Immunizations
"i have been debating with whether or not we should immunize our children because there is so much information out there and it is very overwhelming with me. my son just recently had rotavirus which cause severe diarhhea and vomitting. and i never want him or me to experience that again but i am also weary of the side affects..and even the possibility of autism. so i was wondering what you other moms thought esp. those that are against it and WHY."
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There have been lots of studies done to show that the link between vaccines and autism is weak at best and has never been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the vaccine causes autism. There is no known cause for autism and speculation of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine causing autism came about mainly because of coincidence. The vaccine is schedualed to be given around the same time that autistic "symptoms" generally present themselves and the correlation was made around a time when health care professionals were becomming more aware of autism itself.
Most parents who neglect to vaccinate their children rely on what's known as the "herd effect" to protect their children from infections diseases controlled by immunizations. That means that they consider their child safe because everyone else's child is immunized. In fact, this is can be a dangerous practice because these condtions have started to make a comeback due to people not vaccinating appropriately. We are seeing a recurrance of things like polio, mumps, pertussis (whopping cough) and meningitis (the type that children can be vaccinated against, there are several types).
Some parents also do what's known as delayed or staggered vaccination and that is often done because parents are concerned about the impact multiple vaccines have on a young child's immune system. There are also beliefs that vaccines cause illness like with the flu vaccine, which is not true unless you have an extremely supressed immune system as is seen with conditions like autoimmune diseases, AIDS, leukemias, etc. Most vaccines use dead or near dead viruses and VERY rarely live viruses...just enough to initiate an antibody response so that the immune system can produce antibodies to that virus.
My personal and professional advice to you is to think about this: side effects from vaccines usually include fever, fatigue, and redness/pain/swelling at the site of injection which are FAR less severe than the risk of your child contracting and possibly dying from contracting the disease the vaccine is designed to protect against. Also, the reasons for why we don't routinely see these conditions anymore is BECAUSE of vaccination. I would recommend definitely getting your child vaccinated with the hepatitis, MMR, DTP (diptheria, tetanus, pertussis) pneumococcal and menningococcal vaccines on as close of a scheduale as possible. These ones are easy to stagger and work out to getting one vaccine a month as opposed to 2 or 3 at the same time every couple of months. Vaccines I personally think you can forgo if you so choose are the varicella (chicken pox) and influenza (flu). However, keep in mind that influenza can be deadly in young children...even though this vaccine only protects against the most common forms of influenza from the previous season it's still worth considering.
With my son, we staggered his vaccines on the advice of my physician. He got them all as close to schedualed as possible. We also did the flu vaccine in his first flu season but were unable to this season because he had also received his 18 month needles at the same time (and incidently, he got extremely ill during flu season). We did skip the varicella vaccine though and here's why: chicken pox is one of those illnesses that you get better immunity from if you actually get it. You will always have the chicken pox virus in your system lying dormant and it can be reactivated in the form of shingles and sometimes a repeat case of chicken pox. Also, this vaccine is relatively new and there are few studies done on the long term effects (past the 10 year mark I believe) and effectiveness of the vaccine. As it stands right now, I believe boosters are recommended. But in the interim, you are susceptible to chicken pox. We decided we would wait and see if our child got chicken pox naturally by the age of 12 before vaccinating him. If he doesn't get it naturally by age 12, we plan on getting him vaccinated because chicken pox is MUCH easier for a child's immune system to ward off and can be fatal in an adult. For whatever reason, chicken pox attacks an adult's respiratory system but not so in children.
Having personally dealt with some of these conditions in my professional practice and seen first hand their impact on a person's health and being fairly well researched as a parent, I'm STRONGLY for vaccinating as on time as possible and defintely 100% against forgoing all childhood vaccines. You will likely hear things like "well I didn't vaccinate and my child is fine" type comments from people who are anti-vaccine...well, on the flip side my child was vaccinated and he's fine as well. In my opinion, it's the luck of the draw if you get to keep a healthy child on no vaccines and frankly not a gamble I would choose to play with my children's health and safety.
Do your research (the CDC and WHO are good places to start) and talk to your doctor before deciding to delay, stagger or refuse vaccines.
i have heard that vaccines contain formaldehyde... do you know anything about that?
Yes some vaccines do contain formaldehyde in dilute doses as it acts as a vacine preservative. It is not harmful in these minute doses (less than 0.1 mg per vaccine dose). The body also has naturally occuring formaldehyde in its blood system too so introducing it via vaccine is not going to lead to a foreign onslaught or anything like that.
ok
For my son we waited to give him his first Heb. B needle since they have started giving the first of 3 needles in the hospital. We decided that for a newborn that was unnecessary and we waited until he was a few months old but we did give him all the other needles on time. He has been fine with the needles and Autism has not been linked 100% with immunization. Personally I believe autism is something that happens in the womb and not something that we can control either way. You will have to weigh your consequences...are you willing to risk not immuning for the sake of avoiding autism or any side affects with the higher risk that your child could get one of these diseases that he could have been vaccined against. As an example but not to scare you...a member of my family did not vaccinate there first child and at a young age he contracted meningitis(sp) and he lived thankfully but he is 25 now and is deaf. It left him permanently deaf at age 2.5. This was just there situation and felt guilty for awhile about it but noone knows if the outcome would have been any different if they had vaccined but that is something they will not know one. They had two other children which they did vaccine. Whaat ever decision you make will be the right one for you if you look deep and weigh all your options. Good luck!
