I call it a battle, because that is what I armed and prepared myself for. Luckily, John's pediatrician is fantastic, so no really fighting has been necessary.
Before I go any further, I want to clarify up front that I am not anti-vaccination, although I know I often come across that way when it comes up in conversation. I think that parents that chose to not vaccination their children are relying on everyone else to vaccinate, which is irresponsible.
I just don't trust vaccinations. There is so much that we don't really know about vaccinations and the side effects that they have. For example - and you know this is the hot topic issue - the CDC continues to defend their stance that there is no link between vaccinations and autism. But a close look at the studies they've done discloses that they have yet to include any autistic children in their studies. They haven't even included developmentally slow children. So... they've basically looked at the history of a whole bunch of healthy kids and said, "See, everything's fine!" This really doesn't help me to feel secure in injecting a hole bunch of chemicals into my baby's body on their say so.
So, when approaching the idea of vaccinating my child, I really freaked out. Luckily, I found THIS BOOK, which has been a Godsend. Dr. Bob Sears covers every vaccine, the disease its for, how serious that disease is, the ingredients of the vaccine, and the possible side effects. He also recommends an alternate, slower vaccine schedule.
I love this schedule because it only allows for two vaccine doses at once, and it puts off vaccines that they don't need until later. It starts at 2 months, but I didn't start John until 4 months because of all of the weight gain issues we had early on. He also still had a lot of his newborn ticks at 2 months, which made me nervous. He'll still be caught up by the first year though. A lot doctors give you a hard time about adjusting the vaccination schedule, but John's pediatrician is fantastic. We had a good conversation about the differences between the recommended schedule and this schedule, about why I wanted to do this schedule, and what it would entail. I think he just wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about and that I'd done my research. And then he simply agreed to do what I want to do with my baby. And he graciously answered all of my nit picky questions, like, "what brand of said vaccine do you use?" I love him.
ANYWAYS, the first round was on Wednesday, when John received DTaP and Rotavirus. And I have to say that he did really well. I was hate needles and was really dreading the shot - and he did scream. But only for a minute or two. He was easily soothed. And he seems to have handled the vaccinations fairly well. He napped more than usual yesterday, and he had trouble with eating and spitting up today - but he wasn't grouchy about it at all. He's been in a very good mood.
However, the fact that he did having trouble eating and spitting up validates my decision to only give him two at a time. The side effects he's experiencing I'm sure are from Rotavirus, but it could be a combination thereof. And if I'd allowed them to give him even more who knows what would have happened? I feel a lot more comfortable with the way I've chosen to go about this.
UPDATE: My sister just shared THIS ARTICLE with me. Love it. Love Jim Carrey.
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