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[Guest guest]

HI all,

I am a new member from Auckland, New Zealand. I am a stay at home Mum of 4

kids (10, 8, 6, 19 months) and expecting our 5th in July.

DS (10) has had all his vax up to 5 years (and still got whooping cough!).

DD(8) has had vax up to 15 months. DD(6) had his early vax but no MMR (he

had some bowel problems which are now resolved, but even then with my

limited knowlegde I was very worried that if he had MMR it could tip him

over the edge. He has since had mumps and recovered well). DD(19 mos) has

had none at all!

The whole vaccine thing has been a real journey for me. I didn't question

it when the first two were little, although I didn't like it. Over the

years I have slowly been getting more and more info. It was hard to source

at first and I really struggled with the concept of very educated, clever

doctors and researchers coming to completely opposite conclusions. I didn't

know who to trust and who was telling the truth. I reached the point when

my conscience would no longer allow me to give my kids any more vaccines and

I'm very comfortable with my choice. I'm thrilled to find this group where

there is plenty of info and lots of encouragement.

I hindsight, I have had lots of issues with vaccines but never put them

altogether...Both my mother and I have had adverse reactions to the tetanus

vaccine (rather scarey at the time). My sister who was perfectly healthy

got a form of chronic fatigue when she was 11 or 12, shortly after a rubella

vaccine. My husband's brother died as a 7 year old in the '50s of leukaemia.

He changed schools and was given an extra polio vaccine the year before he

died. They always strongly suspected the vaccine but of course we can not

prove anything and it was so long ago. DS1 missed a booster dose for MMR (I

think??) at school and was vaccinated on a different day without informing

me at all. I was furious but stupidly did nothing at the time.

When I was 2 1/2 yrs I got whooping cough (depite the vax) and gave it to my

(fully breastfed) 2 week old sister. She came very close to dying but is

perfectly fine now! That is one thing that does scare me about these

illnesses - the chance of giving them to a very young baby who for some

reason is not protected by their mother's milk.

Looking forward to learning more.

Nicola