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.

What's that got to do with autism?

With all due respect that means nothing without context. If as an example out of eg 100,000 (I don't know the exact figure) children catching measles, just one went on to have eye problems. It might be argued that it is statistically insignificant, compared to eg being run, over with it being much more likely to happen and cause significant injury. Yet we don't ban cars.

We do understand autism is hereditary yes? So the prevalence is down more to understanding and genetics.

I've started to see this from a few medical professionals lately. Could you explain why?

Eye damage is a well recognised complication from measles , as is hearing damage. Both my father and his sister suffered significant hearing loss as the result of the measles virus when they were children and both were profoundly deaf in later life as a result.

Reply to nanny ogg
The first bit of my post was about autism. but the second bit was a comment about poor mental health as someone earlier was suggesting that was caused by vaccines

Yeah? Where did you qualify as a doctor?

Personally I think some history lessons are needed into the diseases of the past. As long as the anti vaxers put their kids forward to prove there's nothing to worry about.

I'm not denying there is a risk, but also bear in mind that at the same time as your Father and Aunt, measles was more likely to kill. Modern healthcare removed much of that risk even before vaccination became common.

I'm on an alternative parenting group and it's both worrying and hilarious how scared they are of vaccines and toothpaste 😆

The disgrace of Andrew Wakefield may even have increased the problem in parts of the US, because he dealt with it by relocating to Texas, where he has since made quite a career for himself as an anti-vaccine campaigner and 'documentary' producer.

I once got into an online argument (I know, big waste of time) with an American who claimed that Wakefield was a victim of pushers of for-profit medicine. I asked why in that case he had to save his career by moving from a place with a National Health Service to one with a for-profit system. She ignored that,

Covid! All the lies they told during that period have rightly left many people sceptical.

Chinny reckon

In what area did you gain your doctorate? If medical, do you not understand immunology and how vaccines work.

Or perhaps you're a pretend doctor. 🤔

dr in French German psychology?

Probably American

Probably vaccinated themselves as a child.

Being as patronising kind as I can - because the thought of actively causing something to be done to your child which carries a risk, however tiny, feels much worse than just letting things be and hoping for the best. And there is a miniscule risk of some form of issue with vaccine reaction. But so many of us are terrible with numbers that we don't have any idea how miniscule the risk is, compared with the much larger risk of disease and complications. And we get taught too much now that our feelings should guide our behaviour in that we should avoid what makes us feel bad. I was brought up a pretty standard Anglican (am an atheist now) and back then it was much more part of the culture that if it felt bad, it was probably the right thing to do.

I would no more have skipped a vaccination for ds than I would have jumped off a cliff. I paid for private HPV jabs for him before they were on the schedule for boys. I continue to think the Covid vaccination was a triumph. But it doesn't feel good getting your babies jabbed, does it.

When I first went to university I contracted mumps. Which was a massive surprise considering I thought my mother would have made sure I had my 8 week jabs.

Turns out my mum had been scared by all the MMR scare stories and my and my 4 male siblings hadn't been fully vaccinated.

I'd been at home for the weekend and around my brothers my mother was absolutely furious that Id passed it to my brothers because of the link with mumps and infertility

If only there was a vaccine mum that could of prevented all of this

You must be aware that far fewer children nowadays go to special schools. In past generations there was next to no support in mainstream schools for children with learning difficulties. I remember a 'remedial' class, which the slower learners attended. Children with disabilities would be at special schools or in institutions. Dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and ADHD were unknown. Autism was only identified as a distinct neurodevelopmental disorder in the 1930s and 1940s and it took decades for the health and education worlds to learn about it and start to recognise it, especially in girls.

Even when my children were at primary school in the 1990s there was more choice for parents of children with significant learning difficulties than there is now. Some preferred their children to go to special schools, some wanted them in mainstream with support. Nowadays they would mostly be forced to accept a place in a mainstream school.

... and to state the obvious, none of that has anything to do with vaccination.

That's rich coming from you. You've ignored every single request on this thread to explain your own position.

At the end of the day anti vaxxers will have fewer children who live. So it's a problem that will sort itself out within a generation or two. Look at all the right wing djs in the States during covid - 1 minute it was all "I believe in my body's natural immune system" then they were "ill but fighting" then it was all "please send thoughts and prayers" and that was that. Problem sorted.
The only difference is that this generation are using their kids as poker chips rather than themselves.

So what?

All this statement shows is that "doctors" can be as stupid as any other antivaxxer.

Nope. They believe immunity is strengthened.

Of All the things that didn’t happen, your medical degree didn’t happen the most.

Actually that is the point I am making. Would educating anti vax, that the same percentage of neurodiverse children exist today as did 40 years ago. Just that they now attend mainstream.