Experiences of parents with unvaccinated babies/ children

[Mumsey2017]

Hi there,

I'm a first time mum who lives in Kent and my DS will be coming up for 8 weeks. After quite a bit of research (and prayer might I add) my husband and I are leaning towards not giving our son any of his vaccinations at all or at least as early as 8 weeks.

I'm interested to specifically hear from parents who have older babies and children that are unvaccinated. What have your experiences been of not vaccinating your child? What has their general health been like? Have you have to isolate them at all/ be careful where you went? Do any attend nursery or school? Do nurserys even take unvaccinated children (excuse my ignorance lol)? Have they been more susceptible to illnesses or caught anything major? If you feel able to share, what were your reasons for not vaccinating?

If anyone is able to share their views on any or all of these questions - would be interested in hearing from you.

Many thanks

I said many of them.

"I don't know if they are healthier than they would have been if vaccinated. That is my experience."

I do. They aren't.

Their health sounds very similar to my vaccinated children. Correlation is not causation.

I have travelled extensively, I got typhoid despite having had the vaccination.

The Foxinthesnow - I have three children, all vaccinated. None have eczema, asthma or allergies. One had antibiotics last year after ripping off a toe nail. Can't remember the last day they had off school or antibiotics for any other reason.

Anecdote and data are not the same thing.

And how do you explain the localised outbreaks of measles if the drop in prevelence is due to hygiene rather than vaccination?

Go to a children's ward and see the reality of not vaccinating! Ive spent too many hours in hospital with my dd due to immune system issues and seen the reality of not vaccinating it is not a pretty sight.

There is no plausible reason why a healthy child should not be vaccinated not only for their wellbeing but the community as a whole.

Do you want to be sitting in a hospital chapel praying for your child to survive - I have and its not something I would wish on anyone.

Ring the doctors and book the jabs.

Going back a few posts....there is an immune response to a vaccine - of course there is as that is what you want. You want the body to create immunity to the disease the vaccine seeks to prevent.

I think it's foolish not to consider whether this response is problematic for a very young immune system with so many vaccines administered in the first two years of life. I understand some studies were done on this. Some studies have shown, for example a reduction in rates of childhood asthma when certain vaccines are delayed. This suggests to me that if (if) some vaccines can be problematic for an immune system, the effects may be lessened if the immune system is a little more experienced.

The diseases and conditions that seem to be rising (leaving aside the hornets nest of autism and ADHD) are childhood cancers, autoimmune diseases in adults and children, food allergies (peanuts anyone), asthma and eczema and other allergies. I'm sure there are more.

No one knows why these conditions are increasing.

As usual I will just be attacked for this so going to leave the thread now. OP asked for experiences of people with unvaccinated children, whether they were healthy, I gave it.

*Fox
*
If you lived in Liberia would you still not vaccinate?

I am really interested. Disease is prevalent there, antibiotics and health care very limited. Would you still not vaccinate?

I am genuinely interested?

fox it's like all these issues on mumsnet. Yours is a very unfashionable point if view here and you are jumped on.

I welcome the debate. People can mock me all they like. I will continue to have concerns about the current vaccination programme, and being honest, regret that I didn't delay some of the vaccines I gave my children a little more.

"The diseases and conditions that seem to be rising (leaving aside the hornets nest of autism and ADHD) are childhood cancers, autoimmune diseases in adults and children, food allergies (peanuts anyone), asthma and eczema and other allergies. I'm sure there are more.

No one knows why these conditions are increasing"

Do you have any evidence that they are increasing?

Yes lots and I ain't posting links to studies here!

You trying to tell me they aren't?! Have a wee nosey and come back to me on that.

Yes lots and I ain't posting links to studies here!"

Why on earth not?

Fox those graphs are meaningless, and if they are the ones im thinking of heavily doctored.

(Like typhoid, cholera, HepB & a lot of nasties) Polio, norovirus and E Coli are all faecal-oral transmitted.
The faecal part is important, gives you an idea when you most need to handwash. And indicates the importance of sanitation & safe drinking water supply.

