My eldest shut down completely after his varicella and MMR vaccinations, so I was cautious with the rest of my kids. I didn't choose not to vaccinate entirely but I looked at the individual risks of each disease vs the risks of vaccination and therefore chose not to vaccinate with varicella and a few others, but I did choose to vaccinate against whooping cough, measles, and a few others. Given the choice I would not have vaccinated for more than one disease at a time, but single vaccines are unavailable here.
I started vaccinating my first child at 6months old, she had one injection then, and one at 12 months which caused grief to no end (we separated that one so over 6 weeks we did them) and then not again. She has autism, not caused by the vaccinations, but I didn't want to exacerbate the situation. At 3 years of age she was found to have an extremely high level of mercury in her system, as well as a very weak immune system. We've worked hard to get her to a healthier place.
DD2, well... she had her first vaccination at 4 years old when she needed a tetnus injection.
We chose not to continue vaccinating or to delay the vaccinations for a few reasons. One is that we felt that our child was more in danger from the preservatives found in the injections around the virus'. We felt that where we live, the way we lived and our health were indicitive that our children were at a greater risk from the preservatives than the things we were vaccinating against. Now they are older we are happier to vaccinate knowing their immune systems are able to handle it.
To be honest it came down to the fact that no one can guarantee me they are perfectly safe. There are going to be casualties for "the greater good"
I decided I can always vaccinate later if they can show me that they arent filled with heavy metals, toxic preservatives and additives and wont cause long term damage to my child.
I can't unvaccinate my child, but I can always vaccinate them later.
I dont think injecting diseases into their blood stream is a good way to build an immunity. The body has many ways to fight off infection before it reaches the blood stream. So for me it was inject something right into their blood, or risk them coming in contact with the illness in public, having their body not fight it off, and then also having a complication arise from the illness.
Breastfeeding and eating a varied diet and including foods that boost the immune system is a better protection in my eyes then injecting god knows what right into my newborns blood.
My middle child is vaccinated and has autism. We have autism elsewhere in my family. I didnt want the vaccines to trigger autism in my youngest and that is how my research started. I went on to decide to decline all vaccines based on my research (not solely online, I read peer reviewed studies and books etc)
You need to make a decision you can live with. If I vaccinated and my son was diagnosed with Autism i would have always wondered if I could have prevented it. If he had a vaccine injury i would have felt responsible. If he contracts a "vaccine preventable" illness, and goes on to have complications (which is a risk still even after being vaccinated) I know that i have given him the best tools in beating it by his diet and breastfeeding him for over 2 years and not overloading his immune system with vaccines.
We do a partial and delayed schedule in our family.
We chose not to take up the rotavirus vaccine for DD2 (DD1 had it) as we felt that the batch that was coming out that year had had too many issues. We also figured that we had the priviledge of living inner city and have access to hospital and good quality healthcare, and we weighed up the risk vs vaccine and for this, felt that it was in our case best to not proceed.
For both girls we have delayed the MMR to have first booster at 4 years and then final at 6 years. This was preceded by consultation with a family-trusted paediatrician in italy when i was pg with DD1 that advised against such a large vaccine at all. I felt uncomfortable about not immunising 100% so we looked up the possibility of delayed schedules...and were pleasantly suprised that they are common and easy to organise.
We did not give the HepB at birth as we felt that with our family circumstances our babies would not be exposed in the interim until they start the full vaccine.
We were not going to vaccinat against the varicella, but our circumstances changed with the arrival of a special needs child in our close group, so opted to have it done.
Is it ok to answer when partially (mostly really) vaxd?
We have declined the HepB at birth, Rotavirus and varicella as we do not feel they are necessary and so the risks would outweigh the benefits for us. There were others we would have skipped, but they're all bundled together.
After much debate and a very hard choice, we have decided at this point in time not to vaccinate our children.
We made this decision because they are in a higher risk group for vaccine reactions. As a child both my sister and I had reactions to the whooping cough vaccine. The reactions were different, but were fairly serious. I stopped breathing shortly after my vaccine and had respiratory problems for a period of time after the vaccine. My sister developed a rare form of eczema shortly after receiving the whooping cough vaccine and while it hasn't been conclusively linked to the vaccine, it was thought that the "hit" to her immune system was the "straw that broke the camel's back" which resulted in her actually developing the eczema. As some reactions are thought to be genetic, there was a slightly higher risk of my kids also having a reaction.
The biggest factor in our decision though is a rather controversial one. Our children (especially boys) are in a high risk group for being on the Autistic Spectrum. We sought out a specialist psychiatrist that deals with children with ASD's who also has an interest in vaccines and vaccine reactions. We saw him with our son and his recommendation was to definitely not give the MMR vaccine. He gave a really good explanation of why he believes so many studies are able to claim that the MMR vaccine does not "cause" ASD's, but also why he believes that they play a role in the formation on some ASD's in some children. There is also a recent report which reviews a number of the most commonly referred-to studies that "dis-prove" the link between MMR and Autism. It looks at each study and states the limitations of each study and why they are not actually scientifically conclusive.
I also did a huge amount of study into vaccines and ASD's (sticking strictly to reputable journal articles, NOT internet propaganda) sites. There have been two recent studies that have linked ASD's to vaccines in general, not limiting it to the MMR vaccine. A known possible side-effect of many vaccines is encephalitis, and it has been found that encephalitis can cause Autism. This is much more likely in a child that has a possible genetic predisposition to being on the Autistic spectrum already.
We also believe that a number of the vaccines are not needed for our children at this stage, and were uncomfortable with the fact that you are unable to "pick and choose" what vaccines your child gets due to "combo" vaccines.
In general, neither of us are against vaccines. We just believe that more research needs to go into the safety of some vaccines, and there needs to be more choice for parents when deciding what vaccines to give to their children. Once our children start school and move into a higher risk group for some diseases we may re-evaluate if we want to give some vaccines. The kids will then be past the most sensitive age for developing regressive Autism.
Schmickers - I hope that's the sort of information you were hoping to get. If you want to ask any other questions, please feel free.
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