First, I don't consider this a conservative/liberal issue.for me it's a moral one.
But isn't this what liberals say to justify everything else - spreading the wealth is a moral issue. Everything IS a moral issue. That's why we care about these things and they are so hotly debated.
It seems like people are fine with stripping away personal liberty when they think it's a moral issue. I think it's important that we keep that in mind when we have political debates. The way liberals feel about taking your tax money to fund this stuff, Peanut, is the way you feel about the vaccine debate. I guess we're all just picking and choosing when it's fair to play the morality card.
I vaccinate for most diseases, so I'm not sure where I fit on this debate. Maybe that's why it's easy for me to see both sides. I guess my personal convictions are that freedom (in religion, in personal liberty, etc.) trumps all. That's why even if I think mandated vaccinations are what would be best for the greater good, I would never ever advocate for it. I can't set aside my feelings on parental or personal rights on this or anything else.
Peanut and kleigh - OK, cool. As long as you're not for stripping away exemptions and all that, we're cool. We probably agree more on this issue than you think
Everyone knows where I stand and I don't care to restate what should be clear to everyone who understands basic science. I can say that I would be luckier to be born a homeless cat or something than to be born the child of people travelling to East Africa without providing me preventative medical care. It's hard enough to be a child there but at least you have been exposed to some things from birth or prior and may have some genetic preparedness. Something like malaria is not good to get if you've been away from it your whole life.
Everyone knows where I stand and I don't care to restate what should be clear to everyone who understands basic science. I can say that I would be luckier to be born a homeless cat or something than to be born the child of people travelling to East Africa without providing me preventative medical care. It's hard enough to be a child there but at least you have been exposed to some things from birth or prior and may have some genetic preparedness. Something like malaria is not good to get if you've been away from it your whole life.
I agree w/ your point....but there is no vaccine for marlaria....just clarifying.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
Fine then. I am dangerously selfish. I care about what happens to my children. I want them to be safe, happy and healthy. I don't want to overload their systems with useless viruses that do nothing to provide immunity but have added poisons which destroy the miraculous immune system they already have. If that makes me selfish, then so be it. I will wear that scarlet letter with pride!
And I'm curious, if these ignorant bloggers got to meet a mother with a child that was vaccine injured or dead do you think they would say "vaccinate your damn kids"??!
Unfortunately you can't control what others choose to say in response to your post. This is a HUGE area of controversy and one of the only issues that I feel very strongly about in regards to parenting decisions. If you've been around here for any length of time you had to know that this was going to spark some debate.
Parents not immunizing their children is causing a decrease in herd immunity and a recurrence of once almost-eradicated diseases. Knowing that my kid is at risk of contracting these diseases, even though she gets immunized, because of decreased herd immunity scares the crap out of me. The fact that we are even privileged enough in this country to think that not immunizing could ever be a smart choice is a testament to how naive we are to the true effects of these horrible diseases.
LOL @ the bolded. If you have done any sort of research you would know herd immunity does not exist. Vaccines only last 2 to 10 years at most which is why they recommend booster shots. Booster shots only last 2 years or less. I do not know ANY people my age and older that get booster shots. More than half the population is not up to date on shots.
And what research has told you this? Google? Please read the article I posted above. Tetanus boosters for example last 10 years. We got vaccinated against yellow fever to go to Uganda....its booster in 10 years will provide lifetime immunity. The 2 series of one of the Heps provides lifetime immunity. So I am not sure where you are getting your information.
Again, another person assuming us non-vaxxers use google for research…Is that all you people got? It's getting reallllllllll old. Time for a new line… And by article did you mean blog post full of garbage written by a stay at home mom with no medical degree?
Then by all means, list some of your sources and prove me wrong.
And did you read the article? If so, you would know that she is using research from medical doctors, peer reviewed journals and reputable medical organizations to make her points....it is all linked there for anyone to see. That is not the same as a "stay at home mom" writing her opinions, which I agree would not be valid.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
Also Jackigan, you didn't acknowledge any of the facts I pointed out that contradicted your general statements about length of vaccine effectiveness.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
If you scroll down you will see 26 sources listed.
I am just clarifying since a few articles have been posted and I have not read the other ones.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
ETA - some of her citations are just to wiki, so you have to follow the rabbit trail to get to the real data. Others are to reputable places, like the WHO and drug manufacturers.
