Friday, November 9, 2007

Vaccines

I'm sorry if there already was a post about this, I looked through and couldn't find one.

What are everyone's thoughts on vaccinations? I know there are a ton of theories out there about whether or not to vaccinate, how many at once, and the side effects, etc. that sometimes it's staggering. For instance I have a nephew who was labelled as "1 in 500 autistic children" because he is very very low on the spectrum of Autism... my sister doesn't blame the vaccines for causing it, but does think that they triggered it. So on the one hand we have all the dr. and researchers saying there is no link, and on the other hand mothers who are certain their child's developmental problems are linked to vaccines.

I like what Dr. Sears recommends at http://www.askdrsears.com/. He suggests not giving more than two vaccines at once to avoid overloading the child's system. Unfortunately it costs more money, but to me it's worth the peace of mind :)

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts! Did anyone else hesitate to vaccinate their child?
Posted by at
Labels:

8 comments:

Liz said...

I feel very strongly that vaccinating is important! The return of devastating diseases like smallpox and mumps and rubella is way more tragic, and I have Autism in my genes! My youngest brother is Autistic and I have family friends who do believe that their child started regressing after an immunization but I still feel that it's important to protect my child and communities by immunizing. I do agree with spacing them out if you feel that's necessary and I think it's smart to delay them a bit if your child is sick at the time of their well visit, but I don't agree with skipping them altogether.

November 9, 2007 at 1:24 PM
Bethany said...

I say vaccinate. I will take my chances any day giving my child a vaccination rather than risking him getting a disease that is preventable. I don't know anyone personally who's child has become autistic after getting their vaccines. I also don't know much about autism but perhaps everyone has some minor gene for autism it just takes the right combo to show up. I don't mean this to sound harsh but can't a child just be born with autism, why do so many mothers blame it on the vaccinations if the research says there's no link?

November 9, 2007 at 1:51 PM
kristi said...

I am all about vaccinations. I do not want my kids to get any of those really scary diseases.

November 9, 2007 at 2:16 PM
Claire said...

Scott and I were really nervous about vaccinations... we wouldn't let them give Cecelia anything in the hospital. But we prayed about it, talked to our pediatrician about it, and ultimately decided that we would vaccinate her.

November 9, 2007 at 9:20 PM
The Schacher Family said...

I think that it is important to vaccinate. The risks are very slim. The risks that come from getting some of the illnesses could be worse. I also heard somebody once say that they think that the church supports vaccinations because we send so many over to other countries. It's just a thought but I like it.

November 9, 2007 at 11:17 PM
Jen L said...

You're right. The first presidency actually came out with a statement in the 70's saying that parents should vaccinate their children... or something to that effect. I found the letter on-line and I can find it again if anyone is interested.

November 10, 2007 at 8:44 AM
highdeekay said...

My FIL is really anti-vaccinations so he gave us some literature to read and asked us to think through it (he is VERY respectful of our making the decision). We had one Pedi refuse to even discuss it with us. He said he wouldn't be our Pedi if we didn't vaccinate - end of story. He is not our Pedi because we wanted someone a little more open to discussion. In the end we decided it was best for our child to be vaccinated. The evidence for autism and other problems is much more circumstantial than the evidence is for complications from NOT vaccinating.

November 10, 2007 at 7:48 PM
Jen L said...

Wow! Good for switching Pediatricians! That Pedi was definitely wrong! Not that it matters much now, but in the 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics Red Book of Infectious Diseases, it CLEARLY states that Pediatricians are supposed to take a "non-judgemental" approach to talking to parents about vaccines and listening to concerns. Ha ha, this is a quote from the book:

"In general, pediatricians should avoid dismissing patients from their practice solely because of refusal to vaccinate."

He was definitely in the wrong for more than one reason :)

November 10, 2007 at 8:53 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)