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.

Can someone be of some help to me?

DS is due in November and I was wondering if there are any studies that show vaccinating increases risk of autism?

I thought you were born autistic and it came out more as you got older?

DS is due in November and I was wondering if there are any studies that show vaccinating increases risk of autism?

There are not.

Hope that helps.

I'd hope a journalist would find a better cover story than this.
What exactly are you afraid that vaccination would do to your child (though you haven't mentioned one)? Which vaccination? It's a vague question and reminds me strongly of the way anti-vaxxers love to ask you to reference research papers again and again, and refuse to actually answer any questions from anyone else on the thread.
And for what it's worth, I gave mine the MMR at the height of the Wakefield scare. I thought about it hard but even at the time the "research" linking it with autism was thin, to say the least.

Both my sons (5 years and 11 months ) have been vaccinated. The youngest has crappy reactions each time, but I'm happy with my choice.My only regret is that we got behind on the schedule when he got pneumonia last Christmas and was hospitalised. I wanted to catch up but not overload him as he gets sick for 24 hours each time...I was paranoid at every slight rash until we caught up.

We don't live in the UK, my in laws are Cypriot and told me repeatedly vaccines might cause autism in DS1. I ignored.By sheer coincidence, DS1 IS mildly autistic.But he is tall, strong, happy and healthy and even if there WERE any evidence to support that idiotic theory I would still choose autism over a life threatening illness.

The theory that there is a link between autism and MMR has been completely discredited by the scientific community.

My child is autistic and had the MMR. He was autistic before he had the MMR (although this was not diagnosed until he was much older the signs were there). I am glad that he is protected from these hideous diseases.

There have been a LOT of studies trying to find a link between vaccines and autism and none of them have found any link at all except for that one "study" which started it all, which was later found to be rigged.

You can't prove a negative, but it's as close as you can get basically to proof that there's no link.

We don't know what causes autism but yes it's very likely that people with autism are born with it.

More than just disproven, taratill. The data was falsified, completely made up and the publication has been withdrawn for this reason. That's why Mr Wakefield is no longer even a doctor.

paxillin thanks for clarifying.

I regret vaccinating my dd, she had a severe allergic reaction and ended up in intensive care (we're incredibly fortunate that she pulled through).

DD isn't my biological child, so my own history of vaccine reactions wasn't a consideration. I'm far from fully vaccinated (due to life threatening reactions) and have only had whooping cough out of of things covered by the vaccine program - I whooped a handful of times and that was it.

I know OP doesn't want the discussion, only personal stories. But Mr Wakefield is personal to me. With his dishonesty and made-up data he chased fame and scientific kudos. He managed to stop many parents vaccinating their children.

Students at my college who catch mumps are his fault. Many of the boys will be infertile afterwards. This is his fault, too. The children left with vision loss after measles are his fault, too. And those who die of these preventable diseases.

All for one twat who wanted to be a famous researcher so made up spectacular data.

My dc have had most vaccinations (all the 'big' ones) but I declined the whooping cough one when pregnant-severe hypermesis everytime combined with needle phobia and I needed to keep my calm enough for all the frequent drips in my arm so couldn't face another -although I only remember being offered it during one pregnancy). And my children don't have the flu vaccine. They all have asd (as a result of mine and dhs genes not mmr!) and doctors/hospitals and so on cause panic attacks and violent melt downs. As I need them to be happy with the number of hcp we have come to the house and I need to force them through their yearly peads visits in the hospital I decided it wasn't worth physically forcing them to have this every year.

They have had flu, one that put me in hospital, and they were fine, barely appeared ill tbh and have never had whooping cough. They have immune systems like horses though. I don't regret my decision.

It's not all about how it affects YOU and YOUR family though is it?

As PPs have said, by not vaccinating your children and then mixing with people who have lowered immune systems (very young/old/ill) just by leaving the house, you are putting other people at risk.

My child has a weak immune system and had a bad (life threatening) reaction to the MenB vaccine at 8 weeks. But I will be taking him to get the boosters once he's well enough, both for his sake and others.

