Vaccination Proclamation

I struggled with the decision to vaccinate my first child (I did end up getting him all of his shots); and now, I find myself struggling again to decide whether or not to vaccinate my second child. The thing is, there is so much information supporting both sides of the argument on whether or not to vaccinate...and, both sides are argued so passionately.

My first child has shown no signs of having an adverse reaction to his shots and for that I am grateful. Even though I have read about the mercury (no longer used) and formaldehyde (it is supposed to be in such small quantities, it is similar to a naturally occuring substance already in our bodies) present in the vaccines, I am most concerned about introducing so many things at once to my baby's sensitive system (and, he is very sensitive...skin, tummy, you name it).

I am also concerned about him interacting with our family that travels out of the country regularly (and, also when we travel ourselves when he gets a little older, for his possible direct exposure to infectious diseases). His doctor said that the things that are currently most dangerous are typhoid fever and hepatitis A; but, he is still too young (4 months) to be innoculated against these two things anyway.

We went ahead with his 2 month shots, after much debate and question; but, we had waited to get his hepatitis B shot until that time and we skipped the flu shot. I don't like vaccinating against the flu because I believe that in doing so, we will create a much more dangerous strain. It is for the same reason we don't use anti-bacterial everything...a few germs are good and they enable us to build natural antibodies to be better able to fight off other sicknesses.

We have decided to hold off on his future shots until he is old enough and has enough blood volume to be tested for antibodies that already exist in his body (he is a breastfed baby, after all) to see if we really need all of them. At that time, we will decide what schedule works for him so that he does not get too many shots at once. This is the best thing I know to do for my child, whom I love so much.