“We must not listen to those who use scare tactics to convince us of their view.”
This Nancy Wilson quote from Praise Her in the Gates is one that I remind myself of a lot when I read some parenting books or articles that advocate a particular position on controversial issues. The issue of vaccination is one area where there are a lot scare tactics on both sides of the fence, but The Vaccine Book does a great job at educating parents so they can make the best decisions for their children.
Vaccination is an issue I’ve been interested in for a long time, but there is so much biased information out there that I never felt quite comfortable making any clear decisions for or against vaccines. I bought this book while I was pregnant but didn’t get around to reading it all before I had Nathan. Our doctor in Columbia, though generally pro-vaccine, was really helpful in giving us details about different options as far as scheduling, brands, etc. and never made us feel like we were terrible parents for even questioning the current vaccination schedule. It seemed like he really didn’t care one way or the other what we decided, which put me at ease and helped me trust him. All that said, we decided to get all the regular first year vaccines (except Heb B, I think), at Nathan’s 2, 4, and 6 month check-ups but we spaced them out a little bit. He only ever got two vaccines at a time, and I took him back for shots-only visits a few weeks later. We are now approaching his one-year appointment, so I finally got around to reading this book to help me decide what to do.
There is a chapter dedicated to each of the vaccines currently used with information about the disease and the vaccine. He talks about the seriousness, prevalence, and treatment for each disease, and he shares information about when each vaccine is given, how it is made, the ingredients used, and possible side effects of the vaccine. At the end of each chapter, he gives reasons why you should get this vaccine and also shares reasons that some people choose not to give this vaccine.
I really liked the chapter “Vaccine Safety Research” in which he analyzes the statistical chance of having a severe reaction from a vaccine versus the chance of catching a vaccine-preventable disease. There were a lot of numbers (I really need to read it again), but it helped me to see that, either way, you are taking a risk. And sometimes the risk of getting a vaccine is higher than the risk of getting the disease, but sometimes that disease is so bad that maybe you should get the vaccine anyway. Maybe the disease is really mild and really rare, so it’s not worth the risk. That’s for parents to decide.
It would be really easy for a person like me to get caught up in the anti-vaccine frenzy, and truth be told, if you asked me, yes or no, if I thought vaccines cause autism, I would say yes. It’s really easy to listen to some horror story about this vaccinated child who got autism or that unvaccinated child that got sick and let fear make your decisions for you. This book helped me see past those scare tactics to the facts of the matter, and now I feel confident in making informed choices about vaccines for Nathan and any future children we may have.
The book was published a few years ago, so I’m going to have to check the current vaccination schedule before I know for sure what we’re going to do. When this book was published, at age one, children received the MMR, chickenpox, and Heb A vaccines. I’m not going to get him vaccinated with the MMR shot and not going to get the chickenpox shot until he is much older (age 10 or so, if he still hasn’t gotten chickenpox). I’m going to wait on the Heb A vaccine until at least age 2 when the risk of seizures as a reaction goes way down.
Dr. Sears provides an alternative schedule that decreases the amount of aluminum children receive in each round of shots, which is basically what we did with Nathan. He also gives another schedule with select vaccines that are the most important ones that you should get. I will probably use a mixture of these two schedules for our children.
This is a great book for all parents to read regardless of their stance on vaccinations. The object is to help and inform parents, not necessarily to convince them one way or the other. It’s our job to protect and care for our little ones and make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing for them.
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