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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Are you vaccinating your young child against covid ?

108 replies

LovelyYellowLabrador · 02/05/2022 15:20

Feel a bit like we have to for travel insurance reasons
but bit unsure about it so just wanted to do a vote to get the thoughts of other parents of younger children of you are vaccinating your young child

yanbu = yes I’m vaccinating mine

yabu= no I’m not

in talking about primary school agar children age 5-10

OP posts:
Topgub · 02/05/2022 22:12

@LyndaLaHughes

I dont worry about the long term effects of covid, no.

Dont worry about long term effects of the vaccine either.

SpeedofaSloth · 02/05/2022 22:13

YANBU. My youngest had her first jab recently.

Jinglebellsoncake · 02/05/2022 22:16

A big No from me.
I’m fully vaccinated and have had side effects. There’s just no way I could risk my children having the same.
(apart from the fact they have had it already and we didn’t even know without testing them that they had it because they had no symptoms)

It might mean they won’t be able to travel to certain countries for a few years. But eventually the rest of the world will catch up and realise mandatory vaccination for covid is not necessary for those who are not immunocompromised.

It doesn’t reduce transmission, so please don’t call me selfish.

serenghetti2011 · 02/05/2022 22:18

All 4 of my children are vaccinated, my eldest is an adult and took himself off. 10 year old is a bad asthmatic not had covid and has been in hospital previously very poorly so he was vaccinated in January and had 2 vaccinations, was fine ho side effects at all. 12 year old has had one as has my 16 year old - took him a while to decide to have it.

I think parents need to make the decision based on the evidence for their own family. Which is what I did, and am happy with that decision.

Strawblue · 02/05/2022 22:18

No, probably not for our 7yo. He had Covid recently so can’t have it until early June anyway but we probably won’t.

DH and I are triple jabbed and DS has had all other childhood vaccinations plus we paid for the meningitis jab that he just missed out on getting, so we aren’t anti-vaxxers.

I’ve spoken to quite a few parents and all have said no. I do wonder what the overall country uptake will end up being for this age group.

TarasHarp55 · 02/05/2022 22:20

Can't see the point. The vaccines never gave me any protection. I was very poorly with covid, whereas my friend who hadn't had any vacines got it very mild.

Topgub · 02/05/2022 22:25

@Strawblue

Its dire so far I think.

woodenwindchimes · 02/05/2022 22:35

EmeraldShamrock1 · 02/05/2022 21:17

No.
I'd forgotten about covid since the war broke out.

Remove covid chip
Insert Ukraine chip

woodenwindchimes · 02/05/2022 22:41

HandlebarLadyTash · 02/05/2022 17:48

I haven't got round to getting the primary aged child done. The only reason I can think to get it done is to annoy the anti vaxer in the wider family, and I'm not sure that's a good enough reason.
The adults and the teen have been done and as yet have managed to avoid it.

You "aren't sure" whether to have your child injected with something to annoy someone.

Wow. Parent of the year.

clarasara · 02/05/2022 22:47

I am not getting my 6 and 11 year old done. Does this affect them for travel insurance?

Sometimeswinning · 02/05/2022 22:49

Apparently the majority of children were fine and at no risk during all outbreaks. I'm sticking to this and not vaccinating my youngest.

The oldest chose to have it and was so poorly with side effects (more so than when she had covid!)

Mine will make their own choice when they need to. At the moment it's a no and I'm happy with that.

LibrariesGiveUsPower · 02/05/2022 22:49

Im not sure I see the point at the moment. Omicron seems to evade the vaccine, or the vaccine wears off quickly. I know loads of people triple jabbed who’ve caught covid recently.

I’m very pro vaccine, but this one doesn’t stop transmission (I’m tripled jabbed caught it and passed it onto my kids) and young kids don’t seem to get particularly ill from covid, so to me it seems like a waste of a jab when we could be giving over 60’s extra jab or sending some overseas where they are desperately needed.

Justgorgeous · 02/05/2022 23:09

No, Covid is not a life threatening illness for them.

Gooseysgirl · 02/05/2022 23:15

Yes we are vaccinating our 8 and 10 yr old due to ECV grandparents.

Bretonbear · 03/05/2022 06:40

No

Stellamar · 03/05/2022 06:43

Yes

AshGirl · 03/05/2022 06:53

Yes, my 5YO had his first dose a couple of weeks after his birthday. He is CV and his dad is CEV (takes immunosuppressants) so it's extra important for us.

