To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

[user1480775842]

Please help me... my baby is 4 months old and is amazing and healthy etc. My fiancé and all his family are against vaccinations and think they are very bad and cause lots of health issues.
My family and everyone else I know... are for it and say of course my child should have them.
I don't want to put my child at risk either way I am so unsure of what to do here.

Antenco

It's people like you who are so bloody dangerous without realising! Herd immunity protects the children of idiots those who don't vaccinate. My baby was born 12 weeks early, if she'd (unknowingly) come into contact with an unvaccinated child who may have been harbouring one of these illnesses, it could have killed her.

Why the FUCK would you make a comment 'not sure they're necessary' - the NHS wouldn't spend billions on vaccines if they weren't important, but it's ok, just because you have an opinion that could endanger anyone who's weak or immuno compromised.

but I have heard that unvaccinated children are generally healthier than vaccinated children From who? Peer reviewed scientists?

DD is vaccinated and fabulously healthy. Since the plural of anecdote is data; vaccines not only protect children but make them 'healthy'. For some reason.

Are you in the U.K. OP?

If you are you're already behind on scheduled vaccinations, is your baby registered with a GP? Did you have your 6/8 week check?

Also, vaccinate. You don't want your child catching these horrible illnesses. Whooping cough is already on the rise in London, and the measles outbreaking in Wales a few years ago.

We didn't have whooping cough jabs when I was a kid, I was fine but a friend had it and she was terribly ill. You don't hear from a lot of people who 'weren't fine', they're dead or too maimed to post on Mumsnet.

Idiots like antenco spreading information are the reason children are dying from perfectly preventable diseases.

I have heard that unvaccinated children are generally healthier than vaccinated children

Yeah? I heard that having sex with a virgin cures AIDS... go figure

My potential little brother/sister was still born because I gave my unvaccinated mother rubella (I was too small be be vaccinated back then when the jab was for teenagers). I know someone who lost their hearing due to measles, and a few people who had severe disabilities as a result of polio. I'd not risk any disease that could be avoided unless there were very good specific medical reasons not to vaccinate.

It turned out when I got pregnant that I hadn't ever been vaccinated. I had to be tested for everything every month to protect my unborn child from being damaged in the womb. Vaccinated in the hospital at her birth.

If you are planning on having more than one child, vaccinate now to protect your next unborn child and any other pregnant woman you come across. Or any other immuno depressed people. And there are a lot of them.

but I have heard that unvaccinated children are generally healthier than vaccinated children

From who?

My grandmother had polio as a child. She'd slap me if I told her I was considering not vaccinating my children.

And my dad died from meningococcal and meningitis. A vaccine doesn't exist for the particular strain of meningococcal yet (I don't believe), but you bet your ass I'll be getting it if and when they develop one. What a fucking awful, degrading way to die.

If something is preventable, why on Earth would you chance it?

The OP asked a question, but it extremely difficult and unpleasant here to make any comment on the other side of the argument.

But there OP, you are in favour of vaccination and you asked in the right place to get the answer you want. However I do not think you should go behind the father's back.

However I do not think you should go behind the father's back.

Why? There's no compromise here. It's either vaccinate or don't. What the eye dont see, the heart dont grieve over. Better just hope the DC doesnt inherit his/her IQ and critical reasoning from his father.

Only ever one answer to this on MN. Actually if you look at the number of deaths by polio etc the diseases were pretty much gone by the time vaccinations came in. This was due to people washing hands and general hygiene levels prior to the vaccinations being developed. That is what stopped the diseases spreading. My kids have never had a throat infection, ear infection or ever needed antibiotics for any infections and were not vaccinated. They have 100% attendance at school for this year and last year. (Hides behind sofa)

Pers and so has my child who is vaccinated. Anecdotes don't make data.

OP please vaccinate.

Atenco, complication rates for measles alone:
1 in 10 children will get an ear infection, which can result in hearing loss
1 in 20 will get pneumonia
1 in 1000 will get encephalitis
For every 1000 children who get measles, 1 or 2 will die.

You appear to be confusing anecdote with data. Stop it.

Polio was NOT eradicated by better hygiene that is complete and utter nonsense.

The vaccine unfortunately makes people carriers of wc so they can spread it around and don't know they have it and it is a mutates rendering the jab incredibly useless (in my opinion).

Utter bollocks.

This, o/p is a perfect example of the misleading shit anti vaxxers come up with. At least this one does admit it is pure opinion and not based in any science at all.

*Atenco
*
Your opinion is not medical fact, I work with a lot of students & graduates, one of them (who came from overseas where there are no vaccinations against this) contracted TB. I for one am fucking relieved that I had the BCG vaccination when I was younger as I sure as hell wouldn't want what they had. However a lot of their colleagues working with them hadn't had the vaccination as the UK stopped doing them for that age group. Public Health had to become involved and there were a lot of very scared people worrying about catching a disease they had no immunity against.

