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.