Woman Who Was Never Vaccinated: I've Had Measles, Mumps, Meningitis

[Noodlebear]

Love this. In short - healthcare professionals wouldn't give out 'free' vaccines (here in the UK) if they weren't deemed to be hugely beneficial, nor if the diseases themselves weren't far worse than the risks of side effects associated with the jab. And I agree that often those who aren't vaccinated are being kept free from illness because they are surrounded by people who have some sort of immunity through vaccines. If this 'anti-vax' nonsense keeps gaining popularity I dread to think of what illnesses will return and what the added strain, on our already over stretched NHS, will be!

 

[TriChick]

I remember chatting with my friend (before I knew Claire had autism) about my fears with the MMR. It hadn't been disproven at that point, and I was worried. She was going to university at the time to work with Autistic children and she totally helped me out in regards to my fears.

She talked to a bunch of her professors who worked closely with Autism departments, none of them felt that the MMR caused Autism. They felt it was an unfortunate coincidence as mainly the signs for Autism really start to show around 12 months, which is the same time the MMR is recommended for children.

She did say however that there's a VERY small percentage of kids who the vaccines WILL make it worse. But that was like a percentage of less than 1%, and she said it was rare.

So I suppose that's somewhat of a correlation between vaccines and some sort of "injury"... I won't get into how I feel about Jenny McCarthy.

I find that people nowadays don't find the diseases that scary, as they've never witnessed them. There's a part of me that is also sad that so many people died of these diseases, and so much time and money was spent to find cures for them for people just to take them for granted now.

It sucks too as I don't feel its one of those decisions that one can say "respect mine, and I'll respect yours". Not vaccinating your child exposes other kids who aren't old enough to get them or elderly people to them. So its not just you, iykwim? Its tough because there's a fundamental part of me that feels that as parents, we should respect each others decisions on what they do with their kids.

But it wouldn't potentially hurt my kid if another parent decided to co-sleep or sleep train, formula or breastfeed, pierce ears or not, or any other hot topic that happens along our way.

Its really tough.

This.
I was blessed with two healthy boys. I see vaccination as not only protecting them from some serious preventable illnesses, but also part of my social duty to other people, especially those who were not blessed with good health. If getting a few sets of jabs means that my newborn niece or the kids with compromised immune systems are safer, then it is unconscionable to me not to do so.
I do have a science background and am on staralfur's "sick to fucking death" train when it comes to the anti-vax movement. I think we are staring at a major public health crisis if we do not start to challenge the absolutely ludicrous allegations perpetrated by the anti-vax movement. There is nothing wrong with questioning and doing research when it comes to health, but the anti-vax movement is based on paranoia and really really bad science. The ignorance is breathtaking and if the trend continues, the effects are going to be devastating.
One of my jobs as a city parks educator last year was a history program in which I took people on tours of our old cemetery. The place is littered with infant and children's graves. My notes always said "died of fever". A hundred years ago, it was common to lose a small child to these diseases. We take our current low disease incidence so much for granted.

ABSOLUTELY well said, ladies!

 

[Tiff]

I remember chatting with my friend (before I knew Claire had autism) about my fears with the MMR. It hadn't been disproven at that point, and I was worried. She was going to university at the time to work with Autistic children and she totally helped me out in regards to my fears.

She talked to a bunch of her professors who worked closely with Autism departments, none of them felt that the MMR caused Autism. They felt it was an unfortunate coincidence as mainly the signs for Autism really start to show around 12 months, which is the same time the MMR is recommended for children.

She did say however that there's a VERY small percentage of kids who the vaccines WILL make it worse. But that was like a percentage of less than 1%, and she said it was rare.

So I suppose that's somewhat of a correlation between vaccines and some sort of "injury"... I won't get into how I feel about Jenny McCarthy.

I find that people nowadays don't find the diseases that scary, as they've never witnessed them. There's a part of me that is also sad that so many people died of these diseases, and so much time and money was spent to find cures for them for people just to take them for granted now.

It sucks too as I don't feel its one of those decisions that one can say "respect mine, and I'll respect yours". Not vaccinating your child exposes other kids who aren't old enough to get them or elderly people to them. So its not just you, iykwim? Its tough because there's a fundamental part of me that feels that as parents, we should respect each others decisions on what they do with their kids.

But it wouldn't potentially hurt my kid if another parent decided to co-sleep or sleep train, formula or breastfeed, pierce ears or not, or any other hot topic that happens along our way.

Its really tough.

This.
I was blessed with two healthy boys. I see vaccination as not only protecting them from some serious preventable illnesses, but also part of my social duty to other people, especially those who were not blessed with good health. If getting a few sets of jabs means that my newborn niece or the kids with compromised immune systems are safer, then it is unconscionable to me not to do so.
I do have a science background and am on staralfur's "sick to fucking death" train when it comes to the anti-vax movement. I think we are staring at a major public health crisis if we do not start to challenge the absolutely ludicrous allegations perpetrated by the anti-vax movement. There is nothing wrong with questioning and doing research when it comes to health, but the anti-vax movement is based on paranoia and really really bad science. The ignorance is breathtaking and if the trend continues, the effects are going to be devastating.
One of my jobs as a city parks educator last year was a history program in which I took people on tours of our old cemetery. The place is littered with infant and children's graves. My notes always said "died of fever". A hundred years ago, it was common to lose a small child to these diseases. We take our current low disease incidence so much for granted.

So true hun. My friend's daughter had Scarlett Fever back in December. It was annoying but manageable. It was hard to fathom seeing how well her daughter bounced back from it (and quickly!) that not that long ago, that diagnosis would strike fear into parents hearts and so many kiddos used to die from it.

 

[summer rain]

Hmm, some of the illnesses she mentions it is only very recently they had any type of vaccine for it at all, or an effective vaccine. In the case of some of the illnesses she mentions these are still not vaccinated against in many western countries, for example chickenpox because there is no evidence that most people will be harmed by getting chickenpox as a young child but they may well be harmed if they develop it at an older age (and there is no chickenpox booster). I am not anti-vax, even though two of my kids were harmed by vaccines; but this article isn't all that different in tone to some of the anti-vax scaremongering out there. Xx

There is a chicken pox vaccine here.

In my life, I've met more people who have been super sick in regards to not getting vaccines, than people who have vaccine injuries. The people in my life who claim vaccine injuries don't actually have proof that it did, they are going on gut feeling. Which of course, is nothing to sniff at... Mother's Intuition is termed for a reason.

But if I'm honest, I'm tired of all these "Big Pharma" conspiracies. At times I feel that people will find something to complain about regardless of the circumstances.

My doctor and the nurse at my doctor's surgery are both extremely pro-vax however they both agree that on the balance of probabilities and due to the similarity of both boys' symptoms and the time they started experiencing them (both on the afternoon after having the jab in the morning) that the likelihood is the jabs were the problem in their case. The GP and nurse are really sticking their neck out with such an admission as the NHS in general doesn't like to acknowledge that there is any risk from vaccines even if such risks are incredibly rare. With my second youngest I delayed until he was nearly two and he was fine. With my youngest I will be delaying until a similar age. It's telling that the particular version of the vaccine in question is only licenced in a handful of countries, despite it being cheaper than the alternatives. My eldest son had an older version of the vaccine with different ingredients and had no issues. I know a lot of anti-vax people, only one of them doesn't vax due to conspiracy theories and crazy stuff she read on the internet. Others don't due to legitimate medical reasons, because a previous child has been vaccine injured or due to strongly held religious beliefs. Xx