Our son, Robert James just turned two months old, and my husband and I had decided NOT to vaccinate him until he turned two years old. When I talked about this with our DR. he suggested that we at least give him the HIB vaccine. His reasons made me think twice about our choice to go completly vaccine free. (The DR did agree that most of the vaccines could wait and some were not needed at all.)
Robert James has done really well over the past two months. He was born three weeks early; weighed 6 lbs 15 oz at birth and was 21 inches long. He is now 14.1 lbs and 23 1/2 inches long. He is totaly breastfed, and has done really well with that. I dread the thought of him getting sick from something that could be prevented, but I also am scared of the possible complications from vaccines (SIDS, autism, etc.....).
What I would like to know is -
1. Did you vaccinate?
b. which ones did you have?
c. did they cause problems?
d. why did you choose to vaccinate?
2. If you didn't vaccinate - what were the results?
a. Why did you choose not to vaccinate?
b. Are you planning to vaccinate later? (age 2+)
Thanks!
Update: April 8th. I just quickly skimmed through a book I got from the library. Boy, does it create new questions and makes me just a little fearful. The name of the book is The Infant Survival Guide by Lendon H. Smith, M.D.. It was published in 2000. It is about some of the causes of SIDS and he talk about vaccines as it relates to SIDS and Autism. It has caused me to, yet again, rethink the vaccines that we were planing. I think at this point we are going to wait on all vaccines until Robert James reaches at least 2 years of age. He won't be in school until he is 5, so we have some time.
I have always had strong feelings about the chemicals that are in our daily life (food, clothing, mattresses, carpet, etc) as my husband and I both have allergies and I have asthma. It just really concerns me that they put Formaldehyde and Thimerosal in vaccines. Why do they need it? It just doesn't make sense.
Oh, and Robert James is now 17lbs and 3 months old. (Growing like a weed!)
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Comments: 25
Personally I believe she is more at risk by not getting the vaccinations than if she does get them. All it would take is one sick person hopping on a plane from another country where some of these things are still very prevalent for there to be a major outbreak and put her at risk.
Interestingly enough I recently contracted Whooping Cough -- pertussis vaccine anyone? It is also on the rise again. This can be fatal if infants contract it. I was so glad I had made sure my little girl was totally current on vaccines because she wasn't put at risk from something I picked up in my normal upper-middle class activities. They have a booster for pertussis for adults now because they've found the immunization wears off over time and I'm planning on getting it so I can make sure I'm current on all of my vaccinations too!
Thanks for the advice, Janet. I am glad to hear that you had no problems with them. It is too bad about your friends daughter, but like you say - you will never know if it could have been prevented. I've heard of many children who have recieved the chickenpox vaccine, who still end up getting chickenpox.
Thanks Jennifer. I agree, better safe than sorry!
b. which ones did you have?For our first two all of them but the hep at birth. That's just insane.
c. did they cause problems?Our son has autism. Jury is still out on cause for us, but it is in our minds that vaccine played a role. Everyone got chicken pox anyway. Of course!
d. if you didn't vaccinate - what were the results?
e. why did you choose to vaccinate or not? With my daughter we have done more research, A lot of countries are taking a closer look at vaccines. Our son has epilepsy as well, so HIB is out for Wendy. This is according to the manufacturer leaflet.
Our doctor agreed that the hep at birth was not necessary and then when I talked to him about it at the two month, he said that there was very little chance that our son would have need of that vaccine.
We did get the HIB on Friday (9th) and he seemed to do well. He cried for a few seconds. I talked to him while the shot was given, then as soon as the nurse put the band-aid on I picked him up and held him close. He stopped crying right away. Then I nursed him before we left. He had no fever and didn't seem to be in pain. My husband is still worried about the chance of side-effects that could show up later.
The HIB has concerns for us because of epilepsy, and I won't lie to you there are some horror stories on that one. Most of those occur quickly after the administration of the vaccine. If it's been a few days, you should be okay. I wrote an editorial on vaccine research if you want that take on it.
We lean toward mercury as the culprit because the stats suggest taking it out may have slowed the climb of autism diagnoses. A big contributing factor to autism is neurological disease in your family history. In our case, schleroderma. We had no idea this was an issue till later.
Autism Speaks is a good place to go to learn about what to watch for. Autism is occurring in 1 of every 150 children now, so it's good to know the signs whatever you decide to do.
I did make sure that there were no preservatives in the vaccine. It is amazing to me that they have put mercury in these and now act surprized that people are getting sick!
It was such a difficult decision to make: to get the vaccine or not. I don't want him to catch something we could have prevented, yet I am not trusting of the people who are constantly pushing the drugs.
Thanks for the info about Autism. It does seem to be more prevelant these days. My husband and I also believe that food additives and hormones given to the animals that supply our meat and dairy also can lead to mental/physical/emotional changes.
If you get a chance check out www.themeatrix.com.
We have never had any issues or side effects.
I think vaccinations are very important! Espeically with all the things that are going around.
I am happy to hear that you had no problems. I do think that the majority don't have problems, but I wonder about the few that do...
For us, the benefits outweighed the risks. I'm still not sure what we'll do when she gets to the age where she could get that HPV vaccine, but that's a ways down the road.
I am very happy that we don't have to think about the HPV vaccine right now - but that has got to be a tough decision to make. You know that eventually your little girl will be sexualy active, but its not something that you like to think about right now. All the talk about making the shot manditory in OH has caused quite the stir. I don't think that it should be a required vaccine, but rather an optional one.
b. which ones did you have? We had a total of 3 shots which included 7 vaccines in one day, within those 3 shots. Honestly without looking I can't remember exactly every vaccine. I trust our doctor's judgment. Both my brother and I saw him but not as infants.
c. did they cause problems? Nope, no problems as of yet. I honestly don't think they have at all. The only problem we had was a small low grade fever and some fussiness for two days. She had the shots done in the morning and already had a dose of tylenol in her system before we got there. My biggest problem was watching her get the shot. They didn't even stick her with the needle and she saw it in there hands and she cried. Then she screamed bloody murder for 15 minutes afterwards because she was upset.
My daughter wasn't born early. She weighed 5lbs 12.8 oz and was 17 inches long. She's developing well and doing this alot of infants her age haven't done or I was told wasn't done intil later down the road. So, I have no worries.
oh, and question d. I chose to because they are reccomended and I figured the benefits outweight the chance of something happening later and problems occuring that could of been prevented. There is always a chance. Plus, she will need them later in life anyways so why not get them over with now.
About the chicken pox vaccine. I heard a few weeks ago there is a need for an update in the vaccine and 2 doses of the shot are reccommended now because kids are still getting chicken pox.There was something else about it but I can't remember what exactly was said.I guess that doesn't help though.
I got my baby the shots, but I didn't know you can opt out of this. I was told to bring her back to the doctor and get shots. So I did. I didn't know these shots have risks. I am glad my baby only had a small fever and nothing more complicated. (But the fever was frightening me already.) She got 3 shots with 6 different things inside. I don't know what they are without looking at the list.
The doctors really do push the shots, too. So it makes it really hard to say 'no'. Our doctor was a little pushy, but not too bad. The clinic where we ended up getting the HIB shot was VERY pushy about the shots. I guess shots are not required to go to school. Plus - if vaccines work like they are supposed to - why do people get upset because of a kid that didn't get shots, their kids should be protected, right?