To Vaccinate or Not to vaccinate...that Is the Question.

I agree with you. I have a 3 month old son and I was shocked when I took him in for his shots. I have 4 daughters that I always had vaccinated right on schedule, but they have added so many vaccines that I am doing it differently with my son. I have done tons of research before making this decision. I even went to cdc.gov and read up on these vaccines. They are not perfectly safe. With all that being said I am having my son fully vaccinated, but not having him get 5 vaccines in one day. I don't believe that is healthy for an adult, much less a young child. This decision is causing me to have to quit using a pediatrician I have used for 16 years with my other children. I hate that, but I have to do what I feel is best for my son.

i have to disagree on the comment that the vaccines are all safe. my son was normal right up until is 18month vaccine. 13 months later i was told he had autism. he was meeting every milestone and trying everything. after the needle he started to change. so i am sorry i thing that vaccines have something to do with it. if you look back 50 years there was not as much autism or other problems as there is today.

I agree with S R. Vaccinations have done a lot to reduce serious diseases. This makes some people think there's no need for the vaccinations anymore, but people travel from all over the world to the US and they bring the diseases with them. I had chicken pox when I was 6 yrs old, but my son may never have them because they can vaccinate against it now. I'm thrilled he'll never have to scratch and itch for days like I had to.
"As the scientific community has been saying for a long time, there is no good, credible, reproducible research that supports the hypothesis that MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine causes autism," said Dr. Max Wiznitzer, an autism expert at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio."
Full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/12/court.autism.reactio...

Right there with ya, C.! I too started researching the scary world of vaccines while pg and it stressed me out so bad that I was regretting becoming pg. It's terrifying and once you start researching this stuff, you can't go back to being "ignorant" to it all and blindly vaccinating without being paranoid. I looked long and far to find a pediatrician who would respect my wishes as a parent to hold off on vaccinating and then only do the ones I felt were necessary. My child is now 2, she was 1 1/2 when she got her first shot and now she's getting one about every 3 months. Luckily I am able to stay at home with her so she's not exposed to every illness out there, she eats healthy and I give her flaxseed in her milk every day. The child has an awesome immune system and is never sick. I LOVE Dr. Sears book and I also recommend Super Immunity for Kids which will educate you on essential fatty acids and how most children don't get enough in their diets which can lower immune systems and lead to chronic ear aches, behavioral issues, etc. I refer to that book almost as much as the Vaccine Book. Kudos to you for doing your own research and educating yourself. You child is very fortunate to have a proactive mother to take care of him! Best of luck!

You'll get a lot of answers on this one. Vaccination is a hot topic for a good reason. Vaccines save millions of lives! Polio, measles, diphtheria are all very much alive and only a planeride away.

I've read Dr. Sears' book. Much of what he says is sensible, except his information about measles being a "mild" disease is not accurate. The measles causes mental retardation, death, blindness, and seizure in 3/1000 people who contract the disease. This is not a mild disease.

Vaccines are the safest medicines out there. The studies quoted by the anti-vaccine folks are based on small studies. "Facts" that the measles was disappearing when the vaccination campaigns started is simply not true. The "landmark" study by Andrew Wakefield saying the MMR causes the measles was done on 13 kids, 7 of whom had autism before the study began. Dr. Wakefield was also paid by a lawyer who was suing the vaccine manufacturers.

There is good info out there based on studies done on millions of children that say vaccines are safe. If you spread out vaccines make sure you complete the series. Some vaccines are effective only after the second dose.

Good luck with this decision! Maybe you children be free of vaccine-preventable diseases!

vaccines today, are much different than the ones that were needed 50 years ago. The Hep B vaccine was suggested because the virus could be transmitted at birth. But the chances of that happening are small to none, so that the risks associated with that, or most, vaccines, far outweighs the benefits. The HPV vaccine is another case in point. Fewer than 3% of cervical cancer cases are caused by the viruses the vaccine addresses. Besides that, most cases of cervical abnormalities, treated as cervical cancer, resolve themselves without any intervention.

Much, but not all, of medicine is driven by profit motives of the pharmaceutical companies. There was an informative article on NPR a couple of weeks ago by a marketing executive, hired by big pharma, to find ways to increase sales of osteoporosis drugs. They expanded the definition of a non-disease so that more drugs would be prescribed.

Please understand I am NOT saying that all drugs or vaccines are bad. But we have come to overrely on them, when long-term scientific research does not support their use.

First of all, Hepatitis B is NOT a sexually transmitted disease. There are many more diseases that our children are subjected to now in the world than we have been in the past. Vaccines have been changed and are safer than ever before. It is much better to be vaccinated than to have your child sickened from a preventable disease.

just because you have driven your car to the store 200 times and not been in an accident doesn't mean you don't buckle your children in just in case right? that is my take on it. i vaccinate my son on schedule because i would rather take the tiny risk of side effects then having my son and tons of other children in contact with my son get some pretty terrible diseases. if you happen to not vaccinate your son and he goes to school with someone else that was not vaccinated and they ARE sick your son will get sick and some of the things he is vaccinated against can cause paralysis, brain damage and even death. in theory if everyone else vaccinated their kids then your son should be fine but if other people think as you do (and many do) they don't vaccinate either then that is how disease outbreaks happen. in the end it is your choice you have to decide what is right for you and your child. but what you make as a personal decision will affect thousands of people. it is a tough choice i wish you the best of luck :)