@janeababe wrote:
this topic is close to my heart atm, as my daughter and her partner have just announced that they will not be vacinating their new born twins.
I was initially distraught over this announcement, and actually lost sleep over it. I am pro-vacinations.
I did some research, then i did some reflecting.
As a child, my sister and i were both vacinated. I got mumps, we both got measles, and she got chicken pox. All by age 10.
My children were all vacinated. My son came home from school at aged 7 with chicken pox. He gave it to his sister aged 4, who in turn gave it to me, while i was heavily pregnant with child number 3.
Fast forward quite a few years and quite a few booster shots later, I hold no immunity to whooping cough whats-so-ever. I have had it 5 times already as a adult, despite booster shots. When my first grandchild was born, i even requested a *double-booster-shot* (given 2 wks apart) but my immunity level was minimal.
SO... while i was initially distraught about my new grand-daughters not being vacinated, i have to ask myself, is it fail safe anyway? My mother had my sister and i vacinated... we caught the very diseases we were vacinated against. My children were vacinated, and they have been infected too.....
Last year, I had my immune levels checked..... sero-zilch! despite booster shots!
Is it the quality of the vacination? or have these diseases improved! super-bugs if you will.
I am still pro-vacination. I would hate for anyone to have to bury a child from a preventable disease.
Jane, like you I was always in favour of vaccinations without a second thought but I think these days I might be questioning and researching before rushing in. On balance though, I think I would still have a baby fully vaccinated unless there was a medical reason for not doing so.
When I was a baby vaccinations were very new and there was only Diphtheria/Tetanus/Whooping Cough available, which I was given.
Thirty years later I had a very bad throat infection which would not respond to antibiotics and the doctor questioned whether I had been vaccinated as a baby as diphtheria was suspected. My children were sent to my parents place on doctors orders, even though they had been vaccinated. It was 5-6 weeks before I felt even slightly human.
Polio vaccinations only became available when I was 9 or 10 and the measles vaccine was introduced the year my eldest was born and my doctor refused to give it to her as he was not satisfied that it was safe. It was several more years before the Measles/Mumps/Rubella jab was available. My youngest did have the measles vaccination.
Smallpox was not advised for routine vaccination...you only had that if you were travelling overseas to a country where smallpox was still rampant.
My eldest had all the usual childhood diseases before she was 8 and her younger sister had everything before she even started school...she caught them from her school aged sister. My mother caught mumps from my youngest, who was just 3 at the time.
I know things have changed drastically since I was a child....in fact even since my children were young. Child care was not a fact of life for my girls as I was a stay at home mum before they started school but I am very glad the government did not hold anything over my head. My decisions on vaccinations were made after discussions with my doctor, not because the government was wielding a big stick.
