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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be annoyed that my parents didn’t fully vaccinate me?

54 replies

Sheabutter19 · 07/08/2024 02:34

I know this sounds daft but I’ve been going through my medical records and it shows childhood vaccinations. According to these records there is quite a few where I received the first dose and was never taken for my booster jabs and I was never taken for my meningitis jab either. Aibu to be annoyed

OP posts:
Differentstarts · 07/08/2024 10:57

I'm the same but I'm not sure how accurate the records are as apparently I had one 30 years before I was born. I got some as an adult to cover missed ones I think it was mmr and something else. Just speak to your dr, you can have them now

Lemonade2011 · 07/08/2024 10:58

Which ones didn’t you get? The schedule today is very different from what I got in the 80’s/90’s so if you’re comparing it it’s likely things weren’t available then but I would be annoyed if I hadn’t been fully vaccinated. Parents have their reasons I find, I didn’t have one for medical reasons can’t remember why now though, have you asked them why or did they just not bother to take you?.

You can try to catch up now if possible, speak to your practise nurse/gp about which vaccines you’ve missed and how you can catch up/what they recommend.

MrsWhistleD0wn · 07/08/2024 10:59

YANBU my parents did the same. things like the first MMR but not the second, missing meningitis & diphtheria jabs. Went to a lot of 3rd world countries as well so amazing I didn't catch anything

Anonymous2224 · 07/08/2024 11:28

Yeah I think YABU. I found out when I was undergoing fertility treatment that a few of my childhood vaccinations weren’t done. My 5year old brother was undergoing cancer treatment at the time, I guess they were a bit preoccupied!! Maybe your parents had other things going on at the time and forget, really not the crime of a century. Get some boosters booked and forget about it.

KreedKafer · 07/08/2024 11:44

I think it probably depends when you were born. Accuracy of medical records before everything went digital can be very dubious, and vaccine schedules have changed a bit over time. Plus sometimes there were genuine misunderstandings.

I was born before MMR came in, so they were all separate vaccines when I was a kid (in fact, I'm not sure there was a mumps vaccine at all then. My parents were confident that I'd had all my vaccines but it turned out that I'd never had my measles jab - not because of any mistake on my parents' part, but because apparently as a baby I had something my doctor at the time referred to as 'mini measles' and my parents were told I didn't need the measles vaccine after that because I'd already be immune. Whatever the fuck I'd had as a baby clearly wasn't measles-related though because at the age of 10 I came down with a horrendous case of measles and was so ill that I was confined to bed for a fortnight and wasn't well enough to go back to school for another fortnight after that. My poor mum was full of guilt over it, but it really wasn't her fault; she'd been told by a doctor that I didn't need the jab.

Onehotday · 07/08/2024 11:47

I didn't have any of mine and I didn't give my children any either.

Are you able to ask your parents if they remember?

JohnofWessex · 07/08/2024 12:31

What I find suprising is that some parents are taken to court over refusing to get their children treated for various issues so why not with vaccination?

Tumbleweed101 · 07/08/2024 12:38

Mine missed MMR because our eldest was born when the claims about it being linked to autism first came out.

I have encouraged my daughters to have it now they are young adults for the rubella element in particular.

OlympicsFanGirl · 07/08/2024 12:43

Sheabutter19 · 07/08/2024 10:06

Thanks everyone. I was born late 90s. Seems I had some first ones but not any follow ups

That was the height of the Andrew Wakefield/MMR/austism hysteria. They might have been frightened. It was very full on.

mindutopia · 07/08/2024 12:55

The vaccination schedules weren’t the same in the 80s and 90s as they are today, so you may have been fully vaccinated for the time, but that wouldn’t be standard practice today.

I very likely only had 1 MMR, because that was the done thing back then, though I have no health records as a child. I needed to have my immunity tested and be re-vaccinated as an adult for work.

The meningitis jab wasn’t even standard when my 11 year old had her jabs (we need to get it done privately). Definitely wasn’t done when we were kids - case in point, I had 2 friends die of meningitis growing up.

LynetteScavo · 07/08/2024 13:45

Late 90's babies weren't offered meningitis jabs for some reason, which is why they were able to have it when starting uni. My DS couldn't have it because our GP wasn't running any clinics. I only know this because of threads on MN.
Parents take their children for vaccinations they are told to - if a letter didn't arrive your parents might not have thought about it. My DD was missed off for all sorts of things that were offered routinely- I was only aware because she was my 3rd DC. She didn't seem to be properly "in the system" until she started school.

But if your parents were just lazy and couldn't be bothered to take you to be vaccinated, then yes you're right to feel miffed that you weren't cared for as you should have been.

