Are You Educated About Vaccines?

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) makes a very important but sometimes neglected point: "Vaccination is a medical procedure which carries risk of injury or death. As a parent it is your responsibility to become educated about the benefits and risks of vaccines in order to make the most informed, responsible vaccination decisions."

Now to me this is a scary statement. Isn't it your doctors' job to know what is best and keep you informed? How is this all my responsibility? I might have found this out the hard way as I believe my daughter is now dealing with developmental delay as a result from vaccines. You should know that no vaccine is completely safe.

The most talked about vaccine is the MMR, which is said to cause autism when combined with another vaccine that contains thimerosal. Thimerosal is the most discussed material in vaccines because it contains mercury. The amount of mercury is very small especially in the vaccines used for children under the age of six. It is about 6 oz of mercury which is comparable to the same amount of mercury that is in a can of tuna. There are ways around an MMR which I'll discuss later on.

There are 8 questions to ask when you are taking your child to get a vaccine.

Is my child sick right now?
Has my child had a bad reaction to vaccines before?
Does my child have a personal or family history of

• vaccine reactions
• convulsions or neurological disorders
• severe allergies
• immune system disorders
  

Do I know if my child is at high risk of reacting?
Do I know how to identify a vaccine reaction?
Do I know how to report a vaccine reaction?
Do I know the vaccine manufacturers name and lot number?
Do I know I have a choice?

After going through all that let me just give you a couple simple pointers based on those questions. If your child is already sick or coming down with something then reschedule a vaccination as this would make it harder for your child's immune system to fight off the disease. Don't get more vaccinations than what is necessary at the time. Some doctors or nurses will try to get you to do multiple vaccines at one appointment and my personal advice to this is don't! Know exactly what vaccine your child is getting and look into what is in it, even though that can be scary to look at the materials individually. Vaccines do have benefits but you just need to know your options. There are laws about vaccines and some are necessary but you can check what your state law is for each vaccine. For example, to avoid the MMR your state might only require a vaccine for measles and rubella. There are also medical, philosophical, and personal belief exemptions.

There is so much information on vaccines I could continue to go on and on but no one really wants that! I would advise anyone that have vaccinations coming up to check out NVIC.org this is a great place to start to look into vaccines and laws. Even though they won't say that vaccines cause autism, diabetes, ADHD, eczema, allergies, etc. the proof to me is unbelievable!


{picture via imed.com}