I wrote message but then lost it so I will try to rewrite it. When I said react I meant sever reactions, which is also false. Sever reactions are said to be very rare. I also didn't even take your nursing into consideration. I hope you don't take offense to this but I look at your nursing is not relevant in this case. I know many nurses that are for vaccines, some that are against then there are the ones, like my husband, that are still not sure where they stand. I have access to many things most don't because of his profession but that and knowledge about how the body works is all that his profession helps with. He is right now being criticized for questioning such a basic thing. That is kind of where I was going with how people in the medical field get taught one thing and that is it. Some of the smarter ones do research of their own. I don't know you so you might be one of the smarter ones. I have also been told that vaccines do not cause SIDS. I response to that is show me the research that supports that. I still have not been handed the research. I have looked for it myself and read time and time again that they believe vaccines don't cause SIDS but there is not enough unvaccinated kids to prove this. So my conclusion is that in theory vaccines are great but that they did not do enough testing before they started giving these vaccines out. The same thing was said but Autism but I never looked into that to far so I know there is more out there on that topic. I have also read somewhere that even if a kid has a sever allergic reaction they are still suppose to get the vaccines. I also read that when a kid reacts to a vaccine once the next time it is usually worse. To me it sounds like they are sacrificing the weak for the good of the many. Even with all this I am still not sure where I stand. I have so much more to read.

Yeah, there definitely needs to be more research. I am glad you didn't take my career into account, because like you said, anyone can have a different opinion. As far as severe reactions go, I definitely would not want to continue with the vaccine series if my child had a severe reaction. And I know that your doctor can write a medical exemption for things like that. But all in all, this is a great topic to talk about because it helps people form their own opinions and lets other parents give suggestions. I personally believe in vaccines, but (obviously) not everyone agrees. I think it's just important to talk to your (trusted) doctor and come to a conclusion together.

i not so sure if it is the mmr shot that causes autism but i do think that we should be concerned about all the shots that we are giving our children all at once. some kids just dont have the best immune system to handle that many at once. And i do suggest if she is at all sick do not get her vaccinated with anything you do have the right to say no to some of these other shot that i dont think they really need. go back to the basics. gooodluck

I believe in vaccination as well. For my own child's sake as well as others. I have done my research as well and I do have concerns about the effects of the vaccines, but still believe the good outweighs the bad.

I believe vaccines can be a contributing factor to autism, but is not the cause. I think as furhter research is done, we will see that children are born with autism and contributing factors can affect the severity of the autism.

My daughter was part of an autism study in the control group of healthy children at our local children's hospital. She was studied every couple of months from 6 months to 3 years. The other groups was children whose siblings had autism. They were looking for signs of autism as young as six months and the signs were there in some children. So, to me that says that we need more information about autism, and how to diagnose. These are the children who should not have the vaccines that could contribute to a disorder they may already have.

The other point, is that your child does not live in a bubble and while your child may have a strong immune system to fight these diseases, someone else's may not. So, by going to the playground, play groups, the mall, and any number of places where your child will interact with others, you are putting all of those children at risk by not vaccinating your child. I, for one, would not want to be responsible for the illness and/or death of another child.

If the other children are vaccinated, how would they be in any danger playing with a child who was not vaccinated?

The unvaccinated child wouldn't be a 'danger' to a vaccinated child. Or another unvaccinated child, for that matter. It's a nasty stereotype that unvaccinated children are cesspools(sp?) of disease. I would be more 'worried' about parents of vaccinated children who are 'behind' on their schedules. Here is the current CDC adult reccomendation

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr...cid=mm5753a6_e

are you up to date on yours?? I'm not and choose never to be....

I definitely understand why most people feel the way they do about vaccinations and I believe doctors mean well in their recommendations to vaccinate, but for many reasons, I (and many others), have come to think that they have missed the boat on this one.
We used to vaccinate our 3 kids on schedule until about 1 year ago when I started really doing a lot of research and found that I just did not feel comfortable vaccinating anymore. My husband agrees so we have chosen to stop permanently. Many things have led to that decision. One of them was understanding that vaccines aren't really as effective as they are touted to be by the medical community. We tend to think (and are told) that if it were not for vaccines, we would still have huge epidemics of all the childhood diseases they now vaccinate against. Seems like that would make sense at first glance, but when you research it, you find that almost all those diseases were in massive decline PRIOR to the vaccines becoming mainstream. The reason for this decline is mainly due to better sanitation & nutrition which has a huge impact on our immune systems. Here are some graphs showing this trend:

You can read more about this info at:

http://freelearner.typepad.com/free_...rst-place.html

Also, one of the most informative things I did was to watch the video I linked to below with my husband. It is made by a very well respected doctor who was pro-vax for a long time (she was the head of an ER at a hospital) but then started researching it for herself and found much to be concerned about. She says most doctors are very well meaning but the education they receive is very one sided and they simply don't have time to do the research for themselves and/or don't even know/want to really question the vaccine policies. Here's the link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...40451107552&q=

It's a video by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny called "Vaccines: The risks, the benefits, the choices." It was a couple of hours, but walked through each vaccine and gave a ton of helpful info.

For us, after all the research, we just couldn't see taking the risk of injecting some potentially very dangerous chemicals for very little payout in the end (since vaccines are not nearly as effective as they seem to be at keeping our children from getting the diseases they are supposed to immunize against in the first place!)

Again, I sympathise with how hard of a decision this is. It kinda feels like "damned if you do, damned if you don't" (pardon the language sometimes, but just do the research and make the best decision you can for your family.

I agree with the posts of delay but vaccinate. I have vaccinated DD on time for all of her shots up until this point(she turns 1 in 3 weeks). However, when it comes to the MMR, I am going to wait until she is 18 months old. These are my thoughts:
1. She is in daycare and at least in my state, the requirements for the daycare are that the child should be vaccinated by the time 6 months pass the reccommended age for the shot. So in this case the reccommended age is 12-15 months so she has until she is 21 months old and can stay in daycare. The reason for this is because sometimes you can't get into your dr right away or the kid has a fever and vaccinations have to be delayed, whatever the case is, they give you some room. So if the state of Missouri feels like they can really wait that long, then I'm gonna wait that long. And as stated before, autism characteristics come out around 12 months. So by waiting 6 months, I can see if she already had those characteristics.
2. I would prefer to seperate but its just not possible in my area. My ped said that she has to buy the vaccines(the MMR vaccines) in lots of 10. And they expire fairly quickly. So I would need to get 9 other families who would want to seperate their shot to make it worth it in her opinion. She is willing if I can find the other 9 families.
3. There is no actual evidence that proves that the MMR causes austism and way more evidence that it doesn't. But I would just feel better to wait, but still vaccinate. She will get all her other shots at 1, including the chicken pox one.

Just food for thought.

YES! YES! I still need information on splitting MMR. My baby's doctor said her office doesn't have the splitted ones and they are not going to order it. So I am on my own to find it.

Thank you in advance for the information!

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/...d-of-the-herd/
I found this link when I was looking through some bookmarks. Oldie but a goodie

Also, this is what Dr. Sears has to say about split MMR, since I think that was one of the original questions for this thread. Just some updated info for you
http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/