What do you say when your family/in-laws/co-workers/friends are shocked that you haven't vaxxed yet?

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

The title says it all.  DH and I are planning to delay everything until DD is at least 2.  She's 8 months now and it seems that EVERYONE is totally shocked when they learn that we aren't vaxxing yet.  I don't advertise it, but I don't lie either if I am asked about it. My responses are pretty much that because she is not in daycare and not exposed to other children (and neither am I or DH), so she is very low risk for all VPD.  I am honest and say I could not bring myself to inject my tiny perfect baby with biological and chemical products when the full efficacy and safety indications of those injections are still somewhat unknown. We plan to only get the ones that DH and I had as children because at least those have a longer track record of safety (DTaP, MMR, Polio - I know that some people disagree on their safety, but I am more comfortable with these than I am with the others), and we will be declining everything that is not mandatory for school. 

So far the only time it got heated was with FIL who is a doctor and is totally pro-vax.  The argument ended when I told him that I don't believe everything I am told.  He spluttered for a minute until the topic changed. What do you all do?

[Dani Davids mum nz]

We delayed ds1 vaccinations but only slightly, so by age 26months he was on par with the schedule to 15months so 11months of delay there. Ds2 is 5months old and has had no vax yet. we are now indecided. I personally believe you shouldnt have to justify your parenting choices to anyone. It is up to you and your partner whether or not you choose to vax or not. Your choices are well informed and you are adults. Standing your ground is most likely the best way of handling the situation and or just not even going down that route. 

[katelove]

We have a 7m.o. who is unvaxed (we are yet to decide whether she will remain completely unvaxed or whether we will do some later). We haven't had anyone who has expressed very strong feelings on the subject but we just say that we have some concerns with the safety. If people ask more questions then I give specific examples of our concerns. I have two examples which I typicially use and no-one has asked questions beyond that so far.

[mattemma04]

I changed the subject.It will become less of an issue as your child grows.Mine are now 8 and 11 and no one mentions vaccines. I also have a doctor in the family(FIL),but suprisingly he was pretty mellow about it.Friends who vax were more of an issue.Best to just not talk about it because it just seems to lead to fighting.Seems most people can not accept the *agree to disagree* when it comes to vaccines.

[nia82]

Change the subject. My MD sister refuses to do so even if I say let's agree to disagree and move on... So I ignored her til she stopped and just talked about other stuff. If she pulls it again I will hang up (we live on different continents). She's a rabid pro-vaccine person who signed her son up for new vaccine trials and gets extra doses of stuff just because (like 2 MMRs by age 15 months!)....

We delayed until now (2.5 years) and actually just did the first dtap and hib today ever. We will see how it goes and take it from there. If everything is ok, we will complete dtap, and maybe throw in ipv. We don't want MMR but measles only and have to wait for the next Europe trip for that.