NO INOCULATIONS? To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? What did you choose, and why?

Question

I am choosing to NOT have my son vaccinated for fear of the relation between the MMR shot and and Autism.. I am uneasy about the ideas that autism has only gone up 70% since mandatory inoculations. I am uneasy about the ideas related the only too common ADD/ADHD and autism. I am uneasy because if not every child can handle penicillin, why can any child handle the series of shots given before 1 year??

I have decided NO vaccinations will be given to my son as of yet. He is 9 months old now.

What did you choose, and why?

I'm not asking for you to argue with me, or tell me why I'm wrong.. I want to know why YOU are RIGHT.. Tell me why YOU chose whatever you chose to do with your child!

Answer 1

My 9 year old son has high functioning autism and I do not blame vaccinations.  

He received the vaccinations because the diseases are worse than the shots themselves.

Answer 2

Have you been to Generation Rescuse's website?

They have some really good info on alternatives to the current vaccine schedule.

I'm 19 weeks and no I am not going to vaccinate my child right away. When I do I'm going to space out his/her vaccinations. Between what I have learned about developmental disorders and "vaccine injuries" I can not in good conscience follow the current vaccine schedule set by the CDC. I am majoring in teacher education so I have had to take numerous class on different disabilities and the relation between vaccine and the rise of developmental disorders is too great for me to take the chance with my child's life.

Answer 3

vaccinations have been mandetory for school since the 50's it's not a new thing. my children have had all of their shots and never had any adverse reactions at all. personally i think they are just trying to find a blame for a disease that they don't know why it's caused. i had sons but if i had a daughter she would also be getting the cervical cancer vaccine. I have a friend who had polio as a child, which was almost completely wiped out until recently when unvaccinated people started comming into this county, and now it is on the rise again. i would rather my child have a few minutes of pain for a shot then suffer through a sickness of any kind

Answer 4

I chose to vaccinate.

In a nutshell, my reasons are that those same diseases that cripple, kill and render people infertile that we are fortunate enough to have vaccines for, still plague people in other countries.  

If a child is not vaccinated and never leaves the middle-upper class environment in a first world country, chances are they will never contract measles, mumps, polio, etc.  

The caveat is, you'd also have to somehow guarantee that nobody around the child didn't travel to some other part of the world and bring the disease back.  I decided that I couldn't guarantee that would never happen.  

Other diseases: Hepatitis is not uncommon at all in the US.  You'd be surprised how many people (including children) have it.  Again, I couldn't guarantee that my child would never come into contact where a blood-bourne transmission might occur.  I'm thinking of a child's skinned knee on the playground.  Not many little ones understand Universal Precautions!

Chicken Pox: Yes, it's pretty rare that kids die from chicken pox.  However, once you get chicken pox, it goes dormant and hides in your nervous system, waiting....  

... until when your child is an adult and becomes weakened.  Then it resurfaces in the form of shingles, which is a terrible disease compounded by tremendous pain that can last months after an outbreak.

If a person never has chicken pox, they will never get shingles.  That's worth that chicken pox shot any day.

Bottom line, the chances of a reaction to a vaccine are miniscule... far less than the chances of the child actually contracting one of these diseases.  

BTW, the jury is still out on the link between vaccines and autism.  Granted, there appears to be a correlation, but there are a number of other possible reasons for this as well. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt,medical fact.

Answer 5

The MMR shot doesn't contain an ingredients anymore that were even possibly linked, they did a recall like 8 years ago and removed the ingredients that parents were worried about.  Now that parents are scared to give the shot...once again the US is filled with a major outbreak of measles spreading fast.  

I don't want my boys dieing of something I can help prevent and I know 2 families involved in the research about Autism and they have now found what they believe to be a gene in the brain that causes autism.  

I choose to vaccinate on altered schedule to protect my boys and to protect others out there.  If your child has measles or something and gets around a pregnant woman that isn't up to date on her MMR or hasn't had chicken pox your child can cause deformities in the unborn baby or even cause it to die.  Also you child gets a disease and gets around a child with a weak immune system and they can kill them.  I don't want that to happen because of my boys.  They have had all their shots and are just fine and haven't had any of the problems that people are worried about with vaccines.

Answer 6

I have a daughter so I felt comfortable getting her vaccines done. If I had a son I would probably wait on the MMR vaccine.

Answer 7

Frankly, the benefits far outweigh the risks. The evidence is very unclear and conflicting as to how much an effect vaccines have on ADD/ADHD and Autism. Either way, a small percentage of children get these and compared to my child getting polio or the measles... nope no question about it, they get vaccinated.

The one thing I did not get my kids was the new chicken pox shot.... that is not needed, I did it the old fashioned way and got them sick from a neighborhood child!