Fine then. I am dangerously selfish. I care about what happens to my children. I want them to be safe, happy and healthy. I don't want to overload their systems with useless viruses that do nothing to provide immunity but have added poisons which destroy the miraculous immune system they already have. If that makes me selfish, then so be it. I will wear that scarlet letter with pride!
And I'm curious, if these ignorant bloggers got to meet a mother with a child that was vaccine injured or dead do you think they would say "vaccinate your damn kids"??!
-----------end quote--------------- I am seriously in disbelief at this. You can't possibly believe that our immune systems, as miraculous as they may be, can protect us against any and all diseases? You would deny the obvious scientific evidence of vaccines' usefulness and necessity? Wow....
PCOS with long, irregular cycles First round of Clomid in May 2012= BFP #1, DD born January 2013 BFP #2 in January 2014, DS born September 2014
ETA - some of her citations are just to wiki, so you have to follow the rabbit trail to get to the real data. Others are to reputable places, like the WHO and drug manufacturers.
That's fine....I am sure they are all over the place. Her quote was that boosters only provide immunity for 2 years or less and my point was that is not true across the board, as in the examples I provided.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
Ok, I'm going to try to answer (in part at least) the OP's question. We are going to vaccinate for all the major stuff, except we will probably put off varicella for a bit and I'm kind of on the fence about Gardisil, I think I might want to let DD decide on that one herself since, unless she starts having sex at a crazy young age, there probably won't be a need for her to get it before she's old enough to educate herself on the matter.
Anyway, we did split up DD's 2 month vaccines completely, because I am allergic to the pertussis vaccine and was concerned about her possibly having a reaction to something as well. But then we just split her 4 and 6 month vaccines into two visits when we determined that she didn't have any reactions. I don't like the idea of doing a bunch of shots at once because I want to be able to accurately determine which shot causes a reaction, so we can make sure we (a) don't give that shot again and (b) can continue giving shots that don't cause a reaction on (or close to) the recommended schedule.
This isn't a perfect comparison, since most medications are given to treat a condition someone already has, while vaccines are preventative, but I take a similar view regarding the risk of adverse reactions: just because some people have adverse reactions, it doesn't negate the benefit to the people whose lives were saved or whose quality of life was vastly improved. In a perfect world, there'd be a way to test for allergies to a vaccine or medication prior to administering it so that adverse reactions could be prevented altogether, but that probably hoping for too much.
And I guess I'm fairly moderate when it comes to vaccine requirements. I don't think the government should be able to mandate vaccines for every single person, but I don't have even the slightest problem with schools, day cares, or other facilities where children are in close contact mandating vaccines for diseases that can be easily spread, obviously with medical exemptions. (So stuff like MMR, DTaP, etc., makes sense since all it takes is a kid coughing or sneezing, but requiring something like Gardisil in order to attend public school would be silly, regardless of your opinion of its merits since generally speaking, the kids will not be having sex with each other during school hours!)
Everyone knows where I stand and I don't care to restate what should be clear to everyone who understands basic science. I can say that I would be luckier to be born a homeless cat or something than to be born the child of people travelling to East Africa without providing me preventative medical care. It's hard enough to be a child there but at least you have been exposed to some things from birth or prior and may have some genetic preparedness. Something like malaria is not good to get if you've been away from it your whole life.
I agree w/ your point....but there is no vaccine for marlaria....just clarifying.
I know. But I'm much more afraid of some of the anti malaria drugs than any current vaccine. And what about the anti wormers? I mean, if the little ones are on the ground or with other kids... Sheesh. And this is coming from a medical researcher who works in West Africa and has worked in East Africa.
Let me just add that I wish people would only read mommy blogs for recipe ideas and amusing stories. Mommy blogs can tell you absolutely nothing factual about science for sure. So if you get an idea, ask your doctor (not your medicine man). The average mommy blogger cannot adequately read, understand, and reconvey information from journals. Plus, even good science journalists with science degrees write to convey a story and make a point, so we can't trust what they write either.
I don't disagree that the nature of this topic is
controversial. However, I assumed the other members could be mature
enough to bypass the post if they disagreed with our decision or
couldn't answer my specific questions.