Just because 'in your opinion' vaccines aren't required it doesn't mean that is gospel truth. The NHS are vastly underfunded and overstretched yet they go out of their way to vaccinate children so they can prevent them from catching these horrendous illnesses.

I had my son vaccinated this week (his first set of 8 week jabs) and I didn't give it a second thought, I will go and have his 12 and 16 week ones as well as the MMR and any others on the vaccination schedule (ohhh shock horror!!) .

If my other half and his family had expressed concern, I would have told them to go and fuck themselves, as a responsible parent I don't want to risk our child getting ill from something which is wholly preventable.

As others have said, opinions are like arse holes - everyone has one and they all stink.

When you can provide medical fact and a professional (non tin hat wearing / celeb scaremongering) research** to show they are dangerous or not required then please do share this with us!

My friend's mum had polio as a child. The illness has had an effect on her entire life.

In my borough of London there is a high occurance of TB. If someone coughed over my unvaccinated child how would I know if s/he just had a cold or worse?

I vaccinated, and will continue to do so.

Atenco - I have heard..... From where? Please cite your source before peddling rubbish. Talking to my nieces and nephews this week, I have heard that Father Christmas is real. Doesn't make it true!

OP the only thing you can do is weigh the risk. A lot of the studies about vaccinations being harmful have been proven to be total and utter rubbish. The problem stems from the fact that babies have vaccinations at 4 months and 18 months which is the point where they develop a lot physically and might show signs of a medical condition eg ASD if they had it anyway. It's a coincidence caused by the fact these two things happen at the same age, and some people put 2+2 together and got 5.

BUT even if there was a tiny chance that the vaccination might be harmful, you have to weigh up the odds. The odds of any major side effects of a vaccination are tiny - less than 0.5% I believe. The odds of your child being disabled for life or dying from a preventable disease that can be treated by vaccination are A LOT higher. It's a question of maths- it is so much safer to vaccinate even if vaccinations were dangerous, which they absolutely are not.

Just adding my voice to the call to please vaccinate!
Every other poster has already raised the points explaining why. If you want to read evidence as to why we need vaccinations, may I point you towards the cochrane library - the highest levels of evidence and all free.

Nowadays we do not have to consider the odds of our children reaching 5 years.

The one and only downside to this is that a small number have started to doubt whether we actually need vaccination. We don't see these illnesses or what they do, so there really is no incentive. That leads some people to completely disregard the evidence and feel superior that their child is not vaccinated 'but look, he's fit as a fiddle! Conspiracy!'

Luckily, there are enough people that do understand, and they protect everyone else.

Right now there is a massive outbreak of Mumps in the USA, because of this anti-vax crap.

Look it up. Current news. Almost every state is affected, and mostly where these rumours were believed more.

My aunt had polio and it gave her a life long disability. I think the idea that it was "hand washing" that prevents polio is risible.

They'd invented "hand washing" in my aunt's day, she still got fecking polio.

What a coincidence that they invented the Salk vaccine in the 50s and polio dropped off dramatically after(!)

And no, not every vaccine is 100% but the deal is that for the one or two who don't get protection from it, the 99 vaccinated people around them can't spread it to them... because it worked for them.

www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2015/feb/05/-sp-watch-how-measles-outbreak-spreads-when-kids-get-vaccinated

The vaccine cannot help the virus mutate because the virus is deactivated. What helps the virus mutate is if there are enough incubators around to allow the full virus to enter cells and reproduce itself.

Why don't people want measles, chicken pox, whooping cough etc to be a memory like small pox? We know what these diseases do to healthy children (makes them miserable) and we know what they can do to vulnerable children and adults (maim and kill).

Even if it were true that some unvaccinated kids are "healthier" than vaccinated ones, then that's the most sleazy, selfish argument for putting unhealthy children who cannot be vaccinated at risk of death I have ever heard.

Are we really saying that it's worth risking lives of other more vulnerable children just because you think it's best if your own kid doesn't get the occasional sniffles as often as their classmates? Take one for the team, for heaven's sakes.

Vaccinate. I never had measles as a child (pre MMR) and now I am immunocompromised due to MS. I could have the MMR now but it is very likely to spark a relapse because it is a live vaccine. Still in two minds because, due to selfish feckers in my area, we don't have herd immunity. If I get measles now , it could have even more catastrophic consequences for me. So I am currently playing chicken/hoping for the best.
All because selfish non-vaxxers in my area think it's a "personal choice ". It's not. You are putting me at serious risk. Feckers.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD VACCINATE YOUR CHILD