To Vaccinate or Not?

Dr. Sears has a book out regarding the different vaccines, what the different diseases they 'prevent' are, how effective they are, etc. It also gives an alternative shot schedule. We have decided that in one day not to give more than one shot and we leave a couple of weeks in between. There are tons of books out there that will scare you so I suggest reading dr. Sears book first and doing as much reasearch as you can. Weigh the pros and cons of both sides and then decide how you feel about it. It's a tough decision and I wish you luck!

I would continue getting the shots, they prevent so many diseases. My son is 2 and he has all the shots he needs for now. He is doing great. If the shots were that bad the food and drug administration would have probalby banned them. Keep getting your child vaccinated.

I reccomend that you talk to a local chiropractor who is are specialists in working with the natural healing of the body. They will tell you that the BODY'S IMMUNE SYSTEM DOES NOT FULLY DEVELOPE UNTIL THE AGE 2! If you want to still immunize you can and DO HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT to WAIT OR NOT VACCINATE AT ALL. Luna is right, the all mighty dollar is behind the pushing of vaccination. As with your doctors prefering to give you a brand name prescription(who pay the doctors) vs. generic prescriptions who endorse the pharmacies.
I have twin 2.5 yr olds and are now adjusted on a weekly basis and can asure you that they are much healthier now than before. We don't take them to the pediatrician as often since they do not (if at all) become sick. Don't get me wrong, if they were to have to visit their pediatrician when chiropractic care can not help, I will go.
You should do a little research from both sides and then make the decision on your own. After all this is your little one who you have to care for at the end of the day. ...you are what you eat so why should it be any different with what your body intakes internally or externally.

Like a previous poster said, I would be devastated if my child died of a disease that could have been prevented... I would also be devastated if my child died of a vaccine reaction that could have been prevented. Especially a vaccine for a disease lie Hep B that the chances of them getting in the first place are slim to none.

You need to read! Dr Sears book is great. There is a medical practice called Homefirst (www.homefirst.com) that has vaccine seminars (free). They are anti-vaccine but you can go to get their take on it. Most doctors are pro-vaccination- not only do they make money off of it, but they tend to be bought into the medical model without regard for alternative information that may be out there.

Do your research- you will probably not find unbiased information so make sure you read from both sides.

I am an elementary school educator for 27 years, I have witnessed a definite increase in the number of children with autism and children on the autism spectrum. I am also best friends with a mother of a 13 year-old son with autism. There must be something in our environment that causes the increase of this disorder. No doubt, there is a genetic component due to the high number males who are autistic. If a newborn has a genetic predisposition (that, as of now, is undetectable) and is then immunized, especially around the 15 months of age, when a child receives 3-5 injections at one visit, the chance of that child having autism is quite high. Unfortunately, we do not have the appropriate tests available to know about the predisposition. If I had an infant, especially, a son, I would be cautious about immunizations. Yes, thermerosal, has been removed, but does a 15 pound child need to have that many live viruses introduced into his/her body at one time? You have the right to ask that the immunizations be spread out--you may pay more for the visits, but in the long run, it's cheaper than having a child with autism. The most important task of being a parent is to be educated. Look it up, do some research, you don't have to have your baby immunized all at one time. Believe me, I've seen these children at school and the issues they have- if parents can help avoid it, I'd say do what you can.
I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones--I didn't know what I now know about immunizations, and just got lucky having a healthy 13 yr.-old daughter. My friend, only 2 doors away, with a son 6 weeks older, was not so lucky. He's mostly non-verbal and goes to a private school due to his autism. He may never be able to live on his own as an adult.
My advice is to be smart, do some research...I'm not anti-vaccines, I just think parents need to be smart.

My opinion is to vaccinate. I would be devastated if my child caught a deadly disease that could have been prevented if I had only given her a vaccination but then again this is one topic alot of people don't want to touch because it is more of a personal preference. I say maybe do some research yourself into the vaccinations and make your own decision. Best of luck!

*Yikes! My five-month-old son just hit the keyboard's "back" button, and that erased my entire response!!!! Now I have to retype it!*

PLEASE VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN!

Here are some points, probably made shorter from what I typed before my lovely, sweet, handsome little son ERASED IT! LOL

1. If an unvaccinated child gets ill with one of these preventable diseases, s/he has a 5-10% chance of giving it to MY CHILDREN, who are both vaccinated. Granted that's a 90-95% chance they won't, but I don't like any chances. Don't put my kids at risk over unproven "facts."

2. The Thimerosal connection is unproven. Yes, mercury is bad, but A. it's so minuscule that your child probably encounters more in the general environment than in a shot. If you're this worried about mercury, DON'T USE THE NEW CFL LIGHT BULBS, as they contain mercury, which is bad if they get broken!

3. Most shots don't have Thimerosal. I'd have to look it up, but I believe a doctor/nurse told me that its use in Illinois vaccinations was supposed to get banned a while back. Again, I am not certain of this. Either way, only one of my 5yo daughter's shots had it in 2002.

4. Speaking of my daughter: she is autistic. I am 100% sure it had nothing to do with vaccinations. It turns out that autism can run in families. My brother has Asperger Syndrome, and my sister has ADHD (one of her daughters is ADD, another is either ADD or ODD), our mom is ADD, and I'm ADD, possibly some Asperger. When we look back, almost everyone who knows my daughter can see some of the subtle signs since she was a baby. She is on the under-stimulated side of Sensory Processing Disorder (as opposed to easily over stimulated), and those traits were there from the start.

