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.

Science really isn't about what I think. It's about finding the truth. And the truth is that although there are rare cases of serious vaccine harm, there are massively, overwhelmingly, hugely larger chances of disease harm.

It's like those people in the States that believe seat belts are dangerous. They're clearly stupid and their opinions aren't worth much.

And I too get very frustrated by these people, but wouldn't dream of insulting them. I guess until it becomes compulsory, as in some areas of US, we have to get on with it. I hate the rudeness though I hate confrontation in any circumstance tbh.

Not about personal choice when it actively puts immunocompromised people like me at severe risk. Personal choice is about ear piercing or something. Not about putting other people at risk.

I hate confrontation in any circumstance tbh. The vaccination board on MN is not the place to avoid confrontation Holidays in Tripoli, anyone?

It should be illegal to not vaccinate. An unvaccinated should should certainly not be allowed to acces educational facilities with other children who may have compromised immunity.

My brother is deaf in one ear from mumps after not getting the MMR vaccine. My two have had all the ones the NHS offers

Just take the vaccinations that are offered. We are really lucky to be offered them in this country. As my inner city HV told me, the African mums that have actually seen kids die of preventable diseases never turn the vaccinations down.

The only one I did not take up was the pre school booster for my son, as my daughter had had it and been sick as a dog.

Sorry Tentacles, I guess I started it with a very flippant response. I'm very grateful to the others who came in later and backed up my response with facts and research evidence.

"The parents that decide NOT to vaccinate their children have views that are as important to them as they are us. And that's how I feel."

Which is fine, everyone's entitled to their own opinions. However, my opinion that anti-vaxxers are selfish idiots is backed up by rational, peer-reviewed, scientific evidence. Anti-vaxxers opinions are backed up by cherry-picked 'data' (including an over-reliance on studies that have been proven wrong - Wakefield anyone?); an apparent belief that correlation = causation; and a belief that the plural of anecdote = data.

Vaccinate. My DM got scared of the whooping cough vaccine so I didn't have it. Guess what happened?

" , but I have heard that unvaccinated children are generally healthier than vaccinated children and now I know one who is in fact healthier than the vaccinated children around them. "

and this kind of utter stoner nonsense is why you should not listen to anti vaxxers.

I had whooping cough as baby. Nearly died. Left with scared brain tissue that lead to seizures in later life. Antivaxxers are idiots.

I recognise why a very small number of babies can't have vaccines. That's why we rely on herd immunity. The remainder whose parents refuse for nonsense reasons should not be allowed to attend school.

Vaccinate
Vaccinate
Vaccinate
Vaccinate

Your fiancé knows what smallpox looks like, right? How hideous, potentially fatal and definitely disfiguring it is?
Why do we not have smallpox any longer? Vaccination.

All very true. And some awful stories that I hope non vaccinators read. slinks off to threads about Christmas trees and kittens...

I caught whooping cough when I was 10 days old - from the unvaccinated child who lived next door. Whooping cough turned into double pneumonia and pleurisy. My parents were told I was unlikely to survive. I did (obviously) but with life-long damage to my lungs.

Vaccinate.

And I am of an age where we all had measles, mumps, etc. and nobody panicked and personally I have never met anyone who has been damaged by them, though, that being said I have never personally known anyone who is vaccine-damaged either

Well I'm in my 50s I had measles and my friend next door did also and has permanently damaged eyesight. I also know 2 people slightly older than me but not much who are disabled through polio.

I don't know of anyone damaged by vaccines.

Look around an old graveyard and see how many under 5s are buried there. It's pretty sobering.
What do you think those children died of ? Common childhood illnesses that we are fortunate enough to have eradicated through modern medicine like vaccines that's what.

Vaccinate its a no brainier

What everyone else said. It is far safer to vaccinate and accept what science has proven to work, than it is to hope for the best and assume your baby won't get ill. Protect your child and those children who can't be vaccinated for genuine medical reasons. Please.

The NHS does not give pointless freebies. Vaccinate.

First child I saw die had measles. Vaccinate and be grateful we have a programme of free preventative healthcare and you will not see your child brain injured or die from these diseases.

You vaccinate your child. It's not up for discussion. If my DP had been against vaccination, I'd have told him to shove his opinions. My DD has everything they offer. I even paid a fortune for the Meningitis B jab. I'm not risking it. Having read awful stories of babies dying over preventable diseases, I can't even cope thinking about losing my DD. Yes, she screams bloody murder when she has it but there will be a lot more needles and pain if she doesn't have them done.

whilst I agree with herd immunity. It has been proved over and over that unvaccinated kids are healthier.

Less than 10% of unvaccinated children suffer from allergies of any kind. This compares with 40% of children in the USA ages 3-17 reporting an allergy to at least one allergen and 22.9% with an allergic disease.
• .2% of unvaccinated children suffer from asthma. This compares with 14-15% of vaccinated children with asthma in Australia, 4.7% in Germany, and 6% in the USA.
• 1.5% of unvaccinated children suffer from hayfever. This compares with 10.7% in Germany.
• 2% of unvaccinated children had neurodermatitis. This auto-immune disorder affects over 13% of children in Germany.
• ADHD was present in only 1-2% of the unvaccinated children. This compares with nearly 8% of children in Germany with ADHD and another 5.9% borderline cases.
• Middle ear infections are very rare in unvaccinated children (less than .5%). In Germany, 11% of children suffer from this problem.
• Less than 1% of unvaccinated children had experienced sinusitis. This compares with over 32% of children in Germany.
• Only 4 unvaccinated children out of the 7,600+ total surveys reported severe autism. In all 4 cases, however, the mother tested very high for mercury. In the USA, approximately 1 in 100 children suffer this neurological illness and 1 in every 38 boys in the UK.

have you got a link to show where those 'statistics' come from then?

Cherry picking stats there pees.

Can we see the data? You seem to be mixing and matching countries so it's impossible to tell how unvaccinated kids compare to their local population...

Who were these surveys conducted by, what is the source of the data and what is the date of the research?

Less than 10% of unvaccinated children suffer from allergies of any kind

So is this globally, uk, or Us?
And what age group?

Because if it's not the us and the same age group it's not comparable to your next statement:

This compares with 40% of children in the USA ages 3-17 reporting an allergy to at least one allergen and 22.9% with an allergic disease

And this is how the anti vaxxers make the "facts" fit their fiction...