Immunise your kids dammit

I have pretty strong opinions on alot of things. Immunisation is one of them. I came across this article that was written better than i could have ever done but says everything i would want to say on this topic....

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/family/parenting/8608435/why-there-is-no-excuse-to-avoid-immunising-your-kids

Why there is NO excuse to avoid immunising your kids Zoe Arnold

The number of Australian kids who are not vaccinated is growing, putting all children at risk of potentially fatal diseases. Mum-of-two Zoe Arnold explains why there is no excuse not to immunise your kids.
Picture this: a screaming infant sitting in a trolley, with his stressed mother pushing him as quickly as possible through a supermarket checkout. It's busy and onlookers feel sorry for the woman, trying to collect her weekly groceries.
Then: a fountain of milky vomit erupts from the baby's mouth — splashing the floor and counter next to a shocked checkout worker. The baby continues screaming.
This sounds dramatic, but it's a true story of my little brother, still a baby when he contracted whooping cough. He was immunised, but another baby was not.
I remember that cough of my brother's. It sounded like the name suggests — "whoop, whoop" — often followed by a vomit, and a terrible scrambling for breath.
It was scary: he was small and helpless, and turned a frightening purple during each episode.
Science shows us that vaccinating our children is the most effective way to reduce the spread of dangerous, potentially deadly diseases like whooping cough.
Yet there are still an alarming number of people who formally refuse to immunise their children.
To be clear: I am not a doctor, or a trained medical professional. But I am a mother of two children and I do comprehend science. There is no need for our immunisation rate to be less than 100 percent — but it is.
While it stinks that anyone would want to put their own child's health at risk, what's even worse is that they're endangering the rest of us with their blasé attitude towards the vaccination process.
For four years now, Australia has been experiencing a whooping cough epidemic: with an estimated 38,500 Australians suffering through the disease in 2011.
Modern medicine means most of those who catch the disease will be okay in the end, but for little babies it is especially dangerous and difficult to treat.
It's not just whooping cough: last year, NSW Health issued multiple alerts about the dangers of measles in that state with the highest numbers of the disease recorded in 14 years.
"People with measles usually feel extremely unwell," Dr Jeremy McAnulty from NSW health says. "Symptoms include a high fever, tiredness, runny nose, cough and sore eyes before a blotchy red rash appears.
"Measles is incredibly contagious but is preventable through vaccination."
So why wouldn't you want to protect your children and yourself from these deadly diseases? Misinformation is usually to blame. So-called "conscientious objectors" run websites and issue brochures claiming that the vaccination process is dangerous.
It's not.
Decades of research shows that fully immunising our children gives them the best chance of avoiding diseases like measles and whooping cough. Yes, there's still a chance you can be infected, but nowhere near as seriously.
If you aren't convinced about the benefits of immunising, take a look at polio. Until a vaccine was developed in the 1950s, thousands of children were crippled by polio every year.
Many would die, or be left with devastating disabilities. Today, all but four countries in the world are polio-free, thanks to a handy little vaccine.
There are lots of things to think twice about when you have children: whether to breast or bottle feed them; which daycare is right for you; which method of parenting works in your house. But vaccinating your child isn't something to think about twice; as it's every child's right to have the healthiest start possible.
To find out more about immunisation, visit the Department of Health and Ageing.

If there's one thing i know - it's that my 3 year old isn't the only one to refuse to go to bed of a night.....

At 6 months old i took the dummy off my daughter because it got to the point where she wouldn't sleep without it. Mean mummy? Maybe, but within a matter of days sweet little angel was going to bed without so much as a whimper and dreaming of heaven in no time!

Bed times were a pretty smooth process. Bath normally occurred before daddy got home. Once daddy got home we would have dinner, maybe some yoghurt for afters then brush teeth, read books and go to bed.

When baby girl went from a cot to a bed at 18 months it took her a whole month to realise she could leave the bed without being lifted out. Once she discovered this, bed time became a little frustrating.

Tucking sweet child in was definitely not the last time you saw her that night. Often you'd just make it to the lounge to put your feet up and little but loud feet would creep up the hallway to delay sleep. Some nights you would make the trip down the hall a dozen times to put her back in bed before she would stay there and drift off to sleep.

The stage after delaying sleep was to get out of bed and lay down in the hall and fall asleep.
It was frustrating at the time but i'd happily go back to that stage because these days I cannot get said child to bed before 8pm and just because child is in bed at 8pm definitely does not mean she will go to sleep.

After saying "good night, have a nice sleep. love you and see you in the morning" said child will proceed to talk to her toys or read some books. When she gets bored with this she will creep up the hall to remind her dad or I that we've forgotten to do something. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that she had a list of "things i can do before bed" and intentionally doesn't say anything when we're putting her to bed so that she can pop out later to remind us of our mistake.

A couple of visits later and depending on who has had the worst day, mummy or daddy will get cross and warn clever child that next time we hear from her she will get put in her room and the door will get shut.
That is normally the last time we hear from her but it doesn't mean she goes off to sleep.
If we're lucky she'll sneak into our room and fall asleep in our bed.

By 10pm 2 weeks short of a 3 year old is asleep.

Could all this be avoided by shutting the door to begin with? Putting to bed earlier? Taking away toys and books? Maybe.
It frustrates me and can make me upset that my child can't go to bed and do the one thing she is meant to do but i'm not alone. I've googled it. Plenty of mums are in the same position and plenty of people have wonderful advice. Some of it obvious, some greatly appreciated. Others, well, chocolate milk and a muffin before bed is unnecessary - i won't go into why i think that piece of advice can be shelved.

We wont be changing bed routines and i will continue to complain. (It makes me feel much better!)
I just cross my fingers and toes that sweet child has her own baby girl who likes to push the boundaries as much as her mummy did!!!!