Monday 24 August 2015

More on flu/whooping cough vaccination and MTHFR

So today I had a really good chat with my naturopath about getting the flu and whooping cough vaccination while I'm pregnant in order pass the antibodies on to the baby before it is born. Here are the conclusions we came to:

I am not going to get the flu vaccination. Reasons why:

  1. In the first few months of life, I intend to stay at home, keep warm and not socialise with others or see any one who is sick. 
  2. We intend to vaccinate ourselves and grandparents against the flu. There are no other young children in the family to pass on flu. 
  3. The child will be born in summer, hence low flu time. 
  4. The flu virus changes from season to season so even if we do get flu vaccine, not all flus will be covered any way. 
  5. The biggest reason is, because the flu virus changes so often, so too does the flu vaccination. Because of this it is not tried and tested... It's a bit of an unknown quantity for people like me, people with MTHFR and prone to autism. 
  6. If the child does get the flu, chances are it will survive. 
  7. Later I spoke to the doctor about flu, she said the main reason for vaccinating is to stop the mother getting flu, not the baby. I had the flu vaccination just before getting pregnant - so I should be fine. 

I am going to get the whooping cough vaccination. Reasons why:
  1. Unlike the flu vaccination, whooping cough vaccination is a little bit more of a known quantity.  It doesn't change from season to season, hence it's more predictable. 
  2. Because I'm taking such good medication and have sorted my methylation system out, it means I should be able to process the vaccination without any problem. My naturopath says my homocysteine levels are great, and that's a good sign I'm methylating. She said if I was not methylating then she would not recommend it. 
  3. Whooping cough is pretty nasty and can be deadly for a young child. It's something you really don't want them to catch. 
  4. It's probably better I'm the one vaccinated when taking the right medication, than vaccinate a small baby who you aren't medicating. And whooping cough is something you want it vaccinated against. 
  5. The doctor also agreed that if you were to choose one vaccination, whooping cough or flu, she'd recommend whooping cough. She also said there is an out break of it here at the moment. 
It's a risk, the naturopath said she feels torn with the whooping cough debate but is confident with not to flu vaccinate.

She also said she wouldn't consider vaccinating a child at 6 weeks - it's too young. She said they should be a minimum of 3 months old, and they should be fit and healthy before it is done. 

Any ones comments or thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated. I've still got time to make my mind up. 

1 comment:

  1. Here's an interesting summary of Autism and MTHFR I've found.

    http://glutathionepro.com/mthfr-autism/

    ReplyDelete