Dont want to immunise, but.....(Micheal??)

[~Saram~]

Hon, I know just what you mean, Ari got her first lot of vax against whooping cough, dip and tetnus but we aren't getting the other ones, she can choose when she is older if she wants the german measles.

My DS has autism and I asked our dr if he knew of any studies involving a case with family history of autism and a sibling not showing any signs and any vax reactions. He advised me that he would NOT get his child vax in this case. Having said that I live in a town with 93% vacc rate which means we have an awesome community buffer where very little of the active disease is spread.

Having said that we had a measles outbreak last year and it freaked me out! I questioned my decisions and um and ahhed but in the end we just used common sense and hygine and she didn't get it. I have some info on homeo pathics I can pm you if you like?

[Inanna]

I am back though just dosed on panadeine forte so my response may not be up to par.

To establish my position - I do not vaccinate my babies. My oldest DD had a severe reaction to her immunisations (whooping cough was not included) - she now has aspergers which may or may not be related to this. (I suspect not as she was very "aspy" in her early babyhood ) I live in a rural area and tetnus spores are still found int he ground up here. I immunise at school entry for tetanus, measles, mumps and chicken pox.

I am a nurse and I have witnessed child hood illnesses - and despite common thought they are not necessarily "mild". The public has a misconception that measles, mumps, chicken pox are very mild illnesses that have few if any problems. This can be very far from the triuth. Deciding not to immunise should not be done without facing the reality that contracting these illnesses can and does present a risk to life and can affect quality of life.
I have also travelled to third world countries and have seen first hand what it looks like when the "herd" are not vaccinated.

We are living in a country where approx 40% of the population are immunised. This affords a cover to the rest of us who are not.

I fully understand why parents immunise their babies - and I understand why parents don't. I just ask that people make INFORMED choices. Contracting the illness is a form of vaccination - albiet a very dangerous one. Measles followed by meningitis is not pretty and it happens. Whooping cough kills children still in this country. Some of those that die are too young to be immunised.

I am a fence sitter. I sit on the fence as I have seen far too many reactions to immunisation that scare the brown stuff out of me. I have also watched children die of complications of immunisable diseases...

We need to be less careless with our herd. We need to restrict our babies to who they are subjected to. Shopping centres in strollers = sitting baby duck. Whooping cough is highly contagious. When there is an outbreak we need to be very aware. Children should be kept home when they have runny snotty noses - this is the first sign of many communicable immunisable diseases. We need to use preventative herbs, vitamins and wholesome foods.

It's a really tough decision but it needs to be made not out of fear, but out of education and intuition.

I had the wrath of the Gods on me when I refused immunisation of Imogen (very rare for a baby to leave NICU unimmunised). She was neutropenic so thank Goodness I listened to my intuition. So far so good - she has had her share of chest infections but touch wood no "childhood illnesses".

Again, read read read - educate yourself and make a decision from a clear place not a fearful one. Goodluck!

[Lulu]

Oh chicky babe, that's why I'm reviewing things constantly. That's why I didn't want to go back to work, cos I INSIST of having the kids home with a snotty nose. I don't treat measles/mumps like a cold - I nurse them through it thoroughly, but felt worried that my 2 had played with a friends baby whilst it would have been incubating (measles), she chooses to vac but the child was due the next week.

I kept my lot away from pools, childcare etc till pretty much over 12 months, eek yuck on shopping centres!

I have to think some more because my girls seem to have very robust immune systems but my boy does not.

Ach, its hard but they are all over 3 now. I might think about whooping cough for the boy.

I dunno

[AliBaby]

Just letting you know i had shingles as an adult as i wasnt vaccinated for chicken pox and it was incredibly painful, it chooses one area of your nervous system to attack. Mine caused nerve damage to my shoulder so bad that i couldnt wear a bra strap on that shoulder, chest, neck area. For 2 months and couldnt carry a handbag on that shoulder without pain for 3 months and also know someone who went blind from it as they got shingles on their face. Pretty scary. The worst thing is I can get it again if my immune system gets really low and stress levels get high!! Just food for thought on that vax

i'm going to watch channel 7 sunday night at 6:30 for the Sunday night show that is going to have the mum who just lost her bubba to whopping cough on it.

