Baby's first...Jabs
So that's the first eight weeks of Junior's life come to a close, and with it opens up a whole new chapter. And that chapter is sharp, comes with potential side effects, but is life saving.
What we're talking about is the infant immunisation programme.
We got the leaflet with details of the programme, the timetable it covers, what nasty diseases the immunisation programme fights etc. It reads like a Stephen King novel - shaking under the covers at night, unable to sleep, fear of all things corn.
Ebola virus...nasty
MMR. Causes autism. Apparently. Not having MMR causes a lack of defence against measles, mumps and rubella. No apparently about that. On the one hand we have an unproven link between MMR and autism, and a proven record on the diseases against which it protects. I'm no real gambling man, but I have to weigh up the unproven low risks of autism against the damaging and high risks of the three diseases. Sure, I'd like to see a choice whereby you can take the three without the combination, but that's not going to happen. So the stark choice is take it or don't take it. Simple as that.
Oh, and they aren't jabs here, but "jags". Where I grew up a Jag was a posh car not part of a disease prevention system!
For the record I'll post the current list of routine jabs in another post. In the meantime here's how the first one went:
Junior's crying time: < 5 minutes
Mum's crying time: < 1 minute
Junior consoled with: Waking around the doctors surgery with Daddy
Mum consoled with: Being told not to lose it as I was posting the time she cried
Bottles of beer daddy drank to drown out crying noises: Nil. Most dischuffed.
That went MUCH better than expected, I envisaged Junior howling the place down, MOTS in tears at how we'd taken him to be hurt. And this morning when I got the big smiles I did have the feeling that he wasn't going to be smiling at me if he knew what was coming. Which brought on BIG guilt trips. He's not 100%, a little more grouchy this afternoon than normal, but a few doses of Calpol might help there.
Just found out someone who MOTS knows has a little boy of 6 months. As the parents "don't believe in vaccines" the little 'un will not be having ANY of the routine vaccines at all, instead relying on the fact that he doesn't need them as he won't be going to daycare. WHAT? What about school, what about shopping, what about Alton Towers, what about breathing in the air that's shared with the rest of the world? I wouldn't be playing Russian Roulette like this, no way no how.
Posts and comments with my name against them are my opinions, and should not be used in any financial decision making. I am not regulated by the FSA. Your home is not at risk for leaving a comment. Any comments by others are not my opinions, but that of the person kind enough to be here.