There are plenty of
topics I see discussed on here that I disagree with, and I don't go
defending my differing opinion because every parent is entitled to make
their own choices for their children. If someone asked for my opinion,
then that's a different story - I would give it. But, that was my
reason behind asking only three very specific questions."
We have chosen to delay vaxing. I will reevaluate when lo is 2. Dd and I are severely allergic to SOMETHING in vaccines, we both have bad reactions, rashes and anaphylaxis. Yet when dd had her reaction, the on call pedi decided that she wasn't having the reaction to the vaccine, and that I was lying about giving her a food item she was allergic to.
If I leave this city any time soon, I would reconsider. But until I can work with a pedi who will take my concerns seriously and at least attempt to figure out what the reaction is to, I'm not going to risk another reaction.
To clarify, we didn't see our current preferred pedi when dd had her reaction, we were forced to see an on call doc at the walk in clinic. My pedi supports our decision to delay, and will gladly separate any vaccines we can to not give multiple at once.
Fine then. I am dangerously selfish. I care about what happens to my children. I want them to be safe, happy and healthy. I don't want to overload their systems with useless viruses that do nothing to provide immunity but have added poisons which destroy the miraculous immune system they already have. If that makes me selfish, then so be it. I will wear that scarlet letter with pride!
And I'm curious, if these ignorant bloggers got to meet a mother with a child that was vaccine injured or dead do you think they would say "vaccinate your damn kids"??!
Unfortunately you can't control what others choose to say in response to your post. This is a HUGE area of controversy and one of the only issues that I feel very strongly about in regards to parenting decisions. If you've been around here for any length of time you had to know that this was going to spark some debate.
Parents not immunizing their children is causing a decrease in herd immunity and a recurrence of once almost-eradicated diseases. Knowing that my kid is at risk of contracting these diseases, even though she gets immunized, because of decreased herd immunity scares the crap out of me. The fact that we are even privileged enough in this country to think that not immunizing could ever be a smart choice is a testament to how naive we are to the true effects of these horrible diseases.
LOL @ the bolded. If you have done any sort of research you would know herd immunity does not exist. Vaccines only last 2 to 10 years at most which is why they recommend booster shots. Booster shots only last 2 years or less. I do not know ANY people my age and older that get booster shots. More than half the population is not up to date on shots.
And what research has told you this? Google? Please read the article I posted above. Tetanus boosters for example last 10 years. We got vaccinated against yellow fever to go to Uganda....its booster in 10 years will provide lifetime immunity. The 2 series of one of the Heps provides lifetime immunity. So I am not sure where you are getting your information.
Again, another person assuming us non-vaxxers use google for research…Is that all you people got? It's getting reallllllllll old. Time for a new line… And by article did you mean blog post full of garbage written by a stay at home mom with no medical degree?
It's funny, because I posted that link because if you saw her bio at the end of her commentary, she's anything but ignorant. She also cited more than one reputable source of information. Ok, non-vaxers don't use google as their only source of info. But neither do people who choose to blog about controversial issues, necessarily.
I don't disagree that the nature of this topic is controversial. However, I assumed the other members could be mature enough to bypass the post if they disagreed with our decision or couldn't answer my specific questions.
There are plenty of topics I see discussed on here that I disagree with, and I don't go defending my differing opinion because every parent is entitled to make their own choices for their children. If someone asked for my opinion, then that's a different story - I would give it. But, that was my reason behind asking only three very specific questions."
I fail to see any correlation between maturity and responding to a forum thread only if someone agrees with it. My opinion that people should vax on schedule is no reflection of my maturity. Neither is disagreeing with those that don't. Your pic said it best. The can of worms is opened and spilled. A public Internet forum is probably not the place to go looking for answers if you only want to hear from people who share your beliefs.
Just another link to consider. I am very pro-vaccine. I could never live with myself if my child was to get very sick or die from a preventable disease. I don't intend to change anyone's perspective on vaccines because it is clear that, for the most part, people feel very strongly one way or the other.
I think I'm the only person here who regularly admits to not fully vaccinating, so I'll share. Be prepared that this post will probably get ugly later.
