Apparently children who have had good nutrition would just 'shrug it off' if they contracted measles. Why don't they say that in the UK?

[bumbleymummy]

Article is here discussing the impact that poor nutrition has on children in developing countries.

Considering that the majority of children in the UK have no problem with good nutrition (fruit shoots and Greggs aside ) why aren't parents being reassured rather than terrified into having their children vaccinated with images of coffins plastered over the promotional material?

I sincerely hope you aren't a detective or a psychologist in RL yams

I still think it is unnecessary and a deliberate scare tactic.

heaven knows there was enough 'unscary' information out there before this outbreak, yet too many people were still swayed by Wakefield's - what shall we call it, mistake? - and media misrepresentations into doing nothing. Probably quite a few were confused by the 'controversy' about MMR versus single jabs and ended up doing nothing (having being led into thinking there was a problem with MMR but lacking the resources or determination to get the singles). And you know what? Some sections of the media were still talking about 'controversy' during the outbreak.

Aha. No denial.

I might agree with you, bumbly- if I understood your point.......

The point is that, as I said before, there is a point to using formula milk if you can't breastfeed.

There doesn't seem to be much point to having measles.

Grimma, you obviously think using fear is ok in some situations. We just draw our lines in different places.

I doubt it curlew - you think the leaflet is fine.

No, I just don't think that leaflet was very fear-inducing. Nothing like the scare stories in the preceding years. We've had so many threads in the past on MN of women scared to vaccinate.

merry, we also seem to draw our lines in different places.

I don't think that disagreeing with a particular approach to printing vaccination is the same as saying 'let your child catch measles' so your above comparison wrt formula/bm isn't really the same.

I haven't even looked at the leaflet! I just think that telling people that children do die of measles, even if it is very rare is the right and responsible thing to do. And telling them that taking vitamin a will make any difference at all in this country is a wrong and irresponsible thing to do.

Well you've just said that the campaign was necessary to push people into vaccinating so people's scare stories about measles mustn't have been enough for others and they found the poster scary enough. Or maybe the over-reported outbreak was enough.

Sorry curlew, mixed you up with chub.

So you think vaccination is a good idea, but the leaflet was too scary.

Do you think people would have been motivated to vaccinate their children if they had been told "We'd like you to get your child vaccinated but really they could take some vitamin A and they are probably well fed so there isn't really any risk".

Do you not think that parents would be justifiably upset if the link between measles and death had not been made clear to them and they had decided not to vaccinate?

bubmbleymummy.
Do you regret vaccinating your children?
I dont think that you do.

But I dont think you liked doing it in part, because you had fear.

they found the poster scary enough

Maybe they just found it sufficiently clear and full of correct information.
And/or the media (mostly) making it clear that the wakefield 'research' was totally discredited at last probably helped. Or just the simple logic - oh, measles does actually happen in the UK and there's a simple way to protect my child against it.

Which I suppose is fair enough.
But we all in life have to weigh things up in order to come to some sort of decision.
And, on balance, you decided to have them vaccinated.

You ned to make peace with yourself about that decision.
Some decisions are harder to make than others.

Merry, the truth is that most well-nourished, healthy children who contract measles would be fine. I don't think it's right to play on people's emotions by scaring then into thinking that if they don't vaccinate their child will die. Particularly when the only option being offered is the controversial vaccine that parents were genuinely worried about. I've said previously that I think the single measles vaccine should have been available and if people were genuinely concerned about controlling the outbreak then that should have been an option.

Grimma, or the media hyping up every case as they did with swine flu a few years ago.

Yams, my children's medical records are not relevant to this thread. I think you should stop speculating. I actually think it's a bit rude.

See, it is an anti vaccination thread.

The vaccine was only controversial because Wakefield said it was. He's been struck off. His credibility is in tatters. Do we have to rehash these issues?

My MIL nearly died of swine flu in the winter of 2010/2011 and sustained permanent lung damage. She now had oxygen piped through the house so she can breathe.

Chub, you clearly want it to be an anti-vax thread. Why don't you go and start one yourself? 'Wakefield said this. Oh, no he didn't. Oh yes he did.' You know how it goes. Good times

Sorry your MIL had complications. I don't know her health re ord nor do I care to speculate on it. I'm sure you aren't going to argue though that swine flu wa not what it was made out to be for the vast majority of people and the daily tallies of every case just hyped the whole situation up. The media actually have a lot to answer for in many of these situations!

I don't want it to be anything. You have an issue with the vaccine itself and the advertising campaign connected with the recent outbreak. You started a thread on those topics. Did you just want "oh yes isn't it awful, I gave Tarquin some elderflower cordial and vitamin b12 and he was fine"?

Where have I said I have a problem with the vaccine? I said I thought the single should be available for people who didn't want the MMR. If people were genuinely concerned about it spreading then they have cared which vaccine was used as long as it encouraged more parents to vaccinate. Yeah, really anti-vax

Shouldn't* have cared.

The point is people only want single vaccines because they have been frightened by Wakefield about mmr. There is no real need for single doses.

You do sound very anti mmr actually.

The single vaccines are not licenced in this country so it's hardly a case of not caring what was used, we simply don't have them.