Please read this if you are debating whether to vaccinate.

[pachamama92]

If I can reach just one person who doesn't want to vaccinate then this post will be worth it imo! I keep hearing people debate this and I just want to offer some insight from the other side as someone who was not vaccinated as a child!!

My mum had a kind of blasé approach to vaccination. She vaccinated us against some things but not others. She was ok with some medicines but not others.

As a result I contracted measles as a baby which very luckily didn't cause any long term damage. I then caught whooping cough at eight which left me with severe asthma. I consider myself really lucky not to have had anything else but I was vaccinated against some things.

I wanted to add another dimension which still affects me now. When I was little we moved a lot and I ended up moving to another country in my late teens. The fact I might not be immunized against certain things really didn't even enter my head tbh until I became pregnant when my blood work came through and they had to work out what I had immunity to and what I didn't have immunity to. Do you know who can't be immunized? Pregnant ladies!! I spent my whole first pregnancy terrified i was going to contract chicken pox. Please, please, please vaccinate your kids as it affects them for life and in ways you might not anticipate. They don't have the choice, you do!

 

[Button#]

I vaccinate as per the NHS schedule. We don't have chicken pox vaccine in the UK though.

 

[Bekah78]

Thanks for posting. I see so much against vaccinations it's good to see another side of the argument on the subject.

I had friends telling me not to get the flu jab due to risks etc. Researching online came back with pros and cons in equal balance so I was torn... In the end I spoke to a retired GP, and he told me if he was in my position he would vaccinate and he encourages his family to be vaccinated every year. When a couple weeks later a few colleagues came down with flu I was so glad I'd gone for it.

 

[_Meep_]

My child is so far up to date, but I do worry about getting more sometimes, just in case - although nobody really can say for sure that vaccines caused issues with their child. I can see both sides of the argument, but we are going to go ahead and continue, as it would be awful, a. for her to contract a potentially life-threatening condition and b. for her to put other children such as newborns or those who are immuno-compromised at risk.

For the sake of herd immunity, I do believe it is best to vaccinate.

 

[happynewmom1]

Our kids are up to date. The only thing we decided to do is to spread them out a bit so it's 2 vaccines per visit instead of what they normally get. It's still a lot of chemicals put into the little body so we are just more comfortable with them spread out a bit my mom and sister are 100% against vaccinating so it's a sensitive topic here.

 

[jessmke]

My husband works at the Children's Hospital and sees every day the consequences of people who choose not to vaccinate. It is heartbreaking. Even the children who survive end up suffering for a long time in hospital before recovering. The worse cases are the children who can't be vaccinated for various reasons (ie. are relying on herd immunity!) who then end up contracting disease because other uneducated parents made the poor choice not to vaccinate, thus their kids became a source of infection to children who couldn't be vaccinated due to medical reasons. I don't think people understand herd immunity or how it works. Of course there are risks to vaccines, but the risks associated with contracting the diseases are so much worse! The parent's of the sick children who chose not to vaccinate always claim they were "duped" by the anti-vaccine movement.

 

[LoraLoo]

As a mum who lost her child to what is now a preventable illness (men b- the vaccine is new here) I can't understand why anyone wouldn't vaccinate. Mine have always been vaccinated, but after losing Eve, and seeing how quickly some of these diseases overwhelm their little bodies it's just made my opinion on them even stronger.
Yes, there are genuine cases of kids that can't have vaccines but these are few and far between.
Most people that choose not to vaccinate do so because of misconceptions and misinformation.

 

[lau86]

They are piggy backing on us all who choose to vaccinate and risk reactions in our kids. If the diseases were back again I bet they would be begging for a vaccination

 

[lewood88]

My children are up to date with there vaccines and I will continue to update them when they need to, I think ppl who don't vaccinate there children are irrasponible in my eyes our babies and children are such miracles why would we want to risk there lives or others

 

[jessmke]

People in developing countries would give anything to have access to the vaccines that we have because their children die in masses from preventable diseases. It just blows my mind that there are people out there who would choose not to protect their children from these diseases. Right now people are getting away with it because herd immunity is protecting the majority of people, but as more and more parents let celebrities and pseudo-"doctors" persuade them into not vaccinating, more and more children are going to get sick and die, and those anti-vaxxers will realize the error in their ways. Sadly it will be the children who pay the ultimate price for their parents' ignorance.

Whenever there have been threads on here about vaccinations the anti-vaxxers post links to articles and websites authored by people who provide no medical or scientific references for their viewpoints, or who have falsely skewed scientific findings to suit their agenda. I am just baffled by the lack of common sense these people have.

 

[tallybee]

Yup. My 3 are all vaccinated. The benefits of vaccinating greatly outweigh the risks, I would never forgive myself if my child suffered due to my choice to refuse to protect them. It's scary how much misinformation is rife on the internet which makes it hard to be properly informed.

 

[AnneD]

It's scary how much misinformation is rife on the internet which makes it hard to be properly informed.

