Visiting friend's newborn & asked to get shots (Mods: Get your whooping cough shot)

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I had to get one a month ago during my physical since me and my wife are expecting in June. I'm going to tell people the same who want to visit during most of the first year. Not going to be convinced to not be cautious for my child.

Nah man, don't worry about it. Let your newborn "train its immune system" with pertussis. And while you're at it, get a puppy and don't give it the parvo shots. Train that little guy's system too.
 
I never asked anyone to get shots before seeing our daughter and I would never even think of it. I mean if someone has been sick In the past 2 weeks we would reschedule but that's about it.

Seems very extreme to me.
It's not extreme, and this viewpoint is dangerous. Stop spreading anti-science.
 
FOR FUCK'S SAKE. The flu shot isn't a scam. Yes, it doesn't cover all strains. Yes, some friends of yours got the shot and then totally got the flu the next day and swears the shot gave it to him. Yes, it doesn't prevent the flu 100%.

Here's something to ponder - why does my sister in law's hospital where she works require all of their nursing employees to get the shot (gratis) every season? Do they pay for it out of the goodness of their little corporate hearts? Pretty odd thing for a corporation to do for something that's a scam....

My workplace gives us a discount on our insurance and provides a free walk-in clinic at every office on multiple dates to make sure everyone gets the flu shot. The do it because it can both save them money AND because it's the right thing to do.

A scam...Picard facepalm.
 
OP I understand getting a shot for whopping cough but flu? Most people would stay away if there I'll. But you do build your immune system by getting ill . Must be very over protective parents but you should respect their wishes.

For the record I never got those shots and my 2 children are very healthy.

You do realize that you can also build your immune system by not getting ill when you get a vaccination, right? There's two scenarios here:

1) Get sick, hopefully survive, build your immune system.
2) Don't get sick, definitely survive, build your immune system.
 
There are so many posters in this thread proudly displaying their ignorance and stupidity and even being aggressive about ('how dare you ask me to get a simple injection to prevent my new born from getting a deadly disease').
 
this is absolutely normal, father of two kids, 2.5 and 10 months old. Even a regular cold to you and I could have the baby end up in the nic-u with a spinal tap. Infants have almost no immune system, they rely on the mothers antibodies to fight colds.

also wash your hands before you touch the baby, if you end up going.
 
I never asked anyone to get shots before seeing our daughter and I would never even think of it. I mean if someone has been sick In the past 2 weeks we would reschedule but that's about it.

Seems very extreme to me.

This thread is maddening.

Once again:

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Encourage others to get a whooping cough vaccine (called Tdap vaccine) at least 2 weeks before meeting your baby if they are not up-to-date with their whooping cough vaccines
 
As a medical student just going through immunology.... oh my fucking god at the ignorance in this thread. Please do not attempt to "train" your immune system with a serious illness. And yes the flu is a serious illness
 
You do realize that you can also build your immune system by not getting ill when you get a vaccination, right? There's two scenarios here:

1) Get sick, hopefully survive, build your immune system.
2) Don't get sick, definitely survive, build your immune system.
Yeah, that's a non-argument...unless he's advocating for building the immune system of a 3-month-old baby by giving it the flu (this is a horrible idea and the baby could die).
 
It's not extreme, and this viewpoint is dangerous. Stop spreading anti-science.

I am absolutely not anti-science lol you really are bad at discussions if you jump to that conclusion based on what I said.

Many of our friends and families have been having kids in the last 5 years and not once has anyone said anything about visitors needing flu shots. Maybe things are different up here in Canada.
 
Newborn babies have very immature immune systems as they haven't been exposed to much yet. It's like visiting anyone else who is immuno-suppressed. The flu jab is only ever a best guess- manufacturers have to predict which mix of wild strains are currently prevalent and play the odds a bit- but for the sake of £12 or whatever it costs over in the US, get the shot. It won't do you any harm and parents of newborns have enough to worry about with the lack of sleep and general shock of changing circumstances. My wife's a GP and put it in far better terms in between our general confusion, stress, shock, pain (on her part) and lack of sleep. On top of that, they've probably been given that advice by various midwives, health visitors etc too.

