how did you reach a decision?

[enjoythesilence]

Hello, I am seeking advice and your thoughts on how you decided what vax's to give, and when to give them. I selectively/delay vax my kids, but they have not been to any well child checks for over a year, because every time I take the kids to the doctor, I get pressured hardcore about vax, mostly from the nurses/medical assistants.

  I have explained to their doc about why I delay (my DD1 had a reaction as an infant that I attribute to having all her vax's) and have chosen to go slow, and do one at a time with the vax's I choose, but have still been given a hard time, and due to this, and other issues (my son's doctor was pressuring about vax, and insisting on trying to retract his foreskin) I requested that all my children have the same doc as my DD1, who is pretty cool, but hard to get an appt with.

  I want to take them in for their checkups, but want to be able to stand firm about exactly what I want them to recieve, and what I do not, and I'm having a hard time choosing.

[DKPA]

honestly i'd change doctors if there's other options in your area, it shouldn't be so bad that you feel you can't even bring your children to appts. Are there any more natural-minded homepathic doctors around?  Even if you have to drive a little, it might save you some aggravation.  There's some near me that are family doctors but have also been trained as homeopaths, so they are much more open to you making your own choices about vaccines. I've heard that even regular family doctors are much more lenient about vaccines than pediatricians.  

[enjoythesilence]

Thank you for your reply. :) I would love to be able to take my kids to a doctor who practices homeopathy, but I do not think any of them would accept my insurance.

  I probably should look into what other doctors are on our plan. The doctor that my children are assigned now is generally pretty decent, but some of the nurses in the office have not been. My plan is to do my research before I make their appointments, and if any of the nurses put the pressure on me, I will make a complaint.

  I am bummed, because it seems this office has a hard time holding onto good practicioners, or the ones that are good are next to impossible to get in to see, because they are so popular.

[DKPA]

yeah that's the only bad thing, some of them don't take insurance, im sorry:(  it's so hard finding a good pediatrician.  i know I didn't really answer your question about which vaccines to get.  As of now, we're not planning on any until at least 2 (and if my boyfriend lets me get my way, probably none ever;) ) but i think i would feel differently if I wasn't planning on breastfeeding or my child was going to daycare or going to be around a lot of other children more.  I'm not sure how old your children are and what exactly they've already had, but if i was going to selectively vaccinate, i'd eliminate polio because of the small risk of getting it, chicken pox and the flu because they aren't really severe enough to necessitate a vaccine in my opinion and the flu shot may contain mercury and seems kind of hit-or-miss in regard to whether it really works.  I wouldn't do HPV or rotavirus because they are so new or hep A and B because I don't think they are a huge risk to children.  As far as the other vaccines, i'd consider your children's ages and when the diseases tend to be serious, their risk of getting them and the ingredients and potential side effects of the vaccines.  I really liked Dr. Sears book for this, it was very open to both sides of the vaccine issue.  i'm sure there's other books out there like this too.  I'd also space out vaccine like you're doing and never do two live or really reactive ones at once.  Good luck deciding and i hope you have better luck at your drs office.

[enjoythesilence]

Thanks. I can't remember exactly which ones I have done. That's bad, I know. None of my kids have had any for a couple years. I know we have not had any flu, chickenpox, hepatitis or rotavirus, and do not plan on doing the HPV vaccine when the girls are older. That one, I will let them decide on when they are 18. I'm leaning towards getting the pertussis, because it has been a problem in our area, and probably the MMR, and DTAP, though it kind of irritates me that when I asked to have those ones seperated, like just the tetanus, then the diptheria, etc, they told me that was not possible. It seems like a lot to load on their little systems all at once.

  Thanks for the book recommendation. I had heard of that, and never got around to picking it up. WIll have to look for that, I have heard good things about it.