I think its important to really educate yourself on the subject. I have chosen to delay immunization and selecetive on which ones my son is getting. I sujest reading, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations" by Stephanie Cave.
please tell me more on why you delayed them.. i wish to learn as much as i can before i decide.
Oh my, I didn't think twice about immunizing my son. And thank god, his daycare saw a scarlet fever outbreak this fall, not to meantion the mumps outbreak everywhere recently. The vaccine diffuses the virus so it does not get as bad as it could be.
I don't get my child vaccined because I think that the natural immune system is the best way to combat illness. That is the most natural way, and it makes the body stronger, by doing what it was meant to do. In my opinion it's no wonder that so many people get sick and are so paranoid now because they don't expose themselves to anything. People need to start turning their focus back to more natural ways. For example, breastfeeding, you are giving your child your antibodies. That is amazing in my eyes.
Breastfeeding won't give them immunity to things like polio...
Does anyone know how long the meningococcal vaccination has been given? It is not on my 4 year olds vaccination record but it is on my babies. The only 2 that I am not sure about giving my son are the chicken pox & the meningococcal. I don't think either one have been around long enough.
The chicken pox one has been available in Canada since 1998. Personally, I didn't get my son vaccinated against it because better immunity is developed if they actually contract chicken pox and no booster is needed with natural immunity. However, if he doesn't get chicken pox by the time he is 12, I will get him vaccinated because it's a much, much harsher condition on adults and can even be deadly.
The meningitis C vaccine has been available in Canada since 2001. Meningitis is a really dangerous infection for young children to contract and can escalate quickly, be mistaken for a milder condition and if that happens, it often goes untreated and can be deadly. I would strongly recommend getting this vaccine both from a parental and a health care provider standpoint.
Hi all,
Just wanted to add that there is little doctor supported research on the link between autism and the 18 month immunizations. Having just (in the last month) been through an autism diagnosis of my 2 1/2 year old. We have done alot of research. Our son did not have his 18 month needles. I did, however ask the pediatric neurologist about the link between autism and the immunization, and he told me that autism is hereditary, and if your child has it, they were born with it. Also, he told me that most children start showing signs around the age of 2, hence some blaming the vaccine.
It is not a coincidence that there is no research done by doctors on this topic because doctors get paid everytime we walk in their office. They dont want people to stop getting their children immunized. A very small percentage of children are actually born autistic, about 10% and 90 percent of children develop it when they are between 18 months and 2 years old. They stop talking, avoid eye contact, and are seemingly not the same children. I am seriously considering not continuing with my children's immunizations until I can do further research on the topic.
I just want to add that there has been a huge jump in the rates of autism in the past 30 years. 30 years ago there were 1 in 10000 children with autism and now there are 1 in 150. pretty shocking stats if you ask me.
I don't think the jump in occurance of autism has anything to do with a link to vaccines...I think it has more to do with being more aware of what autism is. And, given the broad autism spectrum, you can pretty much place most kids on it somewhere. I think it's becoming more of a blanket diagnosis than anything...
I'm no expert, but consider looking at your own immunization records from your childhood and comparing it to what is recommended for our children nowadays...the amount of needles our little ones get is way beyond what we got as children ( I am 35). I have a 6 mth old and he is not getting his needles until he is older. For many reasons, autism included, but not the only one. Isn't it interesting that I personally know of a medical doctor who does NOT have his children vaccinated??? Also, how interesting that the incidence of autism, allergies, and other childhood illnesses has increased, as has the number of vaccinations we give our children?
There are various places on the internet that list the ingredients in vaccines...many of those recommended vaccinations contain ALUMINUM. It wasn't that long ago that the health experts were recommending that we not even use deodorant that contains aluminum, yet we are being asked to INJECT our children with it directly into their bloodstream? Something to consider.
Also consider that thimerasol (sp?) is the ingredient of concern in vaccinations. Canada has removed all thimerasol from their vaccinations, with the exception of multi-dose flu vaccinations, so it's not a concern here, right? WRONG! Thimerasol is not an ingredient in vaccinations, however, it CAN be used in the PRODUCTION of vaccinations, which could result in residual thimerasol being in vaccinations, although not listed on the ingredient list. Again, interesting...
I want to say again that I am no expert...just a mom who is concerned about her little guy and could never live with myself if he was developing normally (as he is now) and I vaccinated him and then bang! he ends up autistic, or who knows what else. It is something my husband and I AGONIZED over for a very long time, read lots of documentation, talked to various sources, and made the decision. I know there are proponents of vaccinating out there who say "How could you live with yourself if your child contracted a vaccine-preventable disease?"...well, to them I say it would be equally hard to live with myself if vaccines resulted in my child falling seriously ill...so it is a choice I have made.
For those who are interested, some info to consider is http://www.vran.org/vaccines/vacing/vac-ing-can.htm (there is lots on this site, so peruse through it)and also http://www.worldwidehealthcenter.net/articles-261.html.
As for us, we plan to vaccinate our little guy around the age of 2-3 yrs, before he goes to school. So far that is our intention. We are not vaccinating him as an infant because, even as laypeople, we consider that injecting a developing immune/nervous system with a mixture of viruses and chemicals (directly into his bloodstream) is not something we are willing to do.
There is much more information out there to help you make a more informed decision...just search around and you will find it. Good luck in your decision making process.
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