vaccinations... do or dont

Corena - posted on 03/07/2011

My bubba is fully vaccinated. (No flu shot though) I have a friend who has a boy a couple of months younger than mine. My Moses is healthy as a horse and her little one is constantly sick.
It's not empirical evidence, but its pretty convincing to me.

Daniela - posted on 03/06/2011

To vaccinate or not vaccinate your child is a personal desiccion, however it should be well researched and informed desicion. Please ladies, do not make the decission "not to vaccinate" based on fears. Please check the sources where you read your information, blogs, other moms ideas etc. should not be the end of your research. When I research something I choose my sources and I personally read the studies. Open PUBMED read the studies yourself. To start you on the link vaccines -autism just some facts: The research that launched an enduring but erroneous belief that autism is caused by a common childhood vaccination has been debunked, disclaimed - and now debunked again.



Last year the journal Lancet (really good medical journal) retracted a study it published in 1998 in which British researcher Andrew Wakefield suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine triggered autism. Wakefield's science proved shoddy and his methods questionable. Journal BMJ found that Wakefield's research was a fraud, including falsification of data. This is the researcher that caused all this fear, tehre were many many studies looking at the link autism-vaccines and all showed that there is no link. It was a fraud. Do not take my word for it, research it yourself, but do it properly, read the actual clinical studies. If you are making decission not to vaccinate it should be well thought of decision , surely not based on an article that was so descreditated like Andrew Wakefield's. There are now even studies showing in numbers how his fradulent article cost decline in vaccination in Britain and how many childern died on preventable diseases only becouse their parents were too scared to vaccinate. As far as I am concern their death is on his hands.

Kristy - posted on 03/06/2011

Well my child is now 2 and has still had no vax. I found a supportive doctor that doesnt push anything one me.
And I have done my research on BOTH sides and I picked the one that works for me and my family.

Karen - posted on 03/05/2011

I am actually in limbo with vaccines right now. Still debating kinda...I stopped my son's shots after his 6 month checkup, so it's been 1.5 years since he had a shot. My daughter's are also that far behind.

I just went to get my oldest ready for school and was told all the shots I would need. I really didn't wanna get them all and ended up getting her DTaP only. I specifically asked for a certain brand, Deptacel. The nurse came back and said yes we have the preservative free one. I thought that sounded weird cause i didn't ask for preservative free but let them do it anyways assuming she was giving me what I wanted. Turns out it was not the one without animal or human tissues like I asked! I was pissed they tricked me like that. THEN they tell me if she is not caught up by the time she is 6 I will have to find a new Pedi. So I canceled my son's appt. and now I have to find a new doctor for my 3 kids. I will also be getting a religious exemption for kindergarten for her cause she will not be getting the rest right now. My other 2 won't get any more till almost time for them to go to school or even older.

I don't believe it is good for their bodies to have all that junk in them. If you read the ingredients it is disturbing really, animal cells, aborted (baby) fetal tissue, mercury, aluminum..... If I have more kids I will NOT be using the AAP schedule and will delay most if not all. Most of the diseases are not all that scary if you really look into it. I think everyone should do their own research whether you are for or against vaccines. Read the Dr Sears book, he is mostly pro vax but his book has tons of info and breaks everything down for you in a non bias way and also gives an alternative schedule and his own personal opinion.

Shonda - posted on 03/02/2011

well I have.... just because I did my research AFTER both of my boys were diagnosed with autism... now my 8 month old daughter is behind developmentally in EVERY catagory possible now... she recieved her 6 month vaccines & both of my boys recieved their 12 month & thats it. My cousin got her son's 2 month vaccines & thats all, he is now 5. but the only reason she got the 2 month vaccines is b/c the doctor would not circumsize him without them.

Anne - posted on 05/03/2010

That must have been truly awful Heather. I can't imagine how difficult and fraught with worry those 2 weeks must have been! I don't know exactly the difference in the number of vaccines but the number of shots I had in my entire childhood could be counted on the fingers of one hand and none of them were multiple vaccines. Now there are over 20 shots for the first year alone! Sometimes 6 shots in one go!
And being a concerned and well researched mom is the best qualification for these kind of decisions. :-) I don't like it when politicians and scientists start talking down to us (even though I'm one of them). As parents we don't have sponsors to please, we are unbiased, have access to all the same information and have the highest motivation to get at the truth.

