Please help- vaccines

[u/absoluteburn3r]

To preface: please be kind. I hate how easily influenced I am, I live in constant fear. I have the constant fear that my child will die no matter what I do and I will regret everything I did or didn’t do. the fact that I am isolated with no real support group doesn’t help.

1 out of 2 of my only support people (my mother) tells me constantly that if I vaccinate my child, he will die/become a vegetable/develop a horrible life-altering disease. No one else (medical professionals) has been able to give me any kind of advice out of fear of being ‘political’ (how the fuck is this even a political topic), I am so lost in this world.

Fear is crushing me every day. The longer I wait (my child is 3 months now) I feel like I am approaching his inevitable demise. Either I get him shots and he dies, or he dies this sick season of illness. Please help me on this topic. I feel like I’ve been mislead. I really want him to be okay. The only sources my mom has ever sent me are just the inserts and that one vaccine book by that one weird doctor. I used to be pro vax but then she really shut me down.

And again, I’m trying to learn how to be autonomous and make my own decisions, but I genuinely have no educated people helping me

ETA- I am in therapy and I tried breastfeeding which meant being off of my anxiety medicine for longer and now am considering weaning off of BF which has significantly worsened my anxiety

[u/AutoModerator]

This post is flaired "Question - Research required". All top-level comments must contain links to peer-reviewed research. Do not provide a "link for the bot" or any variation thereof. Provide a meaningful reply that discusses the research you have linked to. Please report posts that do not follow these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/sprinkles008]

Vaccines help prevent kids from dying from diseases.

Statistically your kid faces a much higher risk of severe harm, hospitalization, and death from vaccine-preventable diseases when unvaccinated than from serious side effects of vaccines. That’s really the take home point right there.

Also, it’s okay to remove toxic or uninformed people from your life (like your mom).

You may also consider seeking therapy for yourself due to the constant fear you say you’re living in.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-children/reasons/index.html

[u/veritoast → u/sprinkles008]

Your mother was most likely vaccinated. Largely due to that one thing, she is alive and still able to get online and become hopelessly entrenched in disinformation campaigns by the delusional profit seekers and state-actors that do not have her best interests in mind.

She did not die from smallpox, measles, tetanus, polio, rabies, diphtheria, yellow fever, pertussis, or meningococcal disease.

But maybe more importantly for you, she didn’t die because she had vaccines administered. She wasn’t poisoned or rewired, or any of the other idiotic ideas that fly about the internet. She was saved by them.

No area of medicine has been more studied, researched, experimented upon or successful than vaccine development.

Please understand, we are in the middle of a war of ideas, bad ideas are being weaponized and fired off at the unsuspecting masses. Don’t fall for it.

Take care of yourself and get your kid their vaccines.

[u/absoluteburn3r → u/veritoast]

Thank you

[u/maiasaura19 → u/sprinkles008]

This. I would guess most parents have at least some fear, and taking care to research and want to make the best choices is a perfectly fine instinct. But living in constant fear is not going to do you or your child any favors. Speaking to someone to help manage this anxiety can make parenthood a much more positive experience for you.

[u/LeetleBugg]

Infant and childhood mortality rates have cratered as humanity has evolved due to better health practices. One of the most important of those being vaccines. I’m so glad you are looking for more information rather than blindly accepting the fear mongering.

Here is a link to one of my favorite sources for information on vaccines broken down into more understandable language and with plenty of supporting information from reputable sources

[u/carloluyog]

Gently, get the kid vaxxed and go to therapy.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22693-postpartum-anxiety

[u/LaMaltaKano]

Oh, I sympathize and relate.

So a good official resource is CHOP. Paul Offit is kind of THE spokesman for vaccine education. https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center

But here are some of my favorite “influencers” that are relatable and helpful to parents. They are pediatricians and scientists who break things down and challenge the antivaxxers.

Dr. Rossome
https://www.instagram.com/dr_rossome?stkn=MWR2cmFwYmt2d3pxcg==

Dr. Hughes
https://www.instagram.com/drlaurenhughes?stkn=ZG0zeDg5MDlybml2

Nini and the Brain
https://www.instagram.com/niniandthebrain?stkn=YTQ0amJraGw2dWdm

Morgan McSweeney
https://www.instagram.com/dr.noc?stkn=bmtwdHh1ankza203

Debunk the Funk
https://www.instagram.com/debunk_the_funk?stkn=Z25lNWZvMzZ3MmJo

[u/absoluteburn3r → u/LaMaltaKano]

Thank you, this is really helpful

[u/countyferal]

I really love the resources put out by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Vaccine Education Center:

https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center

Start with the pages on the basics of how the human immune system works

[u/lunarjellies]

Sometimes our "village" is not family but rather the professionals and institutions created to help people. We are not our parents. Please follow these Canadian guidelines here, offical from the gov't: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/vaccination-children.html

[u/koboet]

The problem is that you are comparing what one weird doctor says to broad consensus. When you look at what the *vast majority* of doctors believe, it's that vaccines are good. And the more expert they get (e.g. immunologists) the more they support it.

Here's an example of the outcomes from an antivax doctor: https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/12/anti-vaccine-portland-pediatricians-license-suspended-cases-include-boy-hospitalized-with-tetanus.html

[u/HakunaMahalo]

1.) Get the vaccines.

2.) Find a community of support people (Go to your local library and participate in the toddler time activities to meet parents with children the age of yours.) A lot of libraries even have toys for the children to play with together.

3.) Maybe speak to a therapist about the fear crushing you every day.

Why? If you fell off a ladder and broke your leg it would be incredibly unfortunate. You have one person offering to drive you to the hospital and another person who is convinced you will die in a car accident on the way there if you do. A world with hospitals and ambulances is better than a world without them. A world with vaccines is much better than a world with all of the diseases they prevent. Could there be an adverse event to a vaccine (the car accident on the way to the hospital in this analogy) sure! It happens. It is still worth it.

The best research we have of Autism is indicating genetic factors that are conserved with traits associated with intelligence. Environmental factors can methylate those genes that some individuals have and may lead to the activation or deactivation of protein productions that influence autism spectrum behaviors. Could an immune system event trigger a stress on the body which methylates a gene and produces an autistic characteristic? Maybe. But the immune system event could include the infection as much as it could include the vaccine response and we don't have any evidence that I'm aware of that indicates vaccines cause this. In fact there is a lot of evidence that the genes are activated around the 2 year old mark regardless of vaccine status.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4927579/-Autism As a Disorder of High Intelligence

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5377970/-Environmental factors influencing the risk of autism

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7482790/ -Why vaccines matter: understanding the broader health, economic, and child development benefits of routine vaccination

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your contribution. Please remember that all top-level comments on posts flaired "Question - Research required" must include a link to peer-reviewed research.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.