To Vaccinate or Not?

[MommyJogger]

I'm just bored waiting for labour to come on)!

Good luck! I hope your home birth goes well and breastfeeding comes easily! Can't wait to read your birth story; I'm planning to home birth my 2nd and 3rd.

 

[octosquishy]

When parents argue that their kids are unvaccinated and have never caught any diseases...that's because the vast majority of people are vaccinated and therefore immune, so these diseases are rarer. But if people continue to avoid vaccination, these deadly diseases will return, and are returning right now. In the UK we are in the middle of the biggest outbreak of whooping cough in 20 years, with 400 cases and 3 babies dying of it in October, babies who were too young to have been vaccinated against it. If people were getting vaccinated, this disease would not be spreading, and these babies wouldn't be exposed to it. The affects of avoiding vaccination are not seen immediately. It can take years to be apparent, but before you know it, there is an outbreak, and we have a situation like we are seeing now.

If your child is vaccinated, and mine isn't, doesn't herd immunity cover that? Or even your lovely vaccinations? If you trust your vaccines so much, why should my child make yours any less healthy? Just a thought...

First of all, your tone is coming across as unnecessarily bitchy and instigative. Second of all, if the diseases return, they're mostly a threat to very young babies who aren't vaccinated yet. I trust my vaccines, but if large groups of people elect not to vaccinate, or even one unvaccinated person carries the illness, it could cause serious illness, injury, or death to my very young baby who's too young yet for some of the vaccines.

Hate to say "she started it" but...you fight fire with fire I guess?
Breastmilk covers that, the colostrum, for actually the first 9 months of their lives, but I'm not getting into a breastmilk debate either.

 

[NaturalMomma]

You misunderstood me. I wasn't saying that vaccinating parents don't do any research. I was responding to the notion that those who do not vaccinate do so out of fear or some other misleading reason. Those in my circle who do not vaccinate research more than the average vaccinating parent. That doesn't mean *all* vaccinating parents I don't do research, just that those who do the most research are those who do not vaccinate *in my circle/family/friends*. Also among my own clients those who decide to vaccinate usually haven't really done any research, and those that decide not to do because they are going against the grain and usually need some form of backup when speaking to their Doctor.

I'm sorry if this comes off as condescending or rude; I don't mean it that way, but I've re-written this twice now and can't get it to sound nicer, so here's a flower --> to show I come in peace. I'm sorry, but there is an extreme dearth of people who actually do legitimate research when deciding whether to vax, from either side. Reading anti-vax books, articles, and websites does not constitute research. Until they view data from the primary research literature themselves, spend the time developing the education to skeptically examine any and all conclusions derived from that data, and really understand the limitations involved in the study they're looking at, I don't want to hear how much "research" they've done before deciding not to vaccinate.
Whether someone vaccinates or not, BOTH decisions are made out of fear. Either fear that the vaccine will have negative side effects or fear that not vaccinating will lead to illness or outbreak. You don't vaccinate because family history indicates there's likely a negative reaction (if I'm remembering you correctly), so I think you have every right to hide in the herd, so to speak. But people like me, with no known indicators precluding vaccination (and indeed the vast majority of people who choose not to vaccinate) should be vaccinated or we pose a huge risk to the population, with no significant gain for ourselves.

Again, I was specifically talking about the people *I know*, not about just people in general. My area is highly mainstream and most people do not research vaccines, circumcision, formula vs breastfeeding, etc in *my area*. Those who are not mainstream in *my area* are the ones who are doing the research.

And I 100% disagree that everyone, whether they vaccinate or not, make their decisions out of fear :/ There are other reasons people do or do not vaccinate. Like philisophical reasons, which are not fear based (atleast not for one of my good friends who does not vaccinate for that reason), religious reasons, and so on. Even if someone is allergic to ingredients that doesn't automatically mean they are afraid of vaccinating, it means it makes no sense what-so-ever to vaccinate in their case because it would cause harm. And the reason I do not vaccinate is not fear based either. I'm not afraid that the vaccines may cause a reaction, I know they do, since it has caused the reactions I spoke of which is why I don't do it. When we decided to stop it wasn't "I fear the vaccines will cause more harm", it was "it doesn't make sense to vacciante given the outcomes we've experienced".

 

[Bean66]

Hellylou - re:whooping cough outbreak. It's been shown to be cyclical and the biggest increase incase are in the 14-16 years olds the majority of which followed the vaccination plan. The majority of cases have been in individuals who were vaccinated.

Bit saying I'm for/against vaccines but the whooping cough example doesn't work.