To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate? Part 1

Many parents struggle with the decision of whether or not to vaccinate their children. Not all of us will come to the same conclusion, but it is important that we remember that we are all making this choice out of love.

I talked to some mommies about how they made this difficult decision. Please read their stories with an open mind and remember that even if you don't agree with their choice, we are all just trying to do what's best for our children.


Vaccinators:

Stefanie has one four year old little girl.

Stefanie has for the most-part stuck with the recommended vaccination schedule, but has skipped a few shots along the way .

1. What kind of research did you do to help you make your decision?
I didn't really do too much research! A wonderful thing about joining a birth club through iVillage, Vaccines were a hot topic and were discussed in length by many of the mothers. The threads were very interesting, but my husband and I opted to get our child vaccinated.

2. Was there one thing that stood out to you that helped you make your decision?
The one thing that stood out was protection of our child. Even though Rubella, Mumps, measles, polio, ect. are not a "threat" these days, they could be. Of course, we weighed the pros/cons of getting her vaccinated. With research pointing to links with autism and allergies-we decided the pros of vaccination stood out.

3. What vaccines have your children had? Why did you choose these to allow?
My daughter has had the regular schedule of vaccines. MMR, Polio, Hepatitis, ect. We chose these because of said reason above.

4. Which vaccines did you skip? Why did you choose these to skip?
We decided to skip the yearly flu vaccines along with the chicken pox vaccinations. I feel both aren't really necessary, though people can argue hepatitis is though ;) The flu vaccine is the year prior's strain and since the flu is constantly mutating into another form, it really doesn't make sense. Emma is healthy and is at "low risk" for complications from the flu, I would rather her get it naturally. Same goes with the chicken pox. I myself haven't had the chicken pox. I still have to be vaccinated with tighters to ensure I will get it. It is a hassle on my account, to keep records on when my last dose was of the tighter.

5. Did your children ever have any reactions to the vaccines?
For a better words, she would just be annoyed! Cranky and tired was all she be after them, until a mom pointed out to give her tylenol before her vaccines. That did the trick, she just gets upset with the soreness around the injection site. This typically lasts a day, but now that she is older she can go on for months about it just because she "knows" what happens when you go to the doctors now.

6. Have your children ever had any of the illnesses/diseases commonly vaccinated against?
Nope! We have been blessed, but things she is vaccinated against aren't prominent besides chicken pox. So many families are opting to get their kids vaccinated against chicken pox these days it may be something she never gets...In that case she may end up like me.

Melissa has 2 children, a 2.5yr old and a 5 week old

Melissa has followed the recommended vaccination schedule for all of her children.

1. Did you ever consider NOT vaccinating or SELECTIVELY vaccinating your children?

Not vaccinating or selectively vaccinating never crossed my mind. I have wanted to fully vaccinate since before I conceived my daughter

2. What kind of research did you do to help with making this decision?
I spoke with my pediatrician, researched online by google-ing all the different vaccines. But most of all I simply went with my heart

3. What was it that ultimately made the decision for you?
My personal decision of not wanting to risk my children catching horrible diseases that could cause death. Both myself and my husband were fully vaccinated and so will our children be.

4. Did your children ever experience any reactions to the vaccines?
My daughter never had any adverse reactions to her vaccines My son has only had the hepatitis vaccine that they give in the hospital at birth, so far, and no reaction to that

5. Do you feel safe having your children around unvaccinated children? Why or why not?
It does not bother me since my children are fully vaccinated

Selective Vaccinators:

Louise has one child, a 9 month old son.
Lousie has followed the recommended vaccinatin schedule up to this point, but will be using and alternative schedule from 12 months on for her son.

1. Did you originally consider NOT vaccinating or SELECTIVELY vaccinating your children?No, I did not ever think not to vaccinate my child. I did broach the subject of spacing out vaccinations with my husband before our son was born as I didn't want my baby's body being overloaded with viruses all at once, however, my husband was against it and I left it at that. We declined Hep B at birth, even though the hospital was pushing for it.

I should say, we did take our son to East Timor (a small country next to Indonesia) at 5 weeks oldunvaccinated (my husband was posted there at the time). The Australian Embassy Doctor advised against taking an unvaccinated baby to East Timor, but I did not feel this was an issue as he was not going to be going outside the home and interacting with people that may have an illness he could contract. (It is common for outbreaks of measles to occur and numerous children to die due to beingunvaccinated). We started his vaccinations at 6 weeks, which is common place in Australia.

2. What kind of research did you do to help with making this decision?
None. I guess I (we) just accepted that this is what you did - vaccinated your child as per government guidelines. In the last few months I have been reading about vaccines (facebook groups, websites, forums, blogs) and looking into what illnesses can cause harm (such as brain damage, death, etc) and which ones don't. I am now going to selectively vaccinate from 12 months onwards on an alternate schedule. For example, I wont be vaccinating against chicken pox (which is given here at 18 months), and I will be asking for the MMR shot to be separated out.

