To vaccinate newborn or not

[confusedaboutclothes]

I know this is a very sensitive subject, but i’m asking please for FACTS only - I don’t want answers like ‘because the NHS recommends you to vaccinate your baby etc’

Id like to point out i’m not ‘anti vax’ as such, but covid really opened my eyes to researching vaccines etc i’ve done my own research on whether i should be vaccinating my newborn but it’s hard to find unbiased facts.

What I don’t like, is the pressure that is put on us to do as we’re told with our babies. I don’t like the constant reminders, the phone calls and the pressure to vaccinate - it all feels like a box ticking exercise not because the NHS are actually worried about my baby.

Please be kind, I really am confused about this and would love some different perspectives

So you are protected as other people are vaccinated. Your refusal to be vaccinated and not taking that protective step for your children lowers herd immunity.

Some people cannot be vaccinated and your selfish actions risks others, as well as your own children.

I hope your children grow up with more sense.

No im not and i never claimed to be? Hence
coming on MN for help 🙂

@Ann3347 I'm afraid your posts on this thread is a prime example of the concept "a little knowledge is dangerous (more so than ignorance)". it's a Bangladeshi proverb - a so called underdeveloped country where despite being poor (obviously we all live b】elow the poverty line and have no access to healthcare), we still have great proverbs. and some of us can read and write!

you are making massive assumptions about these countries, firstly by putting them together all in one group.

it might surprise you that people in the 'underdeveloped' world are also human beings with human physiology! so lessons learnt there can also be applied to the bodies of people living in the west. also studies have to account for pre existing conditions etc. usually they will exclude based on certain criteria. I would disagree that people in underdeveloped countries have 'worse health' in general. there may be more mortality from acute illnesses but the incidence of diseases of affluence is much lower. people are more physically active etc. either way, the outcomes and criteria for significant findings in these kind of studies means the differences in populations are less significant.

just to give you some background I am a doctor who is from Bangladesh, but qualified here and have been working in the NHS for 10+ years. I also did extensive work in Bangladesh, especially in paediatrics. I also did a bsc in international health. there are far more qualified pp's who have responded to your comments.

you are right in that it's up to you what you want to do regarding vaccinations for your own family. I mean you could light your hair on fire and it wouldn't be anyone else's business ...until you needed to get down to the burns unit ... FYI i often work in the burns unit .. .... ( you can ask for a different doc if you are worried that as someone from an underprivileged country I am not fit to treat you). and thus it is your opinion on vaccines is all well and good until your kids... or some one else's kids get hurt.

ps: just out of interest... what is your educational background that makes you think your research will lead to more correct opinions than almost all the doctors in the world?

The thing is people's memories are short.

Mumps, measles, whooping cough all seem a thing of past, we forget how dangerous they can be.

We start researching clicking on random internet links and here we are.

This is MN, not a forum for highly qualified and experienced medical researchers. 🤦🏻‍♀️

If you read through the 20+ pages of replies, you will find a huge amount of them have more qualifications and knowledge in this matter
than you or I - far more information than I could have found by googling random facts that are unlikely to help. So I think you’ll see its an excellent place for highly qualified and experienced medical researchers.

Are you for real? This just attracts antivax rubbish. There is NO evidence vaccinating is dangerous other that social media rubbis

antivax trolls can’t believe that anyone is possibly better qualified than them

All the doctors are saying get the baby vaccinated. Why on earth would you listen to some random mum who believes in any old conspiracy theory?

Do your child a favour and get them vaccinated. It’s the caring thing to do.

Those people who had reactions to the vaccine, did they ever think how they would have been if they'd had the actual illness, after how they'd felt after the vaccine?

OP, vaccines have saved lives for over 200 years. Can you imagine your child having Smallpox or Polio?? Have your children vaccinated.

Sorry have you read any of my replies? I’ve already said my child will be vaccinated? Stop arguing for the sake of it, your points are
flawed because i’ve never said i’m listening to any old mum?
Ive got exactly what i came here for - facts on the vaccination from real professionals

Exactly.

Not sure if this was aimed at me sorry - wanted to clarify i’m 100% not an antivaxx troller and i have come here solely for information from people better qualified than me - which has been amazing.

Good. Life is too short to trawl through 20 pages of posts. Glad you are protecting your child.

If you can’t be arsed to read the full thread or at least read all the OPs posts which MN have made it super simple for you to do, then maybe you should refrain from adding your utterly pointless comments?

I understand that - but you could have maybe filtered my replies before coming at me unnecessarily.
MN can be toxic for a lot of subjects but despite me getting abuse for this I don’t actually care because it’s helped me no end

I would reccomend researching the diseases that the vaccines are designed to protect against, and how they can impact babies and young children. That should help you balance the risks in your mind. These really are diseases that belong in past, and would no longer exist at all if everyone was vaccinated.

Edit: wanted to add that its totally normal to be anxious about these things and I think its always good to do research! I think understanding the other option of having your child at risk of these awful diseases is helpful!

My facts are not statistically significant. But my parents knew kids that died or were paralysed from polio. They knew people that were sent away to the sanatorium for months at a time to hopefully recover from TB. My nan was always sad to not have more children after my grandad returned from the san. I presume he was rendered infertile, although we never went into that level of detail. My mum remembers how awful it was when she got whooping cough.

My friends and I didn't experience any of this, because we were born after the invention of vaccines for common childhood ailments. I didn't lose a single friend to childhood contagious diseases. I do remember horror my friend felt when she caught measles age 12, as her mum was anti vaccines, and she had to come to school after covered in spots, just as hormones are in full flow.

As to whether they are a money making racket, the nhs is not for profit and don't do anything if they can't justify the cost. It's why we still don't have a chicken pox vaccine available and let the poor kids suffer through it instead. I was so angry when my then 1 year old got it so bad and it was entirely preventable.

Again, “slightly” in scientific literature means nothing. It could be absolutely incidental. If something is thought to really reflect a difference, we would say “significantly”, which means appropriate statistic analysis concluded the results weren’t by chance.

You can do your own research but what does that involve? A quick Google search doesn't cut it as research. Are you able to read, comprehend, analyse data, question methodology and understand results in context? If not then your 'research' is poor.

Ultimately it's your decision but vaccines can and do save lives. Having said all that I do understand that it is overwhelming when making serious decisions for your precious baby.

OP I understand you wanting the best for your baby but there's a reason why these things are recommended and that's because they have been demonstrated to be the best approach in keeping children safe. The sane with the covid vaccinations, overall they were the best way of saving people's lives and protecting health. This modern belief that opinions have the same weight as facts is madness, everyone should be taught the fundamentals of critical analysis and stats to help them separate fact from fiction.

With all due respect you sound quite anxious over this, have you had wider health anxiety over your little one?

Out of interest, did you get the whooping cough vaccine when you were pregnant OP?

I don't think your posting was a bad thing.

My children were vaccinated and so were my grandchildren. No question about it.

But it is interesting and quite valuable reading the posts from those with experience and qualifications in the field.

There is a CP vaccination isn't there?

Although I don't know the reason why it isn't licensed in this country.

Anecdote: my father missed my 1st birthday because he was away in a sanatorium)

I wouldn’t say health anxiety as such, just general
worries i suppose. I think its more of
things in the media, government issues, and perhaps NHS let downs elsewhere that’s cause this worry.
It’s incredibly frustrating because the NHS have been amazing with medical help i’ve needed in the past and i’ve hated having this element of doubt because im usually a very black and white type person.

I do however now see that this doubt was highly unnecessary and I do feel stupid for it actually - but i have an appointment booked at the GP’s for
vaccinations and it’s such a relief if im honest.