Honestly, I'm not judgmental because I really don't care what others do. I have good friends with good heads on their shoulders and whatever they decide probably is the very best decision for our family. For me, I breast feed, I cloth diaper, I circumcise (not that you needed to know about my boys jewels... but now you do), and I'm going to have my kids in car seats until they are 90. The one area that I just couldn't get a solid hold of was vaccines.
When June was little, I knew I wanted to avoid the morally iffy ones: MMR and Chickenpox, which are cultured in aborted fetal lung sells from an aborted fetus from the 60's. Beyond that I just didn't know. I was super confused. For June, I vaccinated him on the normal schedule and ultimately (after quite a process) decided to get his MMR late. No Chickenpox vaccine. For Josh, I did the same thing. With Elizabeth, I delayed any vaccines until 6 months and went on the normal schedule from there.
When Eliz was little I bought The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears (here I go reading again...). Dr. Sears explains what each vaccine is, how rare it is, how serious it is, why we vaccinate against it, and what the ingredients are. He also inlcudes his personal thought at the end of each chapter. I read it, but was still thoroughly lost. I expected to read the book and decide AGAINST most vaccines. Instead I read the book and felt pulled to still do many of the vaccines. That surprised me... and I kinda just book the book back on the shelf, befuddled.
I just scheduled June's 5 year (5 is a big shot well-check) and Eliz's (late) 18mo appt (also a shot one for her since her schedule is delayed). With that, I decided that I wanted to delve back into Dr. Sear's book. So I did.
Over the last few nights, I waded through the chapters, vaccine by vaccine. I wrote notes, underlined and started a list of "yes" vaccines. I got through the whole book: WOOT! All the information was finally about to sink in and be absorbed. I was able to make a list and a schedule of which, and when I wanted vaccines given. I'm not anti-vaccine. I do think they are here for a purpose. I also think some are not-so-necessary, but I do want to protect my kids from the common and/or serious diseases. I've seen our cousin's family go through whooping cough. I watched my good friend's almost-2-year-old literally on the brink of death last year due to a sudden onset of one of the rare childhood diseases (I honestly forget which one but he started with cold symptoms only to have his throat close suddenly, he was intubated and on a ventilator for a while. He was in the hospital for weeks and in rehab for a bit. He's 100% ok now but MAN was it scary.) They were on a delayed vaccine schedule and that was one of the vaccines he was to get in the coming months, he caught the disease just before he was to be vaccinated against it.
My point is, in my heart, I can't not vaccinate. I'm going to vaccinate. But I don't want to do all of them. I've carefully chosen my list and feel awesome that I can now walk into the Dr's office and say: "I want 'this and this' during this appointment." I feel empowered because this is something that I have thought about and wanted to figure out since June was little, but I just.couldn't.do.it before now. I just pieces together my puzzle. This is a HUGE X that I can mark off my check-list.
YAY!!
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/vaccines
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