Vaccinations

Mercury - Relax! Illustration by Emma Holister.

To vaccinate or not vaccinate? That question seems to be a hot topic these days with all the rumors out there that vaccines could be the cause of several disorders including Autism.  My husband and I have chosen to vaccinate our daughter, but every time she gets her shots, I wonder if she is going to all of a sudden burst out with some strange side effect.

Today I took my daughter to get her second flu shot and her third HIB vaccine.  When I first gave birth to her and the nurse asked if I wanted to give her the Vitamin K injection, it kind of blind sided me and I realized I had not really read up enough about injections but decided to give her the shot anyway.  A few weeks after she was born, I quickly ran out and bought the Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears and read it from front to cover.

I had no idea that there were so many strange ingredients in vaccines such as formaldehyde, aluminum and monkey kidney cells. Not to mention the debate about mercury in vaccines that many believe to have caused the increase of autistic children in the 1990's and early 2000's. The book discusses how most vaccines have removed mercury from them as of 2003 but a few still have a trace amount.

The new argument now is the ingredient aluminum and that it could be causing neurological problems and development delays such as walking, talking and gross motor problems. The book discusses how some vaccines have so much aluminum in them, that they are almost at toxic levels. So basically if you give an infant several vaccines at once, then they are surely going to reach toxic levels.

Dr. Sears has come up with a solution and developed a whole vaccine schedule that he recommends where you space them out and give your child 2 shots each month instead of 3-4 at a time every 2-3 months.  He also recommends choosing the vaccine that has the least amount of aluminum (there are several brands to chose from).

I have been following the Dr. Sears alternative vaccine schedule and I am glad our doctor is on board with this and has a separate walk in lab for this reason.  I know of a lot of parents that have chosen not to vaccinate, and everyone has their reasons. We have chosen to vaccinate our child as we feel we want to take the risk from the side effects of the shots over her getting sick from a rare but deadly disease.

And the scary thing is listening to moms out there, like Jenny McCarthy, that say one day their child was smiling and then after getting shots, nothing!  How scary!  So paranoid me, after each trip to the doctor's office I am looking at my daughter hoping there is not that 'change' that they keep talking about.  It's not like parents have anything else to worry about, right?

Has anyone out there chosen not to vaccinate their kids?  What are your beliefs about vaccinations causing neurological damage or autism spectrum disorders?