Grandparents Innoculations

M0nica she has seen her doctor who advised to postpone not because of her DF but because DGC is just getting over an ear infection. I'm sure DGC will get this raft of innocculations quite soon.

I do remember being advised not to take the DC swimming before they had had at least one polio immunisation (in the late 70s), but as for not having visitors, I would have gone round the bend without visits from my DM (and other friends and relations) from time to time, and she lived about 200 miles away.

MawBroon, my DMIL thinks I have a hubby, and I have not yet found a tactful way of getting her to stop using the term. As for DH(ubby) himself, one day he is going to say something regrettable to her if she says it in his presence!

Why doesn't she discuss the issue with her GP? If it is just a problem with her father, he would also be able to tell her how long she would need to keep her child from her DF to protect him.

If she does not have the child vaccinated, supposing it gets measles, whooping cough etc. Those diseases could do her child serious harm - and even more harm to her DF if he picked them up from the child.

I'm watching this thread because DD has postponed giving DG her yr old jags in case her DF, hubby , who is immune compromised due to treatment, could be affected by a live virus.
Baby is breast fed and not in a high risk environment. I was slightly shocked to hear this although impressed by her thoughtfulness. In my day we just did what we were told at the docs and there were never as many vaccinations.
Ours all had measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and yes they were very poorly but bounced back. They got vacs against polio, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. I think that was it.
Now it's MMR, norovirus, meningitis and probably flu and others.
I find it strange that we don't trust our own immune systems anymore.
On the other hand, my DH uncle died of diphtheria when he was a teenager.

Innoculations only protect children from a small group of very specific diseases.

Going on the no contact before first vaccination at three months belief. How can you be sure on 3 months +1 day, that the grandparents or other visitor isn't currently harbouring the viruses or bacteria of the thousands of other infections and illnesses not covered by the vaccination?

It's because there are so many " clinical " homes that there are hundreds of children suffering health problems such as asthma. These children who are wrapped in cotton wool and who venture from home to school to towns/cities/shops etc then catch whatever is flying around their systems aren't able to cope.
Years ago mothers were encouraged to have their children mix with those who had the usual childhood diseases----mumps/measles/chickenpox/german measles so that the immune system would act accordingly.
Vaccinations now help guard against these illnesses in the severest forms.

Many years ago we also used to have the thickest fog/smog but still had to take the babies out when we went shopping. Muck billowing from chimneys/coal fires/steam trains. Nobody appeared to have been any worse off with this thick air and very few cases of asthma and the sicknesses we have now ?

Sorry Wendy ?

Wndy I would have found it hard to keep a straight face! What a load of codswallop!
As sodapop suggests perhaps there was more to it, which is sad.
But agnurse how ridiculous your comments sound. We are not talking about travel from Third World countries rife with Zika virus or Dengue fever are we?
(Does anybody outside of “Crossroads” of sainted memory still say “hubby” these days? )

Bluebelle, one of my clients was a nurse there. I don’t know how old your DD is but they opened a new BMH in Kowloon opposite the QEH.
Sorry the rest of you, we’re off thread a bit at the moment but H.k was and is very cosmopolitan , people from everywhere, loads of germs.

BlueBelle I remember throwing a huge party and little – well, 9 lb 6.5 oz – absentdaughter being handed round rather like a parcel for all her thrilled great aunts and cousins to cuddle. I think the wonderful expressions of love, care, delight and support from family far outweigh unlikely risks of infection.

I think we now live in a world where we are told everything must be sanitised – from our news to our kitchen counters. Of course, it is necessary to be careful about hygiene, especially with newborns and young children, but I think it has been hyped to a ridiculous extent.

Absent we were all new mums once, it would never have occurred to me in a million years to tell people not to visit or enquire about their inoculation status Precious is the right word it’s ridiculous to start with half the problems today occur because kids don’t have a chance to built up their own immune system

We have more protection today than we ever have had an yet they are more and more allergies and illnesses

No Pamela I had my baby in BMH Bowen Rd half way up mount Victoria on the island I think it closed the same year

bluebelle Do you mean the Matilda Hospital? My two DDs were born there.
DS was born in BMH.