We only have a vaccine for one of in that last group of 3 diseases.

Which is still very common & which nearly disappeared from the planet? Does anyone know why it nearly disappeared??

Because I can't be arsed!

I'm not here to persuade you - I'm here to tell you my opinion which is neither evidence based nor peer reviewed (thank fuck)!

I think it's foolish not to consider whether this response is problematic for a very young immune system with so many vaccines administered in the first two years of life

Yes, no-one but you ever thought about that. The numerous people whose life work it is to advise on these things, never occurred to them to factor that in. Aren't you clever? Tell us, where is your lab where you study this?

I'm not here to persuade you - I'm here to tell you my opinion which is neither evidence based nor peer reviewed (thank fuck)!

And therefore liable to be totally dismissed as the bollocks it is by those who do care whether what they spout as 'fact' has any basis in, er, fact.

I find it very odd when people say they don't want their opinions about children's health to be based on the best possible evidence. Why on earth not?

There is lots of room for debate of course.

But bottom line - if you lived day to day in a disease ridden country you would do everything you could to get vaccinations for your children. Hand washing, autism, eczema, glue ear whatever. Go to a country that has TB, polio, etc etc and see.

But we don't live in a disease ridden country. And part of the reason is because we DO vaccinate.
And most of us play a tiny part contributing to that.

It is the ultimate 1st world luxury to not vaccinate. It really is.

Fox Have you ever heard anyone who vaccinates their children say that they don't bother with hand washing because their children are vaccinated? No, right? I never have. And the opposite is equally nonsensical.

On children having more chronic illnesses... that's because they wouldn't have survived them through infancy in the past. One of my DC has a chronic medical condition - her life was saved as a baby, by being put on a nebuliser. Without that, she'd be dead. Likewise the person in my family with a severe nut allergy - he'd have died the second time he ate them - probably in infancy - prior to the last century.

I think it's foolish not to consider whether this response is problematic for a very young immune system with so many vaccines administered in the first two years of life. I understand some studies were done on this.

Well, let's deal first with the fact that you've changed your statement from 'effect on the immune system to 'creates an immune response', which as we both know is quite different.

Fortunately there's been lots and lots of research into this field. All of which has shown that it isn't an issue, and that multiple vaccines/current schedule have to worse outcomes, as far as I've seen. Happy to be challenged with reputable sources, of course.

In the scheme of the new pathogens an infant immune system has to respond to, vaccines are pretty small fish.

That was not a deliberate change! An immune response is an effect on the immune system (in its widest sense).

There really isn't enough research in this field which is why someone had to link to a very small study.

There was some research done a number of years ago but since then, the number of vaccines given has increased and it is impossible to find control groups of unvaccinated children (for obvious reasons)

"I think it's foolish not to consider whether this response is problematic for a very young immune system with so many vaccines administered in the first two years of life. I understand some studies were done on this."

I agree. It would be very foolish indeed,

Sometimes unvaccinated children die or suffer life-changing disabilities.

You put your child at risk. More importantly you put other people at risk. It's an incredibly selfish act. Good luck with praying the life-threatening illness away

There really isn't enough research in this field

How would you know? Your opinion is neither evidence based nor peer reviewed, remember?

Ah yes one of my personal favourite bits of twaddle spouted by the antivaxx movement: 'handwashing/improved hygiene etc had almost eradicated these now preventable diseases before vaccinations were introduced and look here's a graph which proves it.' Yeah so we don't need your horrid potentially life saving vaccinations.
Nonsense.
Death rates from those diseases dropped so drastically even prior to the introduction of mass vaccination because of the introduction of much greater access to improved health care and treatments eg. antibiotics. If the 'improved hygiene renders vaccinations unnecessary' argument were really true, wouldn't we have also seen a reduction in outbreaks of common colds, norovirus etc etc which are forever doing the rounds.
If you don't vaccinate your kids, of course they have a far greater risk of catching that illness than someone who has been vaccinated. Thanks to modern medicine these days they would be unlikely to die of it (as long as we manage to find someway to halt antibiotic resistance that is).