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2008-03-17

The Vaccine Debate

Braden is almost three months old. He hasn't been to his two month well-baby check-up yet. Why?

Vaccinations is why.

The decisions to be made about vaccinate/don't vaccinate, or maybe to only selective or delay vaccinations are a little daunting. There is so much information out there, it's a little scary being faced with the task of sorting through it all and coming to any kind of rational conclusion. My first instinct was, "If there is this much controversy over it, they can't be worth it. I'm just not going to vaccinate at all". I brought up the subject to my husband a few weeks before Braden turned two months, and he seemed all gung-ho about just following Dr's orders and getting all the vaccines on time. This terrified me. My husband has the benefit of college debate classes when it comes to discussing things like this, and sometimes I feel he uses that against me and I can't really hold my own. He told me the burden of "proof" was on me because I wanted to go against doctor's orders. So my reaction was to be passively aggressive and simply not make the Dr's appointments, not mention it anymore, and hope he forgot about it.

Well that worked for a little while, but yesterday he brought the issue back up. He wanted to know why I hadn't made the appointment because I hadn't been able to bring him enough proof that vaccines were bad. I had to put my foot down as my child's mother and tell him that no, the burden of proof was on him. I would absolutely not be blindly vaccinating my child. This forced him into really sitting down with me, discussing his fears about diseases (his aunt was paralyzed from polio) and I feel we really got a good handle on the issue. I am now in the process of ironing out our selective/delayed schedule.


Here is a link to the CDC's recommended infant vaccine schedule.

I would like for Braden to only get one shot at a time, and never any combination vaccines.

  • We will not be doing Hepatitis B until he is nearing teenage years.
  • We will not get the DTaP series. We will get the Pertussis single vax on time, delay the Tetanus until he is mobile, and we are not sure about the Diphtheria portion yet.
  • I am not sure about the HiB yet, I will have to look more into the meningitis risk.
  • We will do the polio vaccine, but still not sure when. Will probably delay.
  • We will not be getting the pneumococcal, I feel he is not at risk and my breastmilk protects him better than a vaccine from ear infections.
All the rest are not an issue until he is one so I have a little time left.

If anyone is interested, here are two of the sites that I found very helpful in my search for information:
http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/
MDC Vaccination Archives

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5 comments:

Mandi said...

I am totally in the same boat with you with the vaccine issue (burden of proof). We went to the 2 month, but did not receive any vaccines for baby....we are delaying / postponing as well. I greatly appreciate you doing my research for me - you rock Hahaha :)

Paula said...

so glad to find you! will be back frequently. we started with delayed and moderated vaccs...however we happily have been vacc free for over a year!

Its a crazy complex issue. I saw an amazing documentary somewhere online...and it convinced me that the risks outweigh any benefit. I hope I can find it again.

Laura said...

Actually, I think the burden of proof is with those that want to inject vaccines that contain: heavy metals, killed and attenuated viruses that are grown on various animal tissues and therefore may have animal viruses too, antibiotics that specifically state they are not to be injected when separate from vaccines, aborted fetus cells and all the other ingredients that you wouldn't ever consider injecting into your baby except that you think it will protect them from disease.

The burden of proof is on those that want to inject all of that into an otherwise robustly healthy baby.

Also, the proof must ensure that no harm will come...vaccines are only tested on healthy babies and children. What if your child has a blood disorder, or a metabolic disorder of some sort, or is allergic to eggs, antibiotics, MSG etc. that are in vaccines? How can anyone ensure that no harm will come, yet everyone is pressured to get the vaccine regardless of health status?

Why is the dose the same for a 300 lb. man and an 8 lb. newborn?

The burden of proof is with your husband ;-)

Miranda - Tech Div said...

@Mandi- :D Glad I can help, I plan on posting again when I iron it out a little more.

@Paula- Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad you like my blog. I'd love to see the documentary you mentioned, if you find it again let me know.

@Laura- Thanks for the support, I'm glad to hear that someone else is on my side. It's a scary issue to me.

Anonymous said...

It's so good of you to research before blindly injecting. We have three unvaccinated kids here and they have not yet had any of those "dreaded" childhood diseases. Heck, they don't have allergies, asthma, or anything at all. They are just plain healthy. I think if they should get cp or measles, they'll do just fine. As for polio, I found out that 98% or something like that of the people who got the virus never even knew it. We'll take our chances.

btw, they are 12, 8, and 4 yo.