Friday, May 16, 2008

To NOT shot for now.........

So the decision still continues on Brilyn's vaccinations. She went for her 4 month visit this week. She is doing very well. She is now 13 lb 5 oz. and 26 inches long. 50% for weight. Not sure on the length percentile as they didn't tell me. Her pediatrician said okay she needs a LOT of shots and wrote them all down for me. I told him I had decided to wait until she was at least 1 yr. old for most of them and then I was going to pick and choose. They always love to use abbreviations and go over them real fast so I asked him to tell me which ones were which and he did. I decided out of all of them I would give her the oral rotavirus vaccination. According to research nearly all children get rotavirus by the time they are five. My friends little girl had it and had to be hospitalized. Um yeah, been there done that. So I decided to do it because I know it's kinda common and prevalent. One vaccine I have decided not to do until WAY later is Hepatitus B and here's why....

Hepatitis B is spread by blood-to-blood contact or by having sex with an infected person. Oral sex may transmit hepatitis B, especially swallowing semen from an infected man.
A high risk for blood contact is the sharing of needles or equipment with injecting drug users, who may not know they are infectious.
Sharing razors or toothbrushes with an infectious person may spread the disease.
Health workers may be at risk by accidental needlestick injuries.
Women who are hepatitis B carriers may infect their babies around the time of birth. Since 2000, all babies are vaccinated soon after birth, reducing the risk of becoming carriers or contracting the infection later in life


Umm yeah, I don't think that applies to most babies and definitely not mine!

I kind of debated giving her the DPT (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus) because Pertussis or whooping cough can be kind of common but this shot is one that definitely can give them a high fever so I decided to wait until she is older.

My sister-in-law says in her research she has found that older children's bodies are more able to handle the immunizations and I tend to agree. Plus breast fed babies are receiving at least partial immunizations according to what I have read.

I asked the pediatrician if they still put formaldehyde in the shots and he said yes. Here's a list of all the ingredients in the various immunizations just in case you wanted to know http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/vaccine_awareness/ingredients.html

I am more at peace with the decision now than I was before. Also, CDC says you can request an ingredient list before receiving vaccination at your local healthcare practitioner so that is good.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Karen,

This is Stephanie (Boggess) Vohwinkel.

I just wanted to congratulate you on thinking things through & just not dong them because everyone else is doing them! You are a great mother!

I don't know if you new this or not, but I was never vaccinated. Since I don't work in the health field I continue to not be vaccinated. My husband & I have not vaccinated our children. I don't know if this is a forever thing or not, but I am not doing it for now. Sophia is three & Lukas is 11 months.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you some encouragement & let you know there are other folks not vaccinating on the regular schedule!

Hope you are doing well! Your kids look great & I am enjoying reading your blog! For info on us you can go to http://web.mac.com/jmmvsav

Shelly said...

I, too, want to congratulate you on your thoughtful descison!
It's sad that so many people don't take responsibility for their own health and their children's health and leave it in the hands of a perfect stranger who, in most cases, is just interested in how much money he'll make from the vaccine company.
You would NEVER get anyone in the healthcare field or vaccine research people to sign a form stating that there were no side effects and the vaccines were 100% safe and that they would agree to be held legally responsible for anything that were to happen. Yet, they advocate them for tiny babies, sometimes only 24 hours old!
(Sorry, this is one topic I"m very passionate about! I'll get off the soapbox now!)
We didn't vaccinate our three kids; if you need any information or have any questions, please feel free to get my email from Brittany. We're the ones that told them about no shots, when she had Ozzie.