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

Wow. OP asked a genuine question, and only about 3 posters replied to the actual question.

I'm going to ask a couple of genuine questions now. All of your posters who have vaccinated your children 10-15 years ago. Have you re-vaccinated them? I'm presuming all of the posters are adult - so to you, have you been revaccinated as an adult?

I'm going to guess the answer to both of these questions is no.

So prey tell. How is it any more dangerous for a 5 yr old to be walking around 'unvaccinated' than a 15 yr old or an adult whose vaccinations are no longer providing any protection?

Let's face it. 100% of adults (except the ones who actually had the disease so have natural life long immunity) are walking around unvaccinated. Those vaccinated children of yours - UNVACCINATED because they haven't got life long immunity from the actual disease.

OP. In reply to your actual question. Mine are part vaccinated. They are incredibly healthy and strong. Reason for not giving the MMR - I don't agree with that many toxins going into the body in one go and I don't agree with boys needing rubella. Also don't agree with giving 1 yr old babies rubella jabs (only girls need this at about 13yrs old). I may well pay out for a separate measles jab for both of them but I don't see it as a major risk right at the minute - any more than I think i am at major risk of contracting measles...oh no..wait...I won't because I actually had it as a child and therefore I am immune for life.

Oh and we do have a lot of autism in the family and very bad/life threatening reactions to the MMR.

My cousin caught polio - in India. They didn't have the money to vaccinate him. His limbs were affected.

As a result he was severely depressed his whole life - although materially had everything. Even a wife and kids.

He threw himself in front of a train about 2 months ago. He couldn't cope with his disability.

Poverty prevented his parents from being able to vaccinate him.

Don't do this to your children.

TheFoxInTheSnow no one in my children's entire school has eczema, asthma, or allergies, nor do any children in the other 3 schools in town. I know this for a fact because my job requires access to the records. Every single child has been vaccinated. We live in a rural area of a developing country with low levels of pollution and no access to processed food. Everything that is eaten is produced locally. You can say that vaccines cause these things as much as I can say it is pollution or food additives. In fact there's at least some evidence that air quality is linked to asthma. The other, not so much.

Umm, presumably most parents accept the 3 in 1 booster and meningitis vaccine for their children in year 9, Star.

My 15 year old had those, and HPV the year before, plus had a booster tetanus when she got cut on a rusty fence aged about 10, plus I've paid for some extra vaccines before we travelled to somewhere off the beaten track. And I've got my own boosters and travel vaccines when I've been due them too. I imagine thats fairly typical.

Wow. OP asked a genuine question, and only about 3 posters replied to the actual question

It was a stupid question.

Somerville How does that protect them against measles and mumps?

Livelong So if that was your opinion, move along and don't reply. This thread wasn't for you.

Op asked about people's experience of not vaccinating their children, lots of people have replied about adults they know of who weren't vaccinated and the effects of the illness they caught. Pretty useful for the op to know the effects of not vaccinating i think.

Pisses me off so much when the odd idiot goes on about the autism link ( which is unfounded ) because I think would I rather have a child with autism or no child at all?

My ds does have autism, I wouldn't change him for the world.
My dd was born 8 years after him. Someone actually asked me if I was going to vaccinate her in case she " got autism "

Dd was bloody well vaccinated of course. Even if there was proof that the vaccinations caused autism i would still do it.

Some people are playing Russian roulette with their child's life

I do believe I can post where I like, but thanks so much.

PicaPau

I would agree, detergents, processed foods, and chemicals all have a degrading effect on health

I'm going to ask a couple of genuine questions now. All of your posters who have vaccinated your children 10-15 years ago. Have you re-vaccinated them? I'm presuming all of the posters are adult - so to you, have you been revaccinated as an adult?

Yes, we advise people who visit to vaccinate themselves before visiting. My kids have cast iron stomachs and due to living in rural tropics are extremely strong and rarely sick. People who visit quite often get sick though, people who talk about unvaccinated kids having stronger immune systems are usually just immune to their environment, just like strong vaccinated people. I have a friend with an unvaccinated child, she's been here and to the Caribbean with him. In most things in life she's sensible but in this regard she is a complete idiot.

I was born before vaccinations became common.Ive had Measles, German measles, Chickenpox, Mumps, Whooping Cough,Scarlet Fever and am perfectly healthy. But I had my children vaccinated because I was able to. My parents didn't have the choice, there were no vaccinations for these diseases.

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

Given the context in which you used it, your meaning seemed pretty clear - you implied effect on on immune system itself, not just triggering it to do its job.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the strength of the evidence base, both on multiple vaccines and the vaccine schedule.

There's no scarlet fever vaccine.

No one seems bothered about that.

I'll bite. I'm less worried (nb: not 'not bothered) by the lack of a vaccine for scarlet fever as it typically responds well to antibiotics.

I am very worried by the emerging macrolide-resistant strain, similar to my worries about antibiotic resistance in general which could see diseases like scarlet become increasingly dangerous.

No one is that bothered about chicken pox either - seeing it as just a 'childhood' rite of passage.

Chickenpox can be just as dangerous and deadly as measles.

All to do with 'marketing' innit?!

There's no Dengue or Zika vaccine either.

But the fact that there are no vaccines it doesn't mean that people are not bothered. If there was a serious scarlet fever outbreak I bet a lot of people would be concerned and bothered, especially as vulnerable members of the population could not be protected.

Pica travelling and needing vaccinations totally different from just updating your vaccine status because you realise it's no longer effective.

StarUtopia it depends where you live, chicken pox is a common vaccine in most countries. But in the UK it is not used because the vaccine can actually increase the risk of shingles in adults, who are not regularly exposed to contagious children, but that's controversial and money may also be a factor. People thinking they should expose their children to it and get it out of the way, do so because they know nothing about the reality of the virus. I think that's also pretty common of parents that don't vaccinate for anything.

StarUtopia who vaccinates before travelling to countries with no outbreaks or diseases? No vaccines are needed to come where we live, no website will suggest any vaccines, we don't have malaria or typhoid or any other diseases that people get abroad. But when it's 40 degrees in the shade and a child or adult has a fever, then that's a lot more dangerous than in cooler climates, it becomes more serious. Do people vaccinate to travel to Florida or Queens land, probably not? Should they? Probably.

Chickenpox can be just as dangerous and deadly as measles.

Well, no, not epidemiologically. It can be fatal or have severe effects, as can measles. But the complications rate of measles is higher.

That said, it's bonkers that CP isn't on the vaccination schedule here and to a certain extent (based on JCVI papers) part is to do with 'public acceptability' rather than science. That is to say - some people are already nervous due to misinformation about multiple vaccines at once, adding varicella to the MMR may lead the overall vaccination rate to drop.

I have vaccinated privately. It's one of my great regrets that I didn't get DS1 vaccinated. I've learned from my error. Judging by the current vaccine shortage. I'm not alone.

Mumsey, if you are there, you have seen lots of sensible and amazingly restrained posts above.
Just to say that vaccination is a public health programme. It is not about an individual child although there are obvious benefits but more to do with a societal ambition of better health for all.
Try to look at this issue from an adult point of view and, by the way , your baby will benefit.

There's no scarlet fever vaccine.No one seems bothered about that

You don't know who is bothered about what, but what difference would it make if we were? Does being bothered make vaccines spontanteously appear?

"There's no scarlet fever vaccine.

No one seems bothered about that."

That's because scarlet fever was really dangerous before antibiotics.