What were your reasons for not vaccinating your child?

[Londonmamma]

I don't think we've done this for a while and I like to keep up to date on the vaccination issue so - fire away!

you know this is going to kick off!!

after reading as much research for both sides of the argument my head hurt i decided that given my son already had obviouse developmental and behavioural difficulties and suspected ASD it wasn't worth the risk.

oh god. I'll post my reasons then I'm hiding.

DS2 is severely autistic, will probably never talk, will certainly never live independently.

We think that vaccinations contributed too his condition. We do not think that it was the only factor, but that's complex. We believe that ds2 and ds3 are likely to share the same risks. So we decided to avoid exposing them to any potential triggers we could identify. Both are currently developing normally (ds2 is 5, ds3 is 2), although I think we had a very close shave with ds3. I would be fairly confident about giving ds2 single tetanus if I could get it, and will probably give him single measles in the next 2 to 3 years. He has had whooping cough anyway. He might have had rubella- ds1 defintiely did- cuaght from a vaccinated child, but it wasn't clear with ds2.

He has had whooping cough the disease I mean, not the vaccination.

It's interesting actually. I was at the age for the whooping cough vaccine when there was a huge scare about it causing brain damage or something. My mum took me to be vaccinated, the doctor looked at me and refused to do it.

whooping cough has mutated anyway- there's a new strain about apparently (read this in New scientist in 2002) which has evolved because of vaccination and isn't protected against by vaccination. It's this that I'm failry certain ds2 had. I should look for an update but never have the time.

oh and my mum is deaf in one ear from measles and was very pro vaccination (as was I) until ds1. She now says things like "you can't vaccinate those children" etc etc.

forgot to add that my XP has a nephew who is severely autistic and his mother believes with every inch of her being that the MMR caused or contributed to his condition.

had reasons so had them done seperatley - apart from mumps - not done that yet.

Gess, you sound like a reasonable person who has thought this through. I hope you manage to avoid anything that might harm your DSs.

I know a couple of people who don't vaccinate their kids because, as they say, "The kids are no longer at risk of X in our society". And that winds me up. The fact is, that their kids are at a low risk, but only because of the risks that the rest of us take with our own children for the good of society as a whole (including our kids of course, and those who cannot be immunised for whatever good reason).

Arrgh. Should NOT have bitten, but

There's my evidence then that I was unable to provide on the the other thread (ie people who can't be bothered).

Ok 3 generations of my family have not been immunised due to reactions to the vaccine, I have not had any needle into my body other than anaesthetic.

My dd's have also not been immuniesed due to them being at risk, they have severe allergies (anaphylactic). I have seen vaccine damaged children and lots of them, I have had the down the nose look from people for being 'different' and it will not affect my descision.

I recently bought my dd's a puppy, I was pressured into having the puppy immunised and so did, now due to having advers reactions to the puppy from his jabs the pup has now had to leave for 6 weeks for it to pass through his system, I was told by the vaccine manufacturer that anyone who has been vaccinated be it dog or human the vaccine has to pass throuht the system, it comes out in bodily excretions (wee,poo,saliva) this is the same for vaccinated children so my dd's have to be careful when around freshly vaccinated children. This website gives information on the vaccine damage from an animal (the same info applies to all vaccines)VMD Link

Appart from all that I really dont like the ingredients in the vaccine and where they come from/are grown and dont want to put it into my children or myself.

So thats me.

(oh I have been on a drip too but not full of drugs)

Mamazon, why does she think it was the MMR?
I know someone whose child was perfectly fine till the MMR but immediately after the jab was really ill and was never the same again, and is now autistic. It's not proof but it's not very reassuring when you're faced with making the decision. Neither of my dses has had the MMR but both have had singles with long gaps in between and both are fine (probably would have been fine after MMR too but I didn't feel i could take even the tiniest risk when we could afford the singles).

No vaccines for my children because I have read lots of research that shows that children are harmed by them. Particularly the mercury and other poisons many contain. I also feel that many of the diseases we are told to vaccinate against are not serious in heathy children. Also there has been recent research suggesting that the whopping cough vaccine is responsible for some asthma cases in older children. Basically I don't trust the drug companies to have the interests of my child at heart. I have recently read that as the MMR patent is running out a new vaccine that includes chicken pox has been developed, so look out for lots of properganda about how deadly chicken pox is. The government has a fund called the Vaccine damage payment unit to pay compensation (pitiful amount) to parents of children proved (almost impossible to do as the medical proffesion just say, it wasn't the vaccine, how do you challange that?) to be more than 60% ( how do you put a percentage on it? 59% disabled and you receive nothing) disabled. The list of conditions thay have paid out on makes interesting reading.

Twinklemegan - You must be around the same age as me. My dad refused to let me be vaccinated because of the whooping cough/brain damage scare, even though my older siblings had all been vaccinated. By a weird coincidence it was the whooping cough vaccine that ds1 reacted badly to. He had the first dose and stopped breathing 6 hours later. We were told that it was a coincidence and that any allergic reaction would have been immediate. He had the 2nd dose in hospital and the same thing happened again exactly 6hrs later. Fortunately for us, the doctor in charge of ds1's case had heard of a similar case being caused by the whooping cough vaccine. We agreed to ds1 having the 3rd set of immunisations but without the whooping cough vaccine and he was fine.

Gess - I'm so sorry to hear your experience. It must really wind you up when you hear people talk about those who 'can't be bothered' to vaccinate! I.M.E. those who don't vaccinate have agonised and studied the literature before reaching their decision.

within 24 hours of having the 3 in 1 he became very feverish. he was very ill for 2 weeks with cold like symptoms.
she says he was never the same again, he regressed dramatically in his speech and basic development.

whether he was autistic before the jab but the vaccine made it worse we will never know. its a bit of chicken and the egg situation, either way for me it was not worth the risk

Someone brought chicken pox into scbu when my dd was in the ITU dept of SCBU they vaccinated all the babies but her as they said she was much too ill and due to her being on life support her lungs wouldn't be able to substainit makes you wonder doesnt it.

your chances of getting a payment are miniscule cazee- only 1 out of 171 cases succeeded in 2000. Over 4 years there were 1000 claims and 11 settlements apparently. There's some weird rule whereby if your child dies under the age of 2 following a vaccination you have to wait until they would have been 2 to claim see here OK payment isn't going to make much difference, but why drag it out- for 2 years if your child has died following their first set of jabs.

i'm sure someone on here gave their child a single measles jab and they reacted badly from it. so it seems that it is the measles vaccine full stop, that causes damage, not just when combined in the MMR.

measles can do. But the MMR damage appeared to be brand specific- the "most dangerous" brand is no longer used in the UK. There appear to be more cases from the MMR rather than the single jab though.

If I give ds2 measles jab I'll dose him up with cod liver oil daily for the 3 months before (lucky chap).

laziness, but will be getting ds2 done at some point, think it irresponsible not to.
the mmr link study was full of sh*t and came to unjustified conclusions, it was subsequently disproven. its a scary myth that that is still sadly going round and it only perpetuates the situation of parents not vaccinating their children

busybean - it wasn't disproven though. And there is a great deal of misinformation about Andrew Wakefield and what he did/didn't say.