To not vaccinate my child with BCG?

[SandyBabyToes]

I say this because SIL lives 5 minutes down the road and her area are completely exempt from it

I asked one of my local health professionals why we were in the catchment area for it and he said it was to do with a lot of immigration control, hence the vaccine being offered.

But, we don't go to that side of our town (it's a big town), and we don't mix in that area (it's not a short way away).

And even if we did and that slight chance would be the reason for it, why doesn't SIL's area get offered it when she's literally in spitting distance.

Taking all this into account, I'm not really comfortable with my DC having it. It's not a nice vaccine to have and often leaves a scar

Quite.

This is a really interesting thread. I turned down the BCG for my eldest because it was offered when he was less than 24hrs old, I was recovering from birth and I didn't know enough about it other than my own experience to give informed consent. I revisited my decision a few months later during one of his other routine vaccines and the nurse didn't feel strongly either way so I left it. I declined for my newborn recently as well and on chatting to the health visitor about it she wasn't concerned as although we're south Asian we have no immediate intention to travel there and my extended family have lived here for years, some of whom are vaccinated. I would think about it if we were to travel to a high risk area but otherwise I don't know that it's worth it. In my area they only offer it to ethnic minorities! Yet I go to all the same places and baby groups as my white friend and her baby hasn't had it!

It's only worth giving the vaccine to a child a) if your child is very young and b) if you or close family are in high risk groups.

The reason it's given is to prevent babies/young children from getting certain forms of TB from their parents or people living in close proximity who already have TB (although they might not know about it)

In this country most TB is in those who have moved here (possibly decades ago) from high risk countries, or those living in substandard/crowded accommodation homeless people or drug users.

Therefore they offer it in areas where there are lots of immigrants/other high risk groups. It's offered to all because it's a population level intervention - they are not going to spend the time filtering through to find out who exactly has moved here from where and when.

OP - probably no need for you or your SIL's children to have it. This isn't anti-vax - you should still vaccinate them for everything else - because you are in (or near) a high immigrant area the risk of measles for example is going to be higher and is much easier to catch

Goodness knows why they were still vaccinating teenagers in the UK until recently - completely pointless and we were pretty much the only country still doing it - policy was about 20 years behind science!

OP this was my son's injection site - I think this is pretty typical. The scar doesn't bother him now but stopping an under-1 from picking this scab was interesting at the time.

because you are in (or near) a high immigrant area the risk of measles for example is going to be higher

I think this is dodgy ground actually.

I’m a huge advocate for vaccines. But I have one hell of a scar from my vaccine. Admittedly because the kids from my school thought it would be hilarious to go round punching each other in the injection site (many moons ago this was I might add) and what seemed fun at the time has actually impacted my life. It would have saved me a lot of money on cover up over the years if I hadn’t bothered and I probably wouldn’t have got TB anyway.

#from my TB vaccine I meant to say#

My grandchildren had TB but luckily she survived, she caught it at work, she was a nurse. I remember having the daisy test, mine came up slightly so I didn't need a full dose. I do have an enormous scar from my small pox vaccination

I missed my bcg at high school, I mentioned it to a gp at some point yrs later and they just shrugged. Still haven't had it and guess I never will.

If it's the idea of a scar that will bother you I
Can tell you no one would pay any mind to it and the people that have them probably forget they are even there.
I have two massive surgical scars on one of my arms one is an ugly mess But even I forget their existence and I find it amusing when people have only noticed them after some time of having known me.

Thanks for everyone's replies

I've decided against giving him the BCG. But he has everything else x

You'd already decided before you started, so what was the point

Fact finding? Or trying, anyway.

Tsk MRsLupo. What taskmaster means is HOW DARE a poster not do what they were told by multiple uninformed mumsnet tears because they were really rude and mean to her and EVERYTHING and that always works

Cherry exactly this.

Just because I've asked for different views and stuck with my original plan doesn't mean I haven't considered what everyone has said and purposely just stuck with my own ideas

👍🏻

No, what taskmaster means is just what she said; why start a thread saying you won't do a thing and then come back after 216 messages and confirm you aren;t going to do the thing you had already decided not to do?

Many adults that have come here through immigration Channels have not had BCGs. TB is on the increase in the Uk and the new born babies that are born to these ladies are all vaccinated a few days after they are born.
I would take the vaccination as the last thing you want is a very poorly child with TB (ok the chances are slim but better than catching it!) and also you never know where your child may go when they are older They may want to go and travel the world 😊

Shiny It doesn't protect them for when they would be travelling the world, unless you can toddle around the world

I was vaccinated but my brother wasn't because policy changed in between. My friend who is my age came from a different area, and wasn't vaccinated, and she got TB in London during our first year of university!