No vaccinations??

[Mami]

At this point ds has only gotten a few. But after some reactions, I started doing some research and he has not been vaxed since.

Most of my research came from MDC.com forum. They have excellent information on vaccines.

[hcocca]

Although our baby is not here yet, my husband (an immunologist) and I have decided not to have our son immunized until he is at least six months.

I have a question for others who have waited to not have their children -- have you had any issues with the hospital or your pediatrician when you told them that you didn't want the vaccines at that time or at all?

[Chad and Liz]

We vaccinated on schedule with our first daughter until 4 mo then stopped and won't do any more. Our second and any future children will not get any. The risks of the vaccine far outweigh the risk of possible diseases. Even the center for disease control (the ones who put out the recommended schedule) admit your child has a better chance of having an adverse reaction that catching the disease (just catching, not having problems from it) itself.

Also, there have been no studies* comparing vaccinated children against unvaccinated children. If vaccines are so great and they work so well, then what is the government and big pharma afraid of? What they might find perhaps?

*there was a small study done in the 70's outside the U.S. but it was only a few vaccines and the outcome was largely for unvaccinated

I do not feel vaccines are tested well enough for anyone to call them 'safe'. Only healthy people are allowed to participate in the trials, yet they say they are safe for the unhealthy. The test group is never watched long term, maybe a month at most, never years.

[julieakc]

Ok, please don't throw bombs at me, but I am a pro vaccinations. I can understand small delays in the schedule and/or spreading out the number of shots, but IMO I do not want to risk (albiet relatively small) my child contracting a serious and/or fatal disease that could easily have been prevented. So here is the other opinion:

While it is true that there is only a small risk for some of the diseases for which vaccinations exist...the risk is so small precisely because vaccines eliminated/greatly reduced that risk (for example polio and smallpox). And were in not for the fact that most of the population is vaccinated these diseases would be a much greater risk than they are.

Although your individual risk might be low...who knows about the people around you and your child. We live in the Los Angeles area and therefore there are a lot of people who travel internationally and/or were not born in the United States (and therefore may not have been vaccinated) so there is always that potential for exposure from someone you don't know.

Yes, there are possible side effects with vaccinations but (generally speaking) they are WAY less than the seriousness of contracting the disease which the vaccine protects against.

It would be horrible to lose a child from an illness that could have been prevented with a vacine...and this does happen.

To answer the question about side effects: No, DS (who has received all vaccines on the recommended schedule) has never had any adverse effects...I think once he was a little sleepy that afternoon (which may or may not have had to do with the vaccinations) but that's it.

[AnaC.]

>Ok, please don't throw bombs at me, but I am a pro
>vaccinations. I can understand small delays in the schedule
>and/or spreading out the number of shots, but IMO I do not
>want to risk (albiet relatively small) my child contracting a
>serious and/or fatal disease that could easily have been
>prevented. So here is the other opinion:
>
>While it is true that there is only a small risk for some of
>the diseases for which vaccinations exist...the risk is so
>small precisely because vaccines eliminated/greatly reduced
>that risk (for example polio and smallpox). And were in not
>for the fact that most of the population is vaccinated these
>diseases would be a much greater risk than they are.
>
>Although your individual risk might be low...who knows about
>the people around you and your child. We live in the Los
>Angeles area and therefore there are a lot of people who
>travel internationally and/or were not born in the United
>States (and therefore may not have been vaccinated) so there
>is always that potential for exposure from someone you don't
>know.
>
>Yes, there are possible side effects with vaccinations but
>(generally speaking) they are WAY less than the seriousness of
>contracting the disease which the vaccine protects against.
>
>It would be horrible to lose a child from an illness that
>could have been prevented with a vacine...and this does
>happen.
>
>To answer the question about side effects: No, DS (who has
>received all vaccines on the recommended schedule) has never
>had any adverse effects...I think once he was a little sleepy
>that afternoon (which may or may not have had to do with the
>vaccinations) but that's it.
>
>
>
>

I think you are totally right and totally support your point of view, thanks to vaccines is that thousands of kids are saved each year, you just have to see this charts taken from the book baby 411:

smallpox 1901 deaths : 48,164 2001 deaths: 0
hepatitis B 1901 deaths: 200,000 2001 deaths: 80,000

and on and on and on, I respect people who decide not to vaccinate their kids, but those who decide vaccinating theirs I think are taking the risk for those other babies who are not, I know my baby is been vaccinated and in that way I am doing my part to not having a come back of any dicease.

