Immunisations

I dont know much about this, but I dont think meningitis is that rare. I know children who have had it. In different circumstances.
Perhaps it is more rife in this area? There was a mini outbreak here and someone sadly died.

Just b*** get on and do it! We are so lucky to have these preventive measures for our children. Have you ever visited a Victorian graveyard and seen the rows of tiny graves for lost children?

I am tired of these threads that cast doubt upon immunisation - they crop up every now and again and cause others immense heartache and fear about something that is so very simple.

Better a few days of fever and a sore arm than meningitis. It is a killer.

What Lucky says.

Trust the expertise of the medical profession.Children are so lucky nowadays to have all this preventative medicine.I don't agree that meningitis is rare.I know of several youngsters affected by it.

Meningitis is no respector of either good diets or clean living conditions. A localised response to an immunisation I would see as a positive sign that the infant is exhibiting a good immune response. Aliminium in a litre of infant formula is vaguely equal to that of a vaccine and it is also present in breast milk. I wonder many incidences and lasting side effects of meningitis the OP has seen?

I wonder how many .......

Having seen a previously healthy 11 year old become very ill with "just" measles, personally I would not be hesitating to immunize against anything. For that daughter it was the trigger for a struggle with asthma and skin allergies that took years to settle down. She'd been vaccinated but I was told she'd have suffered even more without it.

I wonder what has contributed to the drastic drop in childhood mortality over the past century

Before the whooping cough vaccination my sister nearly died of whooping cough, my other sister was very ill for over three months. Another friend has permanently damaged lungs from the same disease. I and my sister missed nearly 2 terms off schooling as a result of having variously measles whooping cough and chicken pox.

As a result of immunisations small pox has been completely eliminated from the world and polio is getting that way. Prior to this every years 10s of 1,000s of people died or were left permanently crippled or scarred as the result of these diseases

I had a BCG (TB immunisation) when I was eight. I had a festering wound on my arm for over 3 months, but it was worth it. It was the early 1950s and I lived in Hong Kong at the time. TB was rife and I am very glad my parents put the vaccination ahead of taking the risk of me getting TB, despite the months of discomfort.

The only reason you and/or your daughter can enjoy the luxury of choosing not to have these immunisations is because all but a small minority of parents do have their children vaccinated.

I had measles very badly when I was a small child and it has affected my eyesight. I was told I was delirious for several days. I can also remember trying desperately to persuade my mother a few years later that I didn't need the new polio vaccination - without success! Do you remember the poor children who had to spend their lives in an iron lung or walk around with metal calipers on their legs.
We had a TB clinic near where we lived in Gloucestershire - how many of those are still around now?
As MOnica says, you are depending on the vast majority of parents having their children vaccinated so that you can hope your children/grandchildren do not catch one of these terrible diseases.

Whitewave childhood illnesses were dying out anyway even before immunisations because of better health and living conditions. My DD and I are not stupid and well aware of the past benefits of immunisations. However they are no longer compulsory in the UK probably for the very reason that many of them are not strictly necessary. It doesn't hurt to question things now and then- she fully intends to give her daughter the MMR jabs although there are doubts that the whooping cough one is effective. There are approx 900 cases of Men B in the Uk annually which includes children and teenagers so I think that is pretty rare but 1/10 die which I think is what makes it worth while having children immunised- but as I said- the medical profession admit that they don't yet know if the vaccine works effectively. I was just putting it out there and wondering what experiences others may have had. As usual with this subject people have a gut reaction when they maybe haven't even looked into the subject further.

PS a case in point- TB and Smallpox immunisations are no longer given in this country and its quite possible that sometime in the near future Polio and Diphtheria jabs will also cease to be given to children. I also had Whooping cough as a child so I know how nasty it can be and measles is still doing the rounds so there's no way I wouldn't want my Gchildren to be immunised against them..

These illnesses will come back, because they are still around, and people are travelling and mixing far more than they used to.

Smallpox HAS been eliminated, because everybody was vaccinated against it, in a concerted world-wide campaign, and the pockets that lingered were gradually cleared up.

Tuberculosis has NOT been eliminated, in fact it is on the increase.

Because most people have been immunised against these infectious diseases, it is less likely to be in the community, so you are less likely to meet them, but the more people who say "It is not common, so I won't get my child immunoised" the more likely it is that there WILL be an outbreak, and the more likely it will be that children are exposed to them.

Maybe not your child, if he/she is lucky, but other people's children are just as beloved. You are relying on other people to keep them at bay, and other people are relying on you.

