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Original poster

Immunisation - would you give them extras?

53 replies

Blondeinlondon · 13/12/2005 21:26

We are off to the US for crimbo
It is DH's homeland and MIL is a doc
They give more childhood immunisations than here in the UK

Given the choice would you get the extra immunisations??

OP posts:
allycotownofbethlehem · 15/12/2005 12:29

at 5 injections AT ONCE?????????

I have sleepless nights knowing its two at the most. Honestly don't think I could have coped with five. Have gone all cold just thinking about that........

izzybiz · 15/12/2005 13:16

i have always hated my childrens injections, and have had to get my mum or someone to take them in, but after seeing what amyjades DD (my niece) went through i will always take them myself now. i still obviously dont like seeing them cry, but belive me its worse hearing them cry when they are having bloods taken and are seriously ill.

allycotownofbethlehem · 15/12/2005 16:40

og course yes izzy.

I've had one prem DD and one poorly DD and they've had repeated blood tests and tubes and god knows what. I think I've kind of managed to blank a lot of that out!!

Still think that 5 jabs at once is a bit much though (maybe I am just TOO soft)??

expatinscotland · 15/12/2005 16:43

I'm still so shocked and saddended by AmyJade's story, and so grateful to her for being so brave as to share it with others.

foundintransleightion · 15/12/2005 16:44

Izzy, I thought it was either Prevenar or penumovax, but not both?
So at amyjade's and your story.

Monkeysmom · 15/12/2005 16:45

Following Amyjade's thread on Pneumoccocal Meningitis, DS, 19 months had Prevenar and will have Pneumovax when 2 yo.
I also want him to have Hepatitis B.

Socci · 15/12/2005 16:55

Message withdrawn

Amyjade · 15/12/2005 18:29

I don't understand what you mean Socci?
All i said was that children come in contact with bacterias everyday when you have a vaccine you are introducing a new bacteria to boost the immunity and most of them aren't live anymore anyway !

We could go on for years discussing this issue i just hope those of you who choose not to vaccinate your children against killer diseases never have to go through the pain and heartache that i am going through. I gave birth to Dd2 8 weeks after Dd1 died she never got to meet her big sister. She has just been through 6 months of immunisations instead of 4 so we could incude three doses of the prevenar she will have another dose with the MMR and then pneumovax at 2 years. If only i had known this vaccine existed 9 months ago then i would have my two beautiful girls together.

ruty · 15/12/2005 20:11

amyjade i totally understand why you feel like this. But what seems to be happening with meningitis vaccines is as soon as one is given in the general population, another meningitis strain gains dominance. For example, the meningitis bacteria which prevnar protects against has become more prolific since the introduction of the Hib vaccine. Also, a top [pro vax]immunologist told me that he sometimes sees cases of hib meningitis in fully vaccinated children. Bacteria are highly adaptable, and adapt around the vaccines we give. More and more vaccines will need to be developed to find more and more ways of stopping the bacteria winning the battle. I am not anti vax at all. But there needs to be much more research into the long term and short term effects of them, unfortunately most reactions, even serious ones, are dismissed as co-incidences by doctors. I can understand why you feel vaccines are crucial despite these potential problems. But it doesn't mean vaccine saftey shouldn't be improved. Also, more research should be done into why some children get meningitis and who is vulnerable. This research isn't done very widely because the medical profession relies on vaccines. Perhaps more lives could be saved if more research was done on who is vulnerable to bacteria that others tolerate without symptoms.

ImdreadinganAUTIExmas · 15/12/2005 20:14

Most of the microorganisms you come into contact with each day are not disease causing though. I suspect Socci means that the immunity you get from jabs is less reliable, and that they come with lots of added extras. In my case I think it was the added extras that damaged ds1, not the actual jab itself.

The attittude someone has is always going to come down to their own personal life stories though. If you lose a child through an illness that has a vaccination that can be effective then of course you'll be pro vaccination, and you'll want to share that. If you have a vaccine damaged child then you'll be more cautious. I would have vaccinated with everything in sight pre-ds1. I did, with him- when they introduced meningitis C I went and asked for it. I remember cheering when the news announced it had been developed (and that image makes me shudder now). I haven't allowed a needle within a 5 m radius of ds2 and ds3, because my atitude changed because of my life experience. My friend's little boy died suddenly from an infection, but it wasn't one that could be vaccinated against, and it wasn't something that should have killed him (he should have been mildy ill for a couple of days then perfectly well again). Unfortunately there are never any guarantees. I wish there were.

