Vaccination Worries - First in a Series
Recently I received a copy of a local hospital network’s “Healthy You” magazine. I usually find articles of interest in it–some that I agree with, some that I passionately disagree with. This particular issue had one of the latter type.
My husband and I have chosen to partially vaccinate our children. This is not a decision that we have come to easily. Actually, our first daughter is nearly fully vaccinated–the only vaccine she has not gotten on schedule is Chicken Pox. When she was an infant a vaccine for RSV was recalled because it was suspected of causing a condition called bowel intussusception–when the bowel folds on itself, causing a blockage. Ironically, though our daughter had not received the vaccine, she had a bowel intussusception when she was 10 months old.
Given our close brush with that situation though, we were a bit leary when the Pneumococcal vaccine (Prevnar) was introduced when my second daughter was an infant. We chose to refuse this vaccine for her because we wanted it to have more of a “track record” before allowing one of our children to use it. The year this daughter was born was also the year that mercury began to be taken out of vaccines–though it should be noted that it was only taken out of vaccines for children ages 6 months and younger, thus why the flu vaccine is not reccommended for children under 6 months of age–it has as much mercury as 2 cans of tuna.
When our 3rd child was born–a son–we were still fairly mainstream in our beliefs on vaccination–despite having had a homebirth. We did choose to skip the Hepatitis B vaccine at this time though, having learned that the risks of complications from the vaccine far outweigh the chance of a child under the age of 14 getting the disease–especially a child living in a home with no infected persons. My husband and I have both had this vaccine series as adults since we have served on the First Aid teams at our workplaces, and likewise, we believe that once our children are in a risk category, they should receive this vaccine. Again, we chose to skip Prevnar and Chicken Pox. I also think it was about this time that the flu vaccine began to be reccommended for ALL children between 6 months old and 5 years old, rather than just those with compromised immune systems. Due to the mercury, we chose not to receive the vaccine, we also usually weren’t at the pediatrician’s office when it was being offered.
Through this, we really didnt receive any push back from our pediatrician. But when our 4th child came along, all that would change.
You see, he was only 6 weeks old when I took him to his “2 month” well baby visit–2.5 weeks shy of actually being 2 months old. I had scheduled it early so that I would get it done before returning to work. This was an attempt to avoid missing time from work…an attempt that was undone when our first son was running a fever the first day I went back to work, and ended up being hospitalized that night–but that is a whole ‘nother story. ;-) Back to our second son…
He was only 6 weeks old, and he was having a slight stuffy nose. Nothing much, but I felt that the two factors combined made giving him the 3 shots we would accept (DTaP, Polio, and Hib), let alone the 5 that are reccommended (add Hep B, Prevnar) a bit more risky. So our intention was to delay the start of the vaccination series until he was 3 months old.
Our pediatrician did NOT agree. She just about hit the roof in trying to pressure me into allowing the shots to be done right then. I was truly puzzled. I was not refusing the shots outright, I just wanted to delay them a short bit! And for Pete’s sake, I had a history of nearly complete vaccination with my other children, so I just couldn’t figure out what she was getting so upset about.
She attempted to tell me that if I did not get the shots done at that time my insurance might not pay for them (an out right lie–and oddly enough, a few years later no one on staff at the office felt compelled to tell me that a developmental assessment they do called the “Denver Test” was no longer being covered by insurance–something they clearly knew when I called to ask what in the heck I was being billed $50 per child for. I would have refused the Denver Test had I known it was not covered because my children get assessed at school–I never realized that what they were doing was billed separately from the rest of the routine physical.)
She ultimately had me sign an “Against Medical Advice waiver,” or “AMA waiver,” that indicated that I knew that I was putting my child at risk of death by not having the vaccinations done.
There were also some touchy moments during that visit related to my son being intact , and unsolicitted advice on how to deal with my over-supply of milk (advice that was quite frankly wrong), and even more unsolicitted advice on how to begin weaning. Why the pediatrician thought a mother who already had weaned 3 children would need advice on that topic at all is amazing, let alone offering it to the mother of a 6 WEEK old baby.
I was angry, I don’t like being bullied. I was going to do the research for myself that I should have done before having my FIRST child vaccinated. I promptly purchased a copy of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations from Amazon.com–a book that I still reccommend first on this topic, though it is becoming more dated.
I did not take my son in when he was 3 months old, because I hadn’t finished doing my research or discussing with my husband what we would do. I took him in when he was 4 months old. And rather than getting 3 of the 5 reccommended vaccines, he got 2. Ultimately in his first year of life, of the 20 shots reccommended by the AAP (RSV & Hep A were not available then, current reccommendations are to give 24 shots in the first year), he got 6. He did later get a 7th, but we really went back and forth on whether it was necessary. Mostly because of one pediatrician who tried to bully me.
So picture my reaction when I read that same pediatrician quoted in an article that uses creative fact stretching to convince parents to toe the line on vaccines. I’ve got to respond to the article. And I will, question by question…stay tuned!
Tags: Chicken Pox, circumcision, DTaP, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hib, MMR, pediatrician, Pneumococcal, polio, Prevnar, vaccination
Jenn - Thanks for putting the time into writing this blog. This issue is so controversial. I loved reading what you had to offer as my husband and I wade through all the facts. We are in the process of finding a new pediatrician after we were bullied yesterday and basically told that we were fools. Keep us posted.
You may be interested in reading this vaccines blog. While not totally “anti” vaccine, the bloggers are somewhat skeptical — and they do to vaccines what we do to pro-hospital studies — explore the studies for weaknesses, pointing out errors in logic or whatever. One of the posts I remember well was dissecting the claim that “vaccines prevent 33,000 deaths per year.” Basically, that claim was just made out of thin air a few decades ago, and has been mindlessly and baselessly repeated by the CDC and other pro-vax organizations (and reported by the media without question) — and it doesn’t take into account the drop in deaths prior to vaccines were introduced, which drop was most likely due to improved health care, sanitation, food/water supply, etc.
Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series…
Niki–you are welcome! I wish you the best in your decision making.
Kathy–That is indeed a great blog that I intend to link to. I wish they would get the Polio post back up.
Did you stay with the same pediatrician?!? I hope not!
Morgan, actually, I did stay with the practice. I don’t schedule visits with that particular pediatrician (even though she was the one who was specifically reccommended to me that caused me to choose that practice), and have not had the same kind of reaction from other staff in the practice.
In an ideal world, I’d like to switch practices. But in the real world, my kids are hardly ever sick, so I don’t go to the pediatrician much, so it just isn’t worth my time to try and find a pediatrician (that needle in the haystack) that will actually support my position on vaccination.