Yes!
Hang on. Let me get a bigger font.
YES!
Look, if you want to go live off the grid, on a deserted island, away from civilization, then feel free to skip this step. If, however, you plan to live among the sane, then immunize your kid! When you skip immunizations, not only do you put your kid at risk, but you put many of us at risk. It's kind of like covering your mouth when you cough.
Worried about autism? Studies linking autism to vaccines have been discredited, but if you go searching on the net for web sites telling you that vaccines cause autism, you will find plenty. This is one of those times when you need to be able to distinguish credible information from anecdotal rumors. We did land on the moon. Obama was born in Hawaii. Vaccines are pretty damn safe.
If you want to skip some of the vaccines for the less deadly diseases, well, I suppose there's an argument to be made there. Hell, I haven't had a flu shot in a couple years, although that's more due to laziness than fear of Big Pharma. Or if you'd like to spread out your kids vaccines as much as possible, that's reasonable too. But, for any vaccine you're considering skipping, go research what that disease is like. How wonderful will your kids life be with a nice dose of polio? I'm guessing not so wonderful.
Any time you introduce a foreign agent into the human body, there's a bit of risk, but if you compare that to the risk and consequences of getting the disease in question, I think it's a pretty easy decision.
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As the recipient of Whooping Cough from an unvaccinated family at our touchy-feely preschool, I vote for vaccinations. At four months pregnant, I couldn't take the antibiotics and the combination of preggo nausea and whooping cough made for a bad few months.
ReplyDeleteAlso the autism links are really weak and most of my friends with kids on the spectrum are still vaccinating. Just sayin'.
The anti-vax people make me really angry; the science for the safety of vaccines is good, and loony-tunes crazy-pants dipshit d-list celebrities should stick to opening shopping malls.
ReplyDeleteArgh, now I'm all cranky about it again!
Kook-y me again. I agree with most of what you wrote. However, I think the vaccination schedule for babies is insane. They get like 10 shots at 8 weeks old. That just didn't make sense to me. I waited until my little ones were older before vaccinating and I did opt out on MMR, which I understand to be not life threatening illnesses (that are super un-common).
ReplyDeleteOne point - plenty of vaccinated kids get whooping cough and other diseases. Getting vaccinated doesn't necessarily give you are protected.
Thankfully, they've pulled all the mercury out of the vaccinations. When my first was born, they were still using it.
Diane, yeah, it's touchy-feely central here too. One of the "benefits" of living in San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteDolface, let out your crank!
Sue, hey, I said that spreading out the vaccines was reasonable! Let's take our common ground where we can find it. :)
baaaah! the anti-vaccine campaigners need to go live on an island somewhere and share their debilitating diseases. this has got to be one of my numero uno pet peeves with parents... despite the fact that i have a degree in immunology and infectious disease, they prefer to listen to jenny mccarthy!
ReplyDeleteanyway, there's not a single research paper out there linking vaccines and autism. the researcher in question made a statement at a conference about how he believed vaccines caused autism. interestingly, he was also getting paid mucho moolah from a law firm to be an "expert witness" in the case where the parents sued over their kids developing autism after vaccines. there's more, but i'll stop my diatribe.
vaccinate your damn kids! (spacing it out isn't that big of a deal. they vaccinate early because the immune system is still developing, and the early vaccination provides greater long term protection).
Amen, Daisy Mae!
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