counts as research. Maybe you should get your kid's cards read?

Mine have had everything, chicken pox included. There was an interesting piece on Last Week Tonight about this on Sunday.

anti vaccination is not an alternative view- its the wrong view

flat earthers do not have an alternate view- they have the wrong view

Don't rely on herd immunity to protect your child.
Dd is 18 and fully vaccinated and hasn't had any illness.

I've had whopping cough and was vaccinated. This is because the vaccine is not actually life long as it was supposed to be - it runs out at between 8 - 12 years (so many of you who are walking around thinking you are vaccinated for it are probably susceptible to getting it). Whilst whopping cough was shit I will not contract it again for the rest of my life apparently.

I have also had two of the MMR illnesses, and a allergic reaction to the MMR vaccination itself when I had it years later - I am not allowed to have the second dose and my children will not be following the vaccination schedule due to the reaction I had- although they also won't not be vaccinated; it is very unlikely they will receive the triple combo MMR vaccination that I did though.

My son got whooping cough just a few days before he turned 2 months so hadn't yet been vaccinated. He spent a month in hospital extremely ill. He was very lucky, a lot of newborns under 2 months die from this. All my children had their vaccinations as soon as they could.

Looks like I'm going to have to sift through for the responses that are actually answering my question (both those that have vaccinated and those that haven't) and ignore the ones from people getting very angry that I'm asking it. To the latter: not interested, thanks