Here is what we do not vaccinate for - Hep B, Varicella, Rotavirus, and flu. I am one of those people who is not completely comfortable with giving so many shots to a developing body, so I weighed the pros and cons of each individual shot and the ones I just listed didn't seem necessary at this point. When my children are a bit older we will vaccinate for Varicella (if they haven't already been exposed) and Hep B. I feel comfortable completely skipping Rotavirus and flu shots.
We do the rest of the shots, but I split up any combo shots (that I can - MMR, for example, we do not split). My doctor's office likes to give Pediarix (combo of DTaP, IPV, and HepB), but we separate that into three different shots. They normally give that shot with two others, which would be vaccinations for a total of seven different things at once. Maybe it's because I watched my youngest son have an anaphylactic reaction at two months old or maybe it's just because I'm skeptical of anyone saying something is 100% safe (when history has shown that the medical community can be wrong), but my mommy gut just told me that vaccinating for seven things at once wasn't healthy. So, what we do is split up all combos and only do one at a time. This way, if my child were to have a reaction (which was possible with our history of food allergies) it would be easier to figure out the cause. We do one shot every two weeks or month until caught up. We are never more than a month or two behind. This has worked well for us and my kids never have reactions to the vaccines - not even a fever or fussiness.
Ultimately, you have to ask yourself, is it worth risking your child getting the disease. Even though I don't believe vaccines cause autism (although I do have theories on it triggering it for certain people with the genetic predisposition in the same way any toxic overload could), let's say my child had the signs of autism show up shortly after receiving a vaccine. I could live with the result of that decision. I couldn't live with myself if my child ended up paralyzed from polio. My FIL was raised Christian Science and watched people around him contract some pretty nasty diseases. He was a firm advocate for vaccinating our children and I listened to his stories. He himself contracted several diseases as a teenager, like measles and mumps, and he is lucky that he was able to have children afterwards.
So my short answer - I don't feel my kids are at a high risk for developing Hep B at this young age, so we will revisit that later. Chicken Pox isn't a concern to me. We will revisit it if my kids are teenagers and have not contracted it naturally, because I would want my daughters to have protection before getting pregnant. Rotavirus vaccine is unnecessary IMO, as I know a few people who have vaccinated their kids and their kids still got it (it only works 75% of the time). And flu shots are a crap shoot, IMO, and are not worth it. The rest I feel comfortable giving one at a time.
This is probably the most well articulated, evidence based, and well thought out argument I have heard on altering or omitting vaccinations. It's frustrating to hear people say so often inaccurate information about vaccines. THIS reasoning makes sense!
I think I'm the only person here who regularly admits to not fully vaccinating, so I'll share. Be prepared that this post will probably get ugly later.
Here is what we do not vaccinate for - Hep B, Varicella, Rotavirus, and flu. I am one of those people who is not completely comfortable with giving so many shots to a developing body, so I weighed the pros and cons of each individual shot and the ones I just listed didn't seem necessary at this point. When my children are a bit older we will vaccinate for Varicella (if they haven't already been exposed) and Hep B. I feel comfortable completely skipping Rotavirus and flu shots.
We do the rest of the shots, but I split up any combo shots (that I can - MMR, for example, we do not split). My doctor's office likes to give Pediarix (combo of DTaP, IPV, and HepB), but we separate that into three different shots. They normally give that shot with two others, which would be vaccinations for a total of seven different things at once. Maybe it's because I watched my youngest son have an anaphylactic reaction at two months old or maybe it's just because I'm skeptical of anyone saying something is 100% safe (when history has shown that the medical community can be wrong), but my mommy gut just told me that vaccinating for seven things at once wasn't healthy. So, what we do is split up all combos and only do one at a time. This way, if my child were to have a reaction (which was possible with our history of food allergies) it would be easier to figure out the cause. We do one shot every two weeks or month until caught up. We are never more than a month or two behind. This has worked well for us and my kids never have reactions to the vaccines - not even a fever or fussiness.
Ultimately, you have to ask yourself, is it worth risking your child getting the disease. Even though I don't believe vaccines cause autism (although I do have theories on it triggering it for certain people with the genetic predisposition in the same way any toxic overload could), let's say my child had the signs of autism show up shortly after receiving a vaccine. I could live with the result of that decision. I couldn't live with myself if my child ended up paralyzed from polio. My FIL was raised Christian Science and watched people around him contract some pretty nasty diseases. He was a firm advocate for vaccinating our children and I listened to his stories. He himself contracted several diseases as a teenager, like measles and mumps, and he is lucky that he was able to have children afterwards.
