What to do? What to do? My daughter is due for her first vaccine imminently … this week actually. At two months old my baby is to be vaccinated against Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) Pneumococcal infection. It is common knowledge that in order to make someone immune to a disease, doctors have to inject the actual disease into a person’s body so that antibodies to fight the illness can develop. My husband and I have a problem with injecting a healthy baby, who is only two months old and very little, with diseases – even if it is to build antibodies. I guess that some people just have their children vaccinated because they are told to, and that’s fine but the thought wrenches my gut and my instinct tells me not to allow it. After much thought and discussion my hubby and I have decided to delay her two month injection (as well as the forthcoming ones) until my baby’s immune system has matured. We will probably only consent to vaccinations after she is two years old and we will also select the ones we wish her to have. There is always massive debate surrounding the question of immunisations and the term ‘irresponsible parent’ is often thrown around loosely. I thus made a call to the NHS and was told that I should consult with my GP and my health visitor but that it is my right to decide whether or not to have my baby vaccinated. In my mind each choice (to immunise or not) is based on fear: the fear of one’s child getting an illness hence the choice to immunise, or the fear of side-effects hence the choice to forego immunisations. Either way, a risk is involved. I am not anti-vaccination, just anti putting a small baby under the jab.
According to the NHS, the side effects for the two month vaccine are (potentially)
• a slightly raised temperature
• irritability
• some sickness and/or diarrhoea
• a small lump at the site the injection, which may last for a few weeks
• your baby may be miserable within 48 hours of having the injection.
• Some swelling and redness at the site of the injection may occur in as many as one in ten children who receive the vaccine.
Very rarely (in less than 1 in 1,000 children), a day or two after they have received this vaccine babies have been reported as:
• experiencing febrile convulsions
• having very high temperatures
• being floppy and less responsive than usual
• crying an unusual, high-pitched cry
For further information on the immunisations given to infants click on the link: NHS Factsheet
We chose not to vaccinate Isabel. In SA they get the polio and BCG (TB) at one day old. We decided to wait until after 2, and now she’s nearly three and now we can’t decide which ones to do and which to leave.
The decision does not sit well with the sisters at the clinic. I stopped taking her there after 2 sessions because they seem to think they know what’s best in all regards for my child and disregarded any research of my own or my doctor’s that contradicted their status quo view. I wasn’t vaccinated as a kid.
Will have to vaccinate at some point so she can get into a primary school – could fight about it but I’ll just be feeling grateful if she gets into the school of choice.
http://www.informedparent.co.uk/
Sorry, i got stuck in a meeting there, so didn’t get to even start my rant…
I’ve just read your note at the bottom of this page ‘keeping motherhood real’ … ‘Let’s be bold’, but in all my boldness to NOT immunise my son (now a year old); I mostly keep quite around my friends that do immunise.
From a homeopathic standpoint, it’s believed that we should rather be building the immune system and that by immunising, the disease that you’re injecting into your child only reaches the first ‘layer’ of the immune system or ‘barrier’ if you like; namely, the skin. But the problem is the disease has by-passed the main branch of the immune system – we usually pick up diseases through the nose and mouth. Furthermore, it is also believed that childhood diseases help the immune system mature and in having any disease, a child is actually seen to be healthy. All very interesting and more info can be found on the link I pasted above.
However, whilst making an informed decision and as every parent knows, we are often knocked down by ‘the other side of the story’, the ‘second opinion’; the 2 of polar opposites. And in a blithering quandary, I often find my mind indecisively split. This is unfortunate. And so I’m not actually always too bold. I get annoyed at all the ‘expert advice’ and opinions that float around (even the postman at my doorstep is an expert in parenting), and I’ll feel like its aimed right at me and I often don’t agree anyway. I don’t like to perpetuate this ‘telling’ business. So I often keep on the quiet side. You get what I mean? Maybe then that actually is BOLD, but it’s not easy.
When we got home from the baby clinic from his booster of the 5 in 1 vac my son was grizzling and hot. After removing clothing and cool bathing he went to sleep and was put down in his cot. A girl who was helping me at the time came about half an hour after he was put down. She went upstairs to see my son and start to work. She ran down the stairs telling me that my son was blue round the lips and floppy. I was so frightened that I shook him to bring him round after trying to wake him for at least one minute, but which seemed much longer. Fortunately he woke up. He cried and took a lot of comforting. I immediately rang the doctors surgery (as told to by the nurse giving the injections). The practice nurse was not concerned, he was alive wasn’t he?! My husband (a medic) phoned the surgery and tried to speak to the G.P, but had to wait until the evening when the GP was available. The G.P was asked to record the reaction. When we looked at our son’s medical records years later the adverse reaction had not been recorded. So it begs the questions; how rare is the adverse reaction? If bad reactions are not recorded how do they know the numbers?
Annette, your story is just too scary for words. Call me paranoid but I was totally afraid of something like that happening to my daughter. Thank heaven above your little boy is okay! As you say, the biggest deal seems to be the fact that incidents like what happened to your son do not go reported – this is definitely something worth investigating and perhaps writing an article on.