Vaccines - Howell,MI

NO vaccine is REQUIRED. There are only 2 states in our country that do not allow an exemption, Michigan is not one of them. As a parent you have the RIGHT to refuse any vaccination. In my opinion you also have the RESPONSIBILITY to research any and all things that anyone wants to inject into your child. The responsibility to know the risks, side affects, benefits and risk of the disease.

Chickenpox is not serious as a child. If your daughter contracts it as a young child it will be a minor inconvenience, but that is it. That being said, if she does NOT have the chickenpox by say age 10, then you should request a TITER test done on her blood. That will determine if she was exposed to the chickenpox and developed a natural immunity. (you CAN be exposed and NOT be symptomatic ... that actually happened to me. My blood shows natural immunity although I never 'had' the chickenpox.) If there is NO natural immunity found in her blood, then get the vaccination later. As a teen or adult the chickenpox can be very very serious.

Do NOT submit to cookie cutter medicine. Look at your specific family, their needs, and your circumstances to determine what is best for YOUR child. My daughter is 11-1/2 months old. She will NOT be getting her 12 or 15 month shots. We are delaying them. She will also not be getting the MMR, or the chicken pox. When she is older she will NOT get the HPV vaccination (gardasil)... that one is particularly nasty and reports continue to pour into the CDC about adverse reactions either immediatly following the injection or within 48 hours (paralysis, death, grand mal seizures) but they continue to deny any correlation and say it is coincidence.

If you do your research you will find the people deciding what vaccinations should be given have a financial interest in pharmacuetical companies or recieve patent money from the sale of vaccinations. I believe this to be a conflict of interest. How can someone objectively say if something is safe for my child when they are getting money on the sale of every vaccination given. Since these doctors who are supposed to 'first do no harm' will not advocate for our children WE have to!

As far as school, you just need to provide a written statement that you have educated yourself about the particular vaccination and for specific reasons have decided to not inject your daughter with a potentially dangerous substance. Be careful about form waivers given by doctors or schools. The fine print on those is VERY dangerous and basically says that you as the parent are willingly denying your child medication and putting them at risk. It's very dangerous language. Write your own.

Hi L.,

I have a 9 and 6 year old, and I opted out of several shots for quite some time (I did it on a much, much slower schedule). I had a family history (niece who had SEVERE seizers from a vacine) of bad reactions.
When it came to the chiken pox vaccine, I felt the same as you did. I gave my kids until they were 5 to get the chicken pox, and neither of them did, so we got the shot. They both have had ALL of the shots now, with the exception of Hep B. They did fine with all of them.
It is very easy to get them into school, although they would like you to think otherwise. All you have to do is sign a waiver (they have them in the school office). It only has to be signed by you, and then they file it in your child's file. Schools don't advertise this b/c the state keeps close tabs on thier records, and they frown upon waivers.
Good luck, I am sure you will make a decision that is the best for your child!

L.,

I did give my children the shot and wished I hadn't. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't. My son ended up getting the chicken pox, a very mild case, and my daughter, who is 11, still hasn't got the chicken pox. I have heard that some children actually get a more severe case of it after the vaccination.

Also, you don't have to give your child any vaccinations. There is a waiver form you can sign, when they start school.

So here are my thoughts on your situation: 1. Let the doctor know how rude the nurse was. This is your child not hers. 2. I wouldn't get the vaccination period. I agree I didn't have the shot as a child. I did get the chicken pox and survived.

My opinion is there are too many "quick fixes" out there. Chicken pox is not a life threatnening disease.

If you don't feel comfortable with something for your child, then don't do it.

After reading responses from other moms, I wanted to add this...We can all have a healthy child with a strong immune system. How? Get fruits and vegetables in their diet, limit fast food to name a couple. These are some of the things I speak about in my Healthy Workshops. If you are interested, let me know

Enjoy your day!

M.

Hi L.,

I had the same concerns about giving that shot. I had chicken pox extremely bad when I was a child (in my eyes, and mouth and ears, etc) and I told my doctor that I didn't think it was necessary to vaccinate my daughter. He told me that he refrained from recommending it for quite a while (to other parents) because he thought that it was unnecessary and after study has decided that it is beneficial. His reasoning is that it is extremely dangerous to a fetus if a woman gets chicken pox while they are pregnant and although this doesn't affect your daughter now, it may later. He reasoned that since the vaccine is "required" now, children are less likely to get chicken pox when they are in grade school and this makes them more likely to get it as adults.

So, when we were kids we all got the pox and were immune as adults, now our kids will grow into adulthood without getting it and will be more succeptible as adults (and pregnant).

Needless to say, I went ahead and got it for her (I bought into it) but I wasn't the most happy about it, but thought that it made sense.

You don't "have" to do it. There will be someone out there who can give you advice on getting her in school without it. Don't be bullied by the government!

I have a nearly 5 year old daughter, and I have given her this vaccine. You can get a blood test to show if you've had chicken pox or not. I have not.

From my perspective, I would want my child to get the vaccine because I never had chicken pox as child and if I get it now it will be very dangerous for me. I was exposed to shingles (a derivative of the chicken pox virus in adults) while pregnant with my daughter, this was very scary. If you get chicken pox while pregnant, your child can develop abnormalities. What is an annoying and relatively harmless virus in a child is very dangerous in an adult. I wish that there had been the vaccine while I was a child, so I wouldn't have to be so cautious now. I tried to get the vaccine as an adult and was told it was not effective in people over 13. I understand the vaccine may not completely protect them from catching it, but it will greatly lessen the severity of it.

Just something to think about while you make this decision.

L.,
As a parent you have a legal right to opt out of your child getting ANY vaccines. ANY. Just be aware of that.

I did get my youngest the chicken pox vaccine. I never had one and I'm 54. My 2 oldest boys never had it either. It's relatively new. You can get the shot and hopefully not go through the chicken pox. Or opt out of the vaccine, get the pox and get it over with. I opted to get it because camp was coming up and my son wanted to go but he hadn't had the pox yet and I didn't want to take any chances. So far he still hasn't, and he's 18 and will go into the Air Force.

So it's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. She was rude tho. You're right about that. And they'll try rudeness and guilt to get parents to vaccinate their kids.