Why would you not vaccinate?

[lizzlebizzle33]

Has anybody decided against vaccinations for their children? If so what were your reasons?

I feel like I will be thought of as a bad mother if I don't hit get them all done like I'm supposed to, but I don't want to just do it without any opinion or research

Think of how many other things you do though where you consult with a professional who is a member of an official body, has a degree or more with years and years of study, and count that as sufficient research? If a solicitor said "you should get these contracts signed, you'll need to sign here, this is my bill", would you then feel the need to go and do months of trying to do your own legal research before you agreed? Do you not agree to the dentist giving you a filling until your neighbours friend has had a look?

The vast majority of mothers who do not vaccinate their children are disorganized mothers, often poorly educated and with a bad understanding of the local system or who move and fall between the cracks.

The vast majority of parents who TALK about why they did not vaccinate their children are well-organized, well-educated mothers with a poor understanding of science and medical issues. They often don't appear to realize that they are exposing their children to a number of ACTUAL DEADLY DISEASES from which vaccination would protect them.

AuntLydia
No I didn't you just not reading what I said properly.
The vaccine damage payment unit only pay out to those with a disability over 60%. So it will be far more than that are damaged. They at notoriously hard to get a payment out of and many parents give up. I took one lady I know 18 years to get compensation. 18 years!!!!
Anyway I give up now as all you lot do is attack people with different views to yours! Good luck OP .. don't be bullied .. you have a right to ask questions and make a fully informed decision xxx

I'm definitely pro vaccination. Not just for my child but for the good of herd immunity. There are some babies that cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. The more babies that are vaccinated lowers the chances of a unvaccinated child catching a disease. Bit selfish not to if you can.

*The vast majority of mothers who do not vaccinate their children are disorganized mothers, often poorly educated and with a bad understanding of the local system or who move and fall between the cracks.

The vast majority of parents who TALK about why they did not vaccinate their children are well-organized, well-educated mothers with a poor understanding of science and medical issues. They often don't appear to realize that they are exposing their children to a number of ACTUAL DEADLY DISEASES from which vaccination would protect them.*

Where did you get this from - is it just your opinion?

Because people think their googling and YouTubing and mommy blog reading is more efficient research than the actual scientists who have proven that vaccines are generally safe have done.

I think Flippityfloppity has it.

I don’t know anyone in real life who doesn’t vaccinate at all, but plenty who are cautious vaccinators (vaccinating selectively and/or to a delayed schedule). Mainly people are concerned about side effects, and the long term effects (which actually aren’t that well studied, particularly for the newer ones on the schedule, or indeed the schedule itself). This is mostly because they have seen bad experiences, either with their own children or those of friends/family. Lots of parents local to me are ‘noticing’ that the new vaccine schedule at 2,3 and 4 months is particularly hard on babies, and there’s a lot of discussion about it, and this puts doubt in people’s minds. Many are waking up to the option of a spread out schedule and decide this is the safer way to vaccinate (me included).

Its all part of the trend of the last ten years "I'm not going to listen to what some BOFFIN has to say, what do THEY know!" = climate change deniers, the bible being taught as fact in schools, dinosaurs being some big government conspiracy, etc

Delays/adjustments to the schedule I can understand, but just saying "no to any of it" I cannot.

That arnica group is scary - someone is on there asking how to cure tetanus naturally in case her child gets it. I feel so sorry for that poor baby

ome people like to know what is injected into their children and read the actual studies that were done. What the actual risks are vs the actual disease and then choose.

Unfortunately most people do not have the education or the experience to read it accurately.

Are children healthier because of it? What do you see today that you did not 30-40 years ago?

I think you mean what do we not see now. I'm 51, when my mum was pregnant with me she spent an afternoon playing with a relative's daughter who developed Rubella the following day. My mum had to have several gamma globulin injections because there was no vaccine.

She spent 6 weeks in Hospital with Diphtheria as a child - OK so I'm going back 70 years not 40 but when did you hear of a case of diphtheria in the UK? In my mum's day it killed a few thousand a year. Polio was also a common disease.

I can't remember the last time a heard of a case of mumps, yet I had it as a child and lots of children did.

We also see a lot of children who are being treated for and recovering from various cancers who 30 years ago would be dead and children with transplants living to grow up.

Well I had measles, mumps and German measles in the 80s, before the vaccines were introduced. I'm glad my daughter is unlikely to have to suffer through them.

I refused vaccination while pregnant because there were no studies to prove the safety or benefits of such vaccines; in fact until recently the normal advice was not to vaccinate pregnant women at all. However I intend to vaccinate my child after birth because there's sufficient proof that such vaccination is safe and beneficial.

It is Russian roulette

It's not though, is it. Your child doesn't have a 1 in 6 chance of dying if you have them vaccinated. There will be a very small number of children who will have a range of reactions - as with any medical treatment, and it's right that people find out what these are and their likelihood. But these are hugely outnumbered by children who suffer no ill effects and children who suffer complications from the conditions the vaccinations were designed to protect against.

I had a really stressful time with this.

My personal point of view is that whilst vaccinations are definitely not without risks, overall, most of the time, it is better to vaccinate than not. Mostly because I've yet to find any anti-vaccination research that I was completely convinced by (nearly all the articles I've found come over a bit hysterical/conspiracy theory-ish, whilst the pro ones tend to sound sane.). Also, I asked various friends who I consider to be sensible and intelligent and/or have a medical background.

My husband is anti-vaccination. We argued a lot about it, but all 3 of our kids have been fully vaccinated, for better or for worse, because at the end of the end I felt like it was the right thing to do and I wasn't prepared to compromise on something so serious.

