Nervous About Vaccinations

Hi R.,

First and foremost, you have to do what is best for you and your family.

My kids are older, (17 and 13) and up until now have been fully vaccinated. BUT, if I had small children now I certainly would re-think that. I certainly do not want to start a war of words and I mean no disrespect to any previous posters, but there is a lot if information out there and you have every right to question the risks and dangers. *I am a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience. There is absolutely no reason a newborn needs the Hepatitis B shot. Hepatitis B is spread primarily through IV drug use and prostitution. Do you know why they push it for newborns? Because the government knew they would not get that population to come in for the shots, so we now vaccinate the "herd" to provide immunity. But we don't know really how long the immunity will last. *Again, both kids have had it, but I would refuse it now. I have had the Hep B vaccine, myself, but as a nurse, I was exposed to blood and body fluids on a daily basis in the hospital.
I would also refuse the chickenpox vaccine. My 13 year old was one of the first in the area to get it at the time. She came down with chickenpox 2 years later. Yes, she had a milder case, but so did my son at the time he had them and that was before the vaccine. Again, we don't know how long the immunity will last and we are potentially setting up a whole generation to get chickenpox later in life when the risk of complications is much higher.
Yes, they have taken thimerosal out of the vaccines. But many physicans are still using old stock before they buy more. And actually the government, CDC, just recently acknowledged that there is indeed a link between vaccines and autism.
I won't even go into the cervical cancer vaccine, since that is a very hot topic. Except to say that is when I started my reading and research on vaccines in general. I have a ton of articles, books and resources if you want to email me privately. The only thing I will say on the HPV vaccine is that I have been in contact with one of the original researchers of that vaccine who says that it was not studied on these young girls it's being targeted to and she has been very vocal about the marketing of it. Google Dr. Diane Harper for more info.

Bottom line, and even though I have strong opinions, I tell all my friends, it is up to you to do what is best for you and your family. I will resect you decisions.

Lori

i have studied and studied this very question over and over since I had my 12 year old and now I am on my 2 month old 12 years later and still there are so many questions, my children are not vaccinated, I seem to have come up with much more negative information on vaccines than positive, one example is that the Hep B shot that the kids receive is a sexually transmitted disease yet these small infants get the shot at birth and 2 mo. and the shot only lasts for 8 years,some of the shots have really bad toxic ingredients in them, it doesnt make much sense to me. The last website Ive checked out lately is LewRockwell.com, it sais their are only 4 vaccines that the children truly need. Good luck, theres a lot of interesting material out there. I also subscribe to a "natural mothering" magazine that has amazing stuff in it, you really should check into it. You can do this at www.mothering.com!! I commend you for listening to your intuition and yearning for the knowledge to protect your child, happy searching... PEACE

Listen to your intuition on this one.
Not all kids get them. Lots & lots of kids are NOT getting them these days as information about their risks/dangers is getting out there more. I have a houseful of very healthy kids who have not gotten any vaccinations.

Not getting the shots probably is an option for you, you just need to be brave & stand up for what you are feeling in your gut. There is tons of info on the internet. Just google vaccinations or "vaccination danger" or vaccination risk" or "avoid vaccination" or something along those lines. You'll find yourself inundated with more info than you know what to do with.

Good luck.

R. -

Talk to your pediatrician about the benefits of getting the vaccines vs. risk of not getting the vaccines. From everything I've read, the benefits still far outweigh the risks.

Trust your instincts, though. Moms always know best.

Good luck!
J.

I am so happy that you asked this question and I loved reading the responses you received. Much of what I have to say has already been said, but I will say it anyway.
We vaccinated our son, exactly on scheduale. Here is what we found. He is now 8 and was always sick, 8 ear infections before he was 2, he was supposed to get tubes put in his ears, but did not get them. He also had several colds, and for his first three winters he had pnumonia. He had what they called circumstantial asthma, this meant that when he would get a cold he would eventually need a nebulizer to clear it. He has since grown out of all these things. Our second two children were exactly opposite, my daughter has been to the Dr once, she had an ear infection when she was two. She is now 6. We did start her immunization when she turned 5 so she could start school. My 2 1/2 has never been to the Dr. Mind you they have all had colds, runny noses, slight fevers, but overall they are very healthy.
Since not getting the shots is not an option for you, think about only getting one per visit, yes this will take longer and will cost you more if you have a co pay, but I think it is much easier on their little bodies to fight one thing at a time. You have to think 5 different things for the body to have to fight at one time is extreme. I have heard that spacing them out is much better for them.

