Twiddlette is 9 weeks old today, and has her 2-month shots on Wednesday. We are planning to vaccinate fully and on schedule. Mostly because we believe strongly in western medical science (I took all the drugs they offered me during delivery too). However I don’t want to go into this totally blind so I thought I’d ask a few questions here, in addition to other research I’m doing. I figure Doper parents will have a wide array of experiences and opinions on vaccination.
Did you have your kids vaccinated? Why or why not?
If you did, what sort of reactions or side effects did you see?
If you didn’t, was your Ped. supportive? How about family and friends?
Would you do the same over again?
If you have thoughts or opinions besides what I’ve asked, that you think might be useful for someone considering this question, please do share!
Did you have your kids vaccinated? Why or why not?
Yes, I did. I guess mainly the same reason as you, I trusted Western medical advice. I actually didn’t think that there really was another option (i.e. not letting them).
If you did, what sort of reactions or side effects did you see?
None, other than him crying at the shot itself. My pediatrician warned he may get a slight fever, but he never did.
If you didn’t, was your Ped. supportive? How about family and friends? N/A
Did you have your kids vaccinated? Why or why not?
Yep. I think that tested vaccines that have improved or saved the lives of an awful lot of people are a pretty good thing.
If you did, what sort of reactions or side effects did you see?
None, except a slight fever and crankiness with some of the shots. Not all of them.
If you didn’t, was your Ped. supportive? How about family and friends?
N/A, but the Ped. was certainly very supportive of all my questions, and approved of the way we wanted to check up on things.
Would you do the same over again?
Yep. And we will; Kid #2 is on its way.
For further information, the Kidlet is now 2.5 and done with shots for a while. We decided not to do the Hep A vaccine (I did give it some consideration), and asked the Ped. whether the Hep B shot was still given at birth, because we saw no reason to do it then and wanted to put it off. It isn’t done that way here anymore, so we didn’t have to worry about it.
We do know some people who did not fully vaccinate their kids.
Did you have your kids vaccinated? ** Yes 2) If you did, what sort of reactions or side effects did you see? Mild fever, fussiness and tenderness at the injection site. 3) If you didn’t, was your Ped. supportive? How about family and friends? NA 4) Would you do the same over again? Yes
Kids are older now. Older son got the meningitis shot before college.
Before a trip to Guatemala, we also went through the Hep A and B innoculations. I think B is now requirement before middle school, and certainly before university.
I do know a family who all contracted Hep A after eating seafood in Naples, Italy. Kinda put a damper on their trip. Of course, you can get Hep A anywhere, I know people who got it here in the States.
Sister-in-law at first withheld vaccines for her daughter. I think she ended up innoculating her after whooping cough began going through her state.
Although nobody has yet said they didn’t get their kids vaccinated, I interpret from the OP’s question that some people don’t. You mean there are still people who don’t get their kids vaccinated? Really? How common is this? I wasn’t aware such a phenomenon existed.
Do they drill holes in their own heads to cure headaches, too?
Yes, of course. They can’t go to school unless they are!
There was some movement where it was considered some kind of doctor plot or something odd, but I didn’t buy it!
The jury’s still out on whether or not the vaccine contributed and/or compounded our daughter’s autism.
N/A
Not sure I would have her vaccinated if I had it to do all over again. At the time, I thought the benefits outwieghed the risks but I also thought the vaccines themselves were a lot safer than then they may be. I’d probably at least postpone the 18 mo MMR. (She was a normally developing kid up until about that time, then started losing words until she quit, for the most part, talking altogether.)
I have no kids, but my brother and sister-in-law did not vaccinate. They believe that the probability of catching most diseases that are currently vaccinated against is sufficiently small that the shot itself carries more risks. I will be vaccinating my own children.
So yeah, there is an anti-vaccine movement which basically argues that vaccines do more harm than good. The movement got a boost from the MMR/autisim study, which has since been disproven (notwithstanding Tequila Mockingbird’s experience. My heart goes out to you.). A resource to see what folks from this perspective have to say is here. I’m not sure how common it is, but it is common enough that all the major parenting websites have debate boards on the topic, and here is an interesting page from the WHO about it.
I personally know a number of parents who have chosen either to not vaccinate or to delay them signifigantly, which I think is pretty foolhardy. I’ve heard stories of the polio scares each summer before the vaccine was invented. Frightening stuff.
Thanks to everyone who responded - it is interesting to see that everyone so far has vaccinated.
Some families decide to do only some shots, and some don’t vaccinate at all. Usually these are homeschooling families, since most states require vaccinations to go to school. Like ENugent’s relatives, they often feel that the risk of vaccination is higher than the risk of the diseases. There are some arguments against that, such as that a large enough pool of unvaccinated children invites a large breakout, and that people who don’t vaccinate are relying on those who do to protect them and take the risk. But perhaps that’s for another thread.
Acqaintances of ours decided, for example, not to do pertussis or diptheria, I can’t remember what else. I thought that wasn’t very clever, seeing as how whooping cough is becoming more common in this state, but they didn’t ask me.
There has been talk over the past several years about the MMR vaccine and autism, as TM states, and I think I read recently that they’ve come out with a report that they still can’t find a link between the two, but of course opinions vary, and I haven’t ruled it out entirely myself.
Was Cessandra the one who asked how not vaccinating her children would hurt others? That was an interesting thread. I thought of her recently when I learned that rubella vaccines are not meant to protect children as much as adult pregnant women–rubella is a very mild illness that is terribly destructive to unborn children, resulting in, I think, mental disability and/or blindness.
I wonder how much non-vaccinating parents remember about those scares. We’re all too young now to remember a time before routine vaccinations, and I suppose it’s made us all pretty complacent.
Part of the reason I think vaccines are a good idea is because my parents have told me about the polio scares and so on. My mom had hepatitis A as a kid, which is why I considered that one so seriously; I know how it affected her, and I may still do it sometime in the future. I like to read, and so I know something about how terrifying smallpox and polio and other diseases were, and I’m very grateful that I don’t have to live with those risks.
Some fundamentalist families don’t vaccinate. Their thinking is that if their child gets sick, it’s God’s will. This was fairly common in Texas, and I’m not sure how prevalent that feeling is in PA. And, in Texas anyway, a note from a pastor will give the kid a waiver from immunizations.
Because of this, I do make sure Aaron has his shots. (He’s late; we had some delays in transferring health insurance up here, so he’s going in next Tuesday for his two-month shots. Now that the insurance issue has been squared away, he won’t be late for his four-month.) To put it bluntly, I don’t want my son to pay for the religious beliefs of another.
Non-vaccinating parent here. No, I’m not an ignorant, fundy rube with no ethics at all.
I originally chose not to vaccinate my now 9 yo – I was choosing to delay rather than not vaccinate but as time went on and the info about autism and vaccination came out, I chose not to vaccinate.
I view it as choosing between risks. I don’t agree that vaccination is a totally benign procedure with no risks. I’ve read so many anecdotal stories like TM’s that I am scared of vaccinating my kids who are both on the spectrum. For every debunking of the MMR autism link, there’s someone who argues the link exists. Mainstream psychologists like Tony Attwood are saying they think there may be a link.
I can live with myself if my kids get diseases. I’m not sure I could deal with the concept that I give them vaccines and the autism gets worse. It’s a horribly confusing area to be a responsible parent in when your kids are already ASD.
My GP has a severely autistic child who was developing normally until the MMR.
It is possible to not vaccinate and to send your kids to school in the US. It’s harder in some states than in others. In some states you can pick and choose the vaccines but in others it is all or nothing if you apply for a philosophical exemption.