5byfive · 07/08/2024 13:55

When Tony Blair was in Downing Street he refused to say whether his youngest child, had been vaccinated with the MMR. About a year later he said Leo was now fully vaccinated but refused to say whether he had the individual injections or the MMR. This is a big reason parents started to doubt what to do for the best.

TorroFerney · 07/08/2024 14:00

My mother went a bit antivax when I went to secondary school so I was allowed to choose if I had rubella bcg and tetanus. She’s generally a bit thick / lacking in any critical thinking though. Thankfully I was a huge rule follower and didn’t want to be the odd one out so I had them. Yes I’d be very irked, playing fast and loose with a child’s health.

TheTripThatWasnt · 07/08/2024 14:02

I had vaccinations at the GP surgery in the late 90s (as an adult) that never made it onto my medical records. It caused issues when I didn't know which ones I'd had when I wanted to travel somewhere that needed certain jabs. There was no record of a tetanus and Hep A or B (can't remember which), as well as cholera and/or typoid. I remember going to have them, as I memorably passed out in reception on my way out of the surgery.
Apparently old records were often inaccurate, according to the very helpful person who tried to help me track them down.

SmileyHappyPeopleInTheSun · 07/08/2024 14:16

DD1 medical records suggest she had none - she had everything going.

HCP she spoke to said it wasn't uncommon with transfer of medical records from wales to England - she done - England to Wales to England though had no idea why was just something they'd observed -( and couple of moves in England though the immunization records did cross with those)- plus there seem to be an issue with school team updating records at our GP. I have her red book - she didn't want it so that records some of it - and she remembers secondary school ones she had - but her current GP want to give them all to her again.

So records may not be accurate.

Onehotday · 07/08/2024 14:18

JohnofWessex · 07/08/2024 12:31

What I find suprising is that some parents are taken to court over refusing to get their children treated for various issues so why not with vaccination?

Vaccinations are not a treatment.

mitogoshi · 07/08/2024 14:23

The records were poorly kept by drs - my DDs records showed very few but she was fully vaccinated, also the hpv done at school never made it onto her medical records

JazbayGrapes · 07/08/2024 15:01

There simply were much fewer vaccines back in the day and not all of them necessary.

CruCru · 07/08/2024 15:14

I am quite a bit older than you. I had both measles and rubella as a child (the diseases) but never mumps. So I had the MMR aged 45 - mainly because I keep hearing stories about middle aged people getting mumps and being ill for weeks (inconvenient).

I also had the chickenpox vaccines bewtween pregnancies (because I never caught it).

It is worth making sure you are up to date with tetanus (every ten years) if you garden or use power tools.

I get my flu vaccine every year at my local chemist - I think it is £20.

brightyellowflower · 07/08/2024 15:21

Presuming you're alive as you're having a moan about it!

Really couldn't get wound up about this in the slightest. If you feel you need one or some, get them booked. That's it. Pretty sure there are hundreds of thousands of us wandering around without a meningitus vaccine in us - you do realise it doesn't cover you from every time of meningtitus? The one that nearly killed my brother you don't get protection from!

Life's pretty risky in general.

newpussmum · 07/08/2024 15:28

Consider asking your parents?

My youngest son hasn't had all of them because he had a bad reaction.

So should I have just carried on giving him them?

Just ask?

MereDintofPandiculation · 07/08/2024 15:29

Sheabutter19 · 07/08/2024 02:34

I know this sounds daft but I’ve been going through my medical records and it shows childhood vaccinations. According to these records there is quite a few where I received the first dose and was never taken for my booster jabs and I was never taken for my meningitis jab either. Aibu to be annoyed

How long ago was your childhood? I had the complete set of whatever but pre electronic record (which was not so long ago) and 5 GP practices later very little of it appears on my record.

parkrun500club · 07/08/2024 15:32

Rather than being annoyed, you use your energy to arrange to get them now, instead.

You can get MMR catch-ups because they really want you to! Also, if you are female, it's important to check for things like rubella and chicken pox immunity before you TTC, if possible.

parkrun500club · 07/08/2024 15:33

Also, some jabs are done at 14 and at school so won't be in your red book.

parkrun500club · 07/08/2024 15:35

Onehotday · 07/08/2024 14:18

Vaccinations are not a treatment.

There are court proceedings where one parent wants someone vaccinated and the other doesn't.

Anyway, not being vaccinated doesn't mean you will get the illness concerned.

Just as not having a smear doesn't mean you will get cervical cancer.

They are both sensible preventative measures, but neither should be forced.

But in any event, that's not the issue here. If the OP is that concerned, she can check her immunity and have any catch-ups that are necessary (if the NHS doesn't deem them necessary she'll have to pay).