Seeking Thought on Vaccinations

We do vaccinate, but do the shots individually, and on a delayed schedule. That way, if there is a reaction, we know which one caused it. I don't believe that vaccines cause autism, as my first 2 kids had shots on time, and combos, and they are fine. Do what you feel is best.

I'm a nurse and I have heard so many doctors tell me "we don't vaccinate our kids" This means alot to me. But at their clinics they have to kind of push people to get the vaccines because of legal/financial issues. Many tell their patients that they kids are vaccinated to help them feel more comfortable. Most say that even though we give your children tons of shots at one time we mark where we gave them so in case of a reaction we will know which on did that---this is good for very mild skin reactions but if you child has a major/life threatening reaction their is no way to tell which shot it was from. I don't feel that vaccines themselves cause autism.....I have an issue with the AMOUNT we give them, The young age we give them, the timing overall, plus I don't feel that children even need a couple of them. Its NOT mandatory to work in a hospital with patients and need the amount of vaccines that is mandatory to get into school!? I find that odd....you would think the nurses in the hospital would be more "in danger" of diseases then the children.

Many of these diseases are not deadly like they used to be. Yes at the time some of these vaccines were made there was a huge need for them. There was also a huge need for people to use soap and water and wash their hands and clean things more---this alone stopped the spread more then vaccines did. We now have drugs to treat most of these diseases and rarely do children die from the disease. And if you do decide to get vaccines please remember to still educate yourself on the disease symptoms-no vaccine is 100% and many of our new (less then 30yrs old) vaccines are needed boosters and more shots becuase they are learning didn't stick right. I personally needed 6 does of Hep B before my titer test came back ok (titer test shows your body has created the artificial or natural antibodies for the disease). I just finished with my first case of the chicken pox (at the age of 30!), its was fine....itchy but fine LOL

The thing I tell parents----EDUCATE yourself and make your own decision on EACH shot, don't say all or none. Also if you ever have any doubt-WAIT. Don't get pressured/guilted into it. Also ask yourself this question-"if something happens to my child that was caused by the vaccine are you ok with the fact you allowed it or will you feel guilty". Congrats on looking into this more!

You will not find an ounce of judgement from me. Every parent has a right to decide what they feel is best for their child. Its all we can do.

I have decided to get all vaccinations for my daughter. However, we are changing the schedule a bit. She will be getting the MMR, but will be receiving 3 different shots at 3 different times. I understand there is no proof autism has anything to do with vacs, but there isn't exactly hard evidence it has nothing to do with it either. On the other hand, I believe vaccinations are very important... so the best solution I could come up with, for us, was to have her vaccinated on a schedule that wasn't so intensive. We give so many in such a short time these days!

Good luck with your decision! :)

A mother of 2 little ones ... I am struggling with this one also.
We switched from a "vaccines only on request" practice to a more traditional one that "follows the book". It's been a tough transition and one that has held lots of judgement for our decision to take things one at a time and in a slower pace than what has been set up.
It truly is a personal decision - I believe, as it is often our life experiences and those around us that often lead us to one decision or another.
I had a family memeber that had a bad reaction to a flu shot, as a result, I don't know if/when I will ever get one or submit my children to one - and yet the medical community will always tell me I am a fool and my family memeber was just 1 out of many. And I guess it's that fear that our child will be the ONE out of many that makes us all question things so much.
Read up on things, think on it, and just because the doc says it's the best thing to do, doesn't always mean it is.