What Luckygirl and almost every other contributor to this thread has said. We are so very fortunate to have an immunisation programme that means our children are so well protected from what were life changing or killer diseases, even when many of us were children.
I don't know any doctors who haven't had their children immunised and I do believe that generally, they know much better than those of us who haven't spent years training and working as doctors.

Elegran is right, parents who choose not to vaccinate are relying on other people to keep these diseases at bay. We all rely on each other, or at least most of us do .

My cousin had meningitis nearly 50 years ago and was left partially sighted. A little boy in the next village to me had meningitis about 6 years ago and lost both legs and one arm. My children and grandchildren have every immunisation which is offered to them. If it results in a few days irritability then so be it

I don't know where you get your information from Speldnan as some of it is wrong and for something as important as this people need accurate information.
TB vaccinations are still given in high school in some areas and also to children/adults travelling from and to countries where TB is rife. Some areas have chosen not to give it unless it is high risk for financial reasons.
Polio and diphtheria will not be removed because of travel/migration between countries where it is endemic, indeed they were added to the routine adult anti-tetanus vaccine some years ago to protect adults from these diseases.
I give these vaccines and have to do annual updates so I know what I am talking about. They are not compulsory you are right but the diseases vaccinated against can kill as well as leaving life long disabilities.
I have looked after babies with whooping cough in ITU because every time they cough they stop breathing and it is terrifying.
Smallpox has been eradicated because of the vaccination programme worldwide.

I know some areas offer TB as my daughter lives in one of them. If you read my posts carefully I have not actually said anything against vaccinations and my daughter has given her children all if them anyway! Also I understand about 'herd immunity' and the need to keep up the program of vaccinations. But- there are some questions raised about the effectiveness of some of the vaccines as well as the dangers of some of the extra stuff put into them ( until recent years Mercury was added to the vaccine but was proved to be dangerous and removed). I was just asking whether any of the members had families who had questioned or researched the subject. I also really wanted to hear about anyone who had had a baby who had a bad reaction to the new Men B vaccine ( which nobody was interested in answering!) my GD was very unwell for 3 days and has a large hard lump on her leg where the injection was given. I was wondering if this was usual.

It is some years since my DGC were vaccinated and the meningitis jab was not available then.

NICE and other organisations are not going to give approval for anything considered unsafe, but medicine is a science and continuing research will always provide further evidence to show that some drug constituents are not as safe as believed or can be improved.

Any medical intervention, whether immunisation, drug based or other always contains an element of risk, all drugs are essentially poisons and all immunisations introduce substances into a child's body that could, in some circumstances, be harmful. Everyone, parent or guardian and medical authorities has to take a calculated decision that the potential harm of the immunisation is balanced out by the greater good to the individual and community by the elimination of a disease which can both disable or kill. This is not to deny or diminish the very real individual tragedies where children (and adults) are harmed by the immunisation.

I hesitate to say, because I am sure you know, that you need to very careful evaluate the reliability and authority of websites you use, especially where medical matters are concerned. Dr Andrew Wakefield's research into the MMR vaccination, was deeply flawed but was given undue weight by many in the media leading to, probably more children being damaged by not having the vaccination than were damaged by having it.

I can only say that DD (Biochemistry PhD) is quite happy for her children to have every vaccine going. She also had the Whooping cough vaccine herself last time she was pregnant. She wasn't able to have the measles vaccine as a child because she had recently been seriously ill. As a result she caught measles and her eyes are still affected by it 35 years later.

For the sake of the minority who cannot have certain immunisations due to illness/allergy etc. it is right that those who can be protected take that opportunity.

2/3 days moderate discomfort is a risk worth taking when compared to the potential damage from the disease.

My DD reacted badly to the measles vaccine, that was 40+ years ago; she caught a mild dose of measles from it but if she had not had the vaccine she could well have been very poorly indeed if she had caught the disease.
Because of all the scares at the time about the whooping cough vaccine many of us mums did not let our children have it and the GP said whooping cough was a disease of the past.
However, he was wrong, she caught whooping cough and had chest problems when she was a child as a result.

I would definitely allow a child to have the meningitis vaccine, it is a terrifying disease. A tiny girl in our local area lost all her limbs as a result of meningitis.

I also really wanted to hear about anyone who had had a baby who had a bad reaction to the new Men B vaccine ( which nobody was interested in answering!)

I have no experience of the meningitis vaccine.
Perhaps Mumsnet may know more about this as it is relatively new.

Speldnan, I presume you have been on mumsnet?

speldnan I agree with you. You you will find there is a great resistance to questioning whether there are any downsides to the many vaccinations which are now given to children.