should I vaccinate my child or not?

[GalaxyDefender2012]

I am currently 17+2 weeks pregant so I have a little while before I decide. But it's something me and my partner have argued about on numerous occasions. To this date I have never had any vaccinations whatsoever. Despite no one believing me throughout my whole life I haven't. I had the vitamin K shot when I was born but that was it. Never anything more. That's just how my mum brought me and my siblings up as her mother had brought her and her siblings up. And I think her mother before that. My partner on the other hand has had most of his childhood vaccinations just like all of his siblings and all the other children in his family. I would have liked to have carried on the no vaccination tradition if you like. But he strongly wants our child to have them all. And seeing as it is both of our choices it's a subject that we've rowed about in the past. Can anyone let me know their views on whether vaccinations should be administered of not?

OP - what about this scenario?

You don't vaccinate.
Your child gets one of the preventable diseases
You catch the disease from your child, as also unvaccinated
You die

I really don't understand this? everyone is calling this person a selfish or a ignorant fool for it but all she asked for is the pros and cons yes the child will be vaccinated for the diseases and illnesses that is in this world, yes if the child was to get the illness then good job your children got vaccinated because it wouldn't get it then! don't go abusing someone just because they asked a question! you talk about facts and statistics but their is a higher chance of side effects for different people because of their immune system! I think just because of someone belief doesn't mean you van slag them off their are loads of side affects and cons about having the injections but their are also loads of pros its down to your own opinion don't slag someone off because you don't have the same opinion!

faith in some bozo with a syringe in a lab injecting mice?

Assuming this isn't a giant wind up, you are coming across as monumentally dim. Have you actually educated yourself about vaccines, or do you just listen to hearsay quackery that confirms your bias?

Also, more and more people with communicable diseases are travelling here. In my area, babies are vaccinated against tuberculosis instead of waiting until the usual age of 14, because there is such a high population of people from tuberculosis infected countries in the area.

Just staying put in your little bubble of ignorance won't stop someone bringing a potentially fatal disease to you.

There's a little girl in Australia currently in critical condition, because she was unvaccinated agains tetanus. When did you last hear about someone getting tetanus in a developed world? And no it's not because we have better sanitation, tetanus is still there and you do not have to be injured to A&E level to get it. It's because everybody is vaccinated.

If you believe you have no control over what happens, would you not put a boiling kettle out of reach of your little one?

if I'm honest I don't agree with pumping man made stuff into the body

So you never take any medicines yourself? You won't be having any pain relief during labour. I also assume you won't ever give your child any medicines - good luck with all of that.

Another PP said about keeping your unvaccinated children away from others - couldn't agree more. All unvaccinated children (except those who are medically not allowed to be vaccinated) shouldn't be able to attend mainstream nursery or schools.

Yes of course

Well obviously in that scenario that's what life had planned for the OP, Seeline, so it would all be tickety boo. Same as if she was crossing the road and a car swerved towards her it would be wrong for her to jump out of the way.

Because how can you treat a disease that isn't there?

Lol. You must be yanking our chains OP.

No wonder you're confused about whether to vaccinate when you obviously don't understand how vaccines work.

Pity there is not yet a vaccination for stupidity.

You crack on OP. Clearly you never had any intention of changing your mind so why did you ask for opinions in the first place? Ignore all the scientific and medical expertise and have faith that your god will keep your children safe. He's doing such a great job already - no children dying of starvation, disease, poverty or violence, at least not any covered by your faith right? Yup, his watchful eye and protecting hand are everywhere.

Oh dear - we haven't had one of these for a while...

Tradition?! That's a very odd term to use and indeed reason to unnecessarily gamble your child's health and wellbeing.

I get the impression from your posts that you believe that your family has an incredible natural immunity to these diseases that your DC will of course inherit. This is highly and almost impossibly unlikely.

No, your family has benefited from vaccinations despite not receiving them directly. You are fortunate that most people in your community did vaccinate their children, had they not, your family almost certainly would have suffered the effects of these preventable diseases.

Ask yourself whether your decision to vaccinate your DC would change if you found out that your child would attend a school where no other child had been vaccinated and thus had a higher risk of catching these diseases?

I believe that vaccinating my children is my responsibility as a parent and a member of my community.

You have benefited from herd immunity and unless you have medical reasons not to, you should contribute to it too by vaccinating your children.

op please do some proper research before deciding not to vaccinate - look at the diseases themselves as well as the vaccines. I would suggest the World health organisation as a good starting point. By way of example this is their measles fact sheet

www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/

I will be vaccinating my child once it is born just as I was vaccinated as a child.

I had the flu jab back at Christmas.

I will however not be getting the whooping cough vaccination before birth based on discussions with medical professionals and research.

It's not a one size fits all in my opinion.

There is so much scare mongering with vaccinations at the moment that it's very hard to deprecate the fact from the fiction.

Because of this I'm still fearful that when I do happen to vaccinate my child that if for whatever reason it is one of the minority that has an adverse reaction that I will regret my decision.
But if I didn't vaccinate and my child died from something that would be worse and I would never forgive myself.