When our son (now age 3) was born, my husband and I were completely overwhelmed by all this vaccination business. We were confused and knew that some of what we were reading was not entirely true. We LOVE our family physician and have complete trust in her judgment, so we talked to her at length about our fears. This discussion really put our minds at ease for the most part and we decided to vaccinate. Basically she reminded us that it's very hard for us (the generation x-ers) to recall or relate to or understand a time when these childhood diseases that we now vaccinate for were wiping out significant portions of the population and causing physical disabilities... in children that would last a lifetime. We've been so lucky not to have seen all of that suffering because of the vaccinations that have been going on for decades. We were really on the fence with the chicken pox vaccine, but the others we went ahead with.
Now we are expecting our 2nd child very soon and I think we're going to talk to our fabulous doctor this time around about using the Dr. Sears vaccination schedule so that they're not doing so many at the same time.
I've read lots of horrible things about what vaccines are made of, but quite frankly a lot of the stuff I've read online is outdated and when I ask our doctor, she always reassures us that whatever I've just read is no longer an issue....
I would suggest having a conversation with your doctor. Ask him/her for some sources from which you can gather accurate and current information on vaccinations too, before you decide what to do.
If our entire population stopped vaccinating, these diseases could return... Is that really the direction we want to go? When I started to ponder the greater issue, the decision became a bit easier.... Of course we're still worried....
Also, we've never given our son a flu shot (and neither my husband nor I has ever had one in our lives). Our son stays home still (although this year he may be starting preschool) so we've never found it necessary to even consider a flu shot and our doctor fully supports this choice. Personally I will never get one, and I"m a teacher! I just don't get the flu. And that shot doesn't protect against all flu anyway... just the major viruses going around that year....

Amy,

One of the big challenges we face as moms is to sort out what we believe is best for our children and standing up for it. I applaud you for trying to sort this out.

I personally have vaccinated on scheduled and delayed scheduled different for different children(we have 5).I would trust your first gut response to vaccines there is no harm in waiting. However if you do not vaccinate please get as much info on childhood illness as possible so you won't be uniformed. Medical book type info not just internet stuff.
Measles, mumps,chicken pox,pertussis these are not deadly but uncomfortable and occasionally lead to other illnesses that do more harm.

Remember you know your child the best and should trust in yourself to do the best for him.

J. O

Good for you for educating yourself! This is the single best thing that you could do. Talking with other Mom's and reading websites for information is the only true decision to make. From there, you will find the best answer for you and your family.

I will share with you, though, that our decision was to vaccinate but on a delayed schedule. With my son, he was my first, we did as we were told and didn't think anything of it. This was 5 years ago and the autism rate wasn't near where it is today. Fortunately, he is a bright boy and had no ill effects.

With my daughter, however, we have delayed things quite a bit. There were some concerns early on about her brain development, both in utero and out of utero and this caused me to be even more careful with her. She is also developing at a different rate than my son did and what a lot of children her age are developing...at least outwardly. She is very social but isn't walking yet and refuses to "show" us what she knows. She is 17 months and while I am confident that she understands more than she lets on, she hasn't demonstrated much on command. Anyway, giving her shots that could potentially cause problems is not the direction that we have chosen for her.

There are a couple of key points that you should realize through your research.
1) The autism rate for boys is much higher than it is for girls. That you have a boy should play a role in your decision.
2) Autism can be genetic.
3) If you plan on putting your child in daycare, at a facility, you will be required to vaccinate on schedule unless you legally fight the system. So, obviously, if you need daycare and choose not to vaccinate on schedule, you will need to look at alternatives.
4) As another poster suggested, you should strongly consider the one-at-a-time vaccination schedule. If your child were to have a problem with a vaccine, you will never be able to figure out which one caused the problem if you give more than one-at-a-time.
5) Consider spacing out the vaccines at least a month a part.
6) Consider waiting for vaccines until your little guy weighs more. I waited until my daughter was 15 pounds for her first shot. I just felt more comfortable waiting until she had a little more weight to fight the vaccine.
7) Unless your child is high-risk, I would consider skipping things like the flu shot, which by the way still has traces of thimersol in it as a preservative, which is the questionable toxin for potentially causing autism: http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/ABOUT/QA/thimerosal.htm
8) If you do decide to vaccinate, you should ensure that the bottles of the vaccine are shaken. Preservatives float to the bottom and IF it's a multi-use vaccine, you don't want your child getting the bottom of the vial vaccine...i.e, mostly preservatives.
9) Many people are questioning whether or not children need booster shots. It is my understanding that parents can request a blood test (usually out of pocket) to test whether or not the booster is needed.
10) When we were little, we only got about 16 shots. Today kids are getting about 30. The idea that we all were vaccinated and we are all okay doesn't really compare. Our kids today are getting more vaccines and on a very aggressive schedule.
11) Another questionable link to Autism is the MMR shot. In particular, the one that is given at around 18 months. Most kids are diagnosed with Autism between the ages of 2 and 3. Many parents with kids, who have autsim, believe that their kids changed after this shot and you can see how it fits.
12) Understand that the autsim rate is very high. It's about 1 in 150 kids now and this is the documented cases. While the CDC is finally considering that there is a link to vaccines and while the Supreme Court have made settlements to this effect, the end result is that there aren't a lot of resources available should your baby develop autism. Most insurances don't cover the care. Early intervention is key and there aren't a lot of facilities that can help and those that can are booked years in advance. This is a serious public health issue and so the more that you can do to help protect your little one will pay off.

