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.

Some more anacdata.

My father and his sister both suffered hearing loss as a result of measles, as a result of which they were classed profoundly deaf in their seventies.

Dh had measles as a little boy and survived unscathed (so you can be lucky).

There is a conference centre near to where I live which is locally known as the 'old childrens hospital'. In the 1950s/60s/70s it was a long term home for children badly affected by polio. My neighbour says that it used to be a common sight, on warm days, to see them all brought out onto the terrace to enjoy the sunshine in their iron lungs.

My DC had all vaccinations (including Men B and Chicken Pox) but not MMR. He had the single Measles jab.

I do worry about Mumps but that's not available as a single jab in U.K.

I know chicken pox is considered "not too bad" in the great scheme of things, but many of the childhood diseases carry a potential legacy. My cousin, late 40's, has developed a condition called Ramsey Hunt Syndrome which has been caused by the chicken pox virus lying dormant from when she had it in her teens. It is a form of facial palsy and has stopped her working for months as she can't drive. If she hadn't been diagnosed REALLY quickly there was a huge chance she would never recover the full use of her facial muscles, as well as potentially losing her sight and hearing on that side of her face.
As the movement started to come back it is painful as well. I had never heard of it but having seen its effects close up, I would have given my children the vaccine if it had been available back then.

About 8 months after having the first MMR, DS got rubella. He had it quite mildly; he had spots, and was a bit tired, and a bit off his food, but not properly ill. He wanted lots of cuddles and stories read. I wasn't too worried about him and asked my health visitor what the spots were. She said I needed to see a GP, so I did, the following day. GP diagnosed rubella and told me to avoid pregnancy at all costs. I was 9 weeks pregnant and horrified. Also, we'd spent 20 mins in the GPs waiting room with at least one other pregnant woman.

The GP was really unimpressed that I hadn't had him diagnosed as a matter of urgency. I said that it just hadn't occurred to me that it might be rubella, because he'd had the MMR and he was quite scathing that I'd assumed that the first MMR alone would provide protection.

All was well; I had blood tests taken straight away, and got the results showing I was safe a couple of days later. I cried a lot in those two days though.

So my message is - definitely vaccinate. The GP said that the MMR was the reason DS was only mildly ill. But don't be complacent after vaccination!

Was just about to say the same thing, with regards to Lambeth, Anatidae. DD had the TB vaccination on the current schedule, while when I was younger it was done at secondary school. I'm immune due to family history of being around it, so DD may have had the jab unnecessarily, but as it's on the rise in London I thought it was wise to go ahead. Also, her scar is small and I imagine will fade wth age when it's done very young.

Have any of you mumsnetters decided not to put seatbelts on your children when you're travelling in a car?

Do you regret it? Did they suffer any injury that they could have been protected against and what was the outcome?

And anyone who does make their children use a seatbelt - did they suffer any injury anyway? And do you regret making them wear it for any reason?

This isn't intended to start a debate for or against seatbelts 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.

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One caveat: If you tell me I'm stupid for considering not making my child wear a seatbelt, I will ignore you (or possibly be more likely not to make them wear one just because I hate people getting angry and calling me stupid). I'm not pro-seatbelts or anti-seatbelts, I'm doing lots of research into the pros and cons and I'm still on the fence.

CruCru, that prompted me to look at my smallpox vaccination mark, which is something I suppose nobody under the age of about 40 would have in the UK. It's about the size of a 50p piece but you have to look hard to see it. It's never bothered me.

We delayed MMR by a year, no problems.

I've vaccinated my 4dc. I don't regret it at all. I recently had 3 of them vaccinated against chickenpox as my eldest caught it 3 weeks before we due to go on holiday and I fully expected the others to come down with it before we went or while we were there.
It worked and they didn't get it. I would recommend it, I didn't realise how awful chicken pox could be dd was very very poorly.
We paid £130 per injection (they need two 6-8 week apart) for us it was money well spent.

Gosh, is smallpox that recent? I hadn't realised.

I was immunised with everything going but got whooping cough when I was 14. I was unlucky and it is horrible- took me months to get back to school full time and it wrecked my immune system for years. No one else got it and we don't know where I got it from myself.

My own DC has has every vaccination going including private chickenpox vaccine. Not so much for him but for DC2 who is on the way.

I wouldn't wish whooping cough on anyone.

buttercup please do consider getting the MMR - there is no advantage to single vaccines. It's something that was peddled by people who had financial interests in companies that made them. Mumps can be extremely painful and cause sterility. There's no problem with him having the MMR even if he's already had the measles Jab separately.

I live in Hong Kong and have vaccinated my 18 month old son according to the schedule here and paid privately to include vaccines that are on the UK schedule and flu jabs etc. He's usually the healthiest little guy ever, barely had a cold. One day, when he was 14 months, my DH called me home from work because DS was poorly, he was rushed into hospital with a raging fever of 104.8 that came out of the blue. He had bronchitis, pneumonia and croup as well as an influenza virus that the flu jab didn't cover. He was in isolation in ICU for a week. He had to have a nebuliser for 8 weeks afterwards.

I know you can't vaccinate against any of the things he had but it shook me to the core that he had picked something up so quickly and easily when he and his friends are all so healthy. That first night in the hospital was the worst and longest night of my life. Luckily he has made a full recovery. Thankfully I won't have to worry about any of these awful (and frankly, worse) diseases that vaccinations protect against.

