Not giving injections to preemie

[Purplecrocsrock]

Hi, My friend has a prem baby, born at 30 weeks, still in hospital and they are pressing to have him injected, however parents are saying they don't want to have her injected as they believe it causes more damage than good.
What can i advise them, to try and change their minds?

What sort of injections?

The normal injections vaccinations sorry! She is 40 weeks now so they are due

Are they anti-vacc people in general or do they think there's something special about prems should never have them, or do they just want to delay a little while coz baby was prem (or another reason)? How do they 'know' there is more damage than good?

Anti vacc in general. I don't even think they have researched it, they seem to think some of the injections have cancer causing/autism causing ingredients in them and it's just a 'pot luck' as to who gets it

The medical professionals know more about medicine than none-medical professionals. There have been different researches in different countries about vaccins and they are safe to use unless you have an allergy to one of the components. You can do a pubmed search on articles about vaccins. People still refuse to believe this because they have googled some scaremongering stories. They then say that they did "research". You can find anything via google, the existence of aliens, that the earth is flat etc. etc. it's very dumb to believe wild internet stories over proper research from proper professionals.

I think all you can do is give the. The evidence.

My son was born at 26 weeks and he had the full range of vaccinations - at the actual age he was born so 8 weeks given at 8 weeks. He reacted to his first lot so I'm glad we were in hospital when we had them.

He was also eligible for the flu vaccine due to chronic lung disease. Certainly I suspect the paediatric team will encourage as it's recommended for little ones to try and reduce the chances of getting the illness and also they won't have antibodies from mum owing to the early birth.

Ultimately they need to make the their own decision but as I say - I've vaccinated both of mine and would encourage everyone to do the same.

Apologies for odd spellings - am on mobile and playing at the same time!

I don't think you can advise them of anything. They are wrong, and they are especially wrong to take this chance with a premature baby who may be especially vulnerable, but they have the legal right to make this decision and if they were accessible to reason and science they wouldn't be anti-vaxxers in the first place.

Decide your own personal boundaries around being friends and contact with them but otherwise stay out of it.

They are idiots but I don’t think there is anything you can say to change their minds.

It’s their choice. But they can delay until the baby is bigger if they want. Not doing it now doesn’t mean not doing it ever.

I also think they are idiots for not wanting to vaccinate.

Premature babies need to have their vaccinations on schedule where possible to protect them against diseases when theyre already vulnerable in terms of health.

Mine had them and was actually very poorly afterwards, but I wouldn't hesitate to do the same again.

In this case I think refusing vaccinations is neglect.