PS I do know some people who didn't vaccinate their kids because they are sure that the vaccines are very dangerous, and that the major childhood diseases of the past have become rarer due to improved living standards generally, not vaccinations. They think that vaccinations are part of a government/pharmaceutical industry plan to make money and control people.

I hope they're wrong.

Crocodarl I'm very much in the same boat you were, my husband is dead against but I truly wouldn't have given it s second thought and just gone ahead with if it wasn't for him.
I need to do my own research but it's like previous poster said the pro vaccine research just sounds sane! The anti vaccination crew come across as conspiracy nuts. I don't know where to look for accurate info

Please join Arnica - Parents' Support Network, Promoting Natural Immunity on Facebook. You will be very confused asking questions here!

There is no such things as, 'promoting natural immunity'. If you are well nourished and in good health you are likely to have a healthy immune system and normal immunity.

You can't 'boost' or increase this (well not naturally, there are a couple of medical treatments that can do it temporarily), which is good because as some one living with an autoimmune disease I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

I refused vaccination while pregnant because there were no studies to prove the safety or benefits of such vaccines; in fact until recently the normal advice was not to vaccinate pregnant women at all.

Err, you do understand the reasons for that don't you?

It's not exactly ethical to do trials on pregnant women. Even if it were there are too many variables.

So why has the advice changed? Well because sometimes people have little choice. If you are pregnant and have a child or are exposed to a child with a disease that can harm a baby before birth or soon after then you would be given the option of vaccinating.

This was why my mother chose to have gamma globulin, no rubella vaccine. And the one that exists now you can't have in pregnancy.

Once a vaccine has been given to a pregnant woman records are updated and if there is an advantage then they become recommended.

i decided not to vaccinate my second child from following reasons: the vaccins cause lots of side effects that are not mentioned when questoning the GP, the GP dont have enough knowledge about vaccinations and their contents, they dont tell you all side effects only the basics which all we know :-) when asked about autism they say it is information made up by anti-vaccination groups which is a lie... none of them will tell you that the vaccinations are made of cells of aborted child still being alive otherwise they would be obviousely dead! and these cells are the base to produce vaccinations. what does it mean? it means there are gens in the final product from a different man or women, gens from a possible geneticaly injured baby or gens from a 40 or more years old human as they are still using cells collected many years ago..what does it mean for your child? you dont have to be intelligent to guess what this kind of product may cause in a very tiny little baby without blood-brain barrier? Autism this is one of the side effects.. i dont trust GP are saying there is no risk as this is the first big lie! i trust doctors who can say "Yes there are risks and you have to be aware of them." there are only little group of this doctors, the real once...i stopped reading and watching programs about vaccinations in public media as this is a propaganda..not telling what true..for all people pro vacine i recommend to start reading articles coming from doctors who know all ingridients of vaccination and who are telling all risks coming from them..then make a deccision about to whether vaccinate or not..dont listen to your parents who tell you to vaccinate as they did it..dont listen people telling you of for being stupid or risking your child's life for not vaccinating..listen to your own instict as they want help you when your child becomes seriously injured after the vaccinations

yes it is right this HPV is one of tje most dengerous once it has been withdrown from some countries beacouse if death cases..have you tried to boost your childeren or yours immune sistem? vitC vit D antyoxidants?

OP, I accepted all vaccinations when offered and very glad to do so. I feel lucky to have access to the men B vaccine, after so many missed out. I didn't like having to give my newborn calpol pre-emptively and really glad to not have to deal with any more live vaccines (rota) BUT I definitely feel much more confident taking her out and mixing now she's protected. I'll be making sure she gets MMR promptly and will hopefully be able to time that before she goes into any form of childcare (I am fortunate to have this choice).

You sound like a great Mum. Do try to avoid the 'research it' brigade.

you cannot say beacouse someone from medical background is more intelligent as a avarage person? i am an average but i think i have more knowledge sometimes than my Gp has! i am reading a lot about healt and listening to doctors who are against vaccinations- they are also from medical background and they are the once who after finishing their medical studies continue on developping their knowledge and trying diffrent methods not being thought during studies, as they not able to get all knowledge from few years of learning in the university.. if you listen pro or contra doctors you realise that the once pro use the same arguments, nothing new..nothing distinguish them from each other but when u listen to the once who are against you can feel the are honest not making up because either they dont have knowledge about the subjecy or are being overlooked by someone above them

you cannot say beacouse someone from medical background is more intelligent as a avarage person? i am an average but i think i have more knowledge sometimes than my Gp has!

You clearly don't. There are NO 40 year old cells involved, they were originally taken from an aborted foetus but new cells have been grown from them, then more and more.

When you say gens do you mean genes? 99% of genes are the same in everyone. Your child has 50% of your genes, ie different genes.

Autism is not a side effect of anything.

I am a Parent who i would consider quite well educated. I also work in the Autism field with a large amount of parents who feel that their child's Autism was caused by the MMR or that their child had a predisposition and a vaccination triggered their Autism. I even had a Nurse in an NHS hospital, when i went for an appt with my child, tell me that her childs autism was a result of the mmr.

Im not going to lie and say that i didn't battle with giving my baby the mmr/other vaccinations. Of course i did. However anything that i give to my baby/child. Im going to research and not just read people's blogs or opinions. Im going to read scientific research papers/studies and try to target the unbiased ones. My conclusion was that the rest of not vaccinating MY child was a risk i would not take. I respect every parents decision to vaccinate or not to vaccinate but i think it should be an 'informed' decision and not based on the assumption/logic that Drs/NHS/ a professional is always right and we shouldn't question it. Or even the mothers on mumsnet are right. Always question and make your own informed decision!