I took baby Titus for his one year shots today. Hesitantly, I must say. Before I went, I did a little research about the shots that he would be getting. I haven’t always been so inquiring about his vaccines. Up until recently, I’ve always trusted what the doctors told me, and I took them at their word. Lately though, I have come to realize that these doctors don’t always know what they are talking about, and I have begun questioning them more.
When I was pregnant my ob told me that I had some kind of infection, and he prescribed me some med’s to take. After hearing story after story of doctors making mistakes, I had just begun taking my body, my health into my own hands. I had decided I was no longer just going to take whatever the doctor said to take without knowing what it was, and what the possible dangers/risks were first. So, I went and had the prescription filled, but before I took it, I did a little research. I was surprised to find that this particular medicine came with a warning: It had not been tested on pregnant women. Now, I don’t know if this would alarm you, but it was a huge concern to me! How is my doctor going to tell me that this is safe for me and my baby, if it has NEVER been tested?! I decided not to take it. The next time I went in to see the doc. I told him what I had read, and that I was not going to take it. He tried to reassure me that it was fine, but I was not moved. I asked him if there would be any complications if I did not take the prescription. He told me that the only problem would be that I could develop some discomfort (itching, etc.) If that was all I would have to deal with then bring it on! I’d much rather have that risk than the one of hurting my baby! I never did have any discomfort, or even any symptoms at all of an infection. And I guess it went away on its own, if it was even ever there.
This precautious mind-set has slowly crept into the arena of my children’s health. At first, I guess I felt like it was too risky to not follow all of the pediatrician’s advice. But I am now beginning to feel very strongly about following my own “Motherly Instincts” regarding their health. To give an example, when my daughter was about a year old she began having chronic ear infections. I was working in childcare, in the nursery with her, and she was constantly sick. Rounds and rounds of antibiotics later, her pediatrician recommended that we see a specialist. After a lengthy visit with this doctor, he recommended that we put tubes in her ears. Now, the thought of sedating my baby girl (and the risks that went along with that), and inserting these things into her ears did not make me feel comforted at all. Honestly, I was very uneasy about the whole idea. I gave it some thought and decided that I wanted to wait. I told the doctor that I was going to be quitting work in about a month, and staying at home with my daughter. I wanted to see if once I was at home with her she would stop getting ear infections. The doctor really wanted to do the surgery, but I insisted that I wanted to give it just a little longer. A month later I was at home with her, and you know, she never had another ear infection again!
So, back to the original discussion… I took Titus in for his shots, and declared to the nurse that I only wanted him to get two of the recommended four shots. I was kind of nervous about going against their recommendations. You never want to be “that mom”, you know, the crazy one who doesn’t know what she’s talking about, the ignorant one. But I truly did not feel comfortable injecting him with who-knows-what just because they say it’s okay. After some questioning, the nurse finally said, “Okay then, if you don’t want him to get these shots we’re going to need for you to sign a form stating that you have opted out of taking them.” I said fine, and signed away. One of the shots that I was semi-okay with was unavailable (the Hib), but he did get the MMR vaccine. The only reason I let him get this one is because we are going out of the country next month, and I felt he really needed it. I am concerned about the MMR with all of the recent controversy over it causing Autism. I did not give him the Chicken Pox vaccine, or Prevnar. After doing some reading, I feel they are unnecessary, and may even be risky. (I read a very interesting article about the safety of vaccines today, you can check it out HERE .)
You know, I feel at peace with my decision. I think I did the right thing. It’s so hard to know though! It’s so hard as mom’s because we want to do the best thing for our children. We don’t want to make any mistakes, especially when it comes to their health, their lives! It’s hard because we can’t really trust what the professionals are telling us. We have to learn to do some research ourselves.
I’ve been wondering what other mom’s are doing, and how they feel about this subject. I know it’s pretty controversial right now, and more and more Mothers are beginning to take more caution when it comes to their children’s vaccinations. I would love to hear from you mom’s out there.
Are you giving your children all of the recommended shots? Are there some that you are opting out of? Has your child had a bad reaction to an immunization, or do you know one who has? What are your thoughts?
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StacyG says:
We vaccinated with the regular schedule of vaccines until James hit 15 months. That’s when my doctor gives the MMR. I wanted James to have it in 3 individual doses over a long stretch of time as opposed to all at once. We waited and waited, knowing my doctor didn’t offer the 3 individual doses. Finally, we were told that if children in this practice don’t have all of their shots by age 2 then they (we) would be discharged from the practice. They are a practice that believes in vaccination and to give the quality of care they wanted to their patients the needed to enforce the vaccination schedule (whatever!).
After meeting another pediatrician who would allow us to vaccinate in 3 doses our pediatrician relented and is now in the process of ordering the vaccines. I still don’t know if we will stay with them or not. It will depend on what kind of schedule they make us adhere to. If he has to have a vaccine every month for 3 months it’s not worth it to me. I want to be able to have some say-so in when the vaccines are given. I spoke with the ped yesterday and she said she would work with the parents but the owner of the practice has the final say. I should say they have given us AWESOME medical care. Nurses always call back, usually within 20 minutes. Every time I have called after office hours the doctor who calls back (either one of 2 in the practice, or the ARNP nurse) is always friendly and helpful. They have really been great in every other area but this is a big issue for me so if we can not come to an agreement then we will be switiching.
