scared of not vaccinating

[mumsgotatum]

Hello, At the moment I am currently reading Dr Richard Halvosen's book, 'The Truth about Vaccines'. I am finding it and interesting and quite alarming read.
I have a 7 mth old DD who has not been vaccinated apart from BCG in hospital. I have been reluctant to take her for any of her vaccinations; partly because I have a DS (3.5 yrs), who I did get vaccinated and I just couldn't bear taking him. (Dad took him)...and also because I have been procrastinating about it, and can't make up my mind one or another. It's a minefield!
I have quite a few friends who have not vaccinated at all, and then it looks as though Dr Halvosen does offer some single vaccinations. With my DS I did get him vaccinated because I didn't really know any better and wasn't so informed on the subject. He has had only one MMR.
As mentioned quite a few of my friends have not vaccinated and very happy with their decision. They have made an informed choice and are convinced they are doing the best for their children.
But somehow I do feel scared of not vaccinating, are there any mums out there who did not vaccinate and do you feel ok about your decision? Did you ever feel fear? What about playgroups or large groups of children?
Or any mums who did vaccines privately or have consulted with Dr Halvosen?
Just trying to get help making a decision...it's very difficult....

Thanks

I'm still wibbling and wobbling, reading my way through the Halvorsen book. It's very interesting reading and full of things I had no idea about vaccinations. I am considering going to his clinic and selectively vaccinating.
What gets me is some people get so very angry that you're not vaccinating, or you're delaying, or being selective. They get really bolshy and high-horse about it all but why on earth wouldn't I do some research and investigation into vaccines and what is contained within them and whether some of them are actually necessary. I mean most of us are careful about what we would want our children to eat so why wouldn't I be equally careful about what I would inject into my DD.

Come and spend a day with my father and see what hell life is 64 years after he had polio. His life was ruined. He has barely had a pain-free day for decades.

My daughter tested the new diphtheria vaccine. She was fine. That is a foul disease. Fatality rates are up to 10%.

We went to see Dr Halvorsen about the MMR. My boys all had MMR when it first came out- 2 are on the autistic spectrum, and one of them also has bowel problems. With our family history I was scared to give DD the MMR.

Dr H went through our family history and listened to our concerns. He advised that we were probably better to have the singles for MMR, but also advised that we should have the Hib and Men C I was wobbling about.

DD had the single measles jab. She will have the rubella jab when she is 11, like I did. I took her to our own GP for the Hib/ Men C.

If you can't decide, it might be worth booking a private appt with Dr H and talking it through with him.

I wish that i'd had the precense of mind and knowledge to say No to the vitamin K injection. The thing was that I didn't have the knowledge and simply just believed what the midwives were telling me.
Ditto the BCG, I was told I was in high risk area and without the knowledge, and the confidence of that knowledge I went ahead with it. Anyway I'm getting to know more now...

I would never be so reckless as to not give my kids their vaccinations.
tell me, do you make them sit on the roofrack of your car as well?
yes, i know that sounds incredibly rude and its your choice...... but, its very obviously your choice to be so reckless with their health and well being. None of us live in a vacuum and what we do affects those around us.

ladysybil
I am not anti-vaccination by any means. I am just very much into finding out about vaccinations and then making a choice, and also being selective about vaccinations. I think that is the opposite of being reckless. Also BTW my DS is vaccinated, all but the 2nd MMR which i might have singly.
I don't think the comparison of sitting on the roofrack really applies in this case

Lol at your analagy ladysybil! That's a really ridiculous comparison to make. I would love to know how much time you spent considering vaccines and what you know about the diseases themselves, their incidence rates, risks, side effects etc. Imo the people who make statements like yours actually know very little about any of this things and just blindly went along with vaccinating because everyone else was. IMO that is much more dangerous.

Abr1de - where exactly is the op's 10 month old going to contract polio in the uk? You may want to read some of my earlier posts about it - the information comes from the nhs or hpa website.