LOL Heather about the comedy comments. You make me smile anyway :-)

Heather - posted on 05/03/2010

AnneMarie, that is one of the things that I am concerned about is the number of vaccines we give them before the age of 1 - and then add to that the ones they get through 18 months. It's a lot of vaccines.

When we all got our vaccines, I don't know the actually numbers, you might, what did we get? 1/3 of what they are getting now? 1/2 maybe?

I will say as for vaccines as I am, we had a scare once. When they came out with a rotovirus vaccine, 11 years or so ago, my doctor told me their was a new vaccine for it, he recommended giving it to my son. 10 days after Jordan got the vaccine, they recalled it. I don't remember the specifics as to why, but I think it was that it caused the opposite problem that rotovirus does. Don't quote me on that, it's been a long time. I just remember that it was 10 days after. I called the doctor flipping out. He told me that if Jordan hit the 2 week mark after the vaccine with no problems that he would be fine, and he was, but that was scary when you have an almost newborn and they recall one of the vaccines that he just got. :(

And might I add, I'm not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV, just a mom, with way too many opinions in the last few days. Not a very good comedian either. :)

Anne - posted on 05/03/2010

I am also a scientist and I have to disagree that science can always be proven. There are many theories out there that we cannot test and so they remain theories rather than theorums. If the postulated link to auto-immune disorders is true then the statistics show it is not so rare. These conditions are on the rise and no-one knows why. There is a reason but no-one has gathered the data and done the tests so we don't know what the culprit is. I look on it rather differently from you Destiny, the chances of my family catching a rare almost erradicated disease are very small however we do have a high risk factor for auto-immune disorders in our family. You have to look at individuals and assess their individual risks. And the vaccines are not the same as we had as children. That is part of the concern. We did not have so many or all of these multiple shots all before age one. The number of vaccinations goes up all the time. We won't know what the effects of that are until years into the future.

Dawn - posted on 05/03/2010

Regarding herd immunity: even if a small amount of people are not immuned, if most are, the disease will not spread. The worse breakouts occur when the disease is exposed to an area with many non-immunized people. And, I am sure there is a risk of getting a disease that you have been inoculated for, but I think that risk is about as low as the risk of having a severe reaction to the immunization.

Ciera - posted on 05/03/2010

i figure most the side affects are like less than 1% wwhile the sicknesses they are being vaccinated against are much higher...and MUCH riskier as many can cause long-term illness so make sure you dont just read the side affects, read also what risks there are to the diseases the vaccinations protect against and the risk of contracting them. the risks are geting higher with more and more people NOT vaccinating their children. I'm not telling you what to do bc that is your decision...i did NOT vaccinate them for H1N1...but i have kept up on all the regular vaccinations. side affects are most always temporary discomforts or mild and temporary sickness so that is not big enough a risk for me to not vaccinate. the only side affects that are serious are ones that are not even verifiable. The vaccines are the same as I received when I was a child and millions of other children received as well and they have been fine until some "natural remedy" people came in and tried to revolutionize the medical world but they have been unsuccessful bc all of their arguments fall short as htey cannot seem to find their proof in anything, just ideas they have that they wanna push as truth. science can always be proven so when it can't, that just tells me it's not relevant. (I'm a bio-researcher so I'm all about the science) but it is every parents decision and I am all about whatever anyone wants to do, I just think that people have gone the opposite way of information. they wanna be fully informaed of everything before they ake the choice but then they start looking at the "other side" so much that they forget to look at "this side" and then they are just back to where they didnt wanna be...only one sidedly informed.

Heather - posted on 05/03/2010

I completely agree with you on all parts AnneMarie! :) Yes, I'm in the US, and I'm in Iowa, which is not exactly a foreign travel destination. People don't say, where are you going to go visit - Iowa, USA! How cool! They all want to visit NYC and Disney World. LOL Although, my husband is from Mexico. When we we have gone there, it's been forever, but I made sure my 1st son was up to date on all of his shots. I was happy there weren't any recommendations for extra shots for him when we went down there.

