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Grandparenting

Grandparents Innoculations

(32 Posts)
Wendy Wed 14-Nov-18 11:07:54

I chat to a lady in the supermarket, as you do and this time we spoke about families at Christmas. She has just returned from a trip to California to visit her son and new first grandchild. She wasn’t allowed to touch the child because it was said that our English inoculations aren’t up to the standard of the American ones and the child could catch something! Has anyone else come across this ?

sodapop Wed 14-Nov-18 12:29:00

Never heard of that. Sounds like something else is going on there.

BlueBelle Wed 14-Nov-18 12:32:09

What a load of doodoo I think I d have got the next plane back

EllanVannin Wed 14-Nov-18 12:49:06

Obviously never heard of immunity. It's by coming into contact with people which builds one's immunity should there be a bug floating about and you happens to catch whatever it might be.
Being too clean and clinical is asking for trouble.

agnurse Wed 14-Nov-18 13:29:29

EllenVanin

As a general rule this is true. However, if the baby is a newborn, they don't have a good immune system and are vulnerable to infection. Every country has different germs, not to mention they had travelled on a plane - a glorified cesspool. If Hubby and I have more children I will ask his family to wait 3 months to come, until baby has had first shots.

GrannyGravy13 Wed 14-Nov-18 13:47:57

We flew with a 10 day old baby to see my Parents as they were unable to come to us, he was absolutely fine on the plane and did not get any "foreign bugs".

NanaandGrampy Wed 14-Nov-18 13:53:54

For goodness sake agnurse are you serious ?? 3 months?

How on earth did the human race get to this place where we are so fearful of ordinary germs ?

There has been significant research into the possibility that a number of allergiesare actually caused by a lack of early exposure ( nuts is one I read recently). Surely , common sense should prevail with hand washing and such .

Deedaa Wed 14-Nov-18 19:36:45

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

M0nica Wed 14-Nov-18 19:51:26

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.

BlueBelle Wed 14-Nov-18 19:53:54

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

Eloethan Wed 14-Nov-18 20:30:27

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.

BlueBelle Wed 14-Nov-18 20:44:50

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

PamelaJ1 Wed 14-Nov-18 21:31:30

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?

agnurse Wed 14-Nov-18 22:44:19

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.)

SueDonim Wed 14-Nov-18 22:59:54

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.

SueDonim Wed 14-Nov-18 23:14:53

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.

BlueBelle Wed 14-Nov-18 23:18:17

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 ??

absent Thu 15-Nov-18 01:07:11

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.

GrandmaFaye Thu 15-Nov-18 01:07:26

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.

janeainsworth Thu 15-Nov-18 01:57:00

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

BlueBelle Thu 15-Nov-18 04:28:26

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 Thu 15-Nov-18 04:34:24

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

absent Thu 15-Nov-18 04:51:26

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.

PamelaJ1 Thu 15-Nov-18 07:30:34

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.

MawBroon Thu 15-Nov-18 07:40:17

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? )