Exactly bubbleymummy...the people who seem to get so self-righteously indignant and angry about not vaccinating or selectively vaccinating don't seem to have made the time to actually get any knowledge on the subject. WTF is so wrong with questioning the status quo

'Abr1de - where exactly is the op's 10 month old going to contract polio in the uk? You may want to read some of my earlier posts about it - the information comes from the nhs or hpa website.'

Fine. As long as you don't travel. Africa and India still have a lot of polio. I'd have thought it reasonably likely one of my children will visit one of these countries.

When we were asked to take part in a trial for the new vaccines we were given a lot of information and, obviously, we researched very carefully ourselves. We are also a family with high auto-immune prevalence.

you are right. it is a ridiculous analogy. sitting on the roofrack of a car once or twice is much safer than having no vaccinations.

as for knowing about vaccinations and immunology and how it works, I do know what I am talking about.

Pro and anti debates often get a bit heated as people have strong feelings and I can see why LeonieDelt you would have a very defensive reaction to Abr1de's post about polio, but I'm sure it was not an attempt to guilt you into vaccinating, just more information.

However, scare tactics listing supposed ingredients of vaccines is misleading - there is no mercury in any of the UK childhood vaccinations, for example.

Lol ladysybil - you're deluded if you think exposing my child to rubella and mumps is more dangerous than riding on the roofrack of a car. What a silly thing to say. You have lost all credibility because clearly you know nothing about the risks of either of those diseases.

Actually I think the risk of catching any of the diseases and being adversely affected is considerably less than the risk of permanent disability or death from falling off a car roof! Lol. Oh you have cheered me up today :)

Isn't it a teensy bit naive to think it is a shock to anyone that a company engaged in manufacture is motivated by profit?

Perhaps you could share with us which UK childhood vaccines have mercury in them? Or why polysorbate-80 should be such a huge risk, given that it is a common emulsifier used in foods? Or what the problem is with squalene, a substance produced by all living things (including the human body) and acknowledged as a chemopreventative?

We can all read. The clever bit is being able to apply some level of discrimination to what you read.

I like my kids, too, but it's not all about me and them. We are part of a wider community. If you want to talk about risk, let's consider Rubella - highly infectious but with a high percentage of sub-clinical cases. If a pregnant woman is infected with Rubella in the first 8-10 weeks of pregnancy, then the likelihood of fetal damage is 90%. Which makes strapping a pregnant woman to a roof rack seem like a safe thing to do, by comparison.

Or balia, perhaps allowing that mother the opportunity to contract rubella in childhood do that she has lifelong immunity and can protect her unborn baby during pregnancy would be an idea - you know - the way nature designed it to work? Silly old nature! What on earth does it know! :)

How on earth did we make it into the 21st century without all these vaccines? .... :)

Mother Nature is not a kindly white-haired, apple-cheeked old lady who has sorted out the planet to protect us. Giving people the 'opportunity' to catch Rubella, eh? Like those lucky women in 1964, who gave birth to 20,000 babies with birth defects - deafness, blindness, mental retardation - all preventable with a vaccine that has no serious side effects.

Where did you get that figure from balia? link?

Also re 'no serious side effects' every vaccine has potential side effects. Why do you think the government has paid out millions to vaccine damaged children over the years?

From the HPA -

" Before the introduction of rubella immunisation, there were as many as 70 cases of Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) during epidemic year"

That's a lot less than 20,000! Where on earth did you get your figures from?

make sure to read Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science as well - a great introduction to how to read all the other stuff, as much as anything else.

The American epidemic? It is quite well known - Cooper, L.Z. Congenital Rubella in the United States. 1975 In: Krugman, S Gershon, A (eds), Symposium on Infections Of the Fetus and Newborn Infant. New York, Alan R. Liss Inc.,p.1. or electronically

Here

Perhaps you could now enlighten me as to the serious side effects of rubella vaccine, or provide a link to a pay out for damage done by the rubella vaccine?