DS had a mild dose of covid last autumn but there's no guarantees that a different variant would be the same.

FfeminyddCymraeg · 03/05/2022 07:01

No - both DH and I are double vaxxed (no booster). Teen DD had one jab initially but no more and 11 yo DC won’t be having any.

All recently had Covid (DH still has it) and fine.

The travel thing is a pain - as our second dose was almost a year ago (for me, anyway), we had to follow the entry requirements for unvaccinated travellers. I feel uncomfortable having Covid vaccines just to travel so we will avoid countries like Spain as a result.

Alittlenonsensenowandthen · 03/05/2022 07:06

Definitely not. We all had covid in mar 2020. Then the adults vaccinated and from that point my dh and I have had palpitations. Both fit n healthy never happened before. Can't prove it was vaccine or a long term effect of covid. Either way, the risk of heart problems with kids and vaccines outweighs any positive effect for me esp as they've had it twice now and been fine. Not anti Vax generally though.

startrek90 · 03/05/2022 07:08

My 5 and 7 year old have both been double vaxxed. Absolutely no ill effects at all. In fact a few weeks after their last shot myself, their dad and younger sister all contracted Covid and had to go into quarantine. They boys didn't get anything, no so much as a sniffle! I also expected them to feel a little rough after having the vaccine like I did but no, they were absolutely fine.

Knittingchamp · 03/05/2022 07:10

JohnPrescottsPyjamas · 02/05/2022 16:20

I signed up for the vaccine, was triple dosed and really enthusiastic, believing in its benefits, but I’m now less and less convinced - to the point where, if my children were young again, I certainly would be having doubts about a pointless exercise.

I’ve never been anti vax and thought they were the way out of the pandemic but the longer this goes on, the more I suspect it actually has little overall impact on either severity or case numbers. I’ve known plenty of fully vaccinated people be very poorly and many unvaccinated have a mild dose or certainly no more severe. It seems literally down to how your own immune system responds to the virus. Omicron has exposed and brought this fact very clearly into focus for me.

I suspect cases and severity appears to have fallen because most of the population has had at least one dose and sadly, those that were most vulnerable have succumbed already. I also believe despite the massive vaccination drive, numbers will invariably rise again in the future and this will be an ongoing pattern for the rest of our lives. However, because Covid is now endemic, deaths and hospitalisations will remain low - not unlike the scenario when a remote tribe is first exposed to a common cold. Because their immune responses have initially not encountered the virus, casualties and acuteness is initially high but natural resistance quickly develops.

Science is clear, vaccines don't stop you getting COVID necessarily but if you do get it, your symptoms will likely be far less severe which could keep you or your kids out of ICU. The more of us vaccinated the lower the viral load anyone is exposed to who does get the virus meaning again, their symptoms will likely be far less severe. Long COVID is also a real risk that lessens with the vaccine. And finally less risk of COVID mutating again with more of us vaccinated. Despite what the current rhetoric is, COVID isn't just getting milder - as we all know it mutates rapidly and there is no guarantee that the next one won't be way, way worse than all the other mutations. If young people are the most exposed group through less vaccines they'll be most vulnerable to it.

Shepandawing · 03/05/2022 07:12

I haven't vaccinated my kids for covid, as others have said I have not seen any evidence of the benefits outweighing the risks.

what I don't understand yet is what happened next year regarding travel? The government are not going to vaccinate the whole country again so will the jab requirement for insurance go?

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 03/05/2022 07:35

10yo wanted to have his (I don't think he's been scared into it - I'm not particularly anxious about covid although am fully vaxxed myself, his 'news sources' are newshound and the Week junior, and we live in a largely anti-vax London community). His call so I booked it for him. He felt a bit rough the next day. I don't regret it.

He's not knowingly had covid so far, although we only v rarely tested for asymptomatic infection (eg before seeing vulnerable family, or going to the theatre) so likely this would have been missed.

I would feel v differently about my (under-5) younger child, and not sure what we'll do if that age group are invited too.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 03/05/2022 07:36

*newsround (wtf autocorrect)

londonrach · 03/05/2022 07:41

I'm not doing my 5 year DD yet...I'm waiting and seeing what happens to the virus and if it multies again before next winter. I have several friends who doing the same. I haven't ruled it it either. She had every other vaccine to date. I triple vaccinated.