If your DC hasn't had the MMR, what are your reasons & have they had the illness's ?

[IcantbelieveImForty]

If they have had any of the illness's, how have they been ?

I wasn't vaccinated (although I did have rubella age 15) & as a child had mumps & measles.

If they haven't had the illnesses are you assuming they won't because of herd immunity, or are you relying on their healthy immune systems ?

Oh this one again - my thoughts are well documented...

Yes I am vaccinating my LO against everything - it's the only responsible thing to do.

Anyone noticed the current news coming out of Wales re: a massive measles outbreak? I hear many children under one are being hospitalised because take up of MMR in the area is a only 15% - disgraceful.

But I know that the refuseniks are very contented that other people's kids are ill, as long as it doesn't interfere with their ill-informed non-scientific views.

'They aren't offered because there is no credible research that proves that there is any link between autism and the MMR'.

Equally, there is no research that PROVES there is NO link between autism and MMR.

If the govt want herd immunity thru immunisation, they would get much closer to it by offering a choice. Some parents (at my guess the majority) would choose to have MMR because it involves one injection (and one for the later booster). Some parents would choose the single vaccines because they are more comfortable with that idea.

As it is, a section of children are not being vaccinated at all, because their parents don't want MMR, and can't afford/organise private single vaccines.

The govt offer specious arguments against single vaccines, when I am utterly convinced it is a matter of cost, and dictatorship.

Here we go. parping thread now.

novicemama, other people have managed to put across their pro-vaccination views resorting to insults, it would have been nice if you could have done so too.

"But I know that the refuseniks are very contented that other people's kids are ill, as long as it doesn't interfere with their ill-informed non-scientific views" this is purely offensive - why on earth would i be content that people are ill, just because I have chosen not to vaccinate my dd2?

"novicemama, other people have managed to put across their pro-vaccination views without resorting to insults, it would have been nice if you could have done so too".

"He said their were children dying in the hospital of measles when there was no need."

Here is the MMR info which includes the very small, but needed? risk of death-which translates to me anyway- that there are children dying in the hospital of the MMR vaccine itself? Or do they just die at home?

Have read some of this thread. In answer to the OP: no. I read through the literature at the time and made my decision, although I was pretty much against it beforehand IYSWIM.

The thing I find amusing is that when there is a measles outbreak, we (the public) don't ever get to learn how many of the individuals affected had been vaccinated . I recall reading about a Danish study where a high percentage of individuals affected by measles outbreak had in fact been vaccinated. Also, I dislike the idea of a cocktail of chemicals being injected into a child's body when the full range of potential downstream effects is unknown.

"He said their were children dying in the hospital of measles when there was no need."

And did he say whether those children had been vaccinated or not? Did you ask?

Quite Isenhart.

Altho Measles can have serious after effects, these diseases are not "mass killers" here in first world countries.

In africa, where children are already malnourished and bombarded by the risks of typhoid, cholera, malaria, HIV and god-knows-what else, Measles and mumps are real threats, but to the majority of children in GB, USA, Australia etc, they are relatively safe.

I haven't done the MMR. Nor will I. Nothing whatsoever to do with autism, as I don't think there are particular risk factors in my family.

I just can't get het up about mumps and rubella. Cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone thinks they are a threat to a toddler. And I just don't buy the 'immunise toddlers because they might come across a pregnant woman who did not vaccinate against rubella' argument. If rubella is such a threat to pregnant women, then target women of an age to get pregnant.

In fact I believe that the MMR is going to cause an increase in the cases of mumps and rubella at dangerous ages. My sister who had the MMR found out when pregnant that she was not immune - the vaccine had worn off. If she had not been immunised as a toddler and she had either had the disease or been immunised as a teenager, she would have been better off.

If ds hasn't had mumps by the time he hits puberty, I might immunise him. If I had a daughter the same applies for rubella.

I do think vaccination has its place - ds has been vaccinated against polio, diphteria and tetanus because the cost benefit ratio made sense to me. It just doesn't for the MMR
.

And as for 'measles is a killer disease' - maybe. Everyone had it when I was a child, and no one I ever knew of had any complications. But even if it was, that would not be an argument for the MMR, just for the single measles jab (which is more effective against measles than the MMR anyway, I believe).

OMG, it's all coming back to me now-seems like there was about a fifty/fifty chance of the non-vaccinated contracting any of these diseases in the first place back when we were making these decisions and about an equal chance of serious complications from the disease and serious complications from the vaccine. Maybe things have changed in the past decade or two-perhaps I shall run the numbers again.

justabout

I have three . DD is third DC and won't have vaccines and very obviously DS2 won't have any more . Ds1 is 15 now and getting ready to choose himself what he wants to do - currently very anti which is probably unsurprising

My two are not vaccinated,we have a massive family history of allergy,asthma,and rheumatoid arthritis.So that has made me concerned that they may be more likely to have a nasty reaction to the vaccine.But we live in West Wales and there is apparently a measles epidemic here so I am pretty worried and not sure what to do to be honest.Measles is the only one I am frightened by,even though I had it as a child and I was fine.(I agree with previous posters that I would rather my dds got rubella and had proper immunity,rather than a vaccine which might fail in adulthood.)I am stuck on the fence,afraid of vaccinating and afraid of measles too.-my younger dd has had the tetanus vaccine as she had a nasty deep and dirty cut as a baby and tetanus was a real risk so we had her done,but that is all they have had.

DC1 had MMR (early 90's - automatic trust of anyone in authority) there were no problems but we later discovered that the immunity had lapsed. Didn't bother with booster as she chose not to (in yr13)

DCs 2 & 3 I'd learnt more about the diseases and decided against vaccinations completely(family history of auto immune disorders)

FWIW I hate the fact that hereditary immunity is being systematically wiped out by the pharmaceutical industry who will effectively be able to hold the human race to ransom in a few generations time.

"unethical" measles jab available

It's not just the pharmaceutical industry; Western countries are bathed in a mire of chemicals, everything from fertilisers to cleaning products. Who knows what the impacts will be but they're already talking about unborn boys being at risk of infertility later in life due to a rise in oestrogens.

Measles isn't a "mass killer" in this country (altough in parts of Africa it has a 30% fatality rate), but it isn't a mild illness either - a recent outbreak in Italy had a 13% hopital admission rate (and three deaths), which I wouldn't refer to as mild. I've seen several kids in hospital very poorly with measles-related pneumonia (although all recovered fine). It also weakens the immune system and makes children more susceptible to other infections. Obviously if it was as widespread as when I was a child pre-vaccination we'd be seeing an awful lot more cases, and therefore an awful lot more serious complications.
However, I certainly don't think it's an easy decision to vaccinate. It's really difficult to get good information from either camp - there's a huge ammount of bad science out there. I personally decided immunisation was right for my DDs, but under other circumstances my decision may have been different.

I don't think he had any reason to mislead me. He said that due to lack of vaccination measles was causing children to be very sick and admitted to the hospital and that this (12 years ago) was new. For this reason he thought it was very important that ds was vaccinated. As I said before this is sombody who was not against the idea that mmr may cause problems- he specifically researched this fgs.

And don't forget that your G.P's surgery receive cash for each child they vaccinate.

Cos she's had the single vaccines, so no she's never had the illnesses.

ra - interesting - my GP had the opposite view - that since the imms program measles wasn't the disease it was, what he was seeing in the recent measles outbreaks was a mild ildness.