In hind site I would not have vaccinated against Hep B. This vaccine was designed for drug users and promiscuous people. I also know that the vaccine often does not “take” in adults. I think vaccinating a new born baby for this in ridiculous. Also, no chicken pox vax for us. We have already given the Prevnar.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am
Tiffany says:
Like you, I started focusing on these issues more when I was pregnant with Aiden. I researched vaccinations for myself, reading BOTH sides of all the arguments. I decided to do most of them, one I declined, and one I’m delaying. I think as long as a mom does all her research…REPUTABLE research, not just what other moms say on message boards…and then goes with her gut, that’s the best you can do. Personally, I haven’t known anyone to have any bad reactions from vaccinations, except fever.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:19 am
Annie says:
I did a delayed schedule with my son and left out some I didn’t think were necessary (like Hep B). I came to this decision after MUCH reading and frustration because most material on vaccines seems to be one-sided. I think there has to be a middle ground and that is what the delayed schedule was to me.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:28 am
Sashwhy says:
Good post, Ken. Personally, we’ve given our son only a few of the recommended vaccinations (we decided against the Hepatitis shots and Polio). Recently, we’ve decided to stop vaccinations all together and just delay them until he is a little older (and not so little). I’m sure we’ll have to get more before we leave the country for ministry, but we’re going to wait until then probably.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am
Sarah says:
When you decline vaccinations, most doctors act like you are ignorant and don’t care about your child. My husband and I had decided against any vaccines for our newborn and the doctors just kept telling us over and over how important they were and kept printing off articles and bringing them back to us to read. Thankfully our regular pediatrician, while recommending vaccines, believes that the parents are responsible for the decision.
I didn’t get many vaccines growing up and I have been very healthy. I have only ever taken antibiotics once in my life!
With all of the research that we have done we won’t be doing vaccines with our children unless we decide at some later point that we think it’s necessary, at which time they will be considered delayed.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:29 am
Mindy says:
I had the same concerns that you did when my daughter was a baby. At a CPR training that I did once for a school I worked at the Fireman who was training decided to take it upon himself to give us a “vaccines are from the devil” speech as part of the CPR training. This was way before I had my baby girl, so all those things were swirling around in my mind when the doctor said she was to start the vaccines. I talked to my dr. (whom I trusted VERY much). He told me that the decision was totally up to me and he wouldn’t pressure me in any way. I asked him what he thought and he said that he has given them to his grandchildren. He said he saw the effects of some of the diseases before there were vaccines for them, and they were nothing to play with. Because I trusted him so much, saw how cautious he was (he split the vaccines up and gave them on a slower schedule than the recommendations), and felt that he was truly respecting my decision as a parent, I decided to go ahead and do the vaccines.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
PollyS says:
I have chosen to give my children all the recommended vaccines. You see, my father had a mild case of polio and he STILL had a difficult time, physically, throughout his short life (55 years). I would hate to have one of my children get a disease with devastating effects that could have otherwise been avoided.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Mama Bear says:
GREAT POST.
My aunt is an RN and I always get uncomfortable telling her that I don’t want certain shots for my son, as she is the one that does them for us.
Before we found out the our son has an adrenal disorder, I was against the chicken pox and flu vaccines simply because we all had the chicken pox and the flu and we’re all fine…not to mention there just isn’t enough research or proof that those vaccines are trustworthy.
Now that we know of his adrenal disorder, it’s almost a must to get every vaccine available simply because my baby could die if he gets too sick.
Although I’m still against certain immu’s, I am getting them all for my son because I don’t want to run the risk of him getting sick and passing away because of my stubbornness.
Sigh.
Life has tough decisions sometimes!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:20 am
Darcy says:
When my youngest daughter was little and in regular school, she would get very sick at least once a year and would miss lots of school, with doctor visits and antibiotics and other prescriptions taken. One year we almost had to take her to the emergency room because she was so sick. When she was 8 years old, we decided to homeschool and the first year of homeschooling she did get sick but not as badly as she had previously. We didn’t have to take her to the doctor. Since then,when she has not gotten sick like that again. She is now 17 years old.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Promises Fulfilled says:
This is definitely a tough decision - especially with the claims out there that something in the vaccinations may have caused autism in children.
I do not want my children to get any of these diseases, but I also do not want them to have autism either, so I always pray before they have their shots, that their body will use the vaccinations the way that it should be used and that there will be no side effects to it.
However, with our 4 month old, they wanted to give him a shot for rotavirus. I really did not have peace about this - it is still new and our 2 year old did not get that (it is given orally). They actually happened to be out of it that day and never called us to come back in and get it, so I felt that those events were confirmation as to what I was feeling about it. When the doctor talked about our 4 month old getting the second round of the rotavirus vaccine, and I told him that he did not get the first dose, I did feel that the doctor was not really happy with us about that…but that is ok, he can get over that!
Some people think that the chicken pox vaccine is not worth getting - but I have the opposite view. I was covered from head to toe with the chicken pox - not very fun at all, so I am happy to let them have the vaccine. Other people do not get it that bad - so they may not feel the way that I do, and that is fine too!
What it comes down to is doing what you feel is right for your child and ask the Lord to give you peace in it!
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
nmay says:
You’re right…you really have to do the research yourself. It’s hard because some of the research is still out on these issues and you just have to make as best an educated guess as possible about what to do. Which can be really difficult when it’s your child’s health. I don’t think the research is conclusive yet about the link between autism and vaccines. I chose to vaccinate my children because I didn’t want to risk them getting any of the other diseases. It’s a tough decision, but I’d suggest you take a look at http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/are-autism-and-vaccines-linked. It’s a great website with a debate between experts on both sides about whether autism and vaccines are linked. It may give you some additional information…a really thorough read!
August 25th, 2008 at 1:07 am