The odds are it probably won't make a difference, but if it does, you've put them through a lot of worry at the point in their life where they are least prepared for the extra load, for the sake of a minor inconvenience to a healthy adult. The anti-vaccine crowd seems insane over there compared to here.

In the first weeks after my daughter was born I had so much shit to learn and do that all my friends were practically begging me to say what would help. I said hold off on visiting for a bit if you aren't sure what you are vaccinated against, and preferably find out, and be prepared to chip in with chores if you are coming, as we didn't need anything else to worry about and hospitality was going to be mildly hampered for a few months while we got back into a routine. I'd do the same for my mate's families too.
 
Yeah, that's a non-argument...unless he's advocating for building the immune system of a 3-month-old baby by giving it the flu (this is a horrible idea and the baby could die).

I can't tell if you're disagreeing or agreeing with me. Can you elaborate? Sorry, not trying to be an ass, but I'm honestly not clear on what you're saying.
 
I love the people acting as though withholding their visit would be some kind of smackdown insult to the new parents for daring to ask them to be up to date on their TDAP. The simple fact is that your cancellation would probably come as a relief, since new parents tend to be so stressed and sleep deprived to begin with. I know one of the big stresses of mine during the first few months of my baby's life was the "when can we come see the baby?" calls and texts. I know that people mean well, and I was happy to have them over, but its not like your cancellation is going to make the new parents sad.

Nobody thinks that.
 
I am absolutely not anti-science lol you really are bad at discussions if you jump to that conclusion based on what I said.

Many of our friends and families have been having kids in the last 5 years and not once has anyone said anything about visitors needing flu shots. Maybe things are different up here in Canada.
There is no gray area. Anti-vaccine nonsense like this is dangerous and anti-science. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/whooping-cough-pertussis-1.3317431
 
Also TDAP is not the fucking flu shot. So stop with that derailing. It's to prevent pertussis in newborns, which can die from coughing. Watch a video with a newborn suffering from pertussis and then realize not getting the TDAP if you're going to be around a newborn is selfish, stupid, and dangerous.
 
I can't tell if you're disagreeing or agreeing with me. Can you elaborate? Sorry, not trying to be an ass, but I'm honestly not clear on what you're saying.
Oh, I'm agreeing with you that "building your immune system" isn't an argument against vaccinating. Vaccines work by building your immune system! You're just skipping the step where you get sick.
 
I am absolutely not anti-science lol you really are bad at discussions if you jump to that conclusion based on what I said.

Many of our friends and families have been having kids in the last 5 years and not once has anyone said anything about visitors needing flu shots. Maybe things are different up here in Canada.

Chances are you won't have contracted the flu during this visit, but why not get the cheap shot and prevent the small chance of you giving a serious illness that potentially could kill the child? Unless you are immunocompromised, there is no reason and if that's the case you shouldn't be traveling like that to begin with.
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?
 
Oh, I'm agreeing with you that "building your immune system" isn't an argument against vaccinating. Vaccines work by building your immune system! You're just skipping the step where you get sick.

Gotcha! Right-on. Keep fighting the good fight against anti-vaxxers.

My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?

How is getting a vaccination "extreme" by any standards? It seems like not only good advice for your kid's safety, but also a benefit to the public at-large.
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Encourage others to get a whooping cough vaccine (called Tdap vaccine) at least 2 weeks before meeting your baby if they are not up-to-date with their whooping cough vaccines.
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?

Your anecdotes are wrong and don't matter. You spreading anti-science like this is dangerous because it may influence people to do the wrong thing. GET THE SHOT.
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?

You are not supposed to take a newborn to a child play center
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?

Extreme? They are cheap vaccinations that are easily done even if it is only for peace of mind, and honestly you should be up to date on TDAP anyway.
 
I'm not saying it's extreme to get shots I'm saying expecting every visit to have every shot imaginable (and I'm mainly referring to the flu shot) is extreme.
 
I'm not anti vax.I did not mean you should not get your child vaccinated.I was just saying that a breast fed child should be find against this sort of stuff.At no pint did I say the child does not need vaccinations.
That's what I got from your post, I don't understand how they concluded you were anti-vac.
 
I'm not saying it's extreme to get shots I'm saying expecting every visit to have every shot imaginable (and I'm mainly referring to the flu shot) is extreme.

It's not every shot, it's two damn shots that responsible adults should get anyway. One of them is every 10 years.
 
