Why Vaccinate? - Page 4

[Marlena]

T

I've been lurking in this thread, but just wanted to say to Arduinna's comment:

I don't think that all alternative cancer treatments are bogus, I also don't think that chemo is the perfect treatment in all cases. But I will never again be controlled by the agendas of fanatic groups from either side of the argument.

[Breathless Wonder]

*

[Breathless Wonder]

Good point Hilary. I stand corrected.

[Breathless Wonder]

Woops. Double post.

[cat_astrophe]

One point seems to have been left out here. I vaxxed Jarod for many of the resons outlined above, but also because I assumed that the only people who didn't vax their children were extremist religious fanatics, conspiracy theorists, or negligent parents (or some combination thereof). Why did I assume such a thing? Aside from the mainstream media and the disease paranoia/vaccine propaganda, I only had 2 choices as I saw it, and those choices were:

1)Informed Consent
2)Religious Exemption

Looking at that now, I realize that it is just a subtle form of the propaganda that surrounds vaxxing. It says to me, if you are informed, you will consent, and the only reasons to object are religious ones.

Gotta run, I hope this makes sense.

[cat_astrophe]

Most of us here, were vaccinators once. And probably, we should do a thread where we all tell our stories.

That's an excellent idea, but I have the feeling that would be a very long thread. My response alone would be long enough to rival one of your tomes.

[amnesiac]

Well, there was this one along those lines:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...threadid=79580

[cat_astrophe]

Well, there was this one along those lines:
http://www.mothering.com/discussion...&threadid=79580

Well, d*mn, I was actually going to start one called "The Tome of all Tomes". I think that's a much better title, anyway.

Oh, well, I don't have time to write my tome right now anyway, what with all the babyshowers to plan.....

[pugmadmama]

Re: I *really* didn't want to start a fight

Originally posted by jessc79
...The reason I originally posted was because I am SO comfortable in my decision to vax that I start to wonder "Am I missing something?" .....

You're not missing something. At least not in my case. I would bet we've read the same body of literature. We have simply come to different conclusions. Thoughtful, smart, caring people disagree on all sorts of things.

I did my own research before my son was born and in the years since then and I decided to fully vax, on schedule. It was a long, complicated research process that lead to a fairly simple conclusion. The bottom line, for me, was that the risks of not vaccinating were higher than the potential for harm from the vacines themselves.

My son is 11 years old and the picture of health, always has been. I have things I'd do differently if I had another child but vaxing is not one of them.

[IfMamaAintHappy]

I selectively and delayed vaxed my older daughter. I was busy researching for the first 9 months of her life.

Oddly, my main reasoning on waiting was to "get to know her better" so that if she was acting strangely after getting shots, I could tell.

She got one shot at a time, and was fully vaxed for DT, HiB, and Polio. About 6 weeks after her last DtaP shot, she had some seizures, and my ped told me to discontinue her series of Pertussis. That told me, in a coded way, that she thought the Pertussis shot was the culprit. So we sure as heck knew she wasn't getting anymore Pertussis shots. I can't remember what other shots we gave her, but we were headed out of the country and wanted to "get her covered" or something, but that was at about 18 months.

We have chosen to not vax Lily. My DH wants to wait till age 2 to even think about starting, but I think at this point I have decided to just not vax at all. I need much more homeopathic info to truly feel comfortable with this decision. If anyone has book recommendations I would be open to them. I do have some natural healing and herbal medicine books, but they wre inherited from my husband's grandma and were not books I researched before buying or anything.

Just wanted to contribute since I didnt see anyone mentioning their desire to delay/selectively vax based on wanting to be more in touch with their child's personality before potentially exposing them to a reaction.

[jessc79]

Ging-ging,

Thanks for your input. I can totally see your point about delaying now. I never could understand the reasoning. While I won't be doing it that way, I could understand how this would be better for someone who really wants to vax. I might feel differently about vaxing if I was leaving the country on a regular basis or something. Thanks!