Answer 8

I chose to vaccinate my my children and choose to keep them current according to pediatric medical guidelines.  My son has autism.  I feel vaccinations had no affect on his being autistic. In retrospect, there were signs of autism early on...well before age one..that simply weren't picked up on.  I feel autism has become associated with vaccinations simply because the average age for diagnosis is between 12-24 months..the age the shots are given is also the time when the symptomology of autism becomes more apparent..the lack of speech, the lack of interest in socializing, the ritualistic behavior..all are more noticeable since that is the age we expect to see more of the behaviors, not less.  I also choose to vaccinate not only for my son's health and safety, but for the health and safety of the other kids he is in contact with.  There was a very good article in Time a few weeks back discussing how the choice to forgo vaccinations has been having an affect on the re-emergence of things like measles.  Many of the more recent outbreaks originate in European countries where vaccination rates are much lower.  Children who have travelled overseas and are not vaccinated then bring the illness back to the states and into classrooms, where other unvaccinated children are at risk.  It is an issue that we, as a global community must address.  Finally, you point out the increase in autism with the increase in required vaccinations.  I counter with the fact that autism has continued to grow in frequency, even after the drug companies have removed the components commonly believed to be the cause...they have been out of the majority of vaccinations (one flu vaccination is the exception) for nearly five years.  I respect each parent's right to choose, all I even ask is that you be sure to do your research and not base possible life affecting choices off data from a study that even the majority of the authors who wrote it  now believe is flawed and incorrect.

Answer 9

My parents did not vaccinate me, and I recently told them how unhappy I was with their decision.  I have been fairly sick my whole life and while I cannot tie it to my lack of vaccination, I always wonder.  Throughout my life, the lack of vaccination seemed to haunt me.  Most recently, while having routine prenatal testing, my lab results showed that I was at risk for having Rubella because of a lack of vaccination.  As I am pregnant, I cannot be vaccinated until after my son is born.   My doctor advised me to be extra careful, so as to not contract Rubella during pregnancy.  So now I will spend the rest of my pregnancy worrying.  I really wish my parents had vaccinated me and I will be vaccinating my son.

Answer 10

My son got all his shots including the second new chicken pox and the new meningitis shot that many kids have not gotten yet. I did my research on the shots before he got them and I looked at the  good and the bad. In the long run the bad out weighed the good by far. I saw pictures and heard true stories of chicken pox on kids and meningitis causing death and destroying body parts like a snake bite or cancer on a child's body. I watched my son like a hawk after he got the shots and I had the Vaccine emergency number by my side to call if anything did happen. I want the best for my son. Add/adhd is not a disease and is controllable with diet not drugs. Autism is rare.

Answer 11

My son is 6 months old and his father and I have agreed not to get him vaccinated until he is at least 3 years old, and possibly never. We will reevaluate if and when he has to go to public school (we are also considering home schooling, but that's a way off.)

While the link between autism and vaccines is our primary concern, that is not our only reason for deciding not to vaccinate. Additional concerns include ADD/ADHD and the risk of encephalitic brain damage caused by the Pertussis vaccine.

Answer 12

i waited until my son was 1 year old before getting the mmr shot.  you can also break up the shot and get measels, mumps, and rhubella seperately, you just have to let your dr. know ahead of time.  I would recommend getting the shot tho, for the simple fact that if your child ever did get one of those diseases there is a high chance they can die from it.  when and if you do decide to get the shots, never let them do more then 2 at a time, that is when most of the problems start.  good luck in whatever you decide.

Answer 13

I'm not certain, but I was under the impression that the so called relation between the MMR shot and autism was an urban legend...or that only a single company that made it was having issues and their vaccine was pulled.  Have you talked to your child's pediatrician about the pros and cons?  He/she would know the possible downfalls best.

Answer 14

it your choice but I chose to vaccinate all my children because the risk for not doing it increases there chance of getting so many other things period.  But remember he will have to live in a bubble not literally but you get the picture.  There is so many things going around and his system is open to it all.  He won't be able to go to school and he can't go to college they want those records as well.  I know it is your choice but think of his risk of getting something with an immune system that has no antibodies to anything.

Answer 15

i'm pretty sure that shots don't cause autism as it seems like something caused through genetics. yeah my son got vaccinated when you usually vaccinate kids. and he is as healthy as he should be. i swear some people overreact and freak out over nothing.

Answer 16

I don't agree but you have every right to make the decison you have. Both of my children have all of their shots as of yet. My son is 4 and my daughter is 2 and neither of them have any problems. I personally think that people are misimformed regarding the links with Autism....Autism and ADD/ADHD are being studied every day and new studies come out every day... think the increase is due to more awareness of the disorder...not it having to do with vaccinations..