I'm not saying it's extreme to get shots I'm saying expecting every visit to have every shot imaginable (and I'm mainly referring to the flu shot) is extreme.

Why is it extreme? Give one counter reason to not vaccinate? A single, quality reason to not have all of your vaccinations when visiting a newborn?
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?
It's a ten minute appointment with a GP, that will save weeks of worry for a family with a baby with an immature immune system, that the OP considers a good enough friend to fly to. It's not 'a bit extreme'. It's the act of a decent friend acceding to a simple, easy request from a family that's stressed out right now. I guarantee that the mother is seeing an upcoming unvaccinated visitor as a threat plus it will help protect you in future. How on earth is it an unreasonable request, I've spent more time and money worrying about what flowers to bring or which gifts are newborn-safe (yeah that's a good one to research if you don't have kids).
 
And over time if enough people get the vaccine we will build up herd immunity. That's literally how vaccines work, but due to the nature of influenza it will take a long time to eradicate. But that will never happen if we continue to allow ignorant people to force their idiocy on others.

you cant eradicate influeanza., its one of the fastest mutating viruses around and we arent the only hosts for it...

i get that we need to protect the old and young with a weak immunesystem. dont missjudge that please. but the idea that we can eradicate the flu like we did with polio is to abstract.
 
The flu has been one of most deadly viruses ever to infect mankind and it still kills tons of people every year.

But by all means, avoid vaccinations and "tough it out". Don't forget to get on public transportation and cough on as many people as possible while you do it. smh
 
Also I'm not sure if someone cleared this up, but breastmilk antibodies stay in the digestive system so if you were to pick up an infection somewhere they wouldn't help. Also assuming that every maternal antibody transferred will protect you from everything and somehow gives you a strong immune system is crazy. There is a lot more to the immune system than anitbodies.
 
Interesting to see the different approaches between different countries

Whooping cough is a non-issue in the UK (and possibly most of Europe?) because every child is vaccinated as a child (I think - we get a lot of jabs at school), so the issue does not arise.

As for flu, well I guess there is no permanent vaccine against that but I discovered that there are 4,000 deaths from flu every year in the UK out of 65 million people. I would guess that most of those would be old people too. Doesn't really seem like a big risk.
Pertussis%20_England_2002-15.png

And sure, if you are a healthy young adult, you will probably survive the flu. The kids and elderly and immunosuppressed who may come in contact with you might not have as good a chance, though.
 
And over time if enough people get the vaccine we will build up herd immunity. That's literally how vaccines work, but due to the nature of influenza it will take a long time to eradicate. But that will never happen if we continue to allow ignorant people to force their idiocy on others.

Lol and people want to talk about ignorance and think they can eradicate influenza. Good joke.
 
Up to what age do you need to follow this advice?

I think babies are still getting their early vaccinations up through like 6 months. the main issue is that newborns aren't given vaccinations immediately. I think they get their first shots at 2 months but it is a series.

I should know this stuff, but I forgot.

In any case, i don't think it's unreasonable to ask people to get TDAP and flu shots.
 
My wife's cousin is an ER doctor and they have never asked any friends and family about shots before visiting.

I'm not saying not to get your shots or whatever but this expectation that anyone visiting your kid has to have them just seems a bit extreme. How many people interact with you in a day? Or if you go to the mall or a child's play center?

Reading this reminded me how many women have to go back to work 2 weeks or less after giving birth. Going out in the world and interacting with the public not yet healed from giving birth. And then after being around tons of proudly ignorant anti-vaxers they go back home to their immuno-compromised newborn children not knowing what they've brought back with them.

This isnt some hypothetical either, it happens all the time. And it's a major reason why the US has an outrageous, unacceptable infant mortality rate. This is deadly serious, so shame on anyone that talks down a parent who is actually taking steps to both protect their kid and those of others as well.
 
I think babies are still getting their early vaccinations up through like 6 months. the main issue is that newborns aren't given vaccinations immediately. I think they get their first shots at 2 months but it is a series.

I should know this stuff, but I forgot.

In any case, i don't think it's unreasonable to ask people to get TDAP and flu shots.
Shots at 2 ,4, 6 months then a year and 18 months. Buy it's a series of different vaccinations
 
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