I have a friend whose daughter just gave birth. Her daughter informed her she was not allowed to visit the baby until she has booster vaccines and flu shot

She refused to get the flu vaccine and her daughter finally gave in but demanded the boosters.

Some inoculations do vary from country to country. New Zealand has a particular strain of meningitis that doesn't seem to occur elsewhere and children here are inoculated against it. However, lots of vaccines are generic. When absentdaughter was expecting number six, she did ask Mr absent, ex-Mr absent and me to have a whooping cough inoculation because it has become a problem here and number four had had a very tough time with it when he was a baby too young for the jab. Of course we all did.

I do think you can get too precious about "germs", but then new mothers do tend to be a bit obsessive about a first baby's well-being – I know because I remember being a new mother.

No PamelaJ but I nearly did have her in the tram on the way up to the hospital I was virtually in labour I lived in Kowloon but had her on the other side Traveled over on my own too
Oh Agnurse you really are something else with your fear of germs do you run after people with the disinfectant I m amazed our babies over here survive with all these little germs from other countries I presume you don’t take your baby out the house before its three months old and it’s had it’s injections !!! How did my baby survive meeting and greeting all those Chinese folk with ‘different’ germs ??

I should also say, my ds lives in the US and we visited both his children before they were 3mths old. In fact, we were asked to go over and look after my dil post-natally, when she had a CS and needed help with their older child.

Thankfully, we seemed to be immune to the coughs and sneezes of our older grandchild.

Germs vary from city to city and area to area, Agnurse. Would you also ban any visitors from more than, say, two miles from your house? What about non-local people you might encounter in the general community? How would you avoid them?

I used to live in a third world country where expats often went back to their home countries to give birth, then returned to their temporary homes when their baby was two to three weeks old. I never heard of any of those little ones succumbing to any illnesses due to contact with non-locals.

It's not that I think my ILs are unwashed or their inoculations aren't up to date.

Rather, the problem is that local germs differ from one area to the other.

My baby would have immunity to local germs from me, but not immunity to germs from other countries. Even things such as common bacteria living on the human skin can differ from one country to another.

By the end of 3 months my baby would have had first shots and we would have a routine established. That would be a good time to have visitors. Keep in mind, also, that they're coming from the UK (we live in Canada) so a visit would likely be extended. That's much easier to handle when the baby is slightly older. (They would not be staying with us - my SFIL is not comfortable with that; his own preference, not due to anything we did or didn't do.)

Bluebelle, HK hospitals were always excellent.
You didn’t have your baby on the tram did you?
My sister was born in the Kowloon hospital in the middle of the big drought. She’s still a tough nut.
Mind you we were always queuing up for cholera injections there. Maybe they kept us healthy?

Eloethan it’s not about any particular country with Asthma My US friend who moved to uK stopped having asthma on her move here it was the trees in her home area likewise my daughter in laws mum never had asthma until she moved to Nz again it was some pollen there and not here

I think Americans are rather obsessive about innoculations. I believe that children who have not been innoculated are prevented from attending state schools. I truly hope we don't go down that route in this country.

Despite the obsession about germs and the constant war being waged against them, it seems that the health of many of our children isn't that great. I can recall only one school friend having asthma - and hers was so severe she and her parents moved abroad. I attended several schools and don't remember any issues regarding allergies, let alone the sort of allergy that can quickly lead to death.

American standards of healthcare may in some cases be superior to our own, especially for people who have unlimited funds. However, for very many people in the US, there is virtually no healthcare so it could perhaps be suggested that the risk of coming into contact with very ill/infectious people is higher there than here.

Blimey Agnurse you are a one, guess you are from over the pond too ridiculous absolutely ridiculous I m amazed so many babies survive in Uk My firstborn was born in a hospital half way up a mountain in HK surprising enough she survived
Poor ‘hubby’s (how I hate that term) family

If the baby was breast fed, it would be protected by her/his mother's immunity.

I think there is some variation between the two countries in what children are innoculated against and when, but since the same big pharma companies make nearly all the vaccines, I think that the doses in standard vaccines are the same world wide.

Some Americans have very strange ideas about British medicine. Obviously our "Socialist Medicine" can't be any good or it wouldn't be free.