But again, everybody has their reasons and everybody is in its right to take any decisition they want to make.

[CAM7]

I recommend going to the Mothering . com board to check their forums on vaxing. You'll have a LOT of info to read up on vaxing... there are many mom's there that really know their stuff about non-vaxing.

Also... Texas has all three exemptions if you wish to opt out of vaxing. If a school is funded AT ALL with public funds (even most private ones are funded in some way) they must accept an exemption.

Go to mothering . com and you'll find plenty of info there... also... "Finding your Tribe" forum on that board will have other mom's in your area of the country that are like minded on the subject.

HTH!!

[masha12]

I firmly pro-vaccine and agree with everything the other pro-vaccine poster said.

As a follow-up to her post, I heard somewhere that vaccines are generally about 95% effective, meaning that out of 100 vaccinated people, 5 of them will not have developed immunity. This is acceptable because as long as 95% of the population is immune, the disease is not likely to spread.

But, the group immunity is diminished everytime a parent refuses to vaccinate their child. These parents are creating a bigger risk for my vaccinated children because they are increasing the pool of non-immune people coming in contact with my children and I have no way of knowing if they are in the 5% of the nonimmune vaccinated population.

As bad as I would feel if my unvaccinated child died or suffered permenant damage from a vaccine-preventable disease, I would feel even worse if my unvaccinated child transmitted the disease to another child and that child died or suffered permanent damage.

[sbrimer]

Being that I am a pediatric RN I to have taken necessary steps in the vaccination process. Each time my daughter is due for shots she only get 1 or two and then we make the journy back in the next month. therefore, we space them out over a few months. Yes it cost us more, but safety has to be a priority. There are way more vaccines out there then when I was her age.

I agree we do not need to overwhelm there immune system, but those who decide to wait on certain vaccination (Heb B, varricela and MMR) let me just put something out there. When you vaccinate yes you are vaccinating against the disease, but you are also vaccinating your child against other children who are sick or are are not immunized. We live in such a deverse population with people come from other countries everyday. Therefore, b/c these other countries do not follow the same guidlines as we do what they bring over can cause other children here in the states to become sick even though we do not have a problem.

Also when I was little I got the chickenpox b/c the vaccine wasent available. Well when you get the chickenpox it never goes away it layes dormant in your spinal tract. Therefore, when I had my daughter I had an epidural and b/c of this it aggrivated the nerve fibers that carried the dormant chickenpox therefor I got SHINGLES. try breastfeeding an infnt with shingles not very fun.

So I agree that there are way to many vaccines, but waiting can cause more harm and you dont know who in your childs class (preschool, day care) are immunized or have the disease and dosent know it. Spacing them out is the best. Just remember that know when a child enters jr. high/ high school and college the mennigitis vaccination is required or at least it is in PA and I know for collage in CA.

You are vaccinating against others. Be safe.

[o_mom]

>Also when I was little I got the chickenpox b/c the vaccine
>wasent available. Well when you get the chickenpox it never
>goes away it layes dormant in your spinal tract. Therefore,
>when I had my daughter I had an epidural and b/c of this it
>aggrivated the nerve fibers that carried the dormant
>chickenpox therefor I got SHINGLES. try breastfeeding an
>infnt with shingles not very fun.
>

The chickenpox vaccine does not prevent shingles. In fact, since the widespred vaccination of children for chickenpox, the number of cases of shingles in adults has risen.

>.... Just remember
>that know when a child enters jr. high/ high school and
>college the mennigitis vaccination is required or at least it
>is in PA and I know for collage in CA.
>

Also remember that you can file a waiver instead of getting the vaccinations if you so choose.

[mom2binsd]

I had originally looked at separating the MMR, not due to concerns about autism (and I'm a speech therapist who sees autism all the time and is very aware of the parents feelings about this and those who say it's not true, who knows really?), but because I had wanted to avoid as many combo vaccines as possible after reading Stephanie Cave's book, however, my ped was not able, nor was I able to locate any of the vaccines individually. We have vaccinated both our children on a schedule that spaced out the vaccines, but still provided necessary protection (ex. we have flown with each child when they were quite young and wanted to have the purtusis (can't spell)vaccine.Totally agree with waiting in Hep B esp when you know you aren't a carrier.

P.S. This is such a crazy topic these days, in our playgroup we avoid discussing it (and circumcision) as it seems almost too touchy and personal of a topic and yet what others choose to do can really impact your children (with respect to the vaccines not circumcision lol).