You know what's funny? Before this convo - I never realized I was so pro-vaccines. I know I vaccinate my own kids and the reason behind it, but I never have voiced my opinions on it before out loud. Thanks you guys! :)

Anne - posted on 05/03/2010

Sure I get what you are saying but I think herd immunity is going to be undone anyway. Are you in the US? I'm not sure how much immigration from distant parts you get there but here in the UK we have quite a lot and it is a fact that is why TB and Polio are coming back here. Also vaccination doesn't necessarily protect you against the disease. Some vaccinations are not proven to give an immunity, some only give immunity for a short period of time and a certain percentage of people never develop immunity to certain vaccines anyway. I agree it is not a good idea to travel to a country without the vaccinations for the diseases in that region though and that vaccination in general is it a personal choice that each parent should make. That last point really was all I was trying to say.

Heather - posted on 05/02/2010

I'm just saying what they call it. It's called herd immunity. When everyone who is able to be protected is, it ends up protecting those who can't get the protection. When the protection starts having holes in the barrier, diseases get through. Not only does affect the child whose parents chose not to immunize, it affects the child whose parents couldn't choose to be immunized. It's the truth. Whether you choose to immunize your child or not is up to you. I choose to immunize mine to protect them from these illnesses that are coming in when people choose not to or unable to immunize for other health reasons.

And the articles that I am reading, the majority that I have found are the native population, not being immunized, going to a country where a certain disease has not been eradicated, and bringing it back to our country. I'm sure there are cases of immigrants bringing things in, but a lot of it our own citizens.

Anne - posted on 05/02/2010

That's not something we can do anything about. It's not just the native population it's new incomers that bring these diseases that were previously erradicated. In some countries religion prevents certain vaccinations. So we can vaccinate our children all we like but these diseases are always going to come back with immigration on the rise. TB and Polio are coming back here for that reason. Also the argument works both ways - I was infected with whooping cough, measles, mumps and one other from children who had recently been vaccinated. They had their shots in school but my parents preferred that I have mine at our local GP but as soon as the children in school had been vaccinated they gave the infections to me before I could have my shot. Everyone has the responsibility to protect themselves and we can't expect mothers to inject their children for someone elses benefit.

Heather - posted on 05/02/2010

Kristy, when they say it can endanger a community, they are right. We kind of live by "herd immunization". Those who are able to be immunized protect those who CAN'T be immunized due to health problems, such as liver problems, or the very young who are too little. When people stop vaccinating, it leaves us open to these diseases making a comeback (which some are popping up - measles, whooping cough, etc), leaving those people who run the risk of becoming deathly ill contracting those illnesses.



Most of us are too young to have ever dealt with these sicknesses so we think of them as harmless, but there was a time before immunizations that huge percentages of the population were wiped out from it.



Like I said in my post below, a few unvaccinated travelers contracted measles abroad and brought it back home where they in turn spread it around. That's how it endangers the community. According to the WHO Measles is the leading cause of death in young children, even though there is a vaccine available for it.



Here's an article that can explain it better than I did - http://health.usnews.com/health-news/fam...



and a part of the article -



The family's 7-year-old boy, who was intentionally unvaccinated against measles, was exposed to the virus while traveling in Europe. When he returned home to San Diego, he unknowingly exposed a total of 839 people, and an additional 11 unvaccinated children contracted the disease.

Three of those infected were babies, too young to have yet received the measles vaccines, and one of the babies was hospitalized for three days with a 106-degree fever, according to a report to be published in the April issue of Pediatrics.

Heather - posted on 05/02/2010

All 4 of mine are up to date on their shots. My chiropractor tried to talk me out of vaccinating my youngest 2 and I chose to do it. Certain illnesses that can be deadly have been wiped out from the US - where I am, but others are on the rise again. I have chosen to have mine protected against those sicknesses since they have started to rear their ugly heads again. For us, I feel the benefit outweighs the risk. We've had whooping cough and measles pop up around us, but I wasn't worried at all because my kids had been vaccinated against them. Ok, I lie, the measles concerned me because I was pregnant with my 4th at the time, and I had been exposed. My ex sister in law just was hospitalized for meningitis.

I hate hearing them cry when they get the shots, I also am concerned at the amount of shots they get and worry when they come out with new ones, but I'll still vaccinate because I don't want my children to get any of those illnesses.

