Infant, Baby and Childhood Immunizations: To do or not to do?

Someone recently posed this question to me - and I get it all the time:

QUESTION:
What are your feelings on immunization shots for babies?

RESPONSE:
Hi there -

This is a touchy subject.

It is personal preference and I believe one should really do their homework individually before deciding.

It depends on a multitude of factors:

• Parents' health
• Geographic location
• Breastfeeding or not
• Region's current public health situation
• Overseas travel
• Deciding if you want to do some or none or all of the vaccinations
• Vaccinated pool of children around your kids - many or few?
• Current health status of the child, siblings and others nearby
• Time of the year ie. what season is it?
  
• and others...

A parent needs to know exactly:

• what a vaccine does,
  
• how it effects the overall immune system,
  
• what all ingredients and additives are,
  
• potential consequences of not vaccinating,
  
• potential consequences of vaccinating

I have vaccinated one of my boys with everything except hepatitis B (we traveled overseas to Russia and the Baltics when he was 3 months old).

Our second boy we vaccinated only with diphtheria and tetanus (no additives and thiomersal free – special request)

Some useful resources:

• Mercury in Vaccines
• National Vaccine Information Center
• Immunization Schedule
• BreastFeeding
• American Association of Naturopathic Physicians
  

For a thorough discussion, you may want to connect with a naturopathic physician, aka ND, near you and they can discuss all the pros/cons with you. Be sure to locate a ND who specializes in pediatrics as they will be most current on all the vaccination issues.

In health,
Dr Ben