So my short answer - I don't feel my kids are at a high risk for developing Hep B at this young age, so we will revisit that later. Chicken Pox isn't a concern to me. We will revisit it if my kids are teenagers and have not contracted it naturally, because I would want my daughters to have protection before getting pregnant. Rotavirus vaccine is unnecessary IMO, as I know a few people who have vaccinated their kids and their kids still got it (it only works 75% of the time). And flu shots are a crap shoot, IMO, and are not worth it. The rest I feel comfortable giving one at a time.
This is probably the most well articulated, evidence based, and well thought out argument I have heard on altering or omitting vaccinations. It's frustrating to hear people say so often inaccurate information about vaccines. THIS reasoning makes sense!
One more thing...Thanks for not completely dismissing science, which I notice happens many times when people discuss opting out of vaccinations. Doctors and scientists may not be 100% honest or knowledgeable about what is best for every child, but they are not OUT TO GET the world's children through vaccines.
We do about what AW does. I do not see why a newborn baby needs a Hep B vaccine since no one in our household has the disease. Vaccines have risks, so I think it is worth thinking about the likelihood that my child will contract the disease. Also, one of my children has febrile seizures and this is another reason why we only give one vaccine at a time.
While my children and their well-being are my primary responsibility, I do feel some measure of social responsibility as well. There are children who cannot receive vaccines and by keeping the disease out the population they receive at least some measure of protection. By the time my children are school age they are fully vaccinated.
@katelyn1434, those are great articles. I have first-hand experience with the whooping cough issue in California…it was still persisting the winter before DD was born. I caught it while I was still pregnant, and I was coughing so hard for so long that I cracked a rib. When I was in the hospital in labor and after birth, only grandparents (not even siblings) were allowed to visit in order to protect the newborns. I was vaccinated again as soon as possible, and I had DD vaccinated on schedule.
I don't personally have a problem with someone not vaccinating their kids as long as they have a legitimate reason for it, such as history of allergies, religious beliefs, etc. I just think parents should seriously evaluate the risks and benefits. AND definitely do not attack other parents for making their own decisions. If some of you missed my post before, a "friend" of mine verbally attacked me and basically said I was a bad parent for vaccinating my DD and questioning her reasons for not doing so with her DD.
Seriously though, nothing in this world is 100% safe. Every drug has its own list of possible side affects, and things that are completely natural can be deadly. Infants can get botulism from honey for christ's sake! If an anti-vaxxer's fear of adverse reactions is stronger than their fear for the diseases themselves, then so be it. Since none of the reasons to not vaccinate fit mine or my family's situation, I personally am going to live my life looking at the bigger picture instead of stressing the one-offs.
I'm not saying the risk isn't greater for the diseases; I'm saying the anti-vaxxers fear for vaccines is greater than their fear for the risk. And I was saying so be it because people on both sides of the argument are going to be stubborn as all hell, and unless the government makes a law that requires all vaccines, neither side is going to budge anyway. So why both arguing?
Back to the original post, can anyone answer what homeopathic/naturopathic and effective alternatives there are to vaccines in preventing diseases, other than having your child live in a box?
As a nurse and someone with a degree in public health, I am quite skeptical that any educated person, especially in a scientific field, could ever agree that the risks of vaccinating your children could outweigh the benefits.
Re: New to not vaccinating and I've got some questions.
It seems like people are fine with stripping away personal liberty when they think it's a moral issue. I think it's important that we keep that in mind when we have political debates. The way liberals feel about taking your tax money to fund this stuff, Peanut, is the way you feel about the vaccine debate. I guess we're all just picking and choosing when it's fair to play the morality card.
I vaccinate for most diseases, so I'm not sure where I fit on this debate. Maybe that's why it's easy for me to see both sides. I guess my personal convictions are that freedom (in religion, in personal liberty, etc.) trumps all. That's why even if I think mandated vaccinations are what would be best for the greater good, I would never ever advocate for it. I can't set aside my feelings on parental or personal rights on this or anything else.
I'm just going to leave this here.