My oldest son had a reaction to the DPT shot when he was 2, up to that point I got the boys their shots religiously, however, not since. One in 10,000 to have a reaction is too many of that one is YOURS. anyway, the NVIC is where I educated myself, that was 18 years ago, I don't even know if it still exists, but good luck, you are in my prayers.

I would second the idea to get Dr. Sears vaccine book. It is an extremely well researched booked design to help parents make individual choices for individual vaccines.

At this point we have primarily decided not to vaccinate. We do do the DT shot when our children are around 3 because we spend time in farms and the kids have always tended to dig in the dirt, run barefoot, etc. Additionally this was found to be one of the lower risk vaccine.

Yes my kids have gotten sick with illnesses that there are vaccines for, however kids that have had the vaccines have also gotten sick with the illness - vaccines are not 100%.

I can imagine how scary it would be to have a 5-wk old with pertussis. But a vaccine would not have prevented that. Children don't get their first pertussis vaccine until 2-months and it isn't effective until the 3rd does which is after a yr and at that point pertussis is much less dangerous. The vaccine also wears off in early childhood.

We had pertussis a couple of years ago (myself and 3 of the kids) and while it was rather unpleasant we made it through. I still believe, based on my research, that for us there was more of a risk from the actual vaccine (and the X of unknown vaccine risk) than from contracting the illness.

Not getting the shots is always an option (there are legal exemptions for daycare and school) unless you personally believe that it is not, in which case you have already made the decision that you feel that, for you, the risk of contracting the illness is greater than the risk of the vaccine. It boils down to that - a risk v benefit tradeoff no matter which decision you make.

Thimerosal has been removed or greatly reduced in most all vaccines that children get... except for some flu vaccines. You can ask for the thimerosal free flu vaccine though. With all the hype about autism and vaccines, people don't seem to know that the thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines... that part isn't talked about.

Autism has not been linked to vaccines... though I'm sure you can find websites that disagree, and I'm sure many moms here might disagree too. In a recent case a little girl's autism was linked only because she already had an underlying disease and a predisposition to having autism. I recently read an article (sorry, I can't seem to find it now...) that talks about a possible link between autism and people waiting until they are older to have children - they are thinking it might be passed down by fathers who are older. So really... autism as terrible as it is, the bottom line is we don't know what causes it yet.

In the end the benefits of the vaccines far outweigh any potential risk of not getting vaccinated, so you're definitely doing the right thing for your daughter by getting the vaccines.

I recommend having a chat with your doctor about this.

Watching her get the shots will be rough... more so for you than her. I cried. :( She'll be OK though! Give her a dose of Tylenol about 30 minutes to an hour before your appointment, and that should help head-off pain and soreness. Ask your pediatrician for the correct dosage, I can't remember what it is anymore. Also, if she takes a pacifier, make sure you have one with you so you can just pop it in and try to soothe her afterwards, or bring her one of her favorite toys.

Good luck!

Here's a few links: http://www.fda.gov/Cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm
http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimfaq.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/od/science/iso/concerns/thimerosal.htm

I know where you're coming from. I highly recommend Dr. Sears book The Vaccine Book. He discusses vaccines from all angles, and even tells you what is in vaccines. I personally am not vaccinating my child right now and he is five months old. I'm not willing to take any risks. You need to research the diseases you will be preventing and weigh the risks of vaccinating. Some of the diseases aren't life threatening, so in my opinion why subject your child? If anything, try to space out the vaccines over her first year. You do not have to go by your pediatricians "schedule". You can choose which vaccines you want and when. Good luck.

Please get the vaccinations-do not let people tell you that kids do not get these diseases! My son (who is now 8) got pertussis (whooping cough) when he was 5 weeks old. He was in the hospital for 5 of the longest days of our lives. He very well could have died! I am a very big advocate for vac. shots. My pediatrician said that there is no link from vac. to autism. Children with autism are born with it, sometimes it takes stress to trigger the acually symptoms. You may read about the fact that there are more cases of autism now (since vaccines) vs. the 40's and 50's (when getting vaccinated was not the common practice) but keep in mind that autism can have many different symptoms and is still very hard to diagnose. I googled autism and vaccine and found many websites that have the info you are looking for. Also, may I remind you that your children have to have them to enroll in school.

I don't think you have anything to be worried about. I was told by a friend in med school that the link to autism (even though some say there isn't one) is usually more common in boys and is associated with the MMR they receive at one year. He also advised me to get children vaccinated, but do so after they're a year- meaning, start the vaccinations they receive at 1 month, etc., after they're a year old. He said their immune systems are just developing and by vaccinating them at such a small age, you're basically kicking them while they're down. I think for us, now that we know this, we will wait to get our second immunized. I don't have anything against vaccinations, but do totally see where he's coming from. Good luck!