wholeworldwindow

Too true - I went through utter termoil yesterday (not helped by the troll!) I spent the whole day researching and trying to decide if I was making the right choice. I was really upset by attitudes too which didn't help. Just felt that I wished the GP had done as much research as I had! At least now I feel I came to the right decision, based on my situation. But it was not an easy choice.

RReed

Renth - I have known and worked with many doctors during my career. They are not God, and they are not experts in every field. Especially GPs - they are 'general' practitioners ie. have general knowledge about many things, but not indepth. They also get financial rewards for immunising = hardly objective. I have seen some scary practice which has no basis in evidence or research since being here (another story).

I do believe in vaccinations and both my kids are fully vaccinated. This is because I have been fortunate enough to meet families who have experience of the diseases we are protecting against. We are lucky enough to have access to vaccinations in the developed world, and I have taken advantage of it. Having said that it, is each parents responsibility to make the decision about individual vaccinations. I do think parents need to consider the social implications of not vaccinating. For example, if an outbreak occurs due to not enough kids being vaccinated - then other people's babies (who have not yet been vaccinated) are at risk.

As for vaccinating newborns against Hep B - I'm not sure this is entirely necessary. But, not having to make this decision for my kids - I haven't researched it.
Rachel (hope my spelling is up to scratch )

Latona

i have taken my time in replying to this post...........but i have 3 children ages 12,9 and 4 i have just booked my 4 year olds hep b injection for next week.
i have researched this quiet a bit and by the comments on
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/immunis...heets/hepb.htm
i think my other children will have to immunised as well...
it states that all children in year 7 will be offered it free???
so confusing. anyway good luck with what ever decision you make.

Denise

ABCDiamond

Only if a course has not previously been completed.

http://www.health.vic.gov.au/immunis...heets/hepb.htm

philian4

Hi All,

I have two children who were born after 2000-same story. Made an appointment with the GP, after a helpful discussion I signed the objection form and am receiving benefits......all sorted in less than a week. Rushing any vaccination not an option in my book. I will sort out the pre school jabs as a matter of course but not necessary the minute we got off the plane!!!

Don't panic into a decision, you can sign the form for the sake of keeping Centrelink happy and have the jabs as and when you wish to.

jskogsta

We pretty much found out the same things. We went to get registered and soon found out that they had to do multiple shots .. and I think we have to do even more in a week or two.

Compared to Norway they are pretty agressive with immunisations.. but good in any case I think.

What I wanted to say was basically: we were pretty surprised about the same stuff you're experiencing .. hmm!
/Jørgen

Jonahs_mummy

I have just been to see my midwife, & whilst there I thought it prudent to enquire about the Hep B jab for Jonah.......to put it bluntly..... I am bloody shocked with the sodding NHS!!!

Ok apparantly the rules for "travel injections" have recently changed, and it all has to be done on a private prescription...... charges as follows....

£46.10 for 3 vials of the vaccination
£30.00 for the nurse at the surgery to administer the jabs & send off the blood test
£10.00 for the certificate to show he has had the vaccination


That is a total of £86.10:scared: ..... JONAH IS ONLY 2 YEARS OLD!

As such, we will be waiting until we get to Australia I think!

Rant over!

Claire
x

wholeworldwindow

Just to clear up a point - (to the best of my understanding) Yes the injections are usually offered free in Ausrtralia. They are given to newborn babies at the moment. This is a recent thing to OZ so they will soon be offering the jab free to 13 year olds - to ensure they cover the ages missed out. (don't know how that works - but is what I was told). The reason why they were asking me to pay for the 1st injection was because it needed it done in a hurry so they could re-instate my child care benifit. The 2nd and 3rd would have been free, charge in this scenario was down to time factor. (Oh and by the way - I'm a Mac user and spell check freezes Explorer on a Mac! Just in reply to a previous whinge of another).

hevs

LOL, get used to it, its probably the only free thing you will get for your child here

kath n kim

http://www.jabs.org.uk/
http://www.vaccinfo.karoo.net/
I think these websites should be made compulsory reading for all parents contemplating having their children injected, direct into their bloodstream, with something...... Possibly toxic to their body or immune system.

Thanks again Bella Donna. More people should be made aware of this alternative route.
The forms are available from the doctor, although most will not tell you of this option as they are trying to keep their vaccination rates up, to qualify for their bonuses. (Although to be fair, many do believe that they are helping the "herd immunity" cause, even though many choose to "selectively" vaccinate their own offspring...)
kath n kim

fraser

Henry's going to be thrilled, he's been put under a general two weeks ago to have stitches, had his four year old jabs Wednesday, then I told him he must have two more to go to Malaysia in a couple of weeks and I promised him that would be the last of them

Libra76

We had done our research even before DS was born. In Belgium, our doctor had no problem with the fact that we refused to give our DS all the vaccines at such a young age, and we worked out a scheme for the injections we did want to give him, and at which age.

Now, DS is 2.5 and we just arrived in Australia 3 months ago. We'll get child care benefit provided we update his immunisation scheme they said. So, off we went to the (new) doctor yesterday with DS, talked about our wishes and sure enough, he respected it! He tried to talk us into having all the catch-up shots done there and then, but we said no way. I did have to ask him myself to get the conscientous objection form filled out as we refuse to give all those extra vaccines that we don't believe in and that we wouldn't have needed to give DS in Belgium. Not a problem, filled it out, he's sending it off to the immunisation register for us, we're telling the daycare centre about the update, and voila. Everyone happy, not made feel bad or anythign, we're very happy we found a doctor who RESPECTS our choices.

Cheers to all the parents out there who make an informed choice, whether they decide to vaccinate or not.
Els

wholeworldwindow

Goon on ya. Yes, it seems world over, understanding Doctors are as hard to find as good genuine friends! Was sad to leave the good doctor I'd found in UK - but it took me 31 years to find her! So I roughly should be in my sixties when I find one in Oz that is not interested in dictating information but rather assessing individuals and helping them decide what is best for "their" circumstances.

philian4

thanks for the annon. karma-would return it if I knew who it was from!!!

Phil x

dazzyr

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

I am a stickler for spelling but I think the above proves the point!
No need to be impolite for someone's 'shortcomings' and anyhow it detracts from the main thread argument.
We've got 3 kids who'll be 8,4 & 1 when we emigrate and from what I can glean from this thread we'll be waiting until we get to Oz and put in an objection form initially to claim child benefit and then go with the flow after that.

Cheers Darren