Immunizations?

Apparently, it’s National Immunization Awareness Month. I have long found the topic of immunizations very interesting and have done lots of research on it. One of the main reasons for my interest is because of Eila’s mild negative reaction to a series of vaccines when she was 15 months old. We were unable to determine which vaccine was responsible and that left me very uneasy about administering any shots at all.

I read and worried a lot about the supposed link between vaccines and autism. For a blog about that info, see AutismVox. I also worried about the possibility of problems with too many diseases being introduced into such a small system. In the end, I decided that for our family the diseases and risks of not vaccinating are much greater than the risks for getting these shots. For my own peace of mind, I do just one shot at a time – in case of a similar situation to Eila’s, I just don’t want to repeat that unnecessarily.

When Josiah was diagnosed with asthma at 3 months of age, I was worried about immunizations having played a role. I do not believe that they had any negative impact at all, but still at the time, I wanted something specific to blame. Again, fears as a mom outweighing the facts of the situation.

In all of my research and talks with other moms, I’ve come across every opinion and reason to vaccinate and not to vaccinate. My chiropractor is ardently against it; one of my best friends & nurse is totally for it. I have met people with family members affected by the diseases that vaccines prevent and I’ve met a person who is in the rare severe negative reactions to an immunization. There is no clear cut answer, except to trust God with our children’s health and to seek His wisdom for this decision. Ultimately, God is the Great Physician. He’s the only One who can keep my kids healthy and protect them from infections of any kind, but I think he’s given the wisdom to some scientists to make these vaccines as a response to the great suffering in the world because of sin, so I’m going to use it.

As an adult, there is a recommended schedule as well. Here’s a quiz to see if you are up to date. Sometimes it seems easier or more important to take care of our kids health and we moms neglect our own check-ups. I am guilty of this and maybe one day I’ll make it to see my doctor…

1 Comment »

  1. Cheryl said,

    August 14, 2007 @ 1:03 pm

    I echo your thoughts and concerns. But I never thought about one at a time – I think I’ll do that with Griffin. I do a lot of praying before, during and after those injections!

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

Leave a Comment