3. What was it that ultimately made the decision for you?
The main decision was my sons reaction to his six month vaccinations. He was quite unsettled for two days, mostly at night which was not fun for anyone. I was also taken back by all the paper work you had to sign for when vaccinating (it was straight forward when we did it in East Timor), not to mention how the nurses showed you the tubes, ingredients, making sure you were still ok with everything etc. Why was this necessary if it was safe?

4. Did your children ever experience any reactions to the vaccines?
Yes, each time my son was vaccinated he had a reaction. On all occasions he had a fever and was cranky/unsettled. After his four month shots, he had a localised lump at the injection site that lasted for about 6 weeks. The worst was after his six month shots. He had quite a bad fever that night and was unsettled for about two days.

5. Do you feel safe having your children around unvaccinated children? Why or why not?
Yes, because either my son has been vaccinated against a particular illness or if he does contract an illness, he could become immune (eg chicken pox) and therefore would not need the vaccine.

 

Christine has three children. Her first was a home birth at the age of 21 and he is now 14 and a half! She also has twins aged 3 and a half (natural hospital births -her second was even breech!)

Christine's children have only received the TDaP vaccine. She has skipped all other vaccinations.  

1. What kind of research did you do to help make this decision?
For my first son born in 1997, well, that was back before I looked online for information, so I checked out books from the library. One book in particular was "What every parent should know about childhood immunization" by Jamie Murphy. This book was definitely on the side of NOT vaccinating. At that time I was very into going all natural, home birth, no vaccines, co-sleeping - what people may refer to as attachment parenting. So, for me, not vaccinating was apart of my culture at that time. However, my mother is a nurse and my midwife was quite balanced in her views and we went through all the pros and cons for each vaccine, so I felt I had a support system who would let me know if that choice to not vaccinate needed to change for any reason. My mother being in the health care community helped me feel secure that she would certainly be honest if cases of "whooping cough" were on the rise and it may be time to vaccinate. And with saying that, I also knew that I may choose to do many of the vaccines at a later date; something I don't think the health community makes known for many parents. With my twins I read Dr. Sear Immunization book which I think is the most balanced book on immunizations out there. I also had the experience of my unvaccinated first born, which that choice caused me a great deal of anxiety - so I knew I didn't want to worry about whooping cough every time they seemed a little sick.

2. Was there one thing that really stood out to you to help you make your decision?
With my first, born in the late 1990's, there was still a lot of debate about the MMR vaccine causing autism and truth be told as a new and young mommy, I simply didn't want my child hurt at all. I couldn't imagine injecting his sweet tiny body with strains of diseases and toxins or even pricking him with a needle. Additionally I was a vegetarian at the time and many of the vaccines contained animal dna. This was a deal breaker for me at the time. I think because I had a home birth I was supported in this decision by my midwife. So for my first born he went for 10 years without a single vaccination. In fact I didn't even know if I wanted more children because I hated the vaccine debate so much! Every time he got sick I panicked. So when my twins came along I knew I needed to further educate myself so that I was very confident with my choices either way.

3. What vaccines have your children had? Why did you choose these to allow?
When my twins were born, my older son was in public school, so in an effort to protect them he received the TDaP vaccine. This was a choice based on the commonality of the illness, the recent rise in cases of whooping cough and the complications, including fatality of contracting one of these illnesses. He was sore and tired for about 24 hours after the vaccine, but beyond that he was fine! For my twins I opted to also get them the DTaP, though I waited until they were about 1 years old. I felt better having them be a bit bigger as well as communicate with me any discomfort they may be having from the vaccine. They both had a mild fever for about 24 hours and the injection site was red and tender. I also chose to get them the pneumococcal vaccine, though I spread them out over a months time. For me I am not comfortable with multiple immunizations at one time. (and again, you can make this choice!) I chose that one again, for the same reason, likelihood of contraction and the severity of the disease. With that one they had no symptoms whatsoever. Another reason for my choice to vaccinate my twins more than I did my older son is that I felt having more than one child meant more exposure, not only to us but to others. What a healthy child can endure and do fine with a child who may already be sick or have a compromised immune system may not be okay with - also those children may not be able to receive vaccines so they are dependent on the "herd" of the vaccinated population. I felt as a mother I wanted to not only protect my children but children my kids might expose illnesses to. In effort to do this I selected the vaccination that through my research were the most serious.

4. Which vaccines did you skip? Why did you choose these to skip?
I have skipped all other vaccines. Many of them like HepB - there was no chance, with it being a sexually transmitted disease that my children would be at risk, so I wasn't willing to risk the complications from the vaccine. This vaccine can be given at a later date. Polio - little risk of contraction and if that risk goes up, or they decide to travel somewhere where there is risk of contraction one can get the vaccine at a later date. Vaccines like Ruebella, Rotavirus and chicken pox are generally mild - and having health insurance, a mother who is a nurse, living within a short distance of a medical facility and a pretty good instinct on when it's time to go seek help - I felt confident that had the means to care for them and seek treatment to ensure they were treated promptly if infected. The only vaccine I waver on that I have not had any of my children vaccinated for is MMR, because these diseases can cause serious complications.

