TiddlyPom

Hey there! How's the baby?!

And I am well! Very well in fact, bordering on excellent.

moneypenny20

There's unlikely to be better evidence. SIDS as well as SADS is nigh on impossible to ascertain prior to the event.

TiddlyPom

For now. I imagine this will change in time.

Gems

My son had Whooping Cough last year, and had it right through his TEE exams.
He was really sick, but somehow managed to pass his exams through all the coughing and choking. Nearly gave the exam moderator a heart attack several times though while he was chocking
(He somehow got a very good TEE score)

The whole family had to have antibiotics. Got a phone call and told to come and collect prescriptions from a health clinic!
Luckily I recognised the cough straight away so think the rest of us were ok.

The doctor told us that it doesnt matter if you have had the vaccination you can still catch it. You may be lucky and have a milder form of it.

Gems

Pollyana

And (although its controversial) in that case maybe best not to vaccinate? In my case I am so glad its a decision I will never have to make - risk the baby getting whooping cough and dying from it, or risk the baby reacting similar to the way I did and dying of the vaccine. (shudders)

TiddlyPom

I really don't know Polly. I know that there are many parents who have horror stories of having their child die within hours of vaccinations and others who breeze through it without a blink.
I know that the gvt has a vaccination compensation scheme which pays out to children who have been affected by vaccinations so it is possible to be harmed by them and the medical side acknowledges that.
I would never say 'do not vaccinate' and I think it's up to the parent to make an informed decision by educating themselves as much as possible by reading the research.
I believe the accepted wisdom is that vaccination is good 'as a whole' for the population but within that, there will be deaths from reactions and that is a given.
I think any parent now has such a hard job deciding what to do. Vaccination is shown to be protective to us.

Pollyana

Yep, I agree the its an individual decision. My sister had her three vaccinated even knowing what happened to me, it was a question of weighing up all the evidence and how things have changed over the years. I know she was very watchful of them though, just in case.........whereas with me it was out of the blue apparently. never had a weak chest before that either, afterwards I spent years with frequent bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia.
I know its a copout, bit I don't know whether I would be prepared to vaccinate a child of mine - and fortunately its not something I have to think about

itigo

I did acknowledge that at the beginning of the thread! But I have to say, it's all been quite peaceful and friendly...........Everyone has experiences and opinions and that's what makes it interesting to discuss. Some of the posts have made me think about the subject more, in a less one sided way which can only be a good thing.

sonlymewalter

am I going to die

And please don't tell me those nasty friggin antibiotics were supposed to be suppositiries

moneypenny20

lesleys

I had whooping cough as a child - pre-vaccination times.

A few months ago I went for a tetanus booster and my doctor advised I get the vaccine for whooping cough at the same time (combined jab). I did.

I would just like to say that I know more people my age who have had polio, before vaccination was available, than I know to have had bad reactions to inoculations. I don't think many people would really like to live in a world without vaccination. My brother has almost no sight in one eye as a result of measles. My parent's generation had to contend with diptheria as well.

Would you really like it if everyone exercised their right not to be vaccinated?

TiddlyPom

I don't see why it shouldn't be friendly... we're intelligent people here and we have one thing in common - we all care about our children deeply and that's why immunisation is such a difficult subject because it involves such emotive opinion.
I am not anti vac but I am cautious. My eldest has been fully vac'd with quite horrible temps and screaming/crying for hours, my middle daughter had horrible reaction to the first and the doc said 'don't have another' and the youngest was born in difficult circs and then had meningitis, and the doc told me to put off vacs as long as I could for him... Ironically, all three get sick with the same thing but in very different ways. I don't know if this is to do with the rate of vacs or just their biological differences/the virus changing... or not but it's interesting.
If you do have a child that is not vac'd then you have to be uber vigilant and keep an eye on everything and I have always been very careful.
The eldest had whooping cough (she was immunised) and I spent nights in the bathroom steaming it up. It wasn't too bad though.
The others have never had it and nor are they immune to it. I suspect the two older have had measles anyway and would be immune from the actual disease.. and scarlet fever.

Now my kids are older, I will ensure they all have german measles vac, esp the girls, for obvious reasons and the others they will need.

HelenTD

TiddlyPom, there doesn't seem to be articles published yet on that article you mentioned. Have you done a search on PubMed? You can search for articles and get abstracts, but to pay for articles that you want http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed. If there is something in particular that interests you, let me know. The Cochrane Library is another place to look http://www.cochrane.org/.

Petals

Its a very emotive interesting discussion. However as there are so many nasty superbugs appearing these days with antibiotic resistance I wonder what will happen in the future if many are not vaccinated.

My daughter has many health problems and is allergic to penicillin so for people like her its a real problem.

Do we vaccinate for the good of all, or just think of ourselves that is the question.

Being older the nasties were still around when I was a child and a lot of polio and diphtheria, measles etc and a lot of young ones died of these things. Being born at the right time gave me immunisation. Measles can affect the heart and leave people with life long problems.

Taking smallpox for example its not around any more and that is due to vaccination.

We have to remember on trains and boats and planes we do not know what the stranger nearby is sufferring from.

OzExpat

You have a FAR HIGHER chance of being injured or killed in a car accident than you do from a vaccination, yet I don't see all these anti-vaxers scared of popping their kids in the car and driving every day...

Vaccines are of the biggest leaps forward mankind has ever made in medical science and had basically eradicated diseases like Polio and Measles...until the recent surge in refusals of them in the mistaken belief that the diseases are no longer a threat!