Hellobee Boards

in dr oz's book, 'you having a baby', he has a section that goes over each side's arguments, i thought it was really interesting. it might be helpful to look over for those trying to make their decision. he has the excerpt on his website here:
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/book-excerpt-you-having-baby-vaccines

My pediatrician is Dr. Loehr, the one who wrote The Vaccine Answer Book. After talking with him, we decided to use the CDC vaccination schedule. His practice has a lot of parents who chose to spread out the vaccines, but they are all caught up by age 2. He also has parents that only have single vaccines (no combination vaccines). Although by giving single vaccines, there is an increase in the preservatives that keep the vaccine good.

The most important thing is that you vaccinate your child. The study linking vaccines to autism was invalidated. By leaving your child unvaccinated, you are relying on everyone else to vaccinate their children so that your child is not exposed to any diseases. But there are more kids who are on delayed vaccination schedule or who aren't being vaccinated, which increases the chance that your child will be exposed to and possibly killed by a serious disease that could have been prevented.

Not everyone decides on an alternative schedule based on the autism argument. We've decided to do an alternate schedule following our ped's recommendations. LO will be fully vaccinated, but we're just doing fewer vaccines more often. Our pedi is very supportive of doing an alternate schedule if the parents so choose, and she's very picky about which vaccine brands she will use. If you think this is something that you want to do, definitely find a ped that is supportive.

@Mrsdaredevil: I do think it is important to find a pediatrician that you like, trust and who respects your feelings/opinions on certain topics. I LOVE my pediatrician because he really took the time to talk us through many topics, including vaccines. I felt comfortable with what he said and we went from there. I switched to him from another office that I really disliked.

I made the point about the increase in preservatives when you do single vaccines because sometimes that gets overlooked. A common thought is that it is not the vaccine itself, but the stuff in the vaccine that keeps it good, that causes issues. So by doing vaccines together, you reduce the amount of it being injected into your child. That is ultimately why we chose not to split up most of DS's vaccines.

However if you have a LO with allergies, or if your family has a lot of allergies, it can be a good idea to do single vaccines spread out because then you can watch for reactions with each individual one, and if there is a reaction, make a plan from there.

I don't see a problem using an alternative schedule if your LO has a low risk of exposure. You need to do what you are comfortable with, but I completely believe that the benefit of vaccines greatly outweighs the negatives.

Interesting thread!

I have a genuine question for those Momma's who are doing a delayed vaccination schedule or not vaccinating at all, does anybody actually know anybody IRL who has had a negative effect / issue from a vaccine?

One of the reasons I ask is because although I've read about negative effects etc, I don't personally know anybody that has had a bad experience with vaccination (other than the usual effects of course).

The other reason I ask is because over here in New Zealand we're starting to see diseases like Measles and Whooping Cough become more prevalent because the herd immunity is reducing due to less people vaccinating.

I am firmly in the camp that correlation does not equal causation. Yes, someone's child had a personality change a few days after receiving shots.... okay? There is no solid proof those shots caused that. Anything could have happened in those few days. The only people I have heard of who have solid evidence that the vaccinations caused a problem are those that have children allergic to them.

I think that children need to be vaccinated. Whether it's on the regular schedule or delayed, they need them. A lot of childhood illnesses are on the rise again because of people not vaccinating children. Children are DYING of preventable diseases like whooping cough. It is a very personal decision, I agree. C will be vaccinated, fully and on time. No questions asked. She has already had her 2 month shots and didn't even bat an eye and she will get her 4 month ones in August,

@Kemma: We're following the normal prescribed vaccination schedule, but I wanted to chime in b/c we do know someone who has experienced one of the very scary side effects of a vaccine. DH's cousin had Gullain-Barre syndrome, that was almost definitely caused by his flu shot. Apparently it's a 1 in a million chance of having this complication, but it's a very scary one. He's fully recovered now, but there were a few months when things were really scary...