5. Did any of your children have reactions to any vaccines?
SEE ANSWER ABOVE

6. Have your children ever had any illnesses/diseases that are commonly vaccinated against?
All three of my children have had both rubella and chicken pox and were just fine. My oldest was 3 and a half when he got the chicken pox and it was so mild at first I thought "wow, where did all those bug bites come from?!" But then he got the tale-tell low grade fever and runny nose. I called his pediatrician who, at the time, was very pro-vaccine and she said "okay, well, make sure he drinks a lot of fluids." He was a little run down but he has had much worse colds! With the chicken pox with my twins, they were about 18 months old. They had very few pox, under 15 each. They also had the low grade fever and runny nose. They were seen and their doctor confirmed it. It was extraordinarily mild. Ruebella was typical case for all three of my children, lasting about 3 days. They had the fever and tale-tell rash. My son was about 4 and my twins about 1 year.

Non-Vaccinators:

Marlena has three children.

Marlena's children have not had any vaccinations.

1. Did you ever consider vaccinating?I never really thought about whether I was going to vaccinate or not until I started working at a chiropractor office from 2003-2006. I received information from the chiropractors I worked with and also talked with parents of children who were fine until after receiving immunizations esp the MMR vaccine.

2. What kind of research did you do to help with your decision?
I did look online for info also but dont remember the sites I looked at and I also looked into the lists of what is in the vaccinations. When I had my oldest son in May of 2006, I decided not to vaccinate at that time and figured that I would eventually do it when he got older.  It seemed too much to do all those vaccines when he was so little

3. What was the main thing that helped you make your decision?
I just recently went to a seminar that Dr. Stephen C. Marini, M.S., D.C., Ph.D where he talked about Vaccination Issues and Immunity and also about Challenges to Childhood Immune Systems. He had alot of very useful information that was informational and helpful understanding the effects of vaccines to children and their immune system. Some websites that Dr. Marini recommended checking out are: http://icpa4kids.com/index.php http://www.nvic.org/ http://vaers.hhs.gov/index www.909shot.com . He also talked about how vaccines change our Th 1 and Th 2 cells and how that affects our bodies and that of our children. Dr. Marini has his own website at www.MariniChiroandEd.com . After going to the seminar, I am more than convinced that I will not be vaccinating my children at all. They are healthy children and I would hate to vaccinate them and then have their immune systems change and they start to have issues that they never had before. I learned that it's not just the risk of possible autism or ADD/ADHD that could possibly affect my children if they receive vaccines, it's also things like allergies, asthma, intestinal issues that could happen due to the change of Th1 and Th2 cells in their bodies from the chemicals and things in vaccines. 

4. Were you vaccinated? Why or why not?
I was vaccinated when I was a child and didnt have any issues with reactions to the vaccines. I, however, have never received the varicella vaccine since I had the chicken pox when I was little and I have never received a flu shot. The flu shot I have always refused esp when I learned that there is aborted fetus cells used in it and I am against abortion.

5. Have any of you children come down with any of the diseases/illnesses that are commonly vaccinated against?  

All 3 of my children haven't been vaccinated since birth and have not had any diseases or illnesses that children are commonly vaccinated against.

Bekah has one child, a one year old son.

Bekah's son has not had any vaccinations.

1. Did you ever consider vaccinating?
I never considered vaccinating because my family never vaxed, but my husband had never not considered vaccinating. Of course it's important to remember that the number of vaccines my husband received as a child are nothing compared to what our child would receive now.

2. What kind of research did you do to help with your decision?
Because I wanted to convince my husband vaccines weren't for our family, I had to really research my facts! In researching our decision I read the ingredients for each vaccine on the CDC website and read everything I could on the VAERS website. I also read The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears and another by Dr. Offit called Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. In addition, I read everything I could abut the relationship between drug companies and doctors, and all the money that states make off vaccine programs. My dad always said 'Follow the money' and I didn't like what I found.

3.What was the main thing that helped you make your decision?
The main thing that helped me make a decision for my child was that my brother, sister and I have never been vaccinated and we were always healthier than any of our friends or family. We get a cold maybe once a year, I'm the only one to ever get an ear infection, we've had chicken pox, measles, and German measles and we are all just fine. I do think a healthy diet also played a part in our overall health.

4. Were you vaccinated? Why or why not?
My parents did not and do not believe in vaccines, so no one in my family was ever vaccinated. They believe doctors are for sick people, so we never went to the doctor unless something was wrong, which wasn't often.

5. Have any of you children come down with any of the diseases/illnesses that are commonly vaccinated against?
My son is only one and has not had any illnesses as of yet, but I do expect a time when we will have to deal with chicken pox, and possibly measles. Many of the diseases children are vaccinated against are not an issue in a country like America where we have access to clean water, fresh food, and instant medical help should we need it, which is why I don't feel the need to vaccinate.



I want to say a big thanks to all the mommies! Thank you for being so open and honest!

Come back for Part 2 where I will discuss the facts and statistics behind vaccinations and provide you with plenty of resources so you can do your own research and make an informed decision.