Hello all!
So, I tried searching for this but couldn't come up with a satisfying answer and thought it best to ask you ladies, whose opinions I respect.

Injections - I am baffled by these. From what I can ascertain, many of those of you who practice the various aspects umbrella-ed under 'attachment/natural parenting' selectively vaccinate.

Can anyone tell me a little more about the reasoning behind this and perhaps point me towards some material to read so I can form a rounded opinion (instead of what I've presently been force-fed by the media and health 'professionals') please?

Also on the same note - calpol. I had calpol as a child and have no particular bones to pick with the substance itself, however I remember it being very sweet and often as a toddler faking illness in order to have some...and this leads to me wondering on the effect this has on me now eating sweet things when I feel down/poorly in order to feel better.

Additionally, in looking to be as natural as possible with Daniel when he (finally) arrives, I can't see how this synthetic product is the right thing to do....plus the whole 'dosing up the baby' thing seems to fit more with the 'crying it out' theories so prevalent in 'modern parenting', and I don't personally think that's the road for us...

Right - this is very waffly, and I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense - blame overtired late pregnancy brain and ask me to clarify!

Thank you so much for reading and any suggestions

I choose to vaccinate Leyla according to the government recommendations so I can't really comment about that. The nurse at the GP surgery told me it was a good idea to get some Calpol in for afterwards, just in case Leyla was feeling grotty. She said that you can either give it half an hour before the jabs as a preventative measure or wait and see if it's needed. I chose to wait and didn't need to give any. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Calpol - you're right, it is very sweet and I've read that using it lots in early childhood can lead to an increased risk of allergies later on (I think that's what it was anyway). I don't know about the validity of that claim but I think it's better to avoid drugs where possible.

That said, Leyla has been suffering with teething and a bad cold recently. We're using various teething powders, amber necklace, baby olbas oil, steam, raising her cot at one end etc, everything we can think of to make her feel better, but on two nights this last week she woke up every 45 minutes. She wasn't hungry, just seemed to be in pain, so I did eventually give Calpol and she calmed down within half an hour and got some proper sleep. I prefer to try other things first but then if she's still not happy, I'm ok with resorting to Calpol, just as I try other stuff for myself but will take paracetamol if it doesn't work. I wouldn't like to say "I'll never give Calpol" because I think it has it's place, but I do think that there is a tendency to overuse it as a quick solution. Hope that makes sense!

I also chose to have Imi vacciated as I couldn't find anything that would make me not want to.

I do have calpol in the house and "tried" to give it to Imi when she had a fever but she hated it and it ended up everywhere. I needed to get her temp down so on docs recommendation I popped the dose in her milk I don't think she'll be asking for it, not any time soon anyway

I'm massively into medical research and will absolutely be vaccinating. I take issue with vaccines such as recent H1N1 combined flu injections that remain untested and highly controversial.

As for calpol, I have no problems with it but think it highly overused. Unless your child has a fever over 39 and isn't presenting with any pain... there really is no need. But I feel the same about anyone and over the counter medication.

What the others said, for my own reasons I chose to have Ryan vaccinated and i think Calpol can be overused but it has its place. I would always try other options first but at the end of the day if Ry was in pain and Calpol was gonna help him I would offer it. But I do think it can be really easy to fall into calpol for everything pattern. I've never had to give it yet and I don't own a bottle but I probably should. x

i am selective with certain vaccines like the H1N1.
Pretty much all vaccines contain mercury amongst other disturbing chemicals which does make me feel uncomfortable but i think its a case of weighing up what is worse...the vaccine or the thing its vaccinating against! It is hard to find unbias info on the subject though but u can find info on natural parenting sites or you can google 4 lists of chemicals in specific vaccines.

As for calpol...i def think its over used by some parents but i do agree that it has its place. I use it as a last resort if Kian appears to b in pain and nothing more 'natural' has worked. there r lots of natural alternatives 4 teething, colds, collic and other common reasons parents opt for calpol which i personally have found to b very affective.

Im having Noah vaccinated, my mum is worried about the mmr one.

In regards to calpol Noah has never had it, we use a paracetamol suspension we were given by the doctor. He rarely has this but did run a temp after the jabs so had some then.

I don't agree that using calpol necessarily puts you in the same "style" of parenting as cry it out etc. In so much as we have a style of parenting it is probably closer to attacment parenting than otherwise - I babywear, don't practice cry it out, occasionally co-sleep etc). I prefer to avoid unnecessary use of any medicine - I didn't have antibiotics as a child until I was about 10 as our GP tried to limit the use of them as much as possible. However, I gave calpol after his first set of injections as he was uspet, although in retrospect probably not in particular pain and he has had calpol during a recent illness for which he also had antibiotics.
I disagree with the "dose your child up" idea - a family member actually suggested it once and I think I just stared at her with my mouth open! However, use of calpol or equivalents where necessary doesn't, in my opinion, place you in an particular "school" of parenting.

Yeah I agree, I wouldn't put calpol in the same boat as crying it out, lol.

We have used Calpol (well a paracetamol equivalent) when Freya has had a very high temp and we used it every time she had injections. We don't use it for teething and we also use a lot of homeopathic stuff.

I have done plenty of research and a lot of thinking, and Freya has had all of her vaccinations so far and will not be having the swine flu one. She will be having the MMR too.

I hope Freya never fakes an illness (I did as a child but not to get calpol - to get the day off school!) but I guess it's not something I can prevent, lol.

Sorry if I offended at all ladies, I didn't mean to suggest I'd put the usage of Calpol in the same camp as 'crying it out' - just the 'dosing the baby up' which I know some mums do seems more leaning towards that way to me - sorry for the lack of clarity

Thank you so much for all of your helpful comments, it's really useful to see where other mums who obviously have happy, healthy children stand

Are there any other natural methods, as some of you have mentioned, which you could recommend as an alternative, but with having the calpol on standby in case they aren't effective please?
I'm getting an amber teething necklace for that side of things, but any specific powders etc. or other infant suspension style products that might be more natural would be so helpful.

Thank you all again so much!