Vaccinations...what have you done for your kids?

[CyGal]

An additional thought- I don't think that all vaccinations should be required.

I agree with this. When I was a kid, I never got the final MMR vaccine. When I went to ISU, even though I was living off campus, they required me to get it. I ended up with a swollen throat to the point that I couldn't talk, couldn't swallow, and had trouble breathing. My idiot doctor thought it was strep, even though my symptoms were word for word listed on the paper that he gave me listing the side effects. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but was it really necessary to get that vaccine? I'd probably be better off today if I hadn't gotten it.

On the other side of the coin, my husband recently got the chicken pox vaccine. He never got CP when he was a kid, and adult chicken pox can be so much worse than it is for a child. In this case, if it keeps him from getting really sick, I think it's worth it.

 

[egami]

I hope people discuss this with their family physician rather than take the word of a sports talk-show crackpot and Jenny McCarthy. These aren't good sources of scientific reasoning.

The fact is, much of the medical profession isn't any less biased or more trustworthy either. I have personally found information printed in Des Moines and West Des Moines pediatric clinics that was deliberately deceiving in their publishing of CDC data. I actually reported both clinics to the CDC because they were paraphrasing a subset of a CDC report that aligned with what their brochure on vaccination wanted you to believe, but the information they printed on either side of the CDC quote actually conflicted with other information if you obtained and read the entire CDC report.

Bias is everywhere. And your medical doctors aren't any less biased or influenced by drug companies that Jenny McCarthy or other "crackpots" are biased in their beliefs.

Use your brain and filter everything.

 

[isucyfan]

The vaccine scare is based on pseudoscience. Don't be like Jenny McCarthy.

http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-06-03

 

[BryceC]

My friend bought a book on vaccines that they give to infants before his first child was born and some of the stuff they vaccinate for is utterly ridiculous. This ain't tinfoil here.

One of the vaccines that is routinely administered is a vaccine to protect the kid in the case of the mother having a certain STD. That was just one of the examples he gave me. I suggest anybody educate themselves in this case and I certainly will be borrowing that book from him when my wife gets pregnant.

 

[Cutlass]

My wife has a doctorate in molecular biology. She's a lot smarter than I am for health and science stuff. She's read the actual studies of the mercury, vaccine, and autism thing. Everything she has read says that vaccines do good the vast majority of the time. So we’ve given our happy and healthy 2 and 4 yr old boys every vaccine required.

Additionally if you don't trust your pediatrician or family practitioner, it's time to get a new doctor.

 

[JonDMiller]

The vaccine scare is based on pseudoscience. Don't be like Jenny McCarthy.

http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-06-03

Go read a book. read several. then cross reference their sources. There are too many vaccinations in 2009.

 

[CyInSoonerland]

We have opted to disregard the vaccination schedule. We are vaccinating the kids, but at a MUCH slower rate. The vaccines have been tested and studied and for the most part, found to be harmless, individually. However, the schedule has not been studied to a great extent. Taking the kids in for a series of shots in a short amount of time is much different than one shot at a time. We have opted for only one shot at a time when they are older. Babies should not be subjected to too many of these shots all at once. There is a great book out there on this topic (written by a doctor), but the title is escaping me. I'll see if I can find it and post it later.

So, if you're planning to talk to your doc, ask about the SCHEDULE, not just the shots. My recommendation is to delay them and space them out so that you do not overwhelm the kid's system. All kids are different. Most are probably strong enough to handle all the shots, but there are also a lot of kids that are not as strong and could suffer from too many shots. You also need to keep in mind that kids today are subject to a lot more shots than you were as a kid. So, the argument that you turned out fine doesn't work. (And for the Hawks reading this, no, you did not turn out fine - something did go wrong and your allegiance is all the evidence I need).

 

[isucyfan]

Here's a site that tries to illustrate the way not getting vaccines affects children. They've used Jenny McCarthy's outspokenness to illustrate it:

Jenny McCarthy Body Count

 

[Incyte]

The fact is, much of the medical profession isn't any less biased or more trustworthy either. I have personally found information printed in Des Moines and West Des Moines pediatric clinics that was deliberately deceiving in their publishing of CDC data. I actually reported both clinics to the CDC because they were paraphrasing a subset of a CDC report that aligned with what their brochure on vaccination wanted you to believe, but the information they printed on either side of the CDC quote actually conflicted with other information if you obtained and read the entire CDC report.

Bias is everywhere. And your medical doctors aren't any less biased or influenced by drug companies that Jenny McCarthy or other "crackpots" are biased in their beliefs.

Use your brain and filter everything.

This I agree with. The more knowledge the better. I just hope people don't take the word of these crackpots without consulting their doctor and/or other sources.

It's widely known that Jon Miller did not graduate from high school. Further, Hawkeye fans are not deeply rooted in reality and are not capable of deductive reasoning.

 

[isucyfan]

Go read a book. read several. then cross reference their sources. There are too many vaccinations in 2009.

Yeah, I never read.

 

[dosry5]

Here's a site that tries to illustrate the way not getting vaccines affects children. They've used Jenny McCarthy's outspokenness to illustrate it:

Jenny McCarthy Body Count

Dude....I thought this was going to be a link to a Jenny McCarthy video.......:skeptical:

 

[egami]

It's widely known that Jon Miller did not graduate from high school.

Ok, I must be in the narrow minority...I never knew that. :smile:

 

[JonDMiller]

We have opted to disregard the vaccination schedule. We are vaccinating the kids, but at a MUCH slower rate. The vaccines have been tested and studied and for the most part, found to be harmless, individually. However, the schedule has not been studied to a great extent.

I agree with you...the schedule is a concern.

 

[kingcy]

We waited until our children were 2 before we started the vaccination process. We also are on a program that spreads the shots out over a long period of time, instead of getting them all with in a quick period. We are not going to have them vaccinated for the "extras".

 

[BooneCy]

Jon,

Take it from a parent who has a child who was adversly effected by his vaccinations. You should be concerned, and your doctor is not going to give you a lot of support. I don't know what vaccinations your child is up for, but there is scientific documentation everywhere that tells you that you should be concerned.

 

[CyInSoonerland]

We waited until our children were 2 before we started the vaccination process. We also are on a program that spreads the shots out over a long period of time, instead of getting them all with in a quick period. We are not going to have them vaccinated for the "extras".

Good call. This is our plan, too.

 

[JonDMiller]

Do I think Jenny is a bit extreme? Perhaps. But until your child has something happen to them that you cannot explain, that a lot of people think is due to something like vaccines, I guess I have some sympathy for her emotion on the topic.

If I felt someone did something to harm my child, I would probably be just as passionate as she is.

 

[isucyfan]

You know what we should also do?

Stop buckling our children into car seats.

 

[egami]

You know what we should also do?

Stop buckling our children into car seats.

Actually, strapping them into the car seat makes it easier to hold them down while you're injecting them with poison.

 

[isucyfan]

Do I think Jenny is a bit extreme? Perhaps. But until your child has something happen to them that you cannot explain, that a lot of people think is due to something like vaccines, I guess I have some sympathy for her emotion on the topic.

If I felt someone did something to harm my child, I would probably be just as passionate as she is.

We also used to drill holes in skulls to release bad spirits that were causing headaches, seizures, etc. Just because we can't explain something doesn't mean we should automatically attribute it to something else.

Go read a book on the scientific process. Read a bunch of them.