Don't want to vaccinate, but not feeling confident

[SoonToBe]

I've been researching for the better part of a year and have read Dr. Sears book.  I am the proud mother of a 9 wk old son.  The Dtap vaccine is the one that is causing me the biggest issue.  I am most afraid of pertussis (rational or not), but am equally concerned with the chemicals in the vaccine.

Dr. Sears' book was great at providing the risk of a severe pertussis case (and the other diseases) for perspective.  I think it was 1 in 3333.  I wanted to find the chance of him catching it in general too (not just a severe case).  I went to the CDC page and although I know it won't have all cases reported, it seemed to indicate that in 2010, there were about 100 cases per 100,000 in children under one year.  So I can take that to mean that in 2010, he would have had about a 0.1% chance of getting it or a 99.9% chance of not. 

I have particular concerns about the chemicals in the vaccines because of my own history.  That said, I'm not anti-vaccine.

If my son is breastfed for 2 years (or more) with never a drop of formula, does not attend daycare, and does not regularly spend time with other children, is it logical for me to think that his chance of getting pertussis is about 0.1%?  Because I am so attached and in love with him, I am having a hard time with the decision because I don't like either of my options.  The possibility of him getting pertussis (even if it's not severe) and coughing horribly for months makes me feel sick.  The thought of the potential aluminum could have on his body long term or the possibility of him crying for hours and hours (when he's never cried more than 2 minutes consecutively) also makes me upset.  I need to make this about numbers and try to remove my emotions from it.  That's why I want to know if my logic seems to be correct or not.

I know vaccine side effects are calculated based on short term reactions that occur within hours, days, or possible weeks of the shot, but I am more considered with the long term effects that may not be accurately measured.  Given that, I know the statistics for the likelihood of a vaccine reaction are going to show that he is more likely to get pertussis than a reaction from DTap.  What I want to know is what risk I am taking if I choose not to give it to him.  If it's 99.9% chance he will be good to go, I'll feel better.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[BeckyBird]

I'm with you--it is very scary! I'll tell you my story about my unvaxxed DD, pertussis, and hospitals...

My DD is not vaccinated, while my 8 year old son is fully vaccinated. He's had issues with croup since he was 1 year old. If he catches any cold, it always turns into croup. We deal with this several times a year.

When my DD was 6 months old, my son had a virus with croup, and my daughter caught the cold. She was fully breastfed at the time. The cold went into her airways, and overnight, she had very raspy breathing. She slept all night, nursing, and never let me go, so I knew she was sick. That morning, after a rough night, her breathing sounded worse. We took her to a doctor, and they did some kind of breathing treatment with no results. So we had to take her to the hospital. They diagnosed her with strider--basically, it was her airways swelling from the virus.

They did more nebulized breathing treatments for her, and recommended she stay overnight for observation. I stayed with her, and get this--I slept in the crib with her and nursed her throughout the night! Yes I did. I never left her side.

Ok, long story, but here's the scary part---in the section of the hospital we were in, the nurses told me there were babies & kids  there with pertussis. I was soooo scared, because I was sure my DD would get it too. I imagined the nurses would have the bacteria all over their clothes, hair, breathing it in and out of their lungs, etc. And, hospitals are not sanitary, contrary to what you would believe. The worst of my non-vaxxing fears were coming to haunt me. I even had this overwhelming urge to go against medical advice and leave, running for the hills. But, I stayed, and she started to improve, and was good by morning. She never caught pertussis either.

I wonder--how many of the kids/babies at the hospital had been vaccinated. If any of them were not vaccinated, don't you think it would be on the news? Any time an unvaccinated kid comes down with a vaccine available disease/illness, they post it all over the news--"See? Not vaccinating is bad!"

So, not vaccinating can be scary, at least for me. But, the vaccine is not 100% effective either, and you do risk the chance of vaccine reactions if you vaccinate. That is what gets me every time--the risk of reactions. There is evidence that fully vaccinated people can still pass the illness, and can still get pertussis. Often, doctors will not even check for pertussis because they assume if a person is vaccinated, then it couldn't be pertussis.

To help you out, maybe you could look into treating pertussis with sodium ascorbate? Many people report success, so that can be comforting. My advice would be to keep your baby close, keep exclusively nursing, and support your immune system with good nutrition. Even if you decide to vaccinate, your baby will benefit from these simple guidelines. And, even if you vaccinate, and your child still comes down with pertussis (which can happen) you'll want to know how to treat it.