I am sorry that I didn't include more links to back up my statements. If you want to talk further about this, please feel free to write and/or if you would like more information, I will be happy to send it on. Ultimately, if you have the ability, I would choose to spread out the vaccines but wait until your little guy shows who he is and what his behaviors are. Being able to tell when something is wrong as the result of a vaccine and being able to know what caused what will give you more peace of mind should anything happen. I am fortunate. We have chosen to have me stay at home with my daughter at least until she is 3. So, having to deal with the school system and their restrictions isn't an issue for us...yet.

I hope that this helps.
N.

There seems to be a correlation with children that are born with immune weaknesses and or major health issues that have had a possible link with shots causing autism. They are saying that the shots may overload an already weak immune system and possibly trigger autism. This correlation is still not 100% proven to be true. There is so much junk on the internet today. I think that moms are so much more stressed today because of all the junk thrown at us. What I have learned to be the truth and a fact is that the MMR is no longer given in Japan and was just taken off the market in England a while ago. Both of these countries are still seeing autism on the rise and now they are seeing more deaths of the measles in young children. There have also been huge outbreaks of measles all across the US also. And yes, contrary to what a lot mothers are saying, your child can catch and die from the measles. I also know for a fact, because my friend is a doctor at Children’s memorial hospital, that a child came into the hospital with the HIB virus and is now a vegetable. He has no brain function and will never talk or walk again. It would have been prevented if only the mother had gotten her kid vaccinated. Yes your child may never catch any of these diseases if you don’t vaccinate. I know that I would not want to play Russian roulette with my child and hope that they never come in contact with a virus. I would rather give them a chance and get them vaccinated. Plus we live in a very busy city with much more tourism. I think that children in Chicago are very likely to come in contact with one of these viruses. This is just my opinion and I know that you have to make the decision for yourself. Just make sure that the information that you use is from educated people that are at least credible. It is a sad day when America listens to celebrities over there Pediatricians.

Hi Amy,

My best advice is to read as many books and publications as you can from the professionals and then do what feels right to you. I've personally, at least for the moment, stopped all future vaccinations as of about 7 months ago.

That's not to say my decision is the best one... becuase really, who knows right now! There's so many good points on both sides that it's hard to know. I look forward to reading further research and headway from the professionals.

Best of luck in whatever choice you make!

A.

My son is 3 months old and is my first and we decided to vaccinate. We debated spreading out the shots but in the end, based on the advice of our pediatrician, we decided to go by the recommended schedule. My son has not had any reactions to the shots so we don't mind.

The thought behind not getting so many different shots at once is that if your child has a reaction it's difficult to tell which shot your child has a reaction to. My pediatrician said they give the shot in different spots and make detailed notes as to which shot he got where so if there is a reaction they know what he's reacting to. By the way, he received 1 shot when he was born, 1 shot at his 1 month appointment and 3 shots at his 2 month appointment but didn't seem to mind any of the shots. I think it was more painful for me!

As for why we decided to have my son vaccinated, we spoke to several pediatricians we know that all said, "if it were my child, I'd have him vaccinated." That said a lot to me. I think the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks of autism. The thought behind this is that it is important for the children to get vaccinated or the diseases we thought we had irradicated will return. I happen to support that claim, but that's my personal opinion (and my husband's) and that's what we are comfortable with. You have to decide what you are comfortable with and be okay with that decision, just like any other decisions you make as a parent. And make it guilt free.

By the way, in April or May there was an article in Time Magazine about this very issue if anyone is interested.

Remember that whatever you decide, your son will be just fine.