Why so many anti-vaxxing mums

[FirstTimeMum881]

I have a 5 month old baby and I'm going back to work at 7.5 months and planning on pumping milk at work. I was looking for tips so I joined some Facebook groups on breastfeeding and pumping and also made an account on babycenter as it had a lot of threads on the subject. OH MY GOD. They may as well rename these groups "Batshit mums against vaccines" because the content is insane. My favourite is a mum of a preemie refusing donor milk from vaccinated mothers. Lots of others paranoid their babies have autism because they had their 8 week jabs and they noticed their babies love staring at the ceiling.

I'm aware most of these women are in the US but what the hell is going on??? It's like i stepped into a parallel universe.

I don't believe that you are a medical doctor.

I've got a friend who's catchphrase is "Let me through, I'm a doctor" which he's used on many occasions to bypass queues or get into venues for free. Hes a doctor of poetry. 🤣

Qualified doctor is strange wording. What are the qualifications?

Mind you, I expect we've all met qualified Drs with strange opinions. One GP told me I was 'mad' to plan a homebirth with my second DC. I was young and fit, having a healthy pregnancy and had previously had a quick and 'textbook' birth. I am not in fact mad, and I went on to have the homebirth, fully supported by midwives who were very enthusiastic about my decision.

just google "crunchy mum" and it'll tell you all you need to know.

Many of the childhood routine vaccines list encephalitis as a (rare) side effect. My ds regressed following a routine vaccination and is severly disabled. He had recieved some vaccines before this. He is now medically exempt from vaccination although vaccine injury cause hasn't been confirmed, I suspect he was incredibly unlucky and it was the cause.

My other son has been fully vaccinated and I'm ex cabin crew, I've had more vaccinations than I can count so not anti-vax but vaccines do have some very serious side effects for a few.

As an aside. If you haven't vaccinated your children and travel abroad check your travel insurance. We haven't found one that doesn't have a clause in the fine print for claims arising where the person isn't vaccinated and the claim is related. Our ds does get insurance as medically exempt which is fully documented on his medical record.

Oh, yes. FLUORIDE!!!! 🙄

What type of degree do you have and from which school, please?

this was a new one I heard recently my neighbour telling me she paid a fortune for new water system that removes fluoride from water ?? I was like wtf I actually switched off when she went o her rant about it she a lovely person vut some times a bit crazy 🙈

I assume you mean 'qualified' as in the secondary definition?

not complete or absolute; limited.
"I could only judge this CD a qualified success"

I'm guessing the Hollywood Upstairs College of Medicine.

Or maybe it's a PhD in creative writing.

The Hollywood Upstairs College of Medicine 🤣I love that, @TimeWarSoldier!

Sorry, @mathanxiety

Yes, the lack of critical thinking on this matter is frightening.

DH is a qualified doctor.
He isn't a medical doctor.

The lack of critical thinking on every matter is frightening these days.

The minute there is a measles outbreak all these parents start panicking and scrabbling about to get the vaccine.

Very true.

Children’s health depends on this one, though - I find it hard to believe that some parents are so stupid as to think that homeopathy is a good treatment for measles.

But then I did have to explain to MIL that acupuncture wouldn’t unblock my fallopian tubes.

The 'big pharma' point gets me. If in the US where you are paying for everything - sure I can buy this ever so slightly

But with the NHS, it doesn't have endless money. If the governing bodies couldn't see a value in spending on a vaccine then it wouldn't be standard! The fact that the vaccines we have on NHS are standard suggests there is a major benefit to it above the cost of implementing

I may not have phrased this well but I hope you understand my sentiment

It’s definitely not just American parents. My exMIL was beside herself because both children had the MMR vaccine. “It makes you have autism” you see. Fucking moron.

When my youngest was diagnosed with ASD at 5 she did take great pleasure in asking me if I felt responsible for his diagnosis because I got him vaccinated. I took full responsibility for neither of my children ever getting measles. Or mumps or rubella.

My gran told me she queued up for hours to get her children their vaccines when they became available and were offered. She was born in the 1920s in poverty and saw plenty of families torn apart by polio, TB and god knows what else. Children she went to school with died of these diseases. Ex MIL (born in the 1940s) was obviously lucky enough to never know anyone affected by any of the horrible diseases. Why else would you prefer a child to have measles that could kill them over autism?

But with the NHS, it doesn't have endless money. If the governing bodies couldn't see a value in spending on a vaccine then it wouldn't be standard! The fact that the vaccines we have on NHS are standard suggests there is a major benefit to it above the cost of implementing

I agree. It's cheaper and more effective for the NHS to vaccinate than to treat the disease, which may have a worse outcome.

I completely agree! The most frustrating one was when one of them claimed that "they" had lowered the criteria for gestational diabetes in order to sell more insulin. There is a wealth of info and papers available online that explain this was done because mothers and babies were having side effects associated with GD but hadn't met the criteria for diagnosis and treatment... so they realised they needed to change it and conducted studies into the impacts which were positive! Why the NHS would willingly choose to spend more money on insulin, all the other diabetes paraphernalia and additional monitoring and medical support is beyond me!

Yes to that.

I have several relatives in Ireland who spent the entire covid period posting rubbish about 'big pharma' and other nonsense. One refused to have his child vaccinated against hpv 'because poison/ won't somebody think of the side effects?' but is himself a pothead.

Other relatives of an older generation were deeply into all sorts of woo and quackery - 'origins' and 'cures' for asthma, high blood pressure, arthritis, seasonal allergies, you name it. They would regale you for hours with their crackpot theories about medical topics, which they tended to know next to nothing about. Very charming, very articulate, never boring - but they fit the definition of cranks.

All came from a very well-off and educated background that sadly allowed them to live in their own little bubble, and some rellies really ran with that.

They worst offenders, past and present, are all self-proclaimed Buddhists or heavily into all things Steiner-Waldorf.

Meanwhile, the side of the family who came from humble circumstances (and to be fair, the vast majority of the money side too) have a far better grip of science and all things medical.

Being vaccine sceptic is a luxury of being in a post-vaccine success society. It won't take much for it to fall apart though. I think anti vax people don't realise how awful the diseases that aren't "a thing" now. Let's bring back polio for instance, or a bit of smallpox?

Absolutely right. How many mothers in sub-Saharan Africa do anti-vaxers think are turning down one of the new malaria vaccinations for their young children?

But there they have seen for themselves children - possibly even their own - die of malaria so jump at the chance to vaccinate.

I am on the floor laughing here as you have just described my SIL
"Other relatives of an older generation were deeply into all sorts of woo and quackery - 'origins' and 'cures' for asthma, high blood pressure, arthritis, seasonal allergies, you name it. They would regale you for hours with their crackpot theories about medical topics, which they tended to know next to nothing about. Very charming, very articulate, never boring - but they fit the definition of cranks."
I would leave out the charming bit though as its not charming to listen too. But yet she has no issue with her very over weight family injecting themselves with weight loss injections. Drives me demented 😂