Our view on vaccines

This is the first post I have written that I have considered sharing with other people. I started this blog as a story book of sorts of our family for us to one day look back on and remember this special time in our lives. However, after all of the research I have put into this I thought other parents may find it helpful in determining what is best for their child. In an effort to be as educated as possible before Lucy's arrival, I did A LOT of reading. Pregnancy books, parenting books, breastfeeding books, books on baby sleeping and so on and so on. I began questioning what is routinely given to infants and children after the childbirth class Jameson and I attended. I wanted to know the reason for the eye treatment, Erythromycin, they give infants as well as the Hepatitis B and Vitamin K shots. After reading up on them, I chose to deny all of these for Lucy as the eye cream and Hepatitis B are given to protect the baby should the mother have a STD and the Vitamin K shot is responsible for rapid cell division which is important should the child have hemorrhaging from delivery, but rapid cell division is the problem in children who suffer from Leukemia. The shot introduces levels of the vitamin exponentially higher than that needed by the baby and can instead be taken orally by the mother if she plans to breastfeed. Unfortunately Lucy had a heart murmur when she was born and in case blood had to be drawn, she did receive the shot. I then decided to spend a lot of time researching vaccines. After hearing and reading so many varying opinions and realizing routine may not be what I want to base my decisions on, I decided to delve into the matter myself. While I am no doctor, I knew I could find unbiased information and develop my own educated opinions to then take to our pediatrician and finalize a vaccine schedule we were both comfortable with. Luckily, I had plenty of time to research on weekends while my husband and father in law were busy finishing the many house projects and refusing to let me help :) One of the best resources I found was Dr. Sears "Vaccine Book." I am a fan of Dr. Sears attachment parenting advice anyway (askdrsears.com) so I knew this would be a good start. While the book provided way more detailed information than I needed, I was able to pull out the pieces that would help to make our ultimate decisions. I have the luxury of having a pediatrician who encourages me to research and come to him with my findings for us to talk about. If anyone is on the eastern shore, I strongly recommend Dr. Freddy Araujo! The other side of this is that if everyone stopped vaccinating their children against the diseases than we would have epidemics again. Luckily, I only have to look out for the best interest of my own child, not all the children as our doctors and pediatricians do. Ultimately, it is up to each parent to decide what is best for their child in their unique circumstance. I only hope to share what I have found in my research to encourage other parents to really understand what they are giving their children. Below I have listed the currently recommended vaccines by the American Association of Pediatrics and my findings on each of them. This is more for my own reference whenever we decide to have baby #2 (and 3 :) ) so sorry to bore you but here we go...

• HIB
• Less than 25 cases per year in kids under 5
• Most serious result if not vaccinated is meningitis
• Breastfed babies not attending daycare are at an extremely low risk
• Not whole cell or live virus vaccine; lowest risk of side effects
• If yes to vaccine, aluminum free version
• Pentacel combines the HIB, DTaP, and Polio vaccine in one shot
• Comvax combines HIB and Hepatitis B with a lower aluminum content than Pentacel
• My decision was not to include this in Lucy's schedule but our pediatrician strongly encouraged it because of the threat of meningitis so I am still researching and debating on this
• PC- Pneumococcal Disease
• Ten thousand serious cases a year
• Most serious result is not vaccinated is meningitis blood infection or pneumonia
• Not whole cell or live virus
• Prevnar vaccine contains aluminum
• My decision was to include this vaccine. However, these will be administered at "shot only" visits at 3, 5, 7, and 15 months so she will not receive more than one vaccine at any one visit.
• DTaP- Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis/Whooping Cough
• Diptheria has no more than 5 cases a year in children; Tetanus has 50-100 in adults with maybe 1 in children; Pertussis is seen in 10k-25k children under the age of 6 months
• Serious side effects are from the Tetanus strain because of the modified tetanus toxin in the vaccine
• If yes, only the Daptacel vaccine because it contains no animal tissue.
• I decided to include this one because of Pertussis. Ideally, these would be individual vaccines so I could eliminate the Diptheria and postpone the Tetanus but in order to get the Pertussis she has to get them all. These will be administered at 2, 4, 6, and 18 months and again at 4 years. Most times this is given at the same time as PC which is why we do the shot only visits.
• Hepatitis B
• This is routinely given at birth but I denied it at the hospital since I am not a carrier and she will not be receiving it as an infant at all.
• Rotavirus
• If caught, will cause severe diarrhea and possible dehydration with chance of hospitalization.
• Whole, live cell virus cultivated in monkey kidney cells
• Vaccine gives babies a mild form of the infection to build up antibodies.
• Most likely to be spread in daycares
• High rate of seizures post vaccine.
• I did not want Lucy to get this vaccine and our pediatrician agreed not to include it.
• Polio
• No cases since 1985 when there was one
• Vaccine is an inactive, whole virus grown in a culture of monkey kidney cells injected with calf blood serum.
• I have decided not to include this vaccine because of the controversial ingredients listed above and the fact that it is no longer a concern in our society.
• MMR- Measles, Mumps, Rubella
• There are 50-100 cases of measles reported per year; 250 cases of mumps
• 1 in 20 children who receive the vaccine will have side effects of aches, fevers, and rash within two weeks of the injection
• Vaccine is cultured in chicken embryo cells with fetal cow serum and human proteins
• The complications from the virus are the same as the potential side effects.
• Some doctors find the combined MMR vaccine increase the risk of autism versus individual vaccines
• Ideally this too would be individual as I would prefer to only vaccinate against Rubella during infancy and postpone the Mumps vaccine since Mumps are more serious in teens and adults. Rubella is given to protect pregnant women who, if exposed, could lose the fetus.
• During my research these were available as individual vaccines but have since been returned to one. Dr. Sears as well as the AAP does not advise the vaccine until 12 months.
• Varicella Vaccine- Chickenpox
• The vaccine contains trace amounts of MSG and is cultured in cow fetus serum
• Reaction to vaccine and the complications of chickenpox are very similar
• This is not recommended until 12-15 months by the AAP and not until 18 months by Dr. Sears but as of now I would not include this in her schedule.

So far Lucy has received one shot and is scheduled for her next in one week. I will continue to keep an eye on ongoing research of vaccines should things change. Happy researching parents!