My parents stopped immunising us when I was about 5. One of my siblings got measles, another had whooping cough at a very young age and had to be hospitalised for a couple of weeks for NG feeding, as he couldn't physically feed with his terrible cough, another had epiglottitis, also necessitating emergency hospital admission to monitor his airway, the first had bacterial meningitis (not entirely sure what strain, so possibly not covered by the current vaccine but he nearly died), and I had to catch up on all my vaccinations once I left home as I was studying medicine and able to consent to them once I had left home and no longer needed permission or approval.

I am a doctor and absolutely reject all the 'evidence' they used to justify their position. At the same time, I know they genuinely believe they were doing the right thing and they think I am the brainwashed and misguided one.

I have advised all my siblings to get their immunisations once they leave home, and I think most have.

My parents are genuinely unable to weigh up the evidence properly and have a firm belief that the medical establishment has a giant conspiracy going on in cahoots with pharmaceutical companies to cover up the real evidence. You can't argue with that mindset.

Several friends are anti-vax. Three of their kids have caught measles so far. All have been ok (no long-term effects) but two of the mums immediately had their younger ones vaccinated (the other one was an only child).

I don't quite understand why they had the younger ones vaccinated.

My twin DDs had single vaccines.

I was a very nervous parent, my own parents were abusuve and I felt under huge pressure. Every decision I made felt like I'd fail if I got it wrong.

Initially I was going to give the mmr then some people in my life told me some very convincing 'facts' against it. I tried to research online but there are as many scare stories as proper facts.

Unfortunately I also know a couple of people who, although right about vaccinations, basically attacked me for even asking questions. I was being ridiculous, putting my girls in danger and being selfish.

I now wish that I'd had someone on the vaccination side who could have seemed as knowledgeable and all and reasonable as the ones who talked me into single vaccines. I do regret how long the girls were unvaccinated for.

Bloosh - my guess is that the reality of the 'mild childhood disease' was pretty scary, with questions over hearing and sight effected etc.

Suddnely a small vaccination didn't seem such a big deal.

I forgot to say on previous posts - my grandfather died of Polio in 1940s.
My brothers and I were vaccinated against smallpox in early 70s.

These diseases kill.

Some info for you OP. Apologies if this has already been linked, I can't be arsed to read through another of these threads.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG_s2PCH_c

Bloosh, I suspect some people only finally believe how nasty measles, whooping cough etc are when they see it with the evidence of their own eyes in their own children.

Re smallpox - last epidemic in the UK was in the 30s. It was wiped out all round the world by immunisation by the end of the 1970s. There are still stocks of the virus in high security labs in the US and (ahem) Russia. From a quick google, I see that there are some concerns the latter is not perhaps as secure as one might hope and stolen virus could be used for biological warfare , so there are still large stocks of the vaccine kept on hand for people in the emergency services at the very least.

Cheery stuff, eh!

However, both my children also have the scar on their left arm from the BCG - my son's is a flat splurge of scar tissue and my daughter's is a really noticeable indent. Given that (to my knowledge), the risk of either of them catching TB is relatively low, I do sometimes feel sad that I've scarred them. On the other hand, it does mean that they can now go to Africa or India without having to have the TB vaccine.

The chances of encountering TB aren't low at all, depending on where you live. DS was born in a London borough where TB was rife, in part due to immigrants from countries with a high incidence of TB, so he got the BCG as a small baby. Yes, he does have a scar on his upper arm (which I have had to explain to people where we live now in the rural midlands, who've never seen a BCG mark, and who thought it was a burn or injury), and no, he doesn't need it where we live now, but I certainly don't regret him getting it.

I'm not from the UK originally, and there was a major recurrence of TB in my city when I was in primary school -- three classmates had it, and were out of school for some time.

Know of one person, a friends who little one had whooping cough - incredibly ill for long time but thank god they are ok now.

I've vaccinated according to schedule and I got myself immunised during pregnancy for whooping cough as well - baby is due MMR next month. I'm traveling from Middle East to Europe tomorrow (where there is a measles outbreak I think?) and hoping that my Antibodies will have passed on enough through breastfeeding.

Interestingly - out here when you get pregnant they check your immunity right at start of pregnancy with a blood test to they can get you up to date.

I studied immunology - herd immunity is incredibly important and those relying on it instead of getting their own offspring immunised (when there is no reason not to) are incredibly selfish human beings.

My uncle (dad's big brother) got TB when he was about 11. He then spent well over a year recovering a sanatorium. He was not the highest achiever before he was ill. He received no education whilst institutionalised and ultimately left school with no qualifications. These diseases have a long recovery period and therefore far reaching consequences. TB was nearly wiped out. It had dropped off the schedule. However, due to various anti-vax arguments world wide it is back. With a vengeance. It is a nasty horrible disease not the romantic nonsense the Romantics tried to make out. Coughing up your lung tissue is not pleasant.
I think the real issue here, however, is risk perception. Vaccine injuries do ok. However, the risk is much lower than complications from the disease. Therefore, myself and my son take all the vaccines going.
When it comes to malaria however, I did carefully research the malaria risk of the location I was going to and the prevalence of malaria. Turns out for the part of South Africa we were going to and the time we were going (their winter) it wasn't necessary. Normal don't get bitten precautions were taken however as insects in general like to bite me. No regrets.

My friend's dad had polio as a kid, and ended up with a withered arm.

My dad caught TB in his 30s because he wasn't vaccinated, and was in hospital for the best part of a year.

My mom didn't vaccinate my brother against whooping cough because of a scare in the 70s, and he ended up a desperately ill baby (fortunately he recovered).

We're pretty pro-vaccination in our house - the risk and severity of adverse reactions is much lower than those of preventable illnesses.

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us

Ds has his at the usual age..can't remember what that is now

And got it 2 years later