Immunizing Children - Should it Still be Done?
 

My wife and I are expecting are first child in January.. We are just starting to look into which immunizations we should allow our child to get. A friend of mine in the natural medicine field said he would not be letting his child get any (I think he said any but he may have just said 'some') immunizations. He said a lot of them lead to autism and other things..

I'm not going to use this thread as the main factor for what we are going to do (obviously) but I do want to see peoples opinions.

Thanks :up:

Like lack of disease?

Of course it should be done.

The whole "autism caused by immunization" thing was based on a lawsuit in the UK which was thrown out of court. There's no connection at all.

Your "friend" is giving you horribly dangerous advice.

There is zero credible evidence linking immunization to autism.

Any the only evidence there was (minimal) was linked to the preservative which is now no longer used in the shots.

Well. I will tend to believe that my "friend" may be slightly more educated in this then you. He didn't just say "don't do it. it will kill your baby." He is VERY knowledgeable in this area and I tend to believe what he has to say.

This is not saying that I won't get vaccines for the baby.. Just that I'm entertaining the thought of not.

And this is a pretty popular debate. Just look at the amount of books are written about it when I search for "Vaccine Children" at bn.com:

Link

i bet he is knowledgable in info he gets from wacko websites

Will you not be feeding your child beef because of mad cow disease?
Will your child not go to the park because of bird flu?
Will your child not ever ride in a car or breathe, or drink water (flouridated or otherwise), not to mention non-organic meat/milk?

For what it's worth, my wife works with Autistic kids for a living and spends a great deal of time reading up on this subject. We just had our first child 5 weeks ago and he WILL be getting all his immunizations.

Also, many puplic schools are now requiring them anyway. So if you don't have the money for private school, you might not have a choice.

And what will you do when your kid gets Polio? Get the "natural" Polio cure?

We've just been through the 2nd and 4th month immunizations with our girl and we've had no issues at all. I was a bit worried as well about the supposed link to autism, but there was no real evidence to support my concerns. Green Jello is correct about the mercury as well.

To be honest what really swayed me was that our Family Doc, has two kids of her own and she had them immunized w/o concern.

Also, parents may get away with skipping some immunizations for their kids, but once they start to interact with others (i.e Daycare or Preschool), you run the high risk of some real medical problems.

Well, to be fair, the OP said that his "friend" was more knowledgeable than YOU, not your wife. ;)

My guess is that the 'friend' either has no kids, or they are "home-schooled".

And vegetarian.
(not that there's anything wrong with that)
( :wave: Jadzia )

So are these pretty much the norm for child vaccines?

#DPT: Combined Diphtheria, Pertussis (Whooping cough) and Tetanus

#Rubeola (Measles)

#MMR: Combined Measles, Mumps and Rubella (German, or "three-day" measles)

#Hepatitis B

#Polio

#Pneumococcal pneumonia

#Hemophilus meningitis

#Rotavirus

That isn't true. You can sign a waiver that states you didn't immunize due to religious belief.

Just because a point of view is popular, doesn't mean it's correct.

What's really sad is that a lot of diseases that we haven't seen for decades are now coming back because of this quackery. The "natural medicine" people are rolling in the dough selling their "hollistic" herbs and crap, meanwhile it's the children who are suffering.

At least you're taking the time to do the research rather than take your friends word first-hand.

When was the last case of polio? A quick search said it was back in 1979.

And look.. People.. Don't get all defensive and call me or my "friend" stupid.. I'm just trying to find out what is best for our child. Obviously 99% of people are going to state to get them and that's fine.. But please state why. Not just that because it's the "norm".

Think about who the biggest money maker in the US is? Health care?

Gas companies.

Ok. Then ONE of the biggest. ;)

And the drug companies aren't rolling in their money prescribing and making a drug for every single thing you can think of? Oh yea.. But there is also 4,000 side effect.. But hey you'll get hard! (In rare cases your erection may last more then 4 hours...)

Definately.. I'm not just taking anyone's word..

Try this year, up in Minnesota (or one of the states around there), several cases.

And your "friend" IS stupid. Sorry. There's no other word for it. If he's not going to immunize his children because of some totally discredited links to autism, he's stupid. If you listen to him and refuse to get your children immunized, YOU'RE stupid. That's the way it is.

There is NO credible link to autism. With vaccines, you always have the possibility, and some children do have serious reactions to the vaccines. But that is quite rare, and it is not a reason to refuse to vaccinate.

"In 1974, Japan had a successful pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination program, with nearly 80% of Japanese children vaccinated. That year only 393 cases of pertussis were reported in the entire country, and there were no deaths from pertussis. But then rumors began to spread that pertussis vaccination was no longer needed and that the vaccine was not safe, and by 1976 only 10% of infants were getting vaccinated. In 1979 Japan suffered a major pertussis epidemic, with more than 13,000 cases of whooping cough and 41 deaths. In 1981 the government began vaccinating with acellular pertussis vaccine, and the number of pertussis cases dropped again."

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/fs/gen/Why.htm

Just b/c there are books out doesn't mean that its the necessarily the truth.

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/news/iom-thim5-18-04.htm

All 3 of my children were vaccinated. The current scientific literature does not support a correlation between vaccinations and autism. IMO, the benefits clearly outweigh the small, if any, risk at this point. Perhaps if further research down the road shows a clear correlation then my opinion may change.

Do you have a link to this?

Well thanks.. I guess it's 100% I will do it then.. "Honey, someone on DVDTalk said WE'RE stupid if we don't.. And that's just the way it is. No he didn't provide any real factual evidence.. Just we are stupid and so is our "friend" if we don't."

I don't think the only thing to worry about was the autism.. It's been a while since I talked to this "nutjob"..

Woooh... Thanks for that. :up: