dadonfire,
I hear you. This is a thorny issue. Many people have many opinions and it's hard to see the forest.

My wife and I when choosing a ped talked about vacs. We chose our docs because they were open to what we wanted. Talk to your your ped about getting separate loads rather than combos. We had our daughter vaccinated that way. I recall it cost more and there were defiantly many more injections but that's what we wanted to do and our docs did it for us. If you don't feel comfortable with your docs because they wave a hand and say it's safe conceder a new ped. (IMO)

Things to conceder are your states requirements for public school. We live in NY which means vacs are not required but a family must sign a waver. Some private schools have stronger requirements. Find out these requirements for your area then decided how you want to go forward.

Good luck mate,
Jonathan

Be Seeing You.

Vaccines have been one of the most important achievement, but nevertheless they also have their side effects. What What I did, was choose our pediatrician based on several questions, but one of them was:
What was his/her position about vaccines and the immunization schedule?

The ONLY one who was NOT square minded about the propose schedule for immunization and was also OPEN to discuss our believes and concerns, was the one we choose.

I'm NOT against immunization but well about the schedule. I have seen some babies that where given three or four shoots at the same day, and for me that's inhumane. I prefer 1 shoot a the time, so it makes easy to notice reactions (good or bad), and the pain is more manageable. So I did prefer the vaccines that have NOT been mixed either.

My advise is to give 1 shoot per visit. Your baby will get all the vaccines in a different schedule but he/she will get all of them. Also if you get to the office as early as possible you can be sure that the vaccines have NOT been out of the refrigerator for so long. Some vaccines (as many chemicals) change their composition when affected by direct light and/or heat.

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Congratatio pro erudio et auxilium
Itux

I don't really have a care one way or another. But my two cents for the multiple shot theory:

* For some it's an insurance issue, don't forget. Getting more shots means less visits....just mentioning it.

* For my son shots never really bothered him. he would cry and then stop.

* We never did more than two shots from what I remember. He always got a fever after every session.

* He's now done for two years. And what's harder giving shots to an infant who won't remember or plugging a 2-3 year old full of needles who can still remember everything?

* Finally we trusted our doctor. She was great. She was definitely pro-
vaccine but not pro-dart board. She would always ask us if we wanted one, two, three, etc. We usually leaned on bear it and get it done...the less time spent making appointments, sitting in waiting rooms, and dealing with insurance the better.

Andrew is fine, btw. Ok that's relative, he's fine for a rambunctious, talkative, 3-year old boy, who loves hockey.

Again I don't care either way just wanted to share some other thoughts.

Josh

SAHD Since August 2005

First of all, I am pro-vaccine. I do not see any reasons why vaccines should not be administered. Yes, there can be serious complications in a very few special cases. However, the probable risks associated with receiving vaccinations are far outweighed by the benefits of said vaccines - not only for the individual and the individual's family, but for society as a whole.

All of that being said, I could easily see where some individuals would question the vaccination schedule. It is rigorous, but it is set up that way for a reason. It is very important to note that children's bodies are the most succeptible to disease between the ages of ~birth to ~5 years old, because young bodies have immature immune systems and lack many antibodies that are built into the immune system over time. The longer you hold out on vaccinations in a child, the longer amount of time the child is at risk of communicating a serious illness. The available data from research on administering multiple vaccines at once has proven time and again that receiving multiple vaccinations at the same time is not only safe, but just as effective as receiving the doses separately.

I want to specifically address a couple comments from above:

I very much respect Colin's opinion on many things, but the thought process behind this is a myth. The explanation for this goes something like so. Children's bodies have been shown to be exposed to numerous new pathogens every day: through food, through the air, through contact with contaminated surfaces, etc. These pathogens are broken down into antigens by our immune system. (Antigens are proteins that induce the bodies immune system to produce antibodies.) These multiple new pathogens/antigens are dealt with by the immune system all at once, and we all know what happens when the body initially loses the battle to one or another of them - our child gets sick. Receiving multiple vaccines at once is analogous to this everyday occurrance; the child receives numerous antigens at once for the immune system to deal with. This increase in antigens over the normal daily exposure to antigens has been shown to not cause any noticeable increase in burden to the child's immune system. Hence, multiple vaccines at once do not overload the child's immune system. Also, when a reaction is observed after a vaccine is administered, it is not necessarily the antigen in the vaccine that is causing the reaction. It could be any one of the other antigens that the body is exposed to naturally on a daily basis, although the reaction can more probably be linked to the vaccine. Hence, it is not guaranteed that reactions observed after vaccination can be isolated to a single vaccination, let alone multiple vaccinations at once.

My explanation above concerning Colin's quote explains the first part here concerning reactions. The pain being more manageable is a personal decision for each of us, and is something that cannot be proven in any way. Some of us think having all of the shots at once is actually easier on the kid, and some of us think the opposite. If you were to think about it objectively, logic would have us believe that the pain from receiving four shots at once is equivalent to the pain from receiving four shots at different times. After all, four shots is four shots. I am not sure about this line of reasoning because it is something that will not be the same for any of us or our children. We all react to pain differently, and we all want the doling out of pain handled differently. My point was that the second part of the quote has no basis in facts, and is a subjective decision.

Randy
Cincinnati, OH
SAHD to Ryder (2 yrs)

Great spirits have always experienced violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

...the answer to all of your questions. ;-)

I can explain the science behind it a bit more when we get together again sometime.

Randy
Cincinnati, OH
SAHD to Ryder (2 yrs)

Great spirits have always experienced violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

This is the blog post I mentioned earlier about the Hannah Poling case. There are some strong arguments going back and forth in the comments section.

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php?p=203

Why would a person wait to get the illness before getting vacinated? An ounce of prevention... Polio and Small Pox, two dreaded diseases. Why tempt fate with the people you love?
Quoted from Polio.com

From Wikipedia

Biological Terrorist Attacks could be very real in the world as we know it today.
Again, I ask the question, Why tempt fate with the people you love? There are a lot of Biological agents out there and you could never protect against them all, so why wouldn't a person slim the odds a bit and get protected with what's available on these, or any disease?

-Mike DT1 MPCG My Site, http://www.milehidad.com/ and my Blog, http://www.milehighdad.net/.
Make Babies, Not War!
I Wanna Know How Forever Feels...

I worked as Registered Nurse before becoming a SAHD.

Regarding Thimerosal... It is still used to preserve vaccines. Some of the against vaccine info probably indicate it is a cause of autism as well as many other disorders. I can tell you that Thimerosal has been used for 20-30 years and the results have been studied without correlation to any disorders. Of course that doesn't mean the studies are wrong.

I would STRONGLY recommend ALL vaccine regimens and doing them right away. Waiting only causes more stress on the child. Its always hard to watch your child cry, but the majority of the shots are given before 2 years, so they don't remember most of it. You think it is hard to do it now, just wait until they are older. You will be dragging them in the Dr. office.

The benefits outway the risks. There are also risks of giving your child Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and even peanut butter, but we still do it. Imagine how you would feel if they came down with Measles or Rubella, just because you feared the "risks".

This is my opinion in the Healthcare field, and only my opinion, but I hope some of the info helps.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Mr. Dad RN

I keep my position on a flexible immunization schedule and ONE shoot at the time. It does mean more visits to the pediatrician, but it also helps us (parent) to keep track of "side effects".

I agree with the statement that "pain is a personal (or cultural) fact", but nevertheless pain is the way the body reflects that something not normal is going on. Thus, a few set of antigen given during a visit to the pediatrician produces many body reaction?, (not just the pain from the shoot). But, wait a second, how can that be possible if we are breathing more antigens when we do shop, and don't get the same reactions?.

Remember that the vaccines have to be TEST before they are approve for American kids, and most of the tests are done in undeveloped countries with large amount of unhealthy kids, and rampant corruption where the test results can be adapted.

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Congratatio pro erudio et auxilium
Itux

The reason that you are more likely to get a response (reaction) from the antigens in the vaccinations is due to the fact that the body is rarely, if ever, exposed to the antigens for polio, mumps, measles, etc., due to the fact that these antigens are not very prevalent in our society thanks to vaccinations. The antigens that the body is exposed to daily are much more likely variations of the common cold, variations of influenza, pollen, dust, mold, etc., that the body is constantly building resistance to from the moment of birth.

Randy
Cincinnati, OH
SAHD to Ryder (2 yrs)

Great spirits have always experienced violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

I can understand that in a time before a chicken pox vax but doing it now seems slilly as having cp does not mean immunity later.

Say, did anyone else see the immunization scene in the HBO film "John Adams?"

Be Seeing You.

Now is Merck the problem:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_bi_ge/merck_fda

Just be careful with your little ones.

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Congregatio pro erudio et auxilium
Information Technology User X
Itux

Health officials fear return of measles
U.S. could have major outbreak of contagious disease

The official tally of measles cases between Jan. 1 and April 25 totaled 64, the highest number in six years, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In the outbreaks so far this year, two-thirds of children old enough to be immunized were not vaccinated because of family personal or religious beliefs, Schuchat said.

The measles vaccine is 99 percent effective. Measles cases have declined from a peak of 763,094 cases in 1958.

I'm Not a Slacker