Compulsory vaccinations in France

[nappyaddict]

Is it just the DTP that is compulsory for starting school?

Can you get a letter of exemption based on either medical, philosophical or religious reasons?

If you refuse to have them do you have to home educate and do they provide tuition for this or not?

I'm not sure about measles too as I read that many french children have measles single jab so that they can attend nursery and then go on to have MMR too.
France does have quite a tough immunisation policy.

Each school asks for proof of up to date immunisations when registering the child. I would probably suggest talking to the head at the school, and maybe the Mairie about an exemption, but they are pretty strict, I've never heard of anyone getting an exemption letter....home education in France is a whole other subject!

It is much harder to avoid vaccinating your DCs in France than in the UK, and it is much harder to home educate in France than in the UK.

When in Rome...

So what do they do when people refuse to vaccinate their children if home education isn't an option?

Home education is always an option, but it is very difficult as Bonsoir said. There are forums on the subject, but it's not something I've ever considered seriously and don't know much about, but I think you would have to be very determined, resourceful, focused and positive from what little I do know. For me, I would need stronger reasons to home educate than avoiding certain vaccinations...is your child about to start school here nappyaddict?

nappyaddict - I think that the French are generally more compliant about vaccination and school than the British . The penalties for non-compliance are a lot greater.

What sort of penalties?

If you are French, you are basically f*d for life if you don't go through the French NC school system.

I have a feeling you can expect some months in prison and a fine
Well worth looking into yourself, as I may be wrong (that might have been what they were talking about for swine flu jab, or it might even have been Belgium).

The children have some sort of vaccinations certificate that the school needs to see, so it's be worth looking up about that.

it's be (it'd be)
I'm not a farmer.

If you can get your doctor to exempt your child on medical grounds the school will most likely go along with if for a while at least.

DD2 hasn't had the DTP because DD1 reacted very badly to it. Our doctor is happy to exempt her but the school are getting twitchy about it this year (her second year at school).

I have tried to have a sensible conversation with the school doctor along the lines of 'we cannot know that DD2 will react any better than DD1 - how can you reasonably expect me to vaccinate her just to satisfy your curiosity'.

Doctor reacts with horror stories of tetanus and whooping cough.

I didn't realise you were in France Beachcomber

DS is autistic and has also had encephalitis. My cousin has also been vaccine damaged. Would that be enough medical grounds do you think?

It's all very theoretical at the moment. DP would like to consider moving to France in 5-10 years. I won't even consider the fact unless I can be certain we won't be forced to vaccinate. Are there really fines and imprisonment

Bonsoir Is that fucked in terms of trying to get a decent job afterwards or getting into university?

Have been here for about 13 years, both DDs born here.

If you have an open-minded doctor they would accept your family's history as meriting an exemption.

Sorry to hear of your DS's troubles and about your cousin - I understand your reticence.

Have never heard of anybody being fined or imprisoned for not vaccinating but I suspect that most people comply.

They can't force you to vaccinate but, in theory, your child could be excluded from school. I suspect that the solution to that would be to go private - private schools are much much cheaper in France than in the UK.

The last time DD's school annoyed me about this, I checked out the local private school and they said it wasn't a problem for them.

nappyaddict - tbh, if I had an autistic child I wouldn't move from the UK to France. Understanding of autism is very different here.

In what way?

There are still plenty of doctors who think autism is a bonding failure that can be treating with psychoananalysis.

Yes.

Be very careful. French medicine can be great and can be dreadful - especially when there is a psy- component.

Not sure it's so strict, tbh.

I was always forgetting to bring DS's carnet de sante for school's inspection- he went to few maternelles- and no one really cared.

Now DS went into second grade, they did ask when was the last tetanus shot, I said he'll have it in a month, they never bothered checking if we went (we did, btw).

Oh, come on, Bonsoir- I don't believe for a moment there are any respected paediatricians who think that.

You don't see a paed for autism.

There has been a massive campaign recently to get France to change its treatment of autism (which is totally institutionalised). The WHO has been waging war against France on this single issue for ages, to no avail.

Seriously?

You're right paediatrician wouldn't be one dealing with it, but having seen quite a few doctors here they mostly seemed to have a modern views iyswim.

That's awful. Will ask dc's paed about it.

a modern views

It's a very murky area of French medicine (there are others) where a lot of doctors of psychoanalytic persuasion "own" the domain of autism and don't want to lose their reputation and livelihood take on board internationally accepted medical practice. Grrrrr.

I know of several cases personally of children who are on the autistic spectrum who have had (what I would class as) DREADFUL treatment by the French system. We live in Brittany, I would expect it to be less than perfect out here, but one of these boys lives in the Parisian suburbs, his mother is French, and has the means to the best treatment for her son, and it's been horrific for both of them. I couldn't believe what I was hearing from her.