[Lulu]

Don't ever watch channel 7 if you actually want real news or facts though!

[AliBaby]

Don't ever watch channel 7 if you actually want real news or facts though!

true true. i just feel for this poor woman

[Lulu]

Hell yeah, I do too but I wont watch it....

FC, it's hard to know but I wonder since mine are older now......and since they both had such mild cases of mumps/measles - is it true immunity?

[Inanna]

Yes, there are definitely awful side affects to these illnesses. Just as there are side affects to the vaccinations...

All needs to be weighed and balanced. It is very difficult to take the emotion out of such an emotive subject. I'ts a tough one.

I have seen babies die from whooping cough. I have also seen dreadful reactions to said vaccination.

[Trillian]

One thing that no one here has taken into account yet, and something that troubles me deeply, is that there is a 'one size fits all' mentality to dosage sizes. It worries me that tiny tiny babies are getting the EXACT same dose as a big chubba baby - now if you had a bottle of panadol, would you give a small baby the same amount as a larger baby? Definately not! So why are we so quick to do it with something far more toxic? I am one of the converted and stopped vaccinating when my youngest was 6mths old and my nearly 5yo did not have her 4yo vaxes. It just did not sit right with me to continue and at the time there was so much in the media about children getting sick when they were vaxed etc and it just made me wonder why do we bother? What is the point of knowingly giving them something so toxic in case they get something that will actually give them a more effective immunity?

I was never vaccinated as a child - none of my siblings were and we rarely get sick - and that was growing up with 2 parents who smoked. All 4 of us got chicken pox one after the other and I saw the toll it took on mum to care for us all - especially my toddler sister who got it awfully bad and that made me a staunch advocate FOR the cp vax, but after reading more about it and having loads of local instances of vaxed kids getting it changed my mind. Even with my youngest half brother he too was never vaxed and again is not a sickly person and has never gotten cp even when others at school did. I also had german measles as a child and I still have that immunity even now at 31.

I think part of the rise of whooping cough was attributed to World Youth Day where so many came in for that who come from countries where WC is rife and where they may be carriers of it. Don't forget that Australia is a relatively insular country - we are an island and are somewhat protected because of that, but if you have an influx of people coming from countries where these types of illnesses are common, then you have a huge problem right there. They may not be sick, but they may carry it and how do you test for that? You can't can you.

I do have concerns from time to time that I am doing the wrong thing by not continuing, but I have healthy children who also rarely get sick - and when they do it is with a cold, or other viral thing that cannot be vaccinated for anyway. And I am also confident in my abilty to deal with a child with cp or measles - Paige even had pneumonia last year and that was also treated at home and again was something that could not be prevented with vaccination. I do not believe in the flu vacc as it is a virus that mutates quickly and the vax is only based on the one strain that they THINK will be most prevalent and pose the biggest risk for that particular year.

For us it was the right thing to do.

[Liz]

hehe.. I'm the fencesitter who does immunise I would love to be a non-vaxer but it scares me more than vaxxing. So there ya go. Everyone makes their own choices hey

On a side note - our paed said solids was done on adjusted age.. so we didn't start solids until Kayla was 7 1/2 months (adjusted to 6 mths). Even then we went really slow coz her tummy just didn't like them much!

I feel confident I could cope if my child got CP or measles too, but the severe cases are just so sad. Just as the severe cases of reaction to the vax are sad. So yep.. I'm a fence sitter too.. just with a bit of a lean towards vaxing

[Lulu]

I think part of the rise of whooping cough was attributed to World Youth Day where so many came in for that who come from countries where WC is rife and where they may be carriers of it. Don't forget that Australia is a relatively insular country - we are an island and are somewhat protected because of that, but if you have an influx of people coming from countries where these types of illnesses are common, then you have a huge problem right there. They may not be sick, but they may carry it and how do you test for that? You can't can you.

Yes, true. I spoke to the health Dept after the mumps and they concur the fact we belonged to a VERY multicultural playgroup is a big factor. I didn't think of that at the time, but someone is always flying in and out of China or India..