The thing that bothers me, and I'm not saying you don't have the right to decline vaccinations, but for example, measles had almost been wiped out in the US, then a cluster of cases show up because unvaccinated people traveled outside the US, contracted measles, then come home. Once they are here, they expose people who can't be vaccinated to to health problems to the measles, and usually those who can't be vaccinated are the ones who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill if they get sick, newborns get exposed who are too young to get immunized. That bothers me.

But that being said, I'll support your right to decline it. Your the parent and only you can decide what you want to do with your child. I don't want anyone else to tell me what to do with my children, so I won't tell you what to do with yours. I can only give my thoughts on the subject. :)

Tori - posted on 05/01/2010

My kids have had all the vaccinations except for chicken pox and the flu shot. We delayed them with my son as he was breastfed and was sick, but he's up to date now. I totally understand and respect the decision not to vaccinate and your doctor should to. Even though I choose to vaccinate my children, if I found a doctor who refused to see patients that weren't, I would find a different doctor.

Katie - posted on 05/01/2010

we only do one vax at at time and started at 4 months but during the height of flu season we dont vax and we dont do the flu shot

Oana - posted on 05/01/2010

We've done all the vaccines so far except for the MMR, which we've decided to delay until my girl is 2. This is because my husband is strongly fearing that it might cause autism and the risk is high between the age of 1 and 2. Hope we're making the right decision but I strongly believe that God is the only one that can keep you safe!

Anne - posted on 04/30/2010

Thank you Kirsty for posting that information. We are still doing research on whether to vaccinate or not. Your ped is wrong to do that. You have made your decision after researching it well and that's what every parent should do.

Kristy - posted on 04/30/2010

and how can it endanger the community?? seriously

Kristy - posted on 04/30/2010

and yes a letter from the state will work ive worked for 2 chiropractors whos children are not vaccinated and they all attend school and kids play in the boys and girls club sports league with no problems. I have done my research on the topic.

Jenna - posted on 04/30/2010

kuddos to you!!! I have not vaccinated my son either, and do NOT intend to do so!

Randi - posted on 04/30/2010

I got all the vaccinations. I have been nervous each and every time but not having them makes me nervous too. So I chose to trust my dr and pray for the best.

Karmi - posted on 04/30/2010

When my son first got his shots, I didn't educate myself enough to understand them. I feel bad that I didn't do so, but I believe children should have their shots. Although I am not against anyone who doesn't vaccinate their child. It's your own belief and you have a right to chose.

Tracy - posted on 04/30/2010

I am fully vaccinating my twin boys. They are so far up to date on all of their shots and they have been fine. I strongly believe in vaccinations. It will keep your baby safe, I agree with Dawn. Not vaccinating is endangering your child and the community. I don't think a note from the state will work when it is time to enroll for school. I could be wrong though. But when you eventually might want to sign up your son for a city sport they need up to date records of all the vaccinations or they cannot participate. My friend went through that and then she had to play catch up on all of the shots and that is not good to do to a child.

Elizabeth - posted on 04/29/2010

I have chosen to vaccinate my baby girl but I also respect your decision not to vaccinate. No one should feel like they have made a bad decision on this topic.

Jennifer - posted on 04/28/2010

We are vaccinating, but on a delayed schedule. We also don't let our son get more than 1 vaccination at a time that has aluminum in it or get a shot when he's sick.

Dawn - posted on 04/28/2010

I have chosen to completely vaccinate my son, including the MMR shot, but I always felt that it was a personal decision, so I respected those who choose not to. Last night I watched a special on Frontline about the increase in parents choosing not to vaccinate. Because of this movement, very serious diseases, such as Measles, Polio and Wooping Cough, are starting to surface again. There were many great points highlighted from each side, however the overwhelming evidence that was presented has me now believe that parents who choose not to vaccinate are endangering their own children as well as their communities at large. I am in no why saying that anyone is a bad parent for making this decision; it is a difficult job to be so responsible for these little lives. I just think that people need to research more and think of the whole picture. The entire show can be viewed at www.pbs.org or http://video.pbs.org/video/1479321646. There is also a huge forum there with posts from all sides.

Kristy - posted on 04/28/2010

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4...