We delay vaccinations. At least with my youngest daughter. With my oldest, she got most of her shots on the “recommended” schedule because, well, if I am being totally honest, it is because we didn’t know any better. We were young, first time parents, and we did what we were told. When it came around to the birth of our second child, we did things a lot differently. She was born at home, in the water, in the most peaceful, most amazing moment….versus the stressful hospital birth that her older sister had.
My youngest daughter is now 2 years old and – oh my! – has yet to have a vaccination. Now, before you “pro-vaxers” freak out, we plan on vaccinating her. We have talked to the doctor and are going to be doing a very split up, very delayed schedule. She should be 100% caught up by the time she is 3, provided there are no complications with any of the vaccines. When we walked in to this doctor with a newborn baby, the first words out of her mouth were “Do you plan to vaccinate, delay, or skip them all together?” My mind was BLOWN that a doctor was willing to listen to my concerns, to my thoughts, to my plans, when it came to vaccinations. That she wanted to help me make the decision that was best for my child, for my family, was a real shocker – and it shouldn’t be. I had come to expect a doctor to tell me we had to vaccinate, totally on their terms, or we could find another doctor. If you are considered getting your child vaccinated then that’s fine. You could even check out a family doctor healthcare place like urgent care loveland. However, the decision is up to you, so don’t feel forced to go.
So, why did we choose to delay? Well, my husband is a researcher. I am sure I have mentioned that before. And he wanted to read up on everything he could about vaccinations and the diseases they are supposed to prevent. He wanted to know the facts – he read science books, he lived on the CDC website for months, and he talked about it with me. We discussed all his findings and decided that since I was staying home with the girls, there was really no reason to put a lot – and I mean A LOT – of chemicals and metals in a tiny little body. We all know the MMR link to autism is not that strong – but there are many parents out there who SWEAR it was like a switch. Their child immediately regressed as soon as they got it. Was I willing to take that chance? Not really. Not at 15 months old. Not to prevent the measles and the mumps. They are just not that serious, in my opinion. Before the vaccine was introduced, TV shows joked about the measles – talked about how they were not serious.
There hasn’t been a measles death since 2004, but there have been deaths resulting from 4 different measles vaccines sold in the US during the same 10 years. That is scary, to any mother, at least it should be. I keep getting the “Damned if I do, Damned if I don’t” feeling when it comes to vaccinations. Now, if you recall what I said earlier, we have decided to delay. We will do the MMR vaccination, however, we will split it. We most likely will skip the chicken pox vaccination. You can still get the shingles if you have had it, and we don’t see the point. The DTaP vaccination scares me. It scares me a lot, because I got very sick from the Pertussis vaccination when I was a baby, and I worry that will happen to my child(ren). We will get it, but we will watch very closely. If there is an issue, the remaining doses will be just the DT vaccination.
So you might ask, why even talk about not vaccinating if we are choosing to delay. Because of this “outbreak” people are going crazy. Saying that it should be the law to require vaccinations. I do not agree. I believe in the freedom, the right for a parent to do what they think is best for their children, for their family. I will defend that right until the day I die, if I must. There are many choices out there that are more dangerous than a child not being vaccinated. 1.2 million deaths a year are from car accidents, so technically, making the decision to put your child in a car, is more dangerous than a child not being vaccinated. If you are looking at the numbers, that is a fact.
When we made the decision to delay vaccinations, our doctor warned us. She warned us to make sure our unvaccinated child was not around any child that had gotten a live vaccination in the past 1-2 weeks. Why? Because that child can spread the disease. It is called shed and spread and it is very real. Still think the unvaccinated children are spreading diseases? You might. But I don’t.
I don’t care if you vaccinate, I don’t care if you don’t vaccinate. But don’t claim that you know which is right. I certainly don’t. I have no idea, and just have to go with my mommy gut on this one. Am I nervous? You bet. Am I going to rush to my daughter’s side every time she coughs or sneezes after she has had a vaccination? You bet. Am I going to be taking her temperature every 10 minutes to make sure she has no strange reactions? You bet. I feel confident that splitting them up is best for us. If there are any reactions, we will know which vaccine caused it, and will avoid future doses. I guess my point here is that I strongly feel the choice should be ours.
Do you think we should do away with vaccination exemptions?
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12 Comments
I do not think they should be the law.. I really get tired of all the demonizing of parents trying to chose what is right for their kids.
Another thing that drives me nuts is that some people think we are only concerned about autism.. there are a whole list of reasons not to do all the vaxing they suggest. Heavy metals injected into children is not the best choice. These kids are getting MANY more shots than previous generations and we do not know the result of this.
Thanks for sharing this!
http://www.mammassafetycorner.com
No, there should NOT be a law. It is the parents rights. If a woman can have an abortion legally, than a mother should be able to decide whether or not to vaccinate her children.
I Vaccinate but it’s a personal choice, as long as my kid doesn’t get sick from unvaccinated kids I have no problem with it.
I vacced my daughted. They didnt have the Chicken back then so she got them. I on the other hand only had the polio vac which was still running rampant in the 50’s. I had everyone of those things except tetnus.(sp) Yes I lived thru them. My sis lived thru them. Yes they were herd diseases, one kid in a class got them we all did !!!!!!!! We took them home to the other kids so a Mom would have all her kids sick at the same time. Did you call the Doc for meds to help. Nope because there were none. Will the Moms of today whose kids get them go to the Doc looking for something YES THEY WILL. They run to the Doc & ER if the kids have a temp of 100. We got baby asprin, soup, ginger ale & baths & got to curl up on the couch. I didnt want MY child to live thru any of these. As it was she did get the Croup real bad that require an overnite in the hospital to prevent it getting worse as they had a problem that year. Is she risking her brandnew baby to vacing. YES she is happily to prevent anything that may happen unlike her husbands cousins who children are spreading chicken pox as I type this. It was required when she went to school to have all the shots to go. If you dont want to to have them by school age then homeschool & let your kids have no immunities to anything but dont spread things around in daycares & schools so they can go home to others such as eldrely that are taken care of in-home. Some elderly never did get these things & still can & it will KILL them. Dont bother to respond to my posting. Again this is my opinion & you have yours!!!!!!!!!
There should not be a law. I am glad that I had the freedom to chose not to vaccinate my daughter until she was four, and then only Diptheria Pertussis and Meningitis. I breastfed until she was two and treated her measles and chicken pox and mumps with homeopathic medications. She has only had antibiotics once: when she was fourteen and her friend gave her impetigo. At age twenty-two she is the healthiest person I know. I attribute her health to an immune system that had a good start with breastfeeding and minimal vaccinations.
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I am glad you are taking the time to research it. I feel there some people on all sides of this issue spread misinformation and have knee jerk reactions. I do appreciate that there are diseases that caused a lot of death and disability that are now extremely rare. It is a complicated issue. All the best.
Well … I was an anti-vaxxer for awhile … hated the thought of it and I feel as if I had good reason. When I was a child; a friend of mines sister got a vaccination and within a week she was a paraplegic and had hydrocephalus and is became mentally retarded and wheelchair bound. So, the thought of vaccinations scared me.
I did get my daughter vaccinated but on a delayed schedule.
My son on the other hand … He’s 5 months and had his first set of shots already. I did that because of all the traveling on airplanes we had already planned to do shortly after his birth. With my husbands disabilities we are in and out of hospitals and doctors office so much I wanted to protect him the best way I felt I could.
I certainly don’t judge anyone for their choices at all. It still creates a lot of guilt in me that my daughter has the chicken pox vaxx.
It is nice to see a vaccination post that isn’t judgmental of others’ choices. We do vaccinate using the regular schedule. But I have researched and discussed and struggled over the past few years to make sure that I was making the choice I genuinely feel was the right one. So even though I chose to have my daughter vaccinated. I do understand the struggle of trying to make the right choice and I will continue reading and studying so if/when I have another child someday, I can still be a comfortable as possible(I don’t think I will ever be 100% comfortable with either option) with whatever choice we make. That being said. As someone who, when it comes down to it, is pro-vax, I can respect the choices of others as long as they are informed.
I am one of those people who fully believe in vaccines. I do believe they serve a purpose and are a good thing and have helped to eradicate some horrible diseases. Also, I now how parents feel about the Autism link but there is no evidence to support that which I am glad you mentioned. That being said, I do think a more delayed schedule should be taken as that many vaccines all at once are not good for a little body. I know we can survive these diseases but seeing a child go through them is absolutely heart wrenching when it could have been prevented. I did not have the chicken pox vaccine as a kid and just recently at 32 got shingles from my chicken pox and it was the most excruciating pain I have ever been in and would not wish it upon anyone.
I am sorry that you had shingles but keep in mind, children who get the chicken pox vaccination can also get shingles because the chicken pox virus was in their body. So having the vaccine prevents chicken pox (or they may get a mild case of it as with any live vaccination) but does NOT prevent Shingles.
I’m up in the air on this whole vaccination thing. I had all of them when I was a kid. My kids had all of them too. But I understand how parents feel who don’t want to get them. I guess my biggest concern is public safety as a whole. We need to weigh the few against the many and the many against the few and it can be tough!