Tell me why you select vacs, which ones you picked and why! :)

[twinpossible]

I knew I wanted to do research and wait so right now I am in that stage. My twin girls are preemie so we want to be as kind and gentle to their little bodies as possible. My doc is a fabulous holistic doctor so we has a delayed schedule already but I still want to know more. Which vacs did you choose? Why those? Any good books I can read on the subject? Thanks ladies!!

[emmy526]

http://vactruth.com/vaccine-inserts/

Here are some things to consider about vaccinating....good luck and keep posting with questions.

Here are some sources to help you out:

Here are some questions to answer for yourself in deciding about vaccination:

1. Name of the disease
2. Description of the disease
3. Length of time from initial infection to end of all symptoms
4. Infectious period
5. Normal symptoms of the disease
6. Known serious consequences of the disease
7. Proportion of persons infected developing serious consequences
8. Transmission route of the disease
9. Prevalence of the disease
10. Treatments of the disease and efficacy of those treatments
11. Relevant research about the disease
12. Name of the vaccine
13. Company that makes the vaccine
14. Contents of the vaccine
14A. The significance of whether or not the vaccine is live
15. History of development of the vaccine
16. Known side-effects of the vaccine and rate of incidence of those side-effects
17. Possible side-effects not yet acknowledged by the vaccine maker
18. Relevant research into the vaccine
19. How effective is the vaccine at preventing the disease?
20.What is the vaccine meant to do? (Many vaccines are not meant to prevent infection or transmission).
21.Number of cases reported each year.
22.Number of deaths reported each year from the vaccine and natural disease.

Here are some sources to help you out:

Vaccines: The Risks, The Benefits, The Choices 1/18 DVD, By Sherri J. TENPENNY-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORHqEedtUY



http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_wk.html (download the current issue)

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/pink-chapters.htm

http://vaers.hhs.gov/pdf/PackageInserts.pdf

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7018835240451107552&q

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6351515212287981735&hl=en

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/G/cases&deaths.pdf


WHO GRAPH-http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/en/globalsummary/timeseries/tsincidencepol.htm


Beyond Conformity Resources Page- http://www.beyondconformity.org.nz/resources

Do you have a quick-fire summary?- http://www.beyondconformity.org.nz/questions#

Inside Vaccines- http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/

http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/graphs/

http://het.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/04/0960327111407644.full.pdf+html
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/G/cases&deaths.pdf

http://vaers.hhs.gov/index

http://www.thinktwice.com/sids.htm

[MamasBoys]

After reading and researching as much as you can, I think that in the end, it comes down to your own personal philosophy on vaccines.  There's usually four main belief systems when it comes to vaccines:

1. Vaccines are safe and effective

2. Vaccines are safe but ineffective

3. Vacccines are unsafe but effective

4. Vaccines are unsafe and ineffective

I personally fall somewhere in the #3 category, believing that the recommended vaccine schedule as it currently stands is completely dangerous, that most of the recommended vaccines are not necessary as the diseases they "protect" are either rare or not as severe as we are made to believe.  However, I do believe that vaccines have some efficacy, although of course none are a guarantee of immunity. I basically weighed 1. How likely they were to be infected with a certain disease, and 2. The severity or complications of that disease vs. the possible complications of the vaccine. 

Here is a REALLY basic rundown of the way I went about things. 

HepB was immediately thrown out of the decision because it is most notably transmitted through sexual contact or IV drug use.  We will vax for this, but not until the tween/early teen years. 

Several vax's were decided against (hib, prevnar) because my kids were exclusively breastfed and then have went on to nurse for 3+ years and there was some protective action going on there.  In addition, my kids were not in daycare, which would raise the incidence of certain illnesses.

Polio is a no-brainer to me, it just doesn't exist anymore.

MMR was a little trickier...measles outbreaks do still occur and there are complications for everything.  I have boys, but I may have considered MMR more strongly for vaccination in the teen years since rubella in a pregnant mother can cause serious complications to the fetus.  This vax can still make me waver a bit but for the most part, I consider these 3 diseases to be normal childhood illnesses (much like chickenpox was for my generation, our grandparents all had the measles and most recovered just fine.) 

Chickenpox I think is just silly, although I am trying to consider whether it will be a vaccine I will give them if they haven't contracted it by their teenage years, as it can be more severe in teens and adults.

DtaP is the only vax I decided upon for now.  Since my son at the time was home with me exclusively and everyone else in the family has been vaxed, he did not start receiving his vax until he turned 2 years old (and then every 6 months thereafter.)  Unfortunately his brother was born when he was 3 and I started his DtaP vax right away.  My personal reasons for this is that we were living in an area with a 50% unvaccinated rate and traveling in those social circles constantly and pertussis was common.  My older son has severe, life threatening asthma and he just could not get Pertussis and I was particularly concerned about my infant contracting it since it was so common in my area.  I was really upset that they could no longer separate the Pertussis vaccine, so they were forced into receiving diptheria (pretty much non existent in the US) and tetanus at these ages as well.  But considering our particular situation, it was a decision I had to make for our family. 

What am I missing here....?

[SweetSilver]

I think Dr. Sears' book was the most helpful to me.  Unfortunately, my girls were fully vaxed until age 3 and I regret that.  My daughter became needle shy, we skipped one round of booster shots and the next visit I had to sign off on the *seven* shots that were recommended.  Aaaak!  And it's getting worse!

I don't remember enough to say about everything, but we don't vaccinate for the flu, I regret the chicken pox vax, the MMR vax and the Hep vaxes (I stopped vaxing before I got to the HepA.)

Pertussis I don't regret, nor meningitis for personal reasons (dh's sister died of meningitis at 2yo, though from what form I do not know.)

I know this is incomplete.  Sears' book covers what the vax is for, the seriousness of the disease and the likelihood of contracting it, etc.  Good information to make some good decisions.