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/353318/sodium-ascorbate

http://www.mothering.com/community/search.php?search=sodium+ascorbate+pertussis&containingforum[]=45&output=all&action=disp

[littlec]

I know how you feel. It's scary- all the potential things that could happen to our little ones. I think it's great taht you are doing research. Now, full disclosure- I no longer vaccinate my kids, so I am of course biased. I'm not "anti vaccine" either, but given our family situation, I feel it's safer/better for my kids to avoid all vaccines for the time being.

Regarding the DTaP, pertussis in particular, I can say this. The vaccination rates have increased pretty much every year, yet the pertussis cases have also increased every year. I feel like that is not a very effective vaccine. The CDC pink book chapter on pertussis has a small sentance about it, and I had links to the WHO graphs showing the pertussis rates, but they are no longer active- I'm sure you could google it though.

Another thing, Pertussis is most dangerous for kids under 6 months, even if you got the DTaP on schedule, your baby wouldn't be fully protected until 6 months...though of course there is some partial protection- just something else to consider.

Good luck!

[lokidoki]

Originally Posted by SoonToBe 

I've been researching for the better part of a year and have read Dr. Sears book.  I am the proud mother of a 9 wk old son.  The Dtap vaccine is the one that is causing me the biggest issue.  I am most afraid of pertussis (rational or not), but am equally concerned with the chemicals in the vaccine.

Dr. Sears' book was great at providing the risk of a severe pertussis case (and the other diseases) for perspective.  I think it was 1 in 3333.  I wanted to find the chance of him catching it in general too (not just a severe case).  I went to the CDC page and although I know it won't have all cases reported, it seemed to indicate that in 2010, there were about 100 cases per 100,000 in children under one year.  So I can take that to mean that in 2010, he would have had about a 0.1% chance of getting it or a 99.9% chance of not. 

I have particular concerns about the chemicals in the vaccines because of my own history.  That said, I'm not anti-vaccine.

If my son is breastfed for 2 years (or more) with never a drop of formula, does not attend daycare, and does not regularly spend time with other children, is it logical for me to think that his chance of getting pertussis is about 0.1%?  Because I am so attached and in love with him, I am having a hard time with the decision because I don't like either of my options.  The possibility of him getting pertussis (even if it's not severe) and coughing horribly for months makes me feel sick.  The thought of the potential aluminum could have on his body long term or the possibility of him crying for hours and hours (when he's never cried more than 2 minutes consecutively) also makes me upset.  I need to make this about numbers and try to remove my emotions from it.  That's why I want to know if my logic seems to be correct or not.

I know vaccine side effects are calculated based on short term reactions that occur within hours, days, or possible weeks of the shot, but I am more considered with the long term effects that may not be accurately measured.  Given that, I know the statistics for the likelihood of a vaccine reaction are going to show that he is more likely to get pertussis than a reaction from DTap.  What I want to know is what risk I am taking if I choose not to give it to him.  If it's 99.9% chance he will be good to go, I'll feel better.

Thanks in advance for your help.

You are aware that not every case of whooping cough actually gets the "whoop" to the cough but just develops and stays a bad cold? Are you also aware of how to treat it naturally and quickly if your child should get WC? For me it was much easier to say no to each individual vaccine when I looked at the treatments available and made myself aware that getting it does not equal death (like "they'd" have you believe). While I agree ~ any illness for our children is not so great ~ when you look at the individual diseases and learn about the treatments to help your child recover ~ they become far less scary (or they did for me). I also believe that WC is underdiagnosed as in the parent presents sick child to doctor with severe cold and harsh cough ~ doctor sees that the kid is vaxed so the doctor automatically assumes that the kid cannot have WC since the kid is vaxed...and therefore the WC goes unreported because kid is vaxed (even though if the kid was not vaxed the doctor would immediately diagnose and report WC).

Now ~ I am biased because I am big time anti-vax. My DS1 was vaxed to 4 months when I quit and DS2 has not been vaxed at all (and will not be). I believe that vaccines are far more dangerous long term vs. short term (although I believe there are short term issues too). So I will admit that I am adament that vaccines should not be administered to young babies ~ or to anyone really ~ because we have absolutely NO CLUE about the safety of vaccines. It can get scary sometimes ~ but when you have your heart walking around outside of your body it can be pretty terrifying when they do anything that has any kind of risk to it at all...and there isn't much in this world that does not have risk associated with it (including sitting in a chair in your house). But when you arm yourself with the knowledge of how to handle the VPDs should your child get sick with them...then I think some of the terror is eliminated.