5. The "sudden, rapid spread of autism" may not be so sudden. The diagnostic criteria have been greatly expanded over the past decade or two. My brother was not diagnosed until he was in college because he didn't display what was "typical" autistic behavior. Think back: there have ALWAYS been children/adults who displayed what can now be considered ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) traits. Einstein is believed to have had Asperger. DaVinci, too. There have always been kids who "talked late" or just seemed behind all the others. Autism, ADD, and other learning disabilities can explain many of those cases. Personally, I suspect that if there is more autism due to environmental factors, it's not as great an increase as people think.

6. Reactions to vaccinations are normal. It's in the literature they give you. The body is being tricked into thinking there's an attack. It's only natural to not feel well after any kind of vaccination. But the vaccination contains dead or near-dead virus unable to make you truly ill. A couple days of feeling blech is a great tradeoff to dying or being permanently affected by a disease. HOWEVER, some people do react to the egg-based medium. The doctor can provide a different source for those people.

Please, it is SO IMPORTANT to vaccinate. This is how smallpox has been eradicated in the United States. What a horrible disease! And polio--who doesn't know someone stricken by this debilitating disease? If you don't, look into FDR.

When you do "research," keep in mind that not every study is viable. A proper study needs to maintain strict controls, have a large number of subjects (the larger the better--fifty people a study does NOT make), and be conducted by open-minded scientists. Even then, the results can be interpreted in countless ways. You also need to see who is funding the research and whether it's conducted through a reputable institution. I'm all about anecdotal "evidence," but it needs to be backed up in some way.

"False correlations" abound in frightening ways. Saying a shot made a kid autistic just because the symptoms showed up soon after a round of shots is like saying "A bird flew into my window after I farted, therefore my farts make birds fly into windows."

You can see I'm passionate about this issue. I would love for people to start being more careful about making bold statements such as "Vaccinations cause autism."

To be honest, I worried about this for a while before we even knew we had a problem. I always said, though, that I'd rather have an autistic child than a dead child due to a preventable disease.

I love my kids fiercely, and I will continue to have them vaccinated to prevent horrid diseases.

PLEASE, do A LOT of research before you give your child ANY shots or pharmaceutical drugs of ANY kind. The doctors mean well but they are trained by schools funded by drug companies who make money off keeping people alive-and-not-well. Please read books and research the internet and consult homeopaths, naturopaths, and Spirit (aka God) before you procede with any more shots.

The mercury (yes, MERCURY) they use as a preservative in vaccines is devastatingly toxic. Some children react to it by becoming severely autistic; others have lesser but still noticeable reactions; while others just get weaker or have their true health and well-being potential lowered (how can you measure unreached potential?). Sure they might not get Hepatitis B (but unless you or a caregiver has it, why would a 2 day old baby be at risk for hepatitis?)... There are some vaccines now being made without mercury.

Do your research and listen to your heart, not the fear the doctors will try to guilt you with.

Blessings,
L.

We got our son the shots when he was baby but when they said he would need the shots for Hep B or chicken pox, I said no. My son did end up getting Chicken pox when he was small and he was fine.
But my girl friend gave no shots to her children and they ended up with whooping cough. They were really sick for quite a while.
I never heard that shots could be linked to ADD or autism. If you can't decide you could possibly talk to a Homeopathic doctor or a doctor that has studied Naturopathic medicine. They can give you very good advice.

As far as I know there are those that think the thimerisol they use to use in vacines was the culprit for a rise in autism.

To be safe, my husband and I requested the pamplets in all the vaccines our daughters would need so we could read all the ingrediants and warnings ahead of time. We researched the internet for any other wording that might be used in place of thimerisol (probably not spelling that correctly).

After doing some pretty extensive research we discovered that thimerisol or mercury is rarely if ever used in vaccines anymore. To be sure ask for the pamphlets that come with all vaccines your doctor orders.

We also made the choice to turn down vaccines we deemed unnecessary like chicken pox and flu. It really is a personal choice, but when your child starts school they will be required and you may not want your child to have to endure so many shots at that point. Now if you don't send your child to public school then you won't have that issue.

PS One reason my husband and I chose to go with the vaccines was the fact that this area has such a huge number of illegal immigrants that aren't vaccinated and often bring in illnesses that aren't common here. (Please don't take that as a slight against an ethnic group because my husband is of hispanic ancestory...his mother works for a school district and tells us of cases of things like measles, tb, and so on appearing in the schools).

talk to your pediatrician. I would not listen to uneducated people. most vaccines today do not contain thermesol. Your ped should have handed out info on vaccines and I highly recommend to read them. as a nurse i have never heard vac linked to ADD some say they are linked to autism but there is no proof to back this up. there was a study by one dr who said autism is linked to MMR but the other drs working with him recanted because Autism can not be diagnosed before the age of 2 and MMR is given at 18 months.

Some patients choose to break up there vaccines so they are not getting so much at once. I would also recommend looking at the diseases these vaccines prevent.

My sisters friend just died from hep B- she was 40 years old with a 3 year old and 11 year old.
each year 3000 to 5000 people die from Hep B. Hep B virus is spread though contact with blood or other body fluids such as contact with blood and body fluids at the time of birth. since 1991 hep B reported incidence of acute hep B among children and adolescents has dropped more than 95% and by 75% in all age groups.