This is so true, anyone can publish anything on the internet and there are always people who will follow like sheep. Equally, they will claim that they've 'researched' the issue, and by that the mean they googled something like 'vaccinating is bad'. I find it incredibly insulting that research is now synonymous with googling for such purposes, and that suddenly apparently everyone can understand and interpret science and medical studies correctly.

Mine is vaccinated according to schedule and I'm incredibly grateful for the fact that I live in a country where vaccines are available. I have family members who weren't so lucky less than 100 years ago.

 

[wishingonastar]

For the people who believe in herd immunity and others piggy backing on the vaccinated individuals I would suggest you research levels of immunity achieved by many of the current available vaccines (current mumps vaccine in the mmr is up to 88% effective and up to 78% effective if an individual has only had one dose) so if 100 children received 2 doses of the mmr, 12 of them would still have no immunity to mumps. Equally of note, immunisations do not provide immunity in many cases and instead increase likelihood of an improved immune system response so a vaccinated child is still susceptible to contracting the same disease as unvaccinated child and passing it to others the same as an unvaccinated child they're just likely to be less ill as a result.

Also ask yourself, are you up to date in your vaccines? If not, turn your pointed fingers and accusations to yourselves too as well as towards parents of unvaccinated children as you are equally relying on 'herd immunity' and placing others at risk. As parents of children you frequent the same places they do in general and therefore expose others to anything you pick up. It is grossly unfair and inaccurate to just point the finger at unvaccinated children.

I say this as a parent who has spent hours upon hours reading up about vaccines and have children who are vaccinated but I opted to have each one given individually to reduce risk of adverse effects. I weighed up options and risks and came to decide upon a revised schedule which was discussed and agreed with my GP surgery.

I am not anti vaccine, but I am against believing one size fits all and am grateful to live in a country where the choice is available but equally not mandatory as the criteria underwhich the government approves the provision of vaccines varies greatly from the criteria a parent would apply.

I don't normally get involved in vaccine posts as I know how they tend to end up and I'm sure ppl will have plenty to say about what I've written but all I ask is ppl do their research and whether you're pro or anti all or some vaccines, pls ensure this is based upon fact not assumption.

 

[Larkspur]

For the people who believe in herd immunity and others piggy backing on the vaccinated individuals I would suggest you research levels of immunity achieved by many of the current available vaccines (current mumps vaccine in the mmr is up to 88% effective and up to 78% effective if an individual has only had one dose) so if 100 children received 2 doses of the mmr, 12 of them would still have no immunity to mumps.

Actually, the mumps vaccine is on average 88% effective with two doses, and up to 95% effective.

Even that level of effectiveness gives very good herd immunity IF a very high number of children in a population are vaccinated. Plus, even if a vaccinated child does not receive immunity, they are likely to experience a less severe form of the disease.

Here are a few more effectiveness stats (averages, not 'up to'):

Measles: 97 percent effective with two doses
Polio: 90 percent with two doses, 99 percent with three doses
Pertussis: 80-90 percent, 98 percent with five doses
PCV: 96 percent effective with more than one dose
Rubella: over 90 percent effective
HIB: 84 percent effective against HIB, 75 percent effective against meningitis

I choose to go with 70+ percent effectiveness of vaccinating versus zero percent effectiveness of not vaccinating.

You do make a good point that vaccinating children is only the start, as vaccine effectiveness can wane over many years. It's important for adults to get vaccinated too. If you are in your 30s and have not had boosters (of course, many people do, for travel, etc), you should get a full set done. I did.

 

[wishingonastar]

Hi larkspur, I'd be interested to know where your figure for mumps came from pls? Mine was from CDC

 

[Larkspur]

Hi larkspur, I'd be interested to know where your figure for mumps came from pls? Mine was from CDC

So are the above. From their website.

https://www.cdc.gov/mumps/vaccination.html

 

[lau86]

I just said I think people would feel differently if the diseases were back as per pre vaccination levels. Maybe that's not my place as a parent who vaccinates. As far as I know there's no regular vaccination schedule for adults here? i don't know if anyone on here was 'pointing the finger' at unvaccinated children. I just think I've protected my children in the best way I can

Eta you can discuss how effective a vaccine is in % terms but at the end of the day the incidence of these diseases is what I'm bothered about, and vaccines have a big role to play in that

 

[_Meep_]

I didn't see any finger pointing at the children themselves - only at their parents, if you want to put it that way. But I don't think anybody has been openly offensive.

 

[wishingonastar]

My apologies for the wording which could be deemed ambiguous. Yes negative comments were made towards the parents of unvaccinated children and not towards the children themselves.

That's interesting the CDC quoted two different figures for mumps. I guess it depends which sample of children are looked at each time.

 

[wishingonastar]

Lau86 - no there's no specific general adult vaccination schedule, it's up to the individual to keep track and pay for boosters as necessary. It would be too great a job with associated costs for the nhs to monitor this. It must be huge just for the baby and child side