Vaccines....Friend or Foe? Part 1

If anyone knows me well they know I'm a little bit of an overprotective parent.

I like to think about the "overprotective" part as just careful and thinking but sometimes I can get a little carried away. It has been my constant challenge to trust the Lord with Kara, and now I have begun to do this with my new little Noah.

And so began my thoughts on immunizations...

When Kara was a newborn we headed off to the doctor for her 1 month check-up,and at the time I knew very little about newborns or really anything and was ready to hear what she had to say! We started talking about her 2 month appointment and the six vaccines she would get at our next appointment. I had already decided I wanted her vaccines spread out because I just felt like that many at once was a lot for a tiny newborn! The doctor assured me that the normal way of doing it was fine but said I could if I wanted to.

Anyways, long story short, I ended up finding out about this great Christian doctor that friends had referred me too and I switched to him. One thing I miss about San Diego is this doctor! He was exceptional! Not only did he deeply care about each one of his patients, take the time to sit down and actually talk with you and listen to your concerns, but he also loved the Lord and that always made me feel like we were on the same page.

Another thing about this doctor was that he had the opposite view on vaccines as Kara's first doctor; he started them around age one and sometimes age two and he only recommended a select few. This was very interesting to me since I had never heard this. Being the researcher I am, I have spent the last 2 years researching and understanding vaccines. I have not even cracked the surface because it is an in depth and complicated subject. So much of it is very medical and so I can only understand what my mind is able.
Here are my findings thus far:

There are several positions in this area, the first is that ALL vaccines are good, and that they should be given at the time the American Academy of Pediatrics says and all at the same time ( meaning not spread out) . The second is that ALL vaccines are toxic and harmful for the body and that we should not give our children or ourselves any. The third is a balance between the two, which is SOME vaccines are useful and should be given, the time they should be given is different depending on who you ask.

After reading, and praying about this topic for a while now I have come to this conclusion as a personal decision for myself and my kids:

SOME vaccines are helpful and useful for the body. All vaccines have side effects, and can be potentially harmful for our body, if you look at the ingredients that are in some vaccines you would not believe it! However, there are some that when you look at the risks and weigh the scales with the side effects and harmful ingredients on one side and the possible chance of getting the disease the vaccine is fighting on the other, the vaccine side wins.

I have come up with a method of discerning and deciding which vaccines to get and when. When I look at each one, I ask myself these questions:

1) How old is the vaccine?
* For instance, the Polio vaccine has been around forever, and when I was a baby I got the Polio shot, so I can look at this immunization and see that as far as we can tell there are no long term effects that are caused.
* On the other side, you might look at PC or Rotavirus, these vaccines are both fairly new, and it is difficult to tell what the long term effects may be on our children.
* When we look at some of the newer vaccines we can't be sure of what the long term effects will be. Studies can only be done for a short time, since longer studies would have to require one group of kids to not be vaccinated at all. The only way to know then is to look at kids and think back to which shots they received and see if there is a pattern of consistent problems. An example of this would be autism, which is very highly debated but in my opinion is very likely based on things i have seen and read.

2) Is the vaccine-preventable disease life threatening or can it be treated in most cases?
* An example would be the flu shot...can the flu be treated? Is it most often handled well at home with proper diet and careful parenting? My answer is yes, so I don't see how the risks of this vaccine are worth getting it when the flu is common and usually cured easily.
* However, something like Pertussis ( which is whooping cough) although usually handled fine by kids above age 1, is very scary for young babies, and especially infants. So you have to decide if the risks of possible side effects, toxic ingredients, etc. outweigh the chance your young infant could possibly catch a serious case of whooping cough.


Those are the main two questions I ask but you might also want to think to ask yourself these:

1) Will I be breastfeeding?
2) Will my children be at home or will they be in daycare?
3) How was the strain of the virus or disease to make the vaccine made?

These questions can be helpful because those who are breastfeeding either exclusively or mostly and their children are at home full time, have a small risk of catching these bugs. The third question is good to think about because some vaccines were created from aborted babies who were infected and that may be a cause for concern for some. I know for me it is when I think about the possibility that these precious babies were aborted because they had these illnesses. If you want to know the ones that are, I can tell you the three I know of; Rotavirus, Varicella (chickenpox,) and Rubella.

I think it is important to at least take the time to do a small amount of research on this topic because no matter what your doctor says there is always a risk when getting any shot. We need to know what these risks are and be prepared to feel like we are making informed decisions.