Reactions to vaccines are very rare, as in vanishingly so, except for the very mild localised ones of getting a bit of redness around the area for a few hours or even a bit of a raised temperature, and even those are not all that common. By the time we left the nurse's room my DD barely remembered the injections, it's not a bit deal.

Unless there is a medical reason not to vaccinate (immunosuppresed children, etc.) there are no pros and cons, really, this is not a grey area, the science around them is pretty solid and it's all in the same direction: YES. You have so far been lucky, as I said, but your good luck may not hold forever.

Also forget about the flu (or colds, for that matter) because the flu virus changes very fast and the effectiveness of the vaccine is not remotely comparable to the regular ones for the real nasty stuff. Besides, if you say that your cousins get the flu pretty often then it's probably not the flu at all, it's probably cold after cold and there is no vaccine for that, or maybe they are indeed very unlucky and it's different strains of the flu virus, though that's unlikely.

Being vaccinated doesn't immunise you against other viruses or bugs, but it does protect you and those around you from the worst diseases known to mankind. It's really worth it.

What's to be will be. And I believe that no amount of vaccinations will prevent what life has planned for you.

Yeah, that's right. God and/or fate used to feel like there were just way too many healthy children around and that it would be a good idea to kill/permanently damage loads of them. And then God/fate got bored of that and decided to make these diseases incredible rare. Coincidentally just at the time when mass immunisation to these diseases became available.

Because, after all, what will be will be. It's got nothing to do medical intervention. Life threatening illnesses are just as likely to strike those that have been vaccinated as those who haven't. Oh, wait ...

Don't engage. I suspect the OP is a member of some bizarre cult and unpersuadable. We can only hope her dp will step up.

What's to be will be you sound like you're putting your 'faith' above the health of your (unborn) dc

The main point im getting at here without sounding like a heartless bitch is that we will do what we think is right for our child and our child only.
You have no intention of vaccinating your child. It's not 'we' it's 'me'. If your DP feels strongly enough maybe he will take his child to be vaccinated himself or take the matter to court for a judge to make a ruling.

You didn't get sick. That doesn't mean your child will be so fortunate .... get the whooping cough vac in pregnancy asap.

Sorry it's a daily wail but this is why you need to be immune. Don't rely on heard immunity because you don't fancy protecting your child ....

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3393991/Perth-mother-baby-Riley-died-whooping-cough-releases-heartbreaking-video-moments.html

Oh, I replied before I saw the OP's latest posts, which make it clear that this was certainly trying to bait us into a bun fight.

As you were.

'God will keep them safe' ok how come there's millions of faithful people in developing countries die of diseases that we get vaccinations for here then? They would pay a kings ransom just for the chance.

'It's bugs we've already been in contact with' no it's not, they mutate constantly anyway plus the world is MUCH smaller now, people daily migrate across continents carrying new mutations of mumps etc with them.

'It's man made rubbish' no it's not it's small amounts of the bugs introduced to your body in a VERY widely studied and controlled way that has been around and being constantly researched and developed by clever conscientious scientists for HUNDREDS of years and even before that there was natural inoculation occurring and lay medics inoculating people.

www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline

'Side effects' far more rare than the devastating consequences of not getting them vaccinated.

'I only have to worry about my child' then do that! Worry about the disabilities, limb loss, brain damage, pain, infertility, DEATH these diseases can cause YOUR child. But seriously, as a child carer yourself do you really not care about other children ?

My grandparents all lost siblings to these illnesses, not vaccinated as pre-programmes/nhs, one gran lost twins late pregnancy to measles, when I was born there was a scare about the whooping cough vaccine, my mum still got me vaccinated but saw other mothers affected by the scare (unfounded as the mmr one was) lose babies to whooping cough.

We need more Drs like this:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=9gku93laoec

"My second cousin did have his vaccines but STILL got meningitis?" They still alive?

Thank you for agreeing to stay away and only risk your own child's health op. That is the least selfish thing you have said so far.

Op, you will get nothing but abuse on here, it winds me up no end. Do posters really think calling the op stupid and selfish is going to turn her on to your way of thinking? Stop being part of the problem. She was bought up to believe a certain way. I was never vaccinated as a child either as my parents didn't believe in it. I was fine, but my brother caught mumps as an adult and was very poorly with it and could have been left infertile. I was cautious about vaccines but the risks of the illness does outweigh the very small (and real) risk of complications. I didn't like the amount of vaccines given to my daughter in the first year and decided that I would delay getting the mmr as otherwise she was going to have 7 vaccines in one day and was taking weeks to get over a virus as it was, so I had that one done as soon as she was better. She has had them all now and I am glad, my parents disapproved but its not their baby. The vaccine companies refusal to let parents choose separate vaccines after the mmr thing, however unfounded, and the general hysteria over this issues does not help in the slightest. Please talk to your doctor and partner and make the choice you feel is right for you and your child. I would recommend having them but please talk to your doctor not a load of people on a forum who will tell you your baby will face certain death unless you have every vaccine going.

If you want to contribute to endangering others who cannot have the vaccinations due to biological reason or who have reduced immunity because they have a disease or are transplant patients then go ahead.

You are incredibly selfish and dangerous with your thinking.