I had German measles 4 times as a child, but never again following the rubella jab. I also had whooping cough and mumps - from all accounts it's something I'd want my children to be protected from wherever possible.

My children have all their immunisations and will have any boosters.

My research is thus: reading NHS pages and listening to my GP and nurses. Even reading the papers and reports of outbreaks of measles for example.

Can you tell me what peer reviews you have read about vaccine damaged children? Have you read other peer reviews about the numbers of children that have died because they didn't have a vaccine? Are you in any way trained in interpreting medical journals and papers? If not, what make you think you are qualified to make a decision which may go against 'vaccines should be given to all children who have no underlying medical reason not to'? ( I paraphrase of course)

Research isn't asking a bunch of internet randoms for their opinions and using hundreds of anecdotes to make a 'decision' about vaccines. There shouldn't be a 'decision' unless there is solid medical evidence to say your child shouldn't have a vaccination.

Mine have had all vaccinations with no ill effects and no regrets. I do however refuse the flu vaccine every year for them, again with no ill effects or regrets. I have two healthy children who rarely get ill.

do my own research

Unless you're an immunologist and able to conduct a long term double blind large-scale trial, I can guarantee your research won't be worth diddly squat compared to the plethora of peer-reviewed research already done by actual experts.

So bit of a pointless exercise really...

My son had all his vaccinations as I believe in science.

Unless you're an immunologist and able to conduct a long term double blind large-scale trial

Don't be so ridiculous - there's plenty of research, such as the studies you suggest available to people who aren't immunologists. I have nothing to do with the field of medicine, yet I have access to every leading medical journal there is, plus the majority of the rest of medical journals. Apart from some obscure ones, I can get my hands on any of the methods, data, interpretations, and, conclusions.

I never had any vaccinations at all. Unfortunately I contracted HPV and ended up with early stages of cervical cancer (luckily caught early.) I am definitely vaccinating my own daughter.

Oh, it's not about autism anymore. The anti-vaxxers how now moved onto population control, nanobots, eugenics and cynical attempts to cash in on the suffering of others by peddling woo crap.

My 2 DC's had all the usual vaccinations. When it came to the MMR I researched single vaccines but decided to go for the triple vaccine. As others have said, I wish I'd sought out a chicken pox vaccine for DS who was very poorly with it - I didn't even know you could get one in this country until it was too late. I don't regret getting my kids vaccinated.

Curtains I was answering what the op asked.

While I like that my mostly vaccinated children contribute to heard immunity it's not my first priority when making these decisions. I might feel differently with kids who aren't disabled but our eldest ds and our triplets all have asd and other disabilities so our lives are run by their most extreem anxieties. May be different once they are older, but currently not having flu vaccine is just based on the violent melt downs it would cause and the anxiety that we would be left with that would repeatedly stall their tiny steps of progress for months afterwards all to do it again the next again year. Lots of people can't have vaccinations for medical reasons and that includes mental health reasons also.

Assuming you are genuine, all I can say is that asking randoms on the internet for anecdotal evidence does not count as research. The fact that you think it will help you make an informed choice suggests you are not capable of making an informed choice.

Sweaty - I was replying generally, not to you personally

I understand that you need to do the right thing for your children. The right thing for my child is for everyone around them to be vaccinated. It's hard to find a balance between those two positions.

OK sorry I thought you were saying it to me as straight after my post. I took them for all their initial vaccines, and hopefully at some point in future we will be able to work on these anxieties so they can manage these things but currently it's not possible. Neither is trips to the dentist, or accessing school or going in a car, so life is hard and I already get alot of grief from dhs family who do fuck all to help but like to tell me how I should be managing four under 6. Melt downs are violent and have resulted in my nose broken and fIngers dislocated so I don't think past what's best for our family currently. I do understand the importance of this which makes it doubley frustrating but I doubt our one family not using flu vaccine or the likes of private ones will make any difference in the big scheme if things. They barely go near others anyways.