I like cookies.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
@jesuisfatiguee YES!
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
First round of Clomid in May 2012= BFP #1, DD born January 2013
BFP #2 in January 2014, DS born September 2014
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
https://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/2011/2/8/vaccines-how-long-does-immunity-last.html#.UugG-_tOlH1
ETA - some of her citations are just to wiki, so you have to follow the rabbit trail to get to the real data. Others are to reputable places, like the WHO and drug manufacturers.
-----------end quote---------------
I am seriously in disbelief at this. You can't possibly believe that our immune systems, as miraculous as they may be, can protect us against any and all diseases? You would deny the obvious scientific evidence of vaccines' usefulness and necessity? Wow....
First round of Clomid in May 2012= BFP #1, DD born January 2013
BFP #2 in January 2014, DS born September 2014
We are so thankful that our second daughter, Lillian Elizabeth "Lily", was born healthy and happy on February 11, 2013. We love her to pieces.
We lost our first daughter, Hannah Grace on May 4, 2011. She was buried on May 14 during a beautiful service at my home church. We are grateful that if she could not be here with us, that she is healed and whole with the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will get to meet her. We love her so much.
Anyway, we did split up DD's 2 month vaccines completely, because I am allergic to the pertussis vaccine and was concerned about her possibly having a reaction to something as well. But then we just split her 4 and 6 month vaccines into two visits when we determined that she didn't have any reactions. I don't like the idea of doing a bunch of shots at once because I want to be able to accurately determine which shot causes a reaction, so we can make sure we (a) don't give that shot again and (b) can continue giving shots that don't cause a reaction on (or close to) the recommended schedule.
This isn't a perfect comparison, since most medications are given to treat a condition someone already has, while vaccines are preventative, but I take a similar view regarding the risk of adverse reactions: just because some people have adverse reactions, it doesn't negate the benefit to the people whose lives were saved or whose quality of life was vastly improved. In a perfect world, there'd be a way to test for allergies to a vaccine or medication prior to administering it so that adverse reactions could be prevented altogether, but that probably hoping for too much.
And I guess I'm fairly moderate when it comes to vaccine requirements. I don't think the government should be able to mandate vaccines for every single person, but I don't have even the slightest problem with schools, day cares, or other facilities where children are in close contact mandating vaccines for diseases that can be easily spread, obviously with medical exemptions. (So stuff like MMR, DTaP, etc., makes sense since all it takes is a kid coughing or sneezing, but requiring something like Gardisil in order to attend public school would be silly, regardless of your opinion of its merits since generally speaking, the kids will not be having sex with each other during school hours!)
"
There are plenty of topics I see discussed on here that I disagree with, and I don't go defending my differing opinion because every parent is entitled to make their own choices for their children. If someone asked for my opinion, then that's a different story - I would give it. But, that was my reason behind asking only three very specific questions."
If I leave this city any time soon, I would reconsider. But until I can work with a pedi who will take my concerns seriously and at least attempt to figure out what the reaction is to, I'm not going to risk another reaction.
To clarify, we didn't see our current preferred pedi when dd had her reaction, we were forced to see an on call doc at the walk in clinic. My pedi supports our decision to delay, and will gladly separate any vaccines we can to not give multiple at once.
"
member
I don't disagree that the nature of this topic is
controversial. However, I assumed the other members could be mature
enough to bypass the post if they disagreed with our decision or
couldn't answer my specific questions.
There are plenty of
topics I see discussed on here that I disagree with, and I don't go
defending my differing opinion because every parent is entitled to make
their own choices for their children. If someone asked for my opinion,
then that's a different story - I would give it. But, that was my
reason behind asking only three very specific questions."
I fail to see any correlation between maturity and responding to a forum thread only if someone agrees with it. My opinion that people should vax on schedule is no reflection of my maturity. Neither is disagreeing with those that don't. Your pic said it best. The can of worms is opened and spilled. A public Internet forum is probably not the place to go looking for answers if you only want to hear from people who share your beliefs.
That was a cool map! Thanks for sharing! That's the type of stuff I built before I became a SAHM and I like science/data so I really liked it!
DS born: February 2013
TTC #2: Nov. 14
Chemical pregnancy 09/16/15
BFP: 12/25/15 EDD: 09/04/16