Socci · 15/12/2005 23:05

Message withdrawn

ChicPea · 15/12/2005 23:21

DD 3 and DS 2 have both had the chicken pox jab this year after I had shingles (had chick pox as a child) and after reading AmyJade's thread I organised the Prevenar jab. Thank you AmyJade for sharing your heartfelt story with us and potentially protecting other children.

bloss · 15/12/2005 23:27

Message withdrawn

morocco · 15/12/2005 23:33

I'd get the prevenar and the chicken pox jabs done but you could get those here too and not ruin their Xmas with lots of needles!

ghosty · 15/12/2005 23:35

This whole issue is such a struggle for each and every one of us. I have a friend who has older kids (in their 20s) who says to me that she is so glad she isn't in the position to have to make these choices anymore.
I think for me it depends on the child and the circumstances. DS has been vaxed for everything available (including Hep B which is standard in NZ and it was a requirement for our residency here but not chicken pox because I don't really the point ...)
DD had her baby jabs but when she was 7 months she had a very bad reaction to the Meningitis B vax that they have in NZ that led to me rethinking the whole issue. I did a lot of research into it and am still pro vax (in spite of being friends with Jimjams and knowing her situation ... I believe the risks with immunisations also go together with other things like a predisposition in a family to autistic traits being heightened by a reaction to vax ... tell me if I am wrong Jimjams? Let me add that although I have had lengthy chats with Jimjams about vaccinations she has never once tried to dissuade me from giving them to my kids)
But because of DD's reaction to the MenB vax (no less than 3 medical professionals advised me NOT to follow through the course ... there has been a huge media circus here about the speed with which they rushed the vax through and the amount of bad reactions reported - I was interviewed by a TVNZ news program about it) I am now dragging my heels over her MMR ... which she should have had done at 15 months and she is now nearly 2 and I am scared of her having it. Only I can make the final decision whether to go ahead or not so I can only hope that some time soon I will come to a decision one way or another.
I think the problem in NZ is the pressure ... you can not enrol your child in school or kindy unless they have 'sighted' your child's immunisation record ... I find that hard.

Gosh, sorry for the ramble.

skerriesmum · 15/12/2005 23:37

I would vaccinate against chickenpox if I were you. There are more complications and deaths from chickenpox than from mumps and measles. I had it when I was 9, missed two weeks of school, had pox EVERYWHERE including my genitals, it was horrible, I would never want my child to go through that.
I can't understand why there isn't a chickenpox vaccine yet in the UK.

ChicPea · 15/12/2005 23:57

SkerriesMum, its to do with money!

christmaslovingbluealien · 16/12/2005 00:07

i would give every immunisation available.
ds1 had bcg at age nine months..

christmaslovingbluealien · 16/12/2005 00:09

i am also one of the few people i know who has been vaccinated against smallpox. was feeling very smug during the recent outbreak.
then found out it only lasts ten yearsish.

ghosty · 16/12/2005 01:19

I have been vaccinated for smallpox too christmaslovinbluealien ... I was born in South Africa and it was the norm to have the vax there in those days.
Didn't know it was only for 10 yrs tho
Also didn't know there was an outbreak ... I read that it was eradicated by the mid '80s

skerriesmum · 16/12/2005 02:37

I don't think it's purely about the cost. They offer it in Canada (where I live now) as well as the US. Everyone is always on about the crap medical system here and how there are no services etc. well at least there are immunizations!

Amyjade · 16/12/2005 10:57

Socci
The reference i made about 'if you give a child 10,000 immunisations then it would only use up 0.1% of a childs immune system' it does say in 'theory' and i did actually copy it from information given to me by the JCVI (joint committee of vaccinations and immumisations) so if you don't understand it then maybe you need to contact them.

Ruty,
You are so right when you say more reserch needs to be done into why some children develop meningitis, i hope one day research will be done then i might get some answers into why 'MY' healthy 19 month old got this killer disease.
Also they need to understand a bit more about childrens immune systems and how they work as my Dd immune system was what caused the massive brain swelling, her body was working overtime to try and fight the bacteria and caused something called 'vasculitis' which damaged her brain, kidney's and probably all of her organs.

I'm so glad that some of the people who read my original thread have had the Prevenar and that 'Freya's story' has made more people aware of the disease and the vaccine, This awareness out of such a tradegy could one day save a life and that is something positive i can do that my daughter would have been proud of.

Thanks for all your support and i hope Blondeinlondon makes the right choice for her and her child about having extra vaccines and that Prevenar is something to seriously be consider.

Socci · 16/12/2005 18:15

Message withdrawn

ImdreadinganAUTIExmas · 16/12/2005 19:42

I suppose the reference from the JCVI means that there are still lots of other possible antibody combinations "available", they wouldn't all be used up in producing antibodies to the vax . It's a pretty silly thing to say though and fairly meaningless and if an anti-vax group used the same standard of argument the JCVI would (rightly) jump on them. I've seen that quote a lot though- and I think I heard somewhere that it was originally made years and years ago by someone who was trying to flog vaccinations- but that could be equally suspect, I've never checked out the source.

ImdreadinganAUTIExmas · 16/12/2005 19:42

just re-read- I mean its silly of the JVCI to say that.