To expect the Doctor to respect my wishes?

[loumum3]

I have not vaccinated my youngest child. I have done this after much research and made an informed decision. The Doctor's surgery has phoned me several times now and written requesting I go in for a discussion about this. I haven't got time for a visit to discuss this, nor do I want to so I said if I had to, I could talk about it on the phone....I have had the Doctor on the phone this afternoon grilling me about my choices, really trying to scare me into having the jabs done and trying to make me feel bad. She cannot see my point of view at all and has been very rude.

Is is really too much to expect a Doctor to respect the decisions I make about my own children ?

Has anyone else experienced this ?

Oenopod - it bothers me that they won't leave me alone !

Fair enough - I agree they should now leave you alone. But when you have a chance could you explain why/how you came to your decision - were some of the ingredients of the vaccines of particular concern, for example?

I do understand the worry about vaccinations as I have worried myself but I get furious at the aggression directed at Doctors who are only trying to make sure that children get what they [the Doctors] believe is something that could save their lives.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who for one reason or another might miss a vaccination appointment and never make another, although they would have been happy to have their children vaccinated. That is why children they get chased up.

People seem to think the Government/NHS is behaving so unreasonably over vaccinations.

How would you feel if they said: if you refuse vaccinations without a medical reason and your child catches a disease you chose not to have them immunised against - then you cannot have them treated on the NHS and must go to a private hospital?

Now that would be bloody unreasonable. And yet, the new Government will be cutting budgets for the NHS... it could happen.

loumum3 If you do come back to this thread, have a look at the resources below. Send them to your Doctor, ask them to read and say you will be happy to discuss this when they have a chance to do so, or simply say that you have researched, your reasons include the information in the blurb below and if they could send you information regarding the double blind testing of vaccines, studies showing the long term effect on health versus non vaccinated populations, studies showing that vaccines are indeed effective to outbreaks of diseases etc you would be happy to study them and reconsider your decision.

www.relfe.com/vaccine.html

Helios.co.uk have a 30p leaflet that is good.
Dispelling Vaccination Myths A. Phillips £0.30
SKU: BK443

This one is also good -
Trevor Gunn Trevor Gunn does some good seminars, if there are any you could send the details to your GP along.

and there is some more information on here
arnica They have a good yahoo group too.

I just ignore the question, say I have my reasons, I have researched and do not believe that vaccination is right for me or my children at this time.

"scared into making such decisions by people that don't always know best"

Who does not know best - doctors etc?
Surely I should be able to trust health proffs to know more than myself on most issues? I really can't believe a few hours of research on the internet gives us more knowledge than them!

I agree knowledge is power - but I would always prefer a 2nd, 3rd opinion etc than based on my own anecdotal experience or internet research.

oenopod, yes, i would absolutely home educate if i was not allowed to send my child to school unvaccinated

websticks... i imagine i woulkd be absolutely guytted, and blame myself for all eternity.
just as I would if any of them suffered from having the vaccinations

Thanks MistyB this is interesting.

marriednotdead: more by luck than judgement and long may those children's luck hold out.

Homeopathy is a whole 'nother debate I can get my teeth into, but I won't...

We can all pull up anecdotes to back up our side of the story. How about my friend's baby daughter who contracted measles from some toddler, who was carrying the disease with no symptoms, just a few weeks before her first jabs were due. She ended up in hospital and could have been seriously damaged, if not died from it. She is now fine but it was unnecessarily scary.

"When my son began his routine vaccination series at age 2 months, I did not know there were any risks associated with immunizations. But the clinic's literature contained a contradiction: the chances of a serious adverse reaction to the DPT vaccine were 1 in 1750, while his chances of dying from pertussis each year were 1 in several million."

Quote from above website. The reason why the risk of him dying from pertussis is so low is due to the immunisation programme surely?

You have the luxury of choice. The majority of the world's population don't and thousands of children still die from easily preventable diseases.

Be grateful you have the choice, think about what the impact of that choice is on other people and your own children.

And quit moaning that the doctor questions your judgement on something that they probably have far more knowledge about.

A little knowledge, in the wrong hands, does more harm than good. As has been shown in the increase in these childhood diseases in 'nice, middle-class areas'.

Cadders: exactly.

This all makes me so bloody cross.

Why do so many people thinks doctors and the government are involved in some subversive plan to slowly kill us all off with injected mercury etc?? As with all conventional medicine: no-one denies vaccines and treatments may carry risk. But the risk is SIGNIFICANTLY LESS than the risks of contracting one of the diseases being vaccinated against. Its the risk:benefit ratio and is the basis of funding and approval for any treatment.

Hence the problem with researching via the internet (hardly a peer-reviewed, non-biased source of information) and listening to anecdote.

My main point is that I have spoken to the GP's several times, in person and over the phone and they seemed quite happy for him not to have his baby jabs, it is only now he has missed his MMR that I am getting chased up. One of the GP's said they were not happy with the immunisation schedule now and so did the HV we had. I appreciate they have a job to do but I can't keep on explaining myself. I am a grown adult and I just want them to respect my decision.

But it's not about you as a grown adult - it is about your child's health/life.

I would expect any decent GP to raise the issue each time a set of jabs was due.

I repeat, if you are truly comfortable with your decision, this wouldn't bother you.

Appreciate they are doing their job. If they didn't chase up the parents who just forgot to get the jabs and that child later got ill, the GPs would be the first in the firing line.

Their job is make sure you know what is recommended for your child. Your job should be to look after the interests of your child. It's not a conspiracy to bully you. If you go against the grain, expect to be challenged. It's only right that you are challenged.

IMO you are not looking after the best interests of your child. Suck it up.

After much discussion, DP and I opted for single jabs instead of the MMR. This was NOT to do with any perceived autism risk.

BUT, a little-reported side issue was that bowel disorders were being reported at the same time among the affected children.

As people in both my Mum's and my Dad's families have various bowel disorders, we decided that a jab that may trigger a bowel disorder in a child from a family prone to these was not a good risk to take.

The children had single jabs. A measles outbreak occurred at the children's school, and 60% of the children had indeed had the MMR previously. My children did not catch measles.

Each decision is unique. And there is NO medication that can be classed as 100% safe. It's always about weighing up the risks versus benefits.

Fair enough, don't vax. But please don't run bleating to your GP when your child has measles or mumps, or meningitis c. Please don't bring to them crowded waiting rooms to infect other peoples children.

Your GP is trying to prevent harm coming to your children. They probably don't understand why you won't do that for them yourself.

The op has explained on more than one occasion to the GP. Whether we agree or not about her decision, the fact is that SHE is the parent and it's her responsibility ultimately. The GP surgery should not continue to try to force her into doing something she is not happy to do. They have already established her reasons when they spoke to her on the previous 2 occasions and I think they now have to respect the parents decision. If I was the op I would put my reasons in writing and formally insist that they stop trying to coerce her into accepting their way of thinking over her own. They have done their job in highlighting why it is imp, but the GP is not the parent, the op is.

I say this as someone who has had my dc immunised and as someone who strongly believes in it

having the rubella jab doesnt mean you are immune ,i had it at school and when i was expecting my son just 7 years later ,i was tested and discovered to have no immunity ,this apparently isnt that uncommen although i dont know the exact figures . If the vaccination was failsafe then there would be no need to test pregnant women at all . Op , if you are unhappy with the way the dr has treated you put your complaint in writing to the practice manager . Whilst i do not agree with your choice ,i agree with your right to make it .

I suppose the GP thinks that your and your DCs healthcare is a partnership. If you have wildly different ideas on a particular matter (i.e you think vaccinations bad, s/he thinks they are good) then the whole point of the chat is to see if your are registered with the right surgery for you.
i.e perhaps you need to register elsewhere with a GP who is more supportive of your beliefs?

like bumpsoon I had the rubella jab as teenager but when I was tested when pregnant with dd1 I wasn't immune and had to have another jab after I had had dd1.

loumum3 did your dcs have ther jabs as babies? Personally I worried more about giving a 2 month baby the number of vaccines they get (which is a huge number!) when there immune system is so poor.

I did lots of research on the MMR and went with it - everyone to their own. But I don't see why people gowith the single vaccines - as far as I can see there has been no research showing it is safer (and due to the small numbers of vaccines being givenm too smal a number for any real differences in side effects to show). I'm not suggesting there are no risks - with anything we do in life you have to balance the pros and cons and goo with what you feel is best for you.

What do you mean by scaremongering? Do you mean they were telling you facts about the complications of measles etc?

"SHE is the parent and it's her responsibility ultimately."

Ummm . . . uncomfortable with that statement.

If the OP's DC catches Whooping Cough, tetanus, rubella, measles, mumps or any of the others, then it will be the GP's responsibility, won't it.

If the DC becomes profoundly deaf due to measles, as my friend's parents did 50 years ago, the state will take responsibility and pay for special schools, hearing aids etc.

And, given that pregnant women are not tested for Rubella immunity till 12+ weeks - after the danger period has passed - if an unvaccinated child passes Rubella on to a pregnant woman who had been vaccinated byt unbeknown to her had lost her immunity, then whose responsibility is that?

I type that as someone who knows a person whose newborn die due to Rubella infection during pregnancy.

YABVVU unreasonable and irresponsible in not vaccinating your child...and by expecting your GP to respect your unreasonable decision when he knows you are not doing the right thing by your child.

It is not the case, or at least should not be the case that the parents decision is sacred and nothing else matters. The GP has a duty of care to the children, and is trying to do well by them.

By not vaccinating your child you are not only putting them at risk but also increasing the risk for others. So it is not just you and your child the GP has a responsibility for but all her other patients as well. Why do you expect her to ignore their needs just because you don't want to vaccinate? If I was one of her other patients I would be fully supportive of her doing her best to reduce the risks to my child by trying to ensure that as many people as possible are fully immunised. Sorry if that causes you some inconvenience.

loumum3 - am sorry if you feels pressured by your GP but they are only doing their job. I understand why you feel uncomfortable with your child being vaccinated but the consequences can be unthinkable.

I have made a special request to my health board for my DC to have the BCG. I have close contact with active TB through my job and am scared at the consequences on the decision to remove the BCG from the immunisation schedule. TB is on the increase within the UK. I declined the vaccine when they were babies although the HV strongly recommended it as it was easier to hold a newborn still rather than a struggling toddler. My children have had the vaccine and it means that I have the peace of mind that although I don't like them having injections (thinking about the carriers/preservatives etc) I would prefer that to them ending up with at best, a debilitating illness.

At the end of the day, you pay your money and take your chances.