How did you decide about vaccinating?

[jaycoen]

Consult your pediatrician. Someone with years of education, residency, experience, and possibly their own kids will tell you that vaccinations are beneficial. In the end, however much research you do does not make you a doctor. As such, why would you tell him how to do his job properly?

Also, if you do fear complications, make sure your pediatrician knows your child's health background so they can make conscious decisions about vaccinations (allergies, possible reactions, etc).
For those parents that feel like vaccines definitely produced an immediate, subtle effect on their children, most of the time these are merely natural things that would have occurred regardless of shots. Things such as dry skin and other subtle changes are genetic and arise as they grow older, or are exposed to different hormones in their foods.

[Philgen]

We found a friendly homeopathic physician who isn't pushing us to vaccinate our son. I did consider giving him preservative free versions of certain vaccines, HOWEVER I was informed by my child's pediatrician that so called preservative free vaccines aren't 100% preservative free. She said that the manufactures of these preservative free vaccines created them in the same containers that are used for creating preservative filled vaccines therefor there will still be trace amounts of mercury/thimerosol & other preservatives in the preservative free vaccines. If you want more info on vaccine safety I'd go here: http://www.naturalnews.com/vaccines.html also, I would strongly suggest watching this film: http://www.greatergoodmovie.org/home

What a perfect topic right now!! I've been wondering about this for awhile...

With my first son (and second), we didn't agree with giving his first shot when he was just born. That was out of the question. He was just born and they wanted to poke him all over!

We went along with vaccines just knowing that everyone we knew had their children vaccinated so it must have been the right thing to do. Then later, we began hearing "not good" things about them. Then I did my own research and learned things that I do not like. Traces of mercury, side-effects (some life changing), and slow causes of some deceases and cancers. No thanks, I do not like those risks.
Right now, I am against all vaccines for my children. On my second child, after his first set of shots, he has had horrible dry, flaky skin ever sense. He is very uncomfortable and I really feel it was those vaccines. I cried after he had them.
If I am not comfortable with the idea and it makes me sad...then why go along with it?

I still need to learn more about choosing not to vaccinate though. I hear it may be a rocky road with doctors. Is this true? This is something I'm stressing about and I need more information on this issue. Thanks!

[HappyTim]

As a PhD Scientist and brother of a Medical Doctor, the choice to vaccinate is an easy one. I am fortunate to have the educational background that I can read and understand the scientific literature and weigh the pros and cons of various vaccines, and it's not even close: The risks of not vaccinating far outweigh the small risks of vaccinating.

It would literally kill me to lose our child to a preventable disease like Pertussis, or have my child get sick with measles and end up exposing an elderly person. There is no reliable causal link between vaccines and autism; current science suggests autism is a combination of genetics and possibly exposure to pollution. I'm far more concerned by the amount of heavy metals pumped into the water and air by coal burning power plants than the tiny, tiny amounts of chemically inactive mercury used in vaccines.

Are there risks to vaccinating? Of course. Are there risks to driving a car or eating a hamburger from a fast food joint? Of course. Some children have bad reactions to vaccines. All children have bad reactions to life-threatening viral infections.

[complexnetworks]

thanks for sharing