Vaccinations

Hi Everyone,

I am relatively new around here and I wanted to know how you all felt about vaccinations. Do you vaccinate according to your pediatrician's schedule? Did you delay any vaccinations? Is anyone completely anti-vaccination, and if so, why?

My husband and I vaccinated our son according to the pediatrician's schedule. I had no idea until recently that many parents selectively vaccinate and I am eager to learn everyone's reasons why they do or do not vaccinate.

Got.One.Son

We vaccinated on schedule. If I had it to do over again, I'd delay and space them out, and find a pediatrician whose philosophy was in line with that approach. Once you get to school years (including preschool, but especially later), you get a lot of pressure from the state to be up to date. There are forms to fill out every year if you're not vaccinating, and your child will be automatically barred from school during any outbreak.

dTap is a good one to get on time. Whooping cough is dangerous and can be fatal in small children, especially infants. Don't separate the dTap (i.e. don't get Tetanus as a separate shot---the Tetanus-only shot is loaded with mercury, while the tetanus vaccine in the dTap is not, according to a source I read). The one that worries most people is MMR. This is a good one to delay, in my opinion. There are some who believe this is the one linked to autism---believe me, if I had any autism in my family I'd start this one as late as possible---not at the 2 year mark, closer to Kindergarten.

Our child doesn't get the flu shot for various reasons, including egg allergy.

There was an outbreak of pertussis last year at Daniel's preschool. Interestingly, the child who brought it to school was unvaccinated, but the other unvaccinated child at the same school did not get it, while a vaccinated child did get it. It makes you wonder if immune system health and readiness is more determined by nutrition/sleep/etc. than by vaccination history.

No flu vax for us. Wish I didn't do MMR. Postponed as long as I could but got pressure from my ped when Wil was maybe 20 months (they give it routinely at 15 months). I also hold off on Polio and the Hep A (which is a new one). Wil is enrolled in preschool for this fall (just filled out the paperwork today) and I have to send in copies of his vax record, so I know we will probably get a call since we are not totally up to date. I have my reasons, mostly about mercury, autism links, etc.

Let me clarify: I don't necessarily refuse any vax except the flu, I just prefer to space them out. Don't like so many injections all at one time. How would you know which is causing a reaction if your kid has had five in one day? That's my opinion any way.

Did them all on schedule except made them split up the MMR....

We don't do the flu vax. And most of her shots have been delayed but at least a couple months. Though the first set had to happen on time as we were military .

She will get all the normal vaccines, as I had them and so did my husband and we are fine. I know the scare of many of them, I have a book on not vax. I worked for a dr. who was all about NO VAX. He would tell you every reason under the sun not to. Some of his argument was convincing, thats why hers are delayed. As will this one(s).

** This is just my opinion. I know this is a touchy subject **

Most here know I'm a big proponent of vaccinations. All of ours had them on time. I don't push the flu vaccine, but I'm a proponent in those that are immune compromised and those in the high risk groups.

We don't do any vaccines anymore. I believe that the risks associated with vaccinating FAR outweigh the benefits of a VAX. Especially since I was VAX as a child only to find out that some of them never took.. so there's no guarantee. Also my DD had a bad reaction at 2 mos and we have had friends lose a child to a vax death. And another friend had their perfectly normal 5 year old end up with severe multiple seizures and back at teh level of a 2 year old about 5 days after he recieved his MMR vaccine for a school booster. The ped and his grandfather (who is also a PED) siad it is a direct reaction to the shot, and not the first time they had seen one. Plus after reading several books, talking ot several homopathic Dr's and my own ped we have decided that we were not going to Vax any longer. Some peopel have every arguement under the sun why we should be vaxing and how we are hurting our kids Blah blah blah but they do what's right for them we do what's right for us. So long story kinda shortened.. DS 1 was fully vaxed on schedule, DD was 1/2 vax, (only received a few vax on schedule until 18 months and has had no more adn will not have any more) DS #2 is totally Vax free and honestly is teh healthiest of my 3 kids so far. No jaundice or anything after birth (he didnt' get that vit k shot either) Anyway that's our story. And as I always put whenever anyoen asks about vax.. it's better to wait if you aren't 100% sure as you cannot take it out once you've put it into them. AND DO YOUR RESEARCH> Don't jus ttake teh advice of those you talk to online or IRL but really read and research for yourself, get help on where to look if you need it but dont' just assume it's all good cause someone says it is. I'm not up for a debate so I'm leaving it at that

All interesting posts.

I agree that everyone needs to do the research and not just listen to the doctor or their friends or online articles. We all need to weigh the pros and cons carefully and make the decision that works best for each of our families.

I am glad we are able to discuss this without claws coming out. Seems the people on this board can discuss hot-button issues without the claws coming out. So far, anyway...

GotOneSon

Most of the time.

Logan has a heart condition. He is totally up to date on all vax, delayed one set due to a heart surgery. They wanted him to wait 6 weeks post op. He gets flu vax every year too. I'd prefer not to stress his lungs with a heart issue. My personal preference/opinion.

my oldest has terrible asthma and allergic croup and has had pneumonia twice, once with a two week hosp stay that almost ended with a trach.
so we are adviced due to decreased resistance to get him a flu vac. and that includes our whole family.
all our other vac. are on schedule.
even our youngest who has egg allergies, gets a flu shot and his mmr, and had not reacted to the shots. we were told that the amount is so minimal its rare...
now i am sure thats a matter of opinion as some kids react to just tiny amounts of eggs.
but for us it is better so it keeps our oldest safe.

For those of you who do not vaccinate or delay vaccinations, did you research the disease as well as the vaccination?

This discussion has always fascinated me, probably because no one has a cut and dry answer for it, yet many people feel so strongly one way or the other.

I am glad we can discuss this without fighting.
GotOneSon

My only advice is to ask the doctor or nurses if the vaccines are mercury free. My boys' doctor's office does not use any with mercury. AND, even though they supposedly don't make them with mercury anymore, they still used/use up the old vaccines with the mercury in them. Any that were already made, the manufacterers still sent them out. I wont do flu shots. I am also debating about the chicken pox vaccine for Aiden. Other than that, we do them all on schedule.

No flu vax for anyone in my house, despite the fact that dh and ds both have asthma.
Ds #1- on the routine schedule. (14 yrs ago, which contained ALOT less vaxs than now)
Ds#2- on a delayed schedule (he had a lot of ear infections, and I won't vax unless kid is completely well at the time.) Btw, he did have a bad reaction to the MMR, though he's fine now.
Dd- we did it one at a time, on my schedule. Delayed the MMR until the school demanded it for kindergarten registration.
I think there's plenty of misinformation and paranoia on BOTH sides of this issue. I think that drs are too quick to accept the safety data and "information" provided to them by the pharmeceutical companies. And I think there's alot of hysteria on the other side as well. As I've said in the past, we're on our own with this one to do our own research and hopefully arrive at the best possible conclusion for our own families. I am resentful that I, a layperson, am left to interpret alot of dense scientific info because I can't trust the gov't to protect the interests of children from greedy drug companies, but that's the law of